Food Riot contributors are insatiable and insatiably curious eaters, so we asked them to pick the single best things they ate this month. The collection below represents home cooking, restaurants, store-bought goodies, and all kinds of cuisine. Hope you’ll find something new to taste!
Food Riot contributors are insatiable and insatiably curious eaters, so we asked them to pick the single best things they ate this month. The collection below represents home cooking, restaurants, store-bought goodies, and all kinds of cuisine. Hope you’ll find something new to taste!
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Photo credit: The Shiksa in the Kitchen
I was a little skeptical of this one going in, so skeptical that I halved the recipe for fear of having a whole bunch of leftovers I didn’t like. For some reason I worried it would be bland because it didn’t seem to call for enough spices. Holy moly was I wrong. This was so flavorful and delicious it made me sad that I ate it all up in two days and then there was no more to be had. Definitely putting this one into the permanent rotation. P.S. I skipped the cilantro because it tastes like dishsoap to me and used chicken breasts.
–Jodi Chromey
The “Ready Fire Aim” from Employees Only, NYC
January has been quite the roller coaster month and, while I started off with a vegan cleanse and swearing off alcohol, it quickly became apparent that was a mistake. The one thing that has warmed my soul most this cold January is the “Ready Fire Aim” cocktail at Employee’s Only in Manhattan’s West Village, a speakeasy populated by downtown restaurant staffs after hours. The cocktail is a mix of Ilegal Mezcal Joven, fresh lime juice, a house-made honey-pineapple syrup, several dashes of Bittermens Hellfire Bitters shaken with ice, and served in a coupe with a dusting of freshly ground red pepper on top. It is smoky, sour, spicy and sweet all at once, making it the perfect combination of flavors. The bartender served it and waited for my husband and I to react. We sipped, put down our chilled glasses, and as big smiles came across our faces, he screamed “BAM! TAKE THAT! YEAH!” We laughed, a bit in shock, but totally in agreement as he proclaimed this to be his favorite cocktail on the list. We will be recreating this one at home again and again.
–Hilary Desmon
A small child. (Just kidding – it was too gamey.) No, the best thing I ate this month was an entire bucket of popcorn at Regal Cinema. I started the year off laid up with bronchitis, and spent most of January in bed quite ill, so I indulged in whatever comfort food I wanted, because calories don’t count when you don’t feel well. (Which is a rule I just made up.) Last week, I was finally feeling better, so I went to see Django Unchained (again) (it’s so awesome), and had a mad craving for movie theater popcorn. You know, the kind that is a shade of yellow not found in nature. I told my friend that I was going to buy the most unreasonable size of popcorn the theater offered and eat the whole thing myself. So I bought a large, because that’s the boring name they give the biggest size, instead of Stroke Bucket, or The Artery Clogger. (“It comes with special earphones that let you listen to your arteries harden – in Surround Sound!”) The large came in a huge tub. I asked for just a tiny bit of butter, but asking for a tiny amount of butter on your popcorn is like dropping a piano into a pool from 1000 feet up and not expecting a splash. When it comes to popcorn, I eat like a dog – I don’t stop until I reach the bottom of my dish. I had to warn my friend not to put his hand close or I might bite it off. And sweet baby carrots, the popcorn was delicious. Hot and salty and cardboard-squeaky and perfect. After having been sick for weeks, at that moment, it was the most glorious thing I’d ever tasted.
–Liberty Hardy
photo credit: The Hungry Mouse
Roasted Duck
For Christmas I roasted a duck. Then The Husband had to work late and The Baby is too much of a baby to be impressed by a roasted duck, so I ate the duck myself, with a side of sad trombone. It tasted like depressing.
Then, for The Husband’s birthday mid-January, I roasted another duck. A young duck is the perfect size for Two People To Have Leftovers, Which They Greatly Desire On Account of Holy Shit, Duck Is Uhmezzzzzing. I used this method but slathered it in this teriyaki sauce and served it with I don’t even remember because duck.
Duck bastes itself BY itself so the meat stays juicy without effort on your part, and I tend to not eat the skin of things because are you serious, that is gross, but we fought over the scraps of crispy duck skin like a couple of wolverines. (I mean, I assume. I don’t know from wolverines.) It’s not too pricey, and when you aren’t having to feed second cousins and aged aunts it’s the perfect special-occasion-roasty-bird.
–Rachel Krueger
Sweet Bell Pepper Soup from Ruhlman’s Twenty
I’m a total soup lover from way back, so I was bound to love this recipe from Ruhlman’s Twenty. Overall, I loved it because it was not only delicious but it was one of the easier things to make. Ruhlman does suggest that the soup needs to be strained, and if you prefer a smoother “feel” to your soups, you might like it better strained. I happen to like a bit of texture to my soups – especially these bisque-like preparations. For me, it easily qualified as a highlight in a book full of great recipes. I only wish I had made a double batch. YUM.
–Reese Marino
Everything, ever, at Mrs Kim’s in Greenpoint (Brooklyn). I’m a complete fool for kimchi, but literally everything I can eat being pesca at this place is absolutely to die for. That said, I can’t break away from my brunch go-to here of tofu steamed buns with a side of the house kimchi (there’s three different kinds, served up cute and nice enough to make Patrick Bateman happy). I mix it all together, pump on some sriracha, and go to town. Plus, the Mrs Kim’s hot toddy is out of this world. OUT OF THIS WORLD. Do you understand that a hot toddy can be out of this world? You don’t if you haven’t had theirs, made with Apple Pie liqueur. They shockingly and mysteriously don’t have a web site, and their listing on MenuPages doesn’t do them justice, so just go.
