Sweet Blog O'Mine

Author: Laren

  • Part Two

    2007_01_food_mario
    So the second fun thing that happened last week is that I got to interview Mario Batali.  At Otto, no less.  I finally invested in a digital recorder, so was able to just talk without taking notes.  We sat down over a cappucino and talked about philanthropy (go to CelebrityPastaLovers.com and download the celebrity pasta cookbook he just finished with Giada DeLaurentis — Barilla pasta will donate $1 per download, up to $100,000, to America’s Second Harvest), pasta, and neighborhood favorites.  The one section of the interview that I didn’t post was the part when I asked him why he replaced the fritti at Otto with pasta.  Bottom line — it wasn’t making any money.  Plus, as Mario noted, "this neighborhood needed pasta."  I still miss the ceci bottarga.  You can read the interview here. 

    Photo courtesy of New York Observer

    And on a completely unrelated note — nothing better in this ridiculous Nanuk of the North weather than, you guessed it, swim class.

  • Part One

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    Here’s one of the two very interesting things that happened this week.  I was interviewed and photographed for this article in the Sunday Styles section of the Times.  Apparently I didn’t give him any quotes that were on point enough to use in the article (which isn’t surprising, given the angle of the story), but at least I’m in the picture!  They also put a link to Gothamist Food in the sidebar.

    Photo by Joe Fornabaio for The New York Times

    UPDATE:  Wow, now that I’ve seen the print edition, with the subtitle on the second page "food bloggers, gossipy and competitive," I’m even more happy that I wasn’t quoted!  That’s not what Gothamist Food is about.  But I do like the placement of the picture.  And here’s a link to all of my columns (over 472 and counting), in case you were interested. 

  • So Far . . .

    It’s been a hell of an interesting week.  Had a very good restaurant week dinner at Lure Fishbar with Mom, Matt, and the Lovely Miss Katie, complete with a bottle of alvarinho which reminded me of my Galicia trip, bought myself a digital recorder which I put to use in an interview, shaved a few seconds off my time on my 100 yard swim since my first class, and the rest, well, you’re gonna have to wait.  Will keep you posted.

  • Words of Wisdom

    From Michael Pollan in this week’s New York Times magazine: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." and, to clarify on the "eat food" point: "Don’t eat anything your great-great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food."  Guess my fiber bars are out, huh?

  • Weekend Wrapup

    Still dealing with the number crunching, but managed to fit in some fun this weekend.  Friday night I had sushi with Gabe at Le Miu, a spot in the East Village.  Some of the chefs have Nobu pedigrees, and although they are trying to do some inventive things with the cooked dishes, I think we both enjoyed the sushi the most out of everything we tried.  I got a good night’s sleep on Friday and woke up Saturday for a great workout.  The rest of the day I did some work and cooked a carrot and potato soup out of this month’s CSA bounty.  At 5:30 I met up with members of my Gothamist Food team, including the three new writers who I hadn’t yet met in person — it was great meeting them all and getting a chance to chat over drinks.  Afterwards, I moved on to meet John B. for dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar — that place absolutely rocks.  It even got the John B. plate-licking seal of approval.  If you don’t know about it, check out this NY Mag piece on David Chang, and then hurry over there for the three terrine sandwich, the brussels sprouts, and the pork buns.  I’m going to try to gather a group for the whole pork butt that he does — who’s in?  Dinner was followed by drinks at various and sundry bars in the East Village, where we were joined by Matt, the Lovely Miss Katie, Meg, Jenn and others. 

    Today I met up with a gaggle of food writers/bloggers for dim sum:  Augie, David from Thrillist, Alaina and Ed from Serious Eats, Jen from Snack, Andrew from Gothamist, and Jennifer and Chris from Savory NY.  It was great fun, and I plan to organize a similar gathering in the not-too-distant future.  After some quality couch time, I cooked up some more CSA stuff — I roasted a half-chicken and more of the veggies.  I’ll have plenty of food for lunch this week!  And now, maybe a bit of work, but then early to bed — gotta hit the gym before work.

