Undiscovered New York: Cooking up a storm

by Jeremy Kressmann on

It’s no big secret that New York is absolutely spoiled for choice when it comes to food. If you need any proof, Undiscovered New York has already reviewed a whole slew of New York City’s more interesting eating neighborhoods and cuisines.

Yet one of the greatest benefits of all this great food is that you don’t even have to go to one of New York’s many restaurants to enjoy it. New York is also a really great place to learn more about the art and science of food, including the practicalities of how to cook it. Whether you’re an avid Top Chef viewer looking to kick off that fledgling culinary career, or just a casual cooking fan looking to pick up a new skill, the city has a diverse range of culinary schools and classes to fit your timing and budget.

The other truth about New Yorkers and food is that they’re not just passionate about great cooking – they’re passionate about great ingredients. Ever wonder why some people swoon over a great Pinot or some smooth French Brie? Or why New Yorkers like to hate on Starbucks coffee so much? Plan to make time for a number of great food classes specializing in the intricacies of palate-pleasing foods like cheese, wine and coffee.

So go grab those chef pants, cleanse that palate and bring along your best whisk, this week Undiscovered New York shows you how to “cook up a storm” on your next visit. Click below to learn where…
Cooking Classes
Not only is taking a cooking class a great way to learn a new skill. It’s also a great way to learn more about what makes New York tick. Each year thousands of students come to the city hoping to catch their big break at one of New York’s world-class restaurants. Many inevitably find their way to one of the city’s several culinary schools. But the best part is that temporary visitors can also take advantage of these school’s programs by taking a day-long class.

In addition to 6 and 11 month-long career programs, The Institute for Culinary Education also offers 4-5 hour “recreational” sessions on a variety of cuisines. For around $100, you can learn how to make your own sushi, cook a great risotto or taste a few craft beers. Why not take a cooking class with you and that special someone? Or get a gift certificate for an interesting birthday present?

Great Coffee
New York coffee chain Joe The Art of Coffee is serious about their brew. It’s only natural then that the chain also offers a variety of java-themed courses to help teach joe-lovers a thing or two about a quality cup. If you’ve ever wanted to know more about espresso, proper milk steaming techniques or how to brew a great cup of coffee at home, stop by one of several locations around the city and check out one of their classes.

Wine and Cheese
Wine is one of those food products that tends to intimidate many drinkers. Between all the different grape varieties, food pairings and vintages, it can be downright confusing to know what’s good and what’s merely a ripoff. Want to look like the hero the next time you order a bottle at dinner? Get in touch with the helpful team at NYC Wine Class, offering a range of courses exploring food and wine pairings, regional specific wine tastings and courses in wine and cheese.

If you’d like to skip the wine altogether and just fill up on some delicious cheese, head to cheese experts at Murray’s for one of their regular classes on everyone’s favorite dairy product.

Amazing Race 14: Recap 1, Swiss cheese is heavy

by Jamie Rhein on

When the teams took off for Switzerland from the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California after the Marine helicopter ride that took them there, you could feel the buoyancy and hear their glee. No matter the season, every team has a real can-do attitude at the beginning of the Amazing Race. Amazing Race 14 was no different. And just like every other season, some teams began to fall apart not long after they landed.

Jennifer and Preston missed their connecting train. She got crabby and he crabbed back. Later in the episode, Steve chastised Linda for being slow as they hoofed it to the Church of San Antonio in Locarno to meet up with a monk. Her slowness put them behind most of the other teams. Steve only made her weepier. As Linda pointed out, she would have gone faster if she could have. “I can’t run and I feel bad about it,” she sniffled. Good point. Who goes on the Amazing Race trying to be pokey?

When people are crabby and chastising when they travel, they miss the details. In Switzerland, one detail comes in snow-capped mountains, so gorgeous they can make you cry. Brad, choked up, for example, as he and Victoria sped through them on the train. It might of been the mountains, or maybe he was tired. Other details of Swiss travel had to do with bungee jumping and cheese.

First the bungee jumping. After a night of camping, fending off mosquitos, the teams headed a short distance from Locarno to Contra Verzasca Dam where James Bond made his bungee jumping leap in the movie Goldeneye. In nerves of steel daring, one team member from each team made the Bond jump, minus the music, in order to receive their next clue.

This is not just an Amazing Race opportunity. You can make the 220 meter, 70-story, jump yourself through the company Trekking Outdoor Team. It seriously looks like a blast for a person not afraid of heights. Interestingly, the person most afraid of heights was Jodi, one of the flight attendants. As we knew all along, even a person afraid of heights would be able to make the leap for the chance for a million dollars.

When the jumping was over, it was off via train to Interlaken and Kleine Rugen Wiese, a place with a slippery, grass covered hill and wheels of cheese at the top of it. Teams had to grab antique cheese racks, trudge to the top of the hill, one rack per member, to carry cheese–great big wheels of it that can bound and roll down a hill like nobody’s business when dropped–to the bottom using the racks in some way. What a hoot.

The antique racks looked rigged since almost everyone of them snapped like kindling wood. Making the task more difficult was avoiding getting bowled over by the escaped flying cheese, and the people chasing after it. To get a 50-pound cheese wheel down a hill, you can hold it in front of you in both arms, sit with it on your lap and scoot, put one wheel on each shoulder, or do a combination of all three. If you’re really smart, you’ll stack three cheese wheels on the rack and drag it down the hill like Steve did.

While the teams acted out this Abott and Costello-like scene, Swiss men stood at the bottom of the hill swigging some sort of beverage and laughing. Eventually, all cheese was stacked properly, and the teams were off once more to find yodelers at the pit stop in the town of Stechelberg. For a little while I thought that Steve and Linda, who call themselves endearments like “dumb asses” when frustrated, wouldn’t find the yoderlers, but eventually they came out of the woods where they had headed to land a 9th place finish.

