BACON, BACON, BACON

Last night Meena had a crazy long day and it was my turn to whip up some dinner by the time she got home. We had a big ol' heirloom tomato just itching to be sliced up, so we figured a BLT was in order.

I got started with the BLT:
- bacon
- frisee
- light mayo
- whole wheat pita
- heirloom tomato

Pretty simple. As it should be.

And then I moved into a little salad:
- frisee
- pan-fried white peach
- cabbage
- candied walnuts
- apple cider vinegar
- sea salt

I was pretty pleased with everything. The BLT was ... well, a BLT. How can you go wrong with that? And the salad was pretty nice. I used a little of the bacon fat to cook the cabbage and that sorta served as the dressing for the salad. Sorta gross I'm sure, but it was pretty darn good. That cabbage soaked up a lot of bacon flavor and it gave the salad a nice, salty bite on top of the candied walnuts and white peach.

ZAYTUESDAY

I had to get my haircut last night so I was a little late getting home. And when I rolled back into Carroll Gardens, Meena decided our best bet was a bit of Zaytoons. I wasn't about to disagree.

I kept it totally standard and had the same old same old:
- shish kebab sandwich
- zaytoons mix

Meena mixed it up with a new pick:
- chicken shawarma pit-za

The pit-za was off the hook. It's just one of their lovely pitas covered in pizza goodness, but man, it really works. Meena's was popping with garlic and I think we'll be getting this again.

Mine was the same as it always is - awesome meats and a lovely bowl of pickles, peppers and olives.

FARMING

We had a case of the MUNDAYS. A serious one. I was stressed. Meena was stressed. And as it turns out, Dan and Steveo were feelin' the first day of the week blues as well. So we all joined together for a little support sesh at Flatbush Farms over in Park Slope.

I should say, before we went, Dan was nice enough to have a little bruschetta and some wine for us. Niiiiice.

But at the Farm, we pulled up a couple seats around a nice table on the back porch and got down to business.

In a rare event, Meena and I both ordered the same thing:
- french dip with gruyere, carmelized onions and horseradish cream

Dan had:
- pressed chicken

Steve had:
- vegetable crepe

Although Steve said his was really good, it was clearly a bit of a bummer. I think the quote when it arrived was, "Are they kidding?" It wasn't really a vegetable crepe. it was a crepe with nothing in it ... sitting next to a bunch of veggies. Again, I think he liked it, but it was a little weird.

Meena and were really into ours. It was a massive plate and after the days we'd had, we were all to ready to house a couple big ol' sandwiches and a little a jus.

Dan was a fan of his I think. What's not to like about a little pressed chicken and a beer? Pretty solid Monday meal if you ask me. I almost got the same thing.

Well, we got through it. With the help of Dan and Steve. Bring on Tuesday. We're ready.

NOODLES AWAIT

After a weekend spent out in the woods, Meena was kind enough to have some lovely dinner waiting when I returned to Brooklyn. I'll try to get some photos from the weekend up later. I can't remember if I took many photos of hot dogs, hamburgers and chips, but I'll see what I can do.

At any rate, Meena had a lovely meal filled with lots of green market goodies when I finally got back from the north.

Her lovely little thai noodle salad featured:
- tomato
- cucumber
- thai rice noodles
- fish sauce
- chicken
- sambal oelek
- chili sauce
- shiitake
- green onion
- garlic
- shallot
- olive oil
- lime juice
- peanuts

Pretty fantastic. It was really light on the lime flavor but there was a hint. Which was nice. And the peanuts were a nice crunchy, creamy piece that balanced out some of the sweet and hot aspects of the chili sauces.

For a lovely finish, Meena used some of the blueberries she'd picked up at the market and made a wonderful crumble:
- blueberries
- oats
- brown sugar
- flour
- lemon juice
- cinnamon
- butter
- walnuts
- cornstarch

Excellent welcome home. After a weekend spent with cased meats and burgers, this was pretty much the perfect meal to have on the table when my smelly person re-entered the real world.

BEFORE THE JOURNEY

On the way home from work, we had to stop at K-mart for some supplies because Friday morning was the departure date for a weekend upstate for Alec and friends. But Meena was kind enough to accompany me to to pick up a sleeping bag and some other misc. stuff. And because we got home sorta late and I had to get up really early, we decided Cube 63 would be the ideal delivery.

