Restaurant week was afoot ! Paul and I trudged through the 15 degree weather on a Sunday to the meat-packing district in Manhattan to Spice Market. I recounted a story about the ridiculous outfits that the servers rumored to wear there, akin to the opening scene of Garden State where Zach Braff works in an Asian themed restaurant in Los Angeles. When we walked into Spice Market, both Paul and I exhaled a quiet "Wow." The interior was Pacific Island-y with palm, bamboo and dark rich reds and oranges. There was a shelf lining the entire restaurant with travel cases and trunks as if we were all passengers on a food train to awesome-town. Even though it was frigid outside, it felt like we could have very well been escaping 90 degree heat.I couldn't take a picture of their outfits, but yes, the servers were wearing thai iced tea colored hospital scrubs. Each member on the floor had a top that corresponded to their job. Runners wore long sleeved shirts while lady servers wore backless, flowy tops and the dude servers wore orange chef coats with high necks. Our opening snack was lentil papadum with a tomato chili paste. We were starving ! They were done in an instant. To quench our morning thirst, Paul got a kumquat mojito and I got a lychee raspberry bellini: The restuarant week menu was kinda small and I was allergic to the chicken curry, so we veered off into the regular menu. Everything is family style and we started with the avocado, radish salad with onion tempura, red wine vinegar, spicy chinese mustard and wasabi powder. My favorite part was the tempura battered onion rings, they weren't scalding hot from the fryer and they had a strangely comforting buttery mouthfeel like avocados. Makes sense! Paul chose the char-grilled chicken with kumquat lemongrass dressing. It was pretty spicy! We also had a side stir fried pencil asparagus, lotus root and lily bulb. The lotus root was really peppery and I couldn't eat too much of it. However, the lily bulb was sooooo nice. Like a very friendly pearl onion that didn't give you dragon breath. I decided to try out the crispy salt and pepper skate with thai basil and lime foam. The servings were HUGE and I could only finish half of one piece ! The texture was striated like crab (not flinty) but held together more like fish. IT was breaded like fish n' chips, reminded me of the haddock at Salt and Battery. I loved the basil lime foam and was dipping the chicken in it, too. Closer look at the inside of the skate: For dessert, we got glasses of Moscato and the exotic fruit salad. Oh maaaaaan, probably my favorite part of the meal. Pieces of kiwi, pineapple, dried cherry and other mysteries floated in a soupy kumquat broth with a scoop of the white pepper ice cream and an oreo-like chocolate disc. The whole thing was spinning ever so slightly in a glass bowl in a bowl of ice. Consider me dazzled. Holy crap, have you been to Spice Market? Did you like it?
GNILLEY - the game where you scream to survive. or GNILLEY - the yelling game. or GNILLEY - probably one of the few games where being a loud obnoxious drunk works in your favor. This is a microphone input game...
- Bob Clark, Arthur Ward Jr, Justin Matthews (New York)
[Waffle] represents the best of all the work I’ve done in the past year– moody, minimalist platforming and conversation gameplay– but with Arthur, I was able to take it much further.
I'm On Your Team is a single-screen 2D deathmatch game in which you are never quite sure who is on your team and who is against you. Kill your enemies, spare your teammates, and maybe lie a little so that nobody wants to kill you.
Deceptive Platformer is a 2-d action game the plays on the common conceptions that surround platforming games. Platforms are no longer safe havens, they reverse your controls, alter your gravity, and bend your perception of reality. Your goal is to reach the door at the end of each stage while managing a myriad of mind boggling, deceptive, platforms.
Originally debuting in the back of Blip Festival 2007, KILLJET is Tristan Perich's contribution to lo-fi video game culture. The entire 1-bit video game runs out of a single digital pin of a programmable microchip, which is soldered directly into the television screen. Anamanaguchi forever holds the high score.
Me0wtr0n was a disqualified entry to the Kokoromi.org 1-button games competition that explored being meowtron, the game designer's young cat.
BABYCASTLES
BABYCASTLES
BABYCASTLES
BABYCASTLES
Babycastles, New York's first independent games arcade, is named after bite-size portugese cakes in Japan. As a new function of a legendary all-ages venue for Brooklyn music and other local diy-culture, Babycastles is a wall of six lovingly decorated arcade cabinets that offers a physical place to play games made by amateur and independent game developers. The arcade is open four or five nights a week, during every show at the Silent Barn. The venue throws an opening party every few weeks for a new collection of arcade games, with the game developers present, music, drinks, and plenty of opportunity to get together and love games.