–Russ Marshalek
Sun-dried Tomato and Onion Bisque from Strawberry Street Cafe (Richmond)
I live on soup and stew during the entire month of January, and I never, ever pass up a chance to have this bisque at Strawberry Street Cafe. The little nook-ish restaurant in Richmond is probably best known for its brunch served in an antique bathtub (that’s real, it was on Jeopardy, be jealous) but their thick, creamy, savory, perfectly spiced tomato and onion bisque keeps me boldly braving the brunch crowd year after year. It’s one of my life-goals to recreate this, but alas, I have fallen short in every attempt. If you’re ever in Richmond, near Richmond, in the state of Virginia, it’s worth a trip to try it. Unless you don’t like soup, in which case, stay out of my city you heinous fiend.
–Amanda Nelson
photo credit: Smitten Kitchen
Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter
I went to a friend’s house recently for dinner (because what is better than not cooking for yourself? Making your friends cook for you, obviously.) and she made this sauce as part of our meal, and holy saints preserve us. She sent me the link ahead of time and I confess I was skeptical, because I am a connoisseur of all things tomato-based and this did not sound like it could live up to the hype. I am not hard to please when it comes to tomatoey things — I will eat most sauces out of the jar happily — but that doesn’t mean that they’re the second coming of whatever. This sauce, however? It really, really, really is. The best part is, even I can’t mess up a recipe this simple. Will I eat spaghetti every night for several months? Entirely possible.
–Jenn Northington
The “Clean the Fridge Out” Grilled Cheese
I wish I could say this sandwich is some sort of hip thing from one of the many awesome restaurants that Richmond possesses. It’s not. I also wish I could say that, having eaten at several of said awesome restaurants recently, something truly remarkable stands out from those visits. It doesn’t. This sandwich is still the thing my mind wanders back to when my stomach begins to rumble.
Lunch time in my house is a sort of quest, a hunter-gatherer search for sustenance. It’s a rare day that there are actually ready-to-go lunch items hanging around in my kitchen. On this particular day, there happened to be a whole lot of bits and pieces of previous meals that were taking up space in the fridge. You know, those roasted garlic cloves left over from that pasta sauce, that mysterious can of olives that you aren’t really sure how long it’s been open, some portobella slices you don’t remember buying. Now, I’ll totally admit that I like to go all MacGyver in the kitchen and see what I can whip up with what’s on hand (grocery shopping without a meal plan is soooo wild). So between the plethora of cheeses that we keep stocked at all times (priorities, man) and this bounty of unclaimed odds and ends, I decided an adult grilled cheese was in order. Let me tell you this decision of mozzarella, parmesan, olives, portobellas, and roasted garlic is something you want in your mouth. The buttery crispy outside and the perfectly gooey inside had all the nostalgia of childhood with just enough adult snobbishness. I have high hopes for a foodie-driven trip down south next month, but it’s nice to know I don’t do too shabby in my own kitchen either.
–Laura Pierce
Tamal en cazuela and Cuban grilled cheese from Pilar Cuban Eatery in Brooklyn
Pilar is a tiny local Cuban place near my old apartment that I sadly do not get to as often as I would like. The menu rotates, and certain dishes are only available on certain days. The soup on Saturdays is their insane tamal en cazuela. This hearty corn porridge is made with masa and strong notes of cumin, paprika, and pepper. It’s like a drinkable soup version of a tamale. On top of this amazingness is a pile of perfectly cooked, your-eyes-are-going-to-roll-into-the-back-of-your-head carnitas and sweet plantain. It’s thick and creamy and spicy and salty and crispy and sweet and soft all at the same time.
The Cuban grilled cheese is heaven. Thick, brown, nutty bread with a slight sweetness to it. A mixture of cheeses that melt perfectly and ooze out of the sides of the bread and get crisp on the grill. Slices of sweet plantain. ESPRESSO MUSTARD. Enough said. These two together are the perfect meal from a small, family owned tiny place where great pride is served and taste amazing.
–Brett Sandusky
Fried chicken at Peaches Hothouse in Brooklyn
Having grown up a southern girl in Kansas City, home of Stroud’s, mecca of amazing fried chicken and sweet rolls, I have a long and storied history with this dish. If I can’t have it at home–and let’s be real, home-made fried chicken is not the easiest thing to get right–I want to eat it in a restaurant that feels like home. (See also: Jestine’s Kitchen in Charleston). So I was a little skeptical about getting fried chicken at a too-cool-for-school Brooklyn joint. But if I know anything, it’s that I can trust fellow Rioter Brett when he raves about food, and HOO BOY was he right about this.
Peaches’ fried chicken is piping hot and gloriously juicy and satisfyingly crunchy, and as Brett said, the crust does in fact have as many layers as the crust of the earth. Or at least it seems that way. The deliciousness just keeps coming. I had mine with a side of bacon potato salad (tell me you could resist that combination) and a bourbon cocktail, and I know it wasn’t just the fantastic company that made it the best meal of my month.
–Rebecca Joines Schinsky
S’mores at Luna Park in Los Angeles, CA
I’m big believer in food tasting better if it’s more fun to eat. Corn on the cob. Push pops. Pomegranates. Gogurt. I like it when playing with your food is not only allowed, it’s the ONLY WAY TO EAT YOUR FOOD. Luna Park in Los Angeles rocks this principle hard with their S’mores. Get this. They bring you TWO tiny fondue set-ups with the candles underneath and everything. One is filled with melted bittersweet chocolate, the other with toasted marshmallows that have an almost souffle-like quality. And a plate of fancy graham crackers. And then you go to town. I want Campfire Chic to be a new school of cooking, like Asian Fusion or New Californian. Restaurateurs, get on it!
–Kit Steinkellner
Your turn! What was the foodalicious highlight of your month?
