If You Serve It, They Will Come...Until the End of May That Is.

I love food outings. I love food outings more than I love actual food. I love having good people around me sharing food and drink. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat. My inner (and often outer) fat kid is alive and well. But it's the social aspect of the adventure that really makes it worthwhile for me. Without good people food is just food. With them, food becomes a meal. And meals are always worth sharing. In the last 10 days or so I've been lucky enough to share quite a lot of food with a goodly amount of fine fat kids. And I don't intend to stop anytime soon.

There's an event called Madison Square Eats that is running in the square directly across from the Flatiron building in big, bad Manhatty through the end of May. I strongly suggest that if you get the chance you bring your ass there and bring a friend or two with you. It's the only proper way to experience it. Split up, gather unto ye vittles from various purveyors of tasty goodness, acquire a worthy beverage and go the fuck to town. That's my advice. I've been there twice already and I fully intend to make at least 1 more visit. Before I get started telling you how these visits went let me tell you that I'm writing this from notes I took on napkins and the backs of receipts...so bear with me if it's not all terribly coherent. I'm doing my best.

On my first visit, I dragged Blake and Paula with me. Blake is always willing to cram his headhole full of charred flesh, gooey cheese and wild flavors wherever he can find them. Paula, is also ready to try anything, just less of it. She generally makes sure Blake and I don't wind up eating so much we're throwing up in garbage pails on the way home. It's likely not very easy to be Paula when she has to deal with the two of us at the same time. Our assault on MSE included a pretty tasty brisket sandwich and some incredible green chili macaroni and cheese from Mexicue. Don't forget to get yourself a decent margarita or a Fully-dressed Tecate (that means the can has its rim salted before they douse it in hot sauce and lime juice). This mac and cheese was so good I went back for it the next time I was there. (More on that later). Had pretty tasty Braised Short Rib Grilled Cheese Bites from Mason Jar NYC. I have a hard time passing up grilled cheese whenever I see it. And I'm glad I didn't pass this one up. We also grabbed a Pulled Pork Egg Roll, which had nice flavor but I thought it was a little dry. Then the star of the show, the Pig's Head Cuban sandwich from The Cannibal. How do you not get anything that has “Pig's Head” in its name. That was an excellent Cuban sandwich. Even the blonde douche in the boat shoes and LL Bean button down that puffed out his chest when he asked us whether or not we were on line couldn't ruin it. As a matter of fact, he made it better. The girl sitting in front of us completely lost it and hysterically laughed in his face. On a side note, I feel a little dirty admitting this, but knowing that the pork in my Cuban sandwich came from the pig's head kind of made it taste better. I know that's horrible, but it's true. I may need some kind of therapy.

One Helluva Riceball

My second visit was with Doreen and Stephanie. You know that if there's eating happening and I'm out with Doreen, it's going to be like invading soldiers rampaging and pillaging through the town square. And that's more or less how this went down. Stephanie, very smartly, just let us do all the dirty work while she considered some “noinky, noinky, noinky” with some bearded guy in a blue shirt. She's a naughty girl, that one. Wait, that sentence has all kinds of connotations to it, doesn't it? Whatever, take it as you will. We started out at the Hong Kong Street Cart where we got Fried Oysters with a Honey Sriracha Dipping Sauce and Pork Belly Bao. For those of you that don't know, bao are basically steam bun tacos and they're excellent when done right. These were done pretty damn well. The oysters were a bit overcooked and mushy. The honey sriracha sauce was amazing though. I licked the inside of the cup when we were done with it. Not that that's something to be ashamed of. Don't judge me, fuckers. Next we hit Arancini Brothers. They make riceballs...lovely, lovely riceballs. There was a Squid Ink with Spicy Shrimp Riceball which may have been the best rice ball I've ever had. It looked scary and evil when you opened it up and this fire red shrimp was hiding in a mass of gooey black rice. If hell was food this is what it would look like. And it tasted very much like sin. If you didn't already know...SIN is GOOD! We also grabbed a Carbonara Riceball, which was a tad salty for my taste but otherwise good. Stephanie seemed to really dig this one. Sometimes I'm just a little sensitive to salt I guess. I went back to Mexicue for more of the Green Chili Macaroni and Cheese (Told you) and a Pulled Pork Sandwich. I liked the pulled pork better than the brisket I had last time. And it just seemed necessary to share that mac and cheese with Steph and Dor. They were damn glad I did. We had a decent but not wonderful Lobster Roll from the Red Hook LobsterPound (if it didn't have bacon in it, it likely wouldn't have tasted like much.) and something called Bibimbap from Seoul Lee Korean BBQ, which was rice mixed with “stuff” covered in orange goo that turned out to be chili paste of some kind. That's not a very appealing description of it, but go eat it. It tasted pretty damn good. I just don't know a better way to describe what it looked like. This was good enough that despite knowing she shouldn't eat anymore, Doreen couldn't let the last bit of it go. (You've got to respect a woman that goes back to finish the last bite of something good despite her body telling her not to. Maybe respect isn't quite the right word, but you get my drift.) And lastly we tried some pizza from Roberta's. How could I not eat a pizza called Cheesus Christ? It had to be done. And was it ever done well. Sweet Baby Cheesus comes with mozzarella, taleggio and parmesan cheeses, black pepper and a drizzle of honey. You may think the honey is weird and to that I say...shut up. When was the last time you made a pizza? This shit was the goodness. The crust was both chewy and crunchy. I literally watched this guy hand char the pizza. It was pretty cool to check out. I've got a little drool coming out of my mouth describing it.

