Adam D. Roberts's Blog, page 128

Waiter! There's a Nipple in My Soup! (A Review of Robert's Restaurant at Scores Gentleman's Club by Cole Escola)

[When the P.R. e-mail came offering me a free dinner at Robert's Restaurant at Scores Gentleman's Club, my first thought was: "Ew, boobies!" And my second thought was, "I can't take a free meal and write a solicited review, I'm an ethical food blogger." I was about to click "delete" when I realized that it might be pretty hilarious to send my gay comedian friend Cole Escola to do the dirty deed for me. And Cole, as you'll see below, happily obliged. This is the story of his dinner at a steakhouse in a strip club.]

When it comes to my tastes, I'm an American through and through. I like deep-fried twinkies, chocolate with peanut butter, and bacon on everything. This patriotic love of decadent combinations is exactly what made me say "yes" when Adam asked if I'd like to review Robert's Restaurant inside of Scores Gentlemen's Club. Even though I'm gay (and I mean gay) I couldn't resist the temptation of gourmet steak paired with topless women. Like I said, I'm an American.

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For Those Who Missed It

Here's a recorded version of my interview with Eric Wolitzky from "Top Chef Just Desserts." We dish about Team Godiva, the harrowing 32-day shooting period, and how Eric became a baker (which involved escaping the first tower on 9/11).

Live with Eric Wolitzky from Top Chef Just Desserts

Have you been watching "Top Chef Just Desserts"? My friend Eric Wolitzky (whose cookies I made in the previous post) did extraordinarily well this season and tomorrow I'm joining him LIVE at Baked in Red Hook to talk about his time on the show, behind-the-scenes gossip, his biggest regrets, favorite moments and what he's doing next. Just load up this page tomorrow November 9th at 1:45 PM EST and watch the action unfold in real time. You can also ask questions live in the chatroom, either by clicking here or continuing on below. Those who can't make it live, post your questions for Eric in the comments and I'll be sure to ask them.

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Eric Wolitzky's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Tomorrow (as you'll see in the next post) I'm hoofing it to Baked in Red Hook so I can do a live-streaming interview with Eric Wolitzky, everyone's favorite contestant from the debut season of "Top Chef: Just Desserts." You probably didn't know this, but I met Eric years ago at my friend Jimmy's apartment. It was a holiday party and I remember Eric brought these divine chocolate truffles and I thought, "This guy's got talent!" Even though he was just eliminated, Eric's performance on "Just Desserts" was truly remarkable; he had fancy pants three-starred Michelin pastry chefs wowed with his "humble" (humble? hardly!) bakery treats. One such treat was this chocolate chip cookie.

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Dinner on Ellis Island (Molly O'Neill's "One Big Table" Event)

In college (at Emory Univeristy in Atlanta), I took a class called "The Modernization of Judaism." The class was taught by a lesbian rabbi and, over the course of the semester, we studied the various divergent branches of the Jewish community (I attended an Orthodox Shabbat service, the women separate from the men) and learned how Reformed Jews (the Jews I was raised amongst) were a dying breed since they reproduced the least (Hasidic Jews have us significantly beat).

We also studied the two large waves of Jews that emigrated to America in both the 19th and 20th centuries. The first wave came mostly from Western Europe (predominantly from Germany); the second wave, a much larger wave, came from Eastern Europe as Russian Jews fled the pogroms. And if you were to study that second wave you'd see, splashing somewhere in the water, the ancestors whose crossing set cosmic forces in motion that led to the creation of this food blog. One of those ancestors was my mother's father's mother, Netty Rosenblum.

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Challah Bread French Toast

This is a highly unnecessary post, especially if you've seen my post "Easy French Toast." That's my go-to French Toast recipe and the only difference between that recipe and this recipe is the bread. So why write this post at all? Because the difference between making French Toast with white sandwich bread (as I did in that old post) and making it with challah bread (as I do in this post) is like the difference between building a fort with pillows and blankets vs. building a fort with bricks, mortar and cannons. This French Toast blasts the other French Toast apart.

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In Praise of the Two Fat Ladies

Mr. Game Show was a Hanukkah gift that my parents bought me one year in the 1980s. It looked like a regular board game (small tokens that you moved around a large, printed board) except there, in the middle, was a plastic figurine that talked. "Hello!" it announced in a Guy Smiley voice, "I'm Mr. Game Show! Who's ready to play a game?"

Mr. Game Show's Mr. Gameshow had slick-backed hair and big white teeth. He embodied everything that was false and mockable about that most loathsome TV type: the game show host. As time marched on, and we moved through the 80s to the 90s to today, the TV landscape has shifted enough that, even though there are still game show hosts (Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek haven't gone anywhere) there's a new contender for that most loathsome TV type: the food show host.

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Making a Turkey of Myself

It's that time again...time for a new banner. For the record, I taste great with cranberry sauce and a side of mashed potatoes. Thanks, once again, to Lindy Groening for her brilliant work (note: the banner archive is fully updated, so check out all of Lindy's previous work. Do you have a favorite?) Thanks, also, to Raphael Brion who helped set it up this month. Gobble, gobble!

The Secret To Killer Pork Chops at Home

There's a psychological phenomenon--and I'm not a psychologist, so cut me some slack here--by which, even though we know what's good for us, we don't do the thing that's good for us. So, for example, let's say we're an aspiring journalist and there's a convention downstairs, in our building, for working journalists who are looking to hire interns. And let's say we want to be an intern--it's a crucial step in our professional trajectory--but, on TV, is a marathon showing of The Real Housewives of New York City and it's the episode where Jill Zarin shows up, uninvited, to the Caribbean. Even though all we have to do is turn off the TV, splash some water on our face and walk downstairs, we don't. That's a real phenomenon (perhaps it's called self-sabotage?) and I'd like to talk to you about it today in the context of pork chops.

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What To Do With Jerusalem Artichokes

The Jews have an expression: "Next year in Jerusalem!" The idea is that next year, whatever we're doing or celebrating, we'll do it in Jerusalem, the place where all Jews should aspire to someday go. (I do aspire to go there some day, though I think Rome may be higher on my list, if only for the pasta.)

Why do I bring that up here? I needed some kind of intro to a post about Jerusalem artichokes and that seemed as good a way to start as any. This post actually has nothing to do with Jerusalem, the city in Israel; it has to do with those knobby little tubers that you may have seen recently at the farmer's market.

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