bottle beach, brooklyn

before i lose all my respectable person cred by posting pictures of belize, i wanted to show you this:

there are beaches in brooklyn too. although instead of having white sand and swim up bars they have trash and horse bones. wait wait- it is not just regular trash; it's antique trash! old bottles, shoe leather, and newspapers from the 1930's and 40's. and actually, you can find huge conch shells too.

informally known as bottle beach, this stretch of bay near floyd bennett field is actually (romantically!) called dead horse bay. apparently, what is now floyd bennett field used to be a much smaller island called barren island which NYC used for landfills and horse rendering (read: hooves made into jello). over time, the municipal government expanded this area of land for use as an airfield, and closed up all the landfills. due to erosion in the last 25 years, parts of the landfills have been exposed and tidal currents carry the trash ashore at dead horse bay. because the trash is "washed" and bouyed by the seawater, it often washes ashore cleaned and intact. amazingly, you can find thick glass bottles from the 50's that held even the most mundane things: clorox, asprin, ink.

on a foggy morning in winter, beach combing almost alone, picking up all variety of treasure, i felt almost as happy and relaxed as i did in belize. almost.


to get to bottle beach: take flatbush ave. all the way to floyd bennett field. when you pass the abandoned hanger, you will take a left at the next stop light if you are in a bike. if you are in a car, you will take a right. there is a parking lot and a bus stop. you will know it is the right place if you can see the toll entrance to the bridge from here. if not, keep going. park your car at the parking lot and walk across the road to where a tiny path emerges from the woods. if you're in a bike, taking that left should have led you right to the path. follow the path until you come to a fork with three options- you're going to want to take the rightmost option. you'll walk about 5 mins. until you get to high dunes at which point you're steps away. i know it sounds totally sketchy and borderline ridiculous, but trust me it is the best way.

what you'll find: the trail dumps you out in what seems like the middle of the beach, but if you walk way far out to your left you'll find the beach hooks back around. at the back inlet, you'll find old shoes, lots of rusty iron, some avant-garde driftwood and huge bright orange shells dyed by leather. over the left side you'll find larger bottles and newer garbage- i think some people use this as a current dump too?

note: it feels so foreign to talk about this in brooklyn, but make sure to check the tidal predictions. going at low tide is ideal.

Hakata Ippudo, or ramen real style

last night i was telling my brother about the ramen at Ippudo and he started laughing. "ramen?" he said incredulously, "like maruchan? you ate that at a restaurant?" that exchange alone is the reason why places like Ippudo are so necessary.

ramen, as known in the majority of the united states, is notoriously maligned as the rock hard brick of dried noodles with the mysterious "flavor" packet. most american kids have had this at one time in their lives (or for my brother and me, many, many times) and forever associate ramen with this semi-edible astronaut-like food. like many other things in life, the real deal ramen is very very different and so much better than the cheap facsimile. (don't get me wrong though, there are times when i crave the fake stuff too.)

real ramen is japanese comfort food, similar to what mac and cheese is to americans, and adobo is to filipinos. it is different in every household, but, like mac and cheese, always has the same basic components: a very flavorful broth, chewy noodles and a smattering of vegetables. there is often also sliced pork. different regions of japan have different specialties, mainly differing on ingredients that make up the broth. in nyc, there a couple great ramen places, but almost all of them match the hole-in-the-wall, night-after-drinking, vibe of the typical ramen places cluttering japan's main metropolises. other than momofuku noodle bar, Ippudo is the only place i know of in NYC where ramen in served in a more upscale setting, hopefully introducing ramen newbies to the deliciousness that is pork broth.


shown here are the two options for ramen at ippudo: the paler broth is the white pork based ramen, Shiromaru, which is smoother and less assertive, while the darker "red" broth, Akamaru, is the bolder, porkier flavor. each bowl came with some heavenly slices of tender, fatty pork. seriously, if you like pork as much as i do, just those slices are worth the visit. i also had an appetizer of larger, cube-like slices of fatty pork, which i will forever fail to describe the deliciousness of. a pork-lover's dream, i'll tell you that much.

apparently, the genuis behind Ippudo is Shigemi Kawahara, also known as the ramen king in japan. he's won numerous prizes for his ramen, and treated with the reverence fit for a king there. and one other tangetial bit of information: the momofuku restaurant chain was named after the inventor of the modern instant ramen, Momofuku Ando.

