On the Friday I arrived in Providence, I made a Stupidly Simple Snacks video with Jessica and cleaned my plate of PB&B (Peanut Butter and Banana). The next day, I returned with Jason who, despite having just had lunch, made room for scones, tea sandwiches, and a Nutella-filled cupcake. Believe it or not, even the Duck & Bunny‘s cucumber-cream cheese sandwich is better than the ones I’ve made. amy • august 31, 2010

SERVES one

WHAT YOU NEED
bread
peanut butter
banana
honey
powdered sugar

MUSIC Keelay • Sassmachine

Thanks to the Providence Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau for making this trip possible.

I was updating my YouTube channel the other day when I noticed I launched it on August 31, 2009. It’s been nearly 365 days since I shared the first Stupidly Simple Snacks video in which I bumbled through banana shakes.

It’s weird to read old posts and remember sitting on a park bench considering a cupcake a year before today. And I’m sure, in another twelve months, the photo on the left which I took at Ciao For Now in the West Village on Saturday will resonate and I’ll recall taking a chance on a surprisingly moist carrot cupcake crowned with cold frosting. But the best recollection of all will probably be of the chatty little girl and her pug-shaped piggy bank. While her dad paid for a chocolate cupcake, the girl introduced me to her amazing multitasking pup, which had tape wrapped around its neck like a collar on a pet with a real chance of running away.

I started Amy Blogs Chow as a way to get to know – and remember – those who love food and what’s on our plates. Funny thing is I’m just realizing now that “foodies” are as young as eight. amy • august 30, 2010

SERVINGS varies

WHAT YOU NEED
ice cream
magic shell chocolate sauce (available in most supermarkets or make it from scratch using Brownie Points recipe)
sprinkles, crushed nuts, etc. for topping

MORE ICE CREAM RECIPES BY GALE
Mini Coffee Ice Cream Sandwiches
Snowball Sundaes
Spaghetti & Meatballs Sundaes

MUSIC Loomis & the Lust • Bright Red Chords • myspace / facebook / youtube

IT’S NOT EASY BEING IN A PUBLIC RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD. Even now, I’m self-conscious thanks to encounters with bewildered Le Pain Quotidien servers who stop in their tracks to ask if I’m one of those food diarists he’d read about in the news. Sometimes, men even take it as a cue to strike up conversation about the delicious cheeseburger I’m about to shoot. But as awkward as blogging chow can be, it’d be worse to run a food blog without photos. No matter how hard they try, words only go so far; pictures always say much more.

In July, my old Boston University mentor told me about FOODSPOTTING, a visual guide to food and iPhone app that allows users to share photos of their meal, locate dishes around them, and “nom”-inate the ones they’ve tried and liked. Finally, a socially acceptable way to say, hey, this tastes great and here is proof.

I’m not a fan of underqualified or overly critical restaurant reviews, so I was extra excited about Foodspotting‘s mission to emphasize positive dining experiences by highlighting what looks good in any zip code. At once, you have a culinary compass and a picture guide to food.

There was a job at Foodspotting I was pretty keen on, so, despite the fact that the company is based in San Francisco, I sent in my most persuasive plea. I learned the job was filled that same day, but luckily for my self-esteem, Foodspotting‘s co-founder, Alexa Andrzejewski, reached out soon after and expressed interest in having me work with them in New York City.

While I won’t be moving west, I will be collaborating with Alexa, the new Community Lead Fiona Tang, and their amazing New York-based business developer Soraya Darabi in the coming months to spread the love of spotting food. After all, close-up shots of cookies, cake, and ice-cold beverages will never get old so long as eyes can see and mouth drools. Hoping to meet many more of you through this opportunity too!

WATCH What Is Foodspotting? and hear Fiona narrate the video in her beautiful Australian accent.

MEET the team on their Tumblr blog.

GET the iPhone app. It’s free!

Last but not least… FOLLOW me, please.

amy • august 23, 2010

Earlier this year, my food/social media friend Aaron Ginsberg approached me to make a snack video with one of his clients, T Poutine, on the Lower East Side. I was flattered that the restaurant wanted to get in on the Stupidly Simple Snacks action, so, of course, I said yes. Ironically, I asked him “Do you have a charismatic employee who’d like to be on camera?”

