#edwardskitchen

Edward's Restaurant Review #4

Us New Yorkers know: This city has a history of pizza.  Well known for its Italian districts, New York provides a home for purveyors in both pizza and pasta from around the globe. It is not uncommon to see a busy businessman or woman chowing down on a slice or two on their paid lunch breaks, or pizza cars and bicyclists manuerving past pedestrians to ensure deliveries arrive on time. Today we’re gonna “have a slice” Big Apple style on ERR, so join us won’t you? Seamless and GrubHub are now one in the same, teaming up to guarantee only the best possible web-to-door food delivery.

With just a few short clicks and I had ordered a large pineapple pizza, peppers, sausage, and cheese calzone, and a specialty soda from none other than Rocco PIzza located in the heart of Brooklyn neighborhood Bed Stuy.

Pizza is traditionally a round thrown dough, coated with shredded cheese and pizza sauce, each pizza restaurant closely guarding their secret recipe, oftentimes passed down from generations.  Calzone is a French term for Stromboli.  They arrived within the 30-45 min window.

If youre like me, you unflap the hot cardboard box as soon as you close the door, expecting to see not only that bubbling-hot pie, but also those 2 classic sauce containers under the lid.  We're of course talking about ranch and garlic.  With Rocco's Pizza--dont bother.  You will not find a single sauce to come with any pizza! (Checking back now with their menu it seems as though we must not only go out of our way to request these sauces, but also pay extra.  Looks like they only have those packets of Ken’s Steakhouse ranch, which is a subpar ranch dressing—Ken’s Steakhouse is well known for their visscous dressings that come in those phone-sized packets and most people get away with highway robbery charging the consumer upways of a dollar for something that should be as free as ketchup.  They also coagulate (like blood!) way too fast.   Ken’s Steakhouse and Newman’s Own both make a sorry excuse for ranch dressing. Stick to your Hidden Valley’s and store brands.  Wishbone is also problematic.)

Despite this flaw I kept my chin up and dug into the pie.  Pineapple is a must-try for the causal pizza goer.  With Rocco’s the flavors were there--that tangy red sauce, the hard yet soft crust, the white mozarella cheese- but the topping could use improvement.  These pineapple hunks, while plentiful, I will give them that, were just sitting on top the pie, not among the ingredients as they should be.  (Probably just threw pineapples on some cheese pizza they already had laying around.  The pineapples were definitley from the can, unmistakeable cut by machine not mankind.  They looked like little yellow trapezoids-  Despite this, despite everything, Rocco’s makes a tasty enough slice.)

I turned to the soda, a root beer.  Never had this one before--the company is Stewart’s. Pretty good.

Lastely I tried the calzone.  Pretty good. This one came with a side of sauce.  Looked really fascinating inside.  This one was a better deal than the pizza (5 bucks).  Hot or cold, tastes the same.  Delicious.

Thanks for reading along on the Review.

OVERALL SCORE: 6.8 / 10

Rocco Pizza, 765 DeKalb Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11216

Special thanks to Seamless, GrubHub, Shazam, Pandora.  Thanks to "Middle Class Rut"  "Wigger Mom" and "Pitbull" for providing music.

Edward's Kitchen 2014

Welcome back.  It's April in New York City and spring is right around the corner. You can feel it in the air.  People take to the sidewalks leaving their parkas and scarves at home.  Birds perch in the neighborhood trees singing louder than usual as the taxis roll on by below.  Instead of a stuffy commute on the subway, businessmen and women ride their bikes to meetings.  Today we will be making the Late Night Breakfast Tacos. 

You will need:

La Banderita corn tortillas, fresh eggs, beans, 5x6 tomato, Daisy sour cream, butter, assort. sauce, parsley, dillweed, milk, Sargento Sharp Cheddar

Preparing the soft taco shells is so simple. Decide how many you want. I like to go to bed on a full stomach so I always start with at least 4.  The soft shells are so puny so don’t be afraid to splurge.  Stack them on a plate. (If bag condesnsation has made them a little damp this is of no worry to us- the moisture acts as steam in the microwave and makes tortilla even more malleable than you’re used to).  Heat high for 20 seconds.

