Six Manhattan chefs from six different well-regarded restaurants, each given a different liquor, and tasked to come up with a cocktail and a dish to accompany it. Add dozens of hungry foodies. Stir. Result? A hell of a fun night and a for-the-ages hangover the next day. This event, held on Jan 25th and coordinated by the Edible Magazines network (Edible Manhattan is my favorite food magazine right now–unlike Saveur, it’s locally focused, and the features are more digestible than those in ploddingly academic Gastronomica), was a follow-up to their Good Beer party in July. The tickets were $40, but since this included an all-you-can-handle cocktail throwdown with a magazine subscription to boot, I figured it would be well worth it as long as I ate and drank everything in sight.

The chefs set up tables around the perimeter of Almond Restaurant and guests freely wandered from station to station, eating and imbibing as much as they saw fit. We attempted small bites first: a celery root and apple terrine accompanied by an Orange Blossom (orange bitters, St. Germain, sparkling wine) was our first stop. Coming from Gramercy Tavern, it was a bit of a letdown. Moving right along, Ilili’s smoked venison carpaccio with hummus, apple, and cinnamon chile oil served with a Sidon Rose (vodka, green apple, rose syrup) was my first taste of venison, and a pleasant one. The next dish, Resto’s fennel and juniper lamb bacon with beet and caramelized yogurt, was my favorite of the small bites (although I went easy on the gin, green chartreuse, lemon, and peach Lambic concoction served with it, since gin is my nemesis).

The next two dishes were the highlights of the evening. First we braved the long line for a roasted sweet corn tamale topped with two succulent white shrimp, chipotle butter and avocado pico de gallo, paired with a powerfully tart and boozy La Sombrilla Roja (mezcal, campari, lemon, lime and grapefruit). Rocking Horse Cafe contributed this pairing, and I’m eager to try the restaurant based on it. This was followed by Il Buco’s persimmon, hazlenut and fennel salad, served with the il Buco sour (bourbon, persimmon, lemon, thyme, and Sagrentino Passito). I’d never eaten a persimmon before, which really upped the ante on a disarmingly simple salad. Il Buco is also now high on my list of restaurants to try. My favorite cocktail of the evening came next, the J.M. Ginger (rum, pear puree, ginger syrup, red wine sorbet, and a ginger-sugar rim). This was served with a crepinette of lamb neck, with celery root puree and kumquat-basil marmalade, from Almond.

After seconds of the tamales and J.M. Gingers, we sampled a tray of Roni-Sue chocolates but my stamina was fading by the time we passed the coffee and brandy pairing. After scooping up some free Edible magazines, we swung by the Heartland Brewery table to sample a hopped-up and super-malty Mr. Atlas Pale Ale and a chocolatey, pitch-black Sumatra Porter. This to my mind makes a better dessert than a wedge of pie, but perhaps it was fortunate that we were near the door, because it occurred to us to roll out of there before we could do too much more damage to ourselves. My guess is that the amount I ate and drank would have cost at least three times the price of the ticket in a restaurant, so all-in-all it was a bargain, despite a dearth of seating. I am never, ever mixing that many liquors together again, but I’m totally checking out the next Edible event.

Edible Manhattan
Good Spirits at Almond pairings
Almond Restaurant
12 East 22nd St. between Broadway and Park Ave.

There are plenty of people who enjoy listening to the same tired Christmas songs year after year. I’m not one of them. If you’ve ever spent a few holiday seasons working in retail, you know what I’m talking about. Clearing trashed fitting rooms and dealing with stressed-out customers are both temporarily worse than listening to a saccharine Christmas mix. But I can attest after you’ve heard Christina Aguilera belt out The Christmas Song four hundred times on store speakers, the song triggers a gag reflex ever after.  For this list of Christmas songs that don’t suck, I primarily looked for songs that specifically mention Christmas and aren’t entirely overplayed. I also appreciate songs that reflect the dark as well as the light side of the holidays, or tell a good story.

The entire playlist is above, except for #9, #13, and #16 which weren’t available on Youtube, so those song links are below and #9 is replaced with runner-up “Christmas Ghosts” in the playlist.

1. The Sonics - Santa Clause
Who doesn’t want a cute honey and a lot of money for Christmas?

2. The Kinks - Father Christmas
Because Christmas shouldn’t be just for little rich boys.

3. The Beach Boys - Little Saint Nick
This song’s kinda famous, but I can’t resist the incongruity of a beachy Christmas.

