New York in the Movies: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)

The Ninja Turtles. Those mutated pizza-loving turtles dominated my childhood. Some kids played with legos. Some kids liked to throw the ball around. I liked TMNT. My earliest memories of a birthday party was a TMNT themed party. Aunts, Uncles, and Grandparents all ate cake off TMNT plates. They all wore little TMNT birthday hats. There are three gifts I got as a kid that are forever instilled in my memory banks. There was the original Tim Burton Batman on VHS for X-mas. There was the huge Millenium Falcon w/ Han Solo and Chewbacca toys. And there was the framed TMNT movie poster for X-mas. (Actually maybe four things, there was also the huge T-Rex from Jurassic Park for X-mas) It was the first friggin movie I saw in theatres.

Anyways I digress. Me and Brittany took a stroll down memory lane last night, and with a pie from Lenny's watched the first Turtles movie. What I found so interesting about the movie was how New York it is. Since working for the Gothamist and always being surrounded by New York news, I've been really interested in New York and it's setting in movies.

The first Turtles movie was unlike all the other movies. It was dark. Sometimes it was violent. It mirrored the tone of the comics, and strayed away from the cartoon. But it also depicted a dark, dangerous 1980's New York. Crime was high during those years before the Giuliani campaign. Crack hit the streets like an atom-bomb. Kids were peddling the stuff all over the city and crime was growing at an exponentially high rate.

One of the major plot lines of the movie was the booming rate in crime, especially amongst teens. Of course crack or drugs in general are never mentioned in the movie, but there are certainly parallels. Across the country there was a war on violent video games and naughty lyrics and the teens depicted in the movie are seen gambling, smoking cigarettes, and graffiti tagging walls. While it may be more reminiscent of the juvenile delinquents in Pinocchio, people were certainly afraid that their teens were spiraling out of control. There is a tacked-on sub-plot in the movie in which April's boss deals with his delinquent son. He constantly complains about his son listening to a walkman (which also happens to be stolen) and his slacking off in school. We are to assume that he is a single dad, and is totally consumed by his job. In a way, the fears of this character echo the fear many parents felt for their  teenagers.

Meanwhile, the movie depicts the turtles as everyday teenagers; Donatello is the geeky smart-ass, Leonardo the stoic and sometimes self-righteous leader, Raphael is tempestuous and is controlled by his emotions and Michaelangelo is a slacker. What these teens have that the other teens in the movie don't have is a respect for their elders (Splinter). There is one really melodramatic scene in which one of the teen gang leaders (played by Sam Rockwell!) tells Casey Jones that his fellow gang of miscreants are a family, that the Shredder is like a father to them. But, and in a way only Casey Jones could put it, their family is a fractured one based on carelessness and skewed morals.

In the end, April's Boss reunites with his son who realizes how much his father truly cares for him. And this is what the movie is really about...that teens will always be teens and that fathers will always care for their sons. The Turtles are the ideal role-models, they have fun and aren't necessarily straight-edge, but they are still good children.

Back to New York, there are plenty of familiar spots to see. There is Bleecker St, familiar looking Lower Manhattan-ish row homes, and Central Park. The movie was also shot extensively at Silvercup Studios in Long Island City.

Also, got to love Raphael's heavy New York accent.

Valentine's Day Menu

This Valentines Day was a struggle. Earlier last month my car was towed in DUMBO, and although I was lucky to find this out quickly and was close enough to walk to the tow yard to pick the car up, I was down a couple hundred bucks. Needless to say, Valentine's was freaking me out a little bit. Luckily, we had enough basic groceries in the pantry and freezer that I was able to whip up a nice meal for Brittany, and Valentines ended up being quite nice. I started off with a risotto with asparagus and pancetta. We already had a little arborio rice, but not quite enough for a full serving. To make up for this I used some wild black rice that we've had stowed away forever. All I needed to buy was the pancetta. Next I made Chicken Francese, a meal I've tried and failed to make in the past. We had plenty of chicken in the freezer, so all I ended up buying was some lemons and a bunch of parsley. For dessert, I baked chocolate chip cookies with white and chocolate chips from scratch. Yeah. I bake.

