Filed under: trayf | Tags: apple crisp, beer, bel air, brooklyn, carnitas, ear farm, fleisher's, gowanus, gowanus canal, hop obama, jewish, marlow and sons, music, pork, six point, tacos, the yard, tom mylan, yom kippur
Friday, October 10, the day following Yom Kippur, a Jew’s last chance to repent for the previous year’s vice. With the final blasts of the ram’s horn fading into whispery memory, all is somehow forgiven. But with these last moments of ritual comes a hunger– not just that feeling in your stomach from an all-day fast, if indeed your observance compelled you. It’s your soul’s momentary redemption, and with a clean slate and a fresh start, you begin to hunger anew for sin. Which is to say, you begin to hunger anew for swine.
Your despicable impulses take you to the banks of the most fetid body of water on the Eastern seaboard.
Can you smell that smell? The Gowanus Canal. (photos: Jill)
In the yard, a menacing beer line forms…
$1 Six Point Hop Obamas from 6-7pm. Election season has never tasted so delicious.
Bel Air strikes up a delightfully thunderous twang in celebration of Ear Farm‘s third birthday.
A 200-pound, organic, grass-fed heritage hog from upstate’s Fleisher’s gets its final flavor seal.
Marlow and Sons’ Tom Mylan slices pig, distributes cracklins. Holy Moses, indeed.
It is laid on a table for serving… (click for larger version)
Tacos de carnitas.
Apple crisp. This has no pork in it.
Darkness plunges the canal into a murky glow of streetlight, ignominy hidden.
Filed under: trayf | Tags: atlanta, barbeque, bbq, chattanooga, food, georgia, jeff goldstein, jewish, kosher, motorcycle week, new hampshire, ossipee, pork, rib & loin, ribs, route 16, southern, sticky fingers, tennessee, wolfeboro, yankee smokehouse
This post is a follow-up to this one.
A Jewish gentleman stood before a delicatessen display counter and pointed to a tray. “I’ll have a pound of that salmon,” he said.
“That’s not salmon,” the clerk said. “It’s ham.”
“Mister,” the customer snapped, “in case nobody ever told you, you got a big mouth.”
So yeah: Jews like to dig on the swine. And while I’m admittedly the worst possible spokesperson for American (let alone world) Jewry, I can safely declare that most Jews do not observe the laws of kashrut, nor do they shy away from pig partaking. No guilt, no sense of over-indulgence, just eating. This may seem obvious to Jewish readers, but I’m often bemused by non-Jews who are shocked that I (or you, or you) eat pork.
The whole thing only became enigmatic this past weekend when a group of us, embarking on a trip to enjoy New Hampshire’s beautiful nature and lakes, rolled up to the Yankee Smokehouse on Route 16 in West Ossipee. Boasts of the “largest open-pit this side of the Mason Dixon line” along with claims of Southern authenticity piqued our interest. (Also, we were very hungry.) And since our party happened to contain four Jews, two of whom were from the South (Atlanta and Tennessee), we were intent on setting the record straight.
In addition to it being the Shabbos, we also forgot that it was motorcycle weekend.
Fortunately the bikers mostly wanted to sit outside which meant there was still space for us.
The Friday night spread: pork ribs, baby-back ribs, beans, cole slaw, corn on the cob, a whole chicken, sliced beef, sliced pork,…
… really good sauce (I thought).
But without further ado, the judges weigh in. Continue reading
Filed under: adventures, trayf | Tags: carpaccio, food, horse burger, razor clams, seafood, sgroppino, slovenia, tartufo, trattoria alla madonna
A tempting schmear of things consumed and imbibed while in Slovenia and surroundings…
A glass of Puro Rose, along with the spiritual conviction of its creator, is enough to command the attention of everyone in the room.
Tagliata di manzo in Brda
Fresh salami in Movia’s kitchen
Razor clams, obtainable only by saying the shema at an Adriatic coral reef ; tagliatelle al tartufo
Hearty digestifs, not for the faint of stomach
Carpaccio on a bed of arugula in Ljubljana. We later had a chance to try the original carpaccio preparation– as well as the original freshly-puréed bellini– at the famed Harry’s Bar in Venice.
Ljubljana. Student discounts available
Venice
Potato purée topped with bacon
Sgroppino: lemon gelato mixed with Prosecco and a little vodka
Filed under: brooklyn, People, stustustudio, sunset park, trayf | Tags: david griffin, music, park slope, pork ribs, prospect heights, sunset park
Some images* and thoughts from the first weekend in 2008, which was a mild and beautiful one here in NYC.
First, I run into Yasmine Alwan in Park Slope. It’s been too long and it’s nice to see her.
Jill and I go to Two Boots in Brooklyn. I never realized until recently what Two Boots meant (the “boots” of Italy and Louisiana) though it’s apparent now in much of their imagery. Back in the day, I used to play here with Mike Mermin. Many happy memories. We eat oyster po’boys and steaks and share a pizza. We meet Tali Shmulovich and her 17-year-old brother John to see John’s guitar teacher’s band, a New Orleans-style mix of Dr. John-tinged blues and R&B.
Excellent musicianship abounds.
We dance.
The next morning (well, afternoon since it starts to get dark), Jill and I meet Yasmine in Prospect Heights for brunch. The area’s residents are infuriated by the large-scale ugly land development occurring here.
Jill helps me demo a new Hebrew School song which uses certain familiar liturgical lyrics (hint– the words can be sung to the tune of La Marseillaise or “I Want it That Way” by the Backstreet Boys, though we won’t, and we’re not).
We take a walk in Sunset Park (i.e., the park which is the neighborhood’s namesake). It continually acquires more and more beauty for me.
Directly above: Is this fountain a reified imaginary personification of the park?
…or is this?
The weekend is finished appropriately with pork ribs.
Is the park pork, or is the pork the punctum of the park?
—
* I found my camera, thus keeping my word about the new year.
Another post about Sunset Park.
Filed under: food, jewish, trayf | Tags: balducci's, chanukah, claudine longet, fenner leland and o'brien, latkes, nancykay shapiro
Allegedly on display at Balducci’s, via NancyKay Shapiro.
Fortunately I later made latkes while listening to Claudine Longet and Fenner, Leland & O’Brien. Perhaps the onions made me cry more…
Hebrew School 