4. Marvin Gaye - Purple Snowflakes
A super-cozy song, with a slightly mournful feel.

5. The Damned - There Ain’t No Sanity Clause
Remember finding out there was no Santa?

6. Run DMC - Christmas in Hollis
Going on the Christmas party mix.

7. Billy Taylor - Bright Star in the East
Would be on the Christmas party mix, if I had the LP.

8. James Brown - Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto
And tell them James Brown sent you!

9. The Raveonettes - The Christmas Song
Have you ever wished you could be snowed in with someone so you didn’t have to go home?

10. The Knife - Reindeer
Because no one ever thinks about the poor reindeer that have to haul around fat-ass Santa and that heavy sleigh.

11. Bjork - Jolasveinar (Icelandic Christmas Carol)
I have no idea what she’s singing about, but something tells me the elves are up to no good.

12. Harvey Danger - Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas
Christmas isn’t all about joy and presents. Some people actually have to work.

13. The Magnetic Fields - Mister Mistletoe
Oh Mr. Mistletoe/wither and die/you useless weed/for no one have I.

14. Sufjan Stevens - That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!
A pretty song about a shitty Christmas.

15. Tom Waits - Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
Gather round with your flasks of bourbon kids, Mr. Waits is gonna tell us a tale.

16. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - There Ain’t No Santa Claus on the Evenin’ Stage
If the one above didn’t make you feel tipsy this will.

Also: If like me you have an embarrassing fondness for “Last Christmas” by Wham! you’ll want to bookmark Last-Christmas.com.

Also: If you really just wish Christmas music rocked more check out this punk rock advent calendar (one punk Christmas song download each day in December): Punk-Christmas.com.

Also: I personally can’t stand the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” but it’s a pretty standard non-standard holiday tune.

If the sight of dogs dressed up in clothes makes you shake your head in disgust at the preciousness people inflict on their pets, better visit Snackish another day. Because it’s been a whole year since I’ve witnessed the spectacle of the Tompkins Square Dog Halloween Parade and I’m about to embark on a long post all about adorable dogs in costumes. Are you with me?

The Tompkins Square Dog Halloween parade and costume contest is, according to Wikipedia, the largest dog Halloween party in the US. Think of it as Comicon, or South by Southwest for folks who like to dress up their pets. Usually held the Saturday before Halloween, the parade was once again rescheduled for Sunday due to rain. Fortunately Sunday was about as warm and bright as October can deliver.

Onto the costumes. I’ve narrowed my favorites of the day down to a few categories.

The professionals

Snoopy, Woodstock, and Plane, by Daniel Moyer Design and Fabrication - Clearly, a professional’s hand is at work here. Constructing a puppy-sized WWI biplane isn’t exactly something a friend and I could do in a weekend with some scissors and a sixpack for inspiration. But I gotta give props to the timeless subject matter–I picked up a copy of Snoopy and the Red Baron at a yardsale as a kid, and the ony thing that could’ve impressed me more was if they had built Snoopy’s bullet-ridden doghouse instead of a plane.  The passed-out poodles on the wing (that’s Meteor as Snoopy) and in the cockpit (Fifigigi as Woodstock) completely won me over, though. Unlike many other more jittery subjects, they were the perfect models.

The perennials

Thriller video - Every year there are a few contestants who don’t stop at just creating a costume, but construct an entire mobile backdrop for their pets’ character. I’m thinking this looks a lot like Bandit the Chihuahua, who rolled up last year in a tableaux of one of the Dogs Playing Poker paintings. This year it was a Michael Jackson’s Thriller diaroma complete with little zombies and a flat screen monitor playing the video. The only way to really pull this off is to have a tiny dog who’s a huge ham.

Right dog, right costume

It’s good to be king - Some dogs were clearly uncomfortable wearing costumes and being photographed, but not this cocker spaniel. In every shot his nose was in the air, just as proud and cool as can be. I thought for sure he might break character when he went to sprawl in a sunbeam to rest. But just when I thought he couldn’t get more regal, he took it to a whole other level.

Dragonfly - It never would’ve occurred to me that greyhound is the dog breed that looks most like an insect but can you imagine those wings on a pug or a beagle? Ridiculous.

The Incredible Hulk - I’m not sure what kind of dog this is, but I was impressed those jean shorts stayed on the whole time. Amazing what you can do with a little green dye and some denim.

