Guerilla Cooking!

Great article today in The New York Times about induction cooking! Really glad people are paying attention. We call it Guerilla Cooking. Just like DJs (Kool Herc) who started the hip hop scene back in the day plugging speakers/turntables into street light power lines in the Bronx, you could set up a kitchen on the street the same way! (if you're interested in the history, read Nelson George's Hip Hop America. He is doing a event at Greenlight Bookstore in Ft. Greene too!)

We went with induction because its what we're used to and cause of low entry costs! In Taiwan, people set up affordable space saving kitchens by using induction stoves. When I went through the laws for opening a restaurant in NYC, I noticed that I simply couldn't afford it. Hood vents are required in restaurants and they cost between 15k and 30k. BUT, there's a loop hole! If you use electric cooking methods i.e. "heat up" cooking, you don't need a hood! You just saved 15k! The bad part is your customers smell like pig booty after they leave which is what happened at Baohaus the first 3 months. Once we got the bread, we bought a hood and now you all can have enjoyable sex after baohaus without feeling like grimey animals.

I like things like induction stoves because it allows more people to play "the game" i.e. open restaurants. Take advantage yall! I even use cheap ass ikea pots and chopsticks for everything! Long chop sticks for frying/sauteeing/and stirring big pots of stew haha. You too can win Best of NY: Buns with $18 pots LOL, I feel like Gusteau from Ratatouille...

You don't need to be a foodie buying over priced le creuset cookware in Soho. Instead of focusing on expensive equipment, tools, etc. practice your craft with what you have around you! A lot of the best stuff I've made was out of necessity because I had to create a new technique or use a different ingredient cause I didn't have the money for the norm. I have shitty knife skills, but I practice and I work with what I have. There was a nice No Reservations episode about Techniques that I really liked so check that out too. I think some of the foodie culture is ass backwards because people put the cart before the horse doing advanced things or using end-game tools. Stick to the basics and you'll be fine...

BOSS

Mo Poreotix

This was my favorite set they did all season. These kids are hilarious and I like how they rep their yellowness lol

Paul Willis The Godfather of Pork

Paul Willis from Niman Ranch came through today with Jason! Paul is the Godfather of pork. He was the first Niman Ranch pork farmer and births mad free range all natural pork. Check him out!

VOTE POREOTIX!

I never watched ABDC because someone should take a dump in Mario Lopez's dimples, BUT, my brother Emery moved up and watches it every thursday. Its the shit! And Poreotix is crushin it. Vote for them!

Employee of the Month: Asa

Finally.... For the first time, this fool didn't get caught twisted at work. He could have won it any other month, but usually by the third week, homie was caught with a six pack on the late shift and disqualified haha.

Real talk, no one is more committed to the squad than Asa. He comes in when other bums don't show up, he loves calling the cops when drunk heads act a fool, and he kept me from shanking someone last night. Always a plus. AND, his mom Perri Star sends the best emails this side of the Yangtze River. Congrats Asa, you are the employee of the month. It should get you a lot of extra business DJ'ing Bar Mitzvahs LOL.

Make Crack Like This

Thank you Dope Fiends for your support the last 3 months. Mad white people with money have taken notice that Baohaus gets paper and now I have bread for Crackhaus. LOL. You know my cheap yellow ass wasn't going to spend money so I had to wait for Mr. Moneybags to come through and pay the key money.

But not to worry. The investors just pay bills. The food, the vibe, the people will be the same goons that have been at Baohaus since day 1. The Voice had a funny post about it today after Feast broke the news. They had a line about the LES being a neighborhood "on the rocks" as a post-ironic post-collegiate amusement park. I couldn't have said it better.

I do hate the LES above Delancey and west of Norfolk. Ever since Libation and Spitzer's came it sucked. I mean, it started sucking a little before that, but spitzer's was extra sucky. Its a good bar and I go there when no one else is there, it just attracts really shitty people after 5pm. Clinton is still cool and I like the Baohaus block, but when we were looking for locations we wanted something below Delancey.

Then we thought, why not do a place above Delancey that we would want to hang out at? That's what all my homies have been begging for the last few years. I remember when BOB was dope (its still cool, just too packed) and there were random no name places like the bar on orchard with a fish tank full of dead fish in the front that played 80s mashups (around 2003, gone now...). I was never sober enough to remember the name, I just always ended up there. You could roll around and run into cool stuff and there weren't a bunch of idiots in lacoste shirts all over. Now, its a stampede friday, saturday, and sunday morning. I don't even work at Baohaus those days cause the people that come suck. Its not the neighborhood peeps. We honestly don't have anywhere to go to hang out.

Crackhaus, Im sure is going to attract a lot of people outside the neighborhood, but I'm trying to establish an abrasive enough vibe so that they come once, try the food, and feel uncomfortable enough not to come back. Like all those yelpers that complain about our music and service at Baohaus, they don't come back and its awesome! This is the goal! Could we be the Taiwanese Rao's (where regulars own seats) down the line? I hope so. If you like golden era hip hop, ABT (american born taiwanese) food, and over the top ridiculousness, you'll like Crackhaus. The restaurant, the neighborhood, we all on the rocks....

Lastly, if you're on the FOB (mailing list) or you're a regular, just let Ning, Evan, Emery or me know you wanna come to soft opening and we'll get you in. We love our regulars, we appreciate the support, and we'll always try to take care of yall. For the record, the name "crack" isn't about dope, its about the food. We're doing a stew that I make at home and people always said it was crack. SO that's what its about. Obviously i like puns, but its about food. We'll probably donate to "just say no to drugs" so old people don't shit a brick but any donation is 100% disgenuine (is this a word? the spell check says no, but i disagree) and purely for marketing purposes.