How did The Meatball Shop’s Chef and Co-Owner Daniel Holzman get a job a Le Bernadin at age 14? Which HBO TV star stole his first love? Where did the idea for The Meatball Shop come from? He’ll answer those questions plus we’ll make a little history, tasting The Meatball Shop’s brand new, pork fat-infused Buffalo chicken meatballs and blueberry frozen yogurt macaron sandwiches for the first time on camera.
The Meatball Shop 84 Stanton Street b/t Allen St & Orchard St New York, NY 10002 (212) 982-8895
Montreal native Chuck Hughes wanted to be in a biker gang when he grew up. He got the tattoos but he traded the motorcycle for the Cooking Channel Ice Cream Truck. That’s how NYC Food Guy found the star of Cooking Channel’s “Chuck’s Day Off” two Saturdays ago, handing out free People’s Pops and chatting up all passersby about everything from his food-centric tattoos to his popular Montreal restaurant that is at the heart of his TV show. He may be rolling on four wheels instead of two but he’s doing his best to bring the rock and roll spirit to the world of food. Check out the video as I introduce Chuck to chocolate covered bacon and pupusas while he waxes poetic about his favorite NYC food.
Chuck’s Day Off airs Saturday at 2pm and Wednesday at 10PM only on the Cooking Channel
From left to right: Guerilla Ice Cream’s Red Coat & Chinatown Tea Party
Above: La Newyorkina’s Watermelon Paleta
If you’re looking for a way to beat the heat this weekend, get down to Hester Street Fair Saturday where two unique frozen treats specialists are debuting brand new, July 4th inspired flavors for one day only. The two mad ice cream scientists behind Guerilla Ice Cream continue their political revolution-inspired creativity as they debut Redcoat ($5)(spicy cranberry shaved ice with pop rocks) and Chinatown Tea Party ($5) (Steel Buddha Tea sorbet with Chinese walnut cookies and fresh dragonfruit). While those two troublemakers are slinging scoops, the lovely ladies of La Newyorkina, creators of Manhattan’s only artisanal Mexican ice pops, better know as paletas, will be reinventing the experience of eating a beautiful piece of fresh watermelon, right down to the rind, with their Watermelon Paleta ($4). To achieve the look of a real wedge of melon, the ladies fill their paleta molds with a combination of fresh pureed watermelon, simple syrup, lime juice, and salt then top it with a peeled, lightly sweetened puree of the rind. It may be more delicious than the real thing.
The Food Network Great American Food & Music Festival passed two Sundays ago without much fanfare. But that didn’t stop NYC Food Guy from having some fun! Eighteen restaurants were serving up their regional specialties at the New Meadowlands Stadium and I wasn’t about to miss out on a chance to try the self-proclaimed creator of the hamburger (Louis’ Lunch), the buffalo wing (Anchor Bar), the Chicago style Italian beef sandwich (Al’s Beef), or the oldest barbeque in Texas (Southside Market). And that was only the tip of the iceberg. But what I really wanted to know is whether these famed American food items are truly worth the hype? Check out the video above to watch me eat my way from sausage and Suicide wings to freshly fried churros and frozen custard. It’s the best of America’s regional specialties and it’s all in one place!
What better way to celebrate the arrival of summer and the Cooking Channel than with free frozen treats? The Food Network’s new baby has created a “one-of-a-kind” ice cream truck to tour the country and promote itself by handing out free frozen dessert. New Yorkers get a special treat this Friday and Saturday when the Cooking Channel ice cream truck doles out free People’s Pops, the new Chelsea Market-based shop offering popsicles made from seasonal fruits. The truck will be at Chelsea Market Friday from 10AM to 6PM (75 9th Ave b/t 15th & 16th St) and at the NYC FoodFilm Festival Saturday from 12PM to 10PM under the Brooklyn Bridge. Check out the rest of the national tour schedule after the jump…
What better way to discover a new restaurant than to get in the kitchen with one of the co-owners and one of the chefs and see a signature dish being made firsthand? NYC Food Guy had the pleasure of this experience Saturday at Williamsburg’s newest Mexican restaurant Carino. Owned by several former employees of the recently closed Bonita, Carino’s menu focuses on authentic, fresh and flavorful Mexican food, the highlight of which is the housemade guajillo pepper chorizo stuffed gordita. Check out the video above to see this delicious Mexican mini monster made from scratch.