hill country

hill country is justin timberlake's new bbq place in new york city, and that alone is enough to make one duly wary. a celebrity restaurant plus regional food? remember britney's failed NYLA? however, miraculously, hill country has been getting really good reviews on the chowhound boards so my friends and i planned a trip. i think some of us were secretly hoping to see JT too.


no JT, but the food was good. the beef and pork ribs were moist and falling-off-the-bone tender. the brisket came in two varieties: moist and lean, both of which were moist and flavorful. the lean variety didn't have the ribbons of fat though. the bbq sauce, which i learned later on was taboo, was a good balance of tomato sweetness and vinegar. the sides were good too, but not as good as the meat. the baked beans were just okay, but the mac and cheese was rightfully rich and gooey.



i think we all agreed we'd go back if it weren't for the high prices. the ordering process is complicated; you order your items from different stations and they put a sticker on your card. at the end, you show your card to tally up the bill. i inadvertently spent $31 dollars on dinner, partially because it was hard to tell how much things were going to cost before they were weighed and stickered. next time, i will be more cautious about asking the price beforehand. everyone can still learn how to manage their money better...!

momofuku ko

food blogging is back in full force- i know you were tired of all that money stuffs. i've been cooking up a storm lately as well as doing my part to revitalize the economy by eating out.

despite the fact that it's only april, i already know my dinner at momofuku ko will go down as the dinner of the year. it might even take the cake for best dinner ever, at least until someone takes me to per se. (any takers?)

if you haven't already read tina's whole review, read it here. she has amazing pictures, and grace didn't get some shots of my favorite dishes, like the fluke sashimi and the prettier, more sophisticated twin of mcdonalds' apple pie, accented by red miso paste.

after reading how hard it was to get reservations at momofuku ko, i consider myself to be unduly blessed at being able to dash off a quick email to tina in response to her chowhound post in order to secure a seat. poor frank bruni.


in our party of 4, there were varying permutations of agreement on favorites. i loved the deep fried braised short ribs, but tina didn't. grace adored the pineapple sorbet and i thought it was just okay. but i think we all agreed on this dish.


coddled egg with soubise onions, sweet potato vinegar, hackleback caviar, potato chips, chervil

i know it sounds complicated, and possibly incongruous, but it was lovely. the golden savory yolk, salty caviar and crispy potato chips all worked together, none overpowering the other.

we had 11 courses in all; each of them memorable. it was a surprise of an evening and as i walked out of the restaurant feeling stuffed and content, i was reminded of the immense luck that went into getting this reservation. a great reason to be browsing the internets while at work...

flushing food court

one of the greatest things about new york city, and i’m sure any major city in the world, is that there are small microcosms within that conjure up an entirely different time and place. main street flushing is one of those places. within its 15 square blocks you almost exclusively surrounded by the sounds, and sights, of mainland, urban, china (well, minus the increased car chaos). this is very different from what it is like in a “chinatown”, primarily because flushing does not care about tourism and selling those ubiquitous red lanterns you see in every chinatown shop.

grace and i go to flushing pretty often and one of our stops is almost always a tiny stall in the flushing mall’s food court. for $4 you can get a roasted pork ramen with hand pulled noodles. and by “hand-pulled noodles” i don’t mean some quaint style of pre-prepared noodle. i mean “pull off a chunk of dough and stretch it multiple times until it is as thin as spaghetti right before your very eyes”.
dropped in a pool of hot broth, the noodles are ready in a couple minutes and served garnished with your choice of meat or vegetables. i prefer roast pork and cilantro.

the only downside to the whole experience is that i cannot speak any language other than english. it is embarrassing, to say the least and, my father will never cease to remind me, extremely short-sighted. even though one of my resolutions this year is to learn spanish, it will still get me nowhere in asking for hand-pulled noodles. usually i just point and motion, but on this particular trip there was no one in sight with my preferred meal and i ended up trying to explain what i wanted through many misunderstandings. so instead of hand-pulled noodles, i got hand-sliced noodles, which was equally fascinating. a great log of dough was brought out and a sharp knife was used to slice thin sections off the log and into the broth.

in addition to the ramen, we also got some pork buns, cream buns and bubble tea. all in all, a successful day for eating.

