from Grub Street San Francisco

In this sneak peek of new ABC show Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, the British chef ambushes a classroom full of innocent first graders in Huntington, West Virginia and begins showing them things they neither recognize nor eat — like an eggplant, a beet, and a head of cauliflower. While it may not be fair to expect kids in “the unhealthiest city in America” to be able to identify vegetables that even children of Berkeley chefs would balk at on a good day, we applaud Jamie in his efforts to shame educate America into eating better.

First Graders Can’t Identify Fruits, Veggies [Huffington Post]
Earlier: Jamie Oliver’s Plan to Change the World [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Jay Barmann

Filed Under: video feed, an education, jamie oliver, videos

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Lower East Side: Falai offers a two-course prix fixe menu for $28 on Mondays and Tuesdays. You can also get half-off a wine pairing add-on if you go for the $50 four-course tradizione or the gargantuan $80 eight-course fantasia. [Feed/TONY]

Midtown East: Buttercup Bake Shop founder Jennifer Appel will distribute free cupcakes to the Grand Central commuter set at the corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and 42nd Street. It all goes down on Wednesday from 9 to 10 a.m. [Grub Street]

Soho: Aurora is serving a six-course dinner ($95) featuring wine and food from Piemonte on March 11. [Grub Street]

West Village: Charles Restaurant is launching a new “friends and family” Sunday Italian dinner. E-mail the restaurant for reservations. [Grub Street]

Read more posts by Evan Mulvihill

Filed Under: aurora, buttercup bake shop, charles restaurant, east village, falai, greenpoint, lower east side, midtown east, Neighborhood Watch, pies-n-thighs, van leeuwen, west village, williamsburg, zenkichi

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I don’t know about you, but I try to experience as many restaurants as I can when it’s restaurant week – enjoying the…

Mesa Grill

102 5th Ave, New York

(212) 807-7400

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There’s much afoot in the world of fried chicken today: First things first, Pies-N-Thighs opened at its new location and Gothamist dropped by to find out what they’ve got cooking — breads made in-house, burgers from the Meat Hook, a “big hippie salad,” beer on tap, and a new weekend brunch, among other things. See the menu below. On the Korean side, Midtown Lunch hears that the long in-the-works Koreatown location of Kyochon is set to open Wednesday, while the Feisty Foodie checks out the newly opened John Street location of its competitor BonChon.

Brunch
(Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. till 4 p.m.)
Taco of the Week – $7
Chicken & Waffles – $9
Hash & egg – $9
Big salad – $10
Fresh fruit short stack – $8
Fish & grits – $9
Huevos rancheros – $8
Biscuits & gravy – $8
Rob Evans – $7
Banjo – $5
Homefries – $4
Bacon – $3
Donut – $2

Sides – $4 each
Mac n cheese
Potatoes
Grits
Baked beans
Pinto beans
Collards
Cole slaw
Iceberg
Hush puppies
French fries

Lunch/Dinner
Fried chicken box (comes with one side & biscuit) – $10
Carolina pulled pork box (sandwich with coleslaw, pickle n one side) – $10
Fried catfish box (comes with tartar, slaw, pickle, cornbread n one side) – $10
Brisket sandwich box (w/one side) – $11
Chicken biscuit – $5
Burger with fries – $8
Add cheese – $1
Add bacon – $2
Add egg – $1
The insane burger – $12
Grilled cheese – $5
Big salad – $10
Biscuit $2
Cornbread – $2

Pie
Slice – $4.50
Cheddar apple
Coconut cream
Banana cream
Key lime
Tarheel
Choc pudding
Rhubarb pie
Sour cherry

Whole pie – $30 (w/one day notice)

Cookies – $2
Choc chip
Oatmeal
Molasses

Drinks
Lemonade – $2.50
Sweet tea – $2.50
Horchata – $2.50
Fresh squeezed oj – $4
Morir Sonando – $4
Soda – $1
Coffee – $1
Beer – $3-$6
Wine – $6-$9

BREAKING: Kyochon to Open on Wednesday [Midtown Lunch]
Pies ‘N’ Thighs Reopens In New Southside Williamsburg Home [Gothamist]
BonChon on John [Feisty Foodie]

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: openings, fried chicken, kyochon, pies ‘n’ thighs, williamsburg

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Eater notices that Porchetta is applying for a liquor license at 21–23 East 7th Street (plans for the small space are to be determined), and Williamsburg cod-sperm destination Zenkichi is eyeing 150 Bowery.

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: empire building, east village, porchetta, williamsburg, zenkichi

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It’s 4 p.m., and that means it’s time to play Two for Eight. We just asked ten restaurants the best time they could squeeze in a couple for dinner; you need only make your chosen reservation. (As always, we make the calls but don’t guarantee the results.) Today: Splurge.

Adour Alain Ducasse (Menu)
212-710-2277
Two for eight? Yes

Corton (Menu)
212-219-2777
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:45 p.m.

Daniel (Menu)
212-288-0033
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:30 p.m.

Jean Georges (Menu)
212-299-3900
Two for eight? Yes

Le Bernardin (Menu)
212-554-1515
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:30 p.m.

Eleven Madison Park (Menu)
212-889-0905
Two for eight? Yes
Best available: 8:15 p.m.

Oceana (Menu)
212-759-5941
Two for eight? Yes

Per Se (Menu)
212-823-9335
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:45 p.m.

Marea (Menu)
212-582-5100
Two for eight? No
Best available: 9:45 p.m.

SHO Shaun Hergatt (Menu)
212-809-3993
Two for eight? No
Best available: 8:30 p.m.