  • Pro Bono Happy Fun Time!

    Otherwise known as reporting season.  I’m up to my elbows in statistics, but did find time last night to hit the Smoke Joint in Ft. Greene.  I need to go back for some further research, but I really enjoyed both the beef ribs and the wings.  Okay, back to work.

  • The Way to My Heart

    Like I said, if you really want to woo me on Valentine’s Day, it’s all about the heart-shaped truffle pizza.

  • Questions of the Day

    1) How is it possible that Grey’s Anatomy can make me flat out bawl uncontrollably, even when there’s no PMS involved?
    2) Who left a white, square ceramic plate with my doorman this morning?

    Any insight out there in cyber-ville is most welcome.

  • Law School Does Not Make You Smart

    Case in point:  I decided that a good time to take a swimming class is on Tuesday nights from January to March, as this involves a long walk to the subway with wet hair at 10 pm in 20 degree weather.  It will end just in time for it to get warm out.

  • Ah . . . A Long Weekend

    But filled with fun stuff, as usual!  Friday night I met up with the folks who handle the PR for the Modern Mexican restaurants and had some drinks and snacks at Pampano, then headed out to Brooklyn for dinner and catching up nwith the lovely Miss Katie, Kim, and Rachel.  Saturday morning I headed to Chinatown Brasserie to check out the fabled dim sum with my aunt Ellen, who was visiting from DC and my cousin Sara, who had recently returned from her Christmas break from college.  We then headed down to Soho for some shopping.  After some modest success, I returned home to relax for a while before hitting the gym.  Saturday night Roopa and I went to Ditch Plains for dinner, where we sat at the bar and were entertained by Rob, the bartender.  After dinner we headed to Otto for a glass of wine to finish off the evening.

    Ahh . . .

    Sunday I went to the gym first thing before making some brunch and then attempting to visit the Brooklyn Museum to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit with Rodez.  I say "attempting" because the line was ridiculous — after waiting for about 20 minutes, they made an announcement that the wait would be well over an hour.  We gave up and headed to the Botanical Garden instead.  Certainly not the best weather for it, but fun nonetheless.  I then met up with Jenn, Carolyn, and some others for salsa lessons on Smith Street — this woman gives lessons out of her father’s barber shop — it was a blast!  I managed to pick it up fairly quickly despite the fact that it was my first time.  When we were done shaking our groove thangs we met up with a crew on an Atlantic Avenue bar crawl.  We were so hungry from salsa-ing that we skipped some of the bars I really wanted to visit because I haven’t yet been (Floyd and Last Exit), but it was probably a good decision.  We met up with the crew at the Brazen Head.  At this point Jon had joined us — the Brazen Head was really loud (I swear, I’m turning into an old woman when it comes to noise level in bars — my voice just doesn’t carry in a loud bar, and it’s frustrating), so I was very relieved when we went to our next stop, the Brooklyn Inn.  It’s a gorgeous old bar on the corner of Hoyt and Bergen — Jon and I liked it so much there (and could actually hear each other talk), so we stayed even after the bar crawl team left for the next stop.  We ultimately met up with them for a bit of music at Hank’s to finish up the evening.

    Luckily, it was a three-day weekend for me.  I was determined to make a vat of chili for the week, so I did some grocery shopping, and ran into Augie, Lauren and Rob on the way home.  They were headed to Pearl Oyster Bar, so I joined them for some lunch (how could I resist, really?).  I had a very domestic afternoon — tidying up, making chili (I used a bit more chipotle than the recipe calls for), and doing laundry.  I wound up the weekend at a dinner party at my friend Matt’s, which was quite fun and delicious — Silvia, a business colleague of his, was visiting from Italy, so she cooked us an Italian feast of panzanella, risotto, and a roasted pork loin with dried fruit.  It was a great meal, but I got to bed a little later than I had planned. 

    On a side note, the Food Network show that contains footage of the 2005 Vendy Awards (for which I was a judge) finally aired last night.  Some of my family saw it, but I’m DVR’ing it tonight, so I haven’t seen it yet.  Be sure to tune in!