1) it contains the line “I’m gonna send a sweet tea tweet. up and down the street.”

2) its SUPER current because it discusses twitter. Hell yea social media dept at McDonald’s

3) its informative. Theone reason I wasn’t frequenting McD’s is because i found it ineffiicient to buy my burger and sweet T at different locals – but not anymore!!!

Today the Detroit Free Press, or as adoring Michiganders refer to it – The Freep,  published a slide show that had my heartstrings a’ strumming and my belly a’ aching.

Faygo! Sliders! Greek Salads! Ray’s Ice Cream!

Can life’s moments (pre-LA) be so intrinsically tied to the cuisine of a city? You know when John Cusack arranges his records autobiographically in High Fidelity? I can do that with coney island meals. Most of all my amazing nights, high school shenanigans,drug and booze experimentation and sexual experiences…all come with an accompanying pita, greek salad or chili cheese fries.

A secret all Michiganders share (along with being able to point out on their  hand where they were born), is the secret of the Coney Island. We will gladly talk to blank faced ‘outsiders’ about the glory that is “The Coney Island”  until we get stopped by this statement “ok, I get it, coney islands are cheap, open late with greasy food. We have those too. They are called diners.”

But no my dear friend from out of state. No, you do not quite understand the coney island for the same reason you cant point out where you are from on your own hand.

Go to any Coney Island at 6am and you will see it packed with seniors eating early bird breakfasts, business men and woman grabbing a quick coffee and bite before heading to a generic office building downtown or along 696. Check in at a Coney at noon and you will see it packed to the brim with nurses, construction workers and teens on high school lunch breaks grabbing burgers, gyros and that classic beet filled Greek Salad. And peek into a Coney Island after 1am and you’ll surely see punks, goths, skaters, kids violating their curfew, club goers drunkenly pounding chicken finger pitas and everyone cheering each time an order of Saganaki flame tickles the ceiling.

Some of the best conversations, laughing fits and wild nights I’ve ever had occurred or culminated when packed 4-6 deep into a booth wolfing chicken finger pitas (with honey mustard), slurping enormous fountain pops (YES – pop) and ordering saganaki just because fire is even more cool when you’re wasted.

So what’s your favorite Coney Island moment and your favorite Coney Island food?

Entire FREEP Slide show here: http://bit.ly/aLK0X6

On Saturday evening I was perusing the aisles of Whole Foods gathering desirables to create a delicious dinner. Potentially thousands (if not millions) of people around the United States at that very moment were engaged in the exact same activity - weaving through aisles making specific determinations about groceries.

Now we could analyze the psychology of grocery stores (brands fight for “eye level” shelf placement) and why people buy what they buy – either because of branding (you buy Tropicana because it LOOKS fresh, not because it is fresh) , product placement (impulse purchase…6 o’clock!) or creative labeling (”The healthiest Crisco yet!”) until we are blue in the face.

And it’s also in vogue to think “locally” and ”organically.” But what I personally had yet to contemplate for even a minute was buying sustainable fish.

So when I approached the seafood counter and bought Chilean Sea Bass, I thought absolutely nothing of it, except that a)I love Chilean Sea Bass and b) I was excited to put it into my belly as soon as possible.

After eating the meal, I sent out a tweet from @FreshmanKitchen

Dinner: Chilean sea bass w/roasted red pep,green olives,capers.roasted delicata squash+zucchini.crispy weiser farm tatos+garlic slivers)

and got this response from @Cookingstudent (http://twitter.com/cookingstudent)

@FreshmanKitchen Chilean sea bass – I do believe they are listed as over fished and, therefore, best not eaten: http://bit.ly/bgBvJe

So my initial thought was – Wow! How have I not been paying attention to the sustainability fish issue and how come Whole Foods is selling it? I needed to dig a bit deeper to see if blame could be assigned to someone so I could shuck off some of the guilt.” If it at first you don’t succeed blame blame (someone else) again.”