Meena had:
- shrimp shumai
- shrimp tempura roll
- 63 roll

Alec had:
- miso
- salmon and avocado roll
- hawaii roll

I don't know why but Cube really hit the spot that night. It hadn't been that long since we'd had it. But it was just right. I'm not even sure it was any better than usual. But it was awesome.

INSANE

I got home crazy late last night so Meena was kind enough to get dinner movin' in the proper direction while I was burning the midnight oil.

This was sorta the meal we'd planned on having the previous night but the call for Lobo was just too deafening. So Meena broke out the following and got us ready for some eats:
- avocado
- boca burgers
- cabbage
- white onion
- cheddar cheese
- salsa
- mustard
- sambal oelek
- sweet potato fries
- whole wheat english muffin

Now this setup pictured above just wasn't realistic. I tried. But it was too much. Shortly after this, I had to break it down and eat this like a real human being.

The burger's weren't bad. They were mostly good due to the stuff Meena sliced and diced to throw on them. The burgers simply weren't as good as I'd remembered them from college, etc. Not sure if we just got the wrong kind, but I wasn't all that impressed.

But like I said, with all the yummy goodness of the avocado and onion and salsa, we were pretty happy.

HOW WE DO

Meena had some drama at work last night so rather than moving forward with some veggie burgers and sweet potato fries, we decided to just do what we do - we went to Lobo.

I know, I know. It's getting crazy at this point. But we just need to sometimes.

Anyway, enough with the excuses. We enjoyed it and that's all that matters!

Meena had:
- edwin's enchiladas with ranchero sauce

Alec had:
- quesadilla with pork

I've sorta switched to the quesadilla as my go-to lately. Not sure why. But I do really enjoy it. It doesn't come with all that extra stuff. Maybe that's why I keep going back. No rice and beans. Which for some reason, makes me feel better. I usually end up so full leaving after I've picked at that big plate that it's just miserable. But the quesadilla - not so bad.

Anyway, that's that. Another night at Lobo.

SETTLING IN

Sadly Allison had to get on a plane and go back home and we had to go back to work. And it was Monday. So there weren't a lot of good things about yesterday. But as we're finally getting settled in here at the new place, we did try and pick up the mood with a little home cookin'.

Meena had suggested fajitas to help us get rid of a couple things in the fridge and I thought that sounded like an excellent idea. So as soon as I rolled up on the apt, I got moving on the tex mex fav that included:
- chicken
- red bell pepper
- white onion
- olive oil
- sea salt
- cumin
- black pepper
- a bit of "taco" seasoning from some spice shop in Milwaukee
- crushed red pepper

We served it all up with a bit of fat-free sour cream, shredded cheese and some black bean and corn salsa from Stinky Brooklyn.

Delicious!

Typically when I'm making tacos and stuff I feel like I cook all that stuff separately, but everything went into one skillet last night and I think it was nice. Flavors melted together and the flour tortillas were really singing when we stuffed them with plump bits of chicken and spiced peppers and onions.

I'd say this is probably the first really solid meal we've made here. Fingers crossed there will be some more!

LAST NIGHT IN TOOOWWWNNN

It was finally Allison's last night and town and we were a combination of hot, tired and sad. We'd had an excellent time - and Allison still hadn't had any Joya. We figured it was time to right that wrong.

And right it we did. We ordered a feast. Tons of lovely Thai foods showed up much to our ravenous delight. We started with:
- spring rolls
- thai calamari

Allison had:
- some sort of red thai curry with eggplant and chicken

Meena had:
- chicken pad thai (spicy ... sorta)

Alec had:
- spicy noodles (extra spicy!)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, man. This stuff was amazing. Every bite. The calamari was horrible for me but delicious in my tummy. The spring rolls were crunchy and packed with all things amazing. The spicy noodles were MAD spicy and so filling I couldn't even eat half. Meena's pad thai was pretty perfect as usual and I now know from experience (tried a bite of the leftover tonight) that Allison's curry was bursting with coconut milk flavor and a lovely complexity of other assorted flavors.

At the end of the meal, Allison brought out a few cupcakes from THE bakery on Atlantic Street, the Downtown Atlantic Restaurant and Bakery. We'd already killed a carrot cake cup earlier in the weekend so we were left with the hostess inspired spot and the red velvet. They were both amazing. And I made certain that I won't need sugar again until September. How awesome is that?

