Greg Strong's Profile
Shredded hash browns
Hah -
I just replied to Jim Leff on his blogged-about opinion that "home fries are good again" that I've been hunting up and down the city of New York looking for real hash browns, and that I couldn't find them anywhere.
However, kcijones, I believe that three-fifths of the charm of hash browns is having a greasy cook behind the griddle who imparts some of the flavor from his dirty spatula and apron. In fact, at age sixteen I remember finding the finest diner in the world (Mickey's, in downtown St. Paul) where the cook would let you bum cigarettes.
The 'Beefsteak' in New Jersey-NYT
The New Yorker magazine ran an article on these institutions back in the 1920's, and it was even more hedonistic and over-the-top back then. However, they were just as wound up about the old-fashionedness and historical veracity of the tradition back then. My favorite quote was from a guy, on the question of should there or should there not be other cuts of meat allowed besides the beef steak itself "they say it's not old-fashioned. I'm eighty-five years old. I know what's old-fashioned and what's not old-fashioned."
Best tea for ICE tea
Hey Will-
I've done this experiment, and about ten years ago the people at Consumer Reports did it too. Although it was hard for me to tell the difference, Red Rose was consistently rated higher than Lipton by both them and my family members.
My favorite thing to do is put eight tea bags in four cups of boiling water, along with a large bundle of fresh mint. Then after three or four minutes, pour out the hot tea into another six cups of water, along with the juice of six to ten lemons and a cup of sugar. Dynamite.
Judging by the picture, your listed preferences and your posts, I've gotta say that you're the living embodiment of the literary gourmand and crimestopper Monseiur Pamplemousse. Written by the same guy who wrote Paddington Bear.
Home Fries are Good Again!!!!
Jim-
I would concur that there has been a sea change in the home fries offered by some of the influential restaurants here in the NYC area. In our neighborhood(Morningside Heights), a place called Community Food and Juice has been offering a great plate of home fries with about 1/10th of the potatoes replaced by carrots. Fun and worth trying. Also, yes, the sickly orange pallor has faded from home fries in greasy-spoon diners and high-falutin' restaurants alike.
My greater concern is that not a single restaurant (and I've had this conversation with several dozen cooks and waitstaff around New York) serves hash browns.
In the Midwest, shredded potatoes fried to a large, loose but crispy cake are a way of life. Here, I repeatedly see the words "hash browns" on menus, and when I order them, I get home fries. I appreciate the Jim Leff-inspired movement away from dull, lumpen pasty home fries, but I still miss hash browns.
White Lily self-rising flour - $2.00 a bag?
Apparently White Lily is dead and buried.
My wife is so distressed she can't even talk about it.
She said "I'm never going to bake again."
Last time we were down South, we bought thirty pounds of the stuff to bring back with us to New York, because she claims that you can't make biscuits with anything else.
We've still got over twenty pounds in the freezer, but now we're concerned that, much like the sponge in the famous episode of Seinfeld, once they're gone, they're gone.
The question is, what can people now do to prove they're White Lily-worthy?
Land Shark Lager?!?
Wow, insightful comments from crewsweeper and vino 5150. Hadn't thought about A-B's cooler-space market-domination strategies in assessing the crappiness of this beer.
I had one in St. Louis a couple weeks ago, had never been to St. Louis before and wanted to explore the local beer traditions. I went to rough bar in South St. Louis (I know it's not as rough as East St. Louis) during a Cardinals game, everybody was drinking super-super-cold Busch bottles. I had to drive, so couldn't try it, but went to a local Elks club later on and asked my dad to get me a Busch. The barkeep saw that he was from out of town, and said "hey, you've gotta try this exciting new stuff" and foisted off the Land Shark on him.
It was much colder, as I guess all St. Louis beer is, than I'm accustomed to in New York, but had no flavor whatsoever except a light, non-beery sweetness. Maybe if I was back in 8th grade when we were drinking light beers because we couldn't stomach the overwhelming flavor assault of, say, Budweiser.
Casual place in Murray Hill
From what I know of the Irish - they love their homeland and they love Irish pubs. There are plenty on Third Avenue - the one I'm thinking of is Paddy McGuire's on 3rd and 20th, but if that's too far downtown there's Patrick Kavanagh's on 33rd. More sports bar-y and less conducive to chat, but still a good time. O'Neils at third and what?...43rd? is better than Kavanagh's I guess.
