So today is Food Revolution Day! It’s the day where you take back your food from giant faceless corporations and cook it yourself. Yep, cook it yourself. Learn something new today. Learn about a new ingredient or a new method of cooking. If you’re an expert, go teach somebody something. Share your knowledge and information. Or go out and support the small mom and pop shop where they’re doing things the good and right way.

In honor of Food Revolution Day 2013, here’s a list of recipes that we like and hopefully you’ll like also!

Guess what?! Perfect timing, it’s soft shell crab season. Go get some and cook this recipe.

Thanks to Jamie Oliver, I’m in love with harissa.

Also thanks to Jamie Oliver, I can now make flatbreads with my eyes closed.

The lobster roll is like the perfect summer food, so here’s Howard’s vegan version.

Here’s an easy tomato gratin.

Speaking of tomato, here’s my quick and easy recipe for tomato and egg over rice.

My mom’s chicken wings and potatoes with coconut milk is my MOST FAVORITE dish ever.

Check out our video on making a 30 Second Vinaigrette.

Cauliflower and apple make a great combination in this bread pudding recipe.

Ah….here’s my Pad Thai sauce recipe plus few different ways to use it.

If you find fiddlehead ferns at the greenmarket, buy some and try this recipe.

Because of the asparagus allergy I developed a few years ago, all I can do is stare wistfully at asparagus when it appears every spring at the farmer’s market. This time of year is especially hard — you can find all different sizes of asparagus; pencil thin or thick and crunchy. This would be a good time of year for Donny’s proposed 11-course asparagus dinner.

One of my favorite food events I attended last year was Village Voice’s Choice Streets. Obviously one of the thing I liked about it was the location. It was held at the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. It was also one of the most causal food events I’ve been to. So of course this year I had to go back. While the format was the same, there were few things that were different from last year that, in a way, made this year a little less fun (just a little) but overall I still had a good time.

For some unknown reasons, few of the trucks didn’t show up and they may had sold more tickets than last year because the lines! There were few times where I just stood in a line for half an hour. And by 8:30p some of the trucks had ran out of food already which then added extra pressure on other trucks to continue.

Here are some bites I managed to get….

Think about a restaurant that can be described by the following: it services people from all different backgrounds, including cab drivers. It’s cheap enough that pretty much anyone can afford it. It’s completely free of any pretentions and food trends. And the food is delicious. Doesn’t all of that sound great? The other day while eating lunch at Punjabi Deli I had an epiphany — the tiny little vegetarian Indian “restaurant” is my favorite eating experience in NYC.

If you’ve never heard of it, Punjabi Deli is a small grocery store on Houston that serves great Indian food. You can eat in, standing hunched over the narrow counter, shoulder-to-shoulder with a random collection of New Yorkers. Sure, they use a microwave to heat up the food, but when you taste it you won’t mind. In the bowl in the foreground is a samosa — in this case, cut open and topped with yogurt, chickpeas, raw onions, and a variety of chutneys and sauces. It’s one of my very favorite things in the city — a mix of hot and cold, salty and sweet, crunchy and smooth.

As a food blogger I get asked a lot about my favorite restaurants in the city, and for some reason Punjabi Deli never occurs to me. That changed, as of that lunch a few weeks ago. It’s the new place I want to take out-of town guests to. Plus, il laboratorio del gelato is right across the street so you can get a little dessert to cool your mouth down from the spices.

Punjabi Deli — 114 E 1st St #3, Manhattan

This piece was written on 4/25/2013. On 4/27 we visited Beer Table on their last night, where a patron made an impromptu toast to the owners and I drank a beer called Gypsy Tears.

On April 27th, 2013, Beer Table in Park Slope will serve its last beer after five years. The small bar and restaurant was well-known for its incredible beer selection; in addition to a few drafts and casks, the bottled beer menu contained hundreds of options from brewers all over the world, with bottles that cost anywhere from $8 to a select few over $100. This was not the kind of place to chug pitchers of beer; Beer Table was a place to actually drink beer, and to discover new ones. The sign on the door says they need a bigger space – and a bigger kitchen. Justin Philips, one of the owners, says that serving food was always his first priority.

Click to continue…

I like brunch but hate the crowd and the wait time, so it’s a good thing Allswell does weekday brunch. Unlike their dinner menu, which changes daily, their brunch pretty much stays the same. There’s something wonderful about leisurely strolling into a restaurant, sit down and leisurely eat your lunch and maybe drink three cocktails (which I did).

The biscuits with sausage gravy and fried eggs was excellent. I usually tend to stay away from biscuits and gravy because I’m afraid it’ll get too heavy in my stomach. But Allswell does it really good and it was quite light. I think I needed an extra biscuit to mop up ALL the gravy.

I even got to taste their housemade chicken dogs which they serve during their late night hours. This made a perfect late night snacks, wash it down with a pint!

- Allswell 124 Bedford Ave. Williamsburg

If you haven’t heard, I’ll be taking photos for the Big Gay Ice Cream Yearbook aka their cookbook. And to keep the yearbook theme going, we’re doing yearbook! photos this coming and next weekend at the West Village (61 Grove St & 7th Ave South) shop.

Go to the shop between noon and 7pm on 4/27, 4/28, 5/4 or 5/5, hopefully all dressed up for your photo (think 80s high school yearbook photos) and we’ll hand you an ice cream cone and I’ll snap your photo. Done.

For a better explanation, check out Doug’s post.

Just think, when the book comes out you can totally take the book and get all your friends to sign it. “Stay cool!” “Hope you don’t ever change!”

It’s gonna be loads of fun.