Sweet Sweet Cheesus!

Before I end this tale of indulgence and fun let me just say this. Madison Square Eats is a crowded place. Full of people hustling around, talking to friends, waiting on lines. Beverages and hot food are everywhere. Hundreds of people are packed into not enough square feet. If you're good-natured and have some patience, it's a fun experience. But it's really not a place for dogs or babies. Coming back to the table from some line of another I accidentally stepped on a lil dog being walked through there. I couldn't see the lil guy and the owner of that dog should be slapped in the mouth for having him there. If I didn't have my hands full of goodness I'd have slapped the douchebag on the other end of the leash for giving me a dirty look. And really, the same goes for the people forcing baby carriages through there. I get that you don't want to let having a baby change the way you live your life. But I'm sorry folks, having a baby is SUPPOSED to change it. If someone stumbles and spills something hot on your child in that crowded setting it's your own fault for being dumb enough to be there. Some things just aren't friendly to children and dogs. And don't even get me started on the assholes walking their bikes through there. You inconsiderate clowns should be covered in napalm and set ablaze, rotten fuckholes. OK, rant over.


When I get my ass back over there (and I will) I fully intend to try a Nutella Riceball from Arancini Bros (that is if there are any left), something from Mighty Balls and maybe the Italian Sausage from The Cannibal. Anyone want to join me on my return trip?

"Cue With A Side of Cupcakes

Meat is good. Let me just lead off with that statement. Which is mildly ironic being that I just posted a review of a vegan joint I went to last month. But Mighty Quinn's is much more in my wheelhouse. A no-nonsense BBQ joint in the East Village where they serve mass quantities of charred, tasty flesh. There aren't much better ways to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon than drinking beer and eating slow-cooked meat and that's exactly what Annie, Fyfe-Dawg and myself did a couple of weeks ago. (I know, I know...I've been slow in getting to these things. I promise to try and do better in the future.)

Mighty Quinn's is small, at least small in contrast to how many people want to get in there at the same time...it's seemingly very popular. I can't even imagine how packed it must be during dinner time. As it was there were no tables available for us. We wound up eating at the window counter, which is kinda cool actually. It's a lil cramped in here...but so what. We had meat and beer.

You can get food as a single serving kind of deal or by weight. You can guess what we did. We got ourselves a pound of brisket, a half-pound of pulled pork, a rack of ribs and this mashed sweet potato stuff. We took quite a lot of this stuff home. At Mighty Quinn's they don't fuck around with portion sizes. Mighty's also has a pretty decent selection of beer to go along with their delectables. Annie and I went with Allagash White...always a good choice as far as I'm concerned. Fyfe was driving...no beer for him.

Just look at that sexy smoke ring.

The brisket is smoky and good. Just enough fat in it to be flavorful. But at no point does it taste “fatty”. Not the best brisket I've had but excellent nonetheless. The pulled pork was exceptional too. Both came with really good slaw. In my mind, outside of having good cue, good slaw makes a BBQ joint. What cuts through the richness and heaviness of all that protein better than a really good cole slaw? The answer to that question is nothing. You can both of these things as sandwiches but why bother with bread with all this wonderful protein to ingest. The sweet potato mash thing was so damn good. With candied pecans and maple syrup in it.

Imagine the size of the pig.

