Video – Artisan Mozzarella Making at Fiore’s

Yes, Gosstronomy has been a bit quiet of late. We’re knee-deep in househunting in Sydney, focusing on finding a home near Bondi Beach. It’s a tough market at the moment – one apartment viewing last weekend in North Bondi looked like a block party – so it’s sucking up a lot of my creative energy.

Luckily, I did find a bit of time to start a long-time goal of learning video editing. For the first project, I’ve rounded up the video footage I shot during my day inside Fiore’s, the iconic deli in Hoboken, New Jersey. It’s always been famed for its mozzarella, and rumour has it that Frank Sinatra used to send a courier here to pick up mozzarella and fly it to him at gigs on the West Coast. That may or may not be urban legend, but what is definitely true is that Fiore’s is the secret roast beef sandwich place from an infamous episode of 30 Rock. That episode dealt with a drop-dead amazing roast beef sandwich with fresh mozzarella. And that’s exactly what the special sandwich is at Fiore’s on Wednesdays and Saturdays. It’s great, but my personal preference is for the hot sopressata and fresh mozzarella sandwich, piled high on fresh Hoboken bread from nearby Dom’s.

I spent the morning at Fiore’s with Dominick, who married into the family and has been working at Fiore’s for much of his adult life. He told me that he loves his job and he wouldn’t want to be doing anything else. The love comes out in the product, a fresh cow’s milk mozzarella that he braids and puts in a salty brine. They also smoke their own mozzarella out the back and make a marinated version, but it’s the fresh stuff that I love. It’s so good, in fact, that it makes me wonder whether there should be so much fuss over buffalo mozzarella. I love both, but when you can get the fresh stuff minutes after it’s made, why go for the imported stuff that takes days (or longer) to arrive on a plane from Italy? The Fiore boys claim that there’s is better, and I think they may have a point. At the very least, they’re in the running.

Check out the video, and excuse some of the still-rough edges. It’s good work for a print journalist (if I do say so myself), but dodgy work for a seasoned camera pro. I’ll keep on trying to improve. One thing’s for sure; I’m enjoying the process.

Fiore’s, 414 Adams St, Hoboken, NJ, USA, +1 (201) 659-1655, www.fioresdeli.com

Ravesi’s Wine Bar: Gee it’s good to be back in Bondi

After a feral 26-hour slug from New York to Sydney, I’ve finally made it back to Australia. And despite the slurring, cranky-eyed haze of jet lag, it’s been fantastic to see friends and more friends and enjoy the beautiful, gorgeous Bondi… cold chill and rain. What the? Oh well, at least I missed the dust storms.

OK, so my excitement of leaving a cooling-down New York in autumn for the summer-yearning excitement of Sydney spring hasn’t exactly materialised yet. Still, there are other things to warm the cockles. Maybe a celeb-studded opening party at a new Bondi bar? Why not?

Just as I was packing my bags back in Hoboken, the folks at Ravesi’s were kind enough to welcome me home by inviting me to the launch of their new wine bar at the beach-facing Bondi hotspot. I’d already leapt into Sydney life with yoga at Dharma Shala and a chilly swim at North Sydney pool, so a bit of tipple and schmoozing by the beach seemed about right – all good things come in threes, of course.

I’ve always preferred the more stylish Drift cocktail bar upstairs at Ravesi’s to backpackers gazing out from the window-laden ‘fishbowl’ at street level, so having a wine and tapas option to complement Drift was good news to my ears, and palate. Besides, I won’t have to always fight for a scarce seat at The Shop wine bar on Curlewis Street.

Ravesi’s wine bar has much of the same appeal as Drift: a social crowd that’s a bit more chilled and refined, and the opportunity to stretch out at balcony tables overlooking Hall Street and the cornering views of the Tasman Sea. The focus of the bar is on Italian vino, but there are less-common gems to enjoy, like the Argentinean malbec I coddled for a while. Either way, the best bit is grabbing a glass, staking out some turf on the balcony and watching the surfers and beacheratti below go by. That’s Bondi living for ya.