HOURS- 8PM - 1AM almost every weeknight. 2PM - 6PM lunch hours on Saturdays, with rotating chefs. Calendar at http://myspace.com/thesilentbarn
Chris Ward, friendling and drummer for Pattern is Movement, invited me out to his gig at NYU with Broken Social Scene. I had only heard rumors about the the Secret NYU concerts to welcome freshman. It was pretty cool to see young minds exploded and molded in front of my very eyes. Since it was a student event, there was no bar. We quickly remedied that with whiskey shots at a bar around the corner between sets.
It was a lonely Friday night so far and all I did was eat junk food at watch episodes of Peep Show. I hollered at my friend Jeff who wanted to make food and his own Kahlua. What...? I'm in ! I stopped off at the grocery store to get supplies for salsa verde. His roommate Angela (and my very good friend from the Pool Parties) intended to make a mushroom omelette. We sauteed the onion and mushroom in olive oil until the onions were translucent and the mushrooms had gone slimy and started to reduce in size. Deglazed that sucker with a nice IPA. Angela started the egg in another pan and piled the mushroom mix as well as shredded cheddar cheese once the egg had set. I told her to cover the pan while we waited for it to finish so that it melted the cheese:
Meanwhile, I set to making various toppings for our supposed "pile of awesome." Started with a warm chipotle tomato sauce. Pureed chipotle peppers are a little too strong for just dipping, so I mixed 1 part chipotle puree to 2 parts plain tomato sauce. Stuck that one in the microwave for 45 seconds and it was ready to go. Next, I chopped up avocado and tossed them in salt and lemon juice. Salsa verde is pretty easy too. I used 2 grated tomatillos, salt, 1/4 of a jalapeno ,1/2 a lemon (with zest), and 1/6 of a chopped white onion.
When we plated the omelette, it was pretty brown on the bottom: Jeff fried his own tortilla chips, warmed up the rice and black beans, broke up some queso freso and broke out the fresh cilantro. I had fun plating all of it together. Jeff also made a bunch of coffee and reduced it with a lot of brown sugar and 3.5 tablespoons of vanilla. When it was cooled down, he added 1/2 liter of vodka. I guess that's all you need to make kahlua! The white russians were really nice with dinner!
I think this is probably the earliest conglomeration of Cheese'N'Beer before it was any kind of entity. Facundo booked a last minute show with Oxygenstar, Goferboy, Disassembler and AdamGetsAwesome at Coco66. Out of all the Brooklyn medium sized venues, I think it had the most toys. It really looks like some arena stage show with the smoke machines and lasers:
In theory, this was cool. I had bacon fat pooling in the panini grill, so I took a mandoline to a little red potato. The first batch was totally weird. The parts without grill marks were undercooked. I tried again but flipped and turned the pieces halfway through. Yum, the chips had a cool criscross pattern and were a little crispier. Not perfect though, very easy to burn them. I dusted them with a little salt and Moroccan spice (clove, cinnamon, paprika, ancho pepper and cumin). Have you tried to make your own potato chips?
How very exciting that an indie game likeMachinarium is releasing its soundtrack by Tomáš Dvořák on vinyl? I can play that demo over and over again for the music and sound effects. In other words: "WANNNNNNT."
I had literally just finished writing about how Machinarium had one of the best videogame soundtracks of 2009, when POOF! This wonderful bit of news popped into my inbox — Amanita’s robotic puzzle adventure will be releasing a special edition of its soundtrack on 12″ vinyl by the end of this month. 555 LPs will be printed, available in either clear yellow or black. All copies will be signed by the composer, Tomas Dvorak and will include 3 art prints by Amanita’s Adolf Lachman.
This magnificent package is available for pre-order right now on Minority Records and is sure to please fans of the game and vinyl fetishists alike. Which is great, because I’m both.
Fairway carries this expensive artichoke cream that I adore. Unfortunately, I can never down down there and I'm pretty unwilling to eat the cost of an ~$30 jar every month. It's seriously like crack though. Last Summer, I attempted to make my own with marinated artichokes from Costco. Bad idea. The brine overpowered everything and it was pretty unpleasant. This time around, I went looking for jarred artichokes in unflavored oil. You'd be surprised by how hard it was to find. Once I found them at the Compare Foods down the street, I drained the artichokes and blended them with Frantoia olive oil, a little salt and 2 cloves of fresh garlic. Shazzam, instant artichoke cream. I'm still playing around with the ratios, but I slather it on everything. Guess what Vegans, it's safe for you to eat! See? I don't use bacon all the time.
I went to the BV reported show last week at Cameo Gallery with Drummers, Pretty & Nice, The Drunken Sufis (dudes from Exit Clov and Jukebox the Ghost), Big Big Bucks and one band whose name eludes me (help?). There was a true family vibe going on since most of the bands knew each other and shared members between Brooklyn, Boston and Philly. MVP award goes to Jeremy Mendicino for growing an awesome beard that rendered him unrecognizable and playing two sets in a row as guitarist for Pretty & Nice, then drummer for Drummers.
