Jesus is completely horrified by this project and is trying to make the family meals look better.

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Today’s family meal: grits and broccoli, eggs and a sundried tomato salad.

Friday’s family meal.

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Banana smoothies, mushroom soup and a tiny bit of bread. This looks truly pathetic.

Thanks to everyone who voted for Dirt Candy in Metromix’s “Best of NYC” poll! Because we won “Best Vegetarian Restaurant!” Yay! Winning! Feels good! Tastes like bunnies! Lasts forever!

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This means that you guys have made Dirt Candy the “Best Vegetarian Restaurant” in amNew York, L Magazine, Citysearch and now Metromix. And we were honored for having the city’s “Best Grits” by the Village Voice. Every single one of these accolades is because of you. By eating here, by telling your friends, by letting me know what you like and dislike and by voting you’ve done this. Thank you! Now give yourself the rest of the day off!

Thursday family meal.

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Raspberry banana smoothies and gluten-free pasta with olives, tomato, tofu, cheese, corn and portobellos. It’s true – we’re using up a lot of leftovers.

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Wednesday’s family meal.

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Ha! I bet you were expecting some inspirational food. Not here. Almost-stale bread, salad with fried tofu and avocado and chickpea soup.

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Here’s Tuesday’s family meal.

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Those eggs appear a lot during family meal. Also: salad. All the time. Because we always have extra salad.

If you work in a restaurant, you live on family meal. It’s the meal some unlucky soul in the kitchen cooks for the rest of the staff and it’s usually made up of leftovers, food that is about to go bad, food that just went bad but won’t kill you yet, food that was over-ordered or anything else you can find. It’s also a nice moment in the kitchen where you make food for each other, and it marks when the daytime prep people leave (usually) and everyone working service begins getting ready in earnest.

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Dirt Candy is open roughly 240 days a year, and I thought it might be fun to document family meals here day-by-day so customers can see what the kitchen is eating. So, starting today, we’re doing a feature on this blog called 240 Family Meals, with low quality photos taken on my beat-to-hell cell phone of each day’s family meal.

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Saturday was Antonio’s birthday. He’s our dishwasher and he works harder than anyone here. So for his birthday, Kristen (our server) brought in food from the Mexican place around the corner and cupcakes, as well as a supply of the sangria sodas that he really likes.

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On Thursday, February 18, Dirt Candy is hosting a special Honey Dinner with Ted Dennard, the founder of the Savannah Bee Company and one of the country’s number one experts on honey. Ted founded the Savannah Bee Company in 1998, bottling Tupelo honey in his kitchen and selling it at an antique store. These days, his artisanal honey is carried by Williams-Sonoma, Dean & DeLuca, Nieman-Marcus, Bloomingdale’s and a bunch of other places. We have a mutual friend, and have been talking about doing this for a while and the time has finally come to pull the trigger and submerge Dirt Candy in a bottomless pool of cool, golden honey.

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There will be two seatings, one at 6pm and one at 9pm. Ted will be at each seating talking to you about the honey I’m using, answering questions about honey and beekeeping and letting you taste the pure stuff that’ll be cooked into dishes on the menu. The menu will be a five course tasting.

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snack

Hush Puppies with Sourwood Honey Butter

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first course

Carrot Soup with Tupelo Honey Pearls and Cheddar Powder

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second course

Winter Salad with Maple Smoked Squash, Meyer Lemon and Winter White Honey Dressing and Apple Blue Cheese Croutons

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third course

Crispy King Oyster Mushrooms with warm Orange Blossom Honey Vinaigrette, Mint, Feta and wilted greens

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fourth course

Acacia Honey Laquered Tofu with Green Ragout and Grapefruit beurre blanc

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palate cleanser

Honeydew melon sorbet

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dessert

Chocolate Honeycombs (the cereal) and Raspberry Honey Ice Cream with Ricotta Fritters

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These are all variations on dishes I’ve made here at Dirt Candy, revved up and reinvented to center around all the different kinds of honey Ted is bringing. The price is $65/person, and wine is included. The only thing not included is tax and tip. Also, this menu may change as we tweak the dishes and make them better as the 18th approaches.

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Hey, look! It’s Ted in his honey cave.

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You CANNOT make a reservation on Open Table for February 18 because it’s too hard to reconfigure their system for one night, so if you want to come, or if you have any questions, just call the restaurant (212-228-7732). I promise, by the time Ted and I are through with you you’ll know more about honey than you ever thought possible.

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(The Savannah Bee Company website)

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Lots of people seem to enjoy posting reviews on Yelp! And so I just posted one about the low quality graffiti that appeared on the front of Dirt Candy recently. Seriously, I’m very disappointed in the level of this artist’s work.

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Here’s a link to my Yelp! review of this hackwork.

So I was just about to put up a post on the class I’m teaching on February 7th over at the Astor Center all about cooking vegetables and I find out it’s sold out. I’m so sorry I didn’t let blog readers know about it earlier – I really didn’t think it would sell out this fast. I’m still getting used to this self-promotion stuff.

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Here’s more information about the class, and if you want me to teach another one over there then let Kimberly Koharki at the Astor Center know. Also, I’ve got a couple of more classes I’m teaching coming up, as well as some special events at Dirt Candy this winter and spring, so I’ll make sure I get the word up here much earlier next time. Sorry!

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