Milwaukee's Best?

With the option of 'rwb' (red, white, and blue) or creamy, here's a plate of delightful cabbage from Maxie's Southern Comfort in Milwaukee, WI. They serve it up in Ithaca too.

6732 W Fairview Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53213
414-292-3969

Hill Country BBQ

A New York BBQ tour of sorts has commenced. Where there's BBQ, there's slaw, at least if the place has any respect for itself. Tucked into 26th Street, across from another BBQ joint, Hill Country serves it up Texas style. Welcome to eating to eat, not dissimilar from a churrascaria.Hill Country BBQ has plenty of food to go with the slaw, especially on Monday nights. $25 dollars buys an all-you-can-eat plate of brisket, chicken, and pork ribs. There's nothing more American than gorging. Brisket is an unappetizing word for meat but this cut was tender and flavorful, a surprise. As if the meat wasn't enough, four sides are included, namely coleslaw, sweet potatoes, mac & cheese, and cornbread. The slaw, coarsely cut, heavy on the purple cabbage, with a generous number of carrot shreds, was light on dressing and a little light on taste. The barbecue sauce made everything taste better.
There were no draught beers but plenty of bottles, PBR, Tecate, typical eurobrews. There are drink specials before 6 and late night, but none when it really matters. After a few too many briskets, I bought Rolaids in the CVS down 6th Avenue.

Price: $36/person

30 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10010
212-255-4544

Picnic Slaw

This slaw, mayo based, dilled, and peppered, jammed to Animal Collective from a hill outside the blacked-out fence at Prospect Park on August 15, 2009.
Its ingestion was accompanied by prosciutto, tomato, and mozzarella sandwiches. Thank you Caputo's of Carroll Gardens.

Cabbage at the Cloisters

The Cloisters, in addition to containing some really old stones and christian art, has a diverse vegetable and herb garden, including these slaw plants.

A side of slaw

Sunday night cookout. Tomato basil pie, bruschetta, shrimp cocktail, a corona, a cheese burger, pink prosecco, peach clafoutis, blueberry pie, Washington bing cherries, and pellegrino. Everthing tasted better with the side of coleslaw.

Stop and Shop of Glen Cove makes a colorful slaw.

Cobble Hill Coffee Shop

I wanted to love it. Early on, the meal seemed to be running smoothly. I ordered a chocolate egg cream (not on the menu, but of course they make it) and a BLT, every sandwich coming with pickle and coleslaw. The egg cream set the stage.

Then it arrived. The miniscule cup of coleslaw was dull and waxy. It tasted sour, so unpalatable I couldn't finish it. The meal was redeemed by the BLT, but the coleslaw will never be redeemed.

Next time: "I'll have a BLT but hold the coleslaw."
"But it comes with it."
"I don't want it."
"Anything else?"
"No coleslaw."

Price (w/ tip): $10

314 Court St (At Degraw St)
Brooklyn 11231
(718) 852-1162

Hickory House

In the 700 Block of West Main Street in Aspen, CO you can get a pile of smoked pork, enough for three sandwiches, enough to bury the lower bun so you question whether it exists at all. The pulled pork that you can fit on the bun is generously drizzled with BBQ sauce. Alongside the Western (or maybe just American) sized portion of pork, I ordered the coleslaw and fries for $2. As for the slaw, the glistening white milieu was flecked with bits of purple cabbage and carrot. Excellent classic recipe which is always to fluid for my taste. The portion of slaw and fries was, like everything else, incredibly generous. I left some on my plate, and upon being trapped by a storm, I guzzled two glasses of ice water. The food was certainly enough to power me up Aspen Mountain, where I ducked under a building during a hail storm and thought my audibly pumping carotids were going to burst open. Thin air is no joke.

Price (w/ tip): $18

730 W Main St
Aspen, CO 81611
970-925-2313

Calexico tacos

Recognized in the July 19, 2009 New York Times, Calexico serves their tacos on a small bed (a twin?) of cabbage. There's a few crisp strands venturing out in this photo.
The few bites I had of someone else's burrito will have me ordering one of those next time, cabbage or no.
(pic from NYT.)

Union Street
Brooklyn, NY

The Ballfields

On Saturdays and Sundays, one of the Red Hook ballfields in Brooklyn, NY, at the corner of Clinton and Bay Streets, is lined with food carts serving up a variety of Central and South American food. Below are two papusas, one bean and cheese, the other loroco flower and cheese, accompanied by pickled cabbage. The loroco flower is native to Central America and is edible. It tastes like asparagus-brocolli, or maybe chicken.Pickled cabbage, which I know involves at least salt and vinegar, is a truly altered product. It requires a handful of spices to reach its transformed state. I'm still more interested in the raw, but the purple stuff was good, still crunchy, and then tangy and salty. It's a good way to hold on to fluids on a hot summer day.

BBQ (not Dallas)

Dallas BBQ is a New York City chain that used to claim this location. With a slightly modified sign and a similar menu BBQ is still serving up cheap food to NYU students and locals. New York Magazine talks about the split from Dallas here. I recently had the pulled pork platter with a side of coleslaw. $8 only gets you so much: tough pork and bland slaw. The photo is a horrible one but it's included because it matches the quality of the food.


21 W. 8th Street, near Fifth Ave.
New York, NY
212-674-4450

American Slaw

Brent's General Store in Amagansett makes its own coleslaw, the dribbly all-American kind. It was displayed in a glass refrigerator case with a big spoon sitting in the long rectangular dish. Give me a pound. It looks especially good with a plate of ribs. Happy Birthday America! Thank you cabbage farmers.