The opening night kicked off with a VIP degustation dinner that was unexpectedly (to me, at least) stacked with TV personalities. There was a quick drink with The Castle’s Michael Caton on the balcony before we all decided it was too chilly outside. Bondi Vet Chris Brown (man, that dude’s tall) arrived with Packed to the Rafters‘ stunner Jessica McNamee, and told me she had bought him his cool Zara coat that look like a modernised London Fog jacket. I also got to say hi to the equally stunning Sarah Wilson, who I first met during my crash-and-burn attempt in Melbourne to make it onto Masterchef.

Wow, name-dropping feels good! Ok, I’ll keep going. Well, apparently the talk of the night was that fashion designer Wayne Cooper had shown up newly reunited with his ex-wife, while his previously younger, model ex-girlfriend had shown up with her new boy-toy as well. Sadly, there was no catfight, but there was much whispering. I’m sure you’ll read about the details in the Sunday Tele goss pages any day now.

All right, I’ve had my 15 milliseconds of fame. It’s back to priorities. Food. Wine. Beach. Now all I need is a bit of sun and warmth. Even so, it feels great to be home, and I can’t wait to enjoy the spoils of being back in town and also enjoying this month’s Sydney International Food Fest. Bring it on.

Ravesi’s Wine Bar
Cnr Campbell Pde & Hall St, Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia
+61 (02) 9365 4422
www.ravesis.com.au

New York’s best pizza in a scenic spot – Moto

Reputations are funny things. They can take a while to build up and can leave just as quickly. And then there are the reputations of those eateries lucky enough to achieve ‘icon’ status, and get a rep that never wants to leave, like a bad dinner guest, even well past the expiration date. Year after year, tourist guides, magazine articles and word-of-mouth keep espousing their greatness, even if the kitchen has gotten lazy, the proprietor greedy, the service wheezy and the decor less kitsch than kitsch-gusting.

There are examples everywhere. In Sydney, Doyles at Watsons Bay has a seafood legacy that won’t die, despite the fact that it is overpriced and underwhelming. In New Orleans, there are many a French Quarter institution worth avoiding in favour of better restaurants elsewhere. In Moscow, I once spent a fortune at the famed Café Pushkin that would have been better served paying for a year’s supply of xia long bao back home.

New York’s Grimaldi’s Pizza – that legendary coal-oven pizzeria under the Brooklyn Bridge – has a better reputation than those prior mentioned. But its pizza lore among those in the know, including insider sites like eGullet and Slice, has been sullied and word on the street is that Grimaldi’s is not what it used to be. And neither are most of the other ‘iconic’ pizzerias of New York, including Patsy’s, John’s and Tottono’s. Just some years ago Jeffrey Steingarten was talking about his disillusionment with New York pizza, and today all the talk is about the new breed of pizza makers: Lucali, Motorino, Keste.

I mention all of this because yesterday I took some visiting friends on a bicycle tour of New York, and we wound up at the fantastic Brooklyn Flea – one of the city’s best outdoor markets, found directly under the Brooklyn Bridge each Sunday. We were peckish from all of the riding, so after lots of vintage clothes ogling, we headed around the corner for Grimaldi’s. There we discovered people cueing down and around the block, so we hatched a plan to grab takeaway pizzas by the East River. But that plan was dashed by a sign at Grimaldi’s door told us that the line for takeout and slices was the same as that of the sit-down crowd.

Discouraged, I suggested we return to the markets for a mobile pizza vendor that I noticed, where the pizza didn’t look half bad and they were using fresh mozzarella. And what I discovered was Pizza Moto and its terrific, wood-fired artisan pizzas. The small operation resided on the back left corner of the flea market and had a still-popular, but more modest line of customers. In the back, a wood-fired oven burned with whole logs, as the pizza-maker turned out just a handful of pies at a time. Each was a size of a vinyl record, and there were two options: a margherita or a white pizza made with garlic, ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan (“parma”). Pepperoni was also available for an extra $2.