Carino 82 South 4th Street nr. Berry Street Brooklyn, NY 11211 718-384-8282 Website
What’s better than BBQ and pie? How about when the pie is arguably better than the BBQ? This was the thought running through my mind upon tasting First Prize Pies S’Mores Pie ($6/slice) last week at Fatty Cue. All of the Southeast Asian-inspired BBQ was spot on, but when someone can take a foolproof recipe like S’Mores and make it better, it’s time to rejoice. Creator Alison Kave’s recipe features a tightly packed, buttery graham cracker crust which provides a crisp, crumbly and slightly salty shell for a layer of creamy Belgian Callebaut milk chocolate ganache crowned by sticky and pleasingly burnt homemade marshmallow fluff. It’s the dessert dreams are made of. Kave’s culinary prowess is no accident. Her brother is Corwin Kave, executive chef at Fatty Cue, and her mother is Rhonda “Roni-Sue” Kave, of Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, home to NYC Food Guy’s favorite bite at the Hester Street Fair: the red velvet truffle from Roni-Sue’s new Bake Sale collection. But enough about Mom. You need to go try her daughter’s S’Mores Pie which you can find at Hester Street Fair, Fatty Cue, Saturday at Roni-Sue’s Chocolates, Sunday at God Buns Market (next to Fatty Cue), or on the First Prize Pies website.
The headline says it all. Tallgrass Burger, a new burger joint in the old Elvie’s Turo Turo spot on 1st Avenue near 13th street, will open its doors to the East Village at some point today, likely mid-day. And for the next few weeks, Tallgrass is enticing diners with a special: Buy one burger, get the second 50% off. The menu will feature 6 grass fed beef burgers with meat sourced from New York and Vermont via Hardwick Beef. A turkey burger and two chicken sandwiches rounds out the menu along with salads and fries. Since the chicken sandwich is called “flame grilled,” NYC Food Guy is hoping the burgers will meet a similar fate. As of now, the restaurant will be open until 11PM nightly. We’ll see how wise that is with the East Village’s glaring need for a go-to late night, post bar burger spot. Where’s your favorite late night burger spot? Let us know in the comments section…
Tallgrass Burger 214 First Avenue New York, NY 10009 No Phone Yet
NYC Food Guy is proud to present another great recipe from Homecookin’ contributor Spice Jonze’n. If you’d like to contribute your recipes to the site e-mail [email protected]. Take it away Spice…
Sometimes we find inspiration from a random encounter in the streets of New York. After picking up some ipek, a dried version of the Turkish Maras pepper, at Essex Street Market in the Lower East Side, I stumbled upon SOS Chefs on Avenue B b/t 6th & 7th Street. I was immediately overwhelmed by the plethora of spices available but fortunately the helpful staff allowed me to smell anything I liked while they explained the origination and usages for each spice. I ended up walking out with cumin seeds, zataar, sumac, and fenugreek. And I knew exactly what I was going to make with them: roast chicken.
NYC Food Guy’s favorite thing about downtown Manhattan is the food, especially the cheap late night eats, which may be more satisfying than any other meal. For your viewing pleasure, I present my 4-stop cheap late night eats tour, from West Village to East Village, and everything is under $10. You’ll thank me later. Read on for the restaurant details…
It’s pretty cool being the first person to try a new drink. Thursday night at Fatty Cue, NYC Food Guy received this honor alongside Hagan the Wandering Foodie and Andy from Wined & Dined. Adam the bartender calls his $8, Thai-inspired pickle back “Tong Po,” a reference to the pony-tailed villain from the 1989 Jean-Claude Van Damme classic “Kickboxer.” And while you don’t have to coat your fist in broken glass before taking this shot, Adam’s custom made pickle juice is definitely a kick to your taste buds. First you take a shot of Mekhong, a dark Thai sugar cane spirit with a slightly smokey flavor. Then you follow it with the pickle juice giving yourself a nice kick of spice right in the back of the throat. If you actually taste it for a moment, before drowning it out with your can of Singha Thai beer, the pickle juice’s flavor is complex. Adam cooks Thai basil stems, honey, pineapple juice, vanilla bean, and assam (tamarind skin) to a simmer. Then he strains it all and purees the concoction with smoked long green Chiles, ginger, rice wine vinegar, and salt to taste. It all goes down a lot easier than you’d imagine and unlike a beating from the real Tong Po, it will have you calling for seconds. Read on to find out about Fatty Cue’s other pickle back shot and how you can get it for just $6…
NYC Food Guy always welcomes guest bloggers. Today we turn the spotlight on first time contributor, and Bronx native, Elmer The Great. E-mail [email protected] if you’d like to contribute!
