New Amsterdam Market and the Deliciousness After
Hope everyone has been well! The weather is finally becoming somewhat normal and we can all finally enjoy the pre-fall nights. Anyways, on Sunday, August 22, me and three of my good friends went back down to South Street Seaport for the New Amsterdam Market. Of course, I had to visit the Nordic Breads stand to get that great bread of theirs and also to Hudson Valley Duck Farm for their duck prosciutto (mainly for Dr. Awesome since he was out frolicking in Ireland and England). The market also had ice cream and heirloom tomato tastings which looked really good. Of course, just like last month, the day ended up being the most humid and muggy one. Luckily, the rain held out, but that didn’t really matter since it’s based under the FDR Drive.
Our game plan for the market was to buy a protein and veg (we had our starch picked out: Persian rice, courtesy of The Joy of Cooking, I believe). We were initially interested in the bison stand, but when we looked around, we couldn’t find it. We then found out that they couldn’t make it down for one reason or another. So, we ended up with a chicken from Basis. They provide information to consumers about where their produce comes from. It’s really interesting. What was even more interesting was that our chicken came with the head and feet still attached, as you’ll see below (don’t look if you’re squeamish about that sort of stuff). We also got these massive string beans which were delicious. I put them up next to the knife I was using so you can see just how big they were. For an appetizer, we bought some heirloom tomatoes, basil and fresh mozzarella. We then stuffed the chicken with lemon slices and with herbs in the cavity.
For the main plate, we sauteed the string beans in olive oil with some huge shallots that we also got at the market. Once the chicken cooled, I carved it up and then placed it on top of the beans. For dessert, we had homemade blueberry/peach/thyme cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting. Some people at dinner never had farm fresh chicken before and were so surprised at how different it tasted from your average supermarket buy. My friend said that it tasted a bit gamey, I said “it tastes like real chicken”.
I also thought it was cool that the head and feet were left on. It was a little startling at first, but really, many other cultures get their produce this way. We’re just so used to having everything cleaned for us so we don’t have to really look at what we’re eating.
I’ll be helping my dad out (along with my mom) on the first day of the fall market on September 12. Very excited about that! We also have a facebook page that you can “like”. It’s on the sidebar on the home page.
Patio gardening update to come soon. One of my cukes is growing in a really weird way. Hopefully I’ll actually be able to harvest stuff before the frost starts.
I YUM New York 