Getting to know you...calling all NY/CT/LI folks!

I just returned from a terrific HO Down lunch with @ieatalotoficecream, @Sra.Swanky and @winecountrygirl, where we chatted about ways to increase traffic on our board (among other things!). It was fantastic to put faces to names and learn a little more about everyone’s backgrounds, etc. My lunch dates today have lived in Westchester much longer than I have, so they have a tremendous depth of knowledge regarding restaurants and food shopping (PS ladies, my husband was hungry when he picked me up so we stopped into Exit 4 so he could grab a bite - thanks for the tip!).

Anyway, after chatting with my fellow HOs today I am even more curious to know more about our other board members! I have seen a couple of “getting to know you” threads on other boards, so I thought I would steal the idea and start a little survey here - if you don’t mind sharing, it would be great to know where you live (and where else in the area you have lived/are familiar with), how you ended up on Hungry Onion, and anything else you might like to share about your food interests.

I’ll go first: I recently moved to Yonkers from Sunnyside, Queens, and went to college and grad school in Rochester, NY. I still work in Manhattan, so I eat out a fair bit in the city as well as Westchester. I found HO after the implosion of Chowhound, after reading various oblique references to HO on the Home Cooking board there. Foodwise, I’m an avid home cook, and although I generally lead a low-carb lifestyle for weight loss maintenance purposes, I also love to bake. Now that we have outdoor space, smoking BBQ has become a new obsession, so you can expect plenty of posts on that subject as the weather improves!

So…who’s next?

Great idea biondanonima! And glad you liked Exit 4! Amazing food and so many choices - that place is dangerous! (In a good way!)

I’m a Yonkers native and lived in Northern Westchester from the age of 15. I went to college in Geneseo (near Rochester - love those garbage plates!) and returned home to finish grad school and then to try my hand at teaching in the NYC Dept of Ed. (Only the strong survive!) I began frequenting Chowhound as a newlywed, living in our one bedroom apartment in Pleasantville in 2005, pouring over restaurant recs and interesting meal ideas. Three boys and 12 years later, I’m living in Chappaqua (we loved Pville, but they don’t have bussing) in what I like to call our sweet little frat house. I found HO through @ieatalotoficecream - who was kind enough to message me and let me in on where all the wonderful hounds went when Chowhound became a shell of its former self.

I love cooking at home (If I wasn’t teaching, I’d love to be cooking all day!) and gear toward meals that will please my brood of hungry men - lots of meat and fresh veggies in my recipes. I love to bake and even dabble in cake designing. My crowning achievement (which I will never be able to duplicate again!) was a gigantic cake replica of the Titanic for my oldest son’s 4th birthday! (His request - yes, definitely strange that a little boy would be that into historical, ill-fated sea vessels!)

I adore ethnic restaurants - especially those rare hole-in-the-wall finds. If it’s a yummy dive, I’m there. I also have an incurable sweet tooth. Cholados (the snowcone-fruit salad hybrid treat from Colombia) are a current obsession, and it’s been fun discovering which Colombian bakery/restaurant makes the tastiest one. But I’d never rule out a yummy chain either; I have been known on occasion to drive from Chappaqua to Stamford on a whim for an Orange Julius. (My boys are all for it!)