So I called the Manager of the Whole Foods Seafood Dept. who referred me to the main website to check out WF’s statement on its Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified seafood. So here it is direct from the site:

Offering sustainable seafood is part of our philosophy because we care about the health of the world’s oceans. We are proud to be the first U.S. retailer offering several varieties of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)-certified seafood. The MSC is an independent, global, non-profit organization set up to find a solution to the problem of over-fishing to ensure healthier marine environments and abundant fish stocks for future generations. Here you will discover a growing number of choices displaying the MSC label, indicating the seafood is sourced from responsible, well-managed fisheries.

So whether or not you believe WF’s is a purveyor of 100% responsibly caught fish, they seem to be making a strong effort. But if Chilean Sea Bass is over fished and since you can obviously buy it other places than WF’s…what are some good alternatives if I am at a store that does not serve MSC certified seafood?

The Monterey Bay Aquarium website (which I was linked to via twitter) has this ”Good for you/Good for the Oceans list http://bit.ly/YQctd . If the person selling you fish doesn’t know what’s up or you aren’t in a place selling MSC certified seafood, at least if you select from this list you can feel good while you stuff your face with those (farm raised) scallops or (wild caught) Salmon (from Alaska).

For Additional reading on the subject here is an extensive NY Times article called “Tuna’s End” http://nyti.ms/axbTIh written by  Paul Greenberg author of “Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food.”

Photo credit: Kenji Aoki for The New York Times

1. Gjelina’s Turkey Prosciutto with Pesto Aioli Arugula and Avocado. This sandwich is so hip it got an ironic tattoo of a fixed gear bike on its calf.

2. Mendocino Farms Kurobuta Pork Belly Banh Mi with pickled daikon and carrots, cilantro, cucumbers, jalapenos, chili aioli on panini grilled ciabatta. It’s a 15 min drive in traffic from my work to MF’s and it’s in a strip mall and it’s completely worth it without even blinking.

3. Huckleberry house made brisket on Ciabatta bread. Eating here makes me feel like I’m in a movie where people live in California. I mean I live in California already. yes, i get that. But not IN a movie IN california. Go there and you will understand what I’m saying.

4. Canter’s Deli- The Fresser. Corned Beef and Pastrami piled sky high. I order it with 2 sides of 1000 island and eat til I’m sick. I’ve eaten this 10 times wasted and 5 times sober. Honestly, it’s still pretty damn good sober but the $15 price tag stings less when I’m smashed-house and can food coma nap on the ride home.

5. Eli’s sambone of the week – Rotisserie chicken from Ralph’s stuffed into a La Brea Bakery sourdough baguette dipped into packaged roasted red pepper hummus. I’ve never pretended to be classy or denied the fact that I buy chicken kept under heat lamps stored in plastic bags.

For more tasty LA Sam’s check out this list from grubstreet. 26 of LA’s top sam-bam-thank you maams : http://losangeles.grubstreet.com/2010/05/the_los_angeles_sandwich_regis.html#

Photo from Midtown Lunch's article on Mendocino Farms (via google img search)

Chef Richmond talks about her new passion for jamming (like…making jam, not rocking out), working as a private chef for Michael Jackson and how and why she made the move to Culver City to open up her restaurant – Akasha.

Read the whole  interview here: http://laist.com/2010/06/23/from_market_to_menu_akasha_richmon.php

Thank you to Leah Ingram from The Suddenly Frugal Blog :  http://www.suddenlyfrugal.com/ for featuring our cookbook on NBC 10 Philadelphia!

Please check out her blog for amazing frugal living tips.

  Once I got home I started in on marinating the flank with some crushed rosemary, garlic, lemon rind, and chilies.  I lit the grill and roasted eggplant, tomatoes, and red peppers.  Once they were cool, I chopped them with oregano, garlic and red wine vinegar to make a delicious caponata for the sausages.  People started to arrive and I quickly chopped some parsley and mint for a chimichurri sauce for the flank.  Burgers, sausages and flank went on the grill and we dug in to
the homemade guacamole. An hour later and we were stuffed to the top,
but there was still room for homemade rhubarb strawberry crisp.

