Friday, July 6, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
The Tomahawk Chops
It's no secret that I don't have a grill. There's not even a courtyard in my building I could use. So when I get the opportunity to jump over to someone else's joint and use theirs, I definitely hop to it. My now former boss had a housewarming/going away party (it's complicated) this weekend. To see him off I got a pair of tomahawk chops for the grill.
The grill I had to work with. It was fantastic. There you can see the chops front and centre, with some Argentine-marinated skirt steaks to the left, pork sausage behind, and roasting corn on top.
These are the wonderful chops. They are HUGE. This was a little over four pounds of meat, rubbed down with olive oil, and then sprinkled liberally with salt and pepper. When I want great meat of all kinds I hit up the International Meat Market in Astoria. My friend Sal always jokes that this is actually a bar down the street whenever I say I shopped at the meat market. The butcher who cut and frenched these chops was nothing if not an artist of the highest caliber.
The final product.
Sunday, July 1, 2012
The Food in Italy, It is Bad
As alluded to in an earlier post (it's the one with clams), I recently traveled to Italy thanks to the Thrifty Sifter and her parents. Honestly, the food was generally so good that we didn't stop to take photographs most of the time. However, I wanted to share a few snapshots with you.
Most of our time was spent in Tuscany, however we took a side trip to Ferrara to visit childhood friends. I lived there for three years when I was a kid and the bread above is one of my fondest memories. Coppia is the characteristic bread of Ferrara, with not too strong a flavour and an incredibly interesting shape reminiscent of crabs.
Our base of operations was in a villa in Gaiole in Chianti. The first night we were there the housekeeper prepared dinner for us. Above are some pears in a balsamic reduction with a local cheese.
This are spinach and cheese stuffed ravioli cooked in butter and fresh sage.
The housekeeper called this turkey, but I'm 99% sure it's actually pheasant since it didn't quite taste like turkey and pheasants were running around the fields. It's stuffed with eggs and herbs, then roasted.
Here I am enjoying the pears, water, and a homemade chianti with the Sifters.
Our menu for the first evening with a local table wine.
Some chianti classico we had in Siena. There are some minor differences between chianti classico and chianti.
With some local bread. Personally I found a lot of the Tuscan bread to be tasty, but somewhat bland. This is, from what I hear, on purpose so that you can add flavour with olive oil or making a bruschetta. If anyone cares to enlighten me further, please do!
Your soundtrack for this entry: Furykane - STFU.
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