To be frank (frankfurter) it wasn't fishy at all.

Damn Daniel! As they say in ancient Greek.

HOLY PHUC, is what this dish is called, and that's what you will be screamin' after the first bite.

#foodgasm, #mouth-watering, #addictive, #foodporn, #perfection-personified, #life-changing, #best I have ever had, #to die for, #out of this world. Those are just a few of the hashtags floating around social media when describing Coney Shack's fish / hotdog concoction.

You want to know why? Just listen to the ingredients, and you will understand:
     It starts out with a beef frankfurter, and a beer battered crunchy fish - basa from the catfish family - in a hot dog bun (yes, you heard right, fish in a hot dog!). Then it gets Sprinkled with some pickled red onions, and drizzled with three types of sauces: tomato basil creole sauce, scallion oil, & lemongrass aioli. To put "the cherry on the cake" they top it with a four cheese blend. By then, the Brulee torch will come out, and finish the job by melting the cheese, adding the burnt texture that makes their hotdog creation so irresistible.

In simple words, despite the HOLY PHUC having a wide range of bold, and contrasting flavors, the flavors, somehow, balanced each other out perfectly. The individual flavor notes still came through, adding an extra dimension of heartiness and satisfaction to the dish.

I know what some of you might think. Here we go again with yet another gimmicky combo! (Burgers in Rice buns, burrito sushi, etc.) I mean c'mon, how on planet earth is this not a recipe for disaster?!? With all the contrasting and conflicting flavors in it... Truth be told, I was skeptical as well. Till I took the first bite.

The flavor of the burnt crispy cheese on top,
the fatty flaky fish taste,
the freshness of the soft bun,
the rich umami flavor of the frank.
      Include in all this, the exotic flavors, that the three sauces bring to the table, and it's a full on Orchestra. Though playing to different flavor notes, come together in harmonic rhythm to orchestrate a truly unique and expansive flavor profile.

What's ironic, is that this unique gastronomic masterpiece is sold, out of a food truck, in an unassuming spot, not far from the Coney island boardwalk. Actually adjacent to the DMV building, so here is another reason why you should come down in person to renew your car registration. So go grab some before the lines become bigger, and prices higher.

Before I let you go here is another metaphoric conparesence:

The first bite reminded me of, when I was coming out of the tunnel, in Yosemite national park, for the first time. Nothing can prepare you for the following... All I saw was the tunnel and the car in front of me, when out of nowhere the majestic mountains, and the breathtaking view of the valley (El Capitan, Half Dome) appeared in its fullest glory. It was one of most thrilling surprises I had on the road. That same rush and excitement is what I felt when all the punchy flavors hit me.




#Bon-appétit

Manakish at manoushe restaurant in new York city.

My adventures spirit and foodie cravings didn't die down when I decided in the beginning of the summer to focus on my professional career, it was really hard for me not to just jump on a plane and disappear as I use to do years past, so when i came across a place that serves Arabic coffee with cardamom I was in... 

One other confession before I continue, I gained around 30 pounds in the last 2 months, and I hope you see the correlation Here!  Good food and a lot of them especially in random hours of the day equals not healthy! And the reason why I bring this up is because I decided as of the beginning of the week to only eat healthy, and start a diet where I can lose the extra fat, that doesn't mean I'm not gonna eat out, I definitely will! But only  in places where I can get something healthy, or some kinda interesting beverage, so I'm still having fun while keeping my eyes on the prize. 

And that brings me to "manoushe" a casual counter served restaurant that specializes in a levantine flatbread, this particular place Claims to serve the Lebanese version of it, although I don't know the difference, (and the staff didn't know either) I fell for it. 

I walked in with my friend to this place on a Tuesday evening, walked over to the counter and realized that the menu is very small, in contrary to many middle eastern restaurants that I have Been where they have pages and pages of stuff you can get, here the whole menu was on the wall and there were only two options: or the flatbread or the

Pizza lists wake up, and get some pizza...

The following rant is about these lists ranking pizza places in new York...
My philosophy on pizza is very plural, the more the better! I don't think authenticity should win over taste, or longevity over experimental...  just because you have been around longer, or your pizza is more authentic, doesn't mean you should dominate lists, Especially when the market has so much more to offer...  You are depriving all of us!

