priligy lietuvoje

Tag Archives | greens

REVIEW | Meatball Shop

Meatball Smash

Mangia Memoirs has transferred to the Big Apple and our first stop was to The Meatball Shop in Williamsburg.  A restaurant where the meatball is King. Different meat / non-meat varieties, as well as a spectrum of sauces, make this joint a place that all can enjoy.  Meatballs make people happy.

Our Mangia Memoir (what we’ll remember):  

After a whirlwind week of moving from Miami to NYC (like some real crazy fast shit), Weber and I took a break from the cardboard box graveyard known as our apartment, and ventured to Williamsburg for a St. Patty’s day celebration at the apartment of a friend of a friend (Have we lost you yet?).

Anyways, after knocking back a couple of green beers, meeting some new folks and dealing with the shocked expressions of everyone as we explained  “Oh, we just moved here….Ummm, yea about 3 days ago”, we could use a little comfort food. And what better comfort food than rolled up balls of meat?  Clearly, nothing.  As we walked back to the subway stop, The Meatball Shop lured us in.  I have  a feeling it won’t be the last time we go there!

Meat Grinder wall decor

My personal decor favorites:

  1. Meat grinders as wall art = legit
  2. Dry-erase menus that let you check the box to build your feast.  Brilliant.
  3. T-shirts with a giant cow/bull looking thing that says “We Make Balls” –classy and sassy
Dry Erase Menu
The Verdict:
4 out of 5 stars
  • FOOD: overall, the food was pretty good. The Meatball Shop let’s the meatball be king, where in most other restaurants they play a supporting role, usually to pasta.  The meatballs could have been a little warmer, but all of the flavors were good and the presentation was unpretentious.
  • SERVICE: They were definitely busy, but our server was friendly and on top of her stuff. Waters right away, answered questions, order in, bada-bing, bada-boom.
  • AMBIANCE: surprisingly pretty cool, in spite of an unassuming name like The Meatball Shop.  Meat grinders, old photos and warm lighting make the restaurant have a “feel”.
Items ordered:
  • Chicken Meatball Smash with Mushroom sauce: a solid choice.  Good texture on the chicken meatball, even though that’s not always the case and a flavorful robust mushroom sauce that can stand up to the meat. Balls could have been warmer.
  • Spicy Pork Meatball Hero with Classic tomato sauce: not as spicy as I thought or hoped it would be, but still pretty darn good.  Could also have been warmer.
  • Collard greens: no frou frou stuff here, just some good ‘ol collard greens.  Delicious. Could have eaten another plate.
Share
Comments { 0 }

MMM! | Blog Launch Party with Crazy Creations

red snapper

Adventure anyone? What better way to celebrate the launch of a food blog than with fresh whole fish, a raw meat concoction and great friends? I don’t thing anything!

My loving husband decided that we needed to have a “launch party” for the birth of Mangia! Memoirs because of the hard work that went into it.  I believe that to be true, but I also think he may have been looking for a good excuse to have friends over, eat some food and down some wine.  Regardless, the impromptu launch party took place and let me tell you, we went on a culinary adventure joy ride!

beef carpaccioWe were thinking to go big or go home, so ended up creating food items that we had never ever made before and honestly, really had no idea how to.  First up, beef carpaccio.  For those not familiar with carpaccio, I’ve included a link, but it’s basically very very thinly sliced raw “something”.  There are seafood carpacci, beef carpacci, vegetable carpacci – you get the point. We’ve had these many times in restaurants, but the real kick here is that it is 100% RAW and I was serving it IN MY HOME.Blog Launch Party

I’d tried to do all the gruesome meat pounding before everyone got here, in order to salvage their appetites, but I’d have to say my favorite quote of the evening from our pal Kelvin, (as I lay delicate slices of meat on a plate), was “Soooo, uhh…that was marinated like ceviche, right?”  NOPE! Sorry, buddy, when I said raw, I meant RAW.  I honestly got a little nervous after that point, thinking “Alisa, what the hell are you doing serving raw meat to your friends?!  But the show must go on.  We served up the beef carpaccio with fresh arugula and shaved parmigiano, olive oil and fresh cracked pepper.  Overall, a HIT.

The “sleeper” favorite of the evening ended up being the pasta.  I really just made this as a “filler-up” dish from things we had lying around. Fusilli lunghi (long spirally pasta that looks the way someone’s hair would look if they got electrocuted)  pasta in a mildly spicy artichoke heart, tomato, garlic and white wine sauce.

