There must be something in the air -- temperatures dropping or the crisp winds of fall, perhaps -- but whatever it is, it has caused two of our favorite local artisanal picklers to launch tasty new products. First, Jon Orren at Wheelhouse has created the Ploughman's Pickle, his take on the Branston Pickle Relish that graces the traditional English Ploughman's lunch. His version contains the wort from Sixpoint Craft Ales' Brownstone Ale (wort is the......

Marian Burros has an article in the Times this week about the resurgence of buffalo as an alternative red meat. She calls it “steak without guilt,” as the meat is healthier than beef: loaded with iron, with less total fat, fewer calories and more of the good kinds of fatty acids. It’s also praised by chefs, environmentalists, and nutritionists, a rare concurrence. As with beef, it’s important be aware of what the animals are fed.......

Cold brewed coffee has been a summer iced coffee secret for those in the know for some time. While it is not mentioned in the article, certain blends work best for this method, try Porto Rico coffee to get the goods for this distinct approach to a summertime favorite. What's an 11 champagne lunch? Why would you even bother to ask -- just go! July has just started and local corn is here at the......

Looks like Rick's Ramps have made it into the Union Square Greenmarket, the frenzy commences...now. We raised some of our own in few EV community gardens, are hoping to harvest in a bit and use as an herb as opposed to the pile of it recently consumed as a veg accompaniment on the Duck dish at Telepan. Nina Lalli goes on a Sunset Park taco tour. Great photos here, we especially love the race track......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Carjacking at a carwash in Queens, a gas main break in Staten Island and two instances of a barricaded perp. The biggest problem with off-leash laws in parks? People that don't pick up their dog's shit. Off-leash or not, that's a problem all the time, no? Remember those disturbing details of the cop that was seduced while in Montessori school? Well, the cop says that it was 'cool' when......

The New York Sun has made a resolution to eat more steak. Not just any steak, mind you, but steak from "progressive beef," raised in a way that's healthier for you and for the environment. As we learned from reading The Omnivore's Dilemma, cows are not supposed to eat corn; they are ruminants, and as such, should be eating grass. Due to a glut of corn and government subsidies, we have taught our cows......

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to......

Police arrested 16 year old Francisco Baez for the murder of Taishawn Bellevue. Bellevue was killed during an shocking Wednesday afternoon brawl in the Union Square Greenmarket, where about 50 teens convened with belts, bats, bricks and more. The fight may have been prompted by some students feeling insulted by others, which then led to groups of students from nearby Washington Irving High School and Brooklyn's Science Skills High School to meet. Baez was picked......

The initial reports about an afternoon stabbing at the Union Square Greenmarket were just a small picture of what happened: A group of about 50 teenagers gathered, using bricks, knives, belts planks and more and attacked each other. Seventeen year old Taishawn Bellevue was fatally stabbed in the chest. Seventeen year old Glenwood Nobles was stabbed multiple times in the back and Carlos Tejada was hit on the head with a brick. Tejada was released......

- Restaurant Girl checks out the new Core 191, which she gives a 6.5: "With lofty ambitions, Core 191 doesn't seem to know who it wants to be, or rather tries to do it all, but perhaps shouldn't." - In case, like us, you weren't able to attend the Spain's 10 Summit, the blog reports are coming out, via Off the Broiler, and Foodite. Yes, we're jealous. - Augieland gives us his favorites of the......

For one week only we are re-titling to “What’s Lingering” due to the featured produce choice of corn. While the peak was a few weeks back, tons of local corn is still in the markets and much of it is delicious. As per usual, the best recommendation is to get it fresh from a farmer – please know that this time it is more crucial than most. Corn that is not one of the......

Here at What’s Fresh the goal is to throw the spotlight onto ingredients that are at peak ripeness right now in the short window that is their local New York metro area existence. Sure, you can get yourself plums during most times of the year from somewhere in the world, or asparagus year-round as the sourcing moves from California to Mexico and finally to Peru just before it comes up fresh for us again in......

More stone fruit abound this week at most farmers markets in the NYC metro area. Over at the Union Square Greenmarket, Locust Grove Farm had a wide variety of plums available with even more slated to come to market this week. While driving back from a Sunday farm visit, our friend Kate talked the car through her favorite plum recipe when the conversation came up. Simple, satisfying and always successful - here it is......

Bruni hits Jean Georges' "fringe players," Mercer Kitchen and Vong. Between the two, Vong emerges victorious with one star: "you keep wondering if the food they deliver is really as it should be and all that it could be, if the restaurant is receiving Mr. Vongerichten’s most considered judgments . . ." while Mercer Kitchen rates a mere "satisfactory": Bruni calls their menu an "ethnically indistinct assortment of dishes with enough pro forma salads and......

With this week's stifling hot weather it seems appropriate to cover the lightest of all foods – lettuce. Last Saturday up at Union Square Greenmarket, Gorzynski Organic Farm had an extremely wide variety of lettuce available. Gothamist usually just leaves it up to John or Sue to pick a nice selection for us; they really have the handle on what is eating well and what goes best with what. Alternatively, you can tear off a......