Two kinds of beans work.  You can use either black beans or refried beans. 

I had to use black beans.  Lets take a moment and learn a great way to prepare your black beans for this and other Mexican dishes.  Begin by straining your beans under cold water until the skin appears shiny and the gray slime is gone. Heat in pot with tablespoon butter, several generous shakes of worchestire sauce, 3 Tablespoons A1, 3-6 drops Liquid Smoke, and a squirt or two of mustard.  Stir occasionally.  As you heat you will begin to notice the beans taking on a carmelized appearance.  The Liquid Smoke really helps seal the deal. The beans will smell like they‘ve just come straight from over the bonfires from the campsite trips of your youth.

Crack 4 eggs (1 taco = 1 egg) into a glass, add a splash of milk and whisk.  Dump it into a heated and buttered frying pan.  While the eggs are still wet add your bits of cheese and a couple pinches of dillweed.  It’s nice to watch as the eggs cook and see the cheese and spice become trapped under the skin of the scrambled eggs, as if looking at the insects from the prehistoric period become trapped in amber.

DICE the tomato.  Get your favorite hot sauce ready.

While still hot spoon equal parts egg and beans into each tortilla and pinch.  Add tomato and sour cream.  A few generous shakes of parsley per each taco will help liven up some of the lesser flavors to be had.  Add your favorite hot sauce.   The wooden capped kinds are the ones to use this spring.

Restaurant Review # 3

Welcome back to another Edward's Restaurant Review  Where the Kitchen turns outward to take a bite out of the Big Apple.

I ate at this restaurant, Chickpea, for the first time the other day.  Chickpea is a popular haunt in NYC well known for their Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine.  The aroma greeted me the second I walked in the door.  After perusing the menu, I stepped in line and prepared myself for what they had to offer.

Wow. The choices were everywhere.  Chickpea has been heralded for its variety of food and its ability to accomodate the dietary customs that vary from patron to patron.  Chickpea boasts gluten free fare, as well as 'vegan' (an abbreviation for vegetarian) cuisine.  They also bring to the gauntlet different flavored hummuses, including sun- dried tomato and chive infused versions. Someone in the restaurant told me to try the chipotle flavored hummus.

I perused their menu.  Two of their most popular dishes are the falafel and the shawarma sandwiches.  Falafel is well known by this point so no point in getting in to all that but "Shawarma" may be a new one to some of our readers.  It originates in the Mid East and is commonly a shaved meat of chicken or lamb. It is carved, (or "shaved") from a vertical spit and is cooked with sauces and spices.  I wanted to try both. I was in luck! Chickpea boasts the "Shawafel", a made up word and combination dish of the falafel and shawarma all in one sandwich.  This one's for the sampler at heart folks.

You get to choose between a wrap, pocket pita bread, or a black plastic tray.  I went with the wrap.  Let's Eat!

Then you only get to choose 4 additives to your wrap (which honestly looks more like a burrito than anything else) and they charged extra ($0.75!) for feta cheese which should be a shoe-in for this sort of thing in my opinion.  I chose that, the diced cucumber and tomato mixture, succulent roasted red  peppers, and red onion.  Luckily the craisins were free.  (If I'm being honest, I felt quite rushed in line.  The wait staff seemed less interested in the quality of the meals they were churning out on that long plastic industrial cutting board, and more interested in the number of customers they could serve.)

The shawafel is terrible !  Extremely messy.  The less said about presentation: the better.  This wrap is too spicy. Spicy for the sake of being spicy - NOT flavored.  Aggressive, yet bland. I dont know if its the hummus of the shawarma or what.  When I drank my Coke to put out the burning flavor, my mouth was already so raw, the usually subtle soda taste felt like a madhouse on my tongue.  Completely inappropriate.

Everything, from presentation to price to the courtesy of people in line ahead of me was poor at best.  I barely had time to wolf down the wrap before my lunch break was over and I had to return to work building this wall.

OVERALL SCORE: 1 / 10

Chickpea, 42-09 28th St, New York, NY 11101