I’m not a huge fan of Rieslings, and for some reason there’s a bit of hard-to-shake folk wisdom that says Rieslings go well with vegetables, which means that every vegetarian restaurant has a selection of overly-sweet, perfumed Rieslings on their wine list. But when I met the Hugel Gentil 2007 I was won over. It’s not just a Riesling, but a blend of all the noble grape varietals in the Alsace region – spicy Gewurztraminer, big bodied Pinot Gris, subtle Riesling, intense Muscat and refreshing Sylvaner – a blend called a “gentil.” It’s an old tradition and the resultant wine is perfect for folks who like Rieslings, but as Kristen (our noble server) is fond of saying, “It’s not your grandma’s Riesling.”
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Longtime blog readers know about our longtime crusade against Engineer Andy Jakes and Dr. Allan Brad, the evil masterminds behind the notorious Oil Rig scam that preys on restaurants. But now, it seems this strange scam is spreading to other industries. A tour booker who arranges tours of Niagara Falls was recently contacted by a member of the oil rig scam cartel who wanted to pay for a $79 tour with a $1000 charge on their credit card. The tour organizer Googled the guy’s name and found Dirt Candy, crying out in the wilderness, “Beware the Oil Rig Scam!”
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Then a restaurant in Washington, DC almost got rooked, but they were very suspicious of these oil rig workers who wanted to dine at their restaurant for three straight nights and pay in the world’s most complicated manner. Fortunately their assistant manager knew of the Dirt Candy blog and their suspicions were confirmed. They passed on the info to the FBI. Excitement!
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Oil rig worker caught in the act of using
internet tubes to scam a restaurant.
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Sometimes you come across a website that hates something so specific, and hates it with such passion, that you have to step back in admiration. Train Pigs is such a site. Whoever put this site together is repulsed – scandalized! horrified! – by people who eat on the subway and so they’ve put together a gallery of photos of people sucking up food on the dirty, dirty NYC subway. But it’s not the photos that won me over, it’s the captions, which are little nuggets of molten bile, barely cool enough to read without burning your eyes. Sample: “Parents who are train pigs, have children who are train pigs.” and “Thanks for the daring shot of this man eating broccoli and garlic. What a vile, disgusting creature.”
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Go, go to TrainPigs and bask in the hate. It is truly refreshing, like a Finnish sauna for your soul!
For Christmas this year I received one of the coolest and most baffling presents I’ve ever gotten. My sister-in-law and brother-in-law (sort of, they’re not married but have been together forever, plus they’ve got a fire pit behind their house and do yoga and ceramics together so that’s like being married) go down to Costa Rica all the time. They’re the kind of people who, instead of having a retirement plan they buy a plot of cheap land in Costa Rica, plant 1,000 hard wood trees, hire a family to live on the land and take care of it and plan to cash it in about 20 years from now when they’re ready to retire and the trees are mature. They’re like hippies who are good with money.
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So while they were down putting in their tree farm this year, my brother-in-law bought this giant hunk of raw cacao paste.
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He gave it to me for Christmas. It came wrapped in leaves.
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It’s really awesome, but my question is: what do I do with it? It tastes bitter and dark and intense. I know what to do with it in general but I want to do something really fun with it. But what? I guess I could glue on two googly eyes and sleep with it like a teddy bear but I’d like to have a plan for it that involves cooking.
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Raw cacao, you complete me.
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Everyone’s doing Twitter these days, and I guess peer pressure finally got to me. However, I won’t be tweeting about my emotional state – I’ll be tweeting about table availability.
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Dirt Candy only has nine, two-person tables and so most of our business is reservations. However, I do get the occasional cancellation or no-show and there are sometimes tables available for walk-ins. I don’t know about these tables until the day of, and so I thought I’d open our reservation books and let you see what’s available and when via Twitter. Most restaurants treat their reservation books like classified information for some reason but I want you to be able to figure out what tables are available if you get a last minute urge to swing by for dinner.
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So if you want to walk in, just go to the Dirt Candy Twitter feed (you don’t have to sign up with Twitter to view it). It’ll say things like, “Tables available at 7:30 and 10,” for that day. I’ll update it throughout the evening. Then give us a call and we’ll hold your table. This is not a perfect system, but it’s better than blind guessing and we’ll make adjustments as it goes along.
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For easy reference:
Dirt Candy Twitter Feed.
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If you have any better ideas on how this can work, or if there are any changes you want to suggest, drop me an email. I’m always happy to listen (info at dirtcandynyc dot com).
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What is the internet made for besides pornography? Voting! And voting is better because you can tell your friends about it. Right now Metromix is doing their “Best of New York” voting and Dirt Candy is nominated for “Best Vegetarian Restaurant.” Come on, everyone! We can win this! Democracy in action!
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Vote for Dirt Candy here.
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Democracy cat wants you to vote
for him to get a bigger box!
(And for Dirt Candy to win
“Best Vegetarian Restaurant!”)
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The last new item on our winter menu are the Sweet Potato Puffs with Brown Sugar Ice Cream, Sweet Potato Sorbet and Sour Cream Ice Cream.
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They’re more like tiny ice cream sandwiches than anything.
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The most recent addition to our winter menu is Parsnip Gnocchi with Creamy Root Vegetable Slaw, Sour Red Cabbage and Carrot Crumbs. Also, Cheddar Powder.
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But I’m exhausted and tired of all these words, words, words. So after the jump, an all pictures n’captions tour of the Parsnip Gnocchi, from raw ingredients, through cooking and beyond.
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As much as I loved the mixed green salad with candied grapefruit pops and grilled cheese croutons, we’re in the middle of a brutal winter right now and it’s time for a change. So please welcome our new Pumpkin Salad with four types of squash, toasted pepitas, pumpkin oil and a blue cheese crouton. What does that all mean? It means this:
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More pictures, and some shots of the strangest butternut squash you’ll ever see after the jump.
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This dish has been on the menu for a few weeks but it’s one that took a lot of tweaking to get just right. And it’s one of my favorite-looking dishes. Behold: Eggplant Fettuccine with Pickled Eggplant, Eggplant Jam, Black Olive Fettuccine, Basil Broth, Sundried Tomato Oil and Lemon Ricotta.
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Those ribbons of deep fried eggplant skin look like something out of an H.P. Lovecraft story.
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Great Cthulhu awakens!
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Like a proud mother, I’m going to show you a lot of pictures of my baby on the next page.
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