Posts by Jon Hochstat

Now to many of you when you hear the words Sloppy Joe you have visions of ground meat in a tomato-ish sauce served on a plain hamburger bun.

Good food for sure but not the Sloppy Joe I am talking about. In Millburn, NJ on Millburn Avenue is a sandwich shop called The Millburn Deli. Their version of the Sloppy Joe is made on fresh, sliced to order rye (yes I said the bread was sliced to order) and your choice/combination of deli meats. There is also a “Friday Joe” created for Lent which is Tuna and Egg Salad. The sandwiches come in two sizes, the regular Sloppy Joe and the Monster Joe. Above is my favorite Monster Joe, Corned Beef Pastrami, Swiss, Cole Slaw and Russian dressing (and butter on the bread).

The Millburn Deli has been open since 1946 and owned by the current owners since 1991. It is one of those places where there is someone who owns the business, but the place is really the community’s. Anyone who grew up in the West Orange, South Orange, Short Hills and Millburn area can recall memories of going to events, etc growing up and seeing Millburn deli Sloppy Joes being served. Just this past weekend my cousin and I rented a zip car and drove from NYC to Millburn just to have Sloppy Joes. This is a very special sandwich and so worth the trip to New Jersey if you have never been.

328 Millburn Ave
Millburn NJ 07041
973.379.5800
Open Monday-Sunday 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Every Day

READ ON for other stuff from the foodie-verse this week…

Last Sunday, I took the F train to Dumbo to check out Bridge Flea, the new flea market started by the same people behind Brooklyn Flea in Ft Greene. My visit was not bargain shopping orientated, it was food motivated. I went to try the lobster roll that the Red Hook Lobster Pound was selling.

The Red Hook Lobster Pound has only been open a short while but their lobster roll is as good as Brooklyn Fish Camp’s which usually is my one lobster roll per summer (at $26 can only afford one/summer). According to their website the lobster rolls are made from their homemade mayo, and JJ Nissen Top Split Rolls (the original lobster roll bread that they truck down from Maine). Even though the line was long (the lobster rolls were $13.00, half the price of what you would find anywhere else) it moved fast. It was great to see the rolls brushed with butter and placed on the flat top grill. The lobster salad was extremely fresh and each sandwich was made to order. This is one fine lobster roll.

I need to make it out to their store in Red Hook at some point.

Red Hook Lobster Pound
284 Van Brunt Street
Brooklyn
646.326.7650

Oh if you want another reason to go, the booth around the corner had made to order fish tacos as well. Take the trip to Brooklyn this Sunday, have some lobster and fish tacos. You’ll wonder why you haven’t done so already.

Other goings on in the foodie-verse this week:

Terroir announced on their twitter feed that Pig Roasts are taking over Hearth on these Tuesdays: 7/21, 7/28. 8/4, 8/18 http://bit.ly/cyJHI Pig stuffed w pork sausage/3 course menu/$42 pp +$18bev. (I already called for reservations.)

READ ON for the rest of this week’s goings on in the foodie-verse…

I was recently at the Two Boots Pizzeria on Bleecker Street between Broadway and Lafayette when I saw a painted ice cream sign on their window. Seems that Two Boots has partnered with Max & Mina’s Ice Cream of Queens to make Cajun inspired flavors for their pizza locations.

As there are many people who read this blog that are annual JazzFest visitors, I have to say that I had the Banana’s Foster flavor and it was great. As you can see on the attached pic, Two Boots has even taken the extra step to suggest their custom slice->Max & Mina ice cream pairings. This is some good stuff, I may have to head out to Queens to check out the original Max & Mina’s in Kew Gardens which is at 7126 Main St, Flushing. I am always out there looking for new foodie discoveries…

Other goings on in the foodie-verse this week

With all of the new food trucks popping up, you knew something was brewing behind the scenes: The NY Times broke the story Tuesday afternoon: Six Arrested in Probe of City’s Food Vendors.

READ ON for more goings on from Jon…

Every now and again, you come across a food product that is so good, somewhat unique, yet very simple in concept. Most recently that product for me has been the corn cookie at Momofuko Milk Bar.

