Someone asked me about a particular Mexican food preparation yesterday when I was at the bank getting some cash. She said it was marinated roasted pork with lemon and oranges and it was totally delicious but she just couldn’t remember the name of the dish. I said it sounds like Cochinita Pibil.
She said O that’s it! It’s Cochinita Pibil.
I said I love that dish. It’s one of my favorite things in life to eat that dish.
She goes yeah it’s sooo good.
I ignored the person standing nearby who said ‘O that’s not Mexican food.’

Mexican food isn’t just one cuisine, though some people tend to imagine that it is. Mexico is a big place and it encompasses a large and varied culinary tradition. Cochinita pibil is, as the name suggests, a suckling pig, roasted in a Pib. A Pib being the Mayan word for a small shallow rectangular pit used for cooking seasoned meats, which are wrapped in banana leaves in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The dish was made popular in this country several years ago when it was featured in the film Once Upon a Time in Mexico…

 BTW, Here’s a recipe for Cocinita Pibil

4lbs. Pork butt cut in 3 inch cubes
8oz. Achiote paste
10 cloves of garlic
2 limes, cut in half
2 lemons, cut in half
2 oranges, cut in half
8 dry bay leaves
2 t. ground cumin
½ t. ground cinnamon
1T. dried oregano
1T. Kosher salt
2T. ground black pepper.

Squeeze the citrus fruit juice out, add everything together and mash it up with your hands until you have a bright pink paste that you’re rubbing all over the pork meat.
Next you’ll need
1 lb. of banana leaves
2 white onions cut in quarters
5 roma tomatoes cut in half

Line a baking pan with the banana leaves, add the pink achiote and citrus marinated pork into the banana leaf  lined pan and top with the onions and tomatoes. Fold the banana leaves over the meat and roast it in your oven at 325 degrees for 3 hours. Or until this sweet and sour pink cochinita meat just falls apart when you put your fork into it. Serve it with fresh tortillas and avocado slices.

 And get ready to freak out because it is gonna be a flavor explosion in your mouth!

Still looking for the perfect father’s day gift for dad? Bring him to our sister restaurant, Rickenbacker’s bistro. We’ll be serving a BBQ lunch buffet from 11am to 4pm, Sunday June 20. Can’t wait to see you there!

Another great picture of me and Steve from Andrea Hanks. She’s good, no doubt.

our Seattle trip was awesome! We had several meals. Most of them were pretty danged good.

So I was New York a couple a weeks ago and had just ate some NY pizza, which you have to have a slice a pizza when you’re there but I was there to eat some all kinds of different food after all, so even though the overpriced slice of pizza pie was decent, it wasn’t exactly where I was really trying to go. I was looking for a hamburger. So, I got myself on the subway and made it down to Chelsea/West Village where I got off, happened to walk right by a café like kind of jazz music place called Cafe Loup that someone had recommended, completely by accident, and I was like of all the restaurants in this city what are the chances. I wonder if I should go in…no, next time…it would have been nice to hear some jazz, etc. but the situation was that I was on a mission already. Eventually, I made it down to 299 Bowery and picked up a burger at  DBGB, Daniel Boulud’s newest restaurant/bar over in this like hip part of town. I ordered one of their infamous hamburgers, it was called:
The Frenchie: a 6 oz beef patty with confit pork belly, arugula, tomato-onion compote & morbier cheese on a peppered brioche bun with cornichon, mustard & fries. (Though the house-made bun was delicious, it wasn’t peppered, BTW)
The fries were good but not perfect. The plate cost $17. It was a little silly paying that much for a burger, I didn’t think it would be worth it. After a few bites, however, once I stopped critiquing it and started just chilling out, enjoying my burger…it was actually pretty stellar. Sometimes, you just have to slow down a bit, let the juice run down to your elbow and stare at the people all busy trying to look cool…because it was a really good hamburger.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    Lunch at Jean Georges was a blast and if you happen to be in NYC I strongly suggest it. Their accolades are many…with 3 Michelin stars, 5 Mobil diamonds, 5 AAA stars And 4 NY Times stars, Jean George has a lot of awards going on. The thing is, you have to wear a jacket, which goes against my philosophy of food…against my philosophy of life, but I really wanted to go, so I asked my uncle Roger whether he had a jacket or not. He did, of course, and hooked me up with a whole outfit. The shirt belonged to my uncle Gene. The only shoes I’d had were white new balance runners, so I looked pretty ridiculous, but he said just stick your feet under the table and no one will care, the rest of you looks great…Gene was on lunch from his office up the street. He met us outside in his perfect suit and with his old friend Jeffrey who neither had seen in a while but has his own catering biz in the city. Hugs and handshakes and then we were ready to tear it up. Huge props to Gene and Roger, these guys have been like my rock for decades. Well, somehow I made it in the place and was served several elaborate plates of food. All of which were very nicely composed. Service was perfect. The server was very knowledgeable, very good looking, and had just the right amount of personality.

