Category Archive
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new sushi on our block!
and it’s tasty. after an afternoon browsing the racks at atlantis avenue, the thrift store right next to brunch spot + bar harefield road, our appetites were whetted. it had been a good day of shopping: a mustard yellow lacoste polo and buttery yellow guy berra button up for husband, and a blue skirt with brown flowers (five bucks) and a velvety blue and chocolate brown striped sweater (ten bucks) for me. yay!
but shopping makes me hungry; that, combined with the absolutely dismal weather yesterday, meant we should treat ourselves. it must have been a day for adventures, because from the new (to us) thrift store we went to the new (to our block) sushi place. a sushi place on my street! now this *really* is the perfect neighborhood.
its name is sankura and it’s your typical small sushi restaurant – pretty fans on the wall, nothing else too exciting. and the sushi was decent, although the spicy tuna came doused in waaaay too much mayonaise. i had a sweet potato tempura roll (not bad, but can you really go wrong with fried sweet potato? and i’ve actually had definitively better versions) for four bucks, and a tokyo roll (baked eel, crunchy asparagus and avocado that i couldn’t taste at all, topped with hunks of spicy salmon) for eight bucks. it also came with free miso soup – a little watery, but that’s ok, because the adverse would be too salty and that would be worse. sankura definitely does not skimp on the portions – my two rolls filled me up beyond belief. husband had a philly roll (fine) and some other fancy pants roll with shrimp tempura in it and flying fish roe and that was pretty good. and heath had the spicy tuna roll and something else with baked eel in it that i didn’t try. and we were all stuffed! as in, we left almost an entire roll’s worth of pieces untouched. and we had been hungry too, so that was pretty successful.
also, they give you these cute little pickled dishes before they bring out the sushi (bean sprouts, one had mushrooms in it i think, and i dunno what the other one was but i ate it all). and the water cups are huge! which i like because i am a camel and never get enough water when i’m at restaurants. so: is it the best sushi in the city? nope. but a good meal for a not-bad price? sankura seems a pretty solid choice. and did i mention that it’s spitting distance from my house?
tort me if you must, i’m sick of outlining
and i turn to food for my relief.
although i’ve sworn myself to eating as thriftily as possible (read: no more going out!) i haven’t had the greatest success. although i’ve been doing better than before on the spending horizon – packing lunches, bringing my own coffee, etc. and when i do eat out, it hasn’t been expensive, per se…
sunday was brunch with husband and sam and jenny at harefield road (which is also a nice place to go if you’re looking to go to a bar, and then it is a good place to go to for brunch, so harefield road wins).
eleven bucks for “harefield eggs” (eggs benedict with smoked salmon in place of ham; as i feared, the salmon was too salty – i missed my eggs florentine! – but the eggs were perfectly poached and the hollandaise sauce wasn’t overwhelming) + fruit + crispy yummy breakfast potatoes + coffee + mimosa = sure guarantee that it’s going to be a lazy sunday. mmhmm. jenny’s cobb salad was ginormous and husband was a fan of his breakfast burrito (with chorizo, otherwise i would have been on it like…white on rice? but the menu warns you rather sternly no substitutions! so i went with the harefield eggs – you didn’t forget already, did you?). sam seemed like the winner with his huevos rancheros. after the heartbreaking disappointment that was phoebe cafe’s huevos rancheros, i was buying into that salsa commercial that scorned the salsa from *new york city* (i can hear the disbelieving cowboy drawls now, but for the life of me can’t remember the brand name). i was wary of huevos rancheros in new york, but after seeing sam devour his plate, i think i’m ready for a second try.
for dinner last night we went to najeeb’s. husband goes there about once every other week and has been a fan, but falafel’s never quite done it for me. so for my first trip i got the vegetable combo plate: cold spinach with chickpeas, lentils with cracked bulgar wheat, and dolmades. husband had brought home the dolmades before, and they were expectedly delicious, and i love the yogurt dipping sauce, and the lentils were good but the spinach was…ugh. the spinach was the reason kids grow up thinking they don’t like spinach. spinach is so much tastier than that!
but i don’t fault najeeb, because he does so well with everything else. husband got the falafel platter (chris opted just for a falafel sandwich; difference seems to be that the platter is a sandwich deconstructed, with more hummus) and the falafel were *good*! Like, so good. the happiest little orangey balls of fried chickpeas you’ve ever seen. they look more like funky meatballs than falafels; more orange than brown, smaller, less green bits when you bit into them. maybe not so much what meatballs really look like, but what they look like in a kids picture book. yea, like that. yum. no but really they were. one reason might be because they are smaller, so you get a better ratio of fried crust to…innards. but even the innards were good (and i never like falafel innards!) so go najeeb. and husband likes them more than other falafels, and he likes falafels, so it’s wins all around.
