Eating Smorgasburg: June 16, 2012

Saturday was a glorious day in NYC. We started it off by picking up our CSA share, then upped the ante with a relatively quick trip to foodie flea market Smorgasburg (I took this picture in the adjacent East River State Park). It was quick, sure, but I still had time to stuff myself with...







Brooklyn Piggies' pigs in a blanket. We got three (2 spicy, one original) with BBQ sauce. BEST OF! Seriously, these are awesome. Eat them, eat them. I didn't want to share.



I always want to drink every flavor of lemonade and limeade being served by The Stand. Today we chose strawberry-rhubarb.Though I don't think the two should be baked together, I love them smushed into lemonade together. And I love that the drinks at The Stand are never too sweet. They're perfectly refreshing.



Not pictured: another olive breadstick. Here's a correction, too. These are not from TomCat Bakery, as stated in that previous post. They're from Commerce. Sorry for the error, Commerce! The baby and I still love how tender and flavorful these are. 


 
The Maine lobster roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound might be the most expensive item at Smorgasburg ($16). I'd heard great things about it, and I finally bit the bullet. You know what? I think I'm just not that into lobster. The pickle was great. The toasted bun and toppings were swell.  The lobster was pretty good, but I kept thinking, "I wish there was less lobster and it cost less." You know what? I think I just wanted a hot dog. If you're a lobster lover, you'd probably love this. Turns out I'm not.



Two pieces of buttermilk fried chicken and cheddar waffle with maple-vinegar dipping sauce by BFC (from the folks at Buttermilk Channel). I've had Buttermilk Channel chicken and waffles before. They are famous in their neighborhood -- and beyond -- for good reason. This chicken was moist and the breading was delicious. It was a great choice (by Dan) to round out the savory part of our meal this time around.



Now, on to the desserts! We started with one of Nana's (from Cecile Dyer of Pies ’n’ Thighs) frozen bananas with crushed almonds, coconut, and sea salt.  The woman who applied the toppings said it was only the second frozen banana she had made, so she was clearly new to the stand. Her technique wasn't great, and most of our coconut, nuts, and salt blew away on the wind (the photo above is of our banana's "best side"). When she was finished, she asked the woman training her, "How was that? Good, right?" and the trainer actually said no. But we still had to pay $6 for it, so...that was a bummer. Not worth the price (though I expect she'll get better at making them). One thing I did like about it was that the banana wasn't frozen solid. I've gotten them before (from other vendors) and find them really hard to eat if you have to saw at the banana to bite through it.

 

A "Strawberry Supreme" ice cream sandwich. Visiting The Good Batch to see what they're offering has become a tradition. This excellent ice cream sandwich featured brown butter cookies, strawberry semifreddo, fresh strawberries, and Adirondack Creamery vanilla ice cream. It was good, but that salty lemon cookie ("Laughter and Lemon") of a few weeks ago still haunts my dreams...


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Poetry Tuesday: Crabby No Crab

Crabby-No-Crab wanted crab.
Crabby didn't get some.
For seasoned chips, they weren't that bad,
But seafood content? None.



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Poetry Tuesday: Barcelona, Eaten

Barcelona, eaten by the Pope
Familia spires served well to pick his teeth
Pillars there? Why, white asparagus.

No bikini* on the beach is safe, they say
Rovellons for buttons? Gobbled down
Patatas Bravas? Papa, Brava! Way to eat the streets!

Barcelona, eaten up by me
Every paving stone, a pastry
Each ounce of sea to wash a dish.

Paella, small plates, salads -- all are gone
The landscape's stripped, we ate it
The city's tapas? Tapped.

Not Gaudi! The Pope! And me!









































* bikini = Spanish grilled cheese with ham sandwich



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Fast Snack: Tuna Salad on Crackers

Dan makes a wicked tuna salad.  This one, assembled for tuna melts the other night, was heavy on the onions. I added a sprinkling of cheddar left over from breakfast and ate it on crackers this afternoon.

Disclaimer: Yes, pregnant women shouldn't eat too much tuna.  There's a debate raging about whether they should eat any at all.  The most extreme opinion I've read is that NO woman of "child-bearing age" (!!!) should eat tuna.  I'm pretty careful (and choose light tuna when buying it for myself), but decided I was unwilling to give it up completely.

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Birthday Fish-a-ma-jig

My sister's birthday was a few weeks ago, and it was in her honor that I had a McDonalds Filet-O-Fish sandwich for dinner that day.  Above is the photo I sent her to prove it.