We started with Fluke Tartar, and Carrot Miso soup in tiny little crystal eggshell shotglasses.
I ordered Tuna ribbons, avocado, spicy radish, ginger marinade.
Gene and Jeffrey had the Foie Gras Brulee. Roger had Peekytoe crab salad.
Everything we put in our mouths was excellent.

We sat in this modern dining room at 1 Central Park West with this amazing food and my silly white running shoes under the table. I sipped my Arnold Palmer,( half lemonade/half iced tea) and couldn’t get over the intensity of this amazing meal. Iwas waiting to be noticed  by someone, someone who I imagined would stroll out of the kitchen and have someone else throw me out onto the street.

 The other men each had different varietals of white wine…these guys knew their way around a menu.  The dishes required the server to interact with the diners by pouring the sauce on my tuna, and walking around the table putting the dressing on Roger’s salad. She even lit Gene’s 2nd course on fire…intentionally…every little plate had some element of service you just didn’t expect. And the waitress was quite good…She smiled dutifully and yet was perfectly aloof. It didn’t hurt that she was gorgeous. There was a terrified little bread boy over my left shoulder. and he scurried around the table giving us homemade bread hot from the oven. Second course was salmon for me, beef tenderloin for Gene, Jeffrey had sweetbreads and Roger had the snapper with nuts and seeds. Tiny cuts of fish and steak, bizarre unconventional combinations that succeeded and impressed.
Dessert…they have a guy with marshmallow cart. Seriously. A marshmallow guy pushing a serious wooden cart through the dining room, and on the cart is a large glass cylinder filled with house-made marshmallow that he extracts with a large tweezers. Then, he holds exaggerated silver scissors and snips the marshmallow off, snip, snip and snip. Rose cookies. Thai chili and star anise crème caramel and several very nice chocolates made in-house all appear on the table…dessert was quite good…when it was all over, we got in a cab back uptown and then I got out on about 72nd to go hit Jacques Torres chocolatier on Amsterdam…

White-Hot Indie Folk

Tuesday, March 30

7:30 pm

Jefferson Hall (607 27th Street)

For more information, click here.

Sundance Film Festival TwentyTen is coming to a close, and tonight is your last chance to catch a show. Two films will be shown tonight at Ogden’s Best of Fest. Best of Fest tickets were handed out earlier this month, but some seats should be available to those who are in line at the box office an hour prior to each screening. Peery’s Egyptian Theatre is located at 2514 Washington Blvd., Ogden. Tickets are FREE!

Restrepo

Monday, February 1, 6:30 PM

In 2008 Sebastian Junger (The Perfect Storm) and Tim Hetherington dug in with the men of Second Platoon for a year. Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley, a stronghold of al Qaeda and the Taliban, has proven to be one of the U.S. Army’s deadliest challenges. It is here that the platoon lost their comrade, PFC Juan Restrepo, and erected an outpost in his honor. Up close and personal, Junger and Hetherington gain extraordinary insight into the surreal combination of backbreaking labor and deadly firefights that are a way of life at Outpost Restrepo.

Ever wonder what it’s really like to be in the trenches of war? Look no further.Restrepo may be one of the most experiential and visceral war films you’ll ever see. With unprecedented access, the filmmakers reveal the humor and camaraderie of men who come under daily fire, never knowing which of them won’t make it home.

Recipient of the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.

Happythankyoumoreplease

Monday, February 1, 6:30 PM

Six New Yorkers juggle love, friendship, and the keenly challenging specter of adulthood. Sam Wexler is a struggling writer who’s having a particularly bad day. When a young boy gets separated from his family on the subway, Sam makes the questionable decision to bring the child back to his apartment and thus begins a rewarding, yet complicated, friendship. Sam’s life revolves around his friends—Annie, whose self-image keeps her from commitment; Charlie and Mary Catherine, a couple whose possible move to Los Angeles tests their relationship; and Mississippi, a cabaret singer who catches Sam’s eye.

Written, directed, and starring Josh Radnor (CBS’s How I Met Your Mother), happythankyoumoreplease boasts a wryly funny script and engaging performances from its ensemble cast. With honesty and humor, Radnor captures a generational moment—young people on the cusp of truly growing up, struggling for connection, and hoping to define what it means to love and be loved.

Recipient of Audience Award: US Dramatic.