Jon Hochstat, Author at Glide Magazine

Friday For the Foodies – L.A. Adventure 2011 Pt 1: Hamburgers & Hot Dogs

Jon Hochstat April 15, 2011 5 Comments

Well, I am back from my vacation to the west coast to see some friends and eat some good L.A. food. I know in my last posting F4tF: Los Angeles, the Return I had some lofty goals like Sushi Zo and Totoraku. However, early on into the trip I realized this was going to be a “the plan is to have no plan” vacation. So with that being said, here is my first dining recap from the trip, appropriately titled Hamburgers & Hot Dogs.

Now I know when most of us east coasters hit the west coast the first thing we do is head to In-n-Out Burger. I had planned to as well. I even tweeted “Wheels down at LAX, ETA for double double animal style less than 30 minutes.” That however was not meant to be as this trip I decided to stop off at Unamiburger which was named Burger of the Year for 2010 by Alan Richman of GQ Magazine. Just by luck I happened to stop by the same Unamiburger location he did at 850 South La Brea Avenue in L.A.

I have to say, I was very impressed with the flavor and texture of the burger. Not quite as great as The Best Burger in America from Le Tub in Miami, but damn good otherwise.

READ ON for more on Jon’s trip to Los Angeles…

F4tF: Los Angeles, the Return

Jon Hochstat April 1, 2011 No Comments

For those of you who are longtime readers of Friday for the Foodies, you will recall that last August I took a trip out west to spend a week in Los Angeles. The food from that trip was covered in the the postings F4tF: Los Angeles Adventure, Pt. 1 – The Neville Brothers @ Hollywood Bowl, F4tF: Los Angeles Adventure, Pt. 2 – The Santa Monica Farmer’s Market and F4tF: Los Angeles Adventure, Pt. 3. Well the time has come again for me to take a well deserved vacation and I have decided to make a return trip to L.A. once again.

Last August’s trip included visits to Pizzeria Mozza, Fatburger, The LA Food Trucks, The Griddle Cafe, Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, LA Farmer’s Market, Animal, In-N-Out Burger, Neptune’s Net, La Salsa and more.

This year’s trip promises to be even better with meals planned at Son of a Gun (new seafood place from the guys who own Animal), Comme Ça, Sushi Zo, Totoraku (not yet confirmed, but very close), Pizzeria Mozza (again) and a few surprises that my L.A. Chef friends say they have cooked up for me. If you want to keep up with my daily dining exploits on this trip, follow me on Twitter.

I told a friend the other day, the only way I survive eating my way through Los Angeles is by doing 5 mile hikes of Runyon Canyon every morning (first hike is tomorrow, April 2nd) followed by Yoga in the Park at Runyon Canyon Park (which is free btw). During last year’s trip, I emailed a non-L.A. based Chef friend daily about my eating exploits and told him about the canyon hikes. After a few days of dining updates, I got the following message : “I can understand the Hill Climbing better with each email!”

READ ON for more of this week’s Friday For The Foodies…

F4tF: Montreal, Part 4 – Au Pied de Cochon

Jon Hochstat March 25, 2011 No Comments

If you haven’t been keeping up with my latest series of posts from another recent epic food trip, this posting is the fourth and final posting from my trip to Montreal from Friday 2/25 to Sunday 2/27. So far I have written up my lunch on Saturday 2/26 in the posting Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 1 – Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen, my lunch on Sunday 2/27 in the posting Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 2 – Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon and my amazing and challenging dinner on Friday 2/25 in the posting Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 3 – Nose to Tail dinner at DNA Restaurant. This last posting is all about my dinner Saturday 2/26 at Au Pied de Cochon.

If you go to Au Pied de Cochon you better be aware of two things. 1) Chef Martin Picard loves meat, especially Foie Gras and 2) The menu is not for the faint of heart or for those with heart conditions.

The one caveat I have to give with this review is that this was a meal where four of us relaxed and enjoyed the food, service and ambiance. I did take pictures of the meal, but I did not write down everything we ordered – and we ordered a lot. I reached out to my fellow diners that night and got some items ID’d but not all of the pictures will have the menu item labeled. Hey, sometimes on these trips you just want to sit down, relax and enjoy the food, ambiance and people you are with.

READ ON for more on Jon’s trip to Au Pied de Cochon…

Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 3 – Nose to Tail dinner at DNA Restaurant

Jon Hochstat March 18, 2011 4 Comments

If you haven’t been keeping up with my latest series of posts from another recent epic food trip, this posting is the third of four planned postings from my trip to Montreal from Friday 2/25 to Sunday 2/27. So far I have written up my lunch on Saturday 2/26 in the posting Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 1 – Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen and my lunch on Sunday 2/27 in the posting Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 2 – Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon. Today’s posting is the follow-up to the article I wrote and posted on Friday 2/25 called F4tF: Guts to Eat the Guts aka Nose to Tail in which I explained that I would be eating a Nose to Tail dinner at DNA restaurant in Montreal cooked by Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto in San Francisco and Chef/Owner Derek Dammann of DNA restaurant in Montreal.