You might remember my sister, Cali, from her guest post about her law school food storage habits.  It's worth reading.  Eventually, I wrote its sister post (zing!) about my own fridge-full of food.

Anyway, Cali and I both have a taste for the sandwich above, which she and a friend call the "fish-a-ma-jig."  I eat one as a guilty pleasure every month or two, but only enjoy it if it's JUST out of the fryer.  Even then, if it's not eaten quickly, the last corner bite tastes sort of dreary and cold, so I don't linger. My favorite part?  Oozing tartar sauce.  I know this will gross some of you out, but I strive for honesty in these posts. And I like sauces.

Happy Birthday, Cali!  Here's to another year of occasional fish-a-ma-jigs.  My wish for you is that this next year will also find you living with a fully stocked fridge (she graduated from law school, folks! AND got a job!).  It's good to share this guilty pleasure with you.

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Poetry Tuesday: Bon Appetite [sic]

[Here's a puzzle of a poem (puzzling in part because I no longer remember why I wrote it) from over ten years ago. It's young and indignant and not as deep as I imagine I thought it was when I wrote it, but I offer it now in its original form, olives and all, because you deserve to have a tangentially food-related Poetry Tuesday again after all this time.  Also, have I ever eaten salmon florets?!] 

Bon Appetite [sic/k]
words mean something.
words, mean, still emit -- and might mean lips express.

How dying is language, simplified and shaved.
Tongues empty, witless words don't quench these thirsts.
Dining on air, my thoughts turn to once redwood-hearty martyrs of vocabulary,
long-forgotten forests of phrasing as disappeared as ghosts
and only present as memory here, where each course of conversation
serves up newly misspoken delicacies and pairs the pungent, distinct flavors
of meaty meaning with the wrong wines.

Once, when someone's cruel teeth bit down a sturdy word,
a tree of meaning, or a grove of language tumbled slashed-and-burned
tall or strong or slender as its syllables designed,
axing out the sense of wood and sap
and spitting slivers from the oral mill as waste,
replanting followed; so language grew in its season
and tall at its leisure
and rich in its flavor.

Once.

But here has been eaten a meal which is misunderstood
and the real taste of each course, artful and distinct as salmon florets,
lies undigested in your gut, unsavored, where words sadly mean something.

They silently mean something.

(And the olive on a saltine you
toss the guests who attempt your
conversation goes unnoticed as
the pale, sprouty shadow
of the oak you ripped up
to make one, mispronounced
toothpick.)

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Unhelpful Review: Japanese Crab Chips

[A gift from Jeff H.  Thanks, man.]

These tasted warm.

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I eat you, Miami...

to the tune of Johanna by Stephen Sondheim.



I eat you, Miami,
I eat you,
I was half convinced I'd waken,
satisfied enough to dream you
Happily i was mistaken
Miami...
I'll eat you, Miami
I'll eat you...


I'll eat you, Miami
I'll eat you...
Are there chickens in that kitchen?
'Cause they call it Chicken Kitchen.
I am finding all your rice boss
Buried sweetly in your curry sauce...


I eat you, Miami
your Cuban, I'll eat, too,
all your snapper and your stone crab claws
sweet, sweet plantains in my happy jaws...

I had a kipper

and I'm feeling chipper.



We saw these at WholeFoods, but did not partake.


(Kippers happen to be herring, for your fyi.)

Now I am married to the sea

Ah, the Pittsburgh Strip District!  There are lots of fun shops in the area, including plenty of good food and ingredients (browsing is as much fun as buying), but this year's highlight of the strip trip was Benkovitz Seafoods (2300 Smallman Street).

I've been here in search of shrimp and such, or to marvel at the variety of spices, rubs and hotsauces available, but I had never eaten the food prepared at the back of the store.  Judging by the line, this is an area favorite.

Judging by the food, there's good reason for the line and the favoritism.  Dan got a Fried Shore Lunch Special and I chose the Original Fried Fish Sandwich.  Prices were reasonable, considering the volume of food we came away with.

My sandwich alone had 3 or 4 tender and flaky fried fillets between its two buns.  Tartar and Tiger sauces were on hand to add to the mix.

Extra goodies included round french fries that were almost like mini potato pancakes (my preferred hash brown kind, not the floury, cakey kind) and fried zucchini planks.

While exiting, over-full and happy to be so, I spotted a snackable friend on a shelf - one I knew from days in the midwest.  Long before I moved to NYC, I was eating these New York Style bagel chips with sea salt (below).  Nothing compares to the greasy, salty sensation of them melting, one by one, on my tongue.  

Oh, my friend, how I've missed you.