Sunday, June 28, 2009
sorry, forgot about this. i'm back now and more interesting maybe.
Sunset from the front door of B61, Brooklyn, NY 6.26.09
Monday, March 16, 2009
NC's Roll-n-Roaster Beef Jam
(First time contributer NC checks in from the outer reaches of Brooklyn)
Roll-n-Roaster is a fast food roast beef restaurant in “the butt-end of Brooklyn.” As you might expect, the butt is full of Russians, Italians, and the formidable Italian-Russian mafia. It sits on Emmons Avenue across from Sheepshead Bay. There are boats that people party on. There is a Yacht Club, strange Russian-Turkish-Italian-Polish dance clubs and bars with unpronounceable names, seafood restaurants that look delicious, and hoodlums with crooked heads standing on the corner who talk shit to you when you walk past.
It also features a damn good roast beast sandwich.
Arby’s, Rax, Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr. and Lion’s Choice are the major players in the Country-Wide Fast-Food Roast Beef Wars. Arby’s has Beef n’ Cheddars, Horsey sauce, and 5 Regulars for $5.55. Lion’s Choice has au jus pumps near the ketchup and napkins but only about 3 known locations. Hardee’s has The Giant. Rax has…um, anyone?
Unlike the thin processed meat feel of Arby’s or Hardee’s, R-n-R goes for the thicker cut and the real feel. I started with a plain sandwich. It is rare to medium rare and seeping blood. I wouldn’t say that it is piled high, but the beef-to-bun ratio is satisfying without being gross like a Katz’s sandwich. The Kaiser bun is crispy enough on the outside to hold together even though its innards are soaked. Every bun is once dipped in their gravy and you can get a double dip for free. Plus, the bun has sesame seeds, which I have a preference for.
While R-n-R does not have cheddar, they do have “cheez” which outperforms cheese by every known statistical measure and can be “added to anything you pleez.” For my encore, I added the cheez to the beef sandwich:
And that, when eaten with our sides of corn fritters, cheez fries, onion rings, was, no surprises, the jam. The corn fritters were especially good, and were washed down with fresh-made sweet iced tea.
(Jammed)
Roll-n-Roaster builds upon early innovations and then goes ahead and brings them to a ringing crescendo knocking the huge neon hat off of Arby’s head and the worldwide leader off his lofty pedestal. Something to think about as we eagerly anticipate The Invasion. Which naturally leads us left to contemplate why R-n-R did not work in Manhattan.?
Who knows, maybe the Arby’s-Rax-Hardee’s-LC mafia is stronger than we all thought.
Roll-n-Roaster is a fast food roast beef restaurant in “the butt-end of Brooklyn.” As you might expect, the butt is full of Russians, Italians, and the formidable Italian-Russian mafia. It sits on Emmons Avenue across from Sheepshead Bay. There are boats that people party on. There is a Yacht Club, strange Russian-Turkish-Italian-Polish dance clubs and bars with unpronounceable names, seafood restaurants that look delicious, and hoodlums with crooked heads standing on the corner who talk shit to you when you walk past.
It also features a damn good roast beast sandwich.
Arby’s, Rax, Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr. and Lion’s Choice are the major players in the Country-Wide Fast-Food Roast Beef Wars. Arby’s has Beef n’ Cheddars, Horsey sauce, and 5 Regulars for $5.55. Lion’s Choice has au jus pumps near the ketchup and napkins but only about 3 known locations. Hardee’s has The Giant. Rax has…um, anyone?
Unlike the thin processed meat feel of Arby’s or Hardee’s, R-n-R goes for the thicker cut and the real feel. I started with a plain sandwich. It is rare to medium rare and seeping blood. I wouldn’t say that it is piled high, but the beef-to-bun ratio is satisfying without being gross like a Katz’s sandwich. The Kaiser bun is crispy enough on the outside to hold together even though its innards are soaked. Every bun is once dipped in their gravy and you can get a double dip for free. Plus, the bun has sesame seeds, which I have a preference for.
While R-n-R does not have cheddar, they do have “cheez” which outperforms cheese by every known statistical measure and can be “added to anything you pleez.” For my encore, I added the cheez to the beef sandwich:
And that, when eaten with our sides of corn fritters, cheez fries, onion rings, was, no surprises, the jam. The corn fritters were especially good, and were washed down with fresh-made sweet iced tea.
