Childhood favorites

Let’s talk for a minute about the things we love when we’re young. I could never get enough of Weebly.

Did you need your Gluttony Pants this Thanksgiving?

Gluttony Pants - the ultimate clothing item for the truly Gluttonous eater.

Gluttony Pants offer 3 size options - Piglet, Sow and Boar

I am generally guilty of some holiday gluttony myself , but due to my recent move, I didn’t get the chance to do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.   Instead, I grubbed on the pizza, pasta and salad bar buffet at Hungry Howie’s in St. Augustine.  I was actually pretty well behaved.   In past years though, I may have been lining up to pick up some Gluttony Pants.  The monuments to Gluttony, created by Chef Chris Cosentino are pants that can be expanded to 3 different sizes: “Piglet” “Sow” and “Boar” depending on what kind of Adam Richmondesque debauchery you are looking to undertake.  As an added touch, each $100 pair of Gluttony Pants comes with a cloth napkin to hang from your collar that illustrates the evolution of the foodie.

BetaBrand owner Chris Lindland says they’ve been flying off the virtual shelf since they debuted in August.

“We’ve sold about 600 pairs, and that’s a lot for a small clothing company like us,” Lindland said. “We’re on our third production run — I’m just really surprised how popular they’re becoming.”

Currently only a men’s version is being offered as women currently have the stretch leggings or maternity-wear option open to them.

I’m honestly a little disgusted by the story and the concept as I am really working on the whole “moderation” thing  myself.  But as  a matter of foodie interest,  thought it was worth sharing.

Elegant Chinese Dining at Blossom in Aria

Delicious details to come, but here is the distinguished list of dishes enjoyed.

Crisp fried beef roll
Pot stickers
Golden seafood medallion
Szechuan shrimp
Beef with broccoli
Tasting menu
War won ton soup
Hot and spicy soup
Lychee creme brulee
Banana passion fruit dumpling
Chocolate Ginger mousse
Fried sesame dough

We tried hard to snap pictures but were occasionally overcome by the meal and took a bite before the camera came out. Oops!

Seattle man creates bust of Kevin Bacon using … bacon

This week in bacon news:

[youtube]aI11ct4eEug[/youtube]

A dad in Seattle, Wash. is hoping his bacon inspired bust of actor Kevin Bacon will help rake in a lot of money for families at a local children’s hospital.Dave Lefkow has a daughter who is battling leukemia and is constantly in and out of the hospital.

Lefkow works at a local company that makes bacon salt. He made a bust of Kevin Bacon out of bacon pieces. The piece of art took three months to create.

“We just thought, what if Kevin Bacon was made out of bacon? And that was sort of the first idea. It was just a crazy dream that we have,” said Lefkow.

The brain trust behind this promotion is the team behind Bacon Salt

If you are interested in picking up the Bacon bust of Kevin Bacon on eBay – you can find the auction here (at the time of writing, the bid was up to $2000)

Ultimate Foodie Mission: Best Pizza in NYC

Meatball and Mushroom Pizza from Lombardi's has Annie seeimg red

Meatball and Mushroom Pizza from Lombardi's has Annie seeing red

Strangely enough, this mission may have been the one I was looking forward to most on the trip – and the way it came to be was a bit of a story in itself.  My good foodie friend Theresa Miller and I always try to get together for some sort of foodie adventure at any trade show that we find ourselves at.   The original conversation centered around a tasting at Per Se – after doing some reading and seeing my schedule start to fill up for the night we both had available, I asked “Hey T – whattya say we get a car, and we go on a search for the best NYC coal fired pizza and maybe get a hot dog or two on the way?”   Theresa agreed that she’d get the car, I’d buy dinner and our plan was made.

So – on the night in question, Theresa and her lovely friend Ann showed up at The Australian with an Escalade, a drive and a plan.  We’d open the evening heading to Lombardi’s in Little Italy, followed by a jaunt across the Brooklyn Bridge to Grimaldi’s, then on to Papaya King for a Papaya drink and a hot dog.   Since we were having a contest to decide who our NYC Pizza King would be, we set up a criteria.  We’d get the same pizza at Lombardi’s and Grimaldi’s and make the call which one took home the prize.   We opened at Lombardi’s where – after a 20 minute wait for a table to open (and some Chianti drinking) we ordered up a meatball and mushroom pizza along with a house salad (shareable) and some more wine.   The house salad was awesome with fresh greens and a dynamite house dressing, but it turned out to be totally unnecessary filler.

Lombardi’s pizza offered excellence in it’s simplicity –  it was very simply fresh dough (made daily) with a simple sauce of San Marzano tomatoes and salt (no herb or spice blend) topped with cheese and homemade meatballs and fresh mushrooms.   The real stars at Lombardi’s are the crust – which is perfectly crispy and blistered by the hot coal fire and has a taste that is unlike anything you will get anywhere but in one of the few NYC Pizzerias that are still licensed to operate coal ovens, and the sauce.  It’s a prime example of how simple and awesome ingredients are key to Italian cuisine.   The meatballs were awesome as well – all and  all Lombardi’s was a winner, but what do you expect from the restaurant that was New York’s first pizzeria -opened in 1905?

On a bonus note, while we were waiting for our table, T walked across the street to Rice to Riches and brought back sample sized packs of Rice Pudding.  We tried Coast to Coast Cheesecake, Cinnamon Sling with Raisins and Chocolate Chip Flirt – the winner for me was the classic Cinnamon Sling –  it’s the way I make rice pudding and I’d rather it be served warm.  All were excellent for the sweet tooth.

Next up – we headed to Brooklyn to check out one of the other claimants to the “Best in NYC” Pizza crown – Grimaldi’s.  I’d read about the long lines and wait times you could encounter at Grimaldi’s if you came during dinner hours, and although we hit there late on in the dinner rush (9 ish) the line up was out the door and down the block and the sign reading “the line is for take out too” was not encouraging.  I decided to get creative and called in my order from the line.  A cook who was out having a smoke commended me on the move and told me to go ahead and pay.  Once I got inside and paid, I was told the pie would be ready in 10 minutes so we took a spin around the block.   I was bummed to find out that meatballs weren’t available so we settled on Pepperoni and Mushroom.

The Pizza from Grimaldi’s was good – very good with a similar crust (coal fired ovens are the bomb) in terms of the smokey flavor, but lacking a bit in the crispness we’d experienced at Lombardi’s.  I’ll give some slack because we took this pizza to go and the crust might have been sogged a bit  by steam in the paper wrapping they used.  The sauce was totally different though – Grimaldi’s added to the San Marzano tomato sauce and added some oregano and other herbs and spices – it was good, but as a bit of a purest, I thought Lombardi’s simple approach was better here.

The winner of our “Best Pizza in NYC” expedition that night – Lombardi’s – both were great pizza, but Lombardi’s really stood out – the simplicity and honesty of their ingredients really showed through.

More on the hot dog segment of the adventure later.