Tag Archives: Food

The Pizza Princes of Grimaldi’s

April 4, 2023 tremendousblog 3 Comments

Pizza is a religion in New Jersey, ranking just below the Catholic Church. So I observed a moment of silence as I entered the inner sanctum.

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This is Grimaldi’s in Hoboken, NJ. Founded in 2010, Grimaldi’s serves outstanding Neapolitan and New York style pizzas from its 1000 degree coal oven.

After perusing the extensive menu, I decided to order the original: a margherita.

I tried to pay attention to how my friend’s week had gone, but I kept getting distracted. Just feet away, pizzaiolos were shaping dough with the skill of Michelangelo.

Whenever a pizza came out, I eyed it like a hungry dog. Shoot, not mine!

Then, the moment of truth. Our waitress placed my steaming pie in front of me, and I beamed.

Hoisting the first slice, I could tell the crust was crispy but not singed. Perfection.

Time for a bite….

I could almost see the garden where the tomatoes were planted. Fresh basil perfumed the luscious fruits.

This was the best pizza sauce I’ve ever had.

The mozzarella was soft and unctuous. The crust: airy and crisp.

You won’t find a better margherita. I made just one mistake: not ordering the larger size, like my friend did!

Perhaps the reason Grimaldi’s is so good is its attention to detail.

Every pizza is carefully formed. Every drink comes in a frosted glass.

That’s what it takes to be the best.

Grimaldi’s also has mouth-watering entrees like eggplant parm. I have to try it some day — if I can ever turn down the pizza!

Grimaldi’s is conveniently located on Hoboken’s Washington Street. It’s open from 11:30am to 11:00pm, seven days a week, and even delivers.

Stop in for the pie of your life!

What are you favorite pizzerias? Leave a comment and let me know!

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Growing Veggies on Mars

May 2, 2022 tremendousblog 4 Comments

NASA intends to put the first man on Mars in the 2030’s. But once he’s there, what will he have for lunch?

Perhaps veggies grown in a BioPod.

This incredible new device from startup Interstellar Lab could finally allow us to cultivate crops in space. It could also revolutionize agriculture here on Earth.

The BioPod is an inflatable dome about 20 feet wide, 33 feet long, and 15 feet tall. It uses aeroponics, precision nutrient delivery, and careful climate control to produce the ideal growing environment for plants.

This means it can grow high value crops like flowers and microgreens. It can even grow plants that can’t be grown with traditional agriculture, like vanilla.

It’s also remarkably efficient, reducing water consumption by 98% while boosting yields up to 300-fold.

The BioPod is designed not just to feed humans in space, but on an increasingly unpredictable Earth. From a recent interview:

“Climate change is a real emergency for Earth, and we only have a small window to bring about positive change. We are developing a new framework for sustainable living on Earth and a testbed for future space missions,” Barbara Belvisi, Founder and CEO, Interstellar Lab said.

The BioPod is currently in production. You can even pre-order one now!

But at $250,000 each plus a monthly subscription fee, it’s a bit out of reach for most gardeners. Oh, and shipping’s not included.

However, if the BioPod can reduce inputs and boost yields as radically as Interstellar claims, I could see rapid adoption in the agriculture industry.

Already, companies like Bowery Farming are taking agriculture from farms to urban warehouses using hydroponics. They seem like a natural customer for Interstellar Lab, and I’m sure there are many more.

Long term, perhaps the BioPod will be deployed on Mars to support astronauts brought there by a SpaceX Starship. It’s a beautiful future I look forward to.

In the mean time, I’m itching to try a BioPod salad! 🙂

What do you think of the BioPod? Would you try its food?

Leave a comment at the bottom and let me know.

Have a great day everyone! 👋

Robot Pizzas and the Future of Fast Food

April 12, 2022 tremendousblog 7 Comments

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Inside a gleaming metal structure the size of a shipping container, robotic arms pull out a disk of dough. They carefully apply tomato sauce, then the cheese.

Pepperoni, anyone?

This store was created by Hyper Robotics, an intriguing startup from Israel that makes automated pizzerias. Its technology is in use today at a Pizza Hut in Israel.

The robot can even cook the pizza, cut it, and put it in a box! But for now, there’s still one employee there to hand the box to the customer.

Hyper Robotics isn’t the first company to attempt robotic pizza. California-based Zume made pizzas autonomously and even baked the pizza en route to you.

But Zume burned cash at a rate of over $10 million a day. Despite a $375 million investment from Softbank in 2018 the company exited the pizza business in early 2020.

The most interesting implications of robotic restaurants may be for the labor force. Over 5 million people work in fast food restaurants in America today.

In a weaker labor market, robotic restaurants could pose a real threat to the livings of working class people. But in today’s world of rock bottom unemployment, the robots may simply be taking a job no one wants.

Many restaurants are cutting hours or reducing service due to a lack of employees. Perhaps if people want to eat pizza but no one wants to make it, robots can help.

Since the pandemic, many former fast food workers have found higher paying jobs at e-commerce fulfillment centers, shipping companies, and the like. For a group of workers that so often struggled, I count this move up the value chain as something to celebrate.

Would you try a robot pizza? And what impact do you think robotics will have on restaurants and the labor market?

Leave a comment at the bottom and let me know!

Robot Hands, Vertical Farms, and the Future of Food

August 30, 2021 tremendousblog 3 Comments

On Saturday, I stood in the produce section of a nearby Whole Foods. My eyes were drawn to tiny packages of delicate microgreens. The producer: Aero Farms.

Agriculture faces a difficult environment. Climate change is making weather more extreme and unpredictable. Workers are harder and harder to find. But a new model of farming is emerging, and it looks like nothing else we’ve ever seen.

