MEAT ME AT MARIO’S AND SAY, “MANGIA”

Rumor has it that lovers of Italian sausage are trekking to Mario’s Meat Market and Gourmet Deli for their supplies.  Hey, Joe, what’s the story?  Picture it.  1971 when Mario DiGangi and his family come to America from a town in Italy called Polizzi Generosa where Mario gets a job working in a meat store while living in Brooklyn.  A move to Ridgewood, Queens he works at another meat store for 9 years.  Enough already! It’s 1982 and time to get his own store!  That is when he opened Mario’s Meat Market and Deli located at 75-55 Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village, Queens. 

 MARIO

 MARIO ON THE LEFT, HIS SON JOE ON THE RIGHT 

An Italian meat market; what’s the big deal?  These high quality one family places are few and far between.  I walked in one day to see Mario’s son Joe preparing the dry sausage.  Joe took over since Mario had passed in 2011.  He tells me that it’s all about the quality and cut of meat being used.  I see a variety of both thin and thick sausages through the glass shelf of which is made fresh every day…the sausage, not the shelf.  Joe said that a lesser amount of fat is used for the dry sausage and yes, it’s been quite demanded.  They are air dried for 4 weeks and ready to slice up, like a thin salami.  

The store is quite large and divided well.  One area has the Grade A prime or Black Angus cuts of meat and only organic chickens are sold here.  You could drool just looking at what you and your family can cook up.  Wait until you see their Tomahawk Steak; prime rib and feeds at least three.

JOE,ARTIE SPINELLI, AND UNCLE TONY DIGANGI

There are many prepared items so you don’t have to think.  Take for instance, Chicken Breast ala Mario is lightly coated with spices and stuffed with proscutti, mozzarella, and sausage.  Large enough for two people especially when you add a pasta dish with one of Mario’s sauces. Buy the chopped meat or delve into a smokehouse burger made with prime chuck and brisket blend, Applewood smoked bacon, Vermont cheddar, salt and pepper.  Want one made from turkey? How about a burger with organic turkey breast, spinach, imported feta, salt and pepper?  All tasted savory and satisfying to the taste buds.  

I love osso bucco but want to make sure it’s cooked properly.  Joe can give you the recipe.  How does he know?  He didn’t start there by cutting meat.  It’s an art.  Joe spent his younger years in the kitchen helping his mother and grandmother.  Who else would you get the best recipes from?  Now he cooks up a variety of delicious food that you can simply heat and eat worthy of a great Italian restaurant.  That is where we move on toward the deli area. 

Chose imported cheeses such as provolone, ricotta salata, parmigiana reggiano, burrata, caciocavello, and scamorza.   Try one of the tastiest store made ravioli made with sweet red bell peppers and smoked mozzarella.  Top it with their ala vodka, tomato or pesto sauce.  

Easter brings requests for baby lamb, especially known for the delicacy of eating the roasted head…in Southern Italy.  You can purchase a whole baby lamb and Joe will gladly cut it up for roasting. These lambs are milk fed and tender.  Northern Italy tends to go for baby goat…no kid-ding.  Preference is a darker meat and liver vs. the head.  

Pizza Rustica, the famous Easter Italian Pie is like quiche with various meats and cheeses.  Sweeten the meal as you will find a diversity of locally made and imported pastries not to mention the Italian imported gift wrapped chocolate eggs.    

My take on this market?   I got the thin sausage; one with cheese and parsley, one with fennel.  Fried it up and put some of their tomato sauce atop.  I did my own osso bucco creation by dipping in flour and frying as usually done.  I did not have wine.  Instead, I substituted with water and raisins.  After letting it cook on a sort of high simmer, I added tomato sauce and lastly, a small dollop of their pesto sauce on the marrow. 

Mario’s has their own brand of ravioli, one of which is a sweet red pepper with ricotta cheese and smoke mozzarella.  Not being a vegetarian, I opted to top it with their Bolognese sauce, loaded with chopped beef.  

A portion of the deli department is dedicated to salads and pre-cooked items.  I decided on their vegetable lasagna to conclude that I didn’t require any meat to satiate my taste.   They cure their olives and sampled a mixture.  Octopus salad was quite tender and very little was added. 

One surprise was in requesting marrow bones.   Before it was trendy, they were thrown in with your order if you wanted.  Joe said that if you are there to buy other meat items, he’ll toss a few bones.  Otherwise, they are $2.99 per pound.  The surprise was that they were not the usual beef bones but from veal.  It’s kind of like having osso bucco without the meat.  

While you are shopping, take advantage of their $12 panini deal.  Choose one from their list or create your own.  For instance, I had one with grilled chicken, grilled veggies and a cheddar horseradish cheese.   Uncle Tony is their main panini maker who adds a cup of soup and a bottle of water (and some extra spices on the panini).  Extremely tummy filling.  Check it all out at www.mariosmeatsanddeli.com 

BUTCHER'S BEST

This is what I love about going to a butcher store.   Ottomanelli in Sunnyside.   I want to be able to cook meats quickly.  I requested about a pound of beef cut really thin.  They chose sirloin. It looked like rare roast beef.  I had to keep in mind that it was raw.

