Beef

Big chunks of beef chuck make this hearty beef stew the perfect solution to a cold winter day.

Waking up this morning I was greeted by a gleaming white wonderland outside. It had snowed nearly a foot overnight, and the city looked bright and shiny with it’s newly minted facade. Being a relative newbie to the whole concept of snow, I was excited to go romp around the neighborhood and decided to head out to the New Amsterdam Wintermarket, despite L’s wise urgings to the contrary.

Indeed, with 2 foot snow drifts, lakes of grey slush and snow plows jettisoning brake dust Slurpees off the FDR onto the unsuspecting pedestrians below, I was wholly unprepared for the perils I’d be facing when I left the apartment this afternoon. After being nearly impaled by a two foot long icicle coming off a building I walked past, and narrowly escaping the aforementioned frozen shower off the FDR, I made it to the outdoor Wintermarket; and what a glorious place it was.

Situated right under the FDR near South Street Seaport, this open-air market has run monthly for the past 3 months in an effort to raise money to find a permanent home for the market. Vendors are organized by breads, dairy, meats, produce and prepared food and you can get everything from a plate of shucked oysters, to foraged roots, to a cheese and duck confit hot pocket with cran-apple mostarda. Best of all, the vendors are friendly and cheap. Case in point, I bagged a whole side of hot smoked bluefish from Acme Smoked Fish for $10, and Fleisher’s Grass-fed & Organic Meats gave me a over a pound of pork belly for free! continue →

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