(Jammed)Who knows, maybe the Arby’s-Rax-Hardee’s-LC mafia is stronger than we all thought.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
13th Floor 48 Egg Gumbo Jam
This pot is gigantic. look at the corona package in the background. and the blender lookin thing. those are full size. which means this pot is MEGA size. EXXXXTREME GUMBO JAM!
a dude from southern Louisana made it from his mother's recipe. supposedly it serves 800 people or something like that*
i have no idea how it was actually made, but i gleaned the following info, which is actually NOT made up:
48 eggs, 48 pieces of crab, 48 of some other stuff (oysters?) tons of crab meat, many lbs. of shrimp. it was delicious.
it looked like this, which gets points for presentation:
*no one said anything about it feeding that many people.
a dude from southern Louisana made it from his mother's recipe. supposedly it serves 800 people or something like that*
i have no idea how it was actually made, but i gleaned the following info, which is actually NOT made up:
48 eggs, 48 pieces of crab, 48 of some other stuff (oysters?) tons of crab meat, many lbs. of shrimp. it was delicious.
it looked like this, which gets points for presentation:
*no one said anything about it feeding that many people.
Monday, February 23, 2009
TRIPLE B's RI Clam Jam
jam it road report:
friday night on our road gig, my band went to iggy's doughboy and chowder house, supposedly the second best chowder house in RI. we talked to locals. they all sounded like peter griffin. they seemed more interested in our gig than the food, but they were lining up for takeout. most popular item was the 3 clam cakes and bowl of chowder combo. vinny the drummer had this meal, and a clamcake is visible in the center background of the pic. too doughey, not enough clam for our tastes. i had the clam and scallops dinner, which consisted of fried bay scallops, fried whole clam bellies (or strips for a buck less, but i chose bellies), french fries, and chowder. i also had one of their house-branded root beers. it was all pretty awesome. the fried clams were maybe the best i've had, ever. they were big and breaded and juicy and perfect with just some lemon juice. the chowder (red and white available, we all went white) was good but the clam/potato ratio was leaning a little too potato. somehow, i skipped the other specialty of the house, the doughboys. they looked like funnel cake blobs and i didn't want to fill up before our gig. we all agreed that we'll be back the next time we rock rhode island. special thanks to the guidebook at the holiday inn express in warwick (pronounced "werick") RI for the tip.
friday night on our road gig, my band went to iggy's doughboy and chowder house, supposedly the second best chowder house in RI. we talked to locals. they all sounded like peter griffin. they seemed more interested in our gig than the food, but they were lining up for takeout. most popular item was the 3 clam cakes and bowl of chowder combo. vinny the drummer had this meal, and a clamcake is visible in the center background of the pic. too doughey, not enough clam for our tastes. i had the clam and scallops dinner, which consisted of fried bay scallops, fried whole clam bellies (or strips for a buck less, but i chose bellies), french fries, and chowder. i also had one of their house-branded root beers. it was all pretty awesome. the fried clams were maybe the best i've had, ever. they were big and breaded and juicy and perfect with just some lemon juice. the chowder (red and white available, we all went white) was good but the clam/potato ratio was leaning a little too potato. somehow, i skipped the other specialty of the house, the doughboys. they looked like funnel cake blobs and i didn't want to fill up before our gig. we all agreed that we'll be back the next time we rock rhode island. special thanks to the guidebook at the holiday inn express in warwick (pronounced "werick") RI for the tip.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
C's Pizza Jam
Loyal Reader "C" checks in with the following Guest Jam:
"Just jammed some "upside down" pizza from famous house of pizza and calzones. With meatballs on top."
Jammed:
JIDYT: Why is it called upside down pizza?
"C": Maybe because the sauce is on top of the cheese sort of.
"Just jammed some "upside down" pizza from famous house of pizza and calzones. With meatballs on top."
"It was good."
Jammed:
JIDYT: Why is it called upside down pizza?"C": Maybe because the sauce is on top of the cheese sort of.