The ribs. Now here is where Mighty Quinn's really shines. These GIANT hunks of slain mega-oinkers are marvelous. They look like the beasts that Fred puts on the side of his car in the opening of The Flintstones. They're literally heavy in your hand. Tender and spicy and all sorts of goodness. This is what ribs are supposed to look and taste like.

The only problem I had with anything I ate here was that it all tends to lean towards salty. After your food is cut up right in front of you they sprinkle some salt on it as it moves through the line. If you can, ask the cutter to spare that last dousing of salt. It'll make all the difference. Just a little less salt and this would've been the perfect outing.

Now that I've finally written this up, I'm drooling on myself a little bit. I need to get back here soon. I want more ribs...and maybe the hot link I didn't get to try last time.

Since we got to all the protein, allow me this indulgence. Prior to getting to Mighty Quinn's, Fyfe insisted we stop at Molly's Cupcakes. What a worthy prelude. The nutella/peanut butter and the peach cobbler cupcakes were like tiny, little paper-wrapped 4-bite pieces of happiness.

Mighty Quinn's

103 2^nd Avenue

New York, NY, 10003

212-677-3733

Molly's Cupcakes

228 Bleeker Street

New York, NY, 11014

212-414-2253

Vegan Isn't Necessarily A Bad Thing

I know it's taken me about a month or so to finally get around to writing this but sometimes I'm a lazy guy. It's been a busy month besides. Between keeping up with the podcast and my actual paying job picking up I just haven't found the time to dedicate to writing this. Truth be told, it's probably none of these reasons really is why I haven't written anything about Candle 79. The true reason is I just wasn't all that excited about it. It's not a good or a bad food thing, just nothing about it excited me. The food, in fact, was for the most part pretty good. The service was impeccable. I just wasn't excited. It didn't move me at all. That may seem to be a strange statement when you're talking about food. But when you write, in any forum, there has to be some kind of movement (insert potty joke here). Some kind of emotional resonance. Otherwise, what's the point? I wasn't moved...at all. I just didn't find myself connecting with the vegan fare presented to me. I had an excellent time with 2 fantastic women, but the food itself left me kind of flat.

Candle 79 is a vegan restaurant on the Upper East Side. And make no mistakes, this is a restaurant. Dark wood, wait staff in black, tablecloths...an elegant place. This ain't no Billyburg sprout-shilling hipster shack. You won't find a Birkenstock or an ironic beard anywhere...and I was glad for that. It puts a different face on veganism. The hostess was very nice and seated us even though the third member of our party was late. (A big plus to me. Entirely too many places refuse to offer this consideration and it fucking bugs me.) Our waiter was a fun guy. He answered all of our questions...even the sometimes strange ones from Adrienne. At some point he told us we were his “weird” table. The folks that keep him entertained and laughing while he deals with other less personality-endowed clientèle.

We started ourselves off with cocktails. Drinking something called “The Reforestation”, which was much like a less sweet mojito. The company that makes the vodka used in the drink supposedly plants a certain amount of trees for every bottle they sell, hence “Reforestation” This led to some strange questioning of our waiter. He took it all very well. Didn't even roll his eyes at us.

     We didn't really go with a traditional app, entree, dessert kind of meal here. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure we didn't order a single entree at all. We just kept ordering appetizers and sides. Maria, Adrienne and I basically turned Candle 79 into a vegan tapas joint. Whatever caught our eye, we ordered it. What we started with and in what order was inconsequential and truthfully I simply don't remember the order of it all. Thankfully, I took some notes.

We had some Seitan Wheatballs with a Tomato-Basil Sauce. These were excellent. Excellent enough that we got a second order of them. Under the right circumstances, in the right dish, I could see them as a substitute for a regular meatball. The sauce was clean and tasty. The balls had a nice flavor to them. Even a little bit of crunch. I liked these a lot.

The Polenta Fries, I wasn't as big a fan of. They were a bit bland to me. Maria loved them.

We had Grilled Oyster Mushrooms with a Jalapeño Vinaigrette that were OK. The mushrooms themselves were pretty good. But really, it's hard to fuck up grilled mushrooms. Unfortunately, there really was no heat. Maybe they forgot to put the jalapeño in the vinaigrette because I didn't taste it at all.

A Warm Brussels Sprouts Salad was pretty good. Not great but good, which will be a theme through most of this review. It came with some root veggies and cranberries and a pretty tasty garlicky rosemary dressing.

