August 2006
Food Blogs
by Celia Cheng
CRAVINGS
A slice from Di Fara‘s in Midwood, Brooklyn. Start simply with the cheese (regular or Sicilian).
Roast chicken from La Taza de Oro, with black beans and yellow rice. Be sure to splash some white vinegar on the beans and rice. Dark meat recommended.
Lamb Shank with White Bean Salad, from Casa Mono. Taste it first and be amazed, then notice the roasted half lemon on the side. Squeeze it over the lamb, and taste again.
FAVORITE FOOD BLOGS
The Amateur Gourmet
The Girl Who Ate Everything
Chocolate & Zucchini
Blake Royer and Nick Kindelsperger are like the brothers I never had. The two are college buddies who moved to New York after graduation, which was only a year ago. In the expensive city of New York, they found themselves cooking more frequently than eating out and so they wanted to set up an online resource, a place with good recipes to share with others. The result is The Paupered Chef, a blog that chronicles Nick and Blake’s culinary adventures, step by step with photos, including mistakes and what they’ve learned. It’s loveable because it’s honest and earnest. They show their failures as well as successes, which is where it differs from most other sites, which usually by editorial choice decide to present only the best end products. Blake and Nick find that they get more feedback and responses on the failure posts than on the success stories because readers find the stories endearing and can relate to them.
When the two started the blog, they were living together, and they merely recorded what they were doing for dinners. The process was somewhat rigid: they’d pick an ingredient and then scour through all their cookbooks for recipes to find one to use. Then it was just a matter of teamwork and experimentation to see if it came out okay based on the resources available. Nick and Blake now live separately but have continued The Paupered Chef as a team. Not living together hasn’t deterred them from wreaking havoc in each other’s kitchens.
I had the pleasure of watching the dynamic duo in action in my kitchen. They graciously offered to cook fish and steak tacos. Let me tell you, the tacos were great but watching them work together was the real treat. My kitchen is tiny! T-I-N-Y! I have everything a girl needs to cook for one and do the occasional baking, but that’s about it. They came in and acquainted themselves with my kitchen, cookware and ingredients and then used anything and everything they could get their hands on. I was fascinated by how resourceful they were and how well they worked together. Working in an unfamiliar kitchen presents a real challenge, even when you know the recipe well.
The first two attempts at deep-frying the fish were unsuccessful. They would discuss and try to figure out why it didn’t work and then use different methods and tools. On the third go, after carefully assessing what went wrong during the first two tries, they got it. Bingo! Even when one of my ceramic cook tops caught on fire, they worked together to put it out. The process was stressful and a little tedious, but you could tell that when they figured it out, it was so rewarding that it was all worth it.
What I find most impressive is that they are willing to experiment, problem-solve and learn from their mistakes and keep trying. And the best part is that they are having fun! The Paupered Chef is a young blog that only started this year, but the future is bright for Blake and Nick, for they are rich in imagination and two very good souls.