husband also got mint lemonade with rose flavor and i had a cardamon iced coffee. coffee tasted like iced coffee, not like cardamon, but like really good iced coffee – maybe the extra goodness was the cardamon and i just don’t have a sophisticated enough palate to notice. mint lemonade tasted like lemonade, and then after swallowing a mouthful, you got a face-ful of rose. sweet! i dug it. husband dug it. i think chris dug it. good stuff.
so dinner was good, and afterwards was good too. we chatted with najeeb, who turns out to have a house in southern california, so he told us about that and about the yearly pilgrimages he makes to mount whitney (to shit! because he likes to shit in the highest place in the [continguous] united states! najeeb’s a great guy). and then he charged us $22.50 so husband gave him $25 and he gave us back $17.25 in change. huh? najeeb, you crazy. but we dig it.
obviously this meant we had enough left-over (though not really – even when i spend less money than i owe, that’s more than i’m supposed to be spending, since i’m not supposed to be spending *any*) for ralph’s! chris went with the reliable honeydew, but since it was cold out i wanted something more substantial (from my frozen dessert), so i picked the chocolate peanut butter cup (which they finally had! they didn’t have it when they first opened a few weeks ago). which meant that husband picked out most of the peanut butter bits. but it was still delicious and satisfying, in that what a great dinner we just had and this is going to be a good night, if only i didn’t have to study-way. yea. like that.
i just looked down
and realized my last post was about a week and a half ago. and i ate so much between then and now. i didn’t even mention my return trip to quantum leap for their weirdly quirky mix of steamed vegetables (not that steamed vegetables are ever quirky, but they put together a truly odd selection of things that don’t seem to go with other things, so i’m calling it quirky) and a massive order of sweet potato fries. and i also forgot to mention the magical uber-whipped cream cheese that the jewish law students association put out for passover – the super-whipped-ness of the cream cheese made it actually possible to spread it on the matzoh (instead of being like normal cream cheese, which always ends up in cracking the matzoh with its resistance to spreading easily, leaving me with a lap of matzoh dust and nothing to put in my mouth).
and there are other things i’m sure i forgot to mention too. and this was a light week! (it being passover and all, and finals supposedly keeping me locked inside, and student loans getting thin, my ability to go out and eat/cook fancy meals has been severely limited)
i am a glutton. but at least a glutton surrounding by tasty food, which is better than being a glutton surrounded by sad, not-tasty food.
perfect bites
as i know i’ve mentioned before, it’s march madness. which means lots of basketball games. which means beer…and snacks! last night i picked up a bag of everything bagel crisps – always a welcomed treat. husband outdid me today, though, bringing home a jar of green olives stuffed with bleu cheese (as well as greek olive-flavored hummus and blue corn chips…hm, i’m sensing a theme here). these olives are fantastic, and the bleu cheese is subtle and silky, cutting through the bite of the brine perfectly. i just may forget i’m supposed to be washing them down with beer…
r.i.p., honey cinnamon toast
last summer, it seemed like we had someone sleeping on our couch every week (and often, another friend sleeping on the living room floor). and for weekend brunches, there was no where better than phoebe’s.
sure, the food took forever to arrive, and the service was more snarls than smiles (typical hipsters…too cool for school), but it was our “spot.”
the food was cheap and veg-friendly, the coffee fair-trade, and the backyard the perfect mix of quirky and sunny. while the huevos rancheros were a sorry sight (leave it to new york to muck up perfectly good mexican food), the steamed eggs were my (breakfast) salvation: fluffy scrambled eggs were mixed with peppers and cheese and deliciously accompanied by sweet potatoes, salad and toast…always more than i could finish (but i made valiant attempts).
the waffles were a sight to behold (and just as tasty as they looked), the oatmeal surpassed bland comfort food status and became a work of culinary art (the sunflower seeds were a nice touch, and the steamed milk was a step above for plain-jane oatmeal), and the grilled cheeses were inspired (the monterey jack and olive tapenade on ciabatta was my favorite).
it was all good, but the crowning achievement, the one that made us keep eating when our seams threatened to burst, was the cinnamon honey toast. super-thick slices, gooey and sweet, it was a meal on its own – not bad for $3.75.