The T Poutine team and I decided to make a French-Canadian dessert that they called The Canuck, which was sweet potato fries tossed with Asian Five Spice, cinnamon, sugar, and maple syrup. They had a deep fryer, so it was stupidly simple enough to throw frozen fries in a vat of boiling oil there. However, to make it feasible for the casual sweet potato fry eater, baking would be the better – plus, an equally tasty and arguably healthier – option.

I kept the video under wraps after I learned T Poutine closed, but it was a matter of time before sweet potato fries starred in an episode. Naturally, I had to include footage of Thierry, who turned out to be the owner of T Poutine and an underwear model. You may recognize him from the Ralph Lauren Romance commercial too. Confirm below. amy • august 11, 2010

SERVINGS 2 to 3

WHAT YOU NEED
4 sweet potatoes
2-4 tablespoons olive oil
pinch of salt
pepper to taste
paprika
ground cumin

FOR “THE CANUCK” BY T POUTINE
sweet potato fries
Asian Five Spice
cinnamon sugar
maple syrup

MUSIC Kelly Harper • Till This Goes Away • website / myspace / facebook

It’s especially funny to remember my teen self now, but even then I didn’t feel embarrassed. Because it worked. After all, groundbreaking advice on how to survive high school were actually basic tips on how to make friends, including:

Introduce yourself.
Everyone else is as nervous as you.

So, in the spirit of that ever-helpful guide (I think this might be the latest edition.) that I found at Strand, I give you my own rendition of the Freshman Guide, but to food blogging. I wrote these for Jeremy Jones, an aspiring international food blogger and a friend of my jet-setting friend Adam, who emailed last week in search of tips on how to get a new blog noticed on the “big food blog scene”.

Here are the suggestions I sent to Jeremy. Most are common sense and none promise to bring wealth or fame. Rather, they’re lessons I learned along the way to becoming a more effective communicator online and in person. This way, you’re ready when CNN calls to ask: “Why can’t you cook?”

Without further ado…

Be consistent. Post Monday through Friday; post in the morning; post at night; post once or twice a month. No matter when you post, be consistent. It’s hard to build an audience if you publish new pieces haphazardly. Readers like to see new posts and photos, so you should try to deliver these as regularly as possible. (But don’t become a slave to posting. I’d rather post something thoughtful once a week than put a photo up mindlessly.)

Talk about things you genuinely care about. If you don’t care about the content you create and are only doing it to throw words up on a screen, it shows. If you are mildly obsessed passionate about your topic, your readers will know.

Check spelling and grammar.

Do it for love (not the pennies). You probably won’t make money or gain an audience immediately. You should probably also know that you’ll be writing for your mom and two best friends for a while. To be honest, my mom doesn’t read English and my best friends don’t read every post right away. Riveting as my food musings may be, they’re not for everybody. But what is?

Be positive. No one likes a whiner.

Find a niche / Be the best niche filler you can be. Provide new information. Write about a never-before-experienced restaurant experience or share a recipe you’ve created. Don’t merely regurgitate others’ content. Be original. If you can, be the only one doing what you’re doing. I met Megan of The Runner’s Kitchen last week. She trains for races and is mindful about what she eats. Maybe there are other runners who blog, but Megan is great about staying “on message” and, in effect, fills a niche. She’s super sweet and helps hungry athletes.

Be social. Use Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook to engage other bloggers, gain feedback, and to let followers know what’s new.

Meet bloggers offline. Attend blogger meet-ups, conferences, and panels where you can chat with other bloggers and share your experiences with one another. Listen and learn.

Keep up with blogs and bloggers you like. I love the focus on aesthetics on fashion and design blogs, like my friend Erica’s funny Design Blahg, so I visit them often for inspiration.

There are no rules. The blog world is still new, so nothing I or other bloggers say promises “success”. You just have to jump in and hope for the best while working to stay afloat. The good thing? No one’s watching, especially at the beginning, so who cares if you screw up?

