Bourdain Showed Me the Soul of NYC. This Is My Goodbye.

My bittersweet final cook in New York City. It had to be something very NYC and Anthony Bourdain is just that. Covering two of his sandwich recipes that epitomize the city. A bodega Bacon, Egg & Cheese (baconegg&cheese) is a special one to me with lots of memories. Another would be Bourdain’s favorite: a chopped liver on rye inspired by his go-to order at Barney Greengrass.

I visited the real spots. I tasted them both. And then I made my own versions at home — as a farewell to the city I love.

Let’s do this one last time.
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Recipes found in the ‘Appetites’ cookbook by Anthony Bourdain
**I halved both!**

Bacon, Egg & Cheese
(Makes 2)
6 slices of bacon
2 Kaiser rolls
4 large eggs (I used 3 for one sandwich)
Salt and pepper
4 slices American cheese

The Barney Greengrass inspired Chopped Liver on Rye
(Makes 4)
4 large eggs
1 cup “schmaltz” (rendered chicken fat)
2 large or 3 medium yellow onions, roughly chopped
Salt to taste
2 pounds chicken livers
Black pepper
9 to 12 slices for rye bread

#anthonybourdain #NYC #antichef

Hello everyone. Way too early on that. I hope everyone is okay. Of course, always and forever. Let’s try that again. Hello everyone. Welcome back to our kitchen. One last cook in New York City. I think so. It’s been the time of my freaking life. Also, we did it. The freezer is officially empty. Well, except for that bacon there, and I’m going to need that. So, I’m going to cook something very New York today as a proper sendoff. And when I think New York, I think of someone who was New York over here. Well, of course, that would be the late great Anthony Bourdain, his appetites cookbook. And there are some very NYC recipes in here, specifically sandwiches. How about a bodega sandwich? Forget about pastrami. The iconic New York City sandwich is bacon, egg, and cheese on a hard roll. Thing is, when I’m ordering it, I always find I have to say it really fast. Can I have a bacon, egg, and cheese? It’s all one word. Bacon, egg, and cheese. Those are the rules. At least that’s what uh that’s what it felt like. So, if you’re not familiar with bodegas, well, it’s just like a it’s a New York City thing. They’re on what feels like almost every corner here. They’re always there when you need them in a pinch. And it’s part deli, part convenience store, and part magic really. Now, there really isn’t anything like a New York City. Bodega is a very special thing, and I’m majorly going to miss them. You know, where I’m moving, it’s just not the same really. Also, I’m making this chopped liver on rye. Check it out. The New York Barney Greengrass serves, as far as I’m concerned, the best chopped liver around. But if you can’t get to New York for it, if you can’t get to New York for it, if you can’t get to New York for it, all signs point to field trip, a Jewish deli, a restaurant, a place that doesn’t need to impress you. I walked into Barney Greengrass like I knew what I was doing. 5 seconds in, I realized I’m the amateur. They’re the pros. Chicken liver on rye. Yes, please. Um, can I order a sandwich to go? Sandwich to go. Like with fish on it. Uh, chicken liver on rye. Chicken liver and rye. Right from these guys. Perfect. [Music] Chicken liver on rye. Got it. Also picked up this rye loaf. You’ll see why later. So, I was just in uptown. Now I find myself in Midtown. That looks vaguely familiar to me. Keep your eyes peeled. Looking for a bodega. I mean, they’re on every corner, but it doesn’t matter which one. I just need a bacon, egg, and cheese. And I refuse to look up the lists. You know the list. Top 10 bodegas in New York City. It’s cheating. Hope everyone is okay. A wise man once said, “The best bodega is the one closest to you.” I don’t know who said it, but it was probably someone half drunk and very right. Sir. Hey, man. How you doing? Can I have bacon, egg, and cheese, please? Yeah, I’ll take it on a rock. [Music] Got the goods. Chopped liver on rye, bacon, egg, and cheese. And I literally just got back from the bodega, and this is still warm and fresh. So, we’ll start off with that. Let’s just keep in the fridge. [Music] The cheese looks like it has melted in with the eggs and then there’s bacon on top. Whereas in the book, it goes bacon, egg, and then cheese. I don’t think it matters. How do they do it? My plan was to uh compare the one I got from the bodega with the one that I’m about to make. But I mean, how much more perfect can you get? Really? It’s just a story of texture. Really soft and melty and crispy, greasy, and salty and ooh