There was a Mushroom Fricassee special that came with polenta and stuff. I honestly don't remember a lot about this dish other than I liked it a lot more than the jalapeño vinaigrette mushrooms.

Guacamole Timbale, which is basically a guacamole and black bean cake. I'll give it to Candle 79, they make a fantastic guacamole. The key, really, to good Guac is fresh ingredients and the right ratio of them. They've got that down!

Then we had “Angel's” nachos. This was the most disappointing thing I ate. The refried beans and salsa were really good. I could even live with the fake cheese they use. It doesn't taste like cheese but whatever. It was the seitan meat stuff they used. There's no reason for it. You can have nachos that don't have meat. And this isn't meat anyway. It's braised Goodyear tires. Completely ruined what could've been a decent dish for me.

We even managed dessert. A Mexican Chocolate Brownie that came with Caramelized Bananas and a Chocolate-Ancho Chile sauce. That was pretty damn good. Maria said you can always count on good desserts at a vegan place. She was certainly right about this one. To go along with our brownie, Maria and I shared a spiced espresso. Might've been just a little too spiced for my taste actually. I think I'd have liked this better if it was in regular coffee.

If you're a vegan looking to have a real restaurant experience, where you don't feel ostracized because of your particular food choices, this is a place for you. If you're not a vegan and you're just accommodating your weird friends, this isn't a bad choice. It honestly didn't feel like a complete meal to me. But that could have just as much to do with us not ordering entrees at all as it did with the food, although I suspect it might not have. I didn't love that we paid what were basically steakhouse prices for that meal for what amounts to side dishes. It was a good experience with good food and good service with great people. Candle 79 wasn't really worth what it cost and based on that I'm not sure how eager I'd be to go back. But I can certainly see the appeal if vegan is the way you roll.

Candle 79

154 East 79^th Street

New York, NY, 10021

212-537-7179

http://www.candle79.com

I'm Going Back to Steal a Clay Pot!

So the other night I sitting on my couch with absolutely nothing to do. I was clicking through websites and came across an article on Gothamist. It said Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya was doing a brunch buffet. I'd never heard of this particular iteration of Blue Ribbon, but everything else I know of from those folks has been excellent. No reason to expect anything less. And a brunch buffet...that's the dream right there. Especially with chopsticks, we've already seen how much I enjoyed having brunch with chopsticks from my review on Talde a couple of weeks ago.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya is tucked away on Orchard Street off of Houston, around the corner from Katz Deli. (Doreen and I gave some real thought on the way to brunch to stopping in Katz to get sandwiches to go. We were so thoroughly defeated by the brunch buffet that it just wasn't possible to look at any more food.) Dor and I came strolling up Orchard chatting when Blake snuck up on us like a giant Kurgan shaped ninja and scared the crap out of us. He and Paula were waiting in a bar next door to our destination. Now that our party was all together, it was time to experience our Asian brunch adventure.

The hostess greeted us very pleasantly and seated us right away. The table they sat the four of us at was just slightly small. Blake and I are large folk (hence Kurgan-shaped) and need a wee bit more room. I guess they're used to more normal sized people there. They did take a lil while to get around to taking our orders and they could've been a bit quicker about clearing plates. Outside of that they were excellent. Quick to bring more water. The food from the kitchen came out quickly. Our hostess and the waiters were very nice.

We started out with Bloody Marys all around. But these weren't any Bloody Marys. The Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya version of Bloody Marys come in separate components. The Mary mix comes in little carafes. A chili pepper spice mix and extra horseradish come on little plates. Giant olives come for garnish. And the vodka comes in a big clay pot with a spigot. After the hostess makes the initial pour, you can make more for yourself as you go. Which we did. The menu says this is service for 2-6. There's absolutely no way 2 people can do this. There were 4 of us and we left vodka in the pot. I loved that clay pot. I wanted that clay pot. When a busboy walked by bringing some of those clay pots into the kitchen I very nearly tackled the poor bastard, grabbed one of those pots and ran down the steps and out the door. Blake, Paula, Dor...you might not have known I had that thought, hell I even flinched in that direction, but it definitely ran through my mind.

