Don't judge a book...

Living in the rapidly gentrifying East Village for so many years has turned me into a bit of a snob, or at worse, a complete asshole. I normally shop for grocery staples at Associated or Key Foods, often overlooking the less well known supermarkets. For my recent collaboration with Adam a few days ago, I decided to go to Fine Fare on Avenue C & 4th Street.

They seem to cater to the Latino community in the area & I had often dismissed the place as 'ghetto'. I was pleasantly surprised to find a well stocked, clean grocery store. After buying some hideous leeks at my local Associated further up Avenue C earlier in the day, I was amazed at the freshness of the produce. Adam & I were able to find everything that we needed for our co-op meal (well, nearly everything, we had to substitute Gorgonzola for Goat's Cheese, but this turned out to our advantage) & then some.

Cuts of meat that I never find at other stores, plus varied vegetables & spices. Now most grocery stores have a 'Goya Section', but this one was truly amazing. More Goya products than I've ever seen in my entire life! One in particular; a bright orange Beef Tripe Stew (Mondongo) caught my eye & I just had to have it. I'm not a regular tripe eater (actually, I really try to avoid the stuff), but I was feeling adventurous & I actually ate it tonight with some bread & an avocado salad. It was pretty damn good and from a can no less! I'll be cooking my own tripe stew soon enough!

Basically, the point of this post is not to dismiss any store or ingredient, sometimes you find hidden gems behind an otherwise ugly exterior! Note: some canned goods are more appealing than others!

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!

Chocolate Bar (127 E. 7th St.)

[Updated; now closed!]
Hidden among the boutiques & boarded up stores on 7th street between Ave. A & 1st Ave. is Chocolate Bar, essentially a candy store for grown-ups. I was walking down the street yesterday in the freezing cold & decided to stop in for a much needed hot chocolate.

As soon as you enter the small store, the delicious smell of chocolate hits you right in the face; Yum! I ordered my hot chocolate & looked at some of their wares.

Candies in awesome Anime-style & graffiti wrappers, cakes & other morsels of goodness. There's a small seating area in the front, but I got my drink to go. As someone who grew up on Nesquik & Swiss Miss, I can honestly say that this is the best hot chocolate I've ever had (I'll admit that I haven't been to Max Brenner's yet, but that place has a totally Starbucks vibe). It was incredibly rich & the texture was amazing. You could immediately tell that this was made with real chocolate & not granulated, freeze dried crap. I didn't have much time to check out the rest of the menu, but bet your ass I'll be going back there again.

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.

Bowery Kitchen Supplies (460 West 16th St.)

I've spoken before about my long walks along Bowery looking in the stores for random gadgets & other stuff that I'll probably only use once. I've recently discovered another kitchen supply store that I will be going to till the day I die (or they close, whichever comes first). Bowery Kitchen Supplies located in the Chelsea Market. This is a bit out of my normal stomping grounds, but well worth the extra traveling time.

The store has pretty much everything you could ever want & while it is hard to find certain things sometimes, the prices are out of this world. So, if you're in the area, or just need some supplies. Check this place out!

Alphabet City Wine Co. (100 Ave. C)

It's not easy finding a good wine store in the East Village, let alone one that is literally a stone's throw from your apartment. Normally, I'd have to schlep over to Astor place (Yeah, I know, not that far; but I'm a lazy bastard) to Warehouse Wines or Astor Wines. So, you can imagine my delight when the guys from In Vino opened ABC Wine Co. I'm not quite sure how they did it. I used to see the gated storefront all the time & then, presto; instant awesome wine shop!

They've only recently opened, but have a very impressive selection of international wines, most of them being moderately priced. Local & micro brew beers are possibly on the way (pending licenses, etc.) The staff know their trade, the decor is awesome (I particularly like the little sitting area) & with time, I'm sure that the inventory of wines will grow leaps & bounds.

Check the store out if you can... Also, have a gander at their blog.

Jeffrey's On Essex ( 120 Essex St., Essex Market)

Today, I have a renewed faith in society... You might remember the hellacious time I had trying to procure fine meats (see post here) in the East Village last year. I braved the cold this afternoon looking to get some lamb for the club meal that I am cooking tomorrow. Shunning Whole Foods, I headed to Essex Market & was lucky enough to meet Jeffrey Ruhalter, 4th Generation owner & proprietor of Jeffrey's on Essex.

Extremely knowledgeable, friendly & courteous; just what you want in a family butcher. Even though he didn't know me from Adam, he treated me like a lifelong customer. After buying 3 baby racks of lamb, I moved onto 2 giant New York Strip steaks for me tea. Jeffrey asked me if this was my first time shopping there & I replied yes. With a smirk on his face he promptly told me that if I didn't accept the gift he was about to offer me, then I wouldn't be able to shop there again. I accepted... 6 beautiful frenched lamb chops. He reccommended that I bread & lightly fry them. "Meat Popsicles!" He exclaimed!

