Jen and Steve's food adventures

Stuffed artichoke

I had mentioned to the astonishment of the readers here that I had never had artichokes. So a couple of weeks ago Jen and I went to Three of Cups in the East Village Now I'd never had artichokes before, so I didn't know what to expect. No idea.

So when I ate the first one, it was interesting. The deeper we went, the better it tasted.Which was a surprise.The inside leaves are pretty tender. Jen, who had picked up a cooking brick for me on the way to dinner, had been at art galleries all day and had a liquid lunch. Now, there is something about eating artichokes with the tipsy which makes it a unique experience.

We also had stuffed clams, a pizza and a calzone, with chianti.

Then we went to d.b.a where we ran into a friend of hers. While I was sipping Anchor Steam porter on tap, my favorite beer, on tap, I spied a couple working on a Powerbook, which was fine. But they were drinking Amstel Light. Fucking Amstel Light. Huh? d.b.a sells cask conditioned ales, 40 kinds of single malt, and 20 beers on tap. And you drink what? Amstel Light. You can't hit people for being stupid, but they derserved a harsh lecture on what is appropiate behavior. Amstel Light. Jesus.

The next weekend, we went to the Beer Garden in Astoria on the oddest day of the year. It alternated between rain, wind and sunshine.We were with our blogger friends and eating central European food and drinking during this odd weather. Grilled Kielbasa is amazing. Jen had roast pork and dumplings. Good, hearty food.

Afterwards, Jen walked us to this greek mall a block away. She showed us the butcher and bakery. I bought some souvlaki she had mentioned as a possible barbecue treat and was impressed when I cooked it. The bakery had 10 kinds of biscotti and Greek pastries.

Now, Jen's enthusiasm for sharing is infectious, so she was eager to share her neighborhood treats with our friends. Which is of course, interesting. Of course, she realized that she didn't do her own grocery shopping, nor had I, so we left early.

The funny thing is that food adventuring can happen any place or any time.

I was running errands today and walked into a street fair. I saw this incredible barbecue thing with flank steaks being grilled. I passed on that, but I did get the zeppoles. Zeppoles are basically fried pizza dough covered in powerdered sugar, a New York street favorite. Now, truth be told, most street fair food sucks. Grilled Corn, zeppoles and the odd sausage sandwich are about it, even the lemonade isn't sweet enough.

But they're a nice way to spend a holiday afternoon.

posted by Steve @ 6:23:00 PM