I remember sitting down with bread genius Jim Lahey the very first week his cult NYC pizza place, Co., opened, and having him tell me that he dreamed of projecting movies on the big, blank back wall of the restaurant. The fantasy finally becomes a reality tonight. Lahey and the Co. team kick off the first of what will be monthly movie screenings of pie-inspired flicks. Tonight’s inaugural show will be Les Blank’s Garlic is as Good as Ten Mothers, and Lahey is making a special garlicky pie to serve at the screening. The movie will be played silently during the start of dinner service and then will be shown with sound at 9:30 p.m.
 

We're just days away from the NBC food-truck event on Monday, February 8—a launch for both NBC's soon-to-launch food website, Feast, and the South Beach Wine & Food Festival (SOBE). And it features not one chef (like last year, when the spotlight was on David Chang) but four superstars, including Michael White, Paul Liebrandt, Daniel Boulud and Alain Ducasse. They'll serve food from trucks in four different locations all around New York City. Of course, we can't give those locations (NBC has a contest in place to score "golden tickets") but word is that they'll range from midtown to Soho with two spots in between. All starting at 10 am.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first time I tasted kombucha, a bubbly fermented tea, I found the vinegary tang so revolting that I didn’t try it again for over a year. Then, at the office, I did a kombucha taste test—the tang grew on me and after five consecutive shots, I felt pleasantly jittery and ready to conquer the world (or at least my unread e-mails). Bottles of kombucha, sadly, are expensive, so I was reluctant to buy it all the time. Last week, I took a class at The Brooklyn Kitchen to learn to brew the buzz-giving drink at home. My teacher was Eric Childs, the founder of Kombucha Brooklyn, who is so devoted to what he calls "buch" that he had a leather bracelet made that says KombuchaMan. Here are five things I learned:

-    The culture used to ferment kombucha is not a mushroom as is sometimes believed. It’s called a SCOBY (symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast)—a name so cute I can see why people get attached to something that looks scarily like a jellyfish.   

-    The SCOBY can help heal wounds on contact. It also softens skin—kombucha facial anyone?

-    The SCOBY is so strong, it’s nearly impossible to tear with your hands. Childs joked that someday, he’d love to make vegan leather out of it.

-    The “kombucha buzz,” Childs says, is very real. He attributes it to the little bit of caffeine, alcohol and sugar left in the drink after fermentation.

-    After years of testing, Childs says it’s easiest to make kombucha with basic black tea and white sugar. I’m inclined to believe him and I’ll be trying out my first batch this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a tribute to J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, who passed away this week, my colleague Kristin Donnelly and I raised a glass to him last night at Rye House, a new cocktail bar in New York City’s Flatiron District. We especially liked the citrusy but not too sweet Rye House Punch (made with chai-infused Rittenhouse Rye, Batavia Arrack, lemon, grapefruit and Angostura bitters, pictured) as well as the flaky pork belly and smoked Gouda-filled empanadas.

Here, a few rye-based cocktails to toast the author’s life and literary works:
Carra-Ryed Away
Manhattan
Silver Lining

As Julia Moskin reports in this week’s New York Times Dining section, many yoga traditionalists are not pleased with all the eating and drinking now happening at yoga studios around the country. While austerity is at the core of many traditional yoga practices, personally I’m hungry after a 90-minute Bikram yoga session in a 110 degree room (even if it smells like stinky, sweaty feet).