Ah, the imperfect glory of colorful, divisive beets - so despised by some yet deemed utterly delicious by others. Few foods have such ardent fans and eaters willing to express their distain. In which camp do you sit? If you are the latter and it is based on an earlier canned experience, we now implore you to give them another try. For us it is an easy choice. This time of the year they......

The City's Greenmarkets turn 30 this week. They've become such an integral part of our culinary landscape, with 45 locations across all five boroughs, that it's hard to imagine that there was a time we didn't have ready access to ramps, heirloom tomatoes, and locally grown berries (and neither did our chefs). According to New York Mag, the Greenmarkets were set up as a way to preserve farmland by lowering the costs involved in......

Here is the odd thing -- our first piece of advice within this edition of What’s Fresh is to buy frozen – they have come a long way. While fresh shelling peas are in the market right now, they can be a very dicey proposition. The moment peas come off the vine, their tender sweetness begins to convert to starch with alarming rapidity. Peas from far away (California for instance) are clearly most affected by......

Now that the spring has given way to summer, grass is getting long everywhere - much to the chagrin of teenagers whose parents want to know if they have mowed the lawn yet. What this means for the eaters here in NYC is that chickens born in early spring are just getting up to their market weight (3 ½ - 4 ½ pounds) while feasting on flavor-enhancing grass. People can talk at length about......

Asparagus -- where to start? It does not resemble any other food we eat, leaves a stink in our toilet bowls like none other, and often confuses buyers with its fat or thin conundrum. Yet despite all the easy attachable locker room humor that’s readily available, it has been beloved all world over for a very long time now. Some quick information: Looks – we eat the shoot of the plant, and its phallic......

This is the first in a weekly column exploring what is fresh in the city’s markets. For the next few months you can expect the focus to be on the various Greenmarkets around town. Who knows what will happen when the dark days of storage root vegetables arrive. For some people the emergence of cherry blossoms or planning Easter festivities signal the beginning of spring, for Gothamist Ramps serve as our harbinger. Little known......

One of Gothamist's favorite spots for wandering, grabbing a healthy snack, or just people-watching is at the Union Square Farmers' Market, open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays year round, rain or shine. It's prime apple and pear seasons and brussel sprouts have found their way to many growers' tables. You can find woodfired bread, fresh seafood and eggs, challah bread and baguettes, pickles, honey, jams, pies, and even poultry -- delicious ways to test......

through October 29: Aureole Fights Breast Cancer Aureole is participating in the Madison Avenue Pink Ribbon Project, which will donate funds to three of the country’s leading breast cancer research and treatment facilities. Through October 29th, Aureole will donate 10 percent of sales from their special menus to the project, benefiting Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. Chef Dante Boccuzzi’s special menu features foods with health benefits: seared......

The first thing that Rick Field of Rick's Picks did when we met him at the Union Square Greenmarket one morning was put us in charge of his stall. So while he ran off to take care of non-pickle related business, we stood in his shoes for a few minutes. Friendly passers-by stopped to ask about the different varieties. "Are these spicy?" Taking a quick glance at the ingredient list for the jar of Rick's......

You may remember the "pickle guy" from Crossing Delancey -- a nice, somewhat nebbishy guy, picked out for the protagonist by an old-school Jewish matchmaker, hired by her grandmother. Well, the pickle man has been revamped, revised, and reincarnated, this time in the form of Rick Field. Rick, profiled in the New York Times, is also single, and could perhaps benefit from a little matchmaking himself: Mr. Field is a 41-year-old bachelor with a head......

Gothamist is always in the market for a new cookbook, especially with Thanksgiving just around the corner. Here are a few suggestions that might inspire you to try a new recipe and impress your holiday guests later this week. Jamie Oliver, also known from his early TV series as The Naked Chef, has released his fifth book, Jamie’s Dinners. With an emphasis on family cooking, fast cooking, and fun cooking, his latest book is littered......

While most New Yorkers know and love the Union Square Greenmarket, which has been a downtown fixture for the past 34 years, not everyone knows that there are plenty of other Greenmarkets throughout the five boroughs of New York. Some are open year-round, while others close for the winter. Gothamist recently got a chance to visit the Borough Hall Greenmarket which is in downtown Brooklyn, right by the courthouse. For residents of Brooklyn Heights, Fort......

When reading Amanda Hesser's article about the intrigue at the Greenmarket, it confirmed everything Gothamist loves about New York: Power struggles happen even where there are nice Amish farmers selling pretzels and cheese or granola-y types selling wheatgrass and Fuji apples. As much as we love the greenmarkets all over the city, reading about the infighting was a little disheartening though expected. As was the news that New York's greenmarkets look like a shabby (though......

Hurricaine Isabel forced the Harvest in the Square Event to be rescheduled tonight. In its eighth year, Harvest in the Square brings Union Square area chefs to offer tastings of food prepared from Union Square Greenmarket Farmers Market, accompanied by Long Island and other New York Wines. Tickets are $90 in person (cash only), $75 in advance, and will benefit the Union Square Local Development Corporation, which is currently looking to enhance the North Plaza......