Stupidly simple ideas work. Seriously.

amy • august 10, 2010

Photos were taken at Portobello Market while visiting friends in London last year. At the time, Amy Blogs Chow was just a few months old. I didn’t know how to blog either.

In my latest SSS episode, the trio demonstrates the simple art of making panna cotta! Panna cotta is unbelievably easy to make, provided you have Knox Gelatin (gelatin powder) on hand. If you don’t, go get some. Knox is easy to find at most grocery stores next to the boxes of Jell-O. In fact, making panna cotta is like making Jell-O, only it’s creamy, smooth, and pretty darn sophisticated. Enjoy! amy • august 3, 2010

SERVINGS 4

WHAT YOU NEED
2/5 cup heavy cream
3/5 cup buttermilk
1 bloomed* gelatin sheet or 1/4 packet of bloomed Knox Gelatin
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
jam (raspberry used in video)
fruit

*to bloom a gelatin sheet, soak the gelatin in water for 10 minutes to soften it. Then lightly wring out excess water before using. If using gelatin powder, use 1/4 cup water to dissolve the granules in every Knox Gelatin packet. Since this recipe calls for one gelatin sheet or 1/4 packet of Knox, bloom the gelatin powder in 1/16 cup (equivalent to 1 tablespoon) of water. To learn more about gelatin, refer to David Lebovitz’s immensely helpful guide: How To Use Gelatin.

MUSIC Keelay • America

The flavors are based on political movements around the world, such as lemon poppy seed Velvet Revolution and Libertação, a chocolate & port wine medley. New flavors and menu items, like a Malta (wheat soda) ice cream float, are added weekly. Now wrap your brain around this: 100% of profits go to organizations that support marginalized groups, like the Street Vendor Project, where Ethan has volunteered, in New York City.

In my latest video, which features Ethan as my snack-making cohort, we make a brilliant and ridiculously easy jasmine tea shaved ice. I think Guerrilla Ice Cream not only has a big heart, it shows that you can create great things and do good with something as simple as sugar. amy • july 29, 2010

WHAT YOU NEED 4 cups of water | 1 cup of sugar | 5 tea bags (jasmine tea used in the video) | liquid honey or other topping (optional)

SERVINGS 2 to 3

MUSIC Julian Bachlow • Desolate Place

Stupidly Simple Snacks launched on Hungry Nation today! (Watch my “Hello, Hungry Nation” video.) To celebrate, I may drag Jason out tonight for dinner at my favorite recent restaurant find, Kampuchea on the Lower East Side. I met up with fellow writer Jenny Miller and our sassy London friend Kat Popiel there a month or so ago and have been daydreaming about Kampuchea‘s pork meatball with spicy tomato sauce numpang (Cambodian sandwich) and bacon garlic fried rice ever since. Also, their grilled corn with chili mayo, finely shredded coconut flakes, and chili powder was possibly one of the best sweet corn dishes I’ve had this summer. The other best? Marlow & Daughters deep-fried corn (pictured lower right) which I had the privilege of sinking my teeth into at the New Amsterdam Market on Saturday. The corn featured a beautiful garnish of mint, cherry tomatoes, and baby greens, which, when combined, made me feel like I was eating an ecosystem (or a rainbow).

Luckily, many of my favorite things, like cupcakes and pork chops are available year-round, but some foods and flavors are distinctively summery, like raspberry peach pie, fresh-brewed iced tea, grits topped with pulled pork and smothered in cheese…

So, to facilitate food dreams everywhere, I’ve decided to keep a running list of my favorite summertime foods in NYC. Recommendations are welcome! Of course, this is only an abbreviated list of everything I want to eat, but it’s a start. amy • july 29, 2010

(in no particular order…)