Flushing Mall

korean fried chicken

brunch rut is a common phenomenon in nyc; there is a rotating cast of restaurants you like and frequent for brunch. and then, one day, you hate them all. they are boring, have long waits, have nothing you want to eat and are completely and totally uninspired. it was on one of those days a couple weekends ago that i discovered what may be the most delicious food in the world.

because there were no appealing brunch places in park slope, we piled into the car, picked up some friends, and headed to that wonderland of ethnic food, queens. if you live in nyc and you ever experience brunch rut, the fastest remedy i can prescribe is a trip to queens- a place you can find a halo-halo, sag paneer, bahn mi, and cannoli all within 70 blocks.

on this particular trip we were headed to the flushing mall, for some hand-pulled noodles. we had also decided to make a brief stop in the korean part of queens to sample the craze of korean fried chicken, which, being the fried chicken lover i am, i was embarrassed not to have already tried. luckily we had brought our friend jen along, who not only is korean, but also frequented this part of flushing quite a bit growing up. this proved to be a very wise move on our part.

upon arrival to the korean fried chicken place, the first thing i noticed was the high-design concept; multi-colored plastic chairs, an adorably mistranslated mural, and bright, bright colors. the second thing i noticed was that it was empty. this combination, frequently found in sub-par thai places, made me immediately skeptical. looking at the menu i was surprised to discover only two varieties of chicken. in my mind, i had envisioned more permutations that KFC, probably because, as national crazes go, americans like variety. jen took the lead and ordered us a large basket of half regular, half spicy chicken. immediately after taking our order, we were served two dishes: one of shredded cabbage with a thousand island dressing, and another of pickled radishes. this reminded me of why i love korean food so much in first place (in fact, it is my *favorite* cuisine)- the free banchan- little savory dishes that come before your main meal. this was a particularly lucky break for us, because hope, the other friend on this excursion, is a vegetarian and couldn’t eat the fried chicken. but she does love a radish.

soon, the fried chicken arrived. i am not kidding you when i say that i literally took one bite and a goofy grin broke across my face. you can ask my friends. i was totally, immediately smitten. i’ll break it down for you:

1. the chicken pieces were smaller, so there was a higher skin/meat ratio
2.the skin was deep fried to a thin, crispy perfection while the meat was still moist and juicy
3. the spices in the skin were not the bland ones you come to expect from normal fried chicken, instead there was a slightly sweet soy-garlic flavor explosion somehow infused in the skin

everyone knows that the true appeal of fried chicken is the crunchy skin/moist meat combo. by essentially doubling that experience with smaller pieces, this chicken also introduced a whole new element to my previous fried chicken experiences- flavor. i think this is why i like buffalo wings so much- the addition of flavor- but these were much, much better. and as much as i liked the regular flavor, the spicy was even better. only for people with a serious love for spicy foods- jen being one of these people, grace couldn’t handle it- these are *really* spicy, although still retaining flavor and not just deadeningly spicy. we must have eaten the bucket in 5 mins. flat. from now on, this is my new favorite food- hands down.

after washing up (boy, was i a mess!), we attempted to find directions to a korean grocery that jen had mentioned on the way into queens. after finding it and buying much more food than anyone needs (it all looked so delicious! and there was no way i could find this stuff in brooklyn!) we headed over to the flushing mall.

Kyedong Korean Fried Chicken

Han Ah Reum Grocery

doughnut plants

when i was in high school, my mom started a habit of going to the gym in the morning. after her workout, she'd pass by the local bakery and bring home doughnuts for me, my father and brother. i don't know if it was a way to fatten us up so that her resulting weight loss would be even more pronounced, or if it was just a misguided attempt to please her breakfast-hungry family, but either way, i grew up eating ,and loving, doughnuts.

naturally, when i moved to NY i was excited by the ubiquitous dunkin donuts, but soon found their doughnuts stale and too sugary. since, i've moved on to greener pastures.

a round-up of my very favorite doughnuts:

1. doughnut plant
old time doughnuts re-created loving by hand by mark, who uses his grandfather's recipe from the early 1900's. he used to deliver them by bicycle all over the city, but has since opened up a tiny storefront in the lower east side. the history is cute, but the doughnuts are unreal; meyer lemon, valrona chocolate, pomegranate, peanut butter and jelly. there is a place near my work that stocks them and whenever i have a bad day, i pick one up on the way home and inhale it before i get to the end of the block. sometimes, if the day is really bad, before i even get to the front door. this is probably the main reason i'm not getting any skinnier.
(i just checked the website and they just opened a new location in seoul, korea. seemingly random, i feel this is my personal calling to move to korea, having just discovered the revolutionizing joys of korean fried chicken this past weekend.)
Doughnut Plant
379 Grand Street
NY, NY 10002