Here, some fantastic recipes from my favorite chef-yogi (and an F&W Best New Chef 2009), Jeremy Fox from Napa Valley’s Ubuntu restaurant and yoga studio:

Carrot Macaroni and Cheese (pictured)
Lemony Quinoa Salad with Shaved Vegetables
Broccoli à la Catalan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If Philadelphia’s Green Aisle Grocery is for food-loving, eco-conscious yuppies, the new Brooklyn Kitchen is for food-loving pioneer wannabes. Sure, it sells groceries like locally sourced meat that's cut and sometimes cured by rock-star butcher Tom Mylan. But with two classrooms in this huge warehouse space, the philosophy clearly is, why buy what you can make? Last week I took a kombucha class (more details to follow tomorrow). There are beer-brewing classes too, as well as support groups for home brewers (that's how hot home-brewing is right now). Mylan and his meat-cutting cohorts teach classes in butchering as well as sausage-making. And with the shortage of Angostura bitters, you can take a class on how to make your own. The classes aren’t only a great source of revenue, they’re a brilliant way to get people to the new digs, on a rather desolate stretch under the BQE (Brooklyn-Queeens Expressway). And like a theme park ride that spins you out right into the gift shop, Brooklyn Kitchen conveniently sells all the supplies a just-trained DIY-er will need, like fresh hops for making beer.

The morning after a recent menu tasting at Brooklyn, New York’s Zenkichi restaurant, I woke up with a belly full of shirako cod milt (a.k.a. cod sperm) and no regrets. Available only in winter months, shirako is considered a delicacy in Japan and can be eaten raw or cooked.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t initially freaked out when a small bowl of glistening shirako sashimi (pictured, left) was placed in front of me, but I resolved not to be so squeamish when I saw two brawny guys, both former college football players, dig in without hesitation. Topped with thinly sliced scallions and a drizzle of ponzu sauce, the sashimi was slightly sweet and vaguely briny with a smooth custard-like texture that resembled brains.

Then the waiters brought out delicious, lacy clusters of a tempura combining creamy cod milt and crispy green chrysanthemum leaves, topped with a sprinkle of green-tea salt (pictured, below).

Now I’m thinking about going back to Zenkichi for more shirako before the season ends–and I might even bring a friend with me.

 

Not every night can be ravioli or chicken cutlet night if you’re Mike “The Situation” from MTV’s Jersey Shore. “If you want to look somewhat like The Situation, which is definitely going to be pretty hard, you need to get that protein in your diet,” he says, pointing to his ripped abs. Along with “hittin’ the gym,” here are some lean, protein-rich recipes to help you “look like Rambo with his shirt off.”
Korean Sizzling Beef (pictured)
Mango-Glazed Turkey Breast
Tofu with Spicy Meat Sauce

Find more of the Best Healthy Recipes Ever here.

In February, New York City will get Jean-Georges Vongerichten's take on farm-to-table cuisine at ABC Kitchen, a roughly 150-seat café inside ABC Carpet & Home that will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and fresh juices at a juice bar. Vongerichten is working with ABC CEO Paulette Cole on the design, sourcing as locally as possible; that includes plates from Bella Porcelain, made by Cole's childhood friend Jan Burtz. (There are a few exceptions: The bar is made out of a church altar from Mexico.) The menu is still in progress, but Vongerichten would like to source all ingredients from within 100 miles of the store. Dishes will be dead simple, Vongerichten promises—mostly ones he makes for his own family. "We want to do what Alice Waters did in the 1970s," he says. "Handwritten menus, changing daily, seasonal food." Chef de cuisine Dan Kluger won't churn his own butter, but he will make his own yogurt: They had a test batch in the oven when I stopped by yesterday. Pictures after the jump.

 

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One of these things is not like the others: sports hero, fashion icon, glitterati mainstay, culinary student.

David Beckham, one of the world’s most recognizable athletes, seems increasingly set on mastering all things gastronomic. Since launching his healthy food line from GO3 back in 2008, Beckham has shuttled between Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy and AC Milan, and it seems his most recent spell in Milan has inspired Beckham to enroll in a 120-hour cooking class concentrating on the finer points of Italian cuisine (as Eater reported yesterday from The Daily Mirror). While Beckham already mastered fresh pasta, ragù and carbonara, he has stated that the ever-tricky risotto looms. To help him avoid embarrassment in the kitchen classroom, we suggest a recipe from a pro: a version of the classic Milanese Risotto from F&W's Grace Parisi.