Yes, Christina Tossi is extremely creative and a strong new presence on the city’s culinary scene. What she’s done with the soft serve at Milk Bar has been amazing. She recently ditched the sweets inspired flavors for fruit and herb inspired ones. The new flavors are lemon verbena, rosemary, blackberry, and apricot. I tasted all four last weekend and have to say the lemon verbana and rosemary are outstanding.

The one thing about the corn cookies is that are not made every day and sometimes sell out when they are in stock. If you can get there on a day they have them, get one. I haven’t let you down yet have I?

Other news from the foodieverse this week:

Yet another new food truck, the La Cense Beef Burger Truck. (via A Hamburger Today). READ ON for more…

What better way is there to spend a summer day then to take the F train out to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn, grab a table at a restaurant on the boardwalk and proceed to nosh, drink and people watch. If you do go, the place I suggest you do it at is The Winter Garden at 3162 Brighton 6TH St.

I had the chance to head out there recently and enjoyed fresh herring, home fried potatoes with rosemary and garlic and Russian lager. It was a beautiful late spring day and I snagged a table on the outer edge closest to the boardwalk. The lunch was simple, tasty and brought my back to the foods of my childhood (except the beer of course). READ ON…

The great thing about working in the East Village is that there are some amazing food places that are hidden on the side streets and if you go at the right time you can get some amazing food with little to no wait.

One of those places is Porchetta on East 7th Street between 1st avenue and Avenue A. The foods that I head in there for are their homemade Pork Ragu and their oh so delicious Crispy Potatoes with Burnt Ends.

The pork ragu takes 48 hours to make and is not available all the time but when it is, you have to go in to try it. The picture above is one I took months ago when they first rolled it out. They now serve it in a big bowl with the bread on the side for a way economical $8. I stopped in last night on the way home from work and only got the crispy potatoes with burnt ends (to go) as I was on a walking and grazing tour and found my way over to Momofuko Ssam for Pork Buns, Sake Lemonade and cookies from Milk Bar before heading home. I’ll do my piece on Momofuko Milk Bar soon as their stuff is amazing and their corn cookies ethereal. READ ON for more…

Way back on April 10th, I told you I had gotten an email in my inbox from Theodore Peck, winner of many of the recent “Food Throwdowns” stating that he was partnering with another competition mainstay Nick Suarez and that they were planning something big in the near future.

Well that something big is the 1st Annual Brooklyn Beer Experiment taking place this Sunday at The Bell House in Brooklyn.

You probably have seen postings recently on all of the major food blogs like Grub Street, Ed Levine Eats & The Village Voice’s Fork in the Road. In case you were not aware of all of the competitions that Mr Suarez and Mr Peck have won, here is the list. I did manage this week to get a hold of Theo for a couple of quick minutes on the phone. He told me that he has “an amazing prize that he can’t share more about.” Also I heard through the grapevine that some of the teams entered are from some well known NYC eateries. I bought my ticket already as a portion of the ticket sales are going to ovarian cancer research, a very worthy cause. This should be one of the coolest food events to hit the city in a long time. Plus Theo and Nick lined up some great celebrity judges. Hope to see you there on Sunday!

Other goings on around the foodieverse this week:

Looking for some great bar food that won’t break your bank? Check out the posting Cheap eats: Eight bars with free food that Time Out NY’s The Feed put up yesterday.

READ ON for more Foodieverse happenings…

Years ago, when I was working for Legal Seafoods in Boston, Mass there was – and still is – a great restaurant in Cambridge named The East Coast Grill. The Chef/Owner, Chris Schlesinger, created an amazing hot sauce there called Inner Beauty Real Hot Sauce that was bottled and sold outside the restaurant in stores. Regrettably, that sauce is no longer made for retail sale, although legend has it you can go to East Coast Grill and ask Chris for some and he will provide it to you.

Anyhow, forward to the present. I recently attended the Hot Dog Hootenany at The Astor Center and had the chance to meet the guys behind Wheelhouse Pickles. I was talking to John, one of the guys behind Wheelhouse, when we got on the subject of hot sauces. He told me I had to try his Minor Threat Sauce.

These guys have come oh so close to duplicating one of my favorite all time hot sauces (except I thought It could be a little bit hotter, but that’s me). If you like flavorful spicy sauces rather than just really hot sauces, check out Minor Threat, it will make everything you eat taste that much better. I know, I have already gone through several jars since I was given my first bottle by the Wheelhouse crew.