We secured an early reservation for DNA and 5 of us headed over to the restaurant which is situated in Old Montreal. We decided on going all-in, opting for the Nose to Tail with wine pairings. What follows is my recollection of that evening in pictures and words.

Just a word of warning to those of you that may be squeamish to these kinds of meals, if this stuff turns you off please click away. If not, sit back, relax and ask yourself “Would I have had the guts to do this?” I did!

READ ON for more on the Nose to Tail Dinner at DNA…

Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 2 – Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon

Jon Hochstat March 11, 2011 No Comments

Last week, I started to recap the epic three-day dining weekend I spent in Montreal with my story Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 1 – Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. This week brings part 2 of the weekend, my trip to Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon aka The Sugar Shack.

My retelling of the weekend is not happening in the order I ate however as my meal at Cabane à Sucre was the last of the weekend and Schwartz’s Deli was the second of the weekend. However, once all four of my meals from the weekend are written up you will understand why I did them in the order I did.

Opened in 2009, Cabane à Sucre is a sister restaurant to Au Pied de Cochon which has been open in Montreal since 2001. Both restaurants are helmed by Chef Martin Picard whose unabashed love for Foie Gras has earned him both respect and scorn in Canada. We were lucky enough to have gotten a reservation at Au Pied de Cochon the Saturday night I was in Montreal. One of the friends who I was with tried to get a reservation the day Cabane à Sucre started taking reservations for 2011 but was shut out. We later found out from one of Martin Picard’s partners in Au Pied de Cochon that the demand for seats for the 2011 season (all of 9 weeks) was so high that the entire season booked out in less than 36 hours this year. Luckily for us, the weekend I was in Montreal was opening weekend which meant that Cabane à Sucre was doing a soft opening weekend (less people sat to get the kinks out, get the service down). During our meal at Au Pied we were lucky enough to score seats to the first seating (11AM) of the second day of service for 2011. On the morning of Sunday, February 27th we hired a car and a driver and headed out from Montreal to St-Benoît de Mirabel, Québec (about a 25 minute drive). 35 Minutes later we arrived at what we later would realize was nirvana. READ ON for more on Cabane à Sucre…

Friday For the Foodies: Montreal, Part 1 – Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen

Jon Hochstat March 4, 2011 No Comments

I am back from my epic dining weekend in Montreal last weekend which included a Nose to Tail dinner Friday night at DNA cooked by Derek Dammann & Chris Cosentino, lunch Saturday at Schwartz’s Deli, dinner Saturday at Au Pied de Cochon and lunch on Sunday at Cabane a Sucre Au Pied de Cochon. I have pictures and descriptions from every meal but this week I am starting with the easiest of the 4 experiences to write up, Schwartz’s Deli.

Here is the history of Schwartz’s and the explanation of what smoked meat is as per their website:

Schwartz’s was founded in 1928 by Reuben Schwartz, a Jewish immigrant from Romania, and our restaurant has been in the same location ever since, on boulevard Saint-Laurent, where it is now tucked in around funky storefronts and trendy boutiques. The restaurant is a single white-tiled room containing several rows of long narrow tables.

We’ve protected our tradition for over 80 years by maintaining the standards of old. Unlike other smoked-meat purveyors, who add chemicals to their briskets, Schwartz’s prepares smoked meat the old-fashioned way using a secret blend of fine herbs and spices marinated for 10 days. Our smoked meat is smoked daily and contains no preservatives; just the award winning taste and freshness that have brought celebrities from all around the world to our tables.

READ ON for more on Jon’s trip to the legendary Schwartz’s…

F4tF: Guts to Eat the Guts aka Nose to Tail

Jon Hochstat February 25, 2011 2 Comments

By the time most of you read this, I will be seated in a restaurant in Montreal, Canada named DNA for a nose to tail dinner prepared by DNA Chef/Owner Derek Dammann and Chef Chris Cosentino of Incanto in San Francisco.

You are probably wondering how a well known chef from San Francisco winds up in Montreal working with a local chef for his Nose to Tail dinner there.

Every year, Chef Cosentino does a nose to tail meal at Incanto. On February 25, 2009, he changed how he selected his “volunteers” to help with the dinner and put the following posting on the Offal Good site:

Do you have the guts to help cook Head to Tail?

