The journey to the best bagel of my life was a journey of precisely three miles. It started on the Upper East Side, near 2nd Avenue in the 70s, and ended close to Columbia University, on Broadway near 108th Street. I told myself that I could treat myself to a decked-out bagel if I walked all the way to Absolute Bagels, home of what Ed Levine once called “the best bagel in New York.”
Flipping through the pages of the new Serious Eats Book, I’m in total awe. It’s the kind of book that could only be written by a team of passionate, ambitious food folk–the kind of people who care very deeply about issues like “What’s the best pizza in the country?” (#1 on their list: Apizza Scholls in Portland, OR) or “What are the various regional burger styles?” (the list includes smashed burgers, steamed cheeseburgers, cheese-stuffed burgers, and so on). Led by the spirited Ed Levine, the Serious Eats team have assembled a book choc full of great advice on where to eat, how to eat and what to eat (including many brilliant recipes developed by the incomparable J. Kenji Lopez-Alt). Now TWO OF YOU lucky Amateur Gourmet readers are going to receive a free copy of the Serious Eats book. To win, simply put your name, location and favorite local haunt (a Serious Eats-worthy destination) in the comments with a one-sentence description that makes me hungry. Make sure to enter a valid e-mail address too so I can notify you if you win (I’ll post the winners here tomorrow morning in this same post). Good luck!
UPDATE: The contest is over! All of your submissions made me hungry, but the two that made me the hungriest were Angela Shepard’s (pork belly sandwich at Butcher in New Orleans) and Broderick’s (baked farm egg in a bath of celery cream at Miller-Union in Atlanta). Congrats to the winners.
The man, the myth, the legend, Ed Levine–creator of Serious Eats–stopped by my kitchen on Monday to chat with me all about his career; from his book “New York Eats,” to the TV show he hosted with Jeffery Steingarten (and a surprising moderator) to the creation of Serious Eats itself. We also talked about the big Serious Eats sandwich festival coming up on Governor’s Island on July 23rd. There’ll be sandwiches from Torrisi, Locanda Verde, Gramercy Tavern, Salumeria Biellese, Taim Mobile; plus our friends from the Big Gay Ice Cream truck will be there too. Oh and lots of booze. Tickets are $65 each (buy them here) but Ed generously agreed to give away TWO pairs of tickets to Amateur Gourmet readers. So: to win, write a recipe for your favorite sandwich in the comments (make sure to use a valid e-mail address). I’ll pick the two best sandwiches and those folks will each win a pair of tickets to the event. And I’ll be there too, so see you there!
