Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Happy 5th birthday to us!  Another year, another brilliant trip to Pig Island.  As always, we're very grateful to Jimmy Carbone and his team at Food Karma for organizing this event and being gracious hosts.  I would have loved for it to be about twenty degrees cooler and a bit more overcast; it was sweltering and I came home with a pretty gnarly tan!  But no matter, the plentiful food and drink were still enjoyable. In past years , I've tried to pinpoint a recurring theme or motif that inspired the chefs: last year we saw a lot of chicharrones and pork rinds, whereas past years there were lots of tacos or sliders.  I think this year's theme was a little broader and more international: fusion pork dishes. One of the standouts was a sandwich from Hudson & Charles of pickled pork shoulder in a banana calamansi BBQ sauce.  We spoke to the chefs, who told us calamansi is a citrus fruit like a cross between lime and orange, commonly...

Happy 4th birthday to Veritasty!  We are eternally grateful to Jimmy Carbone and the folks at Food Karma not only for inviting us to our first food event four years ago, but also for throwing this wonderful celebration of pig every year!  The weather held up, the lines were not too long, and there was delicious food to be had at Pig Island. I have found some years that there are trendy pork preparations (one year, I recall there being a lot of pork tacos, another had a lot of pulled pork sliders) and this year was all about crunch - and by that, I mean chicharrones! Many chefs chose to accompany their pig dishes with either a small sprinkling of crunchy pig skin on top; some fried up whole huge chunks for us to break up and eat at our leisure!  Alex is immune to the pleasures of chicharrones, but I'm kind of obsessed for some reason....  I think growing up in an Asian household eating these things: (prawn crackers, in case you didn't grow up in an...

Last week, yours truly and yours truly's co-blogger had a molto romantico dinner at Osteria Morini in NoHo.  You will frequently find me enthusiastic about Italian restaurants ( Otto , Tommaso , Giacomo , etc.) because Italian food is just so gosh darn delizioso (okay, I'll stop), but Osteria Morini is on a whole different level.  Yes, it's a little bit more expensive than the standard Italian fare, and it is probably very crowded on the weekends, but so worth it. We were seated in a nice quiet corner in the back, between one couple who could have been Chinese dignitaries and another couple who could have been Italian celebrities from the way the waitstaff came to ask them repeatedly how they were finding everything.  Meanwhile, we splurged on a meat and cheese plate (speck, bresaola, felino salami, pecorino, and squacquerone) and buttered spinach.  I had the Garganelli pasta dish and Alex had the Grigliata Mista di Carni. The meat and cheese plate...

What better things are there in the world than some wine, bread, meat, and cheese?  Most fondue experiences incorporate these guilty pleasures, as was the case at Winegasm in Astoria, Queens.  Winegasm is a tapas/fondue place that offered a Groupon (yay) so we headed out there for our fill of melted stuff and dip-able stuff and booze. The ambiance was kind of nice at first: very rustic bar scene with a few tables.  Nice and romantic when they put on the mood lighting, but once the live music started up, it got a little too loud and a little too country for my taste. The Groupon deal included a glass of wine with your meal and a glass of wine with dessert, so I had a Riesling and prosecco.  Winegasm prides itself on serving local, organic, and sustainable wines.  The Riesling was surprisingly good: sweet, with a smooth finish.  The prosecco was tasty, too, except it smelled a little like generic bathroom hand soap.  We had a cheese fondue with ...

My first adventure to Brighton Beach!  I've known Brighton Beach to be a Russian neighborhood - and we certainly saw Russian establishments in the area - but as we discovered, there is also a large Turkish population in the southern tip of Brooklyn.  I have only had good Turkish food (in fact, I sort of believe you can't go wrong with Turkish food) and our trip to a small kebab place called Beyti confirmed my theory. Beyti definitely looks like a local favorite.  The sweet smell of roasting meat hits you when you first walk in.  The people working there probably don't speak the best English.  People were walking in shirtless from the nearby beach and boardwalk.  Sanitary?  Probably not.  But gladly it didn't take away from the food. We shared a large mixed appetizer platter and a mixed meat entree.  The mixed appetizer platter was great: a big dollop each of a mint yogurt sauce (think tzatziki), hummus, babaghanoush, chopped eggplant,...

Happy 1st Birthday Veritasty!! One year ago, our first foodventure was to Pig Island on Governor's Island.  The lovely folks at Food Karma have organized this great event for a few years now and we were thrilled and honored to be a part of it.  It was a beautiful day on Governor's Island and every Food Karma event should be blessed with such nice weather.      First up was Ovelia's stall.  They had a couple of spits rolling meat that would become pulled pork with apple coleslaw on a pita triangle.  While we were there, they were also cooking up some loukaniko, a traditional Greek sausage.  They looked amazing, sizzling in the pan, studded with leeks and orange zest.   Next up was one of the highlights of the afternoon: Edi and the Wolf.  The offering was grilled pork belly on top of chopped peaches and a bed of arugula.  This little dish was delicious: crisp pork skin (always a plus), fatty pork belly...