New in the 'Hood

It's hard to keep track of all the food related places opening up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Here are just a few of my favorites:

A media favorite and for good reason is Pok Pok a tiny hole in the wall Thai place at 137 Rivington street with James Beard award winning Chef Andy Richer at the stove.  Pok Pok has a limited menu that specializes in the most amazing chicken wing variations.  Awesome!

Thai Posters hang everywhere giving this place a Bangkok feel it actually reminds me of a place I used to love to go to in Bangkok that was an art student hang out where you could get lunch for 2 bucks.   Dinner at Pok Pok is a little more expensive then that, though still very reasonable.

The food has a decided Issan (Northeast Thailand) feel and I found the non chicken wing items were not as strong.   I had a pork dish one night with sticky rice and Som Tam that I felt was a little tame and sweet, but now I know the folks here are very game to spice things up "Thai Style" if you ask and you should ask!

This isn't the best picture of Christian Vautier: Le Concept, (the Times took a better one) the inside is bright, simple and airy with a long banquette for sitting and at the back a wonderful selection of home made truffles and confections to eat in our take away.  I've sampled three different truffles: Praline, Salted Caramel Kiss and Passion Fruit all exquisite.   They are also serving Dallis Brothers coffee.

This part of Broome street between Ludlow and Orchard is so hot it's crazy.  If it's not a new gallery, store or food place opening up it's pack with film crews.  Just down the street from Le Concept is Home Espresso Bar which is wonderful if simply because it is so,well....homey.  In this landscape of super hip and trendy places it's nice to have something local and easy, where you don't have to dress up to go get a quick latte. 

Finally the new (but not new) Doughnut Plant has opened and boy is it fancy!  They did a great job and even though it was instantly packed it is a great improvement from the original space next store.

Octopus Vivisection

I've been aware for a while now how smart octopus are and even though I think they are delicious, I have stopped eating them.



So the other day I got this email from Tasting Table:

Wed. 27 Jan '10 Dining | NEW YORK CITY Night of the Living Sushi Straight-from-the-tank fish at Sushi Uo Photo: Julie Qiu At 23 years old, chef David Bouhadana may seem too young to be an ambassador for traditional Japanese sushi. But don't let his youthfulness fool you: At Sushi Uo--a hidden LES den that he opened last fall--Bouhadana has embraced a nearly abandoned technique with artistic flair: serving live sashimi. The show happens every Tuesday night, when Bouhadana replicates ikizukuri ("prepared alive"), a ceremonious procedure in which a fish is stunned, sliced and served with its heart still beating. Bouhadana begins the process by making graceful slits along the fish's flesh before picking it up and slamming it down on the cutting board, where it curls and seizes, rendering it firm to the bite--in some cases, almost crunchy. Hands this capable deserve your trust: Take his recommendation of the silky abalone, snappy penn shell and lightly sweet surf clam, all arriving artfully arranged on a platter ($25 to $35, depending on market price). And don't be alarmed by the octopus tentacle twitching on your plate: It's just one of its three hearts still beating--which is to say, it's alive and kicking.

I can't read that last line "don't be alarmed by the octopus tentacle twitching" without thinking: here is an creature with advanced intelligence how is this OK? If we were to switch out the word octopus and replace it with 3 year old child or beloved smart family dog Fido how would we feel then? And how, I ask in all seriousness is it different? Octopus have a nervous system and consciousness just like your 3 year old and your family pet.

I'm often struck by how grossed out people are when I tell them I've visited Vietnam, one of the first questions I am inevitably asked is: "did you eat dog?" like the minute you get off the plane you immediate go all native and start have unnatural urges, obviously in our culture the eating of Fido is very disturbing, but why? Well, as far as I can tell it's because dogs are cute and we have a relationship to them, octopus are ugly (to us) and we have no relationship to them other then on our plate, so it's OK to torture and eat them? And yeah I guess what this email describes to me is torture (specifically about the octopus - fish and abalone are a different story).

Sure I eat meat on occasion but I trust given my very fussy standards about what meat I eat that the animal it came from had a good life and was humanely slaughtered. And chickens are dumb.

Somehow I don't want to lose my humanity so I can say to my friends:

"Oh you'll never believe how fresh the sushi is at this place!"