Forget March Madness. It was Meatball Madness on Monday at the West End Neighborhood House.
Fun morning. Here's my story about judging the meatball contest.
Restaurant winner was Matthew Curtis, owner of Union City Grille.
Community winner was Nicole Durney, whose family owns Timmy D's Deli.
Meatball lovers are very particular about their likes and dislikes. I'm open to all kinds of intrepretations - and not necessarily those in tomato sauce - but I do like a juicy meatball.
The cookbook "Two Meatballs in the Italian Kitchen" (Artisan, 2007) by Pino Luongo and Mark Strausman has a chapter that includes "The Great Meatball Debate."
Strausman says he loves "a sense of abundance you get with a big, juicy meatball."
But Luongo argues that the proportions are "all wrong."
Luongo, born in northern Italian, says that "there's nothing more incongruous than a big meatball and a skinny strand of spaghetti."
Strausman's answer?
"You are insulting a dish invented by Italian immigrants and embraced by every single citizen of the United States."
I agree. Spaghetti and meatballs - made by my mom - would be near the top of my list of last meals.
4 comments:
How is someone who owns a deli the community winner? That does not seem fair.
Anyhow, I grind my own chuck and soak my panko in wine. And some other stuff. But it's a secret. And they are to die for. Wish I had known about the contest.
As for the photos -- meatballs are not supposed to be perfectly round. They are supposed to have some texture to hold the sauce.
Would have loved to enter that contest----if I knew about it! Why wasn't this advertised??
I bet I would have won the community contest by a mile!
Durney's is a community winner because they are located in the Little Italy community. What's wrong w/ that? I haven't had their meatballs but I can tell you their 5 kinds of subs ROCK!! I live in Pike Creek and I drive to Lincoln St. just to get a sub from them. Last week my fussy, British 83 year old mom said "I'm craving one of those subs from that funny named placed on Lincoln St." I knew exactly where she meant!
Best meatballs I have EVER had are Doc's Meatballs (the label on the frozen package must say exactly this) from Doc's butcher shop in Hockessin. They are textured inside and out (I hate those meatballs whose insides look like they have been pressed) and perfectly seasoned. I am a darn good cook but do not even try to make my own any more.
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