Chelsea Market, New York City

Well things have been very busy recently for me, we got married and have been traveling for the honeymoon. Expect a lot of catchup and a lot of travel posts over the next few weeks as we've been eating and drinking up a storm. 

One of the great pieces of food tourism in the US are all of the inner city gourmet markets available to the urban foodie. Chelsea Market is one of the classic food destinations in New York City and conveniently located near my office! 

Chelsea Market is a combined food business and office space between 9th -10th Avenues and 15th - 16th streets taking up the whole block in a gorgeous 19th century brick building.  If you're expecting a farmer's market you'll be disappointed, instead it's more like a food hall and specialist food vendors. Some serve hot meals and sit down dining, others sell kitchen equipment, spices, rare ingredients and all manner of things for the foodie. 

On weekends and at lunchtime the place gets packed to the rathers with wide eyed and hungry shoppers. If you're a tourist in New York think about heading down during mid morning to get fresh options and plenty of space. For the best place to eat a picnic lunch of tasty morsels bought in the Market don't fight over the few seats in the building itself instead head outside to the High Line which runs along the 10th Ave portion of the building. 

There's plenty to be explored but here's some of my favourite stops at Chelsea Market, go check it out yourself!

Spices and Tease has every herb and spice you could possibly need in bulk and in fine quality. Expensive or hard to find ingredients for European, Asian and Middle Eastern dishes can be easily found. If you're interested in trying out an exotic dish but never could find saffron, sumac or oaxaca then this is a place for you to enjoy a global taste mission all in one place. 

If you've been in the US for a while the thing that you miss the most (yes, even more than the coffee) is the bread. New York is one of those exceptions that proves the rule - the bread is amazing and the sandwich shops endless. There are numerous places tht you can get a great lunchtime sandwich in Chelsea Market in Italian sub or Jewish deli styles. This display case of ready to be pressed panini is from Buon Italia.

Bowery Kitchen Supply has one of every gadget and plate you could possibly want as a cook or a host. Oyster shucking gloves, ginger microplanes, icing spatulas, sushi plates and cazuela de barros can all be found with a neat deli counter shoved in the back. Expect to part with some money particularly if you take even the smallest peek at the knives and copper pans.

The Lobster Place is an infamous seafood vendor with one of everything delicious you could put in your high end NYC dinner party. Maine Lobster and New England Oysters are definitely top of the list for the local seafood afficionado. 

Of course there's plenty of other places in Chelsea Market to grab a bite. Try Dickson's Farmstand Meats for hand crafted charcuterie or Lucy's Whey for artisanal cheeses galore. For a sit down meal try the legendary Morimoto or Buddakan for delicious Asian fusion meals or for a more casual affair take away a delicious Cambodian sandwich from Num Pang. 

There's also a display space for rotating exhibits and we're lucky to find on the day that we're visiting The Balvenie are doing a launch for the Rare Craft collection. We collect a tipple of the whole range and a free whiskey glass to take home.

As part of the campaign they've had many rare crafts made and are on display, nervously watched by their security and marketing team. Hand crafted instruments, boots, clothing, architecturally designed lamps and this exquisitely restored The Balvenie Morgan sports car are all on display.

You can easily walk the whole market in an hour if you're pressed for time or really take your time to poke and shop, eat and sip for 3-4 hours. Combine a trip to Chelsea Market with a wander around this trendy neighbourhood and stop at local eateries like Cafeteria or Murray's Bagels for lunch.

Chelsea Market

http://chelseamarket.com/

Gourmet food hall and restaurant destination
Free entry, spend to your budget including many cheap bakery options

A goth girl's guide to coffee makers

The boy and I have a long Silicon Valley commute and plan to have coffee on the way so on the weekend I bought myself a Keurig Platinum brewing system. It occurred to me that a post about my coffee machines is about due.

Sadly we had to leave our beloved Sunbeam Cafe Series Espresso machine in Australia due to incompatible power but it was a work horse that saw a lot of coffee in its time. For a mid priced machine and those looking for a consumer model rather than an Italian beast with incomprehensible knobs then I would recommend it.

   

This is the Keurig machine I bought on the weekend; it is designed to have pre-purchased espresso pods (K Cups) inserted and short or long espresso made to order. This is no fuss no thinking programmable espresso, just perfect for a household lacking in morning people. The standard store cups are variably weak as Americans seem to like their coffee but this rig comes with a My K-Cup assembly designed to fill and tamp with your own grind. Eventually we will get a full sized manual espresso machine with milk wand but this baby is still charming as an interim.

Most coffee I make however is made with a cafetera moka because I grew up with stove top espresso and slightly manic Basque relatives who liked their coffee thick, strong and preferably with a cognac (sound familiar?).  If you like long coffee rather than short ristretto or similar then I highly recommend cafetera coffee since it delivers strong espresso type coffee with no requirement for electricity and has a much better homogenisation of the coffee than a shot of espresso and hot water do.

Cafeteras require a little care but are lifelong friends if handled correctly - make sure to clean the machine after every use and replace the rubber seals regularly. Traditional Moka pots are made from aluminium that can degrade over time - if affordable buy a stainless steel model.

Vev Vigano Vespress 12 Cup

Bialetti Venus (Elegance in some markets) in both 12 Cup and 4 Cup

When we're travelling domestically or working in an environment without an espresso machine I tend to take a bag of freshly ground coffee from home and a coffee  plunger (or "French Press" as the Americans would have you call it). Again this means a no electricity no fuss way to make coffee and is fairly convenient to rinse in hotel or office sinks. The glass eventually cracks on these machines particularly if you vary the temperature too quickly (eg. wait to cool before refrigerating or washing). A good plunger should last 2-3 years and is a bargain at around $20. Great for share housing!