Here's the recipe:

Wild-Rice Risotto with Asparagus and Pancetta

1/2 cup Arborio Rice
1 cup Wild Rice
handful of parsley
1/4 lb Pancetta, diced
1 medium onion, finely chopped
olive oil
3 tbsp Butter
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano
1/2 lb. Asparagus


1.Boil about 3 quarts of water in a large pot. Add the asparagus and blanche for about 1 minute. Remove the asparagus and immediately put it in a bowl of ice water to shock the asparagus. Chop the aspragus lengthwise into 1 inch portions, and put it aside.

(Now you can do one of two things. You can either save the hot water that you boiled the asparagus in and use that a sort of vegetable broth, just keep the water on a simmer. You can also use chicken stock, just use low-sodium if that's the direction you want to go in.)

2.In a large heavy bottomed pan (at least three inches high), heat about 2 tbsp. olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion and pancetta. Cook for about 3-5 minutes, until the onions turn opaque and the pancetta is fragrant.

3.Add both kinds of rice to the pan. Toast the rice in the pan for about 2 minutes, until the arborio rice turns opaque.

4.Ladle in the warm asparagus water or chicken stock, enough to cover the rice mixture evenly. Bring the mixture to a slow boil. Stir constantly, seriously, your arms will hurt.

5.Keep stirring till the stock evaporates below the line of the rice, and then add more stock one ladleful at a time. Do this for about 15 minutes. The arborio rice should be creamy and the wild-rice should still be a little firm.

6.Turn the heat off. Add in the butter, parsley, and parmigiano-reggiano. Stir it all together, add salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Chicken Francese

1 1/2 lbs Chicken Breast
1 lemon
handful of chopped parsley
4 eggs
flour, about 2 cups to dredge
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
olive oil
2 tbsp. butter

1. Using the flat side of a meat mallet, pound the trimmed chicken breast till it's about a 1/4 in. thick.

2. In a large skillet or cast-iron skillet heat about 1/2 cup of olive oil.

3. Assemble your breading station. In a large dish, add the flour with some salt and pepper. Use a fork to stir it all together. In a separate wide bowl, scramble the eggs with about 3 tbsp. of water to make an egg wash. First dredge the chicken in the flour. Give it an even coating and then shake off any excess flour. Next, drop it in the egg wash. Let any excess egg trickle off the meat and then add directly to the skillet. You can probably fit about 2 chicken breast per batch.

4. Fry the cutlets for about 2 minutes each side, or until each side is golden brown. When the cutlet is done put it in a large platter to reserve.

5. Meanwhile, cut half a lemon into thin slices and reserve the other half.

6.When the cutlets are done, drop the thin slices of lemon into the pan and cook for about 1 minute. The lemon should become fragrant, just don't let it burn.

7. De-glaze the pan with white wine. Scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Then add the chicken stock, and the juice of the other half of lemon you were holding aside. Bring the mixture to a simmer and cook for about 3 minutes.

8. Roll the butter in some of the flour from earlier. Swirl it into the pan. The sauce should thicken.

9. Next, add the chicken back into the pan with the lemon slices sitting atop the chicken. Simmer for another 3-4 minutes in the sauce. When all the cutlets are done and are assembled on a platter, season with salt and pepper, then cover the chicken with sauce in the pan. Garnish with some chopped parsley.

Recipe: Yellow Rice

Earlier today, Brittany set out instructions for preparing some pork we bought the other night to be cooked in the slow cooker. After a relaxing day of Giants parade coverage, a perfect mid-day bloody mary, and anxious saliva inducing of watching a ridiculous piece of pork cook slowly, I came upon some inspiration to make yellow rice. It's a perfect bedding for a pulled pork kind of dish.




Ingredients:
1 spanish onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 celery stalks
I used 2 small Asian chili peppers, but any pepper you would like would work. I prefer a little heat, so I like to use chilis.

1 tsp Turmeric
1/4 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp Oregano
1/2 tsp Salt
1 tbsp Butter, unsalted
3 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of Jasmine or Long-Grain Rice

1.In a medium saucepan or wok, saute your vegetables with the butter. Cook for about 2 minutes
2.Add the turmeric, cumin, cayenne and oregano, stir, let cook another 30 seconds.
3.Add the water and salt and bring mixture to a boil. When the boil begins, add the rice and stir well. Lower the temperature to your lowest setting and cover the pot. Let it cook for 18-20 minutes, till all the water has evaporated. Stir the rice together and serve.