Augustian Pleasures

Somehow without me knowing it October is around the corner, but since I live in LA, I haven't a care for seasonality; it's still the tail end of summer here, and gosh darn it, I'm gonna write about a clambake.

I attended my very first clambake at the end of August for my cousin's 50th birthday, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate a milestone like that than burying a bunch of seafood in a sandpit. Although kind of an elaborate and time consuming process, it's also a mightily efficient way of cooking for a lot of people--instead of slaving away in a tiny kitchen over a hot stove, you get to sit in the sun, get everyone involved, and clean up a rather fun mess of lobster carcasses and corn cobs at the bitter end. Oh, and a lot of beer bottles.

Below, a photo essay on The Clambake (many thanks to Jeff & Co for throwing this shindig...)


The raw materials: two styrofoam coolers of seafood. Welcome to New England.


Someone has never seen a lobster before... Especially a live one.


Covering the sand pit with a tarp. The boat is full of seaweed my cousins slashed out of the ocean with a hunting knife. The seaweed went on top of the cookables...


...Like so. Corn, sweet potatoes, beets, lobsters, crabs, steamers. And an egg: nature's timer. Once it's cooked through, the tarp comes off and it's time to eat.


Collecting the goodies:


steamers,


crabs,


corn (and how!)


sweet potatoes,


and of course, lobster.


People didn't have to be told to get in line...


and who would mind waiting anyway, with a view like this?


My idea of a perfect meal: simple, deeply comfortable, and shared with those you love. not a bad way to turn 50, if you ask me.

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NYC Field Report: Prologue

We now officially have an NYC branch of baddiefish, which means two cities for the price of one. It also means this little boy has a lot of eating to do. Like, probably close to 100 miles of eating. Maybe more.

I'm not going to pretend I'm not scared. I'm terrified. The first thing I do in a new city is try and get a handle on the food scene, and with the number of restaurants in the New York area that task can seem a bit daunting. So, with this first post I'm going to stay close to home and report on something I have a lot of experience with: Trader Joe's.

I had heard about the Craziness from various people-- insane lines, competitive shoppers, always running out of things-- but I never truly understood until now. While I haven't experienced the Manhattan location first hand, I have been working down the street from the new brooklyn store and let me just say, the place is HUGE. It used to be a bank, so that gives you some sense of scale. People whisper about it on the street. I saw one of their trainees on the subway the other night and people were looking at her like she was Jennifer Aniston. Even I was not immune to her siren song and literally had to stop myself from shouting across the train, "What's it like inside? Will they carry Go Lean CRUNCH!?" This is all new for me. Good groceries were never more than a car ride away, and you could do huge shops because you had a car to put things in (and a kitchen with a pantry.) Now all that's changed, and after lugging three full grocery bags across town after work I am beginning to understand the goldrush that is Trader Joe's in Brooklyn. You better believe I'll be there opening day, pick axe in hand, ready to report on all the bloody madness... And here is the rest of it.

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