Bodum Brazil 1L

I also own a traditional Turkish Coffee pot for those special occasions. You can buy these at your local ethnic grocers and Middle Eastern kitchen supply stores for a steal. I even have a recipe for Turkish coffee if you've recently purchased one of these pots and need some assistance.

Traditional Turkey Coffee Pot

Because I use mostly stove top espresso I tend to prefer a burr coffee grinder with a catcher rather than a dosing espresso grinder. I am in love with our current Krups model which has easy to use grind settings and a no mess catcher as well as being a good size for a cramped San Francisco kitchen.

Krups GVX 1 Burr grinder

New cookware

Because no one understands my predilections like my father lets pause a little to bask in the excellent birthday present he bought me; new Anolon classic ceramic cookware.



Now a lot of people ask me why not Scanpan, but I like non stick cookware (apart from my trusty iron skillet and copper coffee pot of course) despite the life time guarantee my father has sent his non stick Scanpan frypan in for replacement no less than 4 times. I really don't consider that acceptable for any frypan worth triple digits so... Anolon it is then!



The usually 6 piece set came with a free deep dish fry pan and a cookie sheet as well. Because apparently the kitchen wear store is psychic about what I like to cook.

I'm not sure I can rave enough about how much I love these pans, the weight, the heat distribution, the ease of cleaning... it's all good. If you're going to invest in a good set of pans then make sure to pause over these.

Shiney and sharp!

Since I moved house I've been living off a set of terrible dull knives that made me cry. A lot. So it was time to hit up the factory outlets in Alexandria and get some new sharp and shiney things!

If you aren't aware Victoria's Basement are the outlet of choice for high quality kitchen goods at a fraction of the retail price; and now they have a webstore you don't even need to live in Sydney to take advantage of their prices.



Scanpan 6 piece steak knife set $36 (RRP $80)

The weight on these handles is just amazing and they feel wonderful and solid in your hands. They're also extremely sharp and I managed to nick myself getting them out of the packaging. I prefer a pointed tip rather than round as here but for this price and quality of knife I couldn't pass them up.



Benzer Verner 7 piece knife block set $59 (RRP $200)

This is what I really needed though. When you put an entire wall of Benzer and Scanpan knives on sale in front of me you can imagine I'll be there for a bit. I really liked the knife block on the Kyoto set a lot more than these but the fake Japanese styling really annoyed me and the chef's knife was a little small for my liking. I settled on these which I love, the only downside is the lack of steel, which on its own was as much as the knife block so I will wait until they too are on sale.



For reference this contains:

• A slicer/bread knife


• A chef's knife


• A carving knife


• A utility knife


• A pairing knife


• Kitchen Shears


• (and the knife block)

New food processor

I picked this Breville ikon™ Kitchen Wizz™ Food Processor BFP650 up at the Harvey Norman sales marked down to $180 from $325. I had a trusty $20 food processor from Woolworths that had been my lean mean paté machine for years however my god awful moving people killed it some time ago.. and while I proved you can indeed make paté with a blender it's far from ideal.

I have a bit of a thing for stainless steel appliances which I admit was the main reason I chose this model however the more I opened it the more I became impressed with it. It comes with it's own storage case for the slicing/dicing blades, a double story blade for processing as well as a silcon spatula and a trusty food processing recipe book. Never discard these as my early 80s food processor inherited from my parents contained the best recipe I'd ever found for scones.



The box



The accessories



The machine set up

Turkish coffee utensils (Kahve takimi)

Das Boy and I are what you might call somewhat coffee obsessed, so expect this to be the first of seemingly endless coffee related posts.

First off the bat is our Turkish Coffee equipment, I will post a recipe for Turkish Coffee at a later time.



Mehmet Efendi ground Turkish coffee $14.50

While I'm not a huge fan of preground coffee without the skill and knowledge of how to grind Turkish coffee finely then this is a foolproof method of making your own Turkish coffee at home. Turkish coffee is very finely ground making it almost mudlike in consistency. This brand of coffee comes vacuum packed for freshness and keeps for several weeks in the tin.



Cezve/Ibrik Turkish Coffee Pot $18.50

The Cezve is the traditional Turkish coffee pot, note that it is a very basic copper pot similar to a milk jug in the west. The coffee grinds are boiled with sugar and spices and served without straining, it settles in the cup.



Kutahya Turkish Coffee Cups with Saucers $60 for a set of 6

Kutahya is a town in Western Turkey made famous by its fine porcelein production. This Turkish painted pattern is now fairly common in coffee cups but was once reserved for the aristocracy making it well sort out by consumers today. Turkish coffee is served in very small cups owing to its strength. Where you don't have the luxury of reserving an entire set of porcelein for a single drink consumption then standard espresso cups will do just as well.

The best source of authentic Turkish coffee items in Australia is the Turkish Market though the coffee cups are not often available and may require ordering from Turkey.

New kitchen gadgets

Kitchen gadgets are great for the host and home cook and here's a few shiney new additions to my kitchen, mostly centred around salad accoutrements as salads are flying free and fast from the kitchen in the summer heat.



Vinegar Spout $3.50 from Gina Cucina



Oil Drizzler with flow control free with purchase Norton Grocer



Olive Oil jug and dipping plate an unbelievable $3.60 from the post Christmas gift sale at Coles



Gorgeous heavy duty brushed steel measuring spoons, gifted.