Three of us shared two margherita pizzas, and they came out wonderfully crisped and charred, and were drizzled with olive oil (out of a not-exactly-romantic squirt bottle), given a pinch of sea salt and a spooned with grated parmesan just before being served. The tomato sauce had a bright acidic tang from San Marzano tomatoes, while four dollops of bright white fresh mozzarella were topped by a scattering of fresh basil leaves. For anyone who loves pizza at its purist best, it was a textbook production. Sarah said it was the best pizza she had eaten in New York. I’d certainly put it in my top 10, and for location, it’s hard to beat. We didn’t have much time, so we scoffed down our slices at the sunny picnic tables within the Brooklyn Flea’s food area. If given the time, though, I would have exited the gates, grabbed a nearby seat along the river and watched the ships slink by the south Manhattan skyline and under the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges.

It wasn’t until I did my mandatory Google search this morning that I discovered that Pizza Moto has been gathering a local following among flea marketeers. The Village Voice even cited it among its top pizza places in the city, and Serious Eats’ Slice rated it higher than the more hyped locals, Ignazio’s and, especially on an off day, Grimaldi’s. It turns out it is the side project of Dave Sclarow, who learned pizza making while backpacking through Italy and also at Franny’s in Brooklyn. His full-time gig? Working as the chef de cuisine at a slow-food Italian/Med restaurant called Lunetta in Brooklyn.

And the pizza? Well, the Pizza Moto website says that it’s a sourdough starter derived from wild yeasts extract found on local apples. The flour is ‘00′ dopio-zero (natch), the mozzarella from Aeillo’s of Brooklyn, and the parma is Grana Padano. Yep, great ingredients and an 800-degree oven sound like the start of a beautiful friendship. And while pizzerias world-wide have been spouting the need for Italian buffalo mozzarella, the Moto pizza and places like Fiore’s of Hoboken that turn out amazing cow’s milk mozzarella are having me think otherwise.

Sclarow, as it happens, built Moto’s pizza oven himself, and set it all atop a boat trailer for easy transport. The original ovens were brick, but they weren’t durable enough for the road, so Sclarow replaced them with a half-moon, double-hulled steel oven, which is what I found at the Brooklyn Flea. And while not all foods travel well, pizza ovens are often made for being outside, so why shouldn’t an outdoor, mobile wood oven be as good as any of its indoor competitors?

Moto has one of those reputations that are building over time. So do yourself a favour – ride a bike over the Brooklyn Bridge, check out the mirrors made out of salvaged tin ceilings at the Brooklyn Flea, and grab a delish pizza at Moto (which also produces pizzas at the original Brooklyn Flea on Saturdays in Fort Greene). Keep your reputations fresh, and you’ll get the kind of fresh, beautiful food you deserve, rather than spending your disposable time in line and paying big bucks to taste food that merely imitates the greatness of a bygone era.

Ben & Jerry’s Takes a Licking to Sydney

Their website says it all: “Ben and Jerry’s is Coming Down Udder”. Yes those feel-good hippie Yanks from the Green Mountain state of Vermont, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, have announced that they’re coming to Australia and bringing their famous ice-cream concoctions with them. If you haven’t heard of Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey and my favourite – Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough – get ready for some binges on takeaway pints with cheeky names.

To be honest, when I’ve been in the US, I’ve grown more partial to buying Ben & Jerry’s at the supermarket rather than visiting its ice-cream ’scoop shops’. And the same will probably stand for Sydney – there are so many great gelaterias, from Pompei’s in Bondi Beach to Darlinghurst’s Gelato Messina, that it will be hard to resist seeking out the house-made stuff. But if I’m picking up a Blue-Ray disc and watching “La Decimma Vittima” at home? (Visually amazing, classic ’60s cult film with Ursula Andress and Marcello Matroianni – a must see.) Well, then, load me up with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough and I’m a happy boy. Burp.

The first scoop shop is arrives in Sydney this month, with takeaway pints and ’shorties’ mini-pints descending at a Melbourne or Sydney deli near you. Let’s face it, if you need to support a multi-national brand, you’ll be hard-pressed to do better than B&J. They were pros at community outreach before it became a good PR idea for fast food chains and celebrities. Tick the boxes: eggs for the ice-cream have been free range for yonks, they changed their carbon footprint into a neutral one, their Rainforest Crunch sourced nuts from sustainable bits of the Amazon, and they pack their ice-cream in unbleached containers. The list goes on and on.