Aero Farms grows greens in vertical stacks in what was once an abandoned steel mill. The farm is in gritty Newark, NJ, just a few miles from the Whole Foods where I encountered their product. They use 95% less water and 99% less land than a traditional farm. And unlike other farms, they can grow year round.

Technology is also revolutionizing how produce is picked. A company called Root AI makes soft, robotic hands that can pick anything from a hearty cucumber to a fragile strawberry. Alongside the robotic hands is a camera enabled with AI, which can identify the ripe produce and leave the rest to grow.

Seeing it in action feels like seeing the future:

These robots are now being put to use in giant warehouse farms that you could easily mistake for an Amazon Fulfillment Center. These are a project of AppHarvest, which claims they use 90% less water and are 30 times more productive per acre than a traditional farm.

Is that an Amazon Fulfillment Center in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?

Even if the company’s projections are a bit optimistic, there’s strong evidence from numerous producers that indoor farming uses dramatically less water and space. And with the farm just a few miles from its customers in major cities, transportation costs and emissions are cut to the bone.

Putting robotics and indoor farming together, I think we are headed to a future that produces more output (food) with far fewer inputs (labor, water, land). And unlike human labor, electronics tend to rapidly decrease in price. That will only speed their adoption and lower food prices further.

To quote Lincoln Steffens:

“I have seen the future and it works.”

Move Over, Cake Boss: There’s a New Sheriff in Town

August 27, 2021 tremendousblog 1 Comment

Buddy Valastro of Carlo’s Bakery may be the Cake Boss, but there’s a new sheriff in town.

Recoleta is an Argentinian bakery in Union City, NJ that makes some of the best cake I’ve ever tasted. When I walked in for the first time in 2019, I noticed 3 things:

1) The beautiful interior, filled with comfortable couches and chairs

2) The engrossing pastry case, replete with the traditional pastries of Argentina

3) The prices, which are from another era. Most pastries are little more than a dollar, and slices of cake are around $3.

As you bite into a slice of their chocolate cake, you glide through a thick layer of velvety buttercream into moist spongecake pervaded by cocoa.

With a satisfying cup of coffee at your side, and a mere $4 and change gone from your wallet, you can gaze out at lively Bergenline Avenue and watch the people go by.

I can’t think of a better way to pass an afternoon.

If you’re in the area, stop by Recoleta…before TLC does. 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Best Mexican Food Is In…New Jersey?

July 23, 2021 tremendousblog 13 Comments

On a quiet side street in Union City, NJ is a small storefront. Inside: some of the best Mexican food in the country.

La Piedra del Sol is run by a lovely family from Oaxaca, Mexico, a region known for its cuisine. While we often think of California or Texas as the best places for Mexican food in America, I submit this may be the best Mexican north of the Rio Grande.

Chips and salsa are no afterthought here. Everything is housemade.

I first tried this wonderful restaurant on a frigid Valentine’s Day night. The shrimp fajitas oozed flavor. The guacamole was creamy and delicious. Simple chips and salsa were an incredible experience: multiple salsas with deep, rich flavors and crispy tortilla wedges, all housemade.

Service is attentive and friendly. Everything is done in-house. As the end of our meal came, the owner sent out a delicious tres leches cake, free of charge. It was moist, milky, wonderful. This happened to be one of the last meals out my wife and I had before COVID, and it was memorable.

I visited again on a recent evening and the food was better than ever. I’m very grateful the shutdowns didn’t force this wonderful spot out of business.

La Piedra del Sol is open every day but Sunday and in addition to wallet friendly prices, it’s also BYOB. If you’re in the area, you’d be crazy not to visit.

Have a great weekend everyone!

How I Eat Delicious Organic Produce for Next to Nothing: Introducing Misfits Market

March 4, 2021 tremendousblog 293 Comments

Last Saturday, my wife went to a farmer’s market with her friend. As her friend loaded up on yummy veggies, my wife noticed something: she was paying $40 for a small bag of vegetables while we pay $26 for twice as much. And ours is 100% organic, whereas the farmer’s market haul was only about half.

Do we have special connections down on the farm? Sort of…

For over a year, my wife and I have gotten almost all our produce from Misfits Market, a subscription service that sends a big box of delicious, all-organic fruits and vegetables to your door every week. The quality is absolutely exceptional. I thought radishes were cold, tasteless chunks under harsh lights on salad bars until I tried theirs! Colorful, peppery, crispy, delicious!

Misfits is a great way to introduce yourself to new kinds of produce. I’ve tried golden beets, turnips, rutabagas, chard, collard greens, and countless other delicious things I never would’ve thought to buy otherwise. Getting the surprise veg each week is like Christmas! But if you prefer to choose your produce, they offer that as well.

We pay $26.25 a week for more than enough veggies for both of us. In fact, we often have to delay our next shipment (easy to do), so our real cost is probably barely over $20/week.

Before we got Misfits, I would buy a smaller assortment of veggies at Aldi for about $20. To get as much produce as Misfits, Aldi would run at least $30, even for non-organic! And Aldi is about the cheapest grocery store there is.

So let’s review:

1) Cheaper than any grocery store
2) Incredible taste
3) All-organic
4) Shipped to your door

What’s not to like? Well, nothing, which is why my wife and I have been loyal Misfits customers for so long! If you want to join us, use this link to sign up and you’ll save $10 on your first order. I’ll also get $10.

They have plans for households of 2-3 and a larger box for bigger households. FYI: Single-person households won’t be able to eat all this.

Enjoy in good health!

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