 

 Using my herb chopper, I combined a piece of lemongrass and fresh ginger.  Sauteed in a pan and added fresh scallions.  Dropped in 4 slices of the beef.  It took about two minutes to cook.  Beef was quite tender. 

Next was pork.  They chose the butt.   

I had taken the meat and divided it into portions.  Used a small portion cooked up with scallions and a bit of salt.  Short time later, added an egg into the pan and scrambled it.  Breakfast. 

Then there was lamb chosen from the leg.

I decided to have a poundish of ground turkey taken from the leg.  "It's juicier", he said.

Took a large portion of the ground turkey and combined it with an egg and Panko bread crumbs as well as some chopped ginger. Olive oil into the pan. Formed a large patty.  Tasted great. 

SHOPPING AT FAIRWAY MARKET

It's no surprise that I love to shop at Fairway Market.  This day I had a particular reason for each of the items that went into my shopping cart.

I had tried a few brands of cold brewed coffee, including Trader Joe's and Grady's.  Neither brands had a decaf so I made my own.  Not the most difficult to do.   Coarse ground coffee in a pitcher adding cold water and letting it stand for about a day.  Strain and place in container.  It was good but I wanted to do a few using Fairway's coffee...one with a light roast and one that is flavored.  With the decaf that I tried, the grind wasn't correct.  Stumptown Coffee Roasters in the cold brewed brand that is sold at Fairway.   I mixed with milk, as I usually  do, and tasted horrible and far as my palate was concerned.  Hated to waste the Local brand milk.  Oh, oh...my mistake...I just took a swig of the milk and realized that I might have gotten a bad one.  Took a little swig of Stumptown and it tasted great.  Now I know why Justin (one of the floor managers) said that he likes to drink it plain.  I called Stumptown to inquire and told that they use a blend of African and Latin American beans.  I guess I didn't look at the label because although it is cold brewed, it is not concentrated.  They cold brew it and add filtered water to the concentrate.  A bottle will cost you $4 for 10.4 ounces.   Will follow up when I use Fairway's brand of coffee.   If you get to the coffee area at the right time, you can watch the coffee beans being roasted.

Over at the meat department.   If you've recently indulged at a superb steakhouse restaurant and ordered a Porterhouse steak for two, the cost for the steak alone would have been close to $90 (plus tax and gratuity).  Hopefully you've gotten a dry aged steak.  So how much of a cost difference is it by purchasing the same size-weight at Fairway's butcher counter where they have dry aged steaks?
As a comparison, Uncle Jack's Steakhouse charges $94 for the 48-ouncer, which calculates to about $34 per pound. If ordering nothing else, two people can eat this in one sitting.  However, I'm guessing that it's the most "doggy bagged" item on their menu.  As for Fairway's steak, it was about $31 per pound and you can dine wearing jeans...but it is suggested that you tip the cook!  Fairway Market has their own "Peter Luger type" steak sauce.  Got a wild mushroom blend to go with the steak and another recommended Fairway product, a Carolina BBQ Sauce.

The price comparison is one thing, the quality is another.  Keep in mind that Uncle Jack's specializes in steaks and if you are dissatisfied, it will be dealt with at their restaurant....and hopefully other restaurants that you have that type of  a steak.   Cooking it at home, can you return it if you are dissatisfied?   Yes, but only if reasons are that it is spoiled...stuff like that.  Call customer service first and make sure you keep your receipt and label.  

Another meat thing.  This one is was due to  Larry's Southwestern Sauces going great with making chili con carne.  Fairway butcher uses a chuck that is specially ground for chili. Thicker grinding.  Saute the meat, ditch the fat and add the sauce.  I wonder how it would taste on challah bread!  Forget the beans.

Over at the seafood department.  Although I do love fish...not all...I'm not the best at cooking it.  One thing about getting seafood is that much of it is thawed, which unless I cook and freeze, cannot be re-frozen.  Today they had Lemon Sole and grey sole both wild caught and fresh. I was told that the Lemon Sole is milder than the grey...very white in color.  As I ordered it a shopper next to me commented on how high the price was per pound...I think it was about $18 per pound. He said something like..."you must be rich".  I said, "I just like having the best. That's why I shop here." Got 4 pieces that was less than half a pound. Looking forward to pan frying it.

UPDATE:  Pan fried it and sooooo worth the price.  Two pieces with the rest of your meal is perfect! Enough protein.  Fresh filet flounder and lemon sole is an unfortunate "luxury" these days.  A serving of two pieces comes to little over $4.   With the kale salad (see below), the dinner for two people would come to less than $16.  Broiling the sole would make this one of the most healthy and tastiest dinners going!  The filet is quick to cook and easily half the price of eating at a restaurant.

Why is it so expensive?  I asked Dennis Bland, the fishmonger and here is what he said.

"Lemon sole is actually a pseudonym for large flounder,  We use large Georges Bank Fillets which the fishermen have to travel quite a distance for the fish that combined with the time, weather, seasonality and quota’s  all play a part in the price. 

