I landed in JFK Friday evening and made my way directly to Minetta Tavern to try their $26 Black Label burger. On top of that, I also tried the oxtail and foie gras terrine, and the roasted bone marrow. Everything was beyond flavorful; it was like shoveling fat that dissolved in your mouth before you even had a chance to chew any of it.
Perfectly cooked, the dry-aged LaFrieda prime meat patty essentially did the chewing for you. It was so robust that I don’t think I was able to fully appreciate the flavor that was packed into the burger. Maybe it’s not worth the $26 price tag, but it’s something to try at least once (though I still prefer the Spruce burger as a more realistic option for every-other-week consumption). I’m going for the côte de boeuf at Minetta next week.
Coca-Cola Freestyle is a soda dispensing system in development that allows for hundreds of flavors that are mixed on the spot.
Using its own proprietary Pure Pour technology, Coca-Cola developed the machine by using small, highly-concentrated containers of ingredients. Those ingredients are then mixed with water and sweetener to create each individual drink. The total number of beverages that can be served before the containers run out is also comparable to the old system.
Via MetaFilter.
This is kind of amazing.
It turns out that Seoul is packed full of artisan hot dog vendors. Vendors wrap them in bacon, mashed potato, corn batter or what looked to be seaweed then invariably deep fry them. I spotted three french fry-coated hotdog vendors in the narrow alleys of Myeong-dong alone and a few more in the neighbouring Namdaemun Market.
Via The Last Appetite circa 2007.
I went to Nopa SF last night to celebrate my parents’ 27th anniversary. I’ve heard good things about their burger, but it falls a bit short in a few areas. The bacon was really good, and, for the most part, the meat itself was cooked well. The bun, however, was a bit too dry alongside the patty. The fries were okay, but nothing spectacular.
I’m still kind of partial to Spruce.
Much like the recent hype of street vendors like the previously mentioned Kogi Truck, many entrepreneurs have come around to the business of street food. The NY Times covers the growing plethora of fancy street vendor carts and the hostile fight for territory amongst antiquated and unregulated vendor laws and permits.
“You can set your watch by it: park in a new spot, and within 15 minutes someone will come and check you out,” said Kim Ima, a former actress who owns the Treats Truck. Ms. Ima, one of the first upscale mobile vendors, had the tires of her truck slashed near her bakery soon after opening in 2007.
Much of New York City has limitations, and it goes without any surprise that the street vendor market is tightly watched by those who’ve been in the business for many years and vehemently defended when threatened.
The $200 permits are valid for two years and can be renewed indefinitely by mail. Their black-market value is tremendous: up to $15,000 for two years, according to a report released Tuesday by the city’s Department of Investigation.
I’ll welcome more selection, but I can see how it may get real ugly without proper regulation.
NY Times features the top ten burgers as judged by the Burger of the Month Club. My neighborhood spot, Dumont, comes in at #11.
An amazingly detailed look at the process behind Minetta Tavern’s $26 Black Label burger.
Also, a carrot ocarina, a mushroom ocarina, a broccoli ocarina, and a trumpet made of carrot, paprika, and cucumber.
From the man who brought you Shake Shack, Danny Meyer is now expanding to the New York Mets’ new Citi Field stadium. You can find a plethora of foods including a favorite of mine, the shack burger.
Some of the things he wants are pulled-pork sandwiches on brioche buns ($9), steamed corn on the cob with mayonnaise, cotija cheese and a dusting of cayenne ($3.50), “dog bites” (Kosher hot dogs coated in matzo meal with brown mustard for $11), spare ribs seasoned with Kansas City rub ($10) and shrimp rolls — using a Martin’s potato roll — with shoestring potatoes ($14).
I am always disappointed by the food experience at a ballpark but there’s something classic about it that makes it acceptable. A shack stack burger while enjoying a baseball game would make it immensely more enjoyable, though.
Via The New York Times.
This is for the imminent camouflage wedding of a classmate from my old high school.
Via Cake Wrecks.
Scanning sandwiches. They still look really appetizing.
Make yourself some ghetto ice cream next time you are high out of your mind at Denny’s at 3AM.
NY Times’ Diner’s Journal settles the score on people complaining about tipping at restaurants.
Now it’s my belief that 15 percent of the pre-tax amount is the absolute minimum for anything but unequivocally dismal service; that 17 to 18 percent of the post-tax total should be considered for above-average service; and that for truly exceptional, superior service in a restaurant where many people, including a sommelier, are attending to each table, 20 percent of the post-tax total is decidedly generous but hardly extravagant.
Sometimes you’ll just have to remind the tourists that our American waiters and waitresses get a bare minimum hourly wage. Money, being the primary issue here, seems to be largely a game played both by patron and staff. The NY Times featured Jay Porter’s restaurant, The Linkery, in 2007 to highlight his unique approach toward eliminating the gratuity tip completely.
Tipping was imported from Europe, and when it arrived in America, it met with impassioned and organized opposition. While the precise origin of tipping is uncertain, it is commonly traced to Tudor England, according to “Tipping,” Kerry Segrave’s history of the custom. By the 17th century, it was expected that overnight guests to private homes would provide sums of money, known as vails, to the host’s servants. Soon after, customers began tipping in London coffeehouses and other commercial establishments. One frequented by Samuel Johnson had a bowl printed with the words “To Insure Promptitude,” and some speculate that “tip” is an acronym for this phrase.
As mythical as this story of how tipping came about is, we seem to have no real reason for tipping other than the loose power struggle that occurs, depending on which team we play for. Most of the time, I take my service with a grain of salt, inferring the situation as a case of quid pro quo. Often, the service can be unbearable inauthentic and downright acted.
But Chelsea Boyd told me that eliminating tipping had made her work as a waiter at the Linkery more meaningful than any other restaurant job she has had in the previous 10 years. “For the first time, I get to concentrate on the job, and I’m looking at the guests without seeing dollar signs or worried about what anyone else is making,” she says. Under the old system, waiters earned between $25 and $35 an hour, much of which was untaxed. “Now, waiters make about $25 an hour, which is fully taxed,” Boyd says.
While a system without gratuity may work in singular cases, how will this idea fare in the current economy where many popular restaurants, such as French Laundry or Per Se, are having problems filling up seats? Will menu prices drop sharply? Surely the wait staff will take the brunt of the decline, as I can only imagine tipping to be much more conservative this year, even with the wealthier patrons.
Minetta Tavern – côte de boeuf
This was, hands down, the best steak I’ve ever had in my life.