I have two more years left in New York City before and want you to help me put together my NYC bucket list. What are the essential dining experiences in the city—that is, where/what should I make SURE I’ve had before I leave town?

It’s almost an impossible task to categorize and then tackle every quintessential New York experience—but that hasn’t stopped me from trying. (I did this when I was prepping to leave Chicago after grad school ten years ago, too. Restrict yourself to a student budget for an extra challenge!)

What follows is a highly subjective, ever-evolving list of moments and meals that remain indelibly classic from my incessant trawling over the past decade. It’s a mix of high and low and more than enough to get you started for the next two years.

The rundown is tres Manhattan-centric because that’s been the bulk of my experience, but each venue tries to recapture the exhilarating soaring wash of realization that makes you want to stand on a street corner and yell, “New York is the greatest city in the world!”
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I was planning on making one of the Barefoot Contessa’s recipes the other night when I noticed she called for 3 extra large eggs instead of 3 large eggs. I didn’t have any extra large on hand—what is the difference and should I be buying two sizes of eggs for my recipes?

The short version is no, you shouldn’t be bothered with keeping two different sizes of eggs in your fridge unless you’re a baking maniac or a rabid Ina Garten fan. Large eggs are the baking standard, measuring about 2 oz. by weight. Extra large eggs weigh in at 2.25 oz. by comparison.

Barely anyone but the Barefoot Contessa (who apparently has a major jones for the XL size; I have cooked probably one of her recipes in my lifetime, so I trust you readers to back me up on this) specifically calls for extra large eggs in their recipes.

Pastry geniuses Dorie Greenspan, Gale Gand, Johnny Iuzzini, and the incomparable David Lebovitz all specify the large size in their recipes, as David explained to me, “In restaurants, large eggs are the norm (at least where I’ve worked), so many recipes tend toward large eggs.”
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I’m hosting a cocktail party and although it’s a potluck, I need to have a few things ready to go when I run in the door before my guests arrive. Do you have any suggestions for snacks I can make in advance—even a few nights before?

We all know I love to go retro around these parts, so may I recommend a nice bowl of nuts?

I don’t mean ripping open one of those vacuum-sealed Planters cans with the unwieldy Brazil nuts hanging out in them (wasn’t I just having a conversation about how much I hate the Brazil nut in the mix? It’s so large and galumphy, taking up all that space and being oily). I mean a custom mix, with bright flavors and unexpected spices that pair up beautifully with aperitifs.

Below are two of my party favorites for spicy Thai cashews and smoky-sweet almonds, both of which can be made in 15 minutes and saved in a Tupperware for at least a week (if you can hold off on eating them that long). I love the contrast of the cashew’s creamy texture with the tangy Thai seasonings, and the deeper crispiness of the almond with its smoky, warm salt and pepper components. These would just hit it out of the park with a sparkling white wine; try something unexpected and refreshing like a Vinho Verde or Txakoli for your pre-dinner cocktails.

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Do you have any tips on effective straining? I’m trying to make my own baby food, which requires straining pureed peas to get out the skins. The recipe calls for cheesecloth, but I’ve been rubbing the peas into a fine-mesh strainer with a spatula, and it gets the job done. However, I’d love to hear any tips on straining food better, faster, and with less mess and drama (if that’s even possible), advice on using cheesecloth without going insane, and when you’d pick cheesecloth over a fine-mesh strainer.

Oh god, straining. It is awful, and also a good question to answer. (Tip: never read the Thomas Keller cookbooks if you have a fear of this kitchen technique.) There are a number of tools that you can use with varying degrees of splatter potential, but let’s tackle your cheesecloth query first.

Which is to say, don’t bother with it for your baby food recipes! Cheesecloth is a big pain for anything except making cheese or other related endeavors where you’re separating something extremely liquidy from something extremely solid. For thicker, more homogenous purees like the vegetable mixture you’re working with, the fine-mesh strainer method you’ve been using is a far better option. Through a lot of squeezing and squishing, you’ll eventually push the strained food sans skins through the cheesecloth, but with a lot of unnecessary effort.

making smooth sauce is a much easier task with a food mill

food mill

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I’m going to sound like a snot, but my honest answer is that I’ve had nothing but positive experiences with All-Clad, and when you buy these (admittedly expensive) pieces, you’re making an investment that will last you a lifetime.

Stainless steel is so wonderfully low-maintenance once you start cooking with it. These days, the only things I use my nonstick pan for are eggs and delicate seafood like scallops. You can sear your meat on the stovetop and put the pan right in the oven, which you can’t do with nonstick, and any stubborn bits can be scrubbed right off with Bar Keepers Friend.

And for the price-conscious, you don’t need to worry about the copper core, Master Chef, LTD, or any of the “special” versions. The plain old All-Clad stainless, which sandwiches a layer of aluminum between two layers of stainless steel, does an unparalleled job of heating evenly and works on those newfangled induction cooktops too. Oh, and they’re 100 percent dishwasher safe.

Don’t run out and buy the 10-piece sets—because you are making such a big outlay of cash, it’s better to buy a la carte with the pieces you’ll use most often rather than ending up with Russian nesting dolls of seldom-used pieces gathering dust in your cupboard. Time and again, I turn to the following:
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I’m glad you’re inspired to take on new challenges, and that you’re paying attention to recipes. Salted butter exists for the same reason that other mouthwatering ingredients like ham, beef jerky, gravlax, and cheese do—salting is a time-tested method of culinary preservation.