ALL OVER EATING

Saturday night was a weird eating night. We sorta knew it would be the case and it sorta rolled out the way we thought.

We started with a AARP style dinner around 4:45 at Lobo. It wasn't lunch. It wasn't dinner. It could only be classified as something you'd do if you're 72 years old, but we did it. We knew food would come infrequently, so we decided to chow down. I had a quesadilla, Meena had some edwin's enchiladas and Allison had a burrito. Good base. It's Lobo, after all.

After that, we had some lovely food ala Diana. I'm not sure what it all was, but I recall heading over to their lovely new apartment for some little crostini with white beans and pesto, fresh melon and a glass or two of wine. Great food in a lovely setting.

Before Allison came to town, one of the first things she told me was that we had to hit The Bourgeois Pig for some fondue and libations. And Saturday night, we did. We joined M. Guggy, Matty Chaymez and a very odd new location for one of Allison's NYC favs. Yes, they'd moved their red walls and velvety furniture down the street to a much larger location and an expansive menu. Not the same. But not bad, either. We had a savory chesse fondue and it was pretty rad. Lots of veggies, breads and fruit to dunk in a bubbling pot of cheese. Awesome.

ALLISON TO THE THIRD

On Friday, we had high hopes of hitting Lucali, but it just didn't come together. The thought of a long wait on a day that topped out around 95 just didn't feel right. So what to do when you want to show your sister from Indiana a bit of the local flavor you love so much? Go to Cube 63. That's what you do. And that's what we did.

Allison has the real photos, so don't mind this placeholder. If she sends me the real stuff, I'll update. But here's how we ordered:

Allison had:
- volcano roll

Meena had:
- 63 roll
- white tuna sashimi
- salmon sashimi
- shrimp shumai

Alec had:
- miso
- salmon and avocado roll
- some sorta special roll

Cube 63 was oddly packed. Which makes us very happy. But it's not often, so it was really good to see. But despite the insane numbers, the service was still awesome and the food was wonderful. Cube 63, I love you.

ALLISON IS IN BK!

That's right, the title speaks the truth. My sister came all the way out to Brooklyn to pay Meena and I a little mid-summer visit. And when folks come to town (and if you read this blog from time to time you'll know) we always take people to Bocca Lupo. It one of our favorites and even though it's not RIGHT around the corner these days, we'll always make the trek back to Warren for whatever they're making.

And because we're lucky people, we had the honor and privilege of dining with Dan and Steveo as well.

There was way too much food to recap everything, but here were a few of the things I remember. We all started with a cheese plate and it was lovely. Dan and Steve had panini's and one bruschetta I think. I think. Not totally sure. Allison had a wonderful little party sandwich of prosciutto, tomato and goat cheese. They called it something else, but Allison and I both know it as a party sandwich. No crust = party sandwich. Simple math. She also had a couple bruschetta. She really liked the mushroom joint.

Meena had her shrimp scampi and a bit of a nice little pasta. I had a handful of bruschetta and I think the mushroom was pretty lovely. But the asparagus and spring pea bites were also great. And the sausage, too. Who am I kidding, I love everything they make.

Awesome kick off to a wonderful weekend.

SLOPPY SAMS?

This looks like a pretty solid burger in the photo but let me assure you, it was anything but. I mean, it had pretty good flavor. We enjoyed it. But it most certainly wasn't solid. See, I didn't have an egg to bind this thing and the patties most certainly felt a lot more like sloppy joes than burgers.

But like I said, they were good. Tasty. Nice flavor. So not all was bad. Not even a little bad really. Just sorta messy I guess.

Here's how it went:
- salmon
- onion
- black sesame seeds
- panko
- sesame oil
- soy sauce
- sautéed onion
- sautéed red pepper
- spinach
- onion roll
- corn on the cob
- wasabi mayo (wasabi powder, light mayo)

Dinner was cool, man. I had to do the corn in the oven. That was weird. I always do corn in the microwave. Is that bad? Probably. Probably makes me a failed foodie. That's fine by me. I most certainly don't consider myself a foodie. At all. I just like to eat, homey. But yeah, I did the corn in the oven. But it was still good.

And the sloppy sam was pretty good too. The veggies were nice and the sloppy sam had good salmon-ey punch that wasn't drown out by all the other stuffs.

SALES PART TWO

The sales meeting continued the following night and the food wasn't a whole lot better. It was better. No doubt. But not a TON better. The environment was nice though because Schiller's on the LES is at very least a nice lookin' spot.

