Reviewing New York Magazine's Cheap Eats 2006

 

Shake Shack - one of the listees 

This week’s (July 31-August 7) issue of New York Magazine, which arrived in my mailbox last week, is their annual “Cheap Eats” review.  This year, I was thrilled and pleasantly surprised to see quite a few of my stand-by, Go To restaurants featured.  If you can get your hands on the issue, the food photography is mouth-watering, at least to my eyes, or maybe I was just really, really hungry at the time I was reading the magazine.  

As with anything else in New York personal opinions as to what should have made the list will vary widely, and the magazine provides their evaluation criteria in the article.  Caution: this list is not to be read on an empty stomach!  Here are some of my thoughts on their choices (rankings ran from 1-101):

Festival of French Food - Bastille Day Street Fair in NYC

New York summers and street fairs go together like, well, just about anything you can think of to combine. To the uninitiated, these may sound like great fun: food, crafts, vendors, etc. all in a few city blocks. To those who get to live with them, they are experienced with the same measure of ennui and tolerance of the many themed parades that close down Fifth Avenue several times a year. They shut down bus routes, cause detours, change well-laid plans, and cause mounds of frustration.

There is, however, one special fair that takes place each year on a Sunday in mid-July that draws out the folks who most likely don’t usually brave these spectacles. The Alliance Française in New York holds its Bastille Day celebration in Midtown Manhattan, taking over three blocks on 60^th Street. Local proprietors, restaurants and many things French are featured.

Strawberries with Cream and Balsamic Vinegar or Fragole con Panna all’Aceto Balsamico

The last of the farmers’ market strawberries have come and gone for the season.  Each year, as with asparagus, there is the fervor among the food set, especially those who try to eat as seasonally as possible, to hunt out and obtain, for as many weeks as is feasible, locally grown, tangy-sweet, juicy strawberries.

I become obsessed this time of year, waiting, scoping out the markets, eager to catch the new crop and to buy up as many as I can before they are gone. Fresh, seasonal strawberries make my mouth water, as I take that first sweet tart bite.  I cannot be tempted by the ones “as large as my head” (to quote one of my sisters) that one finds in the grocery stores during the rest of the year.

Raspberry Rum Fizz

 

Raspberry Rum Fizz in the large wine glass

I had some fresh raspberries left from a recent visit to the Union Square Greenmarket.  They were starting to look a bit neglected, as they’d been in the fridge for a few days.  Given how warm it’s been these past weeks, I wanted to turn them into something cool and refreshing with a bit of fun.  I think this recipe fits that bill, and it goes perfectly with the Shrimp-Grape-Almond Salad from the previous post.