SWEET
Robicelli’s Cupcakes / Elvis cupcake (banana cake with peanut butter buttercream & candied bacon, pictured)
Kumquat Cupcakery / strawberry cupcake
Guerrilla Ice Cream / Malta aka wheat soda ice cream float
Danny Macaroons / salted caramel macaroons (pictured upper right)
Doughnut Plant / lavender cake doughnut
FreshDirect / Breezy Hill Orchard blueberry pie
Prune restaurant / Dutch-style blueberry pancake
Bruce Cost / “Fresh Ginger, Ginger Ale”
Trader Joe’s / frozen chocolate croissants (so easy to pop in the oven for breakfast first thing in the morning)
Lily Lolly’s Ice Kitchen / 50’s Orange Lolly, a white chocolate-dipped Creamsicle made with orange liqueur and fresh oranges

SAVORY
ABC Kitchen / fresh mozzarella with heirloom tomatoes & basil
Caracas, East Village / De Pabellon arepa (pictured upper left)
Village Tart / smoked salmon avocado croissant
The MeatBall Shop / pork meatball hero with spicy meat sauce & mozzarella cheese
Marea / Astice aka Nova Scotia lobster burrata / crab spaghetti

ON THE HIT LIST
Boqueria
Braeburn / went for brunch august 1st
Mia Dona Gelato Cart / gelato sandwich
Socarrat Paella Bar
Babbo
Aquavit / crayfish festival (august 9-14 & 16-21)

Every Tuesday, catch new episodes of Stupidly Simple Snacks here on Amy Blogs Chow and on HungryNation.TV. I love you guys. Thanks so much for your support and for watching me make snacks on the littlest screen. amy • july 28, 2010

Relief came in the form of FreshDirect, from which I ordered everything from ravioli to ice cream; beer to broccoli. Nowadays, I don’t miss the Upper East Side, but sometimes I reminisce about Sunday morning FreshDirect deliveries.

Fast forward to summer 2010. I still don’t own a car and am living in a supermarket-less zone once again. (Midtown.) But no matter where your or my address is, the rules of the food game has completely changed so that frequenting greenmarkets and buying into customizable CSAs gains you greater karma and awesome points than attending the latest restaurant opening. Given the warm public sentiment toward seasonal, organic, and local foods, eating healthy and preparing meals yourself is not only socially acceptable, it’s nearly obligatory.

Admittedly, it’s a good trend, and the commercial push for fresh, local food is much easier to support than fad diets or cosmetic surgery. So, naturally, when FreshDirect invited me to join them on a tour of two Long Island farms with whom they work closely, Wickham’s Fruit Farm and Satur Farms, I was excited. I even asked if they’d mind inviting photographer Jennifer Causey along to capture the day on her bad-ass professional camera. (I know Jennifer through her blog Simply Breakfast and I’m a huge fan of her food photography. While I took my own photos, I’m featuring Jen’s today. You can see more of her farm photos here.)

Our first stop was Wickham’s Fruit Farm on Long Island’s North Fork. They’re a 13th generation farm that’s been around for over 300 years. Name any fruit and Wickham probably grows it: peaches, rhubarb, apples, nectarines, ten different varieties of plums, and even kiwis (for fun, not for sale). They’re growing melons too, like cantaloupe, specially for FreshDirect.

We stopped in Wickham’s tomato greenhouse to hide from the heat and picked sweet, marble-sized tomatoes from the vine. Later, we found shade under a cherry tree. Prime cherry season is over, but we arrived at the tail end so a few ripe, red stragglers were still biding time between the leaves. I think that was my favorite part of the day – plucking cherries from a cherry tree. Guess I’m not over the fact that my cherry hand pie baking effort ended so disastrously.

Afterward, we stopped by Satur Farms owned by husband-and-wife team Paulette Satur and Eberhard Müller, who opened Le Bernardin and was once chef at Lutèce, which closed its doors in 2004. Satur Farms is known as a salad specialist, especially mesclun, and grows everything from edible flowers, herbs, and micro greens, to “long, white leeks” of which Paulette seemed particularly proud. The couple supplies friends who helm some of New York City’s top restaurants, like Gramercy Tavern and Daniel. They don’t sell at greenmarkets, so FreshDirect is their only retail customer.

