This NY Life

The beer is still hanging out in the primary fermenter. I took a Specific Gravity reading of the beer (its called beer now because the yeast have done their thing) to measure the amount of fermentable sugar still remaining in the beer. I took a reading at the beginning of fermentation, I will take another one right before I bottle, subtract the two and divide by .00738 to determine the percentage of alcohol by volume. I started out with a reading of 1.062, checked it last week and it was about 1.022, I am looking for a final gravity of about 1.016. The beer I made should have a ABV% between 6 - 8%.I am awaiting an order of some supplies (autosiphon, tubing, etc) which should be here tomorrow and I believe I will transfer to my bottling bucket to get ready to bottle this weekend some time.

This years Big Apple BBQ Festival was another hit, there are some excellent re-caps of the 5th annual event, which is a benefit for Madison Square Park, on Gothamist and Off the Broiler (and here). We went both days and were lucky enough to have some pretty amazing weather. Some standouts for us were the baby back ribs from Rack & Soul here in NY, the Brunswick Stew by the Proclamation Stew Crew (made up of Hokie alums) and Southside Market’s sausage. All the the regulars were there too, including Big Bob Gibson from Decatur, AL and Mitchell’s from Wilson, NC. We were able to get to Mitchell’s booth early enough on Sunday to get some chopped pork and some ribs with incredible pork skin attached still. So good, looking forward to next year. For anyone who is interested, we have gone from the first year and have learned that a Bubba Fast Pass is essential as it going for two days, getting there right when it starts and just relaxing. Here are some pics: Big Apple BBQ Festival

I can’t recommend enough John from Cincinnati. Its an excellent new show on HBO by David Milch who did Deadwood, one of my favorite TV series ever. John from Cincinnati is certainly odd, but I am rolling with it to see where things go. The first episode is pretty much an introduction to the characters, then the second episode has an event in it that just smacks you in the face.

A few weeks back we went to Chicago for our anniversary, saw lots of buildings, ate a ridiculous amount of food including this meal.

Behold the chocolate chip/banana pancakes from the Original Pancake House. Always being written about as the best breakfast in Chicago, we noticed when we checked in that it was right across the street. Sunday morning we got there around 9:30 and there was a line of course, no big deal. Stood in line and endured stories from people from Massachusetts about how they bought their cottage and it came with a Land Rover and they got it for $1 because when the owner tried to start it, the key wouldn’t turn it over, blah blah blah… ugh. It almost made us lose our appetites, but we weren’t about to let some Kennedy wanna-be’s ruin our mid-west pancake experience.

The menu had all sorts of delicious delicacies such as the Apple Pancake, “Oven baked with fresh granny smith apples and pure Sinkiang glaze” or translated, imagine a hat covered in caramel glaze, then baked and turned out onto a 12″ dinner plate, now imagine the hat is made out of apples, and you’d be close. I looked up “Sinkiang” and other than referring to the original pancake house, most of the hits referred to a part of China. Another thing they had was a Dutch Baby which looks like a small loaf of bread hollowed out with a scoop of ice cream in the middle, when in actuality its a flaky powdered sugar covered shell with a scoop of some sort of lemony curd looking substance in the middle. The Apple Pancake actually looked good, but seemed a bit heavy. Cathy ordered the Pumpkin pancake seasonal special and I ordered the chocolate chip pancakes. As the waitress was walking away I said “Actually, can you combine two different pancakes?” Of course she said “Sure, hun.” So I give you the picture above, Chocolate Chip/Banana Pancakes from the Original Pancake house in Chicago.

Incidentally, the pancakes were excellent. They were light, fluffy, didn’t feel heavy at all, even considering the crazy toppings. Original Pancake House is a chain, and I don’t know if we would have gone if we were in a different city, but something about this location pulled us in. Also, yes, that is whipped cream in the dish on the plate.

Original Pancake House