There are few things better than hot pizza right out of a brick oven on a cold January day. When I went to Roberta's for my interview at Let's Eat In on the Heritage Radio Network, whose HQ is in a shipping container in the back of the restaurant, I got to try their margherita pizza for the first time (having tried the Famous Original a few weeks earlier.)
As a purist when it comes to pizza, I like to think that you can judge how great a pie is in its most basic form, in this case, with just tomato, mozzarella, and basil. And the one at Roberta's is pretty great. It's slightly charred around the edges, with just enough tomato sauce for flavor. The mozzarella comes in nice big pieces, as it should.
Thanh Da in Sunset Park is one of my favorite Vietnamese spots in the city. I used to only go for the (delicious) banh mi, neglecting everything else on the menu. Then one day I saw that they offered bun rieu, a Vietnamese crab and tomato noodle soup that I hadn’t seen anywhere else in New York.
And what a shame too. This dish is immensely flavorful, with bright tomato-y broth, bits of crab paste, tender pork, fried tofu puffs, and a hearty amount of rice noodles, all topped with fresh mint and bean sprouts. To compare: the last time I had a bowl of bun rieu was in Hanoi at a street stall. Thanh Da’s version is almost as good, without requiring a plane ride to Vietnam.
As some of you may know, I have an on-going fascination with Chinese food from around the world. When I was living in Asia, I frequently visited Chinatowns and Chinese restaurants in whichever country I was traveling in. