Thursday, December 23, 2010

We Shootin...



Been a crazy week. Events every day. Just in the last week, we catered Thom Filicia's Release Party (my co-d Martha Stewart came through), cooked at the Taiwanese Embassy, did $1 Bao Day, and shot the pilot for 2 days. So today, I stayed in, had a Netflix Night, got some wonton soup with char siu pork from Noodletown, and drank a lot of robitussin. Sippin on some sizzurp... so relaxing.

The shoot this week was pretty dope. We hit up Jerk City, Imperial Palace, and K-One. My favorite part so far is getting into OPK (other people's kitchens) and seeing their technique. Imperial Palace was dope. They had a bucket for used oil from the wok. i.e. every time they made an order of lamb chops, they'd flash fry the lamb, then toss the lamb over a strainer and dropped all the used oil into a bucket. But then for certain dishes, they'd use that oil for extra flavor. It sounds funky but it tastes really fucking good. They also live butchered a dungeness crab, wok fried it while still pulsating, then steamed it. Mad fresh.

Jerk City was poppin. I spoke to Chef Orville for a while and the recession's been hard on the neighborhood. If you get a chance, definitely go support Brooklyn Business and cop that Jerk City. I know there are a lot of trendy spots in BK that get a lot of buzz, but give these West Indian joints a shot. They are the heart of the borough and I feel they've been kinda forgotten. He makes a really good jerk chicken slow and low, oxtail, and curry goat.

He marinates the chicken for 2 days before grilling and uses all natural chicken. I told him he should advertise it, but he doesn't. Meanwhile, all these other "farm to table" restaurants are charging $18+ for a quarter all natural chicken. This is what I love. Orville didn't even realize that he was doing something "trendy", people from other countries just EXPECT all natural chicken because the legs are bigger. I discovered his chicken was all natural because when we cut em open, I saw goosebumps on the skin that's usually a dead giveaway. When you eat purdue commodity chicken, the skin is just fat and sickly, it doesn't even have goosebumps. The legs are also much smaller since the breast is genetically modified to be larger. You can get white meat jerk, but you really shouldn't. For $5 you get rice and beans, steamed cabbage, plantains, and all natural jerk chicken. Go.

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