Going back to a place you haven’t been in a long time is always interesting. Going back there sober for the first time in a long time is also interesting. Will my memories live up to the current reality? Is it as good as I remember?
When I was a kid pizza was simple. There were plenty of places in my neighborhood that had good slices. Walk up to the counter, pay a dollar (boy, I’m old) and get a fresh hot slice. Sadly, many owners left, places became chain restaurants, or the pizza just turned lousy. Finding a good slice is no longer a walk down the street, it’s a quest.
During high school a friend of mine from Throgs Neck introduced me to Tommy’s Pizza. It still has an old fashioned white sign on top, a neon sign reading “Calzones” in the window, swivel stools lining the counter next to the ovens, and a few tables in the back if you’re here to stay. But you’re not here for the ambiance, you’re here for the pizza.
Like a baseball scout keeping tabs on an up-and-coming prospect, I’ve become a fried food scout. I first read about St. Anselm’s Newark Double in August 2009 and I’ve been craving it ever since. Much more than just another New Jersey sandwich overstuffed with fried food, this bad boy features two deep fried, custom made Karl Ehmer hot dogs, cornmeal-dusted fried onion and red pepper and French fries double fried in beef tallow (beef fat) vegetable oil all inside pizza bread from nearby Napoli Bakery. The dogs are spicy and flecked with visible Chile flakes. The onion and pepper are paper-thin. And the fries, cooked in the fat that made McDonald’s fries so delicious before 1990, are perfectly crisp outside and creamy inside (Note: Upon the Newark Dog’s debut, the fries were cooked in beef fat but that was outlawed by New York City’s Trans Fat laws). It’s an intimidating sandwich. I spent a few minutes holding it and repositioning before abandoning any eating strategy and just diving in, onion, pepper and French fries falling like a fried food avalanche. The toasted pizza bread is appropriately hearty to support the weight of its filling whether dry or doused in one of St. Anselm’s three housemade sauces. Sweet and spicy mustard was my favorite over thin ketchup and a spicy, smokey ketchup-based BBQ sauce. Eaten in neighboring sister bar Spuyten Duyvil’s outdoor backyard, this sandwich is a beer-drinking man’s best friend. And as far as cementing my legacy as fried food scout, like David Wright or Derek Jeter, the Newark Double is the franchise player.
Ready for dessert? Read on for chocolate truffles…
For the last year or so, the New York City pizza conversation hasn’t strayed far from the same few places, justly showering praise on pizzerias like Motorino, Co, and Veloce. What eaters have missed, however, is that Gnocco has been serving consistently delicious pies for at least 10 years. Take the Tartufata pizza ($18.95), my personal favorite at Gnocco and arguably one of the top pies in the East Village. It satisfies all the requirements of the aforementioned pies, i.e., plate-sized, thin with blistered edges and high quality ingredients. But the Tartufata’s flavor goes above and beyond. Its base is a mixture of heavy cream, pungent black truffle sauce and grated low moisture mozzarella. Shreds of speck, a smokey prosciutto, crisp to perfection in the oven alongside caramelizing slices of delicate mushroom. A drizzle of truffle oil after cooking seals in the salty, earthy flavor which combines with the charred and blistered cornicione (end crust) to provide your taste buds with a decadent experience balanced only by the light, thin crust. And when eaten in Gnocco’s airy, rustic back garden, it’s easy to forget about all those other pizzas.
It’s not often you find a place that advertises “New York’s Best” on their awning and actually backs it up. Gem Spa, the 24-hour newspaper store on the corner of St. Mark’s Place and 2nd Ave. upholds their awning’s claim of serving “New York’s Best Egg Cream.” With the near extinction of old school coffee shops and lunch counters, Gem Spa’s weathered syrup pumps and brand-less seltzer spout help create a near perfect version of this classic New York soda shop drink of yesteryear. An egg cream is composed of three ingredients (and egg is not one of them): whole milk, seltzer and chocolate or vanilla syrup. The key, and this is where Gem Spa excels, is the creation of the sweet, foamy head crowning the drink. Methods for creating this vary, but one thing remains constant: a vigorous mixing of the core ingredients with a long silver spoon. Ray, at 24-hour Ray’s Candy Store, on Avenue A and 7th Street, employs a seltzer dispensed over the back of the spoon method prior to mixing. Gem Spa just goes for the post seltzer mix. Either way, it’s a simple, refreshing and super sweet drink that reminds us food does not have to be complex to be delicious.
July 9, 2010 
Posted in In The Meatball Shop's Kitchen with Chef & Co-Owner Daniel Holzman, NYC FOOD GUY VIDEO 
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