2. craft
its a little clichéd in the foodie world to mention craft, tom colicchio's flagship restaurant, especially since he is now known as "the bald guy on top chef", but i actually really love the food. i love the entire restaurant; the soothing rothko decor, the heavy copper pots and the sweetly delivered breakfast treats wrapped up to go at the end of the meal (last time it was a chocolate chip scone). and for dessert they have doughnuts: airy, light, warm, sugar-cinnamony (is that a word?) little balls served with various jams and dips. what's there not to love?
Craft
43 East 19th Street
New York, NY 10003
Other locations in LA, Atlanta and Dallas

3. peter pan
i found this place by accident when grace was picking me up in the car from greenpoint. we were driving by and i saw a sign for doughnuts. i yelled at her to stop and i hopped out, shortly returning with a creme-filled one that cost me less than a dollar. (thanks grace for all your patience with me!) little did i know this was a well-known and celebrated place. i found out shortly after i ate the doughnut, because things this good are never secrets.
Peter Pan Bakery
727 Manhattan Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11211

4. krispy kreme
it would be wrong to omit this from my list just because it is controversial; some people hate it because it is too sweet, mushy, etc etc. but if you've ever had a hot one right off the conveyor belt, you know this is pretty close to doughnut nirvana.
Krispy Kreme
Various Locations

5. jelly filled doughnut in vieques, pr
i was in puerto rico last year and right by the main ferry on the tiny island of vieques was a hole-in-the-wall bakery that had all sorts of delicious looking goods, as well as jelly doughnuts. i don't know if it was because i was in a tropical paradise, or the salty air, but this doughnut was divine. i have a very embarrassing picture of me eating it looking CRAZY. i guess that's what i look like when i eat...?

lunch bags

as mentioned earlier, i'm a bit of a nut when it comes to budgeting, so i bring most of my lunches from home (also there are no good places to eat around wall street). usually this just means i stuff a tupperware in a tote bag or purse, but sometimes i'll use a good ol' brown paper bag. however, in trying to be a good steward of the environment this year (i'm staying away from paper towels and only using sponges!) i'd like to try and make one of these oilcloth lunch bags. i'll keep you updated when i'm done.

oilcloth lunch bag tutorial at (who else?) martha stewart.com

christmas lights in brooklyn

there is something so magical about seeing holiday lights start appearing on houses around the neighborhood. as a kid, it was both a sign of good things to come and one of those things themselves, especially when we'd all pile in the car and take a trip to one of those streets where each and every house was entirely covered in lights and various movable figures. in my hometown the street was affectionately called "christmas tree lane".

upon moving to the city, i was saddened to think that this holiday tradition would be over, until this year (a full 7 years after i moved here!)when gothamist posted about the lights in the dyker heights section of brooklyn. after doing some research about good places to eat (thanks chowhound!) we set off.

when people think about brooklyn, or maybe when i thought about brooklyn as a teenager, i never pictured houses like these. brooklyn is so incredibly diverse and so woefully misrepresented in our common imagination. dyker heights is full of mansions; old colonial, tudor, french estates, italian villas. and each and every one decorated to the nines. we got out and walked around, christmas music blaring from each houses' speakers, making a confused, yet cheery, christmas cacophony.

afterward we headed over to one of the oldest diners in brooklyn, which apparently has a full soda counter still intact and homemade ice cream. sadly, we never got to see it, because, like many other small town diners, they closed very early on weeknights.

for a while last year, i was dead set on moving to la- things have changed since then, but this is yet another reason to stay in brooklyn; i still want to try that ice-cream.

More Dyker Heights Pictures

next wave

for my birthday this year, grace got me tickets to 3 performances at BAM (brooklyn academy of music)’s next wave festival. the first was a dreamy play about the life and work of joseph cornell, the surrealist who assembled mini-worlds in tiny boxes. the second was an incredibly striking and memorable dance performance called “borrowed light”, in which lost shaker songs were sung a cappella while heavily dressed dancers moved violently about. the last, which we saw last night, was the sweetly named “au revior parapluie”, directed and starred in by james thièrrèe, who, if i hadn’t known i could have guessed, is charlie chaplin’s grandson.

i’ve got nothing smart to say about the piece other than it was such a wonderful, whimsical way to spend the evening. part circus, part play, part puppet show, it was all very fun, funny, sweet and deeply moving. grace did good this year.

afterwards, we went to junior’s where i got fried chicken, ate too many pickled beets, and obviously went overboard with the fresh strawberry cheese pie. it was a lovely night. and my birthday was in june!

BAM next wave festival