Please Forigive Me Fans...

For I have Slacked. It has been 18 days since my last blog post...

1) I hope that's not too sacrilegious to anyone out there...
2) I don't have any fans, so I'm thinking it's OK...

So, in typical Ash OCD fashion, I can't wrap my head around the idea of a quick, in-and-out blog post. I feel like my ideas have to be thought (thawed?) out, developed, and explored deeply. But, that results in me just simply not having the time to blog at all and thus, getting anxious and depressed that I haven't been blogging and then "what's the point of this damn blog anyway?"

Plus, I've even gotten feedback from some folks that my blog postings are too long... So, I am going to try and go against the current of my OCD-ridden instincts and try to blog shorter posts, more often... We'll see how that goes.

I have also gotten feedback that I need photos on my blog... and videos! (People probably say that because I am in the video industry.) OK people! I'm just getting into this blogging thing- jeez- cut me some slack for awhile until I get my up-and-running groove down!

So, let me go back a bit and tell you about the Bacon, Beer, and Cheese pairing class I did at Astor Center on July 9th. Unlike my last experience with an Astor Center class, I'd have to say: this one was disappointing...

Here's why:

The class was taught by Josh Ozersky (Grub Street!) and Mary Izett (NYCDAT). Chris Cuzme- another NYCDAT person- was supposed to be there also but failed to show. So, being an avid reader of Grub Street and being aware of "Meat Me in Manhattan" and his burger book, I know "Mr. Cutlets'" as a real, live New Yorker who's "in the know" about food, and especially, about meat. I was excited to put a face to a name, but more importantly, to hear him talk about bacon while sampling some of his favorite slabs.

Granted, I should have been aware of the possibility that, with a class which involves three such gluttonous and cult-following tastes, the class would become more of a novelty and attract the "what could be better than eating bacon and drinking beer" crowd. (FYI- there WAS someone in the crowd that, when Mary mentioned that hops were related to cannabis, asked "Can you make weed beer?" Only to be followed by chuckles from his friends- don't think there were any high fives in there- but there might have been.)

So... the bacon:

Well first of all, Cutlets didn't really tell us anything about bacon. He would commonly say things like, "I could give you all the details of this bacon, but I'm sure you guys just want me to shut up so you can eat your bacon." Since when can our mouths not chew when our ears are listening? No, Grub Street! We are here to hear about bacon from you! Tell us the stories! Give us the grub! Tell more than we wanna hear! We paid $65 for this class!

Perhaps he sensed a vibe in the room that that people were in it for the novelty of it. But I felt kinda like all his incredible meat-related credentials were for naught. He coulda been anyone up there distributing meat.

One thing I want to impart on speakers at Astor Center: People, or at least some people, do wanna hear. If we wanna eat a bunch of bacon, we can go out and buy bacon and save ourselves some of the $65 and two-hours that we spent on the class. I mean, if I were an editor of Grub Street, you can be damn sure that I'd flaunt my food knowledge all over damn town- whether I think people wanna hear it or not.

The other thing about the bacon portion was this: We tried six bacons. And the first one was Oscar Meyer. Now I'm all for comparison and such but, if you're taking a class on bacon, chances are you've tried Oscar Meyer. I did appreciate, however, the fact that he didn't bash it and gave it its due place as the best bacon to put on a bacon cheeseburger. "The reassuring taste of childhood."

But, coming to a class on bacon, I wanted to try artisinal bacons. Bacons I hadn't had before. Bacons that were special and rare and "wow!" But three out of the six bacons were supermarket bacons. Nothing special. Even Cutlets himself said they were nothing special. So, we got three special bacons and three unspecial bacons. Maybe the class shoulda cost $32.50...

My favorite bacon that we tried was the Benton's Smoky Country Hams Hickory Bacon. This bacon was damn good. Josh called it "the bacon that conquered Manhattan" because Tom Colicchio and David Chang were once driving around Madisonville, Tennessee and found this bacon and loved it and brought it back. Momofuku uses this bacon. I learned that they use old time, traditional techniques to make this bacon. Pork preserves really well : i.e. people used to just eat pigs - cows are relatively new in the eating world. So people would eat ham and bacon all year long. Take a pork belly, salt it and sugar it, and let it sit there for a long time. That's what we call an ambient cure- it gets infused with the flavor and smell of everything around it- no temperature controls, no special pig. Smoking came later (as we know with fish!) "Andrew Jackson would like this bacon." This was good bacon- airy, smoky, thick, salty, and fatty.

Check out these meat markets:

Jubilat- 17th and 5th- Bklyn; Eagle- Windsor Terrace, Bklyn; M&I Market- Brighton Beach; Munchen- Ridgewood, Queens; Black Bull- Astoria; Calabria- Bronx; Esposito- Bleeker

I also learned that, according to Mr. Meats, the best way to cook bacon is in a sheet pan in the oven on 375. Pots don't work cause they're round. Pans are even cook. That makes sense.

Onto the Beer:

So, Mary knew what she was talking about. She knew a damn lot about beer. She spoke of the brewing process and handed some hops and barley around. And we sampled some beers; the best being the Ommegang Rare Vos Amber Ale. And she told us her favorite places to get beer in the city. This is the part where I learned about Jimmy's 43... These were her picks:
Whole Foods Bowery; Jimmy's 43; American Beer; Bierkraft; Eagle; Greenpoint Beerworks

But the confusing part came when she double-dutied as the cheese sommelier... (?)

She really didn't seem to know much about cheese. She kept referring to a class she took on cheese and she had this kind of sad- but good intentioned- slide show about her cheese-making class. It would be like me being hired as the bread baking expert because I have taken a bread baking class. I think that if you are going to offer a class about Bacon, Beer, and Cheese, you really ought to have an expert in all three areas. Don't double-duty. I thought maybe Chris Cuzme who had cancelled that day was perhaps the cheese guy. But, no- he was another beer guy. I didn't think the cheeses were anything special. My favorite was the Jasper Hill Farm Constant Bliss- really creamy. And we only tried five cheeses. What happened to that damn sixth cheese? We got six beers and six bacons... Plus, all the cheese came from Saxelby's.

The class ended with some tasty dark and milk chocolate pig candies from Ronnie Sue Chocolates in the Essex Street Market. YUM. (I typically prefer dark chocolate, but the milk chocolate of these were killer.)

A few other notes about the class:
1) Speakers were not wearing microphones. It was so hard to hear what they were saying. Especially if you are in the back of the room or off to a side. I think everyone should be miked.
2) The "follow along and write notes" tasting menu they gave us was not in the order that we tried everything. Therefore, the cheeses on our plates were all arranged in the incorrect order. This made it really confusing to follow along.

So, alas- the class was more of a novelty. But, I will go back to Astor Center. I love what they're doing and I whole-heartedly support them.

Hmm... I guess my short blog experiment didn't go exactly according to plan...