From the monthly archives: September 2008
Steve & Sons Bakery, a vegetarian Caribbean bakery and restaurant in Remsen Village, Brooklyn, is a bit off the beaten track but makes for an interesting stop. The bakery counter is always bustling, stealing a lot of the waitress’s attention. But do not fret! Your long wait will be rewarded. Our waitress let me sample some of there tongue-tingling ginger beer on the house and left our dessert off the bill!
The vegetarian steak is hiding under those sauteed onions, plantains & rice.
There is its cross-section. This texturized soy protein wasn’t too chewy. Tender?
Their tofu cheesecake was rather enormous and is available in a variety of different sugary fruit colors toppings.
When I was a kid I was confused by beer. I remember not understanding Strange Brew. I remember my parents taking me and my siblings to an Oktoberfest carnival, going down a tall and smooth plastic slide with my legs in a potato sack and hearing my Dad complain everyone around us was drunk. He said this as if it was a bad thing yet everyone was happy. Hmmm. My confusion grew. “Booze”, as I called all alcohol, was a big mystery. The meaning I constructed of it made little sense. It had a strong odor, was kept on high glass shelves and Grandmas often knitted poodle outfits for their bottles. It wasn’t until a trip to Busch Gardens that I got the opportunity to try a sip of the mysterious elixir. After touring the the Busch Brewery in Williamsburg, Virginia, my mom gave me her cup to try. I thought it was vile.
Then in high school there was Crazy Horse, a 40 oz. malt liquor all the rage with the stoners and juvenile delinquents I hung around with. I tipped my 40 when no one was looking and used the bottle for decorative purposes. (Note: Crazy Horse malt liquor is no longer. After an 8 year legal battle with the Estate of Crazy Horse and the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, the brewing company settled. Interesting read here.) I just thought that I was supposed to like the stuff… until Ian MacKaye and Ray Cappo (pictured) convinced me otherwise. I was “straightedege for life” for 5 years, which to an adolescent is life.
Eventually I realized that abstaining from alcohol was a useless endeavor. I had never even been drunk before, making it hardly a vice. By the time I managed to swallow more than one bottle of Heineken, I learned it was just fun, a fuzzing of that nagging voice in my head that needs occasional fuzzing.
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Onward and into the now. As October looms near, the costume aisle in your local drug store will soon be splattered in red and green, the mornings and evenings are now requiring toasty socks and my Christmas crafting has officially begun. Along with needlework and woodwork, this year I will be brewing a spiced holiday ale! With the expertise of my Milwaukee brewer, Wok Man, fellow ex-aficionado of stoners and juvenile delinquents, CandyPenny, and the hungry hungry yeast of the holy carboy, we’re brewing 5 gallons of bread soda for holiday gift giving.
Steeping the dark crystal grains in the kettle. It’s like a sweatsock teabag.
As the water heats the sweatsock turns it a deep chocolate color.
Adding the malt extracts, mulling spices and hops, the entire apartment was filled with a delicious aroma. It smelled like sweet potatoes and cinnamon, Thanksgiving pumpkin pie and fresh baked bread.
After bringing to a boil again, a thick layer of glop surfaces, breaking like a cracked desert.
Now we have “wort”. And it needs to chill.
Chilled wort is added to the carboy along with water and the yeast. The yeast chomp on the sugars from the malt and give off CO2 and alcohol. We’ll let them do this at least 6 weeks.
Beer!
Half a year later, I finally got around to organizing and formatting my photos from Thailand. After 8 weeks of travel and hundreds of miles of wonder, I wound up with a grand total of about 2,500 photos. Wanting to display this great adventure with some style, I decided to publish them through the fantastic new bookmaking software from Blurb in a bound, hardcover series of three. Book I, February 2008, has finally been finished! Preview (and purchase if you so desire) the book here.
Today’s Mets vs. Marlins game may be the last game played in New York’s Shea Stadium. I say “may” because it is my hope that they’ll be playing the Milwaukee Brewers in sudden death as they’re both tied for the National League wildcard. This is exciting on many levels, mostly because I’ve cheered the Brewers on through the season: fell in love with Ryan Braun, CC Sabathia and Prince Fielder; consoled Wok Man through the ups and downs of his tough love for the team (bit my tongue to the brash clash of his bright yellow and blue vintage MB hat with anything he may be wearing) and learned to hate the Chicago Cubs, the top dogs of the I-94 rivalry.
But my heart is with the New York Mets.
