Over the weekend, I went to the Guggenheim Museum to see Cai Guo-Qiang’s exhibit, I Want to Believe. Here are some shots:
It was my first time at the Guggenheim, but I thought the exhibit was interesting. Thanks to Ariel for getting us free passes! The exhibit is going on through May 28th (a day before my 24th birthday!)
For a while, I was really obsessed with Philly cheese steaks. So obsessed, in fact, that on Friday nights, I would take the Acela from Penn Station to Philadelphia so I could get my hands on a cheese steak from Geno’s. Since riding the train for 3 hours is not something I’m going to do on a regular basis, I need to find a place the satisfy my cravings for globs of cheese, meat, and white bread. 99 Miles to Philly is one of my favorite places to go, but since it’s not in a good location for me (and delivery is sometimes too slow), I need to find something closer and more convenient. BB Sandwich Bar, located in Greenwich village, is walking distance from Chris’ house, so I was really excited to hear they have great (but unconventional) cheese steaks. The place is owned and operated by Gary Thompson, who came up with the idea after closing his upscale restaurant following 9/11. Thompson only sells one thing – cheese steaks:
However, he shares the space with Tonnie’s, a cupcake store:
We were there for the cheese steaks, but the cupcakes were tempting (another time, I had to tell myself, another time).
BB Sandwich Bar’s cheese steaks aren’t served on a baguette or hoagie bread, it’s served on a poppyseed kaiser roll (it’s round! blasphemy!). The special ingredients of Bb’s sandwich are the caramelized onions (which are marinated for a minimum of FOUR hours) and Thompson’s “special sauce,” which is a ketchup-based relish that he makes himself. The result is a tasty sandwich:
It’s definitely not a conventional cheese steak (I wouldn’t even CALL it a cheese steak), but it’s satisfying and the flavors work together really well. The white American cheese is creamy and tastes so milky and delicious and brings the sandwich’s different flavors together. If you want to try recreating the recipe, go here.
BB Sandwich Bar is cheap ($5.00) and they make it even cheaper for NYPD/FDNY/NYU students ($3.50). I’ll definitely be calling again to satiate my cravings for cheese steaks.
After David and I found our new apartment, we were wandering around Chelsea and wanted to get a quick bite to eat. David suggested Qdoba, but I’m not a big fan (I like Chipotle more), so we decided to try Better Burger. I walk by the place a lot, but have never stopped by because Chris said he didn’t like the place. Since Chris wasn’t with us, David and I stopped by and ordered cheeseburgers and fries:
Better Burger has antibiotic, hormone, and nitrate free meat, organic fries, and organic buns. My cheeseburger might have been healthy compared to a McDonald’s burger, but it lacked any taste and was extremely greasy:
A “healthy” burger shouldn’t lack all kinds of taste, SHOULD IT?! Better Burger’s meat was dry and their cheese was greasy; there were more condiments than anything else on the burger. I ordered a value meal that also came with fries:
The fries are supposedly more “airy” than other places, but I found them to be really stale and tasteless.
If you’re in the mood for a burger around the Chelsea area, skip Better Burger and go to Corner Bistro instead.
As a kid living in the midwest, the closest I ever got to Eleni’s cookies was a Dean and Deluca catalog. Moving to New York allowed me to finally see the cookies IRL (sensory overload!):
Eleni’s has the most beautifully decorated sugar cookies and it makes me act like a fat kid in a candy store. The store is all white with countertops of packaged sugar cookies and Godiva chocolates. For Easter, they turned Christmas trees upside down, hung them from the ceiling, and placed egg-shaped sugar cookies all over the tree:
After a lazy Saturday afternoon strolling around Chelsea market, I walked into Eleni’s and found out that everything behind their counter was HALF OFF. Yes, you read that correctly – an hour before they close, all of the cookies, cupcakes, and other sweets are 50% off, forcing you to purchase twice as much. I bought a chocolate chip cookie, a penguin sugar cookie, and this pink cupcake with sprinkles:
Proudly displaying my purchase:
To tell you the truth, the cupcake wasn’t that great. The icing wasn’t sweet enough and tasted too buttery and thick. Also, the actual cupcake was a little stale (probably because it had been sitting outside the entire day). The cookies, on the other hand, were incredibly good and I licked the bag afterwards to make sure I got all of the crumbs. I kept the penguin cookie overnight for a Sunday morning treat and ate the penguin body part by body part giving myself a little party in my mouth. I’ll definitely be back for the cookies, but not the cupcakes – I’d rather go to Billy’s!