Motivated by the desire to offer their seventy farmhands year-round employment, the couple migrates to Florida every winter to continue their growing business while their North Fork-based operations cease temporarily. I can barely keep myself employed, so the thought of Paulette and Eberhard choosing to maintain their seasonally-dependent business throughout the year for the sake of their employees has stuck with me.

While Paulette led the tour of Satur Farms, Eberhard made us lunch: striped bass escabeche and several salads prepared with cauliflowers, beets, and arugula picked just that morning. For dessert, the couple served macerated peach and round, buttery shortbread cookies.

After lunch, the FreshDirect group thanked our hosts and said goodbye. I went to shake Eberhard’s hand and he asked me about my work, so I told him that I write and produce an online video series for those who don’t know how to cook. “Ah, then that’s a show for me,” he replied good-naturedly. Maybe, I thought, except that you and Paulette don’t own a microwave, which, for the most part, is essential to the Stupidly Simple Snack series.

Just kidding. amy • july 22, 2010

FreshDirect is offering a 20% discount to you guys on everything in the local department. Secret code: SUPPORTLOCAL

* Limited time offer. Expires August 31, 2010. May not be combined with any other offer. All standard terms and conditions apply. Limit one use per customer/account. Residential orders only. Void where prohibited. Offer is non-transferable.

Photos by Jennifer Causey. Blueberry photo on homepage is my own.

STUPIDLY SIMPLE SNACKS IS BACK! After a two-month unintended hiatus from video awesomeness, I’m excited to say that Stupidly Simple Snacks will soon be a weekly feature of Amy Blogs Chow and on Hungry Nation, a network of web-based food shows created by Next New Networks, the leading independent producer of online television networks.

I can’t tell you what makes NNN the leading indie producer of online TV networks (it’s the only one I know, quite frankly) but I am pumped to join the ranks of Hungry Nation veterans and fellow food lovers Dan of VendrTV and Rebecca of Working Class Foodies! Also joining the network is Food Wishes, which is like the godfather of online cooking shows. Chef John is a pretty big deal in the food blogging world.

Stupidly Simple Snacks will launch on Hungry Nation at the end of July, so I’ll be making many more videos going forward. I already have some super silly stuff lined up, including a ceviche video I made with Jenna Meister, my BFF and cast member of Jet Set Zero: Quito, while I was in Ecuador last month. It’s going to be great! Now, without further ado, I present my first video from Quito, Ecuador – Stupidly Simple Snacks: Guacamole! amy • july 13, 2010

WHAT YOU NEED 2 avocados | 1 tomato | 1 lemon | half onion | salt & pepper

SERVINGS 3 to 4

MUSIC Darwin Deez • Radar Detector

I’ve fond memories of my trip, but am relieved to have left some things behind – the vehicle exhaust emissions which blackened the air, for one, and having to call out bus ticket vendors for quoting higher prices in their attempt to nickel-and-dime tourists. On a more superficial level, I missed warm weather clothing, which I’d left in New York to avoid drawing attention to my ankles and elbows. While I enjoyed getting to know Ecuadorian food and a different way of dining (cheap, fresh, home-style, street) I missed the variety of foods and many restaurant options in New York.

On my first day back in the States, I bought an overly frosted cupcake from Magnolia Bakery by Rockefeller Center to sate the sweet tooth that went mostly without icing or cake while abroad. For breakfast, I wandered into Macchiato Espresso Bar – home of my favorite chocolate chip cookie – and took an hour to write and indulge in the end of a long unfinished novel while my latte grew cold.

I miss traditional Ecuadorian food, which features fresh produce and deep-fried goods like empanada and fritada, a bit. Are those two contradictory? Perhaps, but it makes sense when you realize both fruits and greasy grub are easy to vend from street stands and food carts.

Ultimately, traveling always reminds me that we live in an unusual gastronomic bubble here in New York. There really is something for every palate and price point. And I’d almost forgotten how lucky we are to be able to walk down the street, take a train or even a ferry to reach whatever we may crave, whether that’s key lime pies in Red Hook, soul food in East Harlem, or French pastries at Village Tart. The world in one bite – that’s good ol’ New York. amy • july 12, 2010

POSTS AND PICTURES FROM ECUADOR
Devouring Quito With Jet Set Zero
Looks Like Chicken, Tastes Like Guinea Pig
To Mercado, To Mercado In Santa Clara, Quito
VIDEO Stupidly Simple Snacks • Guacamole!

