grateful for gratin.
7 January 2006 | maura dot com | 3 Comments
not counting marathon playoff shifts and the whole ‘if it’s fall, it must be beer’ maxim that seems to rule my octobers and novembers, one of the main factors contributing to my general increase in body mass (10 lbs! in two months! and that was before thanksgiving!) was the fact that my work neighborhood has become new york city’s vortex for macaroni and cheese — amazing, really, when you think about the fact that it’s chiefly populated by skinny minnie bitchistas and the men who bankroll them after chelsea market closes up shop. propelled in part by this ironic fact, i made it my life’s purpose to figure out which one was the best, even going so far as to make my own and deduce just what process went into creating the amazingness.
so. for the record, the top 3 (ok, the only 3, really, but i’m calling this area a vortex because all three are located within two blocks of one another):
1. diner 24. with a dusting of brioche bread crumbs and a perfectly calibrated cheese blend, diner 24’s mac and cheese could be this decade’s definition of comfort food — and it’s even better if you pair it with a glass of red wine. this m&c was the only one that i could imagine bringing home — no doubt it’d taste better on the second day.
2. the green table. i was actually expecting to like this a lot more, given that the cleaver company’s chelsea market lair is one of my favorite quick-bite spots in the city. but alas, it was not to be: the portion was teeny and a little bit cold, and the cheese taste was barely there — so much so that the breadcrumbs nearly overpowered it. the salad was fine, though. (also: the fact that they’ve cut back the wine by the glass selections from all the wines offered to just two or three was a bit of a shock, one that definitely tempered my enjoyment of the dish.)
3. the diner. perhaps it was the late hour, but then again, i doubt i was hallucinating the powdery mouthfeel of the cheese (or is it cheez?) in this mac. yuck — bring back nick’s city kitchen. extra points off for the girlfight that broke out outside, which at one point burst through the diner’s schmancy open-air doors in such a way that it nearly resulted in me stabbing myself with my fork.
on a related note, wednesday’s times has some ruminations on mac and cheese by a woman who is — gasp! — anti-breadcrumb. instead, she recommends topping the dish with cheese — which, well, i dunno. sometimes (particularly in the diner 24 case) the breadcrumbs’ textural invasion is what makes the m & c, you know? i tried some mac and cheese topped with cheese a week ago at french roast, and was generally underwhelmed by it, although that could have been my nascent Head Cold Of Doom talking.
3 Comments
Leave a Reply
You can follow the discussion through the Comments feed. You can also pingback or trackback from your own site.
My current favorite m&c recipe is in the new(ish) Gourmet Cookbook. And also on epicurious:
http://tinyurl.com/e2tas
But do you really think it matters if the topping is brioche, panko, or regular breadcrumbs? I can’t imagine it makes all that much difference.
I too am anti breadcrumb. Shun me if you must.
Fred 62’s in Los Angeles (Los Feliz to be specific)has some damn fine “Mac Daddy & Cheese”. I highly recommend it.