Halloween Candy/Cookie Jam
The Concept:
to create a cookie using assorted halloween candies in the place of chocolate chips...
click above image for downloadable pdf recipe
M&M
Reese's Pieces
Snickers
Kit Kat
Twix
Take 5
Hershey
Hershey w/ Almonds
Mixed:
OCD arrangement of all the ingredients prior to cooking:
The incredible results: - (note: nougat and caramel do weird and wonderful things when subjected to high heat)
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Jamming The Vendys
4th annual vendys. definitely my favorite NY food/anything event.
walked to DUMBO to work up an appetite. stopped for momentary MB pre-party but couldn't relax enough to even sit down so kept on running to the gates. line was already there, short wait, and then they let us in to the awesome...
kind of a thunderdome of food, it was a giant brick enclosure with no roof, and a vendor in each corner. lines formed too quickly, and it was pretty much a madhouse:
we formed a battle plan on the way over, deciding that the soul food cart would be our first stop. Got jerk chicken, rice and peas, and lentils:
pretty delicious. real spicy sauce on the chicken that mixed well with the rice. small portions, but they obviously were being careful so as not to run out of foods.
next stop was the Biryani cart, which ultimately walked away with the people's choice award for the day. Great Biryani, and the real highlight was the chicken tikka with spicy green chutney. definitely the ultimate morsel of the day and probably the best plate of food served there. The people voting clearly agreed. The judges... faulty.
while we waited on the biryani line, other members of the team got on the line for the Calexico Mexican food truck. They seemed to have the longest line all day, but they were making a pretty hearty sampler platter with steak and pork tacos, chicken mole tamales, and shrimp quesadillas. It was probably the most attractive plate, but it got cold fast, and just wasn't as wildly flavorful as we hoped it would be. The judges ultimately awarded the vendy here, and it was a touch of a bummer. Not sure if they were wowed by the grandeur of the plating or something, but it just didn't come off as street food in too many ways....
at this point i went and got Kwik Meal - lamb kabob sandwich and falafel sandwiches (and i later went back for a second lamb as well as a chicken!) - these were so good that i ate them before i remember to take a picture. the falafel were tiny and fried to perfection, but the lamb was the highlight. Kwik Meal took the first runner up prize, but it would have made alot more sense if biryani cart took first....
last stop was an old favorite, the papusa guy from the red hook ball fields. perfect crispy pork papusa, great plantains, and they served up some amazing horchata while we waited on line, but ultimately, it just wasn't as great as a few others. still wonderful though:
Outside the gate were 3 dessert trucks (there was supposed to be a fourth with waffles, and they didn't show. weak.):
to the far right was treats truck, which had amazing homemade oreos and caramel brownies. they won the desert category. they also served the PB Jammer:
artsy:
jammed:
walked to DUMBO to work up an appetite. stopped for momentary MB pre-party but couldn't relax enough to even sit down so kept on running to the gates. line was already there, short wait, and then they let us in to the awesome...
kind of a thunderdome of food, it was a giant brick enclosure with no roof, and a vendor in each corner. lines formed too quickly, and it was pretty much a madhouse:
we formed a battle plan on the way over, deciding that the soul food cart would be our first stop. Got jerk chicken, rice and peas, and lentils:
pretty delicious. real spicy sauce on the chicken that mixed well with the rice. small portions, but they obviously were being careful so as not to run out of foods.
next stop was the Biryani cart, which ultimately walked away with the people's choice award for the day. Great Biryani, and the real highlight was the chicken tikka with spicy green chutney. definitely the ultimate morsel of the day and probably the best plate of food served there. The people voting clearly agreed. The judges... faulty.
while we waited on the biryani line, other members of the team got on the line for the Calexico Mexican food truck. They seemed to have the longest line all day, but they were making a pretty hearty sampler platter with steak and pork tacos, chicken mole tamales, and shrimp quesadillas. It was probably the most attractive plate, but it got cold fast, and just wasn't as wildly flavorful as we hoped it would be. The judges ultimately awarded the vendy here, and it was a touch of a bummer. Not sure if they were wowed by the grandeur of the plating or something, but it just didn't come off as street food in too many ways....
at this point i went and got Kwik Meal - lamb kabob sandwich and falafel sandwiches (and i later went back for a second lamb as well as a chicken!) - these were so good that i ate them before i remember to take a picture. the falafel were tiny and fried to perfection, but the lamb was the highlight. Kwik Meal took the first runner up prize, but it would have made alot more sense if biryani cart took first....
last stop was an old favorite, the papusa guy from the red hook ball fields. perfect crispy pork papusa, great plantains, and they served up some amazing horchata while we waited on line, but ultimately, it just wasn't as great as a few others. still wonderful though:
Outside the gate were 3 dessert trucks (there was supposed to be a fourth with waffles, and they didn't show. weak.):
to the far right was treats truck, which had amazing homemade oreos and caramel brownies. they won the desert category. they also served the PB Jammer:
artsy:
jammed:
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