Ed Mitchell, pitmaster and owner of The Pit in Raleigh, North Carolina
St. Louis-style ribs with pickled okra, courtesy of Blue Smoke
For additional coverage and loads of pictures, please be sure to check out Off The Broiler.
If you’re a vegetarian, you’ll probably want to skip this post. 
Garry Ubon, pitmaster and owner of Ubon’s in Yazoo, Mississippi
John Marcus of Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q
Click here for more information for the Big Apple BBQ Block Party 2008.
Chilled nettles soup with asparagus and pickled ramps
2007 Txakoli Getariako, Txomin Etxaniz, Basque, Spain
Seared scallop with spring minestrone (green garlic, cippolini onion, fava beans)
Sable, potato and leek puree, potato “croutons”, American paddlefish caviar
Veal, braised pork belly, roasted Adirondack blue potatoes, baby turnips
2001 Ramirez de la Piscina Rioja, Rioja, Spain
Vanilla chantilly cream, shortcake, whipped cream, rhubarb and strawberry puree
Roasted almond sorbet, caramel citrus tart, candied orange, meringue tuille
Mignardises
Gramercy Tavern is located at 18 East 20th Street (Park Avenue South) in the Flatiron district of Manhattan.
It was great when it first opened. It’s even better now.
I went to an art fair held last night in Upper East Side. It’s not every day Spamwise goes to one of these things, especially since most of the people attending were probably millionaires. I felt like a fish out of water and got out of there after spending an hour looking at stuff.
Some pix for your viewing pleasure.
Detail of the Mao “painting”
Linguine primavera
Tonight’s dinner is dedicated to this year’s GBNYC. Linguine with asparagus and ramps sauteed in unsalted butter and garnished with chive blossoms and shaved Parmesan. A perfect ending to a perfect weekend.
A lovely day in Central Park atop Bear Hill….
Scott and Little David look on while Eric demonstrates the fine art of getting your hands tied up. =P
RJ Keefe is in the background
Eddie, Aaron and Homer in rapt fascination
The famous JMG
Eric REALLY is a bondage master in disguise, isn’t he?
Father Tony holds court along with a deep-fried oreo cookie
Cheese empanada
Angel food cake, caramel icing, slivered almonds
Tony and your host, Spamwise
Mark from Oregon
Left to right: RG, Roger (Mark’s partner) and EG
No entry at Chez Spamwise is complete without the requisite food porn.
Clockwise from top: lambchops with sweet peas and mint; stewed tripe with chickpeas; sweetbreads with fennel
Duck with cardoons and capers
Sugar snap peas with marconas
El Padrecito of the Farmboyz
Cheese plate with quince jelly
Crema catalana with bunelos (deep fried bay leaves)
Click here to view a writeup on Casa Mono from September 2007.
Unfortunately, tonight’s pix at HK Lounge didn’t turn out so well, due in part to excessive use of flash and the poor lighting conditions. Once people upload pix to their blogs, I’ll include links to their posts. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: Little David has some neat pix of Friday evening’s shindig. Go here to view them.
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers. — T.S. Eliot, from The Waste Land
Left: Loose beets. Background: Red cippolini onions, gold cippolini onions and shallots.
Japanese turnips.
GBNYC5 will be held in less than three weeks.
Last year I went to the meet-and-greet at Therapy. I had a nice time, or as nice as can be in a place that didn’t lend itself well to conversation. I’m generally not a fan of venues where the only way you can make yourself heard is by raising your voice. The things we do to be social.
I don’t recall what happened the rest of that weekend, except that I missed out on Bear Hill. Bad. Very bad. And what a hot gathering of bears and hobbits that was.
So I plan on attending some of the events this year. Not sure if I can muster enough courage to go to the Eagle or the Dugout. I’m not butch enough for the former and too skinny for the latter. Though I wonder what the hot leather Daddies at the Eagle would say if they knew that I was involved in a bondage demo at a GMSMA-related event a couple years ago.
This time, things are going to be slightly different. It appears I’ve met someone…and we’ve been talking for a few months now. And in less than three weeks I’ll have met him in the flesh for the first time. He’s given me a few signals that I’m not sure what to do with. I don’t have any expectations other than seeing how everything plays out. After all, the destination isn’t as important as much as the journey.
