When you run out of ideas about what to call your chocolate bars, you can always resort to this! Quite nice, actually.
Category Archives: Food
Biscuit abuse
I can cope with Americans calling biscuits ‘cookies’. I can deal with the fact that they mostly have too much salt in and way too many calories and are way too big to be good for anybody. But to take an Oreo biscuit, err, cookie and slather it in batter and plunge it into hot fat for a few minutes so that it emerges looking like this:
Well, it’s just plain wrong. Or is it. Looks a bit like a doughnut now, don’t you think? So, in the interests of research and cross Atlantic bonding, I tried one, which after just one bite looks like this:
Yep, that’s an Oreo, deep fried in batter and it’s lovely. Artery hardening, loaded with sugar and fat and utterly addictive. Beware. And yes, I am on about food again.
6 months in and 100 blog posts later
Hard to believe I have been writing this blog for six months now and that this is my 100th post. I thought I would reflect a little on how it’s gone so far.
Well, I now know that I am slightly obsessed by food. I am in love with brunch and iced tea. There are many posts on various aspects of food and the category cloud shows that loud and clear. Food in New York has been a revelation and continues to be so. My food posts are my most popular and I think I have joined a community of bloggers who are even more obsessed by food than me.
I have made a lot of observations about people. I probably don’t get out and about enough to reflect the diversity of New York but I do like to share the little vignettes about what I do see. I keep getting annoyed about New Yorkers and their manners but I will continue to say ‘thank you’ and ‘cheers’ as often as necessary. The subway has been a rich source for people watching as have the dog owners – I could have done a post a day on the dog lovers of New York.
New York City politics has increasingly grabbed my attention and is likely to be a great source of blog material as the election nears. I suspect this won’t gain my many followers or pique too much interest, but I find it fascinating, so I won’t be able to resist the more bizarre stuff. National politics is less of interest so far but that could change.
And the weather: it’s all about the weather in New York. When you’re British it is comforting to know that New Yorkers are as obsessed by the weather as we are. I’m dreading the humid, hot summer and will no doubt write about it in graphic detail. I am already very well acquainted with the local park and the sandpit as J has his own obsessions too.
So do I like New York? Do I prefer NW3 to NYC after six months? I’d have to say that I still hanker after NW3, it is lovely: the buildings, the history and of course the beautiful Heath, location of the much missed British Military Fitness. If I could export the latter to Central Park, I’d be happy. I’ve enjoyed witnessing the changes to Central Park during my weekly run but it’s not quite the same.
Lots of people have said they would love to have done what we have done and live in New York, but the reality is that you do just end up staying in your own bit of the city, making that your home territory. We explore the city at the weekends, but not always as sometimes it’s nice just to stay put. There’s a list of things to do and places to go and we will do them all before we leave. Just have to remind ourselves quite how lucky we are to have this chance to be in NYC before we return to NW3.
Tea retraining
Oh dear, I appear to have started to like iced tea. A lot. It is easy to feed this new addiction as iced tea is everywhere. I get it now with a sandwich at lunchtime. It comes in large vats behind the counter and can be slightly sweet or plain. It is black tea or sometimes green tea, lots of ice cubes in a plastic lidded cup with a straw. Piece of lemon optional. I have tried it from a lot of different places now and had oolong tea with my Japanese meal just last night. I’m so sorry Tea Horse, I feel like I am betraying you. I still love hot tea – you have to say hot here to distinguish from its cold cousin. I say it quite naturally now, I think I’ve been here long enough. And for US Mother’s Day yesterday what did I get? Yes, you’ve guessed it, more iced tea. Peach flavoured, not sure about that one, but ginger? Really? Maybe a step too far.
Meringue con
I bought a lemon meringue pie today. Looked forward to eating it this evening with a nice cup of early grey tea. Took one bite and realised it was an imposter. A key lime pie. Yuck. Turns out that the reason the key lime pie looks like a lemon meringue pie is because the pile of vile cream on top is whisked with egg whites to make it look like its finer cousin. Reminds me of a photo I took a while back of the king of lemon meringue pies available from Eli’s on 3rd Avenue for a snip at $95. That’s a lot of pie. And no, that’s not gold dust on top, but it should be for that price.