la la. So, I’m ready to begin here. Let me introduce you to my ingredients for bacon, egg, and cheese. We’re looking at bacon, egg, and cheese. This is American cheese. That’s important to mention. And you got your choice of a Kaiser roll here. I’m going to go with I think that looks pretty nice. Heat goes on to high and I’m going to be using my griddle here to fry up some bacon. But if you want to use a frying pan or the oven, it’s just this is kind of an inspired choice here. I’m going to fry up four pieces of bacon here. Three for the sandwich, one for backup. Looking for bacon that’s going to be golden brown and crisp. And if you burn it, he doesn’t mince words. He says start over. Bacon’s looking good. And I have it on a plate lined with paper towel. Next up is take my Kaiser into the bacon grease for 2 minutes. So, we got to leave Wo wo. It’s got a nice browning to it. That looks beautiful. And it heated it through. It’s smoking hot right now. I’m going to turn it off and have it cool a bit. In this thing here, I got three eggs, two eggs per sandwich, but I’m using a bigger Kaiser roll than uh three eggs just in case. Cracking in some black pepper and salt. Seasoned well. Mixing this well, but not too well cuz I’m not making scrambled eggs. It’s a valueneutral omelette. So, now the griddle has cooled down enough so that I can add the eggs into the bacon grease. So, really not going to cook these all that long. just a splash in the pan. I’m going to scrape it up into I’m looking for a shape of a Kaiser roll. Once the eggs are starting to cook through, I’m going to add two slices of American cheese, please. And then I’m going to let that cook until it starts to melt. Just like slightly. The three pieces of bacon go on top first. Then the egg. Cheese on top. That goes there. [Music] Make sure there’s no paper in your sandwich. I love it. Great. Okay. Order up. [Music] All right. So, this is the one I picked up from the outside world. I’ve been comparing to the one I just made, and I can confirm that they’re basically the same thing. [Music] Mhm. Something very magical going on with that sandwich. First of all, it’s the texture, right? I mean, soft eggs with melty cheese and crunchy crispy bacon. Now, he did say to serve it on a hard roll. I will admit mine’s very soft, and I think I prefer it that way. Not only was mine soft, but the bodega sandwich is soft as well. Salty, greasy. What more can you ask for really? I’m going to miss the hell out of the city. I’m going to miss the hell out of those bodegas. But it’s good to know [Music] that I can make it at home. That I can take it with me. [Music] Woo! Wa! That’s the chicken liver on rye from Barney Greengrass. They really filled that sucker up. Holy hell. Mhm. That is delicious. I think what I was expecting when I took a bite out of that is just like an a more overwhelming taste of chicken liver, which generally speaking, I’m just not like crazy about that flavor. It’s okay. It really is toned down. In fact, it’s sweet. It’s got like a like a candy kind of flavor to it. I’m like, what the hell is that? And I’m looking at the recipe. Maybe it’s caramelized onions. How am I going to recreate that? Probably not going to get this right the first time. The alchemy of the schmaltz, which we’re going to figure out what that is, and the fine textual line between grainy and mush takes some experimentation, but it’s worth the effort. [Music] So, let’s hard boil some eggs Tony styles into a small saucepan. And I’m going to cover them with cold water. Bring that up to a rapid boil. And once it’s boiling, I’m going to remove it from the heat. So, I’m going to cover it. Off it goes. Let it rest for 9 minutes. After 9 minutes, I have to gently slide these suckers into an ice bath. They need to cool off to the side. So, sauté pan over at the stove. Eggs. Please excuse us. Get the pan on a medium high heat. Remember when he was talking about schmaltz? He was talking about schmaltz, right? Oh, here it is. Rendered chicken fat is a big ingredient here. And I need around Let’s go with a tablespoon and a half. Adding in a roughly chopped yellow onion. Flip the onions around in the schmaltz. Sprinkle in salt so that the onions release their juices. Cook this on a medium heat. Keep it stirring. So, this is probably a very important step because when I tasted that sandwich, it had a very nice sweetness to it. It was from the caramelized onions. So, I need these to be a dark brown, turn sweet. Be patient. Actually, you know what? He says that you can go faster with this step than you would normally for caramelizing onions, but