There are 2 choices for brunch. You can get just the buffet or you can get the buffet along with kitchen food. As you can already guess, we went with both. And you'd best believe we took full advantage of the “order until you bust” clause in our culinary contract. When we ordered our food from the kitchen and the hostess told us “not to worry, we can always order more” you could have seen Blake and my eyes from Midtown they got so big. Putting people like us in an all-you-can-eat setting is much like setting 6-year-olds loose in Toys R Us with an unlimited budget. The buffet had mini bagels and cream cheese (although none of us tried them), sliced charcuterie, cheeses, 4 different kinds of sushi rolls, granola and fruits (we didn't try this either, WAY too healthy for us today), roast turkey breast, HUGE peel and eat shrimp with cocktail sauce, a nice assortment of danish and croissant and fantastic tiny brownies. The spicy crab roll was excellent. I easily put down 8 or 10 pieces. The shrimp were monstrous and good but the cocktail sauce needed some help, thankfully our Bloody Mary kit came with extra horseradish. Making tiny ham and Brie sandwiches with grainy mustard was fun. The turkey was pretty good. The chocolate danish was fantastic and I would kill for one of them right now. The little brownie bites were amazing. I didn't make a trip to that brunch spread that didn't end with at least 2 of those little brownies on my plate.

From the kitchen we ordered oxtail and bone marrow hash with a perfectly poached egg on top. It was the best thing I ate there, and that's saying something because everything we ate was pretty damn good. Just excellent...I really want more. There was a cheesy rice and crabmeat scramble. That was an interesting dish. Richer than it sounds. I love the combination of crabmeat and eggs. We also had some fried chicken wings with wasabi honey. I think wasabi honey could become my new favorite breakfasty condiment. The wings were crispy and the chicken tender. The chicken and pancake was really good too. I was really surprised at just how good the pancake was. Very light but solid. Tasted amazing dipped in the wasabi honey. After another round of buffet fare we ordered some more stuff from the kitchen. This time we tried the French toast which was good but not spectacular. It was kind of generic Challah French toast. In retrospect, I wish we'd have had some more of that honey left for that too. Lastly we tried chicken sausage, biscuits and gravy. The sausage and gravy were really tasty and not nearly as rich as it normally would be. The biscuits were dense but not in a bad way. It was an original and familiar dish at the same time. Quite a feat actually.

With all the food we kept getting we kept running our of places to put it. It was almost like a constantly changing food jigsaw puzzle finding places to put it all as we went. We all really liked the place. I'll definitely be going back to try dinner there. I'm also perfectly willing to have that brunch adventure again. It was really a lot of fun. We all left FULL. Not that gross kind of full, but just this side of it. By the end I had been put in the culinary Sharpshooter and tapped out. We needed to do some walking after that meal.

Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya

187 Orchard Street

New York, NY, 10002

212-466-0404

Blue Ribbon Sushi Izakaya

Stop #3 On the TV Food Tour

 Apparently I'm on a mission to try the places in Park Slope that have made it onto Food related TV. A few weeks ago I had my first chopsticks brunch at Talde, which is owned by Dale Talde from Top Chef a couple of years ago. Then I hit Surfish, whose chef was on Chopped. To finish off my TV food tour Blake, Paula and I hit up Sidecar for brunch. Sidecar was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Much like the first two stops on the adventure, Sidecar didn't disappoint.

I started out with a fantastic bloody mary while waiting for Blake and Paula to arrive. I think that's one of the reasons I'm all about brunch lately. I love the meal to begin with. But recently I decided to jump on the wagon as I've been imbibing a bit too much lately. Too many Sundays spent feeling less than spectacular. And at 38. I already feel less than spectacular most of the time. But I gave myself a loophole in my wagon riding...bloody marys are allowed. It's a brunch drink, all's forgiven. Of course, I later broke that rule during brunch when I ventured further into Sidecar's drink menu and had myself a “Spicy Jesus”. Spicy Jesus is a cocktail of gin, Pimm's, grapefruit, ginger and hot sauce...so good. You can't blame me for temporarily jumping off the wagon, the drink was called “Spicy Jesus” for god's sake. I'm a sucker for things with Jesus in the title.

Blake and Paula arrived, braving the rainy misery outside, and after probably 30 minutes and a couple of more bloody marys we were seated. There's a pretty decent crown bustling through Sidecar for brunch. An interesting mixture of every day folks and strange mixture flaunting their irony like a peacock showing off its feathers. People in heavy winter coats and cargo shorts make no sense whatsoever. The hostess was very nice and apologized quite a few times about the wait. Although if you're going to brunch in the Slope and you don't expect to wait at least half an hour, you might have been lobotomized without your knowledge. Our waiter was a very social guy with a plethora of terrible one-liners to drop on us.