On two recent published lists, four out of the ten pizza places on that list were big no-no's, I personally believe that the only reason why they were on it, was because of their history and what not... And nothing to do with the deliciousness of their pizza's. I can guarantee you that a lot of the dollar slice pizzerias will beat these four in a pizza competition...  I simply don't get it, this is new York for **** sake! We are blessed with so many options, and if you are not happy with the current options, there is always a new pizza place opening up down the block,  so why not diversify these lists??

Frank pepe's in new haven CT 

Frank pepe's white clam pizza, with the juicy bacon on top

In order to understand where I'm coming from I want to make a distinction between pizza and the rest of the food industry.

I'm happy to live in a place and time were most restaurants are trying to push to envelope, invent new dishes, come up with a weird ice cream flavors, (did you know that "black sesame seaweed" is one of those weird flavors?), combine ramen and burgers, sushi and burritos, etc. It's really amazing and mouth watering to watch this new wave of gastronomy where the sky is the limit...  I don't believe authenticity, or old school cooking plays a big role in those restaurants, lol.

Antonio's with over fifty options... 

Antonio's, Amherst, Massachusetts

Now to bring it back to pizza, the difference between these restaurants and pizza is that when it comes to pizza your range of improvisation is much larger, their almost isn't any rules to what can, or "should" be called pizza, it's one of the easiest dishes that people go crazy for, so why not encourage the masses to play around with some dough?? And mainly pizzerias to think outside the box?

Omg! Their pepperoni... 

Prince street pizza

To give you a more detailed and more down to earth understanding, I would like to compare it to "ramen" mainly because it's considered the pizza of Japan.

ramen is the antidote so to speak of pizza, it's really hard to make, and to perfect it is even harder.

Here are a few reasons why I say so:
1) the broth, you have to cook the broth for hours, some times 12 hours if you want to get that creamy texture.
2) the noodles are at times hand pulled, go look up online Gordon ramsey trying to do it,
3) the complexity of the ingredients.
I believe if you start looking into good ramen, or follow some bloggers that write about ramen, you will get what I'm talking about.  it's known in Japan that you can not have a good ramen place, if the chef is also serving something else...  Ramen needs to have its own place! And for the Japanese culture that says a lot.

But pizza!
The only somehow hard thing to do is the dough, the rest has no rules, you can add whatever...  El forno grills it, forcella deep fries it, Frank pepe's almost burns it, there isn't one way to great pizza! we are seeing an explosion of toppings all over the United States, from eggs to fruits and vegetables, I have recently visited a pizzeria that had over fifty types of pizza on their menu, and In my opinion he didn't tap into ten percent of the toppings we can use, so as you can see there is room for every body in the pizza game, it's easy and limitless, from the toppings to the dough to the way we prepare it.

So my message to those who compile those lists is: don't get stuck in nuanced details, or authenticity of a certain style, explore and let others explore their pizza boundaries...

BTW for those who made it to the end, if you want to comment below, please do.
Also what was the weirdest toppings you had on a pizza? 

Hilton Head Island...

I'm still gathering information about the island, and it's Jun 15 on a humid 84 degree night, I actually got here two days ago, but because I was with a friend, we just biked all day, and grabbed a bite at java burritos, a Chipotle style, local restaurant, my friend doesn't like to take risks, so we  ended up biking away in the beautiful luscious greenery, don't worry they have an abundance of those...  It's green all over, the whole island has a green themed look, even Walmart gave in on the green stuff. (Don't know yet about the other green stuff on the island)

I'm finally getting the groove of a wandering traveler, after not being on the road for a while.  little by little I'm starting to get back that amazing rush that you get after discovering something new!   And yes! that little kid in me who sponges up information, and tries to make sense of all of it,  is starting to blossom...

I hope that tommorow will be a productive day, I wanna check out the coastal discovery museum, go to the beach, and get some nice pics, and hopefully shower as I haven't cleaned myself in two days.

Falling asleep in my car in the parking lot of a Walmart...  It's really shady outside  so I won't have to deal with the sun, but I have to leave my car running...  It's that hot!  Or I'm just spoiled!

Walmart parking lot.

To be continued tommorow...