Tuck Shop (115 St. Mark's)

Is there anything nobler than a pie filled with meat, delicious meat? I've been spending a fair amount of time at the St. Mark's branch of Tuck Shop (the original is located at 68 1st St. Between 1st & 2nd Avenues).

I honestly was not sure what to expect as I'm so used the English meat pies & Cornish Pasties etc. There is a definite difference & I think that the Aussies have a wider variety of fillings. As soon as you walk into the joint, there's a waft of 'pie-goodness' & generally a tray or 2 of pies coming out of the oven.

I went straight for the Traditional, a ground beef pie which is still my favorite. I've tried the Steak & Guinness (thick & incredibly rich... just how I like my women!), Thai Chook (a spicy Thai Chicken concoction) & the Pork & Sage (nothing extra to say about that one).

Last weekend, was the St. Mark's Block Party to benefit the George Jackson Academy. Loads of restaurants on St. Mark's participated & Tuck Shop held the 1st Annual Pie Eating Competition.

11 'maniacs' lined up & tried to scoff as many pies in their entirety in 4 minutes. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this & was taking action on the number of pies that could be eaten.


The competitors lined up & off they went. There were 2 clear leaders after a few minutes (#2 &#3), but watching grown men (& 1 brave woman) dunking pies into glasses of water & shovel them into their gobs was great fun. Thank God for Charity!


Our Champion!

They also had a Mac & Cheese pie which I got to try for the first time. We all had great fun @ the competition & I'm sure a lot of money was raised for the Academy. Check Tuck Shop out if you want a quick snack or want to try something new.

Man Camp 2009!

This is probably one of my favorite times of the year. Having just returned from a gluttonous camping trip, I get to recount all of the food I ate & fun I had. Despite the rain, hail & general bad weather, this year didn't disappoint.




Day 1; Thursday.

2 cars with 6 eager campers arrived at the grounds in the early afternoon rain & proceeded to get our tents & sleeping quarters set up. Having been drinking for pretty much the entire day & soaking in the rain by nightfall, we realized how much we missed our resident cook, John (he was arriving on Friday).

We had managed to make a fire & were listening to the Lakers/Nuggets game on a car stereo as we cooked up some bratwursts on a small Weber grill. No condiments, just a brat & a bun. I'm pretty sure we looked like Neanderthals!

Day 2; Friday.

Our misery was compounded as we waited for John to show up, no breakfast for us! More people did arrive though & in time Scott had the jockey box set up & cold Coors Light was flowing.

There were other luxury items in the camp that I had missed from my absence the year before. There were now 2 large tents, one for the kitchen & another for the house band; The Texas Creek Massacre. In the band tent was booze on a rope (see the 1st picture), which did well to keep us warm as night.

The kitchen tent had several massive coolers, a serving/buffet table, a fully stocked pantry & a new 3 ring gas cooker with griddle that John had picked up, along with a very ingenious folding bench system that provided all of the room needed for him to prepare the meals that I'll be talking about soon enough. Outside of the tent was a large deep fryer & a coal BBQ for grilling.

Before we knew what hit us, John & crew were fast at work with an early dinner. Chicken Fried Steak, Gravy, Tater Tots & Jalapeno Poppers w/BBQ Sauce (both deep fried). Delicious! Finally, a proper meal!



John had some TCM Blueberry Cobbler baking in a iron pot, so we were treated to a dessert as well. Full, we retired to the band tent to hear some music & do more boozing.

Day 3; Saturday.

Finally, we were treated to our first breakfast. John didn't spare the horses. I think that every year our new 14" TCM burritos are getting more & more insane...



Meats (chorizo & bacon), vegetables (onions & peppers) & eggs were sizzling on the griddle, green chili on the hob while tater tots & spam got a dip in 350 degree oil. Josh had also made some cornmeal mush.






This is basically cornmeal that is boiled till cooked, packed into a convenient shape to firm, then fried. In this case in a skillet. Topped with cheese, hot sauce & other additions, it made one hell of a start to the day!



George was nice enough to hook up some Bloody Mary's as well. I'm not normally a fan, but these were great. Really strong, with pickles & pickle juice added & beef jerky stirrers!






Josh began to prepare his signature pulled pork shoulder. 1 was done with a rub, the other simply with salt & pepper. 7lbs of pork when it was all said & done!

It was getting around to dinner time, so 24 8oz Sirloin Steaks were seasoned & sizzling away on the charcoal grill.




Tater tots (yes again, we had loads of them!) & beer battered Vidalia onion rings were dunked into the deep fryer. The tots were topped with a little cheese for added flavor.






As you can see, dinner could have fed a ravenous animal! Not pictured, was a peach cobbler that John made much in the same way as the previous nights blueberry dessert. As usual, the night ended with most of us in the band tent. By this time, we had graduated onto our second handle of Jack Daniel's whiskey (3rd & final handle consumed).

