The Lunch Break Chronicles

5/21/2009

1. According to Barcelona Wine Bar’s twitter feed, they are set to open next Thursday. I walked by today and didn’t see much activity, but I understand they are more or less ready to go.

2. Mary Ann’s Mexican restaurant is open, though I’m still a little skeptical, but that is probably just West-Coast bias.

3. I did make it to Bufalo Wild Wings. To paraphrase reporter Jeff Morganteen’s assessment: if you have “wings” in your name, they better be the best in town. They are not.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the poor beer selection, with Bass ale being the most exotic offering on tap.

KEEP AN EYE OUT: Morganteen promises an upcoming guest-post regarding the state of Buffalo wings in the City of Stamford.

–CP

5/17/2009

Check out Stamford Talk for a post about Ruth Reichl, the editor of Gourmet and former chief restaurant critic for the New York Times, speaking at an annual Darien Community Association event on Thursday.

I caught her lecture at the Columbia J-School earlier this year and she had some interesting things to say about her experiences in both the worlds of food and journalism.

ACCORDING TO HER TWITTER FEED: [@ruthreichl], she has no idea who is going to replace the Times’ Frank Bruni, who annoucned that he will be stepping down last week, adding nothing to the rampant and uninformed speculation on the Internet.

–CP

ABOVE: A sausage and cherry pepper pie at Colony Grill.

5/17/2009

The guys at the Stamford Pizza Tour blog seem to take pizza pretty seriously, so I was shocked [shocked, I tell you!] to find out that after they reviewed twenty-odd pizzerias in Stamford, Colony Grill was not among those chosen.

I assumed this transgression was intentional, but couldn’t figure out why. The Pizza Tour guys admit to being berated by The Colony’s “rabid, obnoxious fans,” so it’s not like they didn’t know the place existed. My best guess was that after reviewing the crispy, wafer-thin, hot-oil dripping Colony pie, the contest would be over. The fat lady sings. End of story.

Suffice it to say, I’d been eagerly awaiting their verdict, but when it dropped last week, I was stunned.

Not only – according to these anonymous posters – is Colony not the best in town, it doesn’t even break the top ten. There must be some mistake. An error in the math. A judge with anemic taste buds.

Something is off.

Granted, their review isn’t all that bad, they did actually like the pizza. And yeah, the place is a dive. Yeah, service is not their selling point. Yeah, every time I eat a hot-oil pie, I wake up at 5 a.m. with raging heart-burn.

I’ll be the first to admit, Colony is not my absolute favorite pizzeria in the country. But we are talking Stamford here and for their top pick thus far, Remo’s Brick Oven Pizza*, to be rated the highest in Stamford seems odd.

I guess what I’m saying is, this really must be put into greater context.

Colony serves a highly unique pie and there is something to be said for that. Remo’s, on the other hand, is fine except it portrays itself at New Haven-style pizza and if you are going to make that claim and be within 40 miles of Wooster Square, your pie better be spectacular. Remo’s pizza is very good, but it rates nowhere near its New Haven brethren. [The same could be said about a lot of other places in town that serve up a New York style pie]

Whatever the outcome, I appreciate a healthy Stamford pizza debate. Keep it up guys.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: The LBC on Colony [10/16/2008]

*I’m basing this off of the numerical value given to the pie itself, ignoring the other scores.

5/16/2009

As previously noted on the LBC, I really wish I could have attended a food forum in Hartford this week featuring none other than foodie goddess Alice Waters, Anthony Bourdain [insert leather jacket/cocaine reference here] and Duff Goldman, of Ace of Cakes fame.

Unfortunately, the event was sold out and they were even selling tickets to a simulcast to meet demand [no thank you].

GOOD NEWS: Michelle Mettler at Eat Me Daily has some first-hand coverage on their blog: here.

She writes, “Bourdain made a point to say that he eats for pleasure, that as a chef he’s in the business of pleasure — not local or organic — he doesn’t care where the tomato comes from, as long as it tastes good.”

Bourdain says this in the face of an ever-growing tide of militant locavores, but he’s right: let’s not go crazy here. And then he dropped a reference to one of my favorite food blogs, This is Why You’re Fat.com.

You gotta love that guy.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: In local news, StamfordTalk has an item about an empanada class at Barcelona in Greenwich.

I talked to the owner today and he says the Stamford restaurant on Summer Street [Zinc's former location] is coming very soon, just awaiting final inspections and licenses from the City That Works.

5/15/2009

The Advocate’s Mike Juliano is reporting on the closure of Houlihan’s on Broad St. The space below Target, which took what felt like years to fill and then to build out, will once again be empty after just six-months in business.

I walk by frequently and hardly ever see any one inside, so this doesn’t really surprise me.

–CP

5/10/2009

Epicurious.com recently launched a new iPhone app a couple of weeks ago allowing users to search recipes, download shopping lists, read reviews, etc.

READ ABOUT IT: HERE

Access to 25,000 searchable recipes right on my phone will probably cut down on the long-distance calls I make to my mom from the supermarket trying to figure out what goes in whatever I’m trying to make that night.

If tens of thousands of recipes sounds a little overwhelming, here’s a start: this cake is totally awesome.

–CP

POST SCRIPT: This tip actually comes from my mom, who is either trying to tell me to stop calling her or is enthusiastically sharing a tech tip. Or both.

Happy mother’s day.

ABOVE: Don Julio añejo tequila, available locally [$50-ish for 750ml.]

5/5/2009

I can recall, with a great degree of clarity, being chastised during my Public Speaking for Mexican Americans class in college for not knowing that Cinco de Mayo had nothing to do with Mexican independence day.

Having bombed my oral communications class the previous semester by way of absenteeism, I needed to fill this graduation requirement and because of a scheduling conflict, twice a week I found myself [the whitest white guy ever] in a room brimming with Chicano Pride. It was a great experience [¡Viva la raza!].

Anyway, if you are going to insensitively reduce this holiday into a food/drink related blog post, I guess you have to talk about tequila. In the past I’d steer clear, except when a certain co-worker is tending bar at Jimmy’s, at which point it becomes totally unavoidable.

Recently and to my surprise, I’ve come to appreciate Don Julio’s añejo offerings for their downright pleasantness, making these superior leisurely sipping tequilas.

I know next to nothing about how tequila is made except that I’ve seen a picture of an agave plant before. I can say, however, the big difference with añejo is that, as the name suggests, it’s aged in wooden casks [in this case white oak], which mellows out the flavor and adds the darker, caramel color.

This I like.

–CP

THE LBC’S CINCO DE MAYO RECIPE:

1. Pour two-fingers of the añejo tequila of your choosing.

2. Add ice [or not].

3. Drink.

5/3/2009

In light of the current economic…ah…malaise, NPR’s Food podcast has been running a feature where chefs present recipes for under $10.

I suppose this isn’t really a revolutionary idea, but I was excited to hear my favorite crazy Spaniard, José Andrés, proposing a family favorite, a Moorish-style chickpea and spinach stew, in last week’s installment.

Having only been to one of his restaurants, I do not speak as an authority but I’m pretty sure you aren’t going to find anything under $10 on the menu at any of them. But I guess that is the point of cooking at home.

–CP