And inside the bright blue of Shea Stadium… soon the be dismantled making way for Citi Field. Shea Stadium was named to honor William Shea, who brought the New York Mets into the National League. This new stadium is named to honor Citibank, the largest bank in the United States. For what, having the greatest holdings? This grand scale corporate sponsorship leaves a bad taste in my mouth. It isn’t enough I have to hear the Gatorade Player of the Week or the Gillette Play of the 5th Inning? Below is a sampling of Major League Baseball Stadiums that are (or to be) named for corporations:
Oakland A’s Cisco Field
Minnesota Twin’s Target Field
Seattle Mariner’s Safeco Field
Chicago White Sox’s U.S. Cellular Field
Cleveland Indian’s Progressive Field
Detroit Tigers’ Comerica Park
Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field
Philadelphia Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park
St. Louis Cardinals’ Busch Stadium
Milwaukee Brewers’ Miller Park
Houston Astros’ Minute Maid Park
San Francisco Giants’ AT&T Park
Arizona Diamond Backs’ Chase Field
Colorado Rockies’ Coors Field
San Diego Padres’ Petco Park
Some of them sound like jokes. U.S. Cellular Field? C’mon.
The moment you love you’re unlimited. My tea bag told me that.
1) Pretty Mary K (Other Other Version)
2) Tony Leung
3) Colors
4) Uplifting Guerrilla Art
5) Post Secret
6) Thursday afternoon
2) Tony Leung
3) Colors
4) Uplifting Guerrilla Art
5) Post Secret
6) Thursday afternoon
7) ReadyMade magazine
8) Lyrics to While You Were Sleeping
9) My Summer of George calendar
10) Vegan D.I.L.F.
11) Full immersion into water
12) Matt Berninger’s voice
13) Life Cycle Studies in World Watch
14) 70′s home decorating books
8) Lyrics to While You Were Sleeping
9) My Summer of George calendar
10) Vegan D.I.L.F.
11) Full immersion into water
12) Matt Berninger’s voice
13) Life Cycle Studies in World Watch
14) 70′s home decorating books
15) Craft inspiration
16) Earth tones
17) Vegan Porn
18) Cupcakes
19) “Dancing” to Running Up That Hill (Chromatics)
20) Red Hook Fairway Olive Oil Tasting Station
21) Roadside Attractions
22) Figs
23) Vegetarian Food For Thought podcast
24) Vintage China
25) Stop motion animation
26) M.O.: Effisense
27) The walk to the door of a new thrift store
16) Earth tones
17) Vegan Porn
18) Cupcakes
19) “Dancing” to Running Up That Hill (Chromatics)
20) Red Hook Fairway Olive Oil Tasting Station
21) Roadside Attractions
22) Figs
23) Vegetarian Food For Thought podcast
24) Vintage China
25) Stop motion animation
26) M.O.: Effisense
27) The walk to the door of a new thrift store
28) Beards
29) Brightly colored belts & scarves
31) Carny folk nostalgia
32) Taking pictures
33) Mexican Folk art
34) Retro greeting cards
35) Franklin Delano Roosevelt
36) Driving
37) Drunken boardgames on Eglon
39) Sigur Ros’s Memory
40) Old cemeteries
41) Michael Bluth
42) Morbid Anatomy
43) Horn arrangements
44) Dignan
45) Old school Pyrex glass kettles
46) Peppercorns
47) Your Hand In Mine
48) Flax & Millers bran overload
49) Old New York
50) Curbside shopping
For about 7 months the kitsch mushroom emblazoned fondue set I purchased at a thrift store in Jacksonville, Florida, partly to meet the card minimum, has sat high on my kitchen shelf, a witness and not a participant of the magic inside the Olive kitchen.
I arbitrarily selected this date, September 19, 2008, to break the set in. The spread was delectable and almost dream-like, the afterthoughts of splendor poking up in the hours to proceed like a distant dream. Veganomicon‘s vanilla pound cake, sliced in moist dense strips, Sweet & Sara‘s vanilla marshmallows, fresh strawberries and banana all waded lovingly in the waves of a simple chocolate fondue recipe (here). Along side for further dipping were puddles of tofu whip and almond-anise cookie crumbs. It was a gluttonous sweets fest for CandyPenny and Wok Man.
Participating in the chaos down Mulberry street in Little Italy during the annual Feast of San Gennaro several times in my life, I wanted to know who this San Gennaro was. Knowing the 11 day street party was more then zeppoles, bricks of nougat and Italian pride iron-on t-shirts (and being mostly Italian and raised as a Roman Catholic myself), I learned that the San Gennaro is the Neapolitan martyr saint hot-topic.
There is little known of the life of Januarius but local Neapolitan tradition says he was born in Benevento to a rich patrician family that traced its descent to the Caudini tribe of the Samnites. At a young age of 15, he became local priest of his parish in Benevento, which at the time was relatively pagan. When Januarius was 20, he became Bishop of Naples and befriended Juliana of Nicomedia and St.Sossius whom he met during his priestly studies as young boys. As Bishop of Naples, he performed many miracles. During the persecution of Christians by Emperor Diocletian, he hid his fellow Christians and prevented them from being caught. Unfortunately, while visiting Sossius in jail, he too was arrested. He was placed in a furnace to be cooked alive, he came out unscathed. He was pushed into the Flavian Amphitheater at Pozzuoli to be eaten by wild bears, who had not eaten in days. Yet the animals refused to eat them, instead licking their toes. Januarius was beheaded along with Sossius and his companions at Solfatara.