We started out our Sunday with fried oysters and biscuits in sausage gravy. The fried oysters were excellent. The breading had a lil kick and the oysters were big and loaded with briny goodness. The biscuits were a little tough and overcooked, just a little. But the gravy made it so that just didn't matter. Blake and I debated getting another order so we could bathe in the gravy at the table. Paula, being the voice of reason, interceded and kept us from getting arrested for public indecency. It's a good thing Paula comes with us on these excursions. If left to our own devices Blake and I would order everything on the menu...we're not very good at moderation.

Paula and I both got shrimp and grits. I'm not an expert on grits by any means. I've only had them a small handful of times. My one try and making them turned out just this side of OK. These grits were creamy and cheesy and otherwise tasty as hell. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and the creole sauce it's all smothered in makes the whole dish. Blake went with something called Migas. This is a kind of egg scramble with avocado, cheese, tomato and tortillas. Good and fresh tasting.

I'm looking forward to going there to try dinner. Lots of interesting sounding stuff on that menu.

Sidecar

560 5^th Avenue

Brooklyn, NY, 11215

718-369-0077

http://www.sidecarbrooklyn.com

Peruvian in Park Slope

Annie and I headed out for our yearly shared birthday dinner last Friday night. We were looking to go a little more low key this year and try something different than the usual steakhouse. So I went searching for a place to suit our needs and wound up suggesting a place that Annie had mentioned months ago. Surfish is a Peruvian based restaurant in Park Slope whose chef, Miguel Aguilar, was trained by Iron Chef Bobby Flay and featured on the show “Chopped”.

Surfish is a small joint tucked into 5^th Avenue. We were looking for it as we were driving and nearly missed it. It's relatively small inside too, probably seating for about 30. I'd imagine that at capacity the place would be cramped. As it was, a person of my somewhat larger stature was just barely on this side of comfortable. That being said, the wait staff were sweet, helpful and attentive. Surprisingly, they were able to be attentive and not obtrusive in a room that small.

Being who we are, we immediately ordered ourselves a pitcher of sangria. You can't beat $20 pitchers that got us 3 glasses each. Not bad at all. Also, the water had a faint hint of orange which was a nice touch. It took us quite awhile to figure out what to order. The menu has a lot of options and they all were very appealing. A tapas menu is like a fresh hell for a Fat Kid. It's hard to just pick a couple. I want to try them all. We wound up going with a few of the tapas as appetizers and then entrees.

We started out with a Ceviche Mixto, which was a brightly flavored and refreshing mix of raw shrimp, tilapia, mussels and octopus. I'll order almost anything that has octopus and this didn't disappoint. Chicharron Sliders, which were roast pork, sweet potatoes and salsa on tasty buns. Much bigger than we expected. The three sliders were easily enough to be an entree. That didn't stop us from devouring it all because they were excellent. That was some good pig. Then we had Anticuchos, miso-marinated beef hearts on skewers. I've never had beef hearts before, but I definitely will again. So tender with a clearly beefy taste and the sauce was bursting with flavor. I was tempted to lick the plate. We closed out our appetizer section of the meal with Zapallitos, which were sections of fried zucchini stuffed with crabmeat, shrimp and goat cheese. Also with an excellent sauce. I generally am not a fan of goat cheese but its tang was perfect in this.

Then it was off to the entrees. I have a hard time passing up paella whenever I see it on a menu. It's generally a combination of things that I love...mussels, shrimp, clams. Surfish's paella had those things along with squid and chorizo with the usual saffron rice. All of the seafood was cooked perfectly. The clams were HUGE. And the chorizo was exceptional with a different garlicky kind of flavor. Great taste...and I always love seeing shrimp with their heads still on. It's like getting a toy with my meal. I'm always tempted to pop the head off and use it as a finger puppet at the table. (It's not an accident that I call this blog Loving Your Inner Fat “Kid”) Annie had the Entrana Tacu Tacu which was skirt steak with sweet plantains and tacu tacu (tacu tacu is a Peruvian mashed bean type dish). The steak itself was cooked to a perfect medium and had a great charred flavor. I always love sweet plantains. I thought the tacu tacu was kind of bland (which is generally how I feel about tacu tacu anywhere I've had it. So it may just be that the dish itself is generally not very flavorful.). Topping it with a fried quail egg was a nice touch. It definitely made Annie happy. She gets a little excited about anything with eggs.