These days, with omnipresent refrigeration, there’s less of a need to worry about whether you, Ma, and Pa will have enough dairy products to make it through the winter on the prairie. However, because modern salted butter will still keep longer than its unsalted counterpart, even the generic unsalted butter at the grocery store will be fresher than the salted version.
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You’re absolutely right—you’re never going to get the same poultry-infused goodness from a can or a box as you do from making your own broth, and it’s truly hard to make a case for store-bought versions. I taste-tested a number of off-the-shelf options as research for your questions, and the depressing answer is that I can’t wholeheartedly recommend a single prepared broth that tastes amazing. There are, however, two brands that I keep in my pantry for quick fixes.

Out of all the readily-available boxed broths, I give my seal of approval to the Whole Foods 365 house brand, which lists “organic chicken concentrate” as the second ingredient and “organic spices” at the tail end, but trends closer than the rest to an authentic broth flavor. It’s also cheaper than my other preferred option, Kitchen Basics Chicken Stock, which also lists “chicken flavor” as the second ingredient but notes all the specific spices involved.

Both of these impart a clean taste without some of the lingering oniony overtones, sodium overload, or even worse, absolute lack of flavor in the boxes and cans cluttering the local supermarket aisles.

You’ll never catch me using them as a base for chicken soup—that’s the time to buy the whole chicken and throw it in the stockpot—but I’ll use them in place of water for cooking rice and grains, add some in place of the full amount of cream to my mashed potatoes and sauces, or quickly deglaze a pan if I don’t have any wine open.

A few words about the additives you mentioned: As I noted in an earlier post on umami, glutamates/glutamic acid are found in all proteins, and are what give salty foods their deeply savory flavor. Manufacturers will often add these in various processed forms to boost your impression of their product as “rich” and as such, it’s hard to find an option that has a naturally brothy taste without going overboard.

Autolyzed yeast extract and hydrolyzed soy protein, both of which are in the vegetarian option Better than Bouillon, are types of processed glutamic acid to help it mimic the mouthfeel and flavor of an animal protein-based broth. And as glutamic acid is the main component in MSG, it’s something to be aware of if you have sensitivity. Livestrong (surprisingly) has a clear, easy-to-understand breakdown of the process used to autolyze yeast and the ongoing controversy between naturally-occurring glutamates versus processed glutamates.

Ask Casey taste-tests it all so you don’t have to. Got any more cooking conundrums or dining-out issues? Bring it on at caseyATgoodfoodstoriesDOTcom.

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The East Village is one of the best areas for dining in Manhattan—you can wander any of the Avenues and find at least one satisfying place to eat on each block. But since you’ve restricted it to the northern end, I can narrow it down to a few parent-pleasing options around 12th St.

The meat-and-potatoes crowd will feel very comfortable at Back Forty (190 Avenue B at 12th St.). It’s an ingredient-driven “haute barnyard” menu—basics like roast chicken and vegetables, grilled trout, and the house burger—prepared unfussily. If any member of your group wants to splurge on a house cocktail, I highly recommend you try one or two of the seasonal selections. My friend Lisa’s favorite, the strawberry-based The Red and the Black, only comes around in the summer when the berries are in the greenmarkets, but you can try it at your leisure with her recipe.
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January always seems like “soup month” to me—after the holiday excesses and the onset of prolonged cold and/or stormy weather, simple soup suppers have an appeal. I have lots of old recipes that I fall back on, but perhaps you can suggest some new ones with or without accompaniments (other than the trusty loaf of French bread)?

I’m not exactly sure how appealing a creamy soup will sound to you after “holiday excesses,” but for me, when the weather gets this cold, one soup stands above the rest: corn chowder. And apparently I’m not alone in my affection for the rib-sticking meal—like Top Chef contestant Kevin Gillespie’s beard, the chowda even has its own Facebook page.

oh, NYC bodegas-how I love you and your informative signs

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My friends and I do a food-related Secret Santa every year and this year we’ve been assigned tastes. I got what I consider to be the hardest of all—umami. I know that umami is savory and earthy, but what kind of a gift can I give for that? It doesn’t have to be literal, so I could get something food-related or loosely interpret the taste into some other kind of gift (easier for sweet or sour, I guess). Do you have any ideas?

A quick primer for the unitiated: known as the “fifth taste,” umami is actually the presence of the amino acid glutamate in a dish, and is found in foods with a rich and savory mouthfeel: meats, mushrooms, anchovies, fermented things like soy sauce or fish sauce, rich broths and stocks, and aged cheese (those little crystallized bits in your Gruyere are actually amino acids!).

Though it occurs naturally, the food industry has been using the processed version, monosodium glutamate (yeah, that’s MSG) to up that luxurious, full flavor in your foods or the last century. Happy 100th anniversary, Chinese takeout headache!

chicken liver, bacon, and farro from A Voce - an umami spectacular!

Looking for something larger than a gift card? Pack a basket for a trip through the umami-packed Mediterranean with cheeses like an authentic Parmigiano Reggiano or an Istara, a tin of luxurious anchovies, a jar of sun-dried tomatoes, and some jamon serrano. I’m getting thirsty just thinking about it.

Finally—and how close are you to this friend, exactly?—depending on the Secret Santa budget, you could also splurge on one intense truffle or a chunk of foie gras. And then invite yourself over for dinner.

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