Who doesn’t love a pile of spicy, smoky, diced tomatoes with cilantro, lime, jalapeno, and onion, all mixed together and placed on top a corn chip, burrito, or taco?  In Colorado, you go to a Mexican restaurant and immediately they serve you a ramekin of garlicky tomato puree, rarely the bowl of fresh pico de gallo you get in New York (which people mistakenly call salsa).

But as New York Times writer Julia Moskin dives into the new Mexico chic cuisine that has popped up all over the city, she finds that a lot of places are getting this simple sounding, but not so simple dish, right.  Surprisingly, as a Mexican food snob, I totally agree with this article.  There are some great places to get some unique and tasty salsas.  Her list includes: Cascabel Taqueria, La Superior, Hecho en Dumbo, and more.  I would definitely add Cabrito, one of my personal favorite taco spots here, to the list.

Who has your favorite salsa?  And, what is the best way to make it?

Here is my quick and easy recipe:

Take one large can of whole peeled tomatoes (28 ounces) and put in food processor with:

2 garlic cloves

1 small onion (chopped before going in food processor)

1/4-cup fresh cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

1 jalapeño pepper

2 tsp Tabasco brand chipotle sauce

Dash of cayenne pepper

Dash of salt

Today New York Times writer Manny Fernandez wrote about the 99-cent pizza craze that has been spreading across Manhattan.  But, he isn’t the first one to note cheap, $1 and under food.  About a year ago, I did a round up for Serious Eats that included pork buns, noodles, and sticks of meat from Flushing, Queens’ Chinatown; $1 falafel sandwiches; cheap sushi; and 39 cents an ounce frozen yogurt.  Josh Bernstein has also been rounding up cheap eats by neighborhood for Metromix.  He recently stumbled on the Hell’s Kitchen area and talked about the same pizza Fernandez did in his article.

What’s up with this craze?  Is 99-cent pizza worth it?  Adam Kuban of Slice didn’t say in his cheap pizza battle last year, but he also didn’t say he really liked either pie.  Some things I think work well as $1 items, like ices on the street in the summer, hot dogs, and French fries.  But overall, I would rather pay $2 for a really good slice, then bother with a kind of gross one for less.

*Update: Here is the New York Press piece about RBC NYC.

Really?  There are safety issues with a pot pie?  Yeah, I didn’t believe it either but the New York Times video, Pot Pie Confidential made me think twice.  If you can get over Michael Moss’ deep, awkward voice and the silly staged “pot pie making” skit, this video actually opens up some good questions about the safety of the food we naturally trust, like the pot pie. In the article Moss writes:

“The pie maker, ConAgra Foods, began spot-checking the vegetables for pathogens, but could not find the culprit. It also tried cooking the vegetables at high temperatures, a strategy the industry calls a “kill step,” to wipe out any lingering microbes. But the vegetables turned to mush in the process.

So ConAgra — which sold more than 100 million pot pies last year under its popular Banquet label — decided to make the consumer responsible for the kill step. The “food safety” instructions and four-step diagram on the 69-cent pies offer this guidance: ‘Internal temperature needs to reach 165° F as measured by a food thermometer in several spots.’”

I don’t usually have microwave meals, but they make a good point–if you are a mom with three kids, how convenient and/or safe is it to serve this stuff?  It appears that mac’n'cheese might be the solid choice here.

“Yet there is one example of something that is generally considered to be “good design,” which does break the golden rule. It is part of our daily lives, and has been designed to similar specifications for more than a century — the glass Heinz Tomato Ketchup bottle. If you asked the millions of people who use that glass bottle whether it is well designed, they would probably say “yes.” If not they would be fools, because they could achieve exactly the same outcome — seasoning their food with fresh ketchup — by buying one of Heinz’s plastic bottles, which are not only cheaper, but do the job more efficiently.”

I don’t even like ketchup, but do have a bottle in my fridge. At least some things stay reliably the same.

Newspaper feature writing without recipes: David Leite for The New York Times, “In a ‘64 T-Bird, Chasing a Date With a Clam”

Newspaper feature writing with recipes: Katy McLaughlin for The Wall Street Journal, “A New Taste Sensation”

Magazine feature writing about a restaurant or chef: Howie Kahn for GQ, “The Wandering Chef”

Magazine feature writing with recipe: Betty Fussell for Saveur, “American Prime”

Magazine feature writing without recipe: Manny Howard for New York Magazine, “My Empire of Dirt”

Writing on spirits, wine or beer: David Darlington for Wine & Spirits Magazine, “Postmodern Deliciousness: The World According to Clark Smith” 

For a complete list of winners check out the website by clicking here!