Fried Oreos and Twinkies were sold. Real, middle-America carnie fare
Nougat bricks
Gotta love the guidos.
Holy canoli.
Pride = t-shirt
Fresh garlic bread and rigatoni: authentically delish
Every change of season I get sick. It is like clockwork. I self-diagnose this susceptibility to the Earth’s equinoxes and solstices as being amidst some ethereal harmony with my larger environment, to nature; a necessary wrath of my goddessness; and the toil of an omni-sensitive soul, open and, therefore, vulnerable. Or it could be something that doesn’t evoke images of forest dancing and the Pure Moods compilation: stress.
Whichever the case. A long time ago, someone said to gormandize (vocabulary word) when you have a cold.
Black Pepper Mary’s Gone Crackers and basil pesto.
The KZ signature on pumpernickel with CP‘s garden-fresh rosemary & a side of spinach, made by Wok Man.
“Five Amingo” fruit. That’s what Khim‘s calls its cut mango, cantaloupe, watermelon and pineapple medley. I call it a typo and a miscount.
Veganomicon‘s vanilla pound cake is all ready for Vegan Fondue Night this weekend. Of course, I snuck a taste.
Wok Man mans the wok for a bright stir-fry to strengthen me up.
They gave us picks, said “go mine the sun. And go gold and come back when you’re done.”
Off the well worn track of my daily life here in New York is a different city. A city that the tourists come to see. 46 million tourists just in 2007 (this and other interesting figures here). Among New York City’s countless attractions and world renowned cultural institutions is the Metropolitan Museum of Art: home to over 2 million pieces of art, expansive in size and breadth, one of the largest art museums in the world and maybe the most breathtaking afternoon available between the Hudson and East rivers.
And! the amazing Arts Initiative at Columbia University picks up the tab for all its students’ admission fees to the Met (and about 30 other area museums). Glad the hefty tuition I pay is rewarding me immediately with a cushion of inspiration, art and a new outlook of my homecity.
Marciana, Sister of the emperor Trajan
Lucius Versus
Ugolino and His Sons
“The story of the Pisan traitor Ugolino della Gherardesca, imprisoned with his sons and condemned to starvation, was told by Dante in the INferno (canto 23). Carpeaux (the artist) shows the anguished father resisting his sons’ offer to their own bodies for his sustenance.”
The Demidoff Table by Lorenzo Bartolini
“The subject is a complex, cosmological allegory best described in the sculptor’s own words: ‘Stretched out upon the plan of the world is Cupid, God of generation, sustaining and watching over the symbolic genius of dissolute wealth without virtue, who snores in his sleep,…dreaming of past diversions in pleasure. Left to himself, the Genius of ambition rectitude in work sleeps the agitated sleep of misfortune and glory,…his head extending beyond the periphery of the world.’”
I work around the block from New York eat-stitution Zabar’s. When luck leaves me with 10 minutes to spare before punch-in, I head to 91st street to loiter around the delivery trucks huffing the fresh baked bread ready to be shipped all over the city at Eli’s Vinegar Factory. Photographed is the 800-pound pink gorilla on the street. Who’d throw out such a thing?
The Upper West Side’s Health Nuts is quite the exciting find. I’d hit their Long Island location on many-a occasion after working on Old Country Road for years. But that was like 10 years ago. This location’s maze of a floor plan has a great selection of vegan and raw groceries and goodies. The range of products is comparable to Whole Foods, but it has that Mom ‘n Pop’s feel. I picked up this raw blackberry “cheesecake” to treat myself after my first full week of work and grad school.
Rice‘s Lexington Avenue location seemed less appetizing within the sea of Indian restaurants of Curry Hill, but something lured us in. I got the green rice (white rice with with cilantro, parsley & spinach) with the tofu satay skewers and Wok Man got the tofu meatballs with brown rice. Although the food was tasty, our “large” portions left us hungry. Hungry enough to polish off an entire loaf of Italian bread dipped in a delicious concoction of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and Bay View Tuscan Seasoning from the Spice House in Milwaukee.
I’m always on the hunt for a satisfying veggie burger. My standards are a bit rigid, however. Many restaurant veggie burgers contain cheese and/or egg… and the others that don’t are wet mystery globs with protruding vegetables: not my idea of hearty. This house made lentil veggie burger from Metro Diner packs a fierce veggie burger punch! When mood calls for hearty diner grub, it is worth the trip.
I’ve found Vietnamese perfection just a few steps from my job: Spice Noodle. The lunch portions are super cheap (like 5.95 cheap) and very large. The food is fresh and flavorful- cooked with care. The service is like lightening, and! they take a cards with no minimum. Pictured here is my Vegetarian Bun.
Vegan Reporting By Location