I’ll play. I started cooking when I was very young - a kid living at home in Yonkers with my folks. Mom would leave something out on the counter to defrost (yes, even chicken way back then). I would come home from school and cook it. My grandmother was a terrific cook (mostly the usual Polish/Jewish stuff - potted chicken, brisket) and that’s what I’d do. In Jr. High it was the English muffin pizzas that were the rage. I always loved to cook and would make dinner parties in my folk’s apartment as I got older and before I moved out. Great elaborate things using Julia’s books or the NYT Cookbook. I loved it. Later in life, after I was married and got laid off from a job I decided to go to cooking school- not so much to be a restaurant chef but to open up to other possibilities. I attended Peter Kump’s New York Cooking School, a small program where some very great chefs taught. That school became The Institute for Culinary Education after Peter died. I went on to cook in Executive Dining (not employee caf) then tried my hand at catering, but really preparing meals that working moms could heat and serve. Honestly, that was very hard. I had to shop in the same supermarkets I do now as I did not have the bulk to shop wholesale, I drove the food to the client and basically worked very hard for very little return. Did a stint as a private chef and decided to leave that world, learn excel, get a real job and cook for people I loved again. So here I am.
I used to love Chowhound and the food discussions. I could find out the best places anywhere I was going. We all know what happened there. Now, I’ve been a HO for over a year. I thing this site is great and want to do my best to make it POP!!!

Hi fellow HO’s!
Born and bred Long Island boy here!
South shore.
Growed up on the bay, barefoot, clamming and fishing.
Cooking was a family affair.
Eating was an enjoyable and important part of the day that took more than a few minutes… up to a few hours.
I hold culinary skill in high regard.
I hold the execution of culinary skill in very high regard.
I love to cook.
It’s my passion.
I love plating home cooking in a restaurant fashion.
Plating individual dishes or family dishes or party platters, it’s a joy. It’s, to me, more than emptying the crockpot of chili into a plastic bowl and a bag of salad into a hot ceramic bowl. It’s about taking the extra care to show my love. I care. I really, sincerely do.
I’m not a huge restaurant guy.
I can make it better at home.
Yes. 3 day beef stock. Standard in my kitchen. Everything from scratch. Yes. It’s not easy. It’s a passion.
Mark Bittman, although not exactly at the top of my list… says and shows exactly that. Why spend $100 on a $20 meal? And it’s just as good, usually better, at home.
Wolfgang Puck says the same.
Out to eat at really good restaurants to celebrate an occasion. But daily meals cooked with love and care at home.

I worked in Manhattan for many years and in 2001 found Chowhound.com to be a good source for sharing info.
I needed cheap lunch places as well as client lunch and dinner restaurants.

I no longer work in Manhattan and after a few years working from home and not bothering with restaurants much at all, I find my career has taken me driving all over Long Island.

Cheap lunch spots are necessary.
As a knife and fork eater much more than a sandwich eater, the deli and hamburger sandwich places don’t see me much.

Always looking for a cheap eats joint for lunch that has much more than salads and sandwiches.
On Long Island, cheap lunch places that serve more than sandwiches are a rarity.

Fancy, expensive restaurant for lunch, with a full menu beyond hamburger sandwiches, sure, I’ve been to one or two.

And, good, cheap, knife and fork lunch places, sit down lunch places, that’s exactly what I seek

Love it. And I love plating too but it’s not my front suit!

Great idea! Like Gastronomous, I’m also Lawn Guyland born and bred, not the South Shore but I can do an impression of the accent, using Amy Fisher as my inspiration. I grew up in No.
New Hyde Park, lived out in Rocky Point, Stony Brook, Port Jefferson during college and after, and owned a home in Miller Place for 16 years. I currently live in Huntington Village, where I can walk to stores, restaurants galore, but mostly cook at home these days (though I unintentionally seem to have taken a year or so off from food interests and cooking til recently). I’m not particularly cheffy, more like homey, comfort food, but we are adventurous about food, both cooking attempts and when dining out… A recent passion of ours, born of desperation, is growing heirloom tomatoes because, well… if you’re over 50 you know what I mean… NO taste, icky texture.

We eat very low carb as a rule for health reasons, so the emphasis has been sourcing quality pastured meats, eggs, poultry from reasonably priced sources. For many of you, I’ll share what Erica Marcus turned me onto, ourharvest.com… the best prices and delivery options of any of the local/regional farms so far, and my favorite chicken source (seriously more delicious than others) is their source Cascun Farm. I’ve also gotten hand dug clams and fresh fluke from them on occcasion for fair prices. I buy beef and bison from another farmer, wild caught salmon from a fishing company that freezes them out at sea. Not only due to interest in the best King salmon I can find, but because I must avoid foods high in histamine as much as possible. I also grow a lot of green and yellow maters for that reason. Been this way a couple of years now.

