Holy Dough!....nuts- DOUGH BROOKLYN at Smorgasburg

DOUGH Donuts: A Far Cry From The Old Fashioned from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

I finally made it to Smorgasburg in Williamsburg this weekend (the weekly market of local food vendors selling everything from grilled corn with smoked peach butter to homemade brisket and bklyn made jams, plus a farmer's market)

Now let me just say this, I'm not a huge doughnut fan and will choose a lot of other fat or sugar laden lovlies before I indulge in a doughnut, however, the DOUGH doughnuts I ate completely BLEW MY MIND and were hands down the best thing at the market. When we got there the doughnuts were sold out, but just as I finished off a bit o' fried chicken a fresh delivery arrived from their store in Bed Stuy. Big, light, chewy, warm....they just pulled apart so beautifully. I got a coconut milk glazed with toasted coconut on top AND a blood orange glazed doughnut (complete with a candied orange peel garnish). I'm kind of obsessed.

You can find them at 305 Franklin Ave, Brooklyn, Ny. The mastermind behind these pillows of love is Fany Gerson, a James Beard award winner for he cookbook, My Sweet Mexico (I am awaiting my copy from Amazon as I type). Clicky clicky the link above for more on her.

Apparently it took chef Fany Gerson six months to perfect her dough. I will be trying my hand at some yeasted doughnuts tomorrow and will post the results and recipe soon there after- wish me luck and please post any tips if you have made them before!

X dough X dough

Slingin' Hash Hamptons Style: Teen & Adult Cooking Classes

Loaves and Fishes is a beloved prepared food shop which also has a cooking supply annex in Bridgehampton. Everything is delicious, fresh, organic and so absurdly expensive that it may send you into an existential tailspin. The cooking supply shop in Bridgehampton however, is really awesome and a great resource for a gifts!

They have cooking classes for both adults and kids! I took a two night course with my "special man friend" two weeks ago. It was fun, but really geared more towards people who already know how to cook, and just want to get together with a bunch of people and learn some new recipes. The highlight was making home made pasta, which sort of ignited a little torch of italian cooking passion under me. I have since gone and bought a pasta roller attachment for my kitchen aide mixer and have made spicy red pepper rigatoni- YUM!

http://www.landfcookshop.com/

David Cheng's Lucky Peach

While perusing the culinary section of the magazine racks at Barnes & Noble yesterday I noticed one magazine that didn't look like any others. Chef David Cheng started a food quarterly called Lucky Peach (Momofuku) and issue one was released this summer. The great photography and "zine-esque" illustrations throughout are such a welcome and refreshing departure from other mainstream publications. There is also an ipad app to accompany that will come out soon.

At $10 a pop, it's pricey, but the gitty nostolgia of teen-angst I felt while flipping through all the diy illustrations & slightly twisted content told me it was mine. The first issue reads somewhat like if Economist magazine was about food and could flip you the finger . It is dense with information on Ramen (from recipes & classifications of, to it's history and tours of Ramen houses) and rife with indulgent liquor-induced & not-liquor induced musings on the affects that culinary fusion, mediocity and authenticity have on our society and world at large. And that is just the tip of he content iceberg here. It's not a magazine you can plow through in one sitting (like I said, it's kind of like the Economist of food magazines) but the recipes and subjects are great and delivered with intelligence, wit, and laugh out loud bawdiness (with articles by favorites like Ruth Reichl, Todd Kilman, Peter Meehan, and Wylie Dufresne-who apparently is incensed by Brooklyn and the farm to table movement which is just kind of funny).

So go ahead, indulge your inner anti-establishment, angsty, culture and culinary obsessed self and pick one up:

http://www.momofuku.com/news-and-events/lucky-peach/

Great article by NPR:

http://www.npr.org/2011/08/07/139019770/lucky-peach-an-irreverent-look-at-cooking

ZEN LOOM WEAVING CLASSES

A great discovery! After getting a lilac glitter fade gel manicure at Sakura's Upper East Side location I grabbed myself the most delicious iced coffee at Little Brown and started making my way back across the park to the west side (yo). While strolling down sleepy little East 87th Street I happened upon Loop of the Loom, a weaving arts studio! They teach a type of weaving called Saori, which is a Japanese method that is centered on zen expression, and have both adult and children's classes. Among the different items you can learn to make here: tapestry, scarves, bags, shrugs, skirts and more. I like it! Wondering if I can weave a bust of my chihuahua Bill into a tapestry....hmmm. Enjoy!

http://www.loopoftheloom.com/