Category: Food

The NYC Food Tour – Part 3

After leaving Coney Island, our last stop for the day was a completely excessive bacchanalia of food out at Taverna Kyklades in Astoria. There were eight of us there and managed to get a pretty good variety of dishes – fried cheese, an utterly unbelievable grilled octopus (easily the best I’ve had), even the first salad course was a knockout. Main dish highlights were Ned’s stuffed shrimp and my grilled swordfish, but everything there was just stunning. Anthony M. described the scene as if someone had unrolled a carpet of food onto the table.

Also have to mention the market next to the restaurant which had the best looking shallots I’ve seen anywhere. I wanted to buy a bag to take home.

Taverna Kyklades
33-07 Ditmars Blvd.
Astoria, NY 11105
(718) 545-8666

bread octopus shrimp swordfish

The NYC Food Tour – Part 2

Next stop Coney Island. I’ve always wanted to go out there, but until now never really had the time or cooperative weather. Still unbearably hot out, but the ocean weather helped moderate things, or at least gave the illusion that it was cooler. Walked around Brighton Beach, fell behind by drooling over every Russian market and restaurant, and took pictures of everything. By the time we got to Coney Island proper, about all I could do was stand in the water hose on the beach and then drink beer.

I did get a Nathan’s hot dog. Precisely, a chili-cheese dog and it was superbly good. Certainly the best in NYC and of a quality that could challenge my beloved Pink’s in Los Angeles. The secret ingredient is the bun – high quality bread that’s just grilled enough to give it a slight toast texture on the inside to the whole thing doesn’t go to pieces from the juices of the dog.

nathans nathans2

Silver Lake Coffee gets free Wi-Fi

Hanging out in Los Angeles today and was completely surprised and pleased to see that my old haunt Silver Lake Coffee has free wi-fi net access. Really free too, no stupid limited proxy service or anything. Anyway, everyone should visit, drink coffee, buy a muffin and bathe in the 802.11b.

Silver Lake Coffee
2388 N. Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90039
(323) 913-0388
coffeeinfo@aol.com

silverlakecoffee

 

Special Agent Dale Cooper sez: “This must be where nam kao tod goes when it dies”

Folks, this is the best Thai food in Southern California – full stop. It may just be the best Thai food in the state. Either way, this is the best Thai meal I’ve had. Renu Nakorn specializes in the spicier Issan-style cuisine from northeastern Thailand and is a complete recalculation of the menus you would find at your neighborhood Thai place. Among the dishes I tried were Nam Kao Tod – a highly spicy stir fry of Issan sausage mixed with green onion, chili, ginger, peanuts and lime juice. A wonderful fried fish, a very spicy ground catfish larb, and perhaps most amazing given it’s relative simplicity: Thai beef jerky. Best beef jerky on this or any other planet.

Two strange things about Renu Nakorn. First is it’s location: Norwalk! It’s located in a rather anonymous strip mall on Rosecrans just east of the 5 in the lost cities between Los Angeles and Orange County. That whole area has never really registered on my food radar at all and I’m kinda shocked. Second strange thing is their neon sign in the window:

twinpeaksthai
It’s an obvious Twin Peaks reference, but it appears only on the neon sign and nowhere else. No hidden Agent Cooper or Laura Palmer photographs anywhere I could see.

Anyway, everyone reading this should go there immediately. Full address is: Renu Nakorn, 13041 E. Rosecrans, Norwalk, CA, (562) 921-2124. Think I’m going to stock up on more Thai beef jerky on the way home.

Coffee achieving

So the first real test of any new neighborhood, even more than the grocery and restaurant test is what the coffee situation is like. Choice #1 is still the coffee I brew myself, but a close choice #2 is the Plantation Coffeehouse on the corner of 2nd St. and Ravenna (address is 5708 E. 2nd, Long Beach, CA) on Naples Island.

Been coffee achieving there every morning this week and like the coffee there a lot.

What Protects the French From Heart Disease?

Science marches onward and takes another crack at the “French Paradox” – a term that doctors, nutritionists, and their like refer to the French diet paradox. The French eat fatty food, smoke, and drink more than other western country, yet they have lower risks of heart disease. Is it the wine? Not really, but it is cultural…

So, I looked around the world at eating habits, and ended up focussing on France. If one thing above all stands out about French culture, in relation to British culture, it is their attitude to food and eating. The average Brit treats meals as a refuelling exercise, the French, most clearly, do not. They spend hours eating meals, relaxing, enjoying the food. It is a social occasion.

…

Anyway, to return to the question posed in the title of this article. What protects the French? I think it is clear that they are protected not by what they eat, but by how they eat. By eating in a relaxed fashion they do not pit the system of anabolism and catabolism against each other, they do not trigger insulin resistance, and hyperglycaemic spikes, and therefore they do not damage the endothelium in the prandial/post-prandial state. Vive la France!

Vive la France indeed!