What fortunate happenstance that Paul Levering from 2pp flew to New York during Restaurant Week! We went to Lure Fish Bar last year and had such a good time. First on our hit list was Tom Colicchio's Craft Bar. We were super early for our reservation, so we sat at the bar for a drink. I had an unassuming bloody mary with a pickled, peeled baby carrot and lemon rind. At first, I wasn't all that impressed but as I drank it the horseradish kicked in. The best slurp was the last quarter of the glass. Paul had the ginger martini. The ginger simple syrup was pretty sweet, but it was good.
My first course was a pecorino fondue with acacia honey, hazelnuts and chunks of unmistakable Filone bread from Grandaisy / Sullivan Street Bakery. The idea behind this fondue was clear. The saltiness of hard, aged Pecorino tastes great with drizzled honey and toasted nuts; but the affinage of such a flinty cheese yields high butterfat when it is heated. The fondue had a very messy oil layer and difficult texture to pick up with the bread. Oh, the bread! As much as I love the crunch of the crust, it wasn't sliced into bites. The crust on this particular filone is very crumbly, so I had a messy lap throughout the whole meal. I did enjoy scraping the burnt cheese from the cast iron dish. Paul had a delightful chicken consomme with a poached egg and tortellini. The broth was on the verge of salty, but very pleasing. When you break into the egg, the strings of yolk continue to cook in the soup and adds another layer to the dish as you finish it. I also find delight in micro chives. Paul's main course was orichiette with broccoli rabe, fennel sausage and bell peppers. I really hate bell peppers, so I tried just one bite. My main course was hilarious. It reminded of the time that I went to Wolfgang's steak house and assumed the steak came with a side. I ordered veal ricotta meat balls topped with tomato sauce and fresh thyme-- that is what I got. They were hefty servings! I was only able to eat 1.25 of them. The texture was amazingly delicate and almost spongey due to the ricotta (probably whipped). All in all, our experience was pleasant. On to the next place! Spice Market!
During CMJ, I really enjoy donating my DJ time to the annual Medium Rotation college radio mixer. At the 2009 gathering, I got to throw down tracks alongside Cecil Frena aka GOBBLE GOBBLE. We starting talking after I dropped some Trash 80 ("Missing You" if you were curious). Since then, Cecil has relocated from Canada to Palo Alto, California!
He recently sent me a track he was working on and it really hit the spot. He uses distorted guitars to simulate that full channel synth loudness that you get when you listen to Mondkopf or railcars. I don't know what was used to make the chip-like sounds, but they work well with his vox effects. The drop at 1:41 is pretty wonderful. Follow him on Twitter!
Hear me out. I'm one of those people that wipes up leftover gravy from my plate with bread. That's not weird, right? Ok, so how awesome would it be to have gravy fondue? Not cloudy, gross gravy from Thanksgiving, but mustardy goodness reduced from your last chicken roast?
The Tank recently hosted an impromptu chip music show with DJ TR!P, Neil Voss and Ro-Bear. The intimate affair was set ablaze with visuals by newcomer Gideon and veteran Paris. Check out the videos to time travel back to that night:
Next chip show is 2/6 at Public Assembly (Brooklyn) with Bubblyfish, Glomag, Oxygenstar, Goferboy & Kris Keyser.
My friends Hector and Colleen helped me move some stuff last week and I prepared a grand meal for them in return. I stuffed tons of bacon down their throats before we could get to the last course. They had to take off and I have a full roasting pan of mustard chicken still marinating in the fridge. It was all for the better to serve at the tea party brunch the next day. I brined 2 pounds of whole chicken legs for two hours. After I drained them, I tossed the legs with 1 generous cup of homemade mustard, handful of whole peeled garlic, ground pepper, 1/4 cup of olive oil and two sprigs of rosemary. I let the whole thing marinate over night with slices of par-grilled potato: When it was party time, I slowroasted the (covered) chicken at 350 degrees for about 2 hours. The garlic becomes soft n' spreadable and the mustard makes an awesome jus to eat with bread. The chicken was tender, salted all the way through and incredibly tasty! If you try this, you can broil it uncovered for 5-10 minutes to get a little color on the skin.
DJ friend ctor (aka Ian Cofre) helped put together an awesome pop-up exhibition at Kill Devil Hill this coming weekend. I've never had the pleasure of eating at Chanterelle while it was open. Please share your experience!
A two-day exhibition of the entire 60+ piece collection of menu covers from Chanterelle. Co-Organized by Mary Brockman, Mark Straiton, and Ian Cofre.