Inside the mercado, juice sellers stand behind plastic vats of jugos while hot food sellers do a brisk lunch trade. Toward the back of the cavernous building, produce sellers watch over towering stacks of fruit and vegetable-filled boxes. Upstairs, seafood sellers, poultry purveyors, and butchers share the floor.

My group and I weaved through the market, passing whole roasted pigs on display to lure hungry passersby away from neighbors selling similar plates. Piece by piece, crispy-skinned porkers are diminished with each $3 lunch order. We finally stopped at one of these counters for a meal and chatted with the owner who told us his family has owned and operated that spot in the market for 55 years.

I’ve since made several more trips to Santa Maria mercado and each time still leaves me marveling at the Ecuadorians’ economy. How does the old lady sitting on the box by the entrance make a living by selling avocados for 25 cents a piece?

A few feet away from her, a small indigenous woman touts slippery cut-up pieces of ox stomach from a bucket. With so much to see, Santa Clara market is a feast for the eyes, so long as you don’t mind the sight of gloveless hands, ox organs, pigs feet. amy • june 25, 2010

MORE FROM ECUADOR
VIDEO • Make Guacamole!
Devouring Quito With Jet Set Zero
Looks Like Chicken, Tastes Like Guinea Pig

Knowing that, Jenna and I were surprised to find cuy on the menu at the restaurant of luxury Relais & Chateaux hotel La Mirage when we stopped in on Monday. The hotel owner recommended the dish, reassuring us that the delicacy is specially prepared to suit “their type of clientele”, which basically means that all rodent-like features are removed to accommodate squeamish eaters.

We ordered one guinea pig to share and gaped as the plate of fried thighs and rib arrived topped with paper wrappers, like frilly hats, to protect fingers from greasy ends where guinea pig feet used to be. The owner compared the taste of guinea pig to chicken, but I think a better comparison would be really lean duck with salty fried skin and sinewy, dark meat.

For $20 – roughly equivalent to twelve set lunches at an average Quito cafe – I sampled an upmarket version of a downscale dish. I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my first, overly salty guinea pig eating experience though. Some might consider the cuy mission accomplished, but when the catch is handed over on a plate with the scary bits removed, it just doesn’t feel like a goal achieved.

Thus, one overpriced guinea pig-in-disguise down; one whole roasted beast yet to go. amy • june 24, 2010

MORE FROM ECUADOR
Devouring Quito With Jet Set Zero
To Mercado, To Mercado In Santa Clara, Quito
VIDEO Stupidly Simple Snacks • Guacamole!

In Argentina, we spent our pesos on extra large steaks – roughly equivalent to a small loaf of bread – and washed away our twentysomething woes with Malbec. In Brasilia, we breakfasted, lunched, and dinner-ed on pão de queijo and sliced meats at the buffet-style churrascarias. In this way, we made new memories over food while reminiscing about those blissful college years when we were roommates who spent the bulk of our days in the dining hall. Minus the collegiate setting, not too much has changed.

Last week, Jenna emailed me from Quito where she’s been living with the cast of Jet Set Zero since early May. Jet Set Zero is a travel web video series that follows four wanderlusters in their mission to see the world. That’s Jenna on the left with her co-cast members Ryan in purple and smiling Freddie in gray. It’s like The Real World with less glamour, more hustling; fewer five-star hotels and more five-dollar-per-night hostel stays.

I wanted to visit Jenna in South America, but didn’t plan to leave til July. In a surprise turn of events – and because petty thievery abounds here – Jet Set Zero‘s camera got stolen and the team learned the hard way that Ecuadorian customs and security checks makes the mailing of electronics near impossible. Would I be their camera mule?