Next up was the MAIN EVENT.  I’d been wanting to cook a whole fish for sometime (just to see if I could do it), and this ended up being the perfect night for it.  My husband and I went to the local fish market, Garcia’s Seafood, and purchased two jumbo red snapper and decided to follow the directions of 2 awesome ladies from Florida that demonstrated an ancient technique for baking fish.  Naturally, we found this on YouTube.  You can stuff the fish with any herbs you like (I chose lemon, rosemary and thyme), then pack the fish in course sea salt, creating a salt cast that develops over the fish and keeps it moist while baking.  The craziest part, is that the salt becomes hard like concrete and you have to literally CRACK the mold to get the fish out.  It was totally wild and so much fun! I used my grandma’s rolling pin for extra drama – thanks Gram.

The Verdict:

  • 5 stars!
  • Would You Eat It Again?: Heck, yea with multiple exclamation points
  • Would Would You Change? Buy more fish.  For a party of 6, two fish was a bit of  stretch as a main course.

Our “Mangia! Memoir” (what we’ll remember):

This was a food event worth remembering and I definitely recommend it.  The fish was moist and fell right off the bone.  The herbs that we had stuffed within the fish cavity infused the fish with flavor. And surprisingly, even though the fish was encased in salt, it wasn’t salty (Heads up, though – there were a few salty areas, mostly around the edges where the fish was right up against the salt cast).  Since this was a new technique for everyone, the whole party was centered around seeing this come to life, which ended up being pretty darn cool.

Every one watched in anticipation as the fish was stuffed, packed in salt and then put into the oven.  We then held our breath as the rolling pin smacked open the cast and inside lie the fully in tact and cooked fish.  Once we slid the fish from the bones, everyone, as if on on queue, starting picking at the remnant pieces.

I mentioned that the fish cheek is supposed to be very succulent and instantly everyone started going for it!  Then conversation shifted to how if you are ever stranded, you should eat fish eyes, because there is water in them.  Next thing I know,  people are going for the EYES!!  It was like be shot back to caveman era – everyone was so primal!

 

Share
Comments { 0 }

COTFN | Chicken Cutlet Arugula & Parm

Chicken Cotoletto

Sometimes glorious meals come from the scrap you have in the ‘fridge.  And that is what happened here.

The Meal: Chicken Cutlet, aka “Cotoletto” topped with fresh arugula and shaved parmigiano reggiano.

The Details: thinly sliced (or butterflied) chicken breast, pounded out as thin as you can get it (while still being chicken and not mush), dipped in flour, then egg, then panko bread  crumbs (for the crunch) and pan fried.  Top with a handful of fresh arugula and squeeze with lemon.  Shave slices of parmigiano reggiano for intense flavor by the bite.

The Verdict:

  • 5 stars
  • Don’t you feel like crap when somebody asks “What’s for Dinner?” and the immediate response in your mind is “Well, hell if I know!”.  I feel like that a lot. Tonight was one of the nights I looked in the fridge and thought….”Ok, what do I have in here that I can piece together?  And what ingredients do I NEED to use before they go bad?”.
  • The chicken breasts I had bought for a meal that never happened were about to expire and the arugula looked like it had about 1-2 days of life left in it.  Soooo, chicken and arugula it was.  I also realized that I had just enough panko left for 2 cutlets.  I would make the sacrifice (though reluctantly) to have a cutlet dipped in regular breadcrumbs :( EEE—OR  Weber and Tony–that right there is L-O-V-E.
  • Because we had nothing else in the house besides some rouge boxed “Pasta Sides” that have been in there for 2 years (they are shelf stable, right?), I decided I’d pound out the chicken extra extra thin, so it took up the full circumference of the plate and seemed like a huge portion.  We eat with our eyes, right?
  • Weber and Tony didn’t even realize or complain that their wasn’t a starch with dinner and both were stuff, satisfied and happy gents.
  • Would You Eat It Again?: Yes, in a heartbeat.  How about tomorrow?
  • What Would You Change? Really try to have  a spare box of panko, because I’m tell you that stuff really takes it to a whole new level.  Also, having 3 frying pans that can fit a full cutlet would be awesome.  That way, in my house of three, each would be finished at the same time, instead of intermittently.
Share
Comments { 0 }

Switch to our mobile site