The other day I went out to lunch with Claire Marin, the recurring character of this blog, beekeeper and entrepreneur. We went to Biricchino Restaurant.
Biricchino is the restaurant that belongs to our friends at Salumeria Biellese.
Salumeria Biellese is where we get all of our salumi from (prosciutto, salami, etc.). What do I love most about SB? They are old school Italian Americans and their product is totally traceable.
And they have this great restaurant. The food was really good. Let's get this straight. This is a real Italian-American restaurant. Of the red sauce variety. It's this kind of Italian-American restaurant:
I know, no joke.
And it's traceable. It's always been traceable. It's this kind of traceable:
We had salad
Salad. Okay, so there's a tomato in there. But they were happy tomatoes.
We had mozzerella
Housemade mozzerella. I think this could be the answer to world peace.
I had orreciette with sausage and broccoli rabe that would make my Aunt Anna really proud. Go there. It's on an unsexy street in north west Chelsea (think edge of Garment District/not quite FIT) and there the great deli they have on the corner with seats.
You'll love me for this one.
Later that day, I had dinner at Il Buco Alimentari. Also a somewhat sustainable/traceable Italian restaurant of the other kind. Not red sauce. It was filled with really good food and mobbed with well-dressed people. My phone ran out of juice so I didn't get any photos.
It was given three stars by the NYTimes this last week. Why? I don't know. It's great. But this is a different world we live in and it's a store with great food and communal tables and really just ok service.
Big shout out to Pamela. Best service there and bartender.
They did mention where they get their pig from on the menu. Many items are Italian and 9 out of 10 times the Italians do handle their food products with completely proper technique.
I would go there again in a heartbeat. I did very much love the props they give the winemakers on the menu.
On Sunday, I judged a gumbo cook-off. I co-founded www.chefsformarcellus.org and it was a fundraiser. I really wasn't hopeful about the event to tell you the truth. Gumbo? Cook-off? God, that's iffy. Anyone could cook. I tried not to think about it.
The good news is that it was A) a packed house! B) 10 out of 12 gumbos were really good! and C) we made really good money for a Sunday Gumbo Cook-off in the East Village for A Cause Not Enough People Are Aware Of!
Here are more horrendous photos to show you the low down.
Even for the 5-8 set....
These photos don't show you the sheer volume of human bodies crammed into Jimmy's No. 43. It got a little hairy there for a little while.
The fact is, people came out to support, eat some gumbo that they had no bloody idea where it had been or who made it, and celebrate before grabbing Lent by the balls and vowing never to wake up drunk with chocolate dipped bacon hanging out of their mounth for at least 40 days.
Nissa Pierson, winner of most Creative Gumbo with her vegan Gumbo Z'Herbes and Mary Cleaver, lord high priestess of Sustainable, Traceable bad-assness.
I wish I could remember her name. She helped Scott Gold with his duck gumbo. We created a category just for him. Best gumbo with duck smoked in backyard in Greenpoint.
I'll leave off today by saying the road for Delicious America opened up today a little bit and we're ready to take my shoemaker writing, poor poor photography (and yes, my dad is a photographer. No comments please) and our iffy morals and take them to the live camera.
Just warning you now.