READ ON for more about Minor Threat sauce and this week’s links…

Bonjour mes amis, I have returned from my vacation to the Paris, the City of Lights. One of my new discoveries my first week back is a new ice cream truck that I came across on University Place called Van Leeuwen Artisanal Ice Cream. I was on my way back from dinner with my brother and his kids the other night when we stumbled on the bright yellow truck…

We tried the vanilla bean which was very rich and full of flavor. After doing some research, I found out the the trucks have been out and about for almost a year in both Brooklyn and Manhattan. According to an article written on the Farm Fresh Creative blog, which published an excerpt from the creative brief written by Ben Van Leewen, the Van Leeuwen trucks uses quality products for everything (read below):

“To give you an idea of the product, we use hormone free milk and cream from small family farms in New York State, cane sugar and egg yolks. We never use milk powder, corn syrup, stabilizers, or preservatives. We age organic Bourbon and Tahitian Vanilla Beans in oak barrels with vodka for 4 months to extract them. We use pure Sicilian Pistachios, hand picked by small family farmers on the slopes of Mount Etna in Bronte. We use Tonda La gentile origin certified Hazelnuts from Piedmont. We source our chocolate from Michel Cluizel in France( they use no Soya Lechitin!). We use Quinn Farms Hudson Valley red currants. We have set out to make the best readily available super-premium ice cream while also educating consumers on why slow food produced ingredients taste better.”

READ ON for this week’s links and more on Van Leeuwen’s…

Well my friends, I am leaving today to head to Paris, France for a much deserved and long overdue vacation. It is a foodie trip all the way. I am meeting up with some old friends and generally just checking out all of the cool foodie stuff to see, taste and explore in Paris. When I knew I was definitely taking this trip, I emailed a few chefs I know and said “I am heading to Paris for the first time since I lived there 17 years ago, where do all of the chefs go nowadays when they visit Paris?” One of the places that came up repeatedly in replies from my chef friends was E Dehillerin.

What I was told is that this place is the real deal! Not some fancy shmancy cookware store. E Dehillerin has been serving chefs from France and around the world since 1820. READ ON for this week’s links…

Recently, I took a foodie trip to Chicago with a couple of friends, one of whom was born and raised there. One of the things that the two non-Chicagoans on the trip requested was a legendary food place in Chicago that we may not have gone to if we had not been with a local. The place my friend selected was Johnnie’s Beef in Elmwood Park Illinois.

[Photo taken the day I ate here]

We each had a beef and sausage combo with hot and sweet peppers followed by a homemade lemon Italian Ice. The moistness of the beef, paired with the hot sausage and both hot & sweet peppers was just an explosion of flavor that I had not gotten from many dishes in a long time. This sandwich upon the first bite immediately vaulted itself into becoming one of my top 3 favorite sandwiches I crave and consider the best around. The other two in case you are curious are Tony Luke’s Cheesesteak with whiz, hot peppers, sautéed onions and The Millburn Deli‘s Monster Joe with Corned Beef, Pastrami and Swiss. READ ON for this week’s links…

When I was a nice Jewish kid growing up in Essex County, I always looked forward to the times when the family would have bagels, lox, whitefish… you know “The Whole Schmear”. Thankfully, living in New York City and working in the Village has allowed me to be close to one of the few remaining stores that celebrate those great foods of my childhood and Jewish heritage. That place is Russ & Daughters, opened in 1914 and still going strong today.

This past Wednesday, Russ & Daughters posted on their blog an event they are hosting at the Astor Center on May 13th. The event is called Russ & Daughters: A Taste of Appetizing. According to The Astor Center’s description of the event:

Mark Russ Federman, representing the third of the four generations of famed Russ & Daughters, will guide you on a tasting of his extraordinary wares. From humble Herring to luscious Lox, Mark will be explain all—accompanied by a generous side order of the stories behind this New York culinary landmark, judged by the Smithsonian Institute as “part of New York’s cultural heritage.” Joining Mark will be Russ & Daughters’ long-time manager, Herman “The Artistic Slicer” Vargas. Join us in the Study at Astor Center, and pull up a chair for an experience you won’t forget.

