More Baguettes, Meatpacking District Field Trip

It's Tuesday, so that means a REALLY long day for me (for the next 4 Tuesdays anyway). In Pastry class this morning, we made another batch of Amy's Bread Baguettes. This time we used the dough that we prepared yesterday, so they had a little more fermentation on them (which is GOOD for flavor). I liked them a lot better. Here are some pics of the loaves - the recipe made 40 baguettes, so we had A LOT of bread! We also prepared some breadstick dough, which is fermenting overnight in the fridge (cold slows yeast) to use tomorrow. We make pizzas and calzones later in the week and donuts are on for MONDAY.



After class, a group of us walked the 10-15 blocks or so to the Meatpacking District for a class field trip to Debragga & Spitler, a fine quality wholesale meat purveyor for the Manhattan area (but they ship all across the US).




We toured the different meat preparation rooms, saw a butcher cut two racks of lamb and french them in under 5 minutes (pretty much unheard of speed and precision) and spent 20 minutes in the beef aging room, which is about 20 minutes longer than I'd ever like to spend again. Dry aged beef is supposed to bring out the quality of the beef and really develop the flavor and, if you've ever tried it, you'd definitely notice the more "mature" taste as compared to wet aged beef (typical beef you'd get even in a nice steakhouse). Most steaks are wet aged (aged in their own juices), but dry aging is becoming more popular. Let's just say that once you've smelled dry aging beef, you won't ever mistake the two again! I was really fighting a battle of the senses in there and had to distract myself from getting ill. Enough of that. We did learn a lot and managed to have a nice time, despite the different smells and the very cold temps! From Debragga & Spitler, a group of us broke off to do a side project - investigate 5 very different establishments in the area (Hogs & Heifers, Little Pie Company, Pastis, Hog Pit BBQ and Old Homestead Steakhouse) and discuss their general concept, how they all coexist in the same location and whether or not our own concept would "fit" there. These places, as you can tell, are all very different and THAT'S what is unique about the Meatpacking District in NY. It's an area that used to be all about meatpacking and butchering, but many of those old warehouses have been shut down, abandoned and the area has been transitioning to a new, hip, nightlife spot in the past 5-10 years. It's unique in NYC because it's one of the only "destination" areas in the city. There really isn't a residential population there and not many people work there, but a lot of people want to hang out there. So...these many different restaurants, bars, lounges can all exist down the block from there because their patrons travel to get to them! We ended up having to do tequila shots at Hogs & Heifers, because the bartender wanted to throw us out if we didn't order a drink. "This isn't a damn museum..order a drink or get out," she said when we walked in, so we sat at the bar and showed her we meant business. Ha ha! All in the name of a school assignment, right? (FYI - Hogs & Heifers is the actual site of the infamous Coyote Ugly movie. The bar, the customers and the bartenders are just like you saw it in the movie. If anything, more crude...And we were there at 3:30 pm on a Tuesday. They really don't serve water there - don't ask! - and no limes.) Some of us (Gabriela, Annastasia and I) had wine class at 7, so we took the long walk back to school and sat through 2 1/2 hours on the wines of Burgundy. I can now identify the two main grapes of the region (white - Chardonnay, red- Pinot Noir) and tell the difference between wines from different parts of the region. For comparison, we also tasted a New Zealand Pinot Noir, which ended up being my favorite of the night. Now, it's bed time! GOODNIGHT! :)