Melissa's sister had a BBQ at their dad's really great apartment but it was good mostly for the grill...There was so much food, I almost didn't eat lunch today, but who am I kidding? I had breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. We went to this grocery store called Fairway and I didn't get to spend enough time freaking out there. It's big and beautiful and has so many food options. I'm going to get one of those wire old lady carts so I can go shopping on the Upper West Side. I also got a Costco card!! Actually my dad just put my name on his card and took my mom's name off... industrial sized packs of bacon HERE I COME!!!!
Baguette, olives, and this dip that is super simple and deadly if you're lactose intolerant like me. It's ricotta cheese, a little milk, olive oil, salt, and pepper...and maybe some lemon juice? It is so so good. I couldn't stop eating it. **Not pictured: cheese with caramelized onions in it, prosciutto, salami, and...spicy salami. Maybe it has a fancier name?
Most of the food. I had to keep taking new pictures because new food kept coming in off the grill. Starting from the top right corner and zigzagging down: sweet potato salad, grilled zucchini, grilled bell peppers, sausage, corn, bahn mi tasting coleslaw, grilled onion, chicken, radicchio in a balsamic dressing. **Not pictured: fat, juicy grilled tomatoes.
Close up of the potato salad because it was my favorite! It has beans in it and I'm not sure what else, to be honest. It's not super thick like regular, mayo-eggy potato salad, but the potatoes are creamy enough themselves, and it also doesn't feel like you just ate a packet of mayonnaise and eggs.
A little bit of everything. Building a plate at a BBQ or a picnic is like making a burrito. It always seems like there's not enough of anything but somehow you end up with more food than you can eat. I could have eaten more if I hadn't eaten half a loaf of bread. There was also grilled peaches and ice cream for dessert. UGH
I like this picture. It sort of reminds me of scanwiches, clean and organized. I was talking to Erik and Neal about the food pictures I like, and I think that regular old crappy pictures like from my iPhone or point and shoot are the best kind. I mean, I appreciate good food photography and all those fancy pictures on Tastespotting and nice food blogs and magazines, but a lot of the time they are too perfect. It's always the perfect, sunny day with the happy friends and children, pistachios scattered nicely around the home-churned ice cream, beautiful mise en place shots (do people REALLY cook like this? Unless you're, like, Giada or Ina Garten, who is such a wet blanket), but let's get real. When I cook, the sink always has dishes and the stove is maybe a little spattered with oil, and I use 99 cent paper towels instead of freshly scented soft towels, but I still think my food looks good and tastes good. When I look at food pictures, I want to feel like I could eat what I'm looking at. If you only look at digital SLR photos of grilled watermellon on a clean, new grill, when you actually make it on your own grill, sort of crusted with burned marshmallow bits, it's not going to seem as good! Or it's like looking at shoes you can't buy on the internet. That's why I like this guy's posts. They're not great pictures and they're not even of food that particularly great either, but I always get the hungriest when I look at them because I feel like it's something I could eat right away. I also like this guy's posts because the food is not set up or constructed, but they still look real and beautiful because he has a nice camera.
Baguette, olives, and this dip that is super simple and deadly if you're lactose intolerant like me. It's ricotta cheese, a little milk, olive oil, salt, and pepper...and maybe some lemon juice? It is so so good. I couldn't stop eating it. **Not pictured: cheese with caramelized onions in it, prosciutto, salami, and...spicy salami. Maybe it has a fancier name?
Most of the food. I had to keep taking new pictures because new food kept coming in off the grill. Starting from the top right corner and zigzagging down: sweet potato salad, grilled zucchini, grilled bell peppers, sausage, corn, bahn mi tasting coleslaw, grilled onion, chicken, radicchio in a balsamic dressing. **Not pictured: fat, juicy grilled tomatoes.
Close up of the potato salad because it was my favorite! It has beans in it and I'm not sure what else, to be honest. It's not super thick like regular, mayo-eggy potato salad, but the potatoes are creamy enough themselves, and it also doesn't feel like you just ate a packet of mayonnaise and eggs.
A little bit of everything. Building a plate at a BBQ or a picnic is like making a burrito. It always seems like there's not enough of anything but somehow you end up with more food than you can eat. I could have eaten more if I hadn't eaten half a loaf of bread. There was also grilled peaches and ice cream for dessert. UGH
I like this picture. It sort of reminds me of scanwiches, clean and organized. I was talking to Erik and Neal about the food pictures I like, and I think that regular old crappy pictures like from my iPhone or point and shoot are the best kind. I mean, I appreciate good food photography and all those fancy pictures on Tastespotting and nice food blogs and magazines, but a lot of the time they are too perfect. It's always the perfect, sunny day with the happy friends and children, pistachios scattered nicely around the home-churned ice cream, beautiful mise en place shots (do people REALLY cook like this? Unless you're, like, Giada or Ina Garten, who is such a wet blanket), but let's get real. When I cook, the sink always has dishes and the stove is maybe a little spattered with oil, and I use 99 cent paper towels instead of freshly scented soft towels, but I still think my food looks good and tastes good. When I look at food pictures, I want to feel like I could eat what I'm looking at. If you only look at digital SLR photos of grilled watermellon on a clean, new grill, when you actually make it on your own grill, sort of crusted with burned marshmallow bits, it's not going to seem as good! Or it's like looking at shoes you can't buy on the internet. That's why I like this guy's posts. They're not great pictures and they're not even of food that particularly great either, but I always get the hungriest when I look at them because I feel like it's something I could eat right away. I also like this guy's posts because the food is not set up or constructed, but they still look real and beautiful because he has a nice camera.
1 comment:
Hey Lily,
Thanks for the excellent write-up of the bbq! Here is the recipe for the sweet potato salad, from the sadly defunct NYT column the Minimalist (written by Daniel's boss, Mark Bittman): http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/dining/30mini.html?ref=dining
I think the trick to the creaminess is making it the day before you eat it, which is what I did, though it's pretty darn tasty the day of as well.
Post a Comment