So here I am, four days into Quito. Internet is spotty here, but the living, eating, and traveling is cheap. One US dollar buys a cab ride to La Mariscal, the “tourist ghetto”, where Jenna works in an Irish-run Vietnamese restaurant; two dollars is a one-way bus ticket to Mindo Nambillo Cloud Forest – home of orchids, lush canopies, and a gazillion types of birds, like roosters who crow without stop between four and seven in the morning – two hours away; and fifty cents equals two homemade cheese empanadas sold by ebullient bus-hopping food vendors en route to Mindo.

The Jet Set Zero clan went rock climbing yesterday while I maintained my stubborn fear of heights and took photos from the ground. Afterward, we stopped by a small cafe for almuerzos aka daily set lunches comprised of potato soup, a rice dish with chicken or beef, and a glass of juice. At around $1.50 for three courses, almuerzos are a steal, but I chose to splurge and spent four dollars on a tangy shrimp ceviche instead. “This is how the locals do it” Freddie said, topping his own bowl of ceviche with popcorn.

While waiting for our meal, I spotted the cafe owner’s young son peeking at us from under a table across the room. Behind him, Mexico just beat France on the cafe’s staticky 20-inch TV. I was struck by the distance between us and the World Cup in South Africa just then and, for a second, I thought of other far away places, like New York City. amy • june 18, 2010

MORE FROM ECUADOR
Looks Like Chicken, Tastes Like Guinea Pig
To Mercado, To Mercado In Santa Clara, Quito
VIDEO Stupidly Simple Snacks • Guacamole!

Dante was prepping dinner for a rooftop picnic and borrowed his friend’s Soho loft for the occasion. Before then he’d been kitchen-hopping Downtown during the two-week period of his semi-covert fried chicken delivery operation called Ride or Fry. News of Ride or Fry spread mostly by word of mouth, but still the number of orders overwhelmed his expectations. Why wouldn’t they? We’re talking about homemade fried chicken delivered at your whim.

The LA-born chef grew up in Englewood and Compton before traversing through several cities and returning to Manhattan, the place he considers home and where his mom grew up. He’s a chef, but his creations resist straight up classification in culinary terms. His specialties, for example, would be typified as “soul food” if ZAGAT had a say, but he describes his peppery, rosemary-crusted fried chicken, addictive tofu nuggets, and homemade pies – like sticky Yam Party Pie – as TransAtlantic African Food. “You can tell he’s from LA”, my friend Meryl pointed out the next day as she and I hovered over seven to-go boxes from Ride or Fry. The cucumber, corn, and string bean ginger “side” salad was strewn with chunks of avocado. Also, Dante seemed equally, if not more, versed in vegetarian as he was in meat. Each covered tray was slapped with a Dante Fried Chicken sticker and differentiated in black Sharpie; they were $10 each.

Ride or Fry encompassed everything that “underground” often suggests: clandestine, exclusive if only inadvertently, and probably under the legal radar. But the two-week stint hopefully paved the way for an entirely licensed four-month food truck in LA starting in July.

Back in New York, I studied Dante as best I could between photographing him and his black sesame cherry pie. There will be a food truck, yes, which will coincide with a radio show, which I figured must resonate more with the driving city of Los Angeles, than it does in NYC. But the goal is to transform eating and cooking habits via mainstream media, like a television show, said Dante who’s led parties for the likes of M.I.A. and Santigold with his famous fried chicken. He admits he’s known among those in the clubbing and music community, but less so by foodies.

I’d recently seen the first episode of The Next Food Network Star and I wouldn’t wish any of the contestants’ forced charisma on this down-to-earth guy who, at that moment, was chatting with me about the grandma who’d inspired him to cook as a little dreadlock-ed kid. “I want kids to be so excited about food that it makes their parents want to eat better”, he effused. His earnestness reminded me of Jamie Oliver, but I like Dante much better.

•  •  •  •

There’s something about watching a chef prepare a meal that makes me think of alchemy. His friend, Lily, whose kitchen we were in, didn’t have a rolling pin. Dante improvised, searching the cabinets until a bottle of Yellow Tail caught his attention. He wiped the wine bottle with a paper towel and went to town on a ball of black sesame pie dough, which appeared from nowhere beside the cherry bowl.