No, they haven’t slipped me $20 for PR consulting. It’s just that Ben & Jerry’s have been eco-friendly well before it was cool, and have stuck to their environmental and economic ethics for their three decades in business. Forget Woodstock anniversaries – here it’s like the sixties never ended. And if that helps them earn an extra buck or two, good on ‘em.

Anyhoo, what got my attention today is that Ben & Jerry’s launched a competition for the best name for their new flavour, a malt ice cream smashed with peanut-butter cookie dough and a peanut swirl. I once wrote cheeky headlines for Ralph, so I couldn’t resist taking a crack: “Bickies for Nutters”. Not sure how that will stack up, especially with another flavour suggestion being “Priscilla Cream of the Dessert”. That’s pretty hard to top.

You might be able to do one better, so if you want to have a go, check it out:

Do Oz a Favour

Restaurant Voicemail – The How-Not-To Guide

There was a little activity going on in the Twitterverse about Sydney restaurant Bistrode’s voicemail gone wrong (“Sydney restaurant voicemail message FAIL – 02 9380 7333″ and “The award for the Sydney hatted restaurant with the most unfortunate voicemail message goes to Bistrode… 02 9380 7333″). I was curious enough to check it, so I called from New York (via Skype of course), and what I found was a brief message that’s so wrong, it’s pretty funny. I’m assuming chef Jeremy Strode thought that he’d just stuffed up and didn’t save the message, so he’s not going to be overly thrilled that it’s the current talk among social media foodie types. On the other hand, maybe the talented chef can start filling in for Gordon Ramsay in Hell’s Kitchen.

It’s probably not going to be live for long, so for posterity’s sake, you can download the message here:

Bistrode: What The?
(AIFF audio file hosted on Z-Share)

Who’s Got New York’s Best Pizza? Chew On This

The beautifully charred crust of Keste's Margherita pizza

Ok, I admit – I am a pizzaholic, and I’ve been a pizzaholic since I was five years old. We were living in Staten Island back then, having made the then-upgrade from Brooklyn and a few years before we shuffled off to the leafy Jersey burbs. I remember my parents bringing home steaming-hot, whole cheese “pies” to feast at dinner with my baby brother and me. I also remember regular bouts of choking on the cheese, where my dad would drag me (or my brother) to the kitchen sink, put his hands inside my mouth and yank out the offending mozzarella cutting off air to my lungs. Then, as soon as I could breath easily again, I’d plead for another piece. Yes, somehow even the fear of death wasn’t as great as the worry of not having another taste of tomato-ey, chewy bliss.

If you’ve been following Gosstronomy for a while, you’ve probably noticed a disproportionate number of mentions about pizza. I am forever in search of the perfect pizza. Yet, somehow, the more I look and the more I taste, the further away my goal seems to get. Just when I’ve hit all of the legendary New Haven pizza haunts, made the pilgrimage to Brooklyn’s DiFara, devoured tasty slices at Joe’s, shlepped to Grimaldi’s (both the famed branch under the Brooklyn Bridge, plus the Hoboken off-shoot), and scoffed the terrific coal-oven meatball pizza at Arturo’s over and over again, a whole new wave of artisan pizzerias have come onto the scene and ruined it all. It’s like thinking you’ve nearly scaled Everest, only to climb to the top and see the real summit far off into the distance, rising high into the clouds. Hey, it’s the best analogy I can think of – work with me here.

What brought extra attention to my pizza-quest affliction was last week’s article in the New York Post about the city’s school chancellor, Joel Klein, being another obsessive pizza type. Klein has spent a lifetime trying to best pizzas throughout the five boroughs and was prompted by the newspaper to supply his list of favourites. He chose Lucali, found in Brooklyn’s Carroll Gardens, and Luzzo’s in the East Village. He then goes onto mention Keste in Greenwich Village, Anselmo’s and Roberta’s in repective Brooklyn neighbourhoods Red Hook and Bushwick. A sidebar also adds Staten Island’s Salvatore of Soho, the Bronx’s Zero Otto Nove and Queens’ Nicks Pizza.

