Posted on

Intrigued by the 2014 Thaithentic Food and Culture Festival

thaitentic-food-culture-festival-nyc

A Google alert brought me to the site for Thaitentic, a Thai food and culture festival, apparently the first of its kind in NYC. I love the flavors of Thai food, especially kaffir lime leaf, and have eaten a lot of American-style Thai food, but I’m curious to learn more about the cuisine, especially flavor profiles.

The culture is also something I’d welcome getting to know better, especially music and dance. For a year at CalArts I studied the music and dance of another southeast Asian culture, that of Bali, and just loved it. I’d be curious to see what similarities/dissimilarities there are between the cultures in their music and dance. Thai art and sport are also part of this event.

As for the food, it is nice to see some familiar Queens Thai restaurants participating—Sripraphai, Ayada, and Zabb Elee. I’m less familiar with Spice, which has a location in LIC. The featured chefs are Pichet Ong, Pastry Chef and Executive Chef at Chi (I have not been but would like to) and Andy Ricker of Pok Pok fame.

Tickets are $45 but if you want to go an hour early for the VIP hour, it’s $70. The event is on Saturday, August 23 from 7 to 10 p.m. at espaceny (635 W 42nd Street, almost to the Hudson River). 21+ older only (Singha is one of the sponsors). If I go I will definitely write up my experience. Sounds like it could be an interesting and delicious time!

Posted on

I’m On the Alphabet Soup Podcast!

alphabet soup header

At the end of January, I met up with my friend Autumn (of Autumn Makes & Does) to chat about food, Queens, and urban gardening for her Alphabet Soup podcast, which is “a podcast about food & words.” I had a great time talking with her and we explored many topics, including the secret fruit trees of Queens, my years as a vegetarian, preserving produce with lacto fermentation, water kefir, creativity, my love of teaching.

We also ventured into commentary about social and political issues as they relate to food. It was a nice, relaxing time, and I think we both enjoyed ourselves. The podcast is a little over an hour.

I hope you get a chance to listen. I was struck by how much – at least to my ears – I sound like I’m from the West coast still, after 10 years in New York. I wonder what my friends from high school would think of my accent. I’m still amused by my story about becoming a vegetarian, too.

Check out the podcast here:

Episode 9, Meg Cotner (here’s the mp3 audio file)

You can also listen on iTunes.

Thanks so much, Autumn. I had a blast!

Posted on

Dos Toros – An Initial Review

dos toros.bmp

Back in January, I got wind of a new taqueria in Manhattan, called Dos Toros.  The claim made was that they served good Mission-style burritos.  Having lived in NYC for almost five years (and on Long Island for four), I can tell you that I’ve heard many make this claim, but none have delivered.  And having lived in the Bay Area for 9 years, I think I’m a pretty good judge of what makes for a good Northern CA burrito.

Many of us Bay Area “expats” wish for a source for a proper burrito in NYC, and are constantly on the lookout for something that even comes close.  I’ve been disappointed time after time, but I had great hopes for Dos Toros.  I mean, the owners, Leo and Oliver Kremer, grew up in the Bay Area and ate lots and lots of burritos in SF, so that’s a great start.

I’m happy to say – I think I have found what I’m looking for.

As we were walking home from an awesome evening of beautiful music, we found ourselves on Fourth Ave, a little bit hungry.  All of the sudden I looked to my right and saw the bright orange Dos Toros sign, glowing in the dark.  My eyes and my stomach told me I had to check it out.

Now, since we encountered the establishment at about 10:30pm, I didn’t want to ingest an entire (or even half of a) burrito – I know better than to suck one of these down so close to bedtime (which was around midnight).  So, I chose a taco.  I ate a lot of tacos at Bay Area taquerias, and I know what I like.

This was an excellent decision, as the taco was just enough to satisfy me.  I chose a pollo asado taco, and my guy got a simple bean and rice taco, both served with guacamole, pico de gallo, and green sauce.  And both were absolutely delicious.

This taco is special.  The tortilla itself is made locally by Tortilleria Nixtamal in Corona/Queens, and it was fabulous – such wonderful texture and fresh taste; the chicken is raised without antibiotics or hormones; the rice is cooked with chicken broth, which makes it more nourishing than if it was cooked simply with water.  As for the rice and beans, the beans come from Cayuga Organics, the people that supply dry beans and grains for our CSA.  They grow the best beans I’ve ever eaten.  Plus they are local, just a little ways upstate.

Additionally, their utensils and paper products are biodegradable; they compost and recycle; they clean with non toxic, biodegradable products. And like a lot of places these days in NYC, they use reclaimed wood for their tables, chairs, and wall paneling materials (from a barn upstate), and reclaimed tin for the ceiling. To top it off, their energy comes from renewable energy sources. A+ in sustainability.

I plan to return to try one of the burritos, which will be the true test. I have high hopes – Dos Toros, I expect you’ll have the burritos I’m looking for!  I’ll take pictures next time, too.

Dos Toros Taqueria
137 4th Avenue
New York, NY, 10003
212-677-7300
info@dostorosnyc.com

Posted on

Delicious, Natural Beef Jerky

jerky

This weekend I tasted some amazing beef jerky.  I wasn’t looking for it – in fact, I haven’t thought about jerky for years and years – but feel fortunate to have come across it.

Not many people know this, but I love beef jerky – like, a whole lot.  I find it to be one of the most delicious things to snack on.  When I was in high school, I had a teacher, Mr. Salazar, who made his own jerky and would share it with his students.   He taught my advanced english and history classes, and had an unorthodox approach to administering tests – he thought that students did better on them if they had something to eat during the test.  So a potluck was scheduled each time we had a major test.  His contribution was always beef jerky (he also kept some in his desk drawer).  And it was crazy delicious.

I stopped eating it when I went vegetarian.  Even when I started eating meat again in 1998, it took me a long time to warm up to beef products.  By that time, I’d come to learn that most commercial beef jerky was not made from the best ingredients, and I couldn’t find any “artisanal” beef jerky, so I put it out of my mind.

This past weekend I visited the Greenpoint Food Market, in part to discover some great, locally made food, and in part to support my friend Charlene, who was selling her cookies there.  I was happy to see so many savory options (as I’m not eating sugar right now), since last time there seemed to be an overabundance of chocolates, cookies, and candy.

Greenpoint Market Collage

One of the first tables I encountered was staffed by the King’s County Jerky people, and I was instantly intrigued by the idea of artisanal beef jerky.  I asked them a little bit about their product, and they were happy to share. Turns out the beef they use comes from local farms upstate, is humanely-raised, grass-fed and grass-finished, and smoked over real wood.  There’s no artificial anything, and no MSG.

I tried their samples, first the Classic flavor – so tasty!  It is flavorful, well-spiced (with ancho, chipotle, smoked paprika, black pepper, cumin and coriander), and smoky.  It smells amazing, too.  They make two other flavors, a bulgogi (spicy) and orange ginger.  I tried them all, and found I really preferred the classic flavor, though they were all good.

One interesting thing they told me – for them, the grass-fed beef is ideal because it’s naturally low in fat, and when you’re making jerky, you don’t want particularly fatty beef because it slows the whole dehydration process down.

They recently secured a commercial space in East Williamsburg (Brooklyn), so I expect we’ll be seeing their products around town sooner than later.  Very exciting!  I do not buy many “healthy” snack products – most have so much sugar, or are made with unhealthy oils, or are just way over processed, that they are totally unappealing.  This jerky will easily find a home in my pantry.  Hooray for quality snacks!

mmm... jerky