My girlfriend and our friends had a wonderful 4th of July weekend. We had some friends over to the apartment by the South Street Seaport for some drinks and snacks, then we walked down under the Brooklyn Bridge to watch the fireworks. I was about to walk into the Trader Joe's on 14th St. near Union Square to pick up some provisions for our get together when I saw this ice cream truck. I've been reading about it for some time and wanted to try it out, but didn't have time. I forgot to ask them about their schedule, but you can log on to their website,
www.VanLeeuwenIceCream.com to read more about them. The guy in the photo was more than happy to pose for his picture.
The menu.
A little bit about Van Leeuwen.
Their website.
A full shot of the truck.
These first three shots were taken underneath the Brooklyn Bridge as we watched the fireworks. Sorry, I'm still working on trying to take some halfway respectable night shots. I took about 50 of them and these were the best of the crop.
This is a shot of the Brooklyn Bridge and the new waterfall art installation beneath it (1 of 4 in the East River).
On the 5th, my gf and I headed to Long Island for a BBQ/pool party at the home of our friends, Melissa and Larry, in Bellmore. Melissa and Larry have been on Roadfood before (sort of). They took us to Smokin Al's in Bayshore last December. I was very excited about this as Larry is an excellent BBQer and has turned out some tasty beer-can chicken, stuffed jalapenos and grilled corn on the cob before and I actually remembered the camera this time! Someone brought this delicious tri-color pasta salad with carrots, snap peas, cauliflower and baby corn.
I made some smoked gouda and sharp cheddar mac and cheese using elbows. I made a bechamel from butter, flour, milk, salt, white pepper, onion powder, Frank's Red Hot sauce, dijon mustard, smoked gouda and Cabot sharp cheddar. Honestly, I got the recipe from an Emeril cookbook, but I thought it was very "one note", so I added some of the flavors that I like to perk it up a bit. I was happy with the result and it seemed to go over well.
My cannelini bean salad with red onions, basil, arugula and a vinaigrette of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Another recipe from the Food Network, courtesy of Dave Lieberman.
Lary's pulled pork. He smoked a whole shoulder for 6 hours and when we arrived, it was still cooling off and the bark was the hue of mahogany! He pulled this by hand and mixed in his Carolina vinegar based sauce. This was so tender and he got some fantastic smoke penetration on it! You can see some of the red pepper flecks in this picture.
Potato salad and coleslaw from one of the local supermarkets.
The lid for the Carolina barbeque sauce.
The Carolina barbeque sauce. Nice vinegary tang and a little goes a long way!
My plate of barbeque goodness! The rolls were long sandwich rolls cut in half. I noticed that they were from Cassone's, the same place that supplies the rolls for Ted's in Meriden, CT (home of the steamed cheeseburgers). They were good, but I don't think they were the right vehicle for the pork. They had too much substance and I think this kind of barbeque cries out for some white bread or hamburger rolls.
Baby back ribs.
A better shot. Larry put a rub on these (I forgot to ask what was in the rub) and smoked them over apple wood. He had an apple juice based BBQ sauce, but he ended up not using it. These also had a great smokiness to them. They weren't almost fall apart, which is my all-time favorite, but they were excellent and I was good for about 4 or 5 of them.
The smoker.
Larry was grilling up some pineapple that he had soaked in some pina colada mix and it was Dyno-Mite!
Larry, at the grill. He and Melissa worked tirelessly to see that we all had lots of good grub to eat. Thanks!!
The chicken was very moist with a bit of sweetness to it and paired very well with the pineapple.
Grilled zuchini and asparagus. Hey, we had to sneak in SOME vegetables somewhere, right?!
Okay, I was pumped for this! Larry let me help out with the grilling duties by manning the grill and finishing off the stuffed jalapenos. Forget everything you know about those tired old "happy hour" breaded and deep fried things stuffed with Velveeta! These babies are fresh jalapenos stuffed with smoked gouda, a touch of brown sugar and wrapped in bacon. Grill until the peppers are soft and bacon is crispy, yet still slightly chewy. Sometimes the peppers have a few seeds left in them for a little extra spice! Mmmmmm!!!
Some of them were a bit too well done when I reached the grill, but that's okay, you can just peel back the skin of the pepper and you're good to go.
Naturally, I pulled a couple of choice ones aside for myself and they were just heavenly. Smoky, sweet, salty, gooey, spicy, crunchy, crispy. Very addicting!!
We had a ton of desserts on this day, including three cheesecakes to choose from. This first one, a chocolate chip cheesecake, was from the Whistle Stop Bake Shop in Oceanside, NY. Very tasty, creamy. nice chocolate crunch on the bottom and the chips made their presence known.
The second one was from A & G Bakery in North Babylon, NY. I passed on this one as I'm not a fan of the whole "fruit pie filling" stuff that was on top. It really did visually remind me of the Comstock pie filling from the can.
Last, but not least, a classic cheesecake from Junior's. This is just the best cheesecake I have ever eaten! Creamy, very light in texture and the cake bottom is so inspired and a nice change of pace from the traditional graham cracker crust. Sorry, I couldn't get to it before it was halfway gone!
Mudslide brownies. I do prefer homemade, but these were pretty tasty.
Courtesy of Berkley and Jensen (a house label of BJs).
A pie from Valley Caterers in Franklin Square, NY.
The blueberry pie. I forgot to get a shot of the Key Lime pie. They were alright.
I took a long dip in the pool before we left and it was exactly what I needed to cool down on a hot day. A couple of shots of the sun going down on a great day. Taken on the LIRR platform in Bellmore.
Hope you all had a wonderful 4th and a great holiday weekend. Happy Eating!!