Not to be outdone by Klein (which, to date, I regrettably have), I had already started my own research this summer, and begun to sink my teeth into the new pizza elite. I started off this summer at Una Pizza Napoletana, an artisan wood-fired maker creating much buzz in the East Village. Owner Anthony Mangieri is so strict in his pizza making – limiting the choices to four pizza types and zero substitutions – that he is the doughy equivalent to Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi. And on a wet and bleak summer’s day (we’ve had lots of those this summer), I went with a friend to check it out. What I found was a broad crust that was the lightest, fluffiest, freshest dough I have ever tasted. That acknowledge, I tried two of the pizzas – a classic Margherita and the white pizza – and while both were good and used quality ingredients, I was disappointed that neither stood out in terms of flavour. I love simplicity, but these were simple to the extent of being bland. It was obvious that both pies were cooked beautifully and with skill and focus, but someone seemed to have forgotten to actually take a bite and see what all of that passion had wrought.

Even so, I did feel a sense of loss when, a few weeks later, Una Pizza announced it was closing. Mangieri is apparently making a lifestyle change to the West Coast, and another – another! – top-ranked newcomer, Motorino, will be taking over the space, expanding from its original home in Williamsburg. Hell, I just got started, and already the pizza landscape is reforming under my feet. As Tony Soprano would say: “Muthaf–kas!” You gotta keep on your toes in this cheesy business.

Now, sadly, no, this isn’t going to be a review round-up of the best pizza places in New York City. Rather, I’m sharing my histlist, and all of us who are in New York (or planning to visit) should experiment in unison and compare notes. Doing my part, I made my latest pilgrimage last week to Keste, a newcomer to Greenwich Village, tucked into a narrow space on buzzing Bleeker Street. Time Out and New York magazines both recently awarded Keste as the best pizza maker in city, so I had to find out if the place holds up to the hype.

The low-down? Well, I was solo that day (a bonus, as I made it quickly through the line in 15 minutes, where others in larger groups likely waited up to an hour), so I merely ordered a defacto Margherita, my baseline criteria for a great pizzeria. My philosophy has always been that if you can’t make a decent Margherita, then what’s the use of trying to put lots of fancy ingredients on top of it? And Keste didn’t let me down. The crust was thick, puffy and light – like Una Pizza’s – but here I found that the pizza had more flavour, from its lively tomato sauce to its saltier cheese and dough. It was, indeed, delicious.

But is Keste the best pizza in New York? I was pleased with the pizza, but not exactly shock and awed. Still, I was impressed enough that I’m resolved to go back for more research. A couple next to me ordered the lardo pizza, and the pie smelled of an intriguing rich, buttery scent with a pungent whiff of something not unlike the bent aroma of aged cheese. I was told it was stellar, but best enjoyed in small doses. There are 18 types of pizza available at Keste, using quality ingredients like imported proscuitto (de Parma and grand cru), fresh buffalo mozzarella, Italian rapini, truffle spread and more. Next time I’m going to bring friends – you know, the ’sharing is caring’ type – and we can sample across the menu together.

Mind you, I’m also trying to get a bit slimmer as I get ready for Australian spring and triathlon season, so I’m trying to moderate my pizzaholism a bit, regulating my pie intake to once a week. But with only six weeks left in New York, and dozens of great pizzerias still to try, that’s gonna be a challenge. So if you see me tucking into a drool-worthy artisan pizza on one of my days off, just look the other way.

Keste, 271 Bleecker St, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NY, + 1 (212) 243-1500, www.kestepizzeria.com

Motorino, 319 Graham Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, +1 (718) 599-8899, www,motorinopizza.com

How to Make Money with a Food Blog? Gosstronomy asks Gary Vaynerchuk

Ah, the beauty of being in New York for six months is that I get to have access to amazing people at the top of their game. Last week I saw Gary Vaynerchuk – the uber-blogger (and occasional Conan O’Brien television guest) from WineLibraryTV – at a MediaBistro event, and I asked him about what it takes to bridge the gap between building a large audience with a food blog to commercialising that audience. Check out what he has to say, in his usual insightful, hilarious way.