READ ON for more on Russ & Daughters and Jon’s usual collection of links from foodie-related stories of interest from the week that was…

As I was going through my twitter feed today, I came across this:

AlwaysHungry First Look: Bubby’s Midnight Brunch Menu

Once again, Always Hungry brings us the goods on where to eat in NYC. We all get out of live shows after midnight or way after sometimes and we want to go somewhere to grab a bite. I am hoping to check the brunch out in the near future, maybe on 4/20 after the Pete Rock show at the Hudson Hotel.

[Courtesy of Bubby’s]

This part really whetted my appetite:

Bubby’s Midnight Brunch offers a saving grace in the form of Cheese Fries, Fried Chicken & Waffles and Pibil “Pork” Tacos. From midnight-to-8am, stacks of pancakes will be stuffed with blueberries, chocolate chips or caramelized bananas and walnuts, and I ask you, what’s better than a trifecta of Benedicts to help subdue that one drink too many?

Bubby’s Restaurant Bar-Bakery
120 Hudson St
New York, NY 10013
(212) 219-0666

You can see the full brunch menu here

Here’s what else I came across that piqued my foodie interest this week:

The Gowanus Yacht Club reopens today!

Ed Levine Eats gives us a First Look at the New Yankees Stadium Food as well as NYC Food Events for the Weekend and Beyond

READ ON for more food-related links from Jon…

In November 2007, everyone’s favorite traveling NYC chef & food personality Anthony Bourdain was the subject of an interview with Google’s Chef Nate Keller. It is a no holds barred interview with a chef, by a chef. You can watch the interview in its entirety here Here’s what else came across the Foodie-Wire this week: […]

This week, I am bringing you one of my favorite sites that has hit a great concept right on the head. It is called Dinner with the Band, hosted by chef Sam Mason of Tailor NYC. The premise is that each week he brings an indie band to his loft, cooks them a meal (and shows them how to do it). After that the bands rock out Sam’s loft.

In this episode Sam goes kosher with cured lox and bagels for this childhood meal of El-P’s. The chef makes the steps simple enough for even this indie band to follow along.

Brett Thorn of Nation’s Restaurant News‘ blog The Food Writer’s Diary handicaps this year’s James Beard Awards.

You haven’t enjoyed coffee until you grind your own beans and brew using a Bodum Chambord 3-cup Coffee Press – Perfect Pressed Coffee. (via Kitchen Contraptions)

Grub Street let’s us know what to eat at the new Citi Field.

READ ON for more of this week’s food happenings…

Happy Friday everyone!  I thought I’d kick the weekend off with a great video that I found on Always Hungry’s Twitter Feed that takes us inside the world of a “Cutter” at Katz’s Deli on NYC’s Lower East Side.  Also lots of news tidbits I came across.  If you are heading to the Bacon Throwdown […]

Put your hands together for the first column of what we hope will be many from one of our favorite bloggers – Jon Hochstat. I’m on a few mailing lists with Jon and he has an incredible knack for separating the signal from the noise on the internet.

His posts on the now defunct Runaway Dinosaur covered a wide range of topics that always piqued my interest. Jon wrote a food column every Friday for RD and we’re honored to pick up where he left off here at Hidden Track.

Greetings everyone. Welcome to the first posting of my weekly contribution to Hidden Track, Friday for the Foodies. As most of the people who write & read this blog are diehard music fans who go see lots of live music, most of the people are also diehard foodies. I know I am both for sure.

Each week, I will try to bring you what I have found that piques my attention, whether it came from a blog, an RSS feed or Twitter.

This week I have decided to take on the debate over which way is the best way to get information that will satisfy a foodies urge to know what is happening. The old way which is through RSS feeds or the new cool way, which is through Twitter. You decide which of the two provides the information that feeds your foodie cravings. Right now I seem to be getting more from Twitter for sure.

Top Five Foodie Things I Learned via RSS Today:

1. Serious Eats NY brings us NYC Food Events for the Weekend and Beyond, which includes a great event for the weekend:

The Great Greenpoint Mac Off
March 22, 4 to 8 p.m.
Mac and cheese crawlers will hit four Greenpoint bars, each serving samples of hot mac and cheese and cold craft beers. Start at Red Star, then move to The Habitat, Mark Bar, and finally t.b.d. There will be a different drink special at each bar to wash down the cheesy carboload. Red Star is located at 7 Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11222 (map)

READ ON for the rest of Jon’s list of things he learned via RSS and Twitter…