Porno Apples

On the way out this morning, passed a Burger King and saw this sign. OK, they're selling pre-cut fresh apples to kids. But really, aren't they trying to make a connection in adult and children's minds that for food to be fun, it must resemble deeply unhealthy food? Like for sex to be fun, it must be like a porn movie?

AM SNACK: 8am, swig of apple cider

BREAKFAST: 11am, half a bagel with cream cheese and salmon, pickle, chocolate babka, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, chocolate babka, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, popcorn, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, three kinds of Roman pizza, a little fava bean salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Dinner at Pala with T and B, a pizza place thats a bit more upscale and pushing Roman-style, the oblong stuff with less-sauce focused toppings. I had a Buffala crudo, which was tomato water, whole cherry tomatoes, then finished with hunks of cold buffalo moz and lots of basil. Good, but needed salt, the crust was fluffy but flavorless, could've stayed in the oven for another 5 minutes. B got a pumpkin thing that was also under seasoned and didn't really taste like pumpkin -- must of been out of a tin. Still, nice crust mouthfeel. T's was vegan potato-pesto thing with odd moz soy-cheese, and the potato must of been pre-fried or something, because it was just too greasy. I've made potato-pizza at the Prospect Heights joint, and was soooo much better than this.

Pala has an Italaforno oven, three decks, similar to the one at the DUMBO restaurant, except they were running then at 325 degrees -- no wonder the pies seemed a bit pale-tasting! I wonder why they do that.....it increases cooking time and prevents browning.

Bad Pizza Day

Whatta pizza day! No class, met L at the 'rant at 8:30 and we drove out to Maspeth (the last big scary industrial section of Brooklyn, just low rise warehouses around industrial equipment, dirty canals, some streets not paved), which was a thrill simply because I've ridden my bike through many times over the years but never had any personal connection to the area. We went to a large food purveyor who specializes in Italian food, and we got the grand tour. They spent a few hours with us talking about our needs, and gave us plenty of samples. We toured their gelato classroom (because they sell a large line of pre-made mixes and equipment) and were invited to come back for classes. Huh. A few weeks ago my class did a tour of another food distributor, and we were treated well, but nothing like this. Money talks and BS walks. I feel like I just went from playing basic dungeons & dragons to being in the middle of an advanced game! It was a lot of fun, seeing all the Italian meats and cheeses in the refrigerated warehouse. We sampled a few little things, and we were on our way.

We got various Italian grilled vegetables, all pre-packed in air-tight containers in a vinegar solution. We tried them on our pizzas, and they were all uniformly crappy, all flavors muted to a very flat and boring vinegar flavor. The seafood salad was absolutely picked by the stuff. It made the pizza dance a little bit like salt would, but after being in the mouth for a few more seconds, kind of dominated and killed it. Oh well.

I spent the evening at my culinary school for a recreational class on Roman pizza with the chef who taught my pastry mod when I was in school for the arts program. It was a bit disappointing -- I thought we'd geek out on specifically Roman style things, but really it was a generic pizza class with a few different toppings thrown in (zucchini flowers, potato), but it turned into a free for all by the end and most people made margs or garbage pies. Between being exhausted from the day, feeling a bit out of place among the the very nice but inexperienced enthusiasts, and just wanting to go home and squeeze my wife, it wasn't the most fun ever.

One thing I did notice was the incredibly poor quality of the pies we were producing, and it made me think of why. One, the oven was electric, and the chef explained they had to keep the three decks at 450, or it would blow out the circuit -- thin pizza really should cook at a minimum of 550. Another, the dough -- it was too wet and hard to work with, a bit tricky for me, very hard for the new hands. That wet, you can't really get it thin. I would give credit for the high quality ingredients, but everyone was throwing too much on their pies and making a lot of sloppy messes. I made a simple potato-caramelized onion-sweet sausage thing, which I finished with small dollops of cold ricotta (L's technique) and it was ok, the crust just wasn't browned and didn't have the brown flavor.

I sampled a lot of people's pies looking for inspiration, and was only surprised by one, simply because it was the ugliest of the class, but also the best tasting. The dough was not stretched enough, so it was round but small and stood high. It looked like it had a lot of sauce and cheeses strewn on top without much thought. -sigh- I took a bite and....huh? Wots this? The crust was light and airy, and while it was chewier more than crisp, there was a bit of a contrast. The thicker crust held up to the topping, giving some balance. It tasted....good! I'd pay for this. It occurred to me, in talking with L, that the ideal for Sicilian pizza is 450 degrees, and this person in a roundabout way made a thick crust pizza -- he or she should have let is sit in the oven for another 10 minutes to make it sing, but it was still pretty good. -huh- I'm glad I went, I learned an important pizza lesson despite my snobbery!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, small piece of chocolate babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3-4pm, equivalent of 2 slices with assorted seafood and vegetable toppings, 2 small sodas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, assorted mini slices of student pizza, half glass of wine, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, small amount of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5