Feel free to watch the whole presentation – which is excellent and fantastic for anyone blogging or thinking about it – or skip straight to my question at the 29:30 minute mark. It’s an hour-long video, so if you see a blank white screen below, sit back and relax for a few seconds while it loads.

more about “How to Make Money with a Food Blog? G…“, posted with vodpod

Blasphemy – What’s Your Favourite Fast Food Joint?

I’ve got a bit of a split personality when it comes to fast food. Most times, I hate the stuff. It’s processed, homogenised, downright bad for you, and I blame it (and I’m not alone) for causing my dual home countries – America and Australia – to be the two fattest countries in the world. I stay away from fast food whenever I can.

And then there are those times when I’m in a rush. Suddenly, only fast will do. We’re talking those 10 minutes I have at the airport between connecting flights (and on a plane that I know will cook me even worse food), when I need a quick bite on the way to a meeting, or those inevitable road trips where gas, food and a pitstop is on the cards. That’s when I drop my fast-food loathing and give in to the creature comforts of the Golden Arches and other near-instant delicacies.

I only started thinking about fast food this morning because Esquire magazine came out with a poll of top US chefs about their go-to fast food, and the largest percentage selected California’s In-N-Out Burger chain. It even got the nod from Thomas Keller, chef of the country’s top-rated restaurants, Per Se and The French Laundry. Iron Chef America’s Alton Brown and TV celeb chef Tyler Florence were also among the In-N-Out faithful. What makes it even more impressive is that the California-born burger chain is only located in four states in the American Southwest. That is some serious regional burger patriotism. I have friends from LA, so I’ve seen the loyalty first-hand, and the photo above is from my sole Inn-N-Out experience in San Fransisco in May. It was, well, a good burger: a step up from Mickey D’s, a step down from Shake Shack.

The Esquire poll did get me thinking about my own preferred fast food joint. Or joints, at it may be. As I’ve got dual residency, I thought it appropriate to pick one for each of my ‘hometowns’: New York and Sydney.

Benny Tudino's, home of the 26-inch pie

When I’m in New York, there’s no denying that my ultimate fast food is pizza, and it’s not fast unless you’re talking about by-the-slice operators, so we’ll leave the likes of Di Fara’s, Una Pizza Napoletana and Keste aside for slower-food mullings. As I live across the Hudson River in Hoboken, you’ll find me at Benny Tudino’s pizzeria (pictured above) more often than any other eatery in the metro area. I’ve been coming to Benny’s for 20 years now, and it’s always been a reliable spot for a quality, monster-sized slice (from a 26-inch pizza!) at a ridiculously low price – where else can I get a satisfying meal for $3.75? Even cheap Chinese costs more and takes longer. Benny’s is a veritable Hoboken instituion, and it gets my vote for being both a great product and for being geographically desirable. If you don’t know where it is, just ask the cops – they’re long-time regulars.

When I’m in Manhattan, I don’t have as much loyalty when it comes to pizza slices, but the venue that probably scores the highest frequency is Joe’s Pizza in the West Village, located on the corner of Carmine Street and Bleeker. It’s got a choice of plain cheese or Sicilian slices, uses good-quality cheese and has a nicely flavoured, sweet-yet-simple tomato sauce. I never plan to go to Joe’s, I just usually wander there as a last-minute, late-night decision. That means I never look at the website, but I did today to research this post and discovered that they have expanded to three other locations: one in Brooklyn, and two in Los Angeles. And even though I only know Joe’s as a local joint, it’s apparently gained a level of superstar status since it got a cameo in the Spiderman 2 movie, with Peter Parker (in the guise of Tobey Maguire) working a delivery job there. Who knew?

Other pizzerias used to get my patronage: Famous Famiglia before it went for world franchise domination, and Famous Ray’s of Greenwich Village – the true, original Ray’s on 6th Ave and 11th St that inspired all of the other imitators across Manhattan. I’ve been back to Famous Rays a couple of times, but I have to say I found the cheesy slices were pretty bland.