The Pics:

burger with homemade caponata (roasted eggplant, pepper, and tomato)
and bacon cheddar potato salad

chimichurri sauce: mint, parsley, oregano, chilies

flank marinade: rosemary, chili, garlic

Umm….AH-MAY-ZING.

So we got booked at this and we are totally honored to be a part of such a kick-ass culinary field. 

Max is flying into LA so we hope to have at least one other event while he on the golden coast. We are already planning on where to eat when Max is out here. He’s here for 50 hrs and we have 12 restaurants already on a list. This is gonna get gross.

Some of the chefs who are going to be there at the PF&FF: Chefs Cora, Voltaggios (both), Malarky, Delcour, Pagancoss, Hoffman and many more! They are announcing new people all the time and it’s going to be a hell of a weekend. You can buy ticket starting in June but for big groups,media or random questioniess: http://www.pacificwineandfood.com/contact-us/ 

We are doing a 30 min demo on Sunday…time and place TBD but we will keep you posted as soon as we know more.

We don’t want to cause a scene or anything but there is some big name talent so we are putting together sort of a multi-faceted entertainment show featuring POSSIBLY some cooking.

Tentative game plan of attack for our PW&FF demo:

First off we are working on a SICK dance routine. I’m def doing at least 2 backflips during the demo. That one chick from DWTS’s has been working with me here in LA for months.My glutes are absolutely becoming maximised.Speaking of… Max has been training on weekends with the cast of that Broadway show where they do all that dancing. He’s approaching graceful Julliard status. At the demo there are going to be girls in sexy chef outfits shooting FITK branded pot holders and wine glasses out of cannons like at Pistons games,we’ve secured a lazer light show courtesy of VFX Light Tech Inc. (they do like every tight Bev Hills bar/bat mitzvah) and we are going to come out for our demo on white horse (max) and tamed tiger (eli). Also there will be live graffiti art by BANKSY but it WILL NOT be political at all so…don’t get all crazy and think we are going overboard or anything.

We hope to see you there. Tickets go on sale in June. Until then…have fun envisioning the above.

And follow Pacific Wine and food Festival on Twitter here for tons of updates on the REG: www.twitter.com/PacificWineFood

Website for pretty pics and more serious info: http://www.pacificwineandfood.com/

“The event” can all be boiled down to these key points:  Chef Forgione yelled at someone on his staff and people in the dining room could hear. It was bothering Mr. Leiber.  He walked into the kitchen and had an exchange with the chef and then returned to his seat. The chef then came and kicked Mr. Leiber out of his restaurant.

Now Max and I have both worked in restaurants of varying degrees of quality. We have had our share of loud conversations that we didn’t care or didn’t bother to think if guests could hear, we’ve both been yelled at by superiors, owners and other workers and have even talked a fair amount of shit about guests not limited to – their orders, the general stupidity of diners lack of food knowledge and their lack of restaurant etiquette. Max is now a chef at The Breslin in NYC and works 12 hour shifts in one of the NYC’s most popular restaurants so when I first saw this post and starting see the controversy unfold over twitter, I immediately called Max on his cell to get his take. I am currently, a professional diner so I thought we’d maybe have completely different opinions on the situation.

Below  are our first thoughts:

Max: I see both sides. I don’t think this Chef should be a dick to his cooks, but I also don’t think anybody should go in to the kitchen during service.  Even non-kitchen staff who work at the Breslin don’t dare to come in to the kitchen during service. The kitchen is where the work gets done and a diner should respect that space. If people have a strong moral objection to people getting yelled at they probably shouldn’t go out to eat because it happens in every restaurant. Chefs yells at their staff. Although it is very unprofessional to yell so loudly that the customers can hear, since they’re there to have a nice meal and obviously somebody yelling takes away from that experience to say the least. But that doesn’t mean that Chefs don’t yell and that there isn’t a really good reason why they are yelling.

