Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls of Meat

My new gastronomic obsession...

Is there anything more primal, more manly, than giant balls of meat? And now there's a restaurant on the Lower East Side that sells only that: lots and lots of meatballs. Not only is their food amazing, but they're really good at naming things. The restaurant's name for instance - The Meatball Shop. No ambiguity there. Though they have a lot more than just your mother's meatballs. Take a look at the menu below:

You can get SO many things with your meatballs. Who doesn't love polenta, especially when it's freshly milled? And for all you brioche-heads out there, I personally think that's their best sandwich. I get my veggie meatballs on the brioche with pesto and some provolone. Delicious. And just when you think the fun is over, then there's dessert! They make their own ice cream sandwiches by hand. First you pick your cookie (or brownie) and then you pick you flavor of homemade ice cream. I got a brownie sandwich with mint ice cream. They even use real mint! You can see and taste the leaves in the ice cream. No artificial flavoring here!

The best part is how affordable the whole thing is. Now I just have to figure out how much I need to work out so that I can keep going back on a regular basis!


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Meat-balled" Yazge

Sasquatch Discovers Art

A canvas waiting to be color-penciled.

There comes a time in every little Sasquatch's life when hunting and gathering no longer brings fulfillment. It no longer matters how many deer he can kill or where he can find the best berries in all the land. No, he needs something more. Something, perhaps, that will allow him to express himself and fill that empty hole that no amount of raw meat can satiate. This one thing is coloring books.

When I was out wandering on Sunday with Jamie, we decided that coloring books were necessary. Surprisingly, Barnes & Noble didn't have that great of a selection. We couldn't find Disney characters, or Smurfs, not even Sesame Street. It was a bunch of random coloring books, most of which involved some type of math. Who wants that?! I did stumble across a gem though: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carlisle. It was a copy of book, but none of the illustrations had been colored in. This was a chic coloring book. And you know, sometimes Sasquatch likes being chic. The best part is that I no longer have to compromise coloring and food, because now I'm coloring a book about food. That's really the best kind of coloring. I plan to work my way through the first two seasons of Mad Men while coloring my way through every last page. Don't ask me why, but the two just seem to be activities that should be done in tandem.


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "The Very Hungry" Yazge

Sasquatch Visits the Garden

The Brooklyn BEER Garden!

Sticking with our Tribal theme for the week, I thought it'd be good to get back to nature. And what better place to do that than a garden... full of beer. Do you see the trees in the picture? It's practically a forest in there. And don't forget that those benches used to be trees too. Just because they're dead trees, doesn't make them any less a part of nature.

So, tonight I'm headed to the Brooklyn Beer Garden. I've been there once before, to watch the US/England World Cup match. It's a pretty happenin' place, not to mention that it's in the middle of a very Eastern European part of Williamsburg. As if I needed any more of a blessing to go to the garden, there's a huge Orthodox church right down the street complete with onion domes. While my night is more likely to include onion rings, I still think that somewhere up there, my grandfathers are smiling down at me, proud that I'm connecting with my inner beer-drinking roots. I'll toast a pint of lager to you guys! Pofta Buna!!!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Garden Guy" Yazge

Awaken Your Tribal Spirit

Why was I only around for 2 years of the 80's? WHY!?

So it was a lazy night last night, and I decided to stay in and watch a movie. It was really difficult to find a movie that fit the funky mood I was in. Eventually I settled on a gem called "The Hangover." (Oddly appropriate considering my Friday night activities.) That movie will never stop being funny to me, mainly because I see a lot of me and my friends in it. And it appeals to my inner tribal-being. His name is Sasquatch Minnetonka. That loosely translates to hairy, big-footed, culturally-unlearned one. He tall. He strong. He look like always wear sweater. He dance long time to Iko Iko.

I also took plenty of notes, so that my Sasquatch "family" and I will know what to do on our epic post-graduation trip to Vegas. So far I've added the following things to our to-do list:

1. Rooftop toast
2. Trip to emergency room
3. Marry a stripper
4. Steal a tiger from a former heavy-weight boxing champion
5. Kidnap an Asian mobster
6. Leave one of our friends (probably Eller) on the roof of a hotel for 24+ hours
7. Win $80,000 at a blackjack table
8. Go home with an epic story we only half-remember

So thanks to my rediscovered love for all things tribal/Vegas-adjacent, I've dedicated this week to building a deeper connection to my inner Sasquatch. Yesterday it started with watching "The Hangover", which is where I was reminded how much I love the song "Iko Iko". That video wasn't totally non-sequitur. But did you see the awesome wardrobe up in that piece? Ugh... If only I would have been older in the 80's. I TOTALLY would have rocked that look/learned those crazy dance moves. Some people have all the luck...

Ciao Bella!

-Matteo 

Things that are delicious...

It was love at first bite.

I haven't actually tried a bite of it yet, but I made flan last night. This is the same flan I mentioned a few days ago, the celebratory flan for Spain's win and my winning of the pool. I'm not going to lie; caramel makes me nervous. I've never seen it made, so I wasn't sure if it was going right? I kept adding more water, or more sugar, which I don't think you're supposed to do. With my luck, there is a huge layer of burnt sugar at the bottom of this pan. Whatever. While I promised the people at work a flan, I never said anything about it being edible.

Something that I made last night that I both tried and was fantastic was a shitake squid risotto. Three of my favorite things all wrapped into one. Well, more than three. Shitake mushrooms, squid, rice, Argentine wine, cheese, etc. Leftovers may be the best part of that experiment. Too bad I don't measure things or write down proportions. Odds are I'll never be able to replicate it. So for a limited time only, hunt me down at my office and you can try some. (While supplies last).

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Flanmeister" Yazge

Happy Bastille Day!!!

Celebrating the above-pictured delusional "battle", so that one day Paris could have the below-pictured beautiful monument and opera house.

HAPPY BASTILLE DAY EVERYONE! I woke up this morning, and didn't realize it was Bastille Day until I saw all the French majors' Facebook statuses. Leave it to me to forget a day that commemorates a bunch of drunken Frenchmen storming a prison in an attempt to free what they believed to be hundreds of political prisoners, only to find there were six petty thieves and a lot of empty cells. It's like I'm doing this every other week.

But I personally believe that Bastille Day is much more that celebrating a misguided sense of French nationalism and liberty. It's also about celebrating a misguided sense of all things French, much in the way St. Patrick's Day does the same thing for the Irish. It's about everyone coming together over a bottle of red wine, cracking open a baguette, sniffing some brie, smoking inside and then blowing it in someone's face. It's about sitting and drinking coffee in a smokey jazz bar, listening to covers of Edith Piaf. It's about sitting in judgement of other people, later asking those same people for help when you have an angry-looking Prusisan, Englishman, or German at your door. It's all of these things and so much more. I've highlighted some examples of what you should aim for on this very exciting Bastille Day:

Option 1: The Catherine Deneuve
This gorgeous French film actress who rose to fame in the 60's is still alive and kicking (and in my opinion, hotter than ever). Do you see how she is both smoking a cigarette with a sexy look AND making you feel like you're less than her? That takes skill, my friends. Go for this look if you are over the age of 45, enjoy trench coats, or want to have a longstanding career of sexually ambiguous character roles.

Option 2: Zinedine Zidane
Famed soccer player who literally went out with a bang four years ago at the World Cup Final when he head-butted an Italian player. He combines the right amount of athleticism, weird European man-fashion, and general confusion on how to properly engage in public/on international television. Go for this look if you are guy, a bald woman, or take pride in overshadowing all the good you've done in your career with one ill-timed decision.

Option 3: Pepe Le Pew
One of my personal favorites, the Looney Toons character with a little bit of stank on him. He dresses in all grey-tones,  is kind of greasy, and enjoys chasing after women-skunks and/or cats that don't really want him. He is for all intents and purposes, the perfect Frenchman. Go for this look... always.


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Frenchy" Yazge

Los Campeones

Look ma! No hands!

Spain winning the World Cup makes me happy for a lot of reasons. Reason 1: I just generally really want them to win. Who wouldn't? Reason 2: it means I won the pool at my office. Hello nice new $ in my pocket; it's so nice to finally meet you. I promise to take moderately good care of you before giving you away for something I like more.

Reason 3: this before and after picture set of Xavi Alonso. Getting karate kicked in the chest is just hunky dory when you get a World Cup victory afterwards.

Reason 4: it means that Paul the Octopus really does have super powers...

Reason 5: It means I can celebrate with flan. Lots and lots of flan. Look how happy Shakira is! It's because she loves the flan too...

I could write more, but I feel if I don't get dressed and ready for work soon, I may not ever make it there.  Hasta mañana (tal vez...)

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Wants to be friends with Paul the Octopus" Yazge

Vamos a la Final!

Pique's got that stupid grin because we're going to the final, duh!

I don't have much time to post today, but I did want to say: HAHA! SPAIN WON! Yes, what I wanted to say purposely included a large "haha" at the beginning. In order to pronounce it properly, think less of the noise you make when something's funny, and more a victorious exhale... With your fist raised in the air. Like a conquistador! Doesn't Pique look like a conquistador in that picture I posted above? No? Well, at the very least he looks like the troubled child the conquistador's took on the ship to mop the poop deck.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "El Conquistador" Yazge

The Truffle Shuffle

It has given me a riso to live... 

I have two words for you: truffle oil. Yesterday after work I met up with Jamie, my partner in crime from my time in Italy, and just life in general. We ended up going to Risotteria on Bleecker St. I had never been before, but I have a feeling I'll be back early and often. Why wouldn't you go back when you could get Porcini and White Truffle Oil Risotto? 

Now, I'm going to be honest. I did't entirely know what a truffle is. I knew that they use pigs to hunt them down in the woods, and according to someone on the Food Network, apparently they've started using dogs to hunt them too. Mainly because the pigs eat them once they find them. But who could blame a pig for doing that? I'd do it. Does that make me a pig? Don't answer that. So anyway, I did a quick wikipedia search on truffles and apparently they're a "fungal fruiting body." The accompanying photos didn't make truffles look particularly appetizing, so instead I've pictured toddler-sized mushrooms running running through the forrest with fruit growing off their bodies, trying to escape a herd of swine. 

If that visual wasn't enough to convince you should be eating things with truffle oil, try this video on for size. I'd do this if it meant I'd get truffle oil at every meal:

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Truffle Shuffle" Yazge

Gertrude Loves Katy

My latest guilty pleasure...

So I've decided that there's some sort of 13-year-old girl living inside of me that, when deprived of horrible pop music, gets very anxious and starts to act out. She throws tantrums, makes me go see Twilight movies with my sister, and on more than one occasion has made me consider what bangs would look like. I've named her Gertrude. The name seems to go with her less-than-desirable personality. So, Gertrude's latest act of rebellion has been Katy Perry's "Caliornia Girls". If you'd asked me a month ago if I liked this song, I would have thrown my drink in your face and challenged you to a duel to defend my honor as a man and an intellectual. Now, sadly, I would only start dancing up and down and ask if you had any candy. 

Enjoy the video. Please get addicted so I'm not the only one... Gertrude needs some friends. (She's not the best at making them on her own)

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Gertrude" Yazge