Know Your Apples

I bought six big Fuji apples from DePiero’s Country Farm in Montvale, New Jersey today for an impending pie. Scattered around the many varieties in the produce department were photocopies of a “Know Your Apples” grid. Other than not understanding the difference between the “Eating” and “Salad” columns, or why data is missing for Tydeman Reds, Paula Reds and Empires, I decided this would be a handy reference for me to archive, so I typed it up in a tidy table.

Variety	Approx. Harvest	Eating	Salad	Sauce	Baking	Frozen
Early McIntosh	8/28	Fair	Fair	Poor	Poor	Poor
Tydeman Red	8/30	Good	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Paula Red	9/5	Fair	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Jonamac	9/20	Good	Good	Fair	Fair	Poor
McIntosh	9/25	Good	Good	Fair	Fair	Poor
Cortland	10/1	Excellent	Excellent	Fair	Good	Fair
Macoun	10/5	Excellent	Good	Fair	Poor	Poor
Twenty Ounce	10/10	Fair	Good	Excellent	Good	Good
Empire	10/10	Excellent	Good	Fair	n/a	Good
Red Delicious	10/12	Good	Fair	Poor	Poor	Poor
Jonagold	10/15	Excellent	Excellent	Good	Good	Good
Northern Spy	10/20	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Golden Delicious	10/25	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good	Good
Stayman Winesap	10/25	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good	Fair
Idared	10/25	Fair	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Good
Mutsu	10/28	Excellent	Good	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent
Honey Crisp	10/28	Excellent	Excellent	Poor	Poor	Poor
Rome	10/28	Poor	Good	Good	Good	Good
Laddy Apple	11/17	Excellent	Good	Good	Poor	Fair
Fuji	All year	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Gala	All year	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Braeburn	All year	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Excellent	Good
Granny Smith	All year	Excellent	Excellent	Poor	Excellent	Excellent

Mandoline Madness

You know, I want (wanted?) a mandoline but Googling “mandoline accident” (without the double-quotes) yields more than 4.6 million results.

Not all of these results deal with mincing and wincing but the top few results are rich with verbs such as “splayed,” sound-effect transcriptions such as “cut, cut, cut, AARGH!!” and hypothetical questions such as “Why don’t they just sell Benriner [a brand of mandoline] boxes smeared with blood?”

Bowery Restaurant Supply

Now that New York City has reached 90° with nearly 50% humidity, a young man’s thoughts turn to tropical cocktails such as the Mai Tai. But for those, one requires a proper receptacle, and I’ve found the cheapest place to get Tiki mugs is Bowery Restaurant Supply. Lately, in fact, I buy most of my cheap and sturdy kitchen equipment there, namely utensils, pots, pans, bowls and boards.

I’m not talking about Bowery Kitchen which, despite its name, is located in Chelsea. That place has its draw, too, with deals on certain generics (cookie sheets leap to mind). But it skews toward brand-name equipment and supplies for the typically higher-grade clientèle of Chelsea Market.

Bowery Restaurant Supply, on the other hand, is located just off the Bowery, steps from the J/M subway station and the Bowery Ballroom, as storied as it is grubby.

You can glean at least three facts from this receipt: I planned ahead for my dog days with a Tiki mug-run in snowy February. Stuff is incredibly cheap at Bowery Restaurant by New York standards (and possibly the standards of other locales)—$2.50 each for the mugs! A heavy pint glass (now acting as my primary cocktail shaker) for $2.25! Really cheap plastic squeeze-bottles, perfect for dressings, syrups and condiments!

And they’re super oldschool: they have a cash box, not a register, and a gnarled Asian man handwrites your receipt. I am happy that fame, in the form of Mark Bittman’s prominent ode to them three years back, has not seemed to have affected their thrifty, low-key style.