The main artery of Chelsea Market that stretches from 9th avenue almost to 10th avenue should be called the hallway of deliciousness. You walk into a barrage of temptations and treats coming on to you like street hookers, “Hey, baby, you like what you see? Come over honey and get a little taste of this.” I love the level of glutton-ability and the throngs of food lovers, shoppers and tourists who crush into the circus, their faces ranging from delight to overwhelm and perhaps a little panic.
Last Saturday, I ignored my way down the gauntlet. My taste buds had a very important date. I was invited to a tasting at Corkbuzz Chelsea with a bunch of bloggers and food media enthusiasts. SURPRISE! Our table was set up ringside. We got to feast on Michelin-star chef Missy Robbin’s amazing food, with a view sideshow of the HORDES and MASSES hitting Chelsea Market.
I’m gluten choosy. I try to only eat AMAZING GLUTEN!!! I’m not allergic to it, but all that white flour cramps my gluttonous side. I can eat a lot more food if I avoid eating bread, pasta, crackers, pastries and other flour rich foods. That all went out the window the day I made rolls from scratch and I slathered them with maple sugar butter I made. GLUTENY GLUTTONY IN DA HOUSE!
Blue cheese stuffed celery sticks have come a long way, baby. Along with deviled eggs and pimento cheese craze, you’re going to start seeing new spins on these hip 60’s party tray nibbles at the hottest restaurants. They’re gluten-free after all! My makeover features the addition of hot sauce chicken cracklings as an homage to Buffalo chicken wings.
No batter, no dredging, no added nothing. Just chicken, salt and pepper and slow, long heat (aka cook the sh*t out of them) make these chicken wings crunchy and crispy. You can eat them plain but we never do. Put something sticky, add something crunchy and go to town!
Imagine if people could get smoked duck breasts instead of hamburgers at a fast-food joint. That’s the world I want to live in. You know that old saying: “Give a man a smoked duck breast that’s vacuum-sealed and will live in the refrigerator for months, and he will always have a delicious meal up his sleeve.”
Why didn’t my mom make garlic fried rice as my first food? I wonder if Filipino moms do? I love my mom and my family, but I often wish I were born Asian. This simple, five-ingredient vegan side dish makes me wish I’d known it all my life.
What if you had your way with the classic Cobb salad? As Frank Sinatra sang, “I did it my way.”
This is a Cobb salad that met up with a Niçoise salad that rejected its own fishiness. Not that I hate fish, but I thought if I add tuna and anchovies to this salad, on top of all the other things I already added, things would have definitely been a little fishy. ba-dum-bum-CHING
If you want to hear your most patriotic friends squeal, bring a red, white and blue watermelon salad to a potluck. Even the ones who may not agree with how this country runs will get a pang in their li’l disappointed hearts for this fun-looking salad. This salad bring delight and maybe just a smidgen of hope. LOVE IT or leave it because it will be eaten.
What if you left the rice out of the sushi? Well, the smarty pants in the room would say that’s just “sashimi” and they would be correct. I use chicken instead of rice in these baked, nori-wrapped, veggie-stuffed chicken sushi rolls. They say sayonara very quickly when I serve them. They’re low-carb, gluten-free (when the sauce is made with gluten-free soy) and very tasty.
Ethereal… that’s my experience of a well-made Pavlova. I fell hard for this dessert when I first had it in Australia. There’s something about the contrast of the pillowy soft sweetness of the meringue against the cool lusciousness of the whipped cream and the sparkle, tang and varied flavors and deliciousness of the fruit. Passionfruit is very common in Australia, but not so much in New York. Whenever I see it here it’s a SIGN that I must make a “Pav” as it’s called down under.