Which read as follows:

I have decided to do something a little different for this year’s head to tail dinner, inspired by the constant requests for knowledge about how to cook offal. Now’s your chance to learn. I will be accepting 2 volunteers to help with the event this year. You get to come into my kitchen and help cook 2 nights of head to tail dinners. You will work your ass off, have some fun and learn a ton, but there are rules to this game. This offer is open to professional cooks only. You will be an unpaid volunteer. You must commit to working in my kitchen for 5 days, from Friday, March 20th through Wednesday the 25th except for Tuesday, which you’ll have off to recover. You must submit your resume and a short essay on why you should be one of the chosen ones. This is a busy time and I don’t have time to be baby sitting. The Head to Tail dinner is a multi-course menu with a shit load of detailed work..

READ ON for more of this week’s column…

F4tF: New York City Beer Halls

Jon Hochstat February 4, 2011 No Comments

Recently, I had a friend in town for the month of January. He came to NYC on a job hunt and he got the job they wanted. My friend was born & raised in Italy, worked with me in Paris and now resides in Texas. When he came here, he said “Take me to some places in NYC that I probably would not think about or go to”. I happily obliged. The one theme that kept recurring on our food trips was hitting Beer-centric places all around the city (five in all). Here is a recap of our tour of NYC beer halls.

[Youngna Park courtesy of NY Mag]

I have to preface this story by stating that almost every beer hall we hit was completely unplanned and the decision only came when I realized we were near one of these places.

Here are the fives places we hit in the order we hit them (over a 3 1/2 week period)

1) Zum Schneider – 107 Avenue C 212. 598.1098

Zum Schneider’s history (from their website):

Zum Schneider was opened on August 19, 2000 by Sylvester Schneider, a native of Weßling am Weßlinger See, Bavaria, and long-time resident of Alphabet City. “I missed summers in the beergarden with friends, family and people of all kinds, coming together to relax and celebrate life. Embracing those yearnings, I created Zum Schneider”.

Our path to arriving at Zum Schneider started out on 9th Ave in Hell’s Kitchen on a lazy Saturday, then made its way through: Little Italy, Chinatown, East Broadway (the hidden Chinatown), the Lower East Side and eventually we found ourselves on Avenue C. My friend’s request for food that evening was “A place that serves good beer with hearty food”.

READ ON for more on New York City Beer Halls…

F4tF: The Chicago Hot Dog Trip, Pt. 2

Jon Hochstat January 28, 2011 1 Comment

Last week I recollected a 24-hour trip a couple of friends and I took in April 2009 for my posting F4tF: The Chicago Hot Dog Trip, Pt. 1. This week, I bring you day two of this whirlwind trip.

We knew going into day two that time was of the essence as our first stop of the day was Hot Doug’s. Being that Hot Dog’s has unique hours (Open Mon-Sat 10:30AM-4PM) and has a reputation of getting busy from the second the doors open until 4:30PM when they close, our goal was to get there as close to 10:30 as we possibly could.

True to form, when we got there around 10:35AM, there were already eight or nine people in line ahead of us. You can always find Doug Sohn (the Doug of Hot Dougs) working the register, engaging his customers and overseeing the kitchen, all without having to move from his one spot.

READ ON for more on Jon’s Chicago Hot Dog Trip…

F4tF: The Chicago Hot Dog Trip, Pt. 1

Jon Hochstat January 21, 2011 7 Comments

In April 2009, I took a trip to Chicago with a couple of friends. Our goal was to “research and visit” a few of Chicago’s best hot dog joints to see what the fuss was all about. It was a 24 hour festival of tasting, eating, enjoying and laughing. We also happened to check out a couple of non hot dog places along the way. Here is the story (in words and pictures) of that trip. Thankfully one of the people I was with was a Chicago native which made getting around a lot easier.

We flew into O’Hare airport and our first destination was Gene & Jude’s.

As per wikipedia:

In 1946 Gene Mormino (Hot Dog Gene) started a hot dog stand at Polk & Western Streets in Chicago with his partner Jude DeSantis. Gene lost his first hot dog stand in a card game in 1949. In 1950 they moved operations to their current location in River Grove, Illinois. Today it is owned and run by Joe Mormino, Gene’s son. They were inducted into the Vienna Beef Hot Dog Hall of Fame on May 1, 2006.

We decided that we were going to try basically the same thing at every hot dog place, a couple of Chicago dogs “dragged through the garden,” which means topping them with yellow mustard, chopped white onions, neon-green pickle relish, a dill pickle spear, tomato slices or wedges, pickled sport peppers and a dash of celery salt.

READ ON for more about Jon’s trip to Chicago…

Jon Hochstat

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