Our cost also increases because we select only the best of the best and it is hand selected by our purveyors on a daily basis.  The fish is still in rigor when it is received at our stores because we do not let it sit on the docks or in the markets for days as soon as it is landed by the fishermen it is on its way to our stores.

We chose to run with the lemon sole sale last week because the fish were fresh off of their spawn making the fish nice and firm and large in size."

I have tried Nutella and Fairway's imported hazelnut spread.  Here is another spread made from biscuits the sweet cracker types that you get on the airplane.  Would never use it as a spread...eat it right from the jar.  May try it with some Graeter's Ice Cream.

Let's get healthy as I check out a sign regarding Fairway's Signature Salad made with kale.  Request a chopped salad and it usually begins with your choice of greens.   Kale is the greens being promoted.  What's in the salad?  Cooked butternut squash with dried cranberries,pumpkins seeds, and goat cheese.  You can add other items to it.  I requested shrimp.  "Anything else?," she asked. "How about bacon"?  There was this pause as she then said, "That's not too healthy" (I understood, considering that I just ordered a particularly healthy salad).  I then opted for some grilled asparagus as the smile returned to her face.  It was then all chopped up and put in a "to go bowl".   It seemed to weigh quite a bit and certainly enough for two full meals of which the shrimp became the protein.  I don't know about you, but if I went to a restaurant this salad would have been twice the price.  The cost?  $7.41.

FAMOUS S.OTTOMANELLI AND SONS

Having tasted the burgers made by Ottomanelli at the "A Taste of Queens" event, I ventured over to one of the several butcher venues located at 61-05 Woodside Avenue.  The butcher stores are called S. Ottomanelli and Sons and they have been around the New York City area since 1932.

Frank Ottomanelli and his brother Michael own the store at this particular locale.  Don't let the wood shavings on the floor fool you regarding cleanliness. It's just the decor.  What are in the glass cases is what counts.

As I looked around there was one customer was placing an order. It was not only for the meats but a sandwich.  Michael decided that a sandwich to go would be a great idea, not only for someone just on the run but perhaps your schedule got you home before dinner could be prepared.  Perhaps you want to get in the order, go back to work with your sandwich and then pick it up prior to going home.

One of the cases displays an array of marinated meats that would go fine on the grill such as: beef or chicken on a stick; beef and chicken kabobs; steak wheels with Provolone cheese; and a rack of pork ribs.  Burgers are big. Patties with or without spices that include lamb burgers. As a matter of fact, Ottomanelli packages and sells its own spices.

Looks are not deceiving here at this family tradition is quite known  to have not only top quality on meat but a long line of wild game as well. Maybe it's a bit more common these days to get duck, quail, rabbit, venison and even ostrich.  This place can you provide you with rattlesnake steaks, python steaks, elk steaks, alligator steaks, kangaroo steaks, pheasants, frog legs, antelope and wild boar.

Frank tells me that his mom, a true Italian cook, can give me a recipe on cooking rabbit and wild boar, two particular items that I have found on the some fine dining Italian restaurants.

Steaks aged for 21 days.  Shell steak carefully wrapped in that white butcher paper.  I froze it since I wasn't sure how soon I'd be indulging.  Placed the frozen meat in my NuWave oven for a total of 23 minutes with just some sprinkled salt.  Medium...red in the middle but not raw.  Perfect the way it was.  

 

There was more for me to learn but I was wanting to try a sandwich as I saw this great looking pastrami that they make.  Better than most delis.

Lamb from the US, Australia, New Zealand?  Frank gets the lamb only from the United States...Colorado.  When I'm buying lamb chops, what are differences?  Frank took out various parts of the lamb to show me and explain.  Loin chops have a loin across the top similar to the filet mignon in beef.  Rib chops are the same minus the loin.  Frank then brought out the shoulder to show me those chops as well as the shanks. Being a butcher shop I can simply request one loin and one rib. A look in the case revealed some shoulder chops marinated in rosemary, garlic and olive oil.  Let's try that! 

Another alternative to pork is veal....which is basically a younger beef.   I was interested in the breast which contains the ribs.  How do you stuff and cook a breast of veal?  Let's get Frank's mom on the phone to tell me.  She seems to be the one with all the recipes.  That's another story for the Italian newspaper.

Short ribs are a big time with both grilling and potting.  Can be "fall off the bone" good.  I remember having this growing up.  It was called “flanken” and cooked in chicken soup.   I prefer potting it.  I need an Asian recipe! 

How about a fresh duck?  I already know how it comes out in my NuWave Oven.  This is one of a few items that you have to call for in advance.  Same goes for chicken livers, chicken fat and marrow bones.

Freezing meat was the next discussion.  If you are going to use the meat the same day or next, it will taste as fresh as when you picked it up.  Otherwise, don't wait a few days to freeze.  Do it when you get it home.  With all of the ways to pack it to avoid freezer burn, having the meat wrapped in that white "waxed" butcher paper with the "waxed" side facing the meat. 

I was just about ready to leave when I heard another customer raving about the chicken salad, one made with raisins, slivered almonds and celery.  Got it to go...I'll make a sandwich at home.