No Pizza Day

Good day, class in the morning was invigorating as we're getting into more interesting matters -- supervision of a restaurant, which happens to run parallel with what I'm doing in the afternoon. L and I took a trip into Manhattan to pick up the liquor license then hit up Katz's for lunch before spending the day on the Bowery, looking at equipment and dishware. It was kinda cool going into Bari, the main manufacturer and distributor of pizza equipment on the East Coast. I think I may go back and buy a proper peel to replace my fartsy Batalli peel. And I found the good pint glasses you can never get at Ikea!...

BREAKFAST: 7am, organic chex with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, 2 cart donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, half a pastrami sandwich, half an order of fries, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:45pm, fried catfish, mashed potatoes, spinach, mini corn dogs, BBQ ribs, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, handful of chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hidden deep and away from B, gobbler of all that is sweet!

Kelly Clarkson, why am I not turning the TV off?

A day of class then restaurant. End of day, feel wiped. Kelly Clarkson is on American Idol. Trying to edit all the collateral I'm designing and editing for the shop. Ate so many baked good today, not enough veg. Got some salad in at the end of day, though.

BREAKFAST: 7am, handful of apple mini muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart donut stick thing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1-3pm, equivalent of 2 slices of pizza, 1 small sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, shrimp pad thai, green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Spent a good part of the day making sausage, frankfurters in particular. Had all my ingredients in line, grabbed a recipe off the internets, remembered the technique from school, did the triple grind, cooling things along the way, etc etc. Boiled gently for 20 minutes, took a bite and.....yuck! Something didn't work, the texture was crumbly and dry, the flavor less like hot dog and more like bland boiled meat. Not sure what I did wrong, have some suspicions.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, chocolate chip muffin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices pizza
Out of the freezer, from the Prospect Heights resto. Good, it's been in the back of the freezer for 6 weeks and still cooked up well, no off flavors. Scary how I was desiring this for lunch despite eating this stuff professionally.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 5 pork dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At my favorite cheapo dumpling house in Chinatown with K.

DINNER: 8:15pm, baby carrots and potato chips, granola and dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

Lovely Dinner with a side of guilt

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30-4pm, various pizza slices, 1 sprite, half glass of prosecco, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Things developing slowly at the restaurant, hope to be open next week. Had some practice stretching and topping pies, finding the subtlety in L's style, the logic in his distribution and balance. We worked more on the Apple & Ricotta pie, this time with a small base layer of moz and more honey. Needs less honey, more apple, apple needs to be peeled and maybe a tangier cheese to contract with the apple. Delicious as all hell with the cold florettes of smooth ricotta, but can be better.

DINNER: 7:30pm, bread and butter, waygu carpaccio, half a suckling pig, bluefoot mushrooms, gnocchi, pork risotto, pureed potatoes, chocolate waffle with chocolate sauce and roasted banana & peanut butter caramel-crunch ice cream, mint tea, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Birthday dinner for brother in law at Craft, one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Food was outstanding, but the style of service -- food delivered on family-style platters, coming out when they are ready instead of all at once -- seems a bit out of step with expectations. Still, enjoyed myself greatly, though the check made me feel guilty -- perhaps this money should've been given to charity or kept in savings or something?

Wobbly Day

Too much going on, felt ill all day after oversleeping, probably too much pizza and too little sleep. Better too much pizza than too much crank or booze, huh?

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, large handful of apple cinnamon mini muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Notes on the 3rd week in a row of making these minis: Closer. I've got the cooking method and time down -- 375 for 15 minutes, let finish cooking in pan for about 5-10 minutes after leaving the oven. And premix all liquids with shredded apple before gently folding into the dry minimally. I let some small pockets of dry mix go, they got absorbed in the cooking, and came out nice and soft and tender.

Need to reduce the salt from 1 teaspoon to maybe 3/4 teaspoon. Up the cinnamon for 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoon. More vanilla from 2 beans to 4 beans. Instead of sprinkling brown sugar on top, maybe a brown sugar glaze?

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, hammentashen, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
A religious organization left little purim kits on everyone's doors, and I was just coming out of a couch-driven haze...

DINNER: 7pm, pasta a la Noah, Gatorade, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hunger comes back. Boiled some pasta, made an odd pan sauce with everything in the fridge: chicken stock, white wine, heavy cream, olive oil, butter, garlic, chives, Worcester sauce, a random firm cheese from the farmer's market, grape tomatoes, salt. Good but unfocused.