Today, I went to Chelsea Market (my new favorite hangout) to pick up some skate for dinner. While I was there, I was tempted to stop by Milk Bar to have some ice cream and an egg in the hole, but I remembered Milk Bar only serves their egg dishes for breakfast during the weekdays (they’re served all day on the weekends, if you’re interested). Instead of waiting until the weekend, I decided to buy the ingredients to make the dish myself. I asked the guys at the counter of Milk Bar if they knew where they got their bacon and cheese, but they told me their meat and cheese came from a store in Brooklyn that only sells wholesale.
Since I wasn’t getting very far on my egg in the hole adventure, I decided to pick up a loaf of whole wheat bread from Amy’s (they were sold out of rye bread!!) and improvise. On my way out, Adam Roberts, the host of The FN dish (and author of The Amateur Gourmet), stopped me in the street to chat with Robin Miller, host of Quick Fix Meals with Robin Miller. We started talking about making eggs in the hole and Robin gave me some tips (I’ve never made one before, but it seemed like an easy task). After chatting with Robin and Adam, I stopped by Murray’s cheeses for some cheese and bacon (Grafton cheddar and applewood bacon). Here are all of the ingredients:
Any type of bread will do, but I really like the taste of rye with this dish. Since rye wasn’t available, the next option for me was whole wheat (just as tasty and it has more of a bite than white bread). I originally bought some turkey bacon, but when I was at Murray’s, I saw Niman Ranch applewood bacon without nitrates or nitrites, so I picked it up as a special treat (at $10 for 9 slices, it’s expensive!). You can use turkey bacon (or regular bacon) if you can’t find applewood. Grafton cheddar is aged for a year and I think it’s sharper than other cheddars. If you can’t find Grafton, try using a sharp cheddar instead. You’ll also need eggs (organic are the best but any egg will do) and butter.
Step 1:
After you assemble all of your materials, slice a piece of bread (about 3/4 inch thick) and use a cup to cut a hole in the center of the slice. Robin Miller uses a biscuit cutter to make the hole, but I have no biscuit cutter and have no intention of buying one anytime soon. You can use a cookie cutter to make cool designs if you have them. After I made the hole in the bread, I toasted it and spread butter on both sides.
Step 2:
Bacon on the skillet – I don’t use extra butter or oil because there’s so much fat already (but you’re welcome to do so if you’d like).
Step 3:
Place the bacon on paper towels to get rid of excess oil. There should be a little puddle of oil in the pan – don’t pour that down the kitchen sink!! Put it in a container and throw it out in the garbage (otherwise the fat will congeal and it’ll be a huge mess). It’s okay to let the bacon cool because we’ll be putting it on the egg in the hole and throwing it in the oven.
Step 4:
Crack the egg and place it in the pan with the bread. There might be some leakage of the egg white, but it’s okay!!
Step 5:
I like a runny yolk so I didn’t flip over the toast, but if you have children, it’s a good idea to cook the egg all the way through. After the egg is cooked for about 2 minutes (you’ll notice that the egg white is cooked through on the bottom), put a piece of cheddar on top and add the bacon as well.
Step 6:
Throw the skillet into the oven (I set it on broil). I let it go in for about 3 minutes, but it depends on your oven (just watch to make sure the cheese melts).
Step 7:
Out of the oven!
Step 8:
Gooey egg yolk!
Success!
If I were to make it again (and I will be making it again in the morning), I’d make sure cheese covered all of the bread (healthy, I know). Also, I’d add another piece of bacon.
I hope you enjoyed my egg in the hole tutorial – I’m going to try taping some of them for a youtube/vimeo show soon and I’ll post them here once I finish. Let me know if you try making eggs in the hole and whether or not it was a success!