Owners get in on the act

Rappers - Some owners, particularly those with smaller dogs, tend to steal the spotlight from their pets. This rapper’s entourage totally played the part, warding off photogs while he strolled through the crowd. This pup’s badass scowl and larger-than-life bling proved he was really the star though.

There’s more photos of the event on my Flickr. I did notice that while most of the pets were sweet-natured and the owners were open to the attention, the onlookers seemed to be a little more pushy in trying to get pictures this year. True, pictures of costumed dogs are pretty exciting but I’m not about to elbow someone out of my way to get one. One woman even tried to physically block me from taking a picture of a contestant (in a public park) telling me this was her project and I need to set up my own shot. I guess now we have to deal with people trying to make a buck off of the dog Halloween parade, in addition to everyone else who’s desperate to feed their blogs and Twitter accounts. I hope this remains a fun event for those of us who are there to enjoy the day, and with any luck, get some good photos.

2009 Dog Halloween parade photos
2008 Dog Halloween parade photos
2007 Dog Halloween parade photos
2006 Dog Halloween parade photos

The Dog Halloween parade is usually held the Saturday before Halloween from noon to 3pm (Rain date Sunday) at the Tompkins Square Park dog run.

No cocktail soothes my summertime blues like a mint julep. This bourbony beverage hails from the South, where they know a thing or two about knock-you-down heat, and since 99.5% of bourbon comes from the Kentucky, it’s also the official Kentucky Derby cocktail. I don’t visit the track too often, but as it happens, it serves just as well as an official waiting-in-festering-subway-and-need-a-cold-drink drink.

A mint julep is pretty simple to make. You’ll need:
- crushed ice
- fresh mint
- granulated sugar (or powdered sugar) plus powdered sugar for garnish
- bourbon (Maker’s Mark is a common choice, but Booker’s, Baker’s, Blanton’s, and Woodford Reserve are all Snackish-approved)
- a silver-plated mint julep cup (for optimal frost-formation on the outside of your drink. But then if you’re already this serious about your mint julep you probably don’t need to read this)
- plastic straw

(ingredients–that’s a ziploc bag of ice, not crack, I swear)

Add 4-5 mint sprigs and sugar to a glass. I didn’t have granulated sugar on hand, so I used 3 teaspoons of powdered sugar, plus 3 teaspoons of water to help dissolve the sugar. Then, firmly press and twist the mint against the bottom of the glass with something flat. This is called muddling. The goal is to unleash the flavors of the mint without pulverizing the leaves and making the drink bitter. I ended up using an ice cream scoop, but there are specially-made instruments called muddlers for this. According to one theory, using granulated sugar in the previous step helps with muddling since the granules abrade the mint leaves.

Next add some crushed ice. This was the most difficult step for me, as my blender seemed to shave the ice to snowflake-size. The best method for making crushed ice short of buying an ice crusher seems to be wrapping ice cubes in a towel and beating them. The towel soaks up the meltiness, leaving you with dry ice. I was definitely also left with some largish chunks on my second attempt (top picture) so I think a rubber mallet would be ideal for the beating, as opposed to multitasking with your trusty ice cream scoop. Now pour in the bourbon and stir. About 4 tablespoons, or 2 oz, worked with this amount of sugar in a smallish glass, but you can always add more bourbon. Adding more sugar is difficult.

Almost done. Put a dollop of ice on top for sno-cone effect, garnish with mint, and sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Head to your nearest breezy verandah, or prop a fan in your window, put your feet up, and enjoy some smooth sipping.

Adapted from Mint Julep recipe on Drinksmixer.com

Well this is terrible news. Joe Ades, peddler of vegetable peelers and sidewalk personality has died, as reported by the New York Times. Always stylishly dressed in a sportcoat or vest, peeling carrots with orange-stained, latex-gloved fingers, Joe reeled in window shoppers all over town with his cockney carnival barker’s voice, pushing $5 peelers with more passion than an army of QVC showmen. Joe, it turns out, lived in a swanky Upper East Side apartment (and he always seemed especially proud of his appearance in Vanity Fair). I’ve stopped to watch him in Union Square in the dead of winter and Soho under the beating sun, always joking with customers and adding to his fistful of cash. It always struck me how much he seemed to enjoy his job. I’ll miss seeing him.