The first place finishers were mother and son team, Margie and Luke. Both of them started to cry. So did 2nd place finishers, Tammy and Victor–even Phil looked teary. Tammy and Victor weren’t feeling emotional because they came in second by a hair–thus missed out on that swell trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I think it was because the finish was so awesome indeed. Luke is deaf.

As Luke said, “A lot of people think deaf people can’t do things, but the deaf can do it. I just want to show people that deaf people can do it.” I’d say Victor and Tammy will get their share of first place prizes.

In a neck and neck finish, Christie and Jodi reached the Pit Stop mat before Jennifer and Preston. Although they were thrilled to stay in the race, the flight attendants did give the loosing team hugs, proving that flight attendants are indeed friendly. Preston promised Jennifer she did not let him down. Hey, they get to hang out for a couple weeks at some swank villa somewhere at the Elimination Station if this season is like the others. That’s not a bad deal.

The moral of this episode is, before you go on the Amazing Race, go to a train station. Jennifer had never been to one before. I think traveling at a break neck speed in unfamiliar territory is not the best place for a first time.

Where everyone has ended up so far:

  • 1st -Margie and Luke
  • 2nd -Tammy and Victor
  • 3rd – Mark and Michael
  • 4th – Mel and Mike
  • 5th – Amanda and Kris
  • 6th – Brad and Victoria
  • 7th – Cara and Jaime
  • 8th – Kisha and Jen
  • 9th – Linda and Steve
  • 10th – Christie and Jodi
  • 11th – Preston and Jennifer (Eliminated)

For a more detailed recap, check out the Amazing Race 14 website.

The Dutch by numbers

by Jamie Rhein on

This month’s issue of Holland Herald, KLM’s in-flight magazine is devoted to a numbers theme. For example, California’s Highway 1 is touted as being one of the world’s most scenic drives in an article devoted to pointing out the highway’s finer points.

Another article was perfect for in-flight reading. By browsing two pages filled with random statistics, I found out several interesting facts about the Dutch that might be useful to toss out at parties if there is absolutely nothing left to talk about.

Here are five of them:

  • In 2008, Sophie has been the most popular name for a girl, and Daan the most popular for a boy.
  • On average, women don’t marry in the Netherlands until age 32.7, and men don’t marry until 35.8.
  • When the Dutch want to go on a vacation, France is their number one destination.
  • The average Dutch person eats 16.7 kilos of cheese per year.
  • On average, a person in the Netherlands drinks 77.4 liters of beer per year. This is a considerable drop from the 300 liters the same person would have downed during the Middle Ages.

Here’s one more fact about the Dutch I found out. Each year, they produce 3 million pairs of clogs.

Gadling Take FIVE August 24-29

by Jamie Rhein on

First off, Happy Labor Day weekend if you happen to be in the United States. For anyone else, happy weekend and don’t work too hard. If you’ve read Gadling this week, perhaps you noticed posts on changes occurring , new additions to the travel field and what this means for travelers.

1. Josh, for example, talked about the upcoming opening of the Holiday Inn in Hanoi and what this signifies for the city. My first trip to Hanoi was in 1994 and I’ve been back four more times. As he noted,and what I’ve also noticed with each visit, the increased affluence has brought considerable change. Josh muses about the outcome.

2. If you’re one of those people who have noticed how air travel just isn’t what it used to be (how could you not notice) Scott’s read “The top eight things I miss most about the current state of air travel” may seem familiar. Oh, how I long for the good old days, and I’ve never been on the Concorde.

3. Abha pointed us in the direction of a new travel guide resource called Trazzler.com that tailors recommendations to your location and the type of travel you are interested in such as culinary arts.

4. In case you’re looking for the latest food snob trend, Jeffery found the answer at Forbes.com and added his two cents into the discussion. For all you backpackers who settle for cheese and bread while hopping on and off trains in Europe, you can go more upscale than those little triangles of cheese that doesn’t need much refrigeration. Jeffery, is not a cheese wiz, but you might be able to convince him with a bottle of wine. (In case you missed it, I made a play on words. Cheese wiz = Cheez Whiz)

5. Here’s a trend in weight saving that I, for one, don’t hope other airlines start using. Grant wrote about how Jazz Airlines, a subsidiary of Air Canada is doing away with life vests. If the plane lands in water, passengers need to hold onto their seat cushions as flotation devices.

Camel cheese – coming soon to a grocery near you

by Jeremy Kressmann on

As any proper Bedouin will tell you, camels are an essential part of a nomadic desert existence. They provide a convenient method of transportation, require little water and can stand up to great extremes of temperature. We now also know that they provide the perfect compliment to your next cheese and cracker platter. I’m talking more specifically about camel cheese, the latest delicacy to make its way to grocery stores here in the U.S.

The camel cheese trend started in the African nation of Mauritania, site of the world’s first and, to the best of my knowledge, only camel dairy farm. Mauritanians consume camel milk as part of their everyday diet, but it was a local expat named Nancy Abeiderrahmane who first got the idea to turn the milk into cheese to preserve its shelf life. The idea was a hit, and Nancy has been producing camel cheese ever since.

The cheese made its debut in the New York City area this past month. Connoisseurs compare it favorably to goat cheese, citing its subtle “barnyard flavors” and the ability to spread it easily on bread or crackers. When it comes to food, nothing wins me over quicker than when I hear phrases like “barnyard flavors.” Pick up some now for your Final Four party this weekend!

[Via Buzzfeed]