A recent obsession is experimentation with blanched, superfine almond flour; total game changer for me, as a low carber. It makes pancakes, which I haven’t eaten in about 20 years, real ones, not sort of like real but not as good pancakes. It makes much better breading than unblanched, regular ground almond meal. I actually managed to make a pretty low carb carrot cake with cream cheese frosting with it. Makes great breading for chicken, not something I ordinarily do, because I’m not much of a fried food eater, but had to try.

Now that daylight is longer and weather is tolerable, I’ll be grilling most meals and having them with giant salads, homemade slaw, sliced maters, etc. Can’t wait for all the herbs and veg to pick for meals out on the patio. We’re actually growing some tomatoes in our basement under a grow light in an Earth Box, and should be picking some soon, but I can’t call it a great success. We are just that obsessed with good tasting tomatoes, we had to try.

I ended up on Hungry Onion as a a refugee from CH pretty much as soon as HO formed, and I’m pretty sure I did my share and then some, letting others know to come on over. I’m so glad y’all found it, too, however you got here.

Susan

My sister in law lived out there for a few years. Love your post!!

Susan, that’s awesome! I would sooo like to hear that! Can you post a sound bite on here?

I am so jealous of your gardening. We’ve scaled back on ours in recent years due to my lack of time. I’m only doing tomatoes, cukes, pole beans, and a few small veggies now.
Thankfully the herb garden is three large pots that produce all year.

Thanks for being a HO, introducing me to HO and making me a HO too!

P.S. let’s get the Lawn Guyland peeps posting on here. There’s much to talk about!

No, I cannot post a sound bite, lol… Hint: it involved pronouncing “her” as “huh.” As if you have mashed potatoes in the back of your mouth while speaking.

I bought my husband the book “Epic Tomatoes” and he’s gotten the bug. That helped. Some things grow with such minimal effort; I love how I can plant a bunch of lettuces and chard and they grow back after I pick some all season long. My sage, rosemary and chives bounce back and stay healthy most winters. Parsley keeps popping up all over the property, even the strip on one side of the driveway.

Thanks for coming on over, you HO, you.

Thanks to everyone who has responded thus far! Any more takers? @chowdom, @richb51, @gutreactions, @Homestyleturkey, @thefoodmaverick, @ADR, @jfood, @Louuuuu, @fooddabbler, @MisterBill, @Foodygrandma, @coll - we’d love to hear from all of you! I’m new to Westchester so there are probably many others I neglected to tag - please add anyone you can think of!

I have a friend that has a green thumb. Everything she plants grows big and beautiful. I am going to help huh plant a veggie garden this year and I will also tell huh about “Epic Tomatoes”.
Thanks fellow HO!

So, if we want to move this to gardening, how do we do that as admins?

I’ll message tou

I’m new here and hate to complain, but!
I’ve been browsing the posts and don’t see any Long Island topics in the last few months.
I.M.H.O. having a specific Long Island category would be a big plus.
Nassau and Suffolk counties are very different from Manhattan, Hartford or Buffalo.

Welcome @motosport! We do have some Long Island based HOs here, and we’re definitely trying to increase Long Island participation and traffic. We’d love to have you post your experiences and hopefully attract more great LI posters to the board!

Hey, not hounds!!! Ho’s!

WHOOPS! I just edited it, thanks for the catch. I had to visit that other site today to re-read an old review and it clearly addled my brain!

There’s been little Long Island talk. But, I’ve put some stuff up. A few months ago and in more recent weeks and recent days. We are few here on Long Island and our audience here is small.
Keep posting

That’s what we need YOU for!

Go ahead, be a HO.