Day 4; Sunday.

The previous night was a bit heavy & most of us woke up with raging hangovers. Breakfast was insane again, just way over the top! Corned beef hash, bacon, breakfast sausages, eggs, melted cheese, peppers, Josh's green chili & more.

Some rolled their breakfast up. Others (myself included) opted for the 'plate-method'!

Around lunch time, 2 batches of wings were put into the deep fryer; 1 hot & the other with a whiskey BBQ sauce. The band played their hit single; 'The Wings Are Ready' while people piled into the kitchen tent.


Ted began to work on his monstrous bacon roll and soon that was in the smoker & the pulled pork, was well, being 'pulled'. No use of utensils here, Josh & Lem went caveman & did it all by hand.

Served on a bun, with BBQ sauce, smoky baked beans & coleslaw, I really enjoyed the final dinner of the trip.


Day 5; Monday.


The last day was pretty simple. Hangover recovery. A breakfast of Pancakes, leftover Pulled Pork, Breakfast Sausages & generous helpings of maple syrup. After that we cleaned up the camp, took the tents down & anything that didn't go 'BOOM!' went into the fire for destruction.

We skipped our usual stop at The Coyote Cantina in Buena Vista, so our trip ended there. A great time was had by all, so rest assured that I'll be going to Man Camp again next year.

Delicious Links

1) Men's Health discusses in length how to buy & cook an entire pig.
2) Kid's Restaurant Week launches on June 20th.
3) DoggyBloggy gets brave & braises alligator.
4) The nation's first Japanese butcher shop opens in NYC.
5) Topless coffee shop in Maine burns down due to arson.

Have a good link? Post a comment & maybe it'll make it to the next installment!

Monday Mayhem!

Last Monday was a day of firsts for me; the 1st time I cooked on a Thursday Club scale for a non-club meal, the 1st time I made Osso Bucco & the 1st time I cooked for my parents. Trust me, that last 1st was a major hurdle that I've finally overcome, but based on how the meal turned out, I think that Momma & Poppa Boogie feel that it was well worth the wait.

1) Spinach Soup

The first course was prepared by my brother, Sous Chef Stef. It was particularly good with an excellent texture, topped with a bit of cream & chives. We wolfed it down with lots & lots of deliciously warm, butter-drowned bread. A great start to the night.

2) Bone Marrow w/Parsley Salad

My feeble attempt to duplicate Fergus Henderson's signature St. John's dish. I think that the marrow itself came out very well, it's pretty hard to screw them up, mind you. Just a bit of salt & pepper & some olive oil. Brilliant! Unfortunately, I screwed up & bought the wrong type of parsley for the salad, I really didn't like the texture. I'll have to try this again.


3) Tomato, Avocado & Mozzarella Salad

A simple dish to clear the palate before the main, I think this came out very well. I added a little basil to the plate & topped it with olive oil & some excellent Balsamic vinegar that I found lurking in my pantry. Simple yet effective.


4) Osso Bucco w/Rice

This was my first attempt at Osso Bucco, so I wanted to make damn sure that I didn't screw it up. I'm pretty sure that I braised it for way too long, so that the meat literally fell off of the bone. It made presentation somewhat difficult, but the flavors were great. I really enjoyed this dish, particularly scoffing down the leftovers 2 days later!

5) Saath Padar Pastry

I found this wacky dessert recipe from the Ny Times dining section & decided to try it out. What a mistake... I think that this is the only truly unedible dish I've ever served since I joined the Thursday Club. I'm not much of a dessert guy, but this dish bordered on the ridiculous. It's basically puff pastry stuffed with coconut, pistachios, almonds, sugar & cardamon. It ended up tasting like cardboard & was as hard as Wolverine's adamantium skeleton (comic book nerds rise up!). Thoroughly dissappointing.

A good meal all in all. My parents finally got to see what Thursday Club is all about & hopefully we'll be able to get Andre-Pascal to cook for us one of these days.

Game On!

So the gang regrouped in Park Slope a few days ago for Houman's second foray into this gluttonous little club of ours. I missed his first, gut-busting, meat-inspired meal, so I was eager to see what our boy could do. I'll admit, that when I got the menu via email last Sunday that I began to salivate; Pavlov's dog style. Continue reading & you'll see why. With enough beer & bottles of wine to sink a ship, we eagerly sat down and waited for the onslaught.

1) Asheh-Anar w/deer meatballs.

Translation in Farsi is literally "Soup of Pomegranate", but I think it should have been 'Fucking Awesome'. The flavors were sweet & sour with a subtle dill taste. The meatballs were incredibly lean (this is my first time eating deer) & were a perfect match. This is exactly the type of soup you'd like to come home to after a walk in the cold. Thank goodness for the end of summer!

2) Walnut wrapped in date and smoked bacon.