Eli: At first I thought Mr. Leiber was a serious badass and should be commended for telling the chef he was ruining all the diners experience with the loud yelling. Mr. Leiber was eating dinner out (for which he pays handsomely in NYC) and expects a certain level of service and quality. He most likely  assumes that his experience won’t contain (or at least shouldn’t have) someone loudly being yelled at within earshot, so he does something about it by letting his own voice be heard. Up to this point, I am totally cool with Mr. Leiber standing up for what he believes in. You want to rep the little guy? Awesome. Go for it. Where he loses me is when he walks in the kitchen. That is just absolutely bonkers and I wonder at what point in his mind he thought “yep. I’m just gonna go back into the kitchen because this seems like the right way to handle this situation.” I mean, the wait staff takes your food when you send it back due to unhappiness,  so they’d most likely be the proper conduit for voicing your concern about this issue as well. So at first I was totally on Mr. Leiber’s side. He wanted to remedy his own situation and make himself (and fellow diners) more comfortable. But I totally switched over to the chef’s side when Mr. Lieber went into the kitchen. The kitchen is the chef’s office. In there, he can treat his employees (within the law) as poorly or as wonderfully as he sees fit. If someone messes something up, the restaurant, chef and its employees can be severely damaged. So yelling may be at times, a necessary tool of the trade. Mr. Leiber overstepped his bounds and told a stranger how to do his job. This wasn’t a mom hitting a kid at a supermarket where you are like, holy shit I gotta say something. This was a full grown adult (Mr. Leiber) out of his element telling the chef ( fully immersed in his element), how to handle his own business. I think Mr. Leiber owes the chef a public apology for dragging his name through the mud via the NYtimes.

To close: I’m actually less interested in the interaction between Mr. Leiber and the chef than the ”fall-out” or controversy surrounding the event. I mean, without the NYT in the equation this happens the exact same way and maybe 20-50 people in Mr. Leiber’s circle of friends hear about it. It becomes a great story to tell the next time Mr. Leiber is out to dinner with friends and that’s about it.

The truly unique aspect of this story is that with the instant connection the web gives us along with the power of the NYT forum, this has becoming a legit newstory in the food community. Grubstreet and EATER both picked it up and as of the writing of  this post there were 439 reader comments on Mr. Leiber’s original NYT article. That’s probably more than on any of the oil spill articles that have been dominating the news in the past few days.

The amazing thing is the amazing split of people taking each side. People are enraged that Mr. Leiber would take matters into his own hands. Others are livid that he was kicked out of the restaurant by the Chef. People have found certain aspects of the story that they find unbearable, annoying, terrible and despicable. It’s actually quite awesome that one event can elicit such a dizzying variety of emotions.

So max had to go and he closed the phone call with this: Obviously all this pr is good for this chef and his restaurant in the long run, I’m sure.I mean, I had never heard of this place until today. So maybe some people go into to check out the food and others go in to check out the ”psycho” chef. Let’s hope people don’t go in with the mindset of “getting tossed.” So I guess the old adage still rings true, all press is good press.

And all along you thought a person’s palate was the only way a restaurant could divide a room.

You can read Mr. Leiber’s article here: http://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/why-i-got-kicked-out-of-a-restaurant-on-saturday-night/

Chef Forgione responds via Grubstreet here:http://newyork.grubstreet.com/2010/05/marc_forgione_flips_out.html

 LA blogger Food Woolf’s (a 15 year restaurant veteran) take on the situation here: foodwoolf.com/2010/05/nyt-writer-in-forgione-kitchen.html

For the past several months I have been working as part of the Taste of the Nation: Los Angeles Marketing Team. The event, held June 6th in Culver City at the Media Park (across from the Trader Joe’s) is the premiere chef event in the city. It’s really insane how many awesome restaurants come out for it. There will be a bunch of wineries, several incredible liquor sponsors, a live demo, a silent auction featuring amazing items (like having your script read by the Director of Development at Ratner Productions and 100’s of other things).

Some of my favorite places that are confirmed so far:

Animal, Akasha, Comme Ca,Hatfield’s, Grace,Mozza, AOC, Tavern,The Foundry… and dozens more to be confirmed soon.