take care not to let them get blackened. I shall. I find that I just have to keep on stirring. I can’t really take my eyes off these. [Music] It’s a timeconsuming task. You really got to be in the mood for it. The man said 15 minutes around. This took me 25. And that’s as far as I want to go. Bowl. Thank you. So, just got to wipe out the onion pan. And there we are. Chicken liver. One lb worth. So, the chicken liver are looking pretty nice for chicken liver. I mean, that’s just it’s okay. Um, they’re okay looking, but I got to trim any of the connective tissue and fat. There’s not a whole lot. That’s what I meant by nice. Medium high heat. And another tablespoon or two of the schmaltz. How about a tablespoon and a half? And I heat that up first. Add in however many chicken liver you can fit in there. But you don’t want to crowd the pan. I don’t think I am. Okay. So he says if you do crowd the pan, these things are going to bubble pathetically in their own juices. That’s exactly what he says. So cooking these until they are medium brown on all sides. Nothing pink or squishy. At the same time, you don’t want to hammer them to death. So aka don’t overcook them. Don’t undercook them. Okay. So I don’t want pink or squishy. That one’s still kind of squishy. Add those in the bowl with the onions. Making progress. Bring the hard-boiled eggs over here. Crack them open and peel. Ooh, these are nice. Nice. Roughly chopped. And they go with everything else. Can I beam in the whisk? Thank you. What I got to do here is drizzle in around having the recipe around a tablespoon worth of the schmaltz. Pulse, pulse, pulse it. Okay, so this is where the recipe differs from the sandwich I bought today. You can still see egg and onion in there, but it’s also very much like a paste, kind of a mushy paste where he’s telling me to keep it homogeneous, but still chunky the mixture. So, I’m like, “Okay, well, maybe I’ll split the difference.” So, he says to add some more schmaltz, some chicken fat if you need to thin it out a bit, which I think I do. I think that walks a fine line between Anony’s recipe and the mixture on this piece of bread. How about some pepper, salt to taste? So, for best results, you refrigerate the mixture for a few hours during which the intense flavor of the onion will permeate through the whole thing. Okay, so look at that. So, this chicken liver mix has been out of the fridge for the last 15 minutes so that it could soften and relax slightly. Perfect. And I bought a loaf of rye bread from Barney Greengrass. I’m going to reach into the middle of the loaf here to get some ideal sandwich slices. That’s a smaller loaf. Okay. And now we construct the sandwich to the desired thickness. Considering the one I got from the shop, I would say fairly thick. And then that goes on top. Keeping in mind that the bread is not to be toasted. But how does that look? Order up. [Music] This is the one from Barney Greengrass. And I know it’s not fair to compare them now, but I just wanted you to see. Okay. Okay, so let me just uh remind myself what this is all about. This is the one from Barney Greenrass. You comparing them side by side like that, you probably shouldn’t do that. The one I got from Barney Green Grass is far superior to the one that I made today. It has the wow factor to it. Special blend of sweetness with the egg and chicken liver where it’s not all one thing, it’s all many things. where this one is mostly chicken liver. There’s no sweetness to that. Can’t pick up the egg. I got to circle back to what he said at the beginning. You probably are not going to get this right the first time. The alchemy of the schmaltz and the fine textural line between grainy and mush takes some experimentation, but it’s worth the effort. That completely makes sense to me now because mine is more grainy than mush where this one is perfect. I know we’re just looking at a bunch of gray things here, but it it does matter. I should stand up for my own sandwich and say that it is not bad. It is very good, but it does not have that very special quality that the one that I picked up in New York has. It’s not even close. two different things. Okay, I say that was a really good day in the kitchen and this this is the last video in New York. I’m sure as hell going to miss this city and uh life-changing time here. Anyway, I’m going to go all into uh my love for the city, why I’m leaving, where I’m moving to. You spill the beans in a video after this, so got to wait one more. For now, this was Jamie and Anthony. Bonapetit or And if this was my last bite in New York, I’d be okay with that. Hello.