The New York Times seems to think so. Indeed, many grocery stores in urban areas are closing up shop, and all that's left is a big open lot and a smattering of mom and pop convenience stores left in their wake. But despite the name, convenience stores aren't always, well, that convenient, especially when you're in need of fresh fruit and veggies, low-fat snacks and fresh poultry or seafood.
A study by New York's Department of City Planning estimated that over 750,000 New Yorkers live five blocks or more from a supermarket. And when that's the case, most people opt to drive or cab it to the store, especially if they have lots of shopping to do or little ones in tow. And at the end of a long work day, many people just don't have the energy - or the time - to stroll down to the grocery. (The study also found that there is enough need for 100 additional supermarkets across the city).
So what's a hungry person to do? Most people simply go without fresh produce and other things that are carried by larger supermarkets. Others are currently shopping at a store, but worry about it closing, because the only other option is miles away.
What about you? Did you or someone you know ever have trouble getting to a decent grocery store, especially if you live in a populated urban area?
If you're a bargoer, you know the feeling. At 1:30 every morning, the bartender bellows, "LAST CALL!" and a collective groan erupts from the hangers-on, as they order their last round. The lights go up, and everyone stumbles out.
In New York, it's different. Most bars don't close until 4 a.m., dragging the ruckus and partying late into the night. Turns out, not everyone is a fan of the late-night revelry.
Brad Linder, journalist and writer for sister site Green Daily, recently reported on this issue for NPR. He spoke to one woman who lives in the NOHO district and is a member of a community board that's trying to get liquor-licensed establishments to close at 2 instead of 4.
Community boards like hers now have so much pull that many bars and restaurants must ask permission before staying open 'til 4, like teenagers asking to extend their curfew.
I'm sure we'd all rather not experience loud arguments and car alarms at 4 a.m. But at some point, isn't the noise and general hubbub part and parcel of living in a trendy NYC neighborhood? If you don't like the scene, shouldn't you just...move somewhere else?
How an embarrassing encounter with Moroccan turmeric and neroli oil rekindled one man's love of baking, especially if it's this Glazed Orange Flower Madeline Cake.
Despite salmonella freak-outs, some bars still serve cocktails with raw eggs
For many Chatham fishermen, cod are just out of reach
Frank Bruni shares his experiences with a frustrating new NYC online restaurant reservation system (and then writes about it again, and again)
Want your own vineyard? This company will help you find it
When I go into a fast food place such as McDonald's, Burger King, or Wendy's (which I think I've done maybe 3 times in the past 3 years), I know beforehand that I have made a decision to eat badly that day. I don't care if these places have "salads" or "low-fat foods," it's still fast food to me, and I don't need anyone to tell me what I'm about to eat probably has a lot of fat and calories.
Having said that, I see no real problem with New York City restaurants having to show calorie info where customers can see it. The law took effect earlier this week. Some of the fast food companies argued that it "violated their First Amendment rights," which I still don't understand. Some places are putting the info in areas where they're not immediately accessible to customers, while other places, like Subway, have the info upfront.
Fines will start being issued October 1 for restaurants that violate the law.
Gothamist Robyn (who also writes her own blog The Girl Who Ate Everything) reports on a medium rare burger on a grilled, salt-sprinkled brioche bun that made her feel like she "might explode from the intense meat density of the juicy, but not overly so, patty." If you need photographic evidence of the meat intensity, click through and take a peek at her close-up shots of the burger.
And if you have a good tip about a burger this month, let us know!
Every year, Eleni's NYC cookie bakery puts out a series of Hollywood-themed cookies in honor of the Academy Awards. This year, for the 79th annual Oscars, Eleni's is offering four different sets of their signature cookies:
Famous Hollywood Quotes - ($45)includes 9 sugar cookies with one director's slate, three Hollywood stars and five famous quotes: "Show me the money", "I see dead people", "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn", "Life is like a box of chocolates" and "Supercalifrajalisticexpialidocious"
Best Actor– ($58.50) 16 cookies include 3 each of Leonardo DiCaprio, Ryan Gosling, Peter O'Toole, Will Smith and Forest Whitaker and one sealed envelope cookie
Best Actress – ($58.50) 16 cookies include 3 each of Penelope Cruz, Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet, and another
Best Picture – ($65) includes 18 cookies decorated with signature items from Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen.
