As it should.

Probably should have taken some pics earlier, but I have some Shanghai style braised pork belly going. It smells pretty spectacular in the Wookie household right now.

NYC continued (been SWAMPED this the slow posting)...

We woke up and took about a 200 yard stroll from our hotel to the Brooklynn bridge for a nice walk to start the day. The Brooklynn Bridge is such a beautiful piece of architecture:



The walk was littered with gals doing selfies EVERYWHERE and it was both ridiculous and hilarious to see them all doing the pose they obviously feel they look best, it was like a fashion show slash photo-op for idiots.

We move on from there walking toward the new Freedom tower at the WTC site:



and grabbed a subway by the Oculus train station:



We headed North so we could make a stop at a cool little diner I've been wanting to see & try in person called Empire Diner. I love the look of this place, its throwback design and smaller, intimate space.









The outside is great too:





We had the buttermilk biscuits with housemate jam:



apricot ginger scone:



empire omelette:



and grilled steak and eggs:



(full disclosure in case anyone cares, none of the food photos above are mine, they are taken from Yelp or Empire Diners site. I dropped the ball on my trip and forgot to take pictures at most meals, I think I was in such a hunger frenzy I forgot, lol)

Everything was really well done and the biscuits were so good, they made us forget about the scones and save the calories for more biscuits. The French omelette was done very well and tasted great, the Boursin cheese inside really made it pop, my girlfriend went berserk over it and she rarely eats eggs, meat, etc.

Steak and eggs were tasty, I always enjoy a good salsa verde

Right across the street from Empire Diner is The High Line. In case you dont know what this is, here's how its descried on their website:

Being a builder and designer, I just love creative, well done, repurposing of old materials, buildings and in this case old freight lines. The one mile stroll allows you to get some nice exercise while taking in some interesting architecture along the way:









We end up walking around and finally catching a subway back down to China Town and Little Italy:







We were getting pretty tired by the time we made it down to this area where Chinatown and Little Italy seem to blend together so we didn't spend much time here and nothing really stood out or grabbed me besides the fresh seafood markets in Chinatown that were surprising free from the typical fishy smell I would have expected. Looks like a great place to buy seafood if you live in the city.

The only interesting/weird thing of note that happened in this area was that they were pushy as hell trying to get you to sit down and eat and drink inside their restaurant in Little Italy or in Chinatown, I was constantly bombarded with people coming up to me whispering under the breath, as if it was a request to do a drug deal, asking if I wanted to buy a watch.

I got asked by the same lady three times if I wanted to buy a watch so I circled back around while my girlfriend was shopping for trinkets and tapped the lady on the shoulder and said:

Hey Lady:



We were pretty close to our hotel but I lose all sense of direction walking around NYC and after about 30 minutes of walking and realizing I had been going in circles, I threw in the towel and grabbed a cab and hitched a ride back to the hotel.

We were starving at this point but too tired to venture back out so we decide to try the restaurant attached to the hotel called Augustine



and OMFG

to be continued...

Haven’t been to NYC in years, I need to go back, your pictures are beautiful.

The cafe old school diner reminded me of my Thanksgiving trip to Buffalo, same state but might as well be another country.

Restored 1930s diner car, not nearly as bling bling as the one shown in NYC but still nice.




Mmm, loganberry.


Pretty solid corned beef hash.


Buffalo doesn’t repurpose old sites very well. This Art Deco masterpiece was apparently the largest train station in the country at one point serving as the midpoint stop for traffics between NYC and Chicago, closed since 79.





Random pics from bar walking around bar hoping.







Fried bologna at 2am.

Good stuff Da_Nit

I LOVE those old diner cars, to me, they create a sense of camaraderie because everyone is so packed together in a cozy, warm atmosphere with what is typically unpretentious food you might eat at your moms or grandmas house.

I love the interior of the one you showed, interesting countertops with chrome mixed in across the top and edges, cool round diner stools screwed into a floor made of mosaic tiles, cozy little booths hugging the windows with the prep area on full display for everyone to see and curved ceilings which just add to its charm imo.

It's a damn shame that Art Deco property cant be repurposed into a mixed retail space with apartments, We work spaces, restaurants, office spaces, etc, etc. The bones on those buildings are fantastic. I guess the location and/or economy cant justify the necessary investment .

The bars look fun too and that bologna sandwich is making me hungry!

Oh yeah baby.

Wait, what tha, what the hell do we have here?? It looks delicious

Braised pork belly. Started one post up from your TR.

Recipe: https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/...ork-belly.html

Really easy, really delicious, and shaoxing wine is about the only exotic ingredient.

Wow, it looked so different, I didn't put two and two together to figure out they were related posts, gonna have to try that some time

looks great.

if there's any chopped fans out there that remember wei wen, i used to work for him, and while its usually pretty disgusting, wok seared pork belly and bittermelon was a great combo we had a few times. he was also entirely the man.

Oh crap I might need to do this, it looks great.

A rabbi would have difficulty turning that away Wookie

Reform Judaism ftw!

Made some STEW with all the stewing going on and did a hybrid of the ones posted recently.

Brown meat in olive oil, carrots and onions next, then potatoes in a garlic/stock/tomato paste/fish sauce slurry:




Then everyone in the pool with homemade stock, bay leaves, and a little celery:




Very happy with finished product after a few hours. It started off thin, which I prefer, and then gets thicker with time and had a great umami going:

What size/shape dutch ovens are we using here? I have a round Le Cru but I need more surface area-- but not so much that I can't heat evenly with a big burner.

Looks good 27. This weekend is going to be the first Diablo chili of the year!

That one is 11" diameter, pretty much a standard round one I think. Looks like same as one Wookie was using on that pork crack.

And the two plates in the back/left are bacon fat in my dead cat's food dish and skim from a meat sauce I made well over a week ago because THAT'S HOW I ROLL.

I'd say stagger the cooking times rather than dumping it all in together, but that kind of defeats the purpose of a stew and it looks good.

I don't remember exactly the dimensions, but I use the largest round enameled Dutch oven that Lodge makes.

Best herb-butter mixture for chicken Kiev?

I only lurk this thread occasionally, but it's absolutely fantastic - great job and much respect to everyone involved.

I don't cook much, but I saw yim's post that mentioned an amazing cereal that's apparently worth $14 that you can get shipped to you.

I was intrigued enough to click the link, and it had a countdown page that said the next batch of cereal would be ready to order in a few days, which would be today at 12 pm et/ 9 am pt. I leave the tab open and wait diligently, and at first I was just curious, but after a couple days, I'm feeling like I really want to try this ****ing cereal!

So this morning, I happen to be online right before 9 am, and I click the link, and it says 3 min to go. I refresh the page right at 9, and it won't load. Try again a few min later, and still nothing. Every other page loads fine. Keep trying every few min, and it's always busy, it won't ever load. An hour later, the page finally loads, and...

...it's sold out for the entire holiday season! Hyachachachacha! What kind of ****ing cereal has a countdown page and sells out in an hour without you even getting a chance to order it?!

So, what I'm really trying to say is:

LOL, sorry amigo. The same thing happened to me last week, I called them and asked WTF? And the gal I spoke to was super nice and said she'd make sure I got some if I had the same problem next week (which was this morning since the convo was from last Friday).

Did you try today or last week?

I did it again this morning and bought 12 boxes and unfortunately today is the last day to buy online but I suspect you can still buy from the stores if you happen to be in or near NYC soon

PS:



Looks like I'll be making some stew, all the recent pics have me salivating, nice work all!

Some hobo stew after you blew your roll on $16.50 cereal + shipping. Ha I remember when DINKS would spend money on stuff like BMWs.