Finally, a girls’ night out! To combat the culinary and turntabular testosterone we’d racked up in recent months, last Tuesday was all about the females, with DJ Seraphim and chef Kelly Geary taking over the club. As it turned out, the night was an L-word in more ways than one: we not only hyped the ladies, but also an impressive variety of locally produced foods. Jerlayn’s old college buddy Anne Saxelby was first up with amazing American cheeses from her namesake boutique in Essex Market; we can’t really remember the names of any of these obscure beauties, thanks to drinking three glasses of wine before dinner, but we liked it when she described the squishiest one as "if brie and ice cream had a baby." Next, Kelly took the reins with a delightful salad of organic heirloom tomatoes topped with ricotta and basil. Passing the time before the entree, we stopped to take a shot of apple-cider vodka from upstate distillery Heart of the Hudson (which may have been an ingenious or disastrous decision given our relatively empty stomachs… hard to say). Finally, we got down to business with New Orleans-style prawns, served with sautéed okra and plenty of grilled bread for sopping up the sauce, then followed with vanilla ice cream topped by blueberry-lemon sauce.
Throughout, Seraphim pimped a local flavor of a different sort, bring her San Francisco brand of electro-heavy bangers to our opposite coast. "This is the best first New York gig I could’ve had!" said she, waggling her wine glass for a refill. Big ups to Sarah for caning Anna’s favorite track of the season, the dirty-ass Boys Noize remix of Feist’s "My Moon My Man"—now that’s some girl power. For a full recap, hit photos and the mix here.
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Detroit has been the birthplace of a lot of things over the years: Ford cars, Coney dogs, techno. (Don’t act like you don’t know what a Coney dog is—a hot dog smothered in meat-chili sauce? Oy!) For those of us who couldn’t make it to this year’s DEMF to sample such fineries, the Chowdown brought Detroit back to New York for just one night. Last Tuesday, Episode 13 saw two boys from Michigan rock out in the big city, with Sam Valenti IV of Ghostly International DJing to the taste of chef Paul Nanni’s upscale renditions of comfort foods from the Heartland. 
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen—unless, of course, you’re at the Chowdown Episode 12, in which case, just get out the ice cubes and sweat it out. New York was in the midst of a crazy heat wave on Tuesday, which meant that, despite cranking the ACs to full blast, the interior of APT was definitely on the sweltering side. Luckily, the sultry air channeled our steamy Southern theme perfectly, as Brooklyn institutions 
What a night. It started off innocently enough—Brandon dished up an amuse bouche (bite-sized) of coriander-crusted bay scallop and sweet carrot coulis on a brussel sprout leaf, while Max kicked off his set with some French downtempo tracks. Next up was a refreshing trio of salade, followed by a light and fluffy pot pie la turquie. Brandon’s main course was a filet of striped bass on a crispy potato cake, dressed-to-impress with three types of sauces. By the time dessert was ready to be served, we topped everyone off with a shot of Calvados and Max cranked up the tempo a notch or two. In the true spirit of the ‘down, episode 11 went from fancy French fare to some full-on dance-party-USA silliness. 
We brought the heat—literally—for our second time out at 
Thanks to all who came out for our very first NYC Chowdown. The food/music was amazing, we had a blast, and this is only the beginning! Download the latest episode for some dubbed-out spacey disco by Brennan Green and random ramblings by us truly. Extra points to our host Joe Encarnacion for gracing us with some karaoke singing as he threw Bel Biv Devoe’s “Poison” into the mix. Good lord, did we get that on tape?