The meat selection there is excellent & Jeffrey clued me up on all of the other delicacies that I could order with 1 days advance notice; ostrich, venison, elk, alligator, to name a few. you bet your ass that I'll be going back to Mr. Ruhalter for all my meat needs! I suggest you do the same.

East Village Cheese (40 3rd Avenue)

Hidden among the hustle & bustle of 3rd Avenue @ 10th Street is probably my favorite cheese shop in New York. The windows are covered pretty much entirely by hand written notices advertising current specials & new cheeses, but once you enter, you know that you're in cheese heaven. EVC is pretty much a neighborhood institution. If you live in the area & want cheese, you'll be going there, no question.

The place is normally very busy, with the line for the cheese/meat counter going all the way to the back of the joint & if it's close to a holiday, the line might double back on itself. I tend to go early in the morning when there's less of a crowd. The staff there work very fast & there are a lot of them behind the counter.

Despite the fact that the place is cash only (which can be a pain in the ass if you're making large purchases) & often packed, the real appeal here is the prices. EVC is basically a clearing house for cheese makers. I'll be the first to admit that the cheese & meats are not always the freshest, but they sell at ridiculously low prices & in such large quantities that they are able to be competitive. I recommend that you eat whatever you buy there within 2-3 days. Don't let this put you off though, the cheese there are delicious & at the advertised prices, you can't go wrong.

Besides cheeses & meats, EVC also stocks crackers, fresh breads, oils of all kinds, tomato sauces, etc. It's basically a food lover's deli as well as an awesome cheese shop. My favorites there are the Asiago, Fontina & Manchego cheeses, as well as the Taramasalata. Check the place out...

A few spreads that we have set up from EVC, both around $40.


X-Mas Day; Stef & I @ our parent's place.


Last Night; Cheese & wine @ the crib.

Crate & Who?

Normally, when I decide to buy stuff for the house, I head to Crate & Barrel, dig through their website & buy everything online. No More! I've recently discovered the Mecca of kitchen gadgetry! Ne, the Holy Grail of culinary contraptions! Drum roll ladies & gents.... The Bowery!

The 4 blocks or so between east 1st street & Delancey are chock-a-block with restaurant supply stores. Friendly? Not so much. Helpful? No way. Customer Service? Non-existent. Dirt cheap kitchen supplies? Fuck Yeah!

If you can bear to wade through the throngs of restaurant & hotel staff pouring over the many bargains to be had, you can really find some amazing gadgets at rock bottom prices.

My advice to you is to skip the Crate & Barrel/Bed Bath & Beyond/etc. trap & hit up the Bowery next time you want to beef up your kitchen drawers.

The death of the family butcher.

Prepare yourself for a profanity-filled post from an extremely angry black man. I spent about an hour yesterday trolling the East Village for some ground lamb, but came home empty-handed. I headed straight for Kurowycky Meat Products (see piccie) on 1st Avenue, the 52-year-old Ukrainian East Village butcher that made peerless sausage and ham only to find that the place has closed down due to rising rents. WTF!?!

Dejected, I head to the East Village Meat Market (139 2nd Ave). I have never before in my life seen such a sad collection of meats in my entire life. The 'butcher' (I use the term loosely) there was the rudest person I've ever met in my entire life. He snorted 'What do you want?' as I walked up to the counter, then proceeded to tell me that he had no ground lamb. I asked him if he had any lamb & he showed me three hunks of disgusting looking meat. Short on time & in a bind I asked him if he could grind some for me... Guess what - 'No, we just cleaned the grinder & are about to close'. I did a double-take & asked him if he was serious, 'As a heart attack' he says.

I live in the East Village, one of the 'cooler' neighborhoods in NYC, how hard should it be to get some fucking ground lamb? Obviously, I could have just gone to Whole Foods, but fuck that; I'd rather support smaller shops than give a penny to them. In a time of Happy Meal-filled obese children, KFC 'family' dinners, etc. it disgusts me how an institution like Kurowycky can go under while other, far inferior, butchers stay open to serve up horrible meat.

What ever happened to the family butcher? That nice old guy you saw once a week to pick up meat for your family meal. He would let you know what was fresh, special order items for you & was skilled in his craft. My dad told me stories of his time as an NYC bachelor. He had his local butcher & a locker there. He would buy a side of dry aged meat & go in from time to time to have the butcher carve it up, as & when needed. Those days are long gone & that pisses me off to no end.