I had a couple appetizers and one was awesome - some ham and cheese bite thing. It was a little triangle of heart attack. Can't ask for much more than that.

For dinner, I had a greek salad, a bit of salmon and some veg and a dessert I can't really remember.

As sales meetings go, this one was pretty standard. Nice group. OK food. Lots of drinks. Yep. A sales meeting.

BEHIND ... AGAIN

way behind. we moved and now I'm in the midst of sales meetings and stuff. I'll try to get back to normal soon.

But just for the record, here's the quick review of the last few days:

Friday, July 11:

Tried the new neighborhood and hit this place that has a sign that says Thai Food. Not sure what’s it’s called off the top of my head, but it was totally empty and sorta nice. Meena’s pad thai wasn’t her favorite, but I had a nice curry that was SUPER spicy.

Saturday, July 12:

Zaytoons! Now that it’s way closer and after a really taxing day of moving the stuff, we figured there wouldn’t be anything better than a bottle of wine and some Middle Eastern delights. We were right.

Sunday, July 13

South Brooklyn Pizza in the house! Not really. We were in their house for some little personal pizzas. The place is nice. They only make personal cheese wood-fired pizzas and chocolate chip cookies (seriously, that’s all they make) and we took them up on a couple of the former and passed on the latter. Not bad. No Lucali, but pretty delicious anyway.

Monday, July 14th

I went to the Park for a sales meeting dinner and had a nasty steak and some fries. Not great. I ordered it rare and it came out medium well. Awesome. Meena had some Joya and chilled at home. I would have happily traded places.

I have another sales meeting dinner tonight, but after this experience, we’ll fire up the new kitchen and get down to business!

CHINESE FOOD FOR THE SOUL

Last night we were both feeling pretty drained. Tired and just not great. And with the approaching move, we figured we only had one option - Chinese food for the soul.

So Meena called in a little help from our friends on Smith Street - Sichuan Garden.

Meena called in a LOT of help as it turns out! She ordered a massive spread (much of which is still in the fridge) that included the following:
- beef with broccoli
- general tso's chicken
- shrimp lo mien
- shrimp dumplings
- hot and sour soup

It was pretty good. Mostly we were just hungry and tired and this stuff was really good and filling. Comfortable. You know like that saying. Like putting on a warm sweater in the winter. It's just a nice feeling.

We'll probably have more of this type of thing for a few more days. Hang in there and we'll get back to cookin' later this weekend!

SOME SALADS

Meena was out with some friends last night so it was just me hangin' around the house. Watchin' the Yankees and packing stuff. And while I was maintaining this rigorous routine, I decided I needed a little grub to go with all the fun.

So I decided to make a couple salads. One tuna, one crab. And I figured I'd throw some veg in there with it. Here's how the tuna went:
- tuna salad (tuna in oil, brown mustard, basil pesto, light mayo, green olives, red onion)
- whole grain flat bread
- avocado
- sprouts
- tomato

And after that, I threw together a little crab salad as a starter:
- crab salad (crab, red onion, sambal oelek, light mayo, lime juice)
- avocado
- red onion
- some bits of flat bread
- sea salt


Not bad. It ended up being a little too much, but everything was yummy. The crab salad ... well, I had low expectations. But it was really good. Much better than I would have expected. And all the veg with it was pretty much perfect. Who knew?

The tuna salad was OK. Well. it was better than OK. It was pretty good. And with it, the veg was pretty awesome.

So good dinner. I know I've said it before, but this probably will be the last home cooked meal here. Not really cooked. Home ... mixed. But I'm sure that given our Saturday a.m. departure, this is it!

TEX MEX MONDAY

Last night was miserable. The humidity is so thick you can cut it and after I dragged Meena over to the crazy camera superstore on 9th Ave., she was pretty tired. Nearly falling asleep on the train. So what's the best way to get Meena back on track after a tough ride home? Lobo.

Nothing too crazy for us. Just the same old hits. Meena had:
- edwin's enchiladas with ranchero sauce

Alec had:
- skinny twins with ranchero sauce

A couple chicken enchiladas on a Monday night. Not a bad way to get back into the NY work week after such a lovely trip to Wisco. Meena is out with the girls tonight so I'll probably cook something. Not sure what ... but I'm sure I'll figure something out!

