Epic Portions

Tag: New York

  • The Hundred Layer Lasagna

    I felt a little bad for exposing you to Tios’ “World Famous” Wet Burrito yesterday, so when I came across a link that simply stated “100 Layer Lasagna”, I saw it as an opportunity to make that up to you.

    NYMag.com recently did a report on the 100 Layer Lasagna that was created by Chef Mark Ladner at Del Posto, which is owned by Mario Batali(shocker).

    It’s really, really simple,” says Mark Ladner about his hundred-layer lasagne. Yes, that’s 100 layers: 50 practically transparent sheets of handmade pasta, alternating with 50 layers of sauce (Bolognese, besciamella, and marinara). Each 80-portion pan has to go into the oven by 1:30 P.M. every day. Otherwise, it doesn’t have enough time to cool and coalesce by dinner and completely collapses when you try to slice it. It takes three kitchen stations and many hands to put it together. Skewers hold it in place while it sets. You need a special spatuala to serve it. Maybe “simple” isn’t the word.

    Portions of the structure are currently available on certain tasting menus, with the cheapest one running you about $125.  If you ask for it a la cart, it will supposedly only run you around $30.

    For those of you who are completely out of your mind and think this is not one of the more delicious looking creations in the entire world, Tom Colicchio begs to differ.

  • Epic Travels: JetBlue JFK Terminal Eatery

    Inside JFK airport's new JetBlue terminal Inside JFK airport’s new JetBlue terminal

    Betcha never thought you’d see a place in an airport terminal reviewed on a food blog.  I betcha a million dollars.  You know why?  Cause airport eating sucks.  It sucks so bad.  Todd hates flying for 4 major reasons: 1) security (usually former prison guards), 2) jet lag, 3) non-free access to the inter-webs, and 4) horrendous food on the plane, at the airport, and even on the way to the airport (strip clubs, hooters, and “Chotchkie’s”-styled terrible chain restaurants just don’t do it for me).

    Why?  Why do this?  Especially to the poor traveling public, many of which do not appreciate being frisked for no good reason only to go on to eat at one of the many terrible airport burrito chains.  [Fun side-note: to create your own burrito chain, use any fun combination of the following words, in any order: baja, chipotle, fresh, fast, fiesta, amigo, taco, pepper.  Now you too can open the fun, new “baja amigo fiesta fresh” restaurants in the airport of your choosing!]

    Well, friends, the world changed when JetBlue decided to be a unique example of an American airline taking their heads out of their backsides and opened an airport terminal that actually acts as a functional hub for a modern, traveling, HUNGRY populace.  The new Terminal (#6) at JFK airport in New York is a beacon of gastronomical hope in a world of shit-laced peanuts and crappy, greased up tacos.

    An airport foodcourt for the 21st century
    An airport foodcourt for the 21st century
    Eateries opened include a cake place (serving NY cheesecake among others) called “Aunt Butchies,” as well as a “Famous Famiglia Pizzeria,” a NY-style pizza chain that started on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.  How about that?   A NY Cheesecake/pizza place in…New York.  An airport that actually desires to serve regionally-styled food to the gazillion people that pass through it a year?  And that’s not all friends…

    "What? It's 6 in the morning and you want breakfast? HELL NO! You're getting a corned beef and swiss sandwich! Too early you say?! Fine - you're getting peppers on it too!"
    "What? It's 6 in the morning and you want breakfast? HELL NO! You're getting a corned beef and swiss sandwich! Too early you say?! Fine – you're getting peppers on it too!"
    Bam! Meat and Peppers! In the morning! Take that, Todd's jetlagged internal clock!
    Bam! Meat and Peppers! In the morning! Take that, Todd's jetlagged internal clock!

    Among many others, there is a burrito place (yes – ‘mex and the city,’ witty if not slightly offensive), a smoothie place, Dunkin Donuts (god yes), and an honest to god Boar’s Head Deli.  Boar’s head!  A great mass-market deli meat now forms the basis of an airport deli, which, by the way, employs a touch-screen ordering system.  I was as shocked as you are.  So the next time you have the choice between flying direct on some crappy 5:30 am flight or taking a quick spin through JFK, remember that your trip could be substantially more pleasant given good architecture, free WI-FI, ample laptop plugs, and food that actually makes you look forward to grabbing a bite at the airport.  Oh yeah, did I mention that you can order food at a laptop stand and they actually deliver it to you…in the airport.

    For more info: http://www.jetblue.com/about/jfk/food.html

    For more about the even more hoity-toity dining opportunities in JFK: http://www.newsday.com/services/newspaper/printedition/sunday/travel/ny-trglobe5886195oct19,0,7935547.story