Bacon fat bacon fat bacon fat bacon fat! After frying bacon you always end up with a pan of bacon fat. I usually pour it into a bowl and let it solidify for easy disposal. But last weekend it was different. I was preparing to make some brunch. I had a loaf of Italian bread, eggs and leftover potato mush, meatballs and parsnips. I was going to saute the potatoes, parsnips and sausages together then top it off with over-easy eggs. When I opened the fridge to get the stuff I noticed my bowl of solidified bacon fat sitting there. Should I? Should I? Heck yeah!

I cut about 1/3 of the bread then sliced it into 2 halves. Heated up a pan and scooped a spoonful of bacon fat into the hot pan. I had some parsley so I threw that into the fat and lay the 2 halves of bread on top. I toasted the bread until golden then flipped them to toast the other side. Hmmmm.

After the bread was done, I added a little more bacon fat and sauteed the potatoes, parsnips and sausages. I bought a big bunch of dill so I threw in some dill just for the heck of it. After that was done I cooked the 2 eggs. Yay for brunch. I took a bite of the toast and I really tasted the bacon in it. Quite good! I think I’ll go buy more bacon and collect enough bacon fat to fill up a jar.

My parents recently moved to New Jersey, and they took a trip to Atlantic City during which they sampled some of the omnipresent buffets. Here’s what my dad had to say about them.

As the principal mainstay of an Atlantic City diet is the buffet I decided to try some. I found that most were not open. This was despite the fact that several large billboards, and assorted flashing banner signs three feet high advertised that they were open. To further disappoint, the casino we arrived at as part of the transportation was handing out fifty percent off coupons to their closed restaurant; It put in mind of the old joke about the butcher whose customer complained about the price of steak being too high, “The Safeway has it on sale for half that amount,” complained the customer. “And how much steak has the Safeway?” asked the butcher. “Why none,” replied the customer. “Well come back on Tuesday, and I won’t have any either, and, I’ll sell it to you for 78 percent off!”

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Few weeks ago, The Big Gay Ice Cream truck had their big season end party over at the East Village. They were accompanied by NYC Cravings and Cupcake Stop. After work I went down to check all the trucks out. As I was walking over to Destination Bar, where the ice cream truck had parked in front of, I had this incredible idea. What if I combined a cupcake from Cupcake Stop with ice cream from the Big Gay Ice Cream? And top it off with something savory from Cravings?!

I had my heart set on getting the salty pimp from Doug and Bryan but then I realized that they had to turn the ice cream upside down and dip it into the chocolate. Didn’t think it would’ve been possible to do that if the ice cream was inside a cup. So……I ended up getting a triple chocolate cupcake and got the gobbler sundae over it! Bryan was super nice about it. The line for Cravings was super long so I didn’t bother lining up but they were serving onion pancake, they could’ve worked with the gobbler triple chocolate.

What can I say? It was crazily good.

You can check out some more photos of that night here!

- The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck on Twitter
- Cupcake Stop on Twitter
- NYC Cravings on Twitter

Way back in May I got an email from Stonyfield Farm asking me whether I wanted to try a free sample of their new product, an organic Greek yogurt they called Oikos. I love yogurt, and I love free stuff, so of course I said yes. They sent me several coupons for a free tub of the yogurt. It was a good move for them to send coupons — I’m sure the cost of shipping a refrigerated package of yogurt would be prohibitively expensive. It was also a bad move for me, since I rarely go to the grocery store. Finally, here in the middle of October and the coupon’s expiration date rapidly approaching, I went and picked up my free yogurt. So how was it?

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Growing up in LA, it was what it was. It was me driving everywhere, it was me being stuck in traffic, it was me hanging out at the mall because of the a/c during the hot summers, it was me spending a Friday night with friends at a TGIF and thought the food was awesome, it was me at a school event where there was an In-N-Out truck catering, it was me doing what was normal to me in LA. Also if you DO go to a TGIF restaurant may I suggest going to Claim Jumper instead? It’s just better. I was inside the LA bubble. I didn’t hate nor liked being stuck in traffic, I was okay with going to malls, I was okay with chain restaurants because that was what I grew up with.

What happens when you move out of that bubble? To the other extreme city, NYC. You change. What happened to me was, NYC made me appreciate LA even more. All that were mundane seem so extraordinary now. Humid summers or dry heat? Stuck in a metal tube with other people or be in your own car your own space? A really good plate of Hainam chicken rice. Oh how I want mom’s cooking every night now. Even if its something plain like a plate of sauteed bok choy. But NYC has also shown me things that I never thought I would liked or cared about. Things like short walkable blocks, cabs, an abundance of bars and restaurants, being outdoor, hummus, a good slice, a real Christmas.
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I was starting to think that I wouldn’t find anything to feature this week, but then out of the corner of my eye I spotted something I’d never seen before. Perhaps, like me, you are familiar with the round, purple variety, known as radicchio di Chioggia (radicchio varietals are named for regions in Italy). I’ve also seen radicchio di Treviso, which sort of resembles a purple endive. I don’t know the name of this particular variety, and neither did the woman at the farm stand, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
[Note: Further research has made me think this may be the Grumolo variety of radicchio -- can anyone confirm or deny?]