The cookies are hand-iced and have a remarkable amount of detail on each - to the point where it is almost difficult to eat them. Almost, of course, because once you bite into one and realize how tasty they are, you won't feel quite as bad about indulging in a few bites of the best picture nominee or your favorite "best actor" candidate.
My three year old is in a cooking class learning to make artisanal breads.
Well, my two year old will only eat raw milk cheeses that have been smuggled into the country by our friends traveling abroad.
Oh yeah? My 7 month old will only eat sushi, foie gras and foods prepared by Ferran Adria.
It looks like having kids with gourmet palates is the newest status symbol for the "urban sophisticate." They want their kids to appreciate the finer things in life as soon as possible, so members of this food-forward group of parents - foodies, chowhounds and gourmets all - try to expose their kids to as many different foods as they can. They enroll them in kids-only cooking classes so that they can get some hands-on experience and take them to fine dining restaurants - many of which now offer smaller kid-sized portions - as well as cooking dishes from around the world at home.
Those outside of this adventurous eater movement are less enthralled with it than the parents of the children are, even if the "outsiders" are parents themselves. Not only do they feel that there is no reason to push so much so soon (even adults like mac and cheese!), but some foods like medium rare burgers and sushi seem like they might be opening children to heath risks. The biggest concern arises with restaurants, where many patrons feel that the experience is lessened when they have to sit next to a cranky child. Restaurateurs and chefs, on the other hand, don't seem to mind quite as much. "Eric Ripert, the chef at Le Bernardin, Zagat's highest-rated restaurant in New York, thinks his dress code helps keep children in line. 'They have a tie, so they are almost strangled already,' he said. 'They don't move much.'"
It's official. New York City has become the first in the nation to ban the use trans-fats at restaurants. The members of the Board of Health voted unanimously for the ban and heath advocates are already applauding the decision. Restaurants will have until July 2007 to switch to trans-fat free frying oils - meaning that all french fries in the city, as well as other fried foods will have to be trans-fat free by that time - and will have until July 2008 to remove all trans-fats from their food.
Trans-fats, which have been called "chemical abominations" by some health officials, are known to raise bad cholesterol and lower good cholesterol, changes which can contribute to an increased risk of heart disease. According to FDA estimates, "the average American eats 4.7 pounds of trans fats each year" in spite of the reductions that food processors have made with their use. They are favored in the restaurant and food processing industries because they are easy to work with, have a long shelf life and can increase the shelf life of foods that use them.
New York's Board of Health is getting a lot of attention for their proposed ban on trans fats at restaurants in the city, but there is another proposal on the table that could have an even bigger impact on the dining community in NYC. The Board of Health is considering requiring some restaurants - beginning with chains and fast food establishments - to list the caloric content of their menu items on the menu. Not only that, but the calorie count must be "in type that is as large 'as the name or price of the item.'"
The NY Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is "intent on creating the nation's most rigorous system of calorie disclosure in restaurants" - which has restaurant owners worried about what they're going to serve. Chefs already admit that calories and fat aren't exactly major considerations when they are planning menus and restaurant owners are concerned that their offerings will have to change to such a degree that people won't want to eat out anymore. But the smaller eateries don't have to worry just yet because the rules will only apply to "restaurants with highly standardized menu items" that "already make their caloric content available on the Internet, in brochures or in some other format."
They went to New York first, but this week, the inspectors for the Michelin Guide made their designations around the San Francisco Bay area. 356 restaurants were listed. 23 received one star (*), four received two stars (**), and only one restaurant received the coveted three star rating (***): Thomas Keller's The French Laundry in Yountville (Napa Valley).
It's not totally surprising, as Keller also received three stars for his restaurant Per Se in New York. However, some folks, like Paul Franson, a wine country writer and author of the weekly Napa Life newsletter, were surprised that more restaurants didn't receive the highest rating.