As for Australia, that’s an even easier choice. No fast food gets my cravings going more than a double Bondi Burger from the Sydney-born Portuguese chicken chain, Oporto. We’re talking two, thin, crispy-grilled chicken fillets with lettuce, tomato, mayo and just enough of a chilli hit make your cheeks go misty. I don’t know what’s in the “secret” chilli sauce, but Wikipedia says it’s a “piri-piri sauce made from chilli, ginger, lemon and garlic”. That’s probably close, but I reckon there’s also a dash of sugar in there and maybe something else to add that je ne sais quoi that makes it so damn good. Oporto’s thick-cut fries are also ever-pleasing and should be sent to Burger King (Hungry Jacks in Australia) so the latter can see where they went wrong.

Fast-food longings aside, let’s all do ourselves a favour. Let’s not make fast food a regular habit. Save it for those rare, cherished moments when we’re running from work to a party, or driving hours up the highway to get to a beautiful beach or ski mountain. Let’s support those seldom, even special breaks from our usual dining patterns. Life’s all about balance, right?

So what about you? Do you have a fast-food craving? Fess up in the comments section below, and together we can spread the guilty pleasures around.

Benny Tudino’s, 622 Washington St, Hoboken, NJ, +1 (201) 792-4132

Joe’s Pizza, 7 Carmine St, West Village, Manhattan, NY, +1 (212) 255-3946

Nibble, slurp, chomp – Xiao Long Bao at Joe’s Shanghai

What do you think was the tipping point for xiao long bao to become a global phenomenon? It’s not like they’re a new invention like, say, foie gras popcorn incubated in liquid nitrogen and smashed into pork belly ice-cream. It’s not like Shanghai cuisine hasn’t been in New York since the 1940s. And it’s not like Joe’s Shanghai has been anywhere than narrow Peel Street in New York’s Chinatown since 1996. Well, actually it has, having started in Flushing in 1995 and also expanded to a third location in Midtown on 56th Street. Whatever. It’s not new.

I first came across the XLB phenomenon on the opposite side of the planet back in Australia, when I visited HuTong in Melbourne earlier this year. After a single post-meal Google search, I was amazed many people around the world were going crazy for Shanghai’s famed soup dumplings. Is this a sign of how quick restaurateurs can copy successes from other cities, or are XLB one of the first foods to capitalise on social media?

No matter, I was excited to get a follow-up to my HuTong experience, and wanted to check out Joe’s after hearing so many honourable mentions among foodie friends. So Sarah and I bicycled cross-town and then down hectic Bowery Street – one of those roadways that’s the opposite of those lush, calm bikeways that Mayor Bloomburg has financed all over the city (thanks, Mayor!) – and shlepped the bikes two blocks back to Peel Street after we missed it on the first pass.

We weren’t exactly sure where the restaurant was, but after looking down the ramshackle alley, the crowds pointed us in the right direction. It was 7.30pm on a Thursday and there were dozens of people standing idly out front, waiting their turn. The process wasn’t clear at first, but eventually I was directed inside, where the hostess took my name and gave me a ticket stub: lucky number 67.

The wait was “at least” 30 minutes, so we strolled the Chinatown streets, found me a crazy-cheap haircut for $7 (the economical benefits of now buzzing my hair short), and window-shopped for designer chopsticks and cheap sunglasses.

We were seated some 45 minutes later, and crammed into a tiny two-seater near the door, but we weren’t too fussed – we’re not looking for décor or convenience in Chinatown; just good, often-cheap food. And we bee-lined for the XLB, but, erm, we couldn’t find them on the menu. Our waiter grumbled something about numbers nine and ten and then dashed off (Chinese waiters always seem to be time-poor), but we looked and only saw listings for pork buns and pork-and-crab buns. We were confused. We wanted soup dumplings, not dim-sum buns. So we pulled over a hostess with better English, and she explained that the “buns” in question were indeed the soup dumplings we wanted. No worries: we ordered one plate of each, and also chose a special – a fish fillet in chilli sauce – just to get another taste of Shanghai cuisine.