Filed Under: two for eight, adour alain ducasse, corton, daniel, eleven madison park, jean-georges, le bernardin, marea, oceana, per se, sho shaun hergatt

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Nation’s Restaurant News tells us what Olympians eat at USOTC commissaries (a typical menu includes buttermilk pancakes, jerk chicken, and beef tacos), while the Post reveals popular items at the Rikers commissary: “City jails sold 838,267 units of ramen noodles in fiscal year 2009, with 85 percent of all commissary customers purchasing at least one.”

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: prison gruel, rikers island, the olympics

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from Grub Street Philadelphia

A reading from the psalm of heritage breed pork

Here’s an explanation for irritating foodies we haven’t heard before, courtesy of a thoughtful essay in green-leaning blog Grist: Americans are “embracing food – or food activism – as their new religion” and are showing all of the telltale signs of those swept up in a religious conversion, including “zealotry, passion, conviction, and a touch of self-righteousness in many cases.” Don’t forget the annoying tweets!

Author Eric Burkett – who, as a professional chef, food writer and a Buddhist minister-in-training is more qualified than most to take this angle – cites several examples of people finding their God in their food. There are those in the thralls of a conversion experience thanks to Food, Inc. and The Omnivore’s Dilemma:

With the release of the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc., I was astounded at the number of people who announced the film had changed their lives in an almost Pauline-road-to-Damascus kind of way… Food, Inc. and Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma have inspired a new religion that might be called born-again carnivorism, as exemplified by a post on Food Inc’s Facebook page from a woman excited by her discovery of a farm that raises organic chickens on actual pasture. And as with all religions, old and new, there are sects that insist on a very different path to salvation. The woman’s post elicited some strident replies from vegans, some as self-righteous as anti-abortion activists. Promoting organic meat is “like saying that its [sic] ok to keep slaves as long as they are feed [sic] well!” wrote one respondent. “How about raising your children to be compassionate, not just ‘organic’?”

There are those looking for miracles in what they consume:

How many among us are chasing after miracle foods, downing gallons of pomegranate juice, or wolfing down goji or açaí berries, convinced they’ll somehow give us health and happiness and, perhaps, make us sexier to boot?

And then there are those who feel the need to sanctimoniously make the world aware of how they are abiding by the commandments of healthy eating every time they eat something good for them:

I remember a smirking Twitter posting I saw months ago: “I’m having goji berries and green tea.” Had the poster been in reach, I might have given him a wedgie…just because.

Paired with Frank Bruni’s recent lament against restaurant snobs – and remember ‘foodiots‘? – it makes us wonder if there isn’t a bit of a backlash brewing against the food-obsessed. Although the Grist piece focuses more on the adherents of the locavore/organic food movement, the same conversion experiences and “miracles” also happen in the restaurant snob universe. Who hasn’t heard someone tell of a “meal that changed their life,” read about a dish described as “transcendental” or “sublime” by a restaurant critic, or read tweets proclaiming exactly what life-changing dish someone is eating at that moment?

Burkett ends the piece with some sage advice:

When we season our food with dogma and self-righteousness, we give it an unhealthy power over our ability to rationally consider its already vital place in our lives. If what you eat has become your religion, take care to serve up your message peacefully and palatably. Because it’s just food.

Eat Your Own Dogma: Food as America’s Newest Religion [Grist]

Related: Frank Bruni Calls Out Restaurant Snobs [Grub Street NY]
Are ‘Foodiots’ the New Foodies? (And Where Did They Come From, Anyway? [Grub Street NY]

Read more posts by Kirsten Henri

Filed Under: food for thought, foodiots, grist, religion, restaurant snobs, vegan

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If the McGriddle is your idea of good eats, take note: Dunkin’ Donuts is once again offering (“for a limited time”) the Waffle Breakfast Sandwich, a TIWYF-worthy combo of scrambled eggs, sausage, and American cheese between maple-infused waffles. With fast-food joints becoming increasingly calorie conscious, it’s good to know someone is still trying to kill us.

Read more posts by Daniel Maurer

Filed Under: dunkin’ donuts, mcgriddle, this is why you’re fat, waffle breakfast sandwich, what to eat

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Condé Nast Traveler checks in with the Ghost of Restaurants Yet to Come and predicts that cooks will stop using olive oil, rely on heritage produce, and consult with botanists. A restaurant could look more like an art installation than a dining room, but the food will emphasize flavors rather than over-the-top presentation. [Condé Nast Traveler]

Read more posts by Aileen Gallagher

Filed Under: trends, dining out, predicitions

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Laurent Tourondel and partner Jimmy Haber are breaking up their empire, says Florence Fabricant. Tourondel keeps the BLT name, and will stay on as executive chef in all the BLT restaurants in hotels. Haber gets BLT Steak, BLT Fish, BLT Prime, and BLT Burger. Tourondel initiated the break, but everyone seems nicey-nicey about it. [Diner's Journal/NYT]

Read more posts by Aileen Gallagher

Filed Under: back of the housel, blt, jimmy haber, laurent tourondel

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Sophie Brickman worked on the line at Jean Georges for a few months last year, and reveals some of the inner workings of JGV’s kitchen. “I never saw a single line cook eat food between the hours of 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. I subsisted on radish peelings and, once I got bold enough, granola bars in the bathroom,” she writes for The Atlantic. She did manage to copy some of the recipes out of the master book on the sous-chef station, and works on them at home: “One recipe I prepped — during the one week when I graduated from peeling vegetables — called for 26 grams of salt. 26. Who am I to judge? Maybe one gram of salt is the difference between three Michelin stars and two.”

A Master’s Precision in the Home Kitchen [Food/Atlantic]

Read more posts by Aileen Gallagher

Filed Under: back of the house, jean georges, jean-georges vongerichten

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