If you are planning to run the New York City Marathon in November, then you might want to take a look at an article in Runner's World that asked several "celebrity" chefs who will actually be running, to create menus related to the race. The chefs are Hell's Kitchen star Gordon Ramsay, Patricia Wells, John Fraser, and Bobby Flay. Each chef has contributed recipes that have the proper balance of carbohydrates, protein, and fat for pre- and post-race meals, as well as recipes for "celebratory" dishes like Coffee & Chocolate Mousse Cups for dessert. Personally, I love that Baked Macaroni and Cheese is a celebratory meal!
Fried chicken. Funnel cakes. Doughnuts. If you ever thought deep-fried foods could never be sexy, think again. This is a picture of fish and chips as taken by The Girl Who Ate Everything. She is currently making her way through various parts of Europe on vacation, but these fish and chips are from Chip Shop in New York (obviously - I can't imagine they'd serve fish and chips with Ranch dressing in England). What can I say? It's not just food porn, this baby is sexy. Maybe it's the lighting. Maybe it's the way the French fries (chips) are tumbling all over each other. Maybe it's the naughty pose of the deep-fried fish on the edge of the plate.
Newspapers and magazines are slowly jumping onto the blogging bandwagon, and food is definitely a hot topic. We've seen food blogs now on major food websites like Epi-Log, the editor's blog on epicurious, critics' blogs like Michael Bauer's Between Meals at the San Francisco Chronicle and Frank Bruni's Diner's Journal at the New York Times. Now New York Magazine has a blog called Grub Street, which launched today. They have several writers, and wouldn't you know it, one of our own feature writers, Josh Ozersky, is the editor!
Last week, we got to know our very own Josh Ozersky through A Hamburger Today's interview series called "Grilled." This week, the burger boys have gotten a few words from New York Times dining critic Frank Bruni. He may be the dining critic, but it can't be about sushi on the sly and Joel Robuchon all the time. Sometimes a man just needs to eat a good burger (though Bruni does say that the second to last burger he ate was a pair of tiny beef and fois gras burgers at L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon. Some choice quotes from the interview:
On which is his favorite fast food burger: "the Hardee's Thickburger"
"the Peter Luger burger, served only at lunch, didn't do it for me"
On avocado as a topping: "I don't want it crowding my wondrous, gorgeous, sexy burger."
Snacks are fine, but you don't have to be a food snob to be above getting your meals from a vending machine.
When we heard that Bamn!, an automat in New York, was opening, we gave it a mention just like so many other food-loving writers did. Was it the food of the future? As it turns out, it was the food of the past: a machine that was futuristic in the 1940's, stocked with food that is just plain "gross."
The New York Post hated it and judging by their (hilarious) review, it's a wonder that anyone can stomach the food there at all. The offerings, which include peanut-butter-and-jelly empanadas (sound suspiciously like Uncrustables gone horribly, horribly wrong) and Chicken "teriburgers," are "possibly the worst foodstuffs ever offered for human consumption outside a famine zone." Steve Cuozzo noted that he saw more people taking pictures than eating the food. Clearly they had already heard about the food.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
The New York Times seems to think so. Indeed, many grocery stores in urban areas are closing up shop, and all that's left is a big open lot and a smattering of mom and pop convenience stores left in their wake. But despite the name, convenience stores aren't always, well, that convenient, especially when you're in need of fresh fruit and veggies, low-fat snacks and fresh poultry or seafood. 
My three year old is in a cooking class learning to make artisanal breads.
It's official. New York City has become the first in the nation to 
New York's Board of Health is getting a lot of attention for their 
They went to New York first, but this week, the inspectors for the Michelin Guide made their designations around the San Francisco Bay area. 356 restaurants were listed. 23 received one star (*), four received two stars (**), and 
If you are planning to run the New York City Marathon in November, then you might want to take a look at an article in Runner's World that asked several "celebrity" chefs who will actually be running, to 
Newspapers and magazines are slowly 
Last week, we got to know our very own Josh Ozersky through A Hamburger Today's interview series called "Grilled." This week, the burger boys have gotten 
Snacks are fine, but you don't have to be a food snob to be above getting your meals from a vending machine.
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