RED, WHITE AND WISCO

Hi! As you can see from the photos, we were away for the holiday weekend doing wedding stuff and havin' some fun in Milwaukee and Kohler, Wisconsin.

The first photos up there show our horrible airport tradition - cheap Chinese. I don't know why we do it, but we do. I think there is some spicy chicken in there. Some bourbon chicken. That kind of stuff. It's terrible, but we love it and we wouldn't fly unless we've had our fill.

Last Thursday, we woke up early and drove to Kohler for our wedding tasting and flower discussion. I thought about giving you a look at the meal, but I figured I'd keep it secret. It'll be well documented in October. So all you get now is a napkin fold we decided NOT to use. But suffice it to say, everything was delicious and we made some selections we're really happy with. Flowers too. We're so happy with the club and we're going to have a blast when we finally make it back up there to tie the knot.

The fourth was pretty awesome. We had a bunch of hot dogs and all that fun holiday stuff at a local fireworks display.

The next day we did some driving around Hartford, WI to see Meena's brother and his new home. His kids were tons of fun and the new place is going to be great. We had lunch at this fun hunting lodge in the woods and did a bunch of exploring around the back roads and lake drives of Wisconsin's green summer landscape.

After all that, you'd think we'd be done for the day ... but indeed we were not. We went to see the Brew Crew beat the Pirates of Pittsburgh! It was a great game and the food didn't stop. We had more hot dogs, jumbo pretzels, popcorn, beer ... the whole lot. It was perfect.

One last food stop to mention ... the Milwaukee airport was our last chance to pick up a New Glarus Spotted Cow. Our beloved Wisconsin beer that never seems to be available out here in NY. So we had a couple bites while watching Nadal and washed it down with these delicious suds.

Great trip. We're happy to be home ... although we're going to be moving the rest of the week and there's nothing very fun about that. But Wisconsin was such a good time and we miss it. Every one of those trips just makes us that much more ready to become Midwesterners again. One of these days we'll do it and we'll be back in the heartland.

FINGER FOOD

Not sure why I was so hot on the idea of little finger sandwiches, but as I think I mentioned, I think it’s a nice little palate to paint a delicious culinary picture. Much like the pizzetta. So last night, in what will likely be one of the last home cooked meals on this street, I figured I’d roll out a new tradition and get to work on some interesting (and not so interesting) flavors.

The first shot was far and away the more mundane of the two options and featured:
- italian bread
- smoked turkey
- green apple
- brie
- honey mustard

It was fine. Good actually. I’m being too hard on it. It was very good. But it was some standard deli stuff so I won’t go much further on it.

The second option was pretty amazing. I loved it. Meena loved it. It contained the following:
- roast beef
- korean bbq (garlic, soy, brown sugar, sesame oil)
- italian bread
- kimchee
- mixed greens

Awesome. It was like bulgogi on a little slice of bread. The flavors were intense. Garlicky, rich, spicy, beefy. Everything was there and we loved every little bite. It’s a pretty simple (and classic) Korean flavor combination and boy have they nailed it. This one will be making a repeat appearance. Probably in the next kitchen, though!

We finished the whole thing off with some simple sweet potato fries - just sweet potato, sea salt and olive oil. Baked until crisp.

We'll be in Milwaukee doing wedding stuff for the next few days. We'll try to update, but who knows. The only thing we know for sure is that we'll be eating Asian Chow for dinner tonight. Beyond that, your guess is as good as ours.

RAINY NIGHT PERFECTION

Another good thing about our upcoming move? We'll be closer to Zaytoons. If that's not a good reason to move down the block, I don't know what is!

So last night I got home a little late and had to run some errands in the hood before I got home. I'd planned to make some little finger sandwiches, but Meena had a better idea - Zaytoons!

Meena kept it real and got a fairly normal pick for herself:
- chicken shawrama sandwich

Alec had some new stuff and an old favorite:
- zaytoons' mix
- merguez and shish kebab platter

I'd never had the merguez before but Meena thought I might like it. Turns out she was right. It was heavily spiced and just bursting with that wonderful lamb goodness. It was a little dry last night (so were the kebabs) which is odd, but it was delivery so I guess I can't complain too much. Meena's sandwich with a healthy dose of hummus was delicious as always. A big, messy concoction of perfectly cooked (and spiced) chicken and a bunch of great pickles and onions.

As always, nothing but love for 'toons.