On display: February 6th and 7th from 1pm-9pm
Reception: February 7th from 5pm-9pm
For over 30 years, David and Karen Waltuck cultivated a unique place in the New York City restaurant world for Chanterelle. Opened in 1979 in SoHo before moving to its best known location in TriBeCa, this restaurant defined downtown fine dining. With the help of designer Bill Katz, the owners embraced their home by featuring the art of early clients on the covers of their menus. Each work was created exclusively for the restaurant, growing into a one-of-a-kind collection that will be presented at Kill Devil Hill in its entirety, with the full roster of distinguished contributing artists, photographers, musicians, and writers -- from the inaugural menu by Marisol to a recent, unseen edition by Chuck Close.
Artists Include:Edward Albee, Donald Baechler, Matthew Barney, Jennifer Bartlett, Gretchen Bender, Ross Bleckner, James Brown, John Cage, Vija Celmins, Francesco Clemente, Chuck Close, Cosby & Henderson, Merce Cunningham, Lynn Davis, John Dugdale, Donald Evans, Eric Fischl, Allen Ginsberg, April Gornik, Maurice Grosser, Juan Hamilton, Keith Haring, Howard Hodgkin, Jenny Holzer, Gregory Hull, Michael Hurson, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Cletus Johnson, Bill Katz, Ellsworth Kelly, Annie Leibovitz, Julian Lethbridge, Tom Levine, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, Robert Longo, Andrew Lord, Robert Mapplethorpe, Marcel Marceau, Marisol, Francoise Morellet, Malcom Morley, Elizabeth Murray, Louise Nevelson, Daniel Oates, Philippe Petit, Richard Prince, Robert Rauschenberg, Susan Rothenberg, Julian Schnabel, David Seidner, Jack Shear, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Mike and Doug Starn, Kunie Sugiura, Philip Taaffe, Virgil Thompson, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Robert Wilson, and Terry Winters.
Kill Devil Hill (170 Franklin St., Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY 11222) Image by Merce Cunningham
Everyday Slumber Party had a tea party brunch for good ol' buddy Liz. I don't think anyone drank tea, but nevertheless we drank. Jeff Stockton brought whole romaine lettuce leaves and his own housemade semi-Caesar dressing. I broke out my dill and caper gremolata for people that didn't eat fish; think of the dish as a snack with dip instead of a "salad." For a nice bite sized snack, I toasted cubes of pound cake with goat cheese and macerated raspberries in cinnamon, lemon, sugar and allspice.
Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato / Intelligent Dance Music: cameraphone photos of food and music around BKLYN through the eyes of Jenn de la Vega. Schedule a snack! Or share a track: gimmegrilledcheese [at] gmail [dot] com
I couldn't take a picture of their outfits, but yes, the servers were wearing thai iced tea colored hospital scrubs. Each member on the floor had a top that corresponded to their job. Runners wore long sleeved shirts while lady servers wore backless, flowy tops and the dude servers wore orange chef coats with high necks. Our opening snack was lentil papadum with a tomato chili paste. We were starving ! They were done in an instant.
To quench our morning thirst, Paul got a kumquat mojito and I got a lychee raspberry bellini:
The restuarant week menu was kinda small and I was allergic to the chicken curry, so we veered off into the regular menu. Everything is family style and we started with the avocado, radish salad with onion tempura, red wine vinegar, spicy chinese mustard and wasabi powder. My favorite part was the tempura battered onion rings, they weren't scalding hot from the fryer and they had a strangely comforting buttery mouthfeel like avocados. Makes sense!
Paul chose the char-grilled chicken with kumquat lemongrass dressing. It was pretty spicy!
We also had a side stir fried pencil asparagus, lotus root and lily bulb. The lotus root was really peppery and I couldn't eat too much of it. However, the lily bulb was sooooo nice. Like a very friendly pearl onion that didn't give you dragon breath.
I decided to try out the crispy salt and pepper skate with thai basil and lime foam. The servings were HUGE and I could only finish half of one piece ! The texture was striated like crab (not flinty) but held together more like fish. IT was breaded like fish n' chips, reminded me of the haddock at Salt and Battery. I loved the basil lime foam and was dipping the chicken in it, too.
Closer look at the inside of the skate:
For dessert, we got glasses of Moscato and the exotic fruit salad. Oh maaaaaan, probably my favorite part of the meal. Pieces of kiwi, pineapple, dried cherry and other mysteries floated in a soupy kumquat broth with a scoop of the white pepper ice cream and an oreo-like chocolate disc. The whole thing was spinning ever so slightly in a glass bowl in a bowl of ice. Consider me dazzled.