I didn’t stay for pie or fried chicken that night, which I regret a little. The sweat factory that was my forehead became relentless and the cry of work was too. Luckily, I scored that seven-box Ride or Fry delivery the following night, so all was not lost. Besides, I feel like I’ll see Dante again. And if not in real life then maybe on TV. amy • june 9, 2010

I moved apartments last week – with Jason and all the furniture that came with him. It’s not easy to pick up and peace out when you’re trying to relocate with a bed and KitchenAid, though. Somehow, we managed and I only threatened to break up with him once.

The new Midtown apartment has a kitchen with a window – Think: Stupidly Simple Snacks with sunlight – and twice as much space! But it doesn’t feel like home yet. Admittedly, Midtown caters to commuters, tourists, and office workers, which is as far from that traditional neighborhood feel as you can get. There are few grocery stores and the closest market isn’t affordable by any standard. Oddly enough, however, there are three 99 cent pizza places within a two-block radius. So, to counter my Midtown blues and inevitable pizza addiction, I decided to join a CSA (community supported agriculture) to support a farm and bring fresh greens to me.

•  •  •  •

I randomly spotted Holton Farms‘ massive white farm truck vending vegetables by Union Square last week. I loved that I’d just learned about them on Twitter and there they were! Like a food truck, but with fresh produce. To my happy surprise, I came home to find an email from Holton Farms offering Amy Blogs Chow readers a 5% discount on their CSA program. Top secret code: HFAMY.

That’s the story of how I moved into a new apartment and joined a CSA. I haven’t placed my first order yet, but their FreshDirect-like online ordering screen looks pretty nifty. Now, all I have to do is learn to cook everything… amy • june 1, 2010

Follow @holtonfarms on Twitter.

Photos: (counter-clockwise) Holton Farms CSA Select Drop-Off Locations / My pig and a view of the Chrysler Building from window of new apartment / a zucchini photo from Holton Farms on Facebook

I RECENTLY BEGAN WRITING FOR TASTING TABLE, a beautifully-designed daily email that delivers the best of food and drink culture to adventurous eaters everywhere. (Free to subscribe here.) My first write-up, on ice macaron by J’Chanceux Macaron in Manhattan’s Nolita neighborhood, went up last week while I was traveling and eating through western New York for my next story. I suppose it’s safe to say a writer-blogger’s work is never done, but I wouldn’t wish to have it any other way.

Read my ice macaron piece on Tasting Table. You can also click on the right-hand image to enlarge. Cute, huh?

Happy Monday, Everyone! amy • may 11, 2009

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Yesterday, CNN featured Amy Blogs Chow in an article called Food 101: Seeking Clues In The Kitchen, to remark on the alarming prevalence of 20- and 30-somethings who don’t know how to cook.

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With the flood of attention food bloggers have garnered lately, I find that some themes repeat. First, as far as your mom’s concerned, the blood of Gourmet will forever be on our hands. And, to many above the age of 40, we’re raging exhibitionists who are incurably narcissistic. New York Times recently examined the amateur food photography phenomena in First Camera, Then Fork, which made an example of bloggers, like Nora Sherman, who compulsively point-and-shoot their meal before eating it. Whichever way it’s sliced, food bloggers’ desire to break bread virtually has emerged in the mainstream, but not always in a positive light. After all, I didn’t set out to be known for what I can’t do, like cook.

But what the likes of food blogs, cooking shows, Jamie Oliver, Michelle Obama, Amy Blogs Chow and Stupidly Simple Snacks try to show is you can turn lemons into lemonade. Food bloggers make celebratory meals out of breakfast! Whether we’re newsworthy, however, depends on the writers who report on us. I can empathize with experts who bemoan the rising popularity of amateurs. For those who went to lemonade making school or own industrial juicers, my creations might be too pulpy, too sour, too sweet. They’re not perfect, but I’m learning. amy • may 11, 2010

Photo: Green Pirate Juice Truck owner Deborah Smith photographing the lemonade she just made for our GP lemonade snack video.