Mom's Brisket

The secret ingredient in my mother's brisket? The one that makes the meat melt, the gravy flow and the carrots chillax? Tin foil. Whatever secret sauce you use, the real trick is to keep a tight tin foil seal on the pan. You want every delicious droplet of juice from those meat and carrots to stay put. As they get steamy with your sauce the meal becomes savory and tender. The goal is a meal succulent enough to quiet a family dinner table, for once saving you from having to rapidly change the subject.

Two weeks without take out.

An accomplishment rare enough to brag about. Best meal of the week – rice noodles with steak and spinach. Most frequent meal: Ham cheese and tabasco sandwich. Seriously.

Writer Musings: Julie and Julia

My friends said I should go see it. My mom thought I'd like it. But when my therapist said Julie Powell reminded him of me, it was time to go see Julie and Julia. I loved this movie. I pretty much pranced out of the theatre. I was so inspired I came home to write this over a piece of cold hawaiinan chicken pizza. Yum.

Cept it's like ten pm and I'm tired. And, Julie, Nora, you ladies can write. Now mom is full of advice on what is worth writing about and what makes a blog timeless (not joking, enjoy the irony) and I'm still figuring out my voice as a writer. The notion of whipping a sauce “into submission” is funny whether or not you cook or even like food. Good writing is good writing. And as much as I love food, good writing is my bread and butter. So dear reader, I am left with a confession: this blog is only superficially about food. It's about nourishment, identity, experimentation; It's about what I can bring to the table.

"Food Dork Megaplex"

His words, not mine. Opening next month in williamsburg!

http://brooklynbased.net/everything/ask-the-butcher-ii-mr-cutlets-the-meat-hook-and-mayhem/

S'mac!

S'mac is an East Village restaurant that serves nothing but macaroni and cheese. If you think this sounds fantastic, you're totally right. Thursday I had the good fortune to take a class with owners Sarita and Cesar.

The not so secret secret to mac and cheese? Bechamel. See, my mom always just dumped a pound of cheese and a quart of milk into a pound of pasta and that was perfection. But as I learned, bechamel is how the pro's get started.

Here's what I learned to do:

Melt but don't brown butter and slowly stir in flour. Keep the heat low as you slowly stir in hot milk (160 or higher). Once it the sauce starts to thicken you can turn up the heat to medium. Stir till it gets creamy, then turn off the heat and go prep the rest of your ingredients.

We made three of their recipes: Masala, Mediteranean and Cajun, each delicious. With each one, they explained the different combinations of cheeses very nicely – cheddar gives the most classic taste, muenster adds creamy texture without overpowering other flavors, american cheese is makes it soupy (if you like that sort of thing) and parmesean has a tendency to burn and only works in a few instances.

Essentially, if you make a good bechamel, you can add whatever cheeses you favor and come out with something delicious. Their recipes are optimized for mass appeal, because they've discovered that New Yorkers have STRONG opinions when it comes to their mac and cheese.

Both Sarita and Cesar are engineers turned restaurant owners. They're both relaxed and welcoming; the class felt a lot like sitting around a cozy kitchen with close friends. Bonus points to Whole Foods Bowery Culinary Center – the intimate set up added a lot, and I would definitely return for another class.

PS – keep your eyes peeled for a S'MAC book in the future!

Best eats this week - Labor Day

Tanti Bacci: Very very delicious homemade spinach linguine. I enjoyed it with the vodka sauce. Also, I heart that they simply will not serve their homemade pasta with oil based sauces (like the clam sauce) because it ruins the pasta’s texture. You may order any pasta/sauce combination that you like, but the server will tell you when you are wrong.

The worst: PD O’Hurleys. The view is pretty but the burger is exactly what you’d expect at a tourist trap. And $26 for a pitcher of Bud Light is retarded.