Give me an A
Yep, that’s what all the restaurants in New York want. Mayor Bloomberg introduced a new health inspection regime in July 2010 that means that each restaurant now displays a ‘Sanitary Inspection’ grade by the front door. An A is very good, means that the inspectors only turn up once a year; a B not so good, as the inspectors will turn up four times in a year to see what you’ve been up to. E and I have been tracking these letters and often comment on them, wondering if anyone would get an A+ and what would happen if you got a Z. I am yet to see a C grade, which is the lowest grade you can get. I had a look at the New York Department of Health guidelines on inspection and grading. It’s a thrilling one page read. If you don’t get an A first time round, you get another chance, with a random inspection a month later. This explains the ‘Grade Pending’ notice on a restaurant near us, which has been puzzling us. But given it’s way more than a month, I’m not sure the regime is working perfectly and with 24,000 restaurants to inspect, it’s no surprise.
Today, the New York Post got all in a lather about this, calling the Department of Health staff ‘killjoys’ who walk into restaurants and ruin everyone’s dinner as service pretty much stops as the inspection takes place. The Post goes on to say “Bloomberg’s blue-coated buzzkills are increasingly invading city eateries during peak times, shutting down service for several hours and leaving diners hungry and businesses broke”. Fantastic alliteration and I suspect total overkill on what’s actually happening, but entertaining as usual from the Post. So watch out next time you fancy a meal out!
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/downloads/pdf/rii/how-we-score-grade.pdf
The prawn cocktail revolution
Ah, Walkers, we miss you! We’ve tried all sorts of different US crisps, which naturally come in enormous bags, enough to feed a family for a month. They’re either too salty or have no salt; too strong tasting or just plain horrible. Fairways comes to the rescue because it sells Walkers crisps for 99c a bag. The only problem with this is that the well kept secret that they do this keeps coming out. I go every week and look at the British section and it’s either feast or famine depending on whether some boxes of Walkers have made their way across the Atlantic. Last week, I scanned the section for the pink bags of prawn cocktail crisps. As I’m scanning, an American lady asks the staff if they have any ‘prawn cocktail chips’ and she explains they are ‘from England’. The men look suitably bemused as prawn cocktail flavour isn’t sold here. They look for some time and whilst her back is turned, I spot two bags nestled in amongst the salt and vinegar hula hoops and carefully extract them and put them in my trolley. I cover up my bounty with my Bounty (just 2 rolls). And then I slowly walk away, feeling victorious. But this week, there must have been some over ordering as every aisle was garlanded with bags of prawn cocktail, like pink decorations. I don’t think I was hallucinating, but I did stock up. Just in case.
And everything changed
Yep, still on about the weather. I was walking home from my sweaty spin class (enough said about that) this evening and was amazed by the change in atmosphere here. All the cafes and restaurants that normally hide under awnings and behind double entrance doorways to keep the freezing drafts out have converged onto the pavements. The pavements are alive with chatter, clinking glasses and happy people sitting outside, eating in the warm air. What a lovely way to spend an evening, I felt quite envious. They are in sharp contrast to the cafes that don’t have outside space and the poor souls trapped by the 2nd Avenue subway works, which are almost empty save a few solitary diners who eat alone, reading newspapers and looking out the window. I walked home, buzzing from the exercise and no longer hiding from the weather: jacket open, my red face warming the evening air just a bit more. I could get used to this.
Squid-u-like
In the spirit of experimenting with as much weird foodstuff as possible here in New York, here is the latest:
Yes, that’s right, it’s dried squid. A posh version of scampie flavoured fries (a personal favourite, which I miss).
Reverse the packet and follow the instructions:
So, consider bringing Prepared Squid with you to share with your friends, an bring a second packet, in case it isn’t enough. Just to entice you further, have a look at the contents:
I had it with a gin and tonic earlier and yes, it did destroy my tastebuds and I didn’t have any more after the first bite.
Enjoy.
Are these the best sarnies ever?
More like art than food. Mini sandwiches in a city where everything is large, this is a relief.
nw3 to nyc 