unfortunately, the latest reports say phoebe’s gone downhill: the cinnamon honey toast has been tragically reduced, from its super-thick slices of glory to average slices of toast. and they’ve upped the price. my heart mourns the passing of an peerless favorite: nothing will ever come close to the old cinnamon toast perfection (though i don’t mind tasting lots of things just to make sure). with quality down and prices up, we may have to find a new brunch spot. oh sure, there’s always the oak cafe, delicious and classy (i never knew how much i loved polenta until i tried oak’s – soft and creamy and topped with a perfectly fried egg)…but curing a hangover with a mimosa in oak’s lovely garden just wouldn’t feel right.
summer is nearing. the hunt is on…
last night (she said)
forgive the strokes reference, i’m tired and hungry. and i just stubbed my toe on my behemoth of a con law book.
but enough whining. last night was fun. chris came over, and he husband and i went over to colin and sam’s – stopping to get food first, of course. for me it was a fresh, tasty salad from the lovely salad queen (cheerful bright interior, generally friendly staff…and their green goddess dressing is tops). the boys got hefty spinach lasagna from tony’s pizza, served piping hot in a thick, tempting pool of melted cheese and tomato sauce. definitely not for the small of appetite.
and to finish it all off, naturally, we went to ralph’s. my half chocolate cupcake/half birthday cake creme ice was delightful (and awoke in me a newfound love for sprinkles!), chris got some chocolate-y mix and husband got a chocolate ice cream that was so incredibly thick and yummy…mm, it was perfection.
then to colin’s and sam’s, where we saw t and julio. we downed some beers and watched some college basketball before deciding to find a new bar to add to our repertoire. so it was over to havermeyer, where we wandered for a bit before finding a lonely little spot advertising three dollar beers. three dollar beers! of course we had to give it a chance.
turns out three dollar beers (standard selection of mass-produced light beers) weren’t the only price-conscious offerings – they also had beer+shot specials for five bucks (six if you wanted to replace the bud light with a stella). lovely exposed brick walls were hung with two super-sweet flat-screen plasma t.v.’s…that weren’t even plugged in! guess they were just there for decoration. we settled down in the front area, where a long bench, topped with cute pillows (more apropos of a coffee shop, perhaps, than a bar) lined one wall. nothing too special, but a good place to start the night.
from there, it was a hop, skip and a jump (though it seemed longer in the cold and wind!) to the iconic spuyten duyvil, which was pa-a-acked (par for the course). j’adore spuyten duyvil (some claim it stems from the dutch for “in spite of the devil” or “spite the devil” – see the wikipedia entry on the bronx neighborhood of the same name).
despite being filled to the brim, the place still manages to be inviting and fun, and the characters inside make decent fodder for people-watching. we snagged a corner between the bar and a pile of miscellaneous coats (we ended up playing coat-check of sorts for people coming to claim their outerwear…one lady even tipped us!)
when it comes to fancy beers, i don’t know that spuyten duyvil can be beat. a few unfiltered wheat beers; a platter of sheep’s milk cheese, salty charcuterie slices and a smear of pate (perfectly accompanied by slices of light, fluffy bread and a heaping bowl of spicy olives); good friends and good music; all in all, have to say, it was a pretty good night.
cheers*
thai food, you’ve been letting me down lately. and i’ve been such a devoted fan. always there with a smile, ready to eat you, so welcoming of all your peanuts and bamboo shoots. but i have to say, you’ve been letting me down.
oh sure, there was always kai kai kai kai, so trusty and reliable for soaking up the alcohol on those long nights on avenue a, migrating between drop-off, hi-fi, and niagara. that free mango icee i got that one time was pretty cool. but let’s face, we’ll never be more than drinking buddies.
there’s sea thai too, where husband took me for my birthday last year. you were delicious, and shiny, and i thought we could be friends. but ultimately, you were just too hip for me – all the trendy crowds interfered with my ability to peacefully enjoy your yummy vermicelli noodles. though i have to admit, the reflecting pool is pretty sweet. and a bench swing at the bar? i dig it.