I’d love to say that the xiao long bao blew me away, that they made me go “coo coo cajoo” and flap my wings with excitement and lick my lips like Sharon Stone did when I watched Basic Instinct on Hulu the other night (or was that me?). What I did go was, mmm, not bad. The dumplings were good, but I found the soup to be a bit more gelatinous than I’d like, and while I found the pork variety tasty, I wasn’t a fan of the too-fishy crab-and-pork version. I’m guessing the crab was dried (and if it wasn’t, it was just lousy crab meat), which may be the authentic way to go, but it didn’t float my boat. And maybe I was spoiled, but the XLB that I experienced at HuTong were smaller, had thinner skins and had a more delicate broth.

I’d go back for the pork XLB at Joe’s, but not for the crab dumplings, and I’d definitely would be wary of ordering other items on the menu. One dish does not a menu make, but the fish special we ordered came rolled and smothered in a gluggy sauce that was more akin to sweet chilli sauce, but without the chilli. It was bland and overly rich.

So my hunt for a repeat of my XLB love affair may have to wait until I travel to Flushing, Queens, to try the city’s other famed soup dumpling spot, Nan Xiang. Well, it’s either that or wait until my food tour to China in October, when I’ll be able to taste the real deal in its native city.

Joe’s Shanghai, 9 Pell St (btw Bowery and Mott sts)., Chinatown, New York, NY, +1 (212) 233-8888, www.joeshanghairestaurants.com

The New NY Times Food Critic… Is Still Not Me

This year’s biggest food story in NYC concluded today with the announcement that Sam Sifton is replacing Frank Bruni as the food critic of the New York Times. Bruni was at the top of his game when it was announced in May that he was leaving the post and becoming a writer-at-large for the New York Times Magazine. Bruni even got off to a preliminary start the other week with a cover-story excerpt from his forthcoming book memoir, Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater.

Sifton will have a hard act to follow, but let’s face it – that’s the norm. If you’re bagging one of the most coveted reporting jobs at the Times, you’re not going to be stepping in for some namby pamby journalist. This is the big show, kid. That said, Bruni was an especially prolific and dedicated critic, blogging early and often as well as writing across newspaper sections and far beyond New York. He also brought a palate that really cared more about food than sucking up to service – something I can’t say about in regards to some other high-profile food critics.

The Observer reported that Sifton was selected from a shortlist of four people, three of whom came from the Times, plus an outside consideration of Brett Anderson from the New Orleans Times-Picayune. Lots of foodies and media (myself included) have been fans of Anderson ever since he wrote about the effects of Hurricane Katrina on chefs and the hospitality industry, even going as far to get his hands dirty – and anonymity in restaurants eroded – helping out the victims in the Hurricane’s immediate wake. But New Orleans is a much, much smaller market to manhandle than New York, so I think his consideration stemmed more from admiration than a likely prospect.

Sifton has the goods to do his job well: he’s got the internal politics down from his neck-and-neck win that secured his present role as editor of the NY Times‘ Culture section, he’s the former editor of the Times‘ Dining section, and he’s got plenty of socialite and celeb street cred from his founding role as a staffer at Tina Brown’s now-defunct Talk magazine.

Minutes after the announcement, pictures of Sifton were spread across blogs and online news sites, so having an early start as an incognito restaurant reviewer is not looking good. In fact, it seems taht the only place you won’t find photos of Sifton are on the Times‘ own websites, which pulled off photos that can now only be seen low-res on Google image searches. That’s why my favourite news story of the day is Gawker’s piece aimed at ‘helping’ the easily recognised Sifton with creating disguises for sneaking in convertly into city restaurants (a la Ruth Reichl). Check it out:

Won’t You Help the New York Times’ New Food Critic Come Up with a Disguise?

Other top stories on the NY Times food critic appointment:

New York Observer: Sam Sifton Is Your Next Food Critic of The New York Times

New York Times: Bill Keller on Restaurant Critics and Anonymity

New York Times: Sam Sifton: How I’m Preparing, and What I Weigh

New York Times: Frank Bruni Moving To Times Magazine, Bill Keller Announces