Hot Dog Slaw

Crif Dog specializes in hot dogs, so I chose a dog with coleslaw only. The wiener was wedged in the bottom of the bun, and the coleslaw was pushed toward the top. I wish the meat and chopped cabbage had been in closer contact as I enjoyed my meaty snack.After partaking I met a friend and we moved through the phone booth to PDT. Over a couple exotic expensive cocktails and reasonably priced but small brews we split a Chang dog, named after David Chang and loaded with kimchee. A cabbage concoction almost unrecognizable from its former self, it was still a delicious treat.

113 St Marks Pl
New York, NY 10009
(212) 614-0386

Tex-Mex Slaw

This recipe was provided by a wonderful cook and friend whose meals will be available for delivery to your brooklyn home soon. She indulges my obsession for slaw. Most recently she made this delight. Radishes are an excellent addition.

Recipe courtesy of Kara Zuaro

Chipotle-Spiked Tex-Mex Slaw

This slaw is easy to make if you have a food processor with a shredding blade. (If you're going to grate the cabbage and carrot by hand, it's going to take a while and may put your knuckles in danger!) If you've got a corn stripper — something that's on my kitchen gadget wish list — it'll be even easier.

ORANGE-CHIPOTLE MAYONNAISE:
1 cup mayonnaise (I use low-fat)
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 tablespoon minced canned chipotle chilies

FOR THE SAUCE:
juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
salt, to taste
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

FOR THE SLAW:
1 head of green cabbage, shredded
1/2 head of red cabbage, shredded
1 very large carrot, shredded
1 bunch of radishes, thinly sliced
2 ears of corn, kernels stripped from the cob
1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro

First, combine the mayonnaise, orange juice, and chipotle chilies (which you buy in a can in the Latin American foods aisle). This is more mayo than you'll need, but you can keep the leftovers in your fridge to jazz up sandwiches or to serve with some delicious Jamaican Jerk Burgers.

Mix 1/4 cup of the orange-chipotle mayonnaise with, lime juice, vinegar, honey, cumin, salt, and pepper in small bowl.

Combine cabbage, carrots, radishes, corn, and cilantro in large bowl, and add the sauce. Taste a little – if it needs more of a kick or seems a bit dry, add more of the orange-chipotle mayo. Serve immediately, or chill in the fridge for a couple of days.

Garden Cabbage

I've decided to grow cabbage. The Brooklyn garden is larger than I thought it was going to be. I am going to try varieties that are harvested in fall and winter. Here's what the beginning of the outdoor garden looks like so far.

Coleslaw and Corona

As a snack I enjoyed some slightly soupy storemade slaw from Waldbaum's with a Corona Light. It's advertised as storemade, not yet a recognized word.

Bitten Blog

The NY Times visited a non-goopy version in January 2009. I think I'm going to have to try this recipe.

Moving time

I was just looking at some online recipes. I can't begin to consider a recipe that starts with a 16 oz. bag of coleslaw mix. Come on people! I'm worth more than that.

Moving this week so cabbage salad is on hold for a few days. I am about to get a back yard of a Brooklyn brownstone. I don't think my prospects for growing cabbage are good this year, but watch out Spring 2010. (What a strange year numeral-wise.)

Horse and Hound, Charlottesville

I enjoyed some chopped cabbage and shredded carrot atop a pulled pork sandwich last night.

Horse and Hound, Charlottesville
625 West Main Street
Charlottesviile, VA 22903
(434) 293-3365

Rombauer Enacted

According to the Rombauer recipe I made the dressing and chopped the cabbage. The small green pile is composed of finely chopped chives, dill, and parsley from the porch potted herb garden.These carrots came from the farmer's market. The purple carrot added color.The final product was eaten with a cheeseburger, italian sausages, grilled asparagus, grilled potatos, a glass of red. (My parents don't serve beer.) If anything I will have added a little more dressing next time. Also I rinsed the cabbage after I chopped it which ended up water-logging the coleslaw. Lessons learned.

The Rombauer Recipe

adapted from Rombauer, Irma S., Becker MR, Becker E. The All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking. New York, NY: Scribner, 1997 ed.

1. Stir together until well blended 3/4 cup mayo, 1/4 cup white vinegar, and 1 tbsp sugar. The Dressing!

2. Finely chop 1 small head chilled green or red cabbage, cored and out leaves removed.

3. Stir in just enough dressing to moisten the cabbage.

4. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. If desired add: Dill, caraway, or celery seeds; chopped fresh parsley, chives, or other herb; crumbled crisp bacon; pineapple chunks; grated peeled carrots, coarsely chopped onions, bell peppers, or pickles.

Joy says it serves six. I guess that depends if this is koolsla as salad or koolsla as garnish. A head of cabbage makes a lot of little scoops.

As for step 5, the patio herb garden can provide dill, parsley, and chives. I might try a little onion, but in the past too much of this has ruined an otherwise good slaw.

Koolsla variety

"There are probably as many versions of cole slaw as there are people who make it. The one constant is raw cabbage (the name itself comes from the Dutch koolsla, meaning 'cabbage salad'). After that, all bets are off. The cabbage may be red, white, or green; the dressing may be vinaigrette or have a base of mayonnaise or sour cream; and the salad may contain a vast array of other ingredients, among them bacon, carrots, bell peppers, pineapple, pickles, onions, and herbs. Soaking the shredded cabbage in ice-cold water for an hour before draining and dressing renders it refreshingly crisp."

Rombauer, Irma S., Becker MR, Becker E. The All New All Purpose Joy of Cooking. New York, NY: Scribner, 1997 ed.

Irma died in 1962 but she's still going strong.

Cabbage Sunrise

Cabbage with Steve Keene sunrise.

I'm going to make some slaw tomorrow - not sure what recipe to use yet.

A spicy NYT recipe

Is it because regular coleslaw isn't good enough?

The New York Times speaks.