I YUM New York

Pumpkin Beer Quest Beer #2: Weyerbacher

•September 29, 2012 • Leave a Comment

As my quest for the best pumpkin beer of 2012 continues, I found one that had a cool label: Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale. Never heard of this beer before, but decided to give it a try.

The smell of it was promising. It smelled like all the spices that you would put into a pumpkin pie. The first few sips were a surprise. The spice flavor was REALLY strong. The nutmeg and cloves were a bit overpowering at first, but after a little bit of time, it mellowed out. The more I drank it, the more I liked it. It’s exactly what you’re looking for in a pumpkin beer: a nice spice and pumpkin flavor. Just beware: it’s 8%, which is pretty strong. If you’re not huge on the spice flavor, this one may not be for you.

Dr. Awesome’s brother just made a good point to me (I gave him one to try): the amount of spices counteract the high alcohol content taste to the beer. Makes it easier to drink.

And there you go.

It’s high up on my list (waaaaay higher than DogFish Head’s pumpkin, which sucked). I have a few more to try before I make a decision. There’s just an endless supply of the stuff which makes it hard to figure out which ones are worth shelling out some money for. The Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale is a bit expensive, about $11 for 4 bottles, but it’s also 8%.

Next review: Southern Tier Pumpking, which many of my friends have highly recommended.

Posted in Cocktails, me
Tags: Best Pumpkin Beer, Pumpkin Beer, Pumpkin Beer Quest, Southern Tier Pumking, Weyerbacher, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin Ale

Fresh Mozzarella

•September 16, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I had seen on Facebook that Saxelby Cheesemongers had started to sell mozzarella curd to make your own fresh mozzarella. They got the curd from Caputo Brothers Creamery. It comes frozen and is $17 for the package (which I believe is about one pound…a bit expensive since you get less than a pound of cheese out of it). I had been inspired from looking at the instructions to try my hand at this because it seemed so darn easy. Dr. Awesome went to the Essex Street Market where Saxelby’s shop is and picked up a bag.

The instructions say to have two bowls: One that holds the curds and another filled with cold water for when the cheese is molded into balls to keep their shape. I broke the curds up into nickel- and dime-sized pieces and added about 1.5 teaspoons of kosher salt to mix into the curds. Dr. Awesome then heated up water to between 170-180 degrees F and poured just enough water into the bowl to cover the curds.

I then used the flattened wooden spoon to gently stir the curds until they came together. Once together, I started pushing them lightly against the side of the bowl, letting the cheese drop down naturally. I did this until I had a smooth texture.

Lumpy.

Getting there.

Smooooooth.

The fun part (and the sort of awkward and kind of hard part) is forming them into balls. You have to put a big lump of it between the space of your thumb and index finger and just squeeze. Then break it to the desired size, like so.

Not very pretty.

After, I put them in the cold water so that when I was ready to cut them (literally, like 2 minutes later), they held their shape.

BAM.

The fresh cheese was accompanied by some amazing tomatoes we got at the Tompkins Square Park Farmers Market and some basil. We sprinkled a bit of salt and pepper over the sliced cheese.

Dr. Awesome approves.

Our mozzarella was just so warm and tasty. It reminded us of when we went to dinner for Dr. Awesome’s birthday at Torrisi Italian Specialties and they made fresh mozzarella to order. Nothing really beats that.

Since these curds were REALLY expensive, we found another place in the city that sells them for about $6 per pound: Todaro Bros. We’re going to try these curds out and see how they compare. If they’re just as good, we’ll be making our own fresh mozzarella from now on. The whole process takes about 10 minutes total (more just waiting for the water to get up to temp). It’s cheaper than going out and buying a pound of fresh mozzarella, which can cost about $10 or more at certain stores. This was actually a million times easier than making fresh ricotta or feta cheese!

By the way, this cheese will probably be added to our Thanksgiving menu as an appetizer. (Yup, need to start thinking about THAT already.)

Posted in Around NYC, Cheese, home cooking, Markets, me
Tags: Caputo Brothers Creamery, Dr. Awesome, essex street market, Fresh Mozzarella, Saxelby Cheesemongers, Todaro Bros, Tompkins Square Park Farmers Market

A Little Astor Place Entertainment

•September 13, 2012 • Leave a Comment

I was coming back home last night after dinner with a friend and stumbled upon this happening:

You’ll hear at some point in the video some guy making fun that I have an iPhone. We had a nice, brief conversation. He then goes and joins the guy playing the drums/guitar.

Nights like these make me love my neighborhood. You never know what you’ll see. (Gotta love the random dancers.)

Also, this taught me that I should video horizontally with my iPhone. Oops. Still a newb.

Posted in Around NYC
Tags: Astor Place, East Village, music

The Pumpkin Beer Quest

•September 11, 2012 • 1 Comment

It’s fall and officially time for pumpkin beer. I’ve picked up a brew here and there, and I do have to say, the best pumpkin ale I’ve had was in Haverhill in Massachusetts at some brew pub. It was glorious and I wish I remembered the name of the place. This was about 7 years ago or so when my parents came up to visit me and my brother while I was at grad school in Boston and him, college. It was on the main street in town (it may be this one: The Tap).

Anyways, I’m thinking that maybe I should start my quest for the best pumpkin beer around. A few friends have told me that Southern Tier Pumpking is THE pumpkin beer. I’ll have to see if it’s available here.

The first beer of the season was:

Dogfish Head’s Punkin Ale. I have to say, I was VERY disappointed. I had high hopes because it mixed together two of my favorite things: brown ale and pumpkin pie flavorings. Well, it fell very short. It just tasted like…brown ale. And the guy at the beer section of whole foods (who is the expert there) said that this one was very good and was their best seller. Four bottles for $12. I should’ve known. And Dogfish Head has great beer, so what gives?

Another friend recommended Smutty Nose’s pumpkin beer. I’ll see if I can find it.

Whilst I was on Long Island, we went to a beer warehouse and they actually had a limited edition Sam Adam’s pumpkin brew. But it was August and way too early to have some pumpkin.

I probably should’ve just bought it and dragged it home. I’m going to head to this place later this week: New Beer Distributors. Hopefully they’ll have all the beers I’m looking for.

And so, my pumpkin quest begins! Hopefully I’ll get to try a bunch more before I head out to England and France for my honeymoon!

Posted in Around NYC, Beer, Massachusetts
Tags: beer section, Brew pub, Dogfish Head Punkin Ale, Haverhill, Massachusetts, New Beer Distributors, pumpkin ale, Pumpkin Beer Quest, The Tap

The Instagram Phenom

•August 8, 2012 • 1 Comment

I’ve been having some fun with the joys of Instagram after getting an iPhone. It’s been interesting taking photos of food stuff and other things around Manhattan, especially the crazy Derecho that looked like it would wipe out the entire city. We went to the Union Square Greenmarket and got a HUGE thing of basil for $2, plus some great heirloom cherry tomatoes. A bunch of us went to Prune which was amazing, especially my friend Jill’s fish dish, as you’ll see. I’m going to be playing that Tron pinball game soon.

I’ll probably be taking more photos with Instagram than my normal camera, but I’m not totally giving 100% credit to the camera on my phone just yet!