Thought for Food

Is there an unsaid rule that bar cookies have to be heavy and gooey? Two weeks ago […] I fell for something in the bakery case called peach shortbread, cut into bars. But instead of being thick and intense, it was delicate, light and barely sweet — a thin layer of shortbread, even thinner slices of peach and the faintest sprinkling of streusel on top. I knew I had to share it.

We’re glad you did, SK, so very glad you did.

nadia-muses:

orecchiette in feta sauce, with roasted turkey and sun-dried tomatoes: fear not the white pasta! show it love with feta and tender roasted turkey. this dish makes people smile - i’ve seen it!

We eat no pasta in our home. M. keeps that girlish figure with a strict regimen of lean proteins, grilled vegetables, and Kettle chips. The man is a slut for Kettle chips. I like to keep my sugars and carbs where I can see them: homemade chocolate chip cookies (or these).* However something like this — where the pasta is almost a condiment — looks appealing. The only problem is that M. is a purist: he insists that if pasta is on the offing it be the star, as the Italians do. Sigh. You can’t please a slut and a purist. (For more on pasta-as-condiment, see this.)

* Not quite true, I also make judicious use of carbs in whole wheat pizza and greens pie.

I skipped the food-photos (yes, I DO skip food-photos) but a few weeks ago we ate at Vandaag, a new Dutch restaurant on 2nd Ave., and it was terrific. I recommend sitting at the bar: inspired genever and aquavit cocktails served by six-foot-three Dutchmen. Proost!

PS: The interior is as good-looking as the barkeep.

The sexiest office this city has ever known: the Campbell Apartment, hidden away in the southwest corner of Grand Central Station. It was leased by John Campbell, millionaire financier and original gangsta, from William K. Vanderbilt II in 1923. The office, inspired by a 13th-century Florentine palace, included an enormous faux fireplace where Campbell kept a steel safe (wonder what he had to hide), hand-painted plaster of Paris ceiling, an art collection worth more than $1 million, and “a Persian carpet that took up the entire floor and was said to have cost $300,000 at the time, or roughly $3.5 million today.” A butler named Stackhouse oversaw operations.

Something tells me Mr. Campbell didn’t get a lot of work done in this “office.” Can you imagine the late-night parties he held, fueled by cases of illegal French champagne and elegant little sniffs of, ahem, smelling salts?

After his death in 1957, the Apartment fell into disrepair and over the decades served as a storage closet, signalman’s office, and even a jail.

In 1999, it was renovated and opened as a bar. The cocktails and wine list are lousy but, my, what a view!

Lunch: gazpacho & “revelations” about Sarah Palin (let’s face it, we knew it all already).

Spherical Ice Tray ($16): the smart way to chill sipping spirits and spirit-forward cocktails. (Way smarter than those rocks.) The larger the ice, the slower it melts. Alternately: Tovolo King Cube Extra Large Silicone Ice Cube Trays.

It should come as no surprise that we have both. If you think my boyfriend is obsessed with ice (he is), get a load of those crazy Japanese: $2000 spherical ice molds are par for the course (catch one in action Stateside at PDT). Whenever she returned from trips to her mother’s homeland, our former roommate brought back assorted ice toys for M., including a spherical tray. If nothing else, it’s pretty (be sure to use boiled water).

(Via heyyoushouldbuythis.)

Fantasy dinner party!

The carrot growers got together and spent $25 million on a marketing campaign? So now I can call them Big Carrot?! HAHAHAHAHAHHAA.

But seriously: “Eat [and package] ‘em like junk food.” This won’t end well. (There’s more to eating well than this.)

redesignrelated (via karenh):

Crispin Porter + Bogusky gives baby carrots the junk food treatment.

“…Just in time for the battle over what’s gonna be in millions of back-to-school lunches, Bolthouse Farms and nearly 50 other carrot growers today will unveil plans for the industry’s first-ever marketing campaign. The $25 million effort sets its sights on a giant, big-spending rival: junk food…”
—via USA Today