In all, Annie and I had a great dinner for our shared birthday. We easily could've skipped 2 of the tapas and still have been well fed. When we left I was FULL. We ate and drank quite well for a very reasonable price. I'm looking forward to going back there again to try more stuff.

Surfish
351 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11215
718-832-8200
www.surfishbistro.com

Brunch With Chopsticks Is Fun

   On Sunday afternoon I got to have a new experience thanks to Annie's research and determination. I went to my first brunch using chopsticks. We went to former Top Chef contestant Dale Talde's eponymous restaurant in Park Slope. And they gave us the most unique brunch I've had.

If you're going to have brunch in Park Slope on an early Sunday afternoon prepare for a bit of a wait no matter where you go. If you don't expect a wait, you're clearly suffering greatly from Saturday night's debauchery and should probably go back to bed. That being said, the hostess told us there would be a 20 minute wait and it was probably almost dead-on at 20 minutes. That's refreshing. So often a hostess will tell you 20 minutes knowing full well you'll be standing around for 45. The 20 minute wait gave Annie and I a chance to look around the place. The décor is very very Asian. The plates look like the ones in the pictures above the counter in old school Chinese restaurants. It was all very retro and cool as hell. We also had a chance to enjoy the first of a few very tasty bloody marys. The pickled ginger gives it some pop to go along with the heat. The bar area is a bit of a tight squeeze though once there are more than a few people waiting. And given the popularity of Talde, there will generally be a wait.

We noticed as soon as we sat down how loud the dining room was. But it was a good kind of loud. You can tell that it's the noise of everyone enjoying their food and conversations. You don't have to raise your voice to be heard. Immediately after we were seated out waiter was right there. He asked if we'd been there before. When we replied “no”, he explained that they serve brunch dim sum style. That means when you read about all the food we ate at this meal, don't jump to the conclusion that we're disgusting gluttons with drool hanging from our jowls. They were smallish plates meant to be shared. Which isn't to say we didn't gorge ourselves, we totally did, just not as badly as it would seem initially.

Pretzel Pork and Chive Dumplings

Annie and I started with Pretzel Pork and Chive Dumplings with a Chinese Hot Mustard Dipping Sauce. I loved these. Crispy and flavorful and I love hot mustard. I could easily eat a dozen of these while watching the game. Lobster Bao, an Asian version of a lobster roll. Only instead of a potato roll it's served on a steamed bun. Very fresh and tasty. They didn't last 10 seconds. Char Sui Smoked Pork Shoulder, these are boneless spare ribs in disguise. Wonderful wonderful boneless spare ribs. The Wilbur that gave his hooves and snout for these fantastic pieces of charred flesh was a hero. The Breakfast Ramen soup was a strange thing. It was sausage, a 6-minute egg and ramen noodles in a buttered toast broth. The broth was actually too buttery, it was pretty overwhelming. Then we added some sriracha and all was good with the world. I'm excited that someone heeded my earlier call for a breakfast soup.

Char Siu Pork Shoulder AKA Boneless Spare Ribs

After finishing all of that up we ordered some more. Why not, it's only dim sum. We tried Shrimp Toast with Chinese Sausage Gravy. The toast was OK, not great but OK. Much shrimpier than normal shrimp toast from a take-out place is. Which I liked, but the dish really wasn't anything special. The gravy was really good. Shiitake Mushroom and Scallion Chang Fun, which were basically veggie stuffed crepe wraps. These had good, bright flavors. I liked them a lot. I had to get Tater Tots just because they came with sriracha ketchup and I can't get enough sriracha. As it turned out I added more sriracha to the ketchup and the tater tots were hot and crispy and good. They were good in the sausage gravy too. As we finished up, Annie switched to a Bellini which was very fruity and loaded. At Talde they do not skimp on the booze.

On a separate note; at the table behind me was a couple sitting on the same side of the table. I really can't stand same-side sitters. You look like tools. You really don't need to cuddle through a meal. If you really can't stand to not be touching each other, order in and then you can eat, fuck, then eat some more. And you don't even have to get out of bed.

After a couple of hours of eating and drinking, Talde had beaten Annie and I into submission. That was definitely an excellent meal. Great service, excellent food and the price wasn't too bad at all. I'd say if you want a different experience for your next Sunday brunch adventure, hit this place up.

Talde

369 7^th Avenue

347-916-0031

www.taldebrooklyn.com