so i went across the street, to your more cozy neighbor, chai thai. what can i say chai, we haven’t had good luck, you and i. the first time i went, i had a bite of husband’s pad thai and it was so delicious, i ordered my own. but i didn’t order the fly that came with it, and your wait staff was at a loss when i asked them to remove the big buzzing garnish. they even tried to charge me for it! but you’d been there for my other friends, so i was willing to give you a second chance. after all, everyone deserves one, right? alas, you’ve disappointed me again for what may be the last time. yes, your spring rolls were perfectly done. i couldn’t have asked for better. and your prices – right up my alley. you were supposed to be so good. but our entrees? they were so bad. this time, my pad thai was, thankfully, fly-free; but it mysteriously tasted too strongly of lighter fluid for me to enjoy it. i’m sorry, chai, but i’m going to have to let you go. it’s with a heavy heart, because i know you can be good – for other patrons, at least, but it seems, not for me.
so what do i do now? my stomach is grumbling, and i can’t concentrate on my brief (twelve pages…due monday…eep!)
but then, almost lost amid the scramble of papers on my desk, promising deliciousness and fulfillment, it’s a cheers menu! i may find gastronomical satisfaction yet!
quickly i hit the speed-dial. your friendly staff is so eager to feed me! they threaten forty minutes…but you’re at my door in twenty-five! sweet, crispy spring rolls, delicious pad thai, my favorite mixed vegetable curry, only slightly spicy and full of lots of veggies, husband’s standard pad see eu…even a rich, indulgent thai iced tea from time to time. i order enough food to last for days, and still you leave me with money left over.
cheers, you may not be shiny, or trendy, or hip, but you are tasty and reliable, and always willing to deliver. and you accept credit cards.
now i can finally get back to that memo, my faith in thai food reaffirmed. if only my homework, also, would resolve itself with a happy ending.
i remain…
i’m kicking ass in my bracket
being the least-informed on ncaa basketball in my crew, naturally i’m killing in our march madness pool. going on pure whims, i’ve somehow managed to land in the lead (although i guess tournament play started today, so there is ample time for me to go down hill). figured that was deserving of a study break, so i’m dedicating this post to jane and jason, having recently transplanted here from the l of a themselves.
jane came over on tuesday and we journeyed to the city to meet jason by the ifc theater for his lunch break (he works at good magazine’s nearby newly-opened nyc outpost). jason had mentioned he wanted to go to a place with really good burgers, so i took them to corner bistro (http://www.yelp.com/biz/corner-bistro-new-york).
(what’s with the vege/pescatarian eating at all these burger joints? yo no se.)
within its unassuming exterior, corner bistro is dark, and crowded, and dingy as hell. basically the perfect old establishment, with its simple menu (bistro burger, cheese burger, grilled cheese, chiliburger and french fries, with uncharacteristically – for manhattan, at least – affordable prices) written in chalk and hung on the lovely old exposed brick walls.
the bartender yelled at us for being confused by the line, and then refused to seat us when jason disappeared to use the atm machine. we lucked out by nabbing the corner booth – which is so close to the next table that the folks sitting there had to get up to let us in and out (which they did very graciously). the booth was nice and roomy, its table covered with the scratch of decades of patrons. there was a chilly draft, but that was neither here nor there once we saw the gastronomical delights that were to be ours.
jason’s coke came in a glass that smelled too strongly of chemically dishsoap…but there are worse things for dishes to smell of. he had the chiliburger, the only item to come on a real plate, due to its high-mess factor. it had to be eaten with a fork and knife, it was so overloaded with delicious chili, liberally sprinkled with chopped onions, all on top a thick patty with melted cheese.
jane had the bistro burger, a thick beef patty that comes topped with bacon in addition to all the regular burger toppings – it was so thick, she couldn’t bite through the whole thing at once (you’d have to be a snake to unhinge your jaw that wide).
i settled for a grilled cheese with tomato slices, served, like jane’s burger, on a stack of paper plates folded and pleated to look like coffee filters. the meat-eaters were satisfied, but i wanted more.
after jason headed back to the office (really, a converted loft), jane and i continued our adventuring. i took her to my school and showed her the library (i love that it connects the two main buildings underground – it’s great for avoiding inclement weather, and also fun for feeling stealthy).
on our way up to the strand, we stopped by the crumbs bakery on 8th street to refuel (it was either that or beard papa’s, but we’d already passed the cream puff shangri-la).
o.m.g. i just about died on cupcake deliciousness.
jane had the cookie dough cupcake (with a glass of milk) and i had the cappuccino cupcake (accompanied by a glass of iced apple-mango green tea – perfectly light and refreshing). jane’s cupcake had a delicious little cookie on top, and a delectable squirt of chocolate fudge filling. mine was insanely decadent, with some of the best buttercream frosting i’ve ever confronted (and it was, indeed, a confrontation – one at which i, to my stomach’s dismay, ultimately lost – but i put up a good fight). my cupcake pangs have been quieted for at least a week.
from there it was on up to the strand (http://www.strandbooks.com), where we roamed happily, leafing through the 18 miles of books and avoiding the two massive dogs a customer brought in before settling on our purchases: for jane, it was a replacement copy of the unbearable lightness of being and a used copy of the collected works of james joyce (a steal at $2.50 – the price of a “mini” cupcake at crumbs). i toyed with numerous paper-backed beauties, but managed to resist all but a $4.95 copy of anna karenina – too good to pass up. saw skye working her register, but i was still in too much of a sugar coma for much conversation.
and then it was home, to warm up under mounds of blankets and tune out to mindless sitcoms.
until next time…
spring is flooding the fly-overs, but we’ve yet to see it here
there are blustery 30 mph winds gusting by (bringing with them insulation flakes from the construction of shiny new condos, and other bits of urban detritus), but we know that warmer weather and sunnier skies are just around the corner because…ralph’s has opened for the season! not the big-box abomination that underpays its workers and violates union agreements (see: strike at all the large grocery chains several years ago), but the classic italian ice shop around the corner from my house.
i. love. ralph’s. the fruit ices (passionfruit, mango, honey dew are aces) are a delightful, “healthy” (well, less bad) treat; the mysterious “candy bar” creme ice is superbly satisfying (not sure which candy bar they use – it seems to be an amalgamation of sorts – but i’ll eat it!); the black cherry vanilla is studded with massive cherry chunks…and that’s before you get to the specialty shakes! it’s all phenomenal, cheap (2 bucks for a hefty “small” container sates even my monster-sized sweet tooth)…a neighborhood institution not to be missed and a welcomed harbinger of the dog days to come.
however, no ralph’s in the cards for us today. husband took the day off work, so we went adventuring! first stop was dumont’s, which i had been hankering to try and which we found to be quite satisfactory (freewilliamsburg’s glowing review: http://www.freewilliamsburg.com/restaurants/archives/2005/03/_dumont.html).
the decor is, for the most part, classic and elegant (cocktail menu has six offerings, all timeless, first among them a “perfect manhattan”), a little bit of an old-timey salon feel inexplicably mixed with random and unlikeable overly frou-frou accents (like the large mirror framed by delicate floral etchings, or the hideous purple flowers over the bar). booths are comfortable, with dark wood furnishings and brown paper covering the tables. service is friendly, capable and unobtrusive – perfect for an intimate lunch.
husband got the cheese burger – at thirteen bones (topping it with gruyere upped it from the regular price of twelve), you’d expect it to be impressive, and it was. not being one for the meat-eating myself, i’ll have to rely on his second-hand account of what looked to be delectable: he found the gruyere lacking in bite, but was otherwise satisfied. the pile of french fries were perfectly crispy and nicely flavored, but left mainly untouched next to the shiny burger.
i had the seasonal ravioli – today it was stuffed with ricotta and dressed in a wild mushroom sauce. the serving, as with the burger, was substantial (somewhat uncharacteristic of a ravioli dish), and mouth-wateringly good. my first bite of a mushroom morsel was rather salty, but the ricotta in the ravioli was more than good enough to recompense. it was topped with some unremarkable haricots vert and a truly succulent roasted tomato and clocked in at $14. my taste for pasta and cream sauce was certainly sated, but there are definitely spots where you can get more bang for your buck (still my favorite: oak cafe, on graham). still, glad to have tested it out.
afterwards, a trip to the new comic book store that’s opened up on metropolitan (a few doors past the always-good hana foods). it’s not the comic book store of our childhoods – the original sign over the door has preserved the space’s past as a sicilian bakery (somewhat reminiscent of cafe habana in nolita – where the sign over the door advertises fresh italian pastries).
a large hanging mobile constructed of shiny blue arrows welcomes you into this new store, and shelves and walls are replete with vintage signs and beautiful books of graphic art, as well as collections of retro comics (little lulu, anyone?) and childhood favorites (the little golden books series found a home on one of the bookshelves there). and apparently, the creator of the garbage pail kids (jenny jelly and gang) has deemed it his new favorite comic book store. typical williamsburg music was playing, and the proprietor (occupied on his powerbook for most of our visit) kept an espresso machine behind the counter, from which he produced free shots for husband and sam (who we met there). must remember the name of the place, as it is sure to be the destination of future lazy afternoons.
and now, back to the much less satisfying re-reading of marbury v. madison…
this is me, signing out.