Now, who doesn't love pork? The double smoked bacon has crispy, slightly burnt edges & provided the 'savory' to the dates 'sweet'. The walnut added a satisfying crunch to the trio. We didn't bother with utensils; this is finger food at it's best!

3)Duck leg on a bed of brussel sprouts w/mustard & garlic confit.

Every time that I make a similar dish, I cheat & buy my duck already confit'ed' (is that a word?). The fact that Houman went through the effort of doing this in house speaks volumes. Meat literally fell off of the bone with super-crispy skin & a delicious outer layer of fat. I'll admit that I am NOT a fan of brussel sprouts, but these were amazing!

4) Braised Oregon Elk w/haricots verte with garlic, anchovy, shallot sauce.

I was really looking forward to the main course & it didn't disappoint. Firstly, the portions were massive. I'm not sure how big this beast was, but put it this way, there was a whole lot of meat on the plate. Braised in veal stock with bacon & veggies, the sauce was amazing. I found the meat to be a little on the tough side, but hey, I'm a pansy. I particularly liked the vegetables; the beans & capers were a marriage made in heaven.

5) Baklava.

An instant classic. Houman made his Persian style, with ground lemon-salted pistachios, walnuts and almonds. They were sweet, crunchy, crispy & delicious. Served warm with a tooth-decayingly amazing honey. Yum!

We left the meal full, drunk & happy. Nice work dude... Game On!

Barnyard (149 Avenue C)

Avenue C has finally got a high end meat & cheese shop. Barnyard, located between 9th & 10th Streets & opened by the Brix Wine guys, it's a real welcome addition & shows how the neighborhood is changing. They sell a variety of goods; sandwiches, breads, meats, cheeses, pate, duck fat & the like. The staff are friendly & knowledgeable & while the location is great for me as I live a few blocks away, my only real problem is the price. Some of the cheeses top out at $25 a pound, so if you love as much cheese as I do, each visit could turn out to be extremely expensive.

That having been said, I will be going there for some specialty items, but for my basic cheese & cured meats needs, I'll be going to East Village Cheese.

The night that Adam died...

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of Adam Johnson; meat connoisseur, glutton & founding member of TCNYC. Towards the end of Grant's 6 course flesh-a-thon, Adam finally succumbed to a lethal overdose of meat. He will be missed.

Ok, jokes aside, Adam was seriously hurting by the end of course #5 & was flailing around on the floor like a beached whale screaming; "No More! No More!" Great stuff! Now onto the grub;

1. Crispy Olives Stuffed With Sausage
Adam, Teddy & myself arrived on time for a change & we were glad to see that Grant had everything pretty much lined up & ready to go. The olives were stuffed, breaded & waiting for a quick dip in the oil. A porky, olivey scent wafted in the air as we tucked into our first bottle of wine. The taste of the sausage was far more subtle than I had expected, but I particularly liked the 3rd degree burns I got on my tongue when I bit into these tiny little morsels. A perfect amuse bouche to keep us occupied as Daryll arrived & Teddy spun up some Gin & Tonics

2. Moules a la Poulette (Mussels with cream, spinach and shallots)
Steamed in white wine, shucked, served on a roasted half-shell & drizzled with the heavily reduced wine, cream & vegetable mixture, these were a real treat. I forget the name of the mussels that Grant used, but they were MASSIVE! Roasting the shells was a nice touch, but made them somewhat brittle, so we had to slurp & be careful where we bit down. The flavors were delicious & we moved onto the next course unscathed.

3. Roasted Tomato with Gruyère Toast
Course 3 was up next & I was pretty convinced that I would make it all the way to the end without internal damage. The soup was an incredibly thick & intoxicating when the Gruyère toast was dipped into it. Delicious!

4. Chicken Liver Salad
This is the course when I realized that I might not make it out of Grant's Apt. on my own steam. Chicken livers have a texture all their own which might be why I love them so much. Cooked till they were just pink inside & served on top of a salad, I was really enjoying myself. The portions were massive & I was forced to leave a few stray livers in my plate for fear of rupturing some unmentionable & most likely vital organ.

5. Asian Style Braised Short Rib with a side of Braised Cabbage & Smoked Duck Bacon
This was the nail on all of our coffins (Adam in particular). Even though we had a much needed 20 minute break after the last course, I was starting to get a bit dizzy. Grant's mass email with the menu on Wednesday had promised smoked bacon, but when I discovered that the cabbage was fried with a stick of butter & smoked duck bacon, I knew that I had to take one for the team & scarf the lot down! the short ribs were extremely tender (you gotta love braising), sweet & my personal favorite; fatty. Even though I felt that I was dying a little with every bite, I couldn't stop eating!

6. Home Made Éclairs
Bravo to Grant for pulling this one off! They were really sweet, incredibly tasty & the filling was to die for. The best part was Grant's 'Everton Topping' (no doubt to 'celebrate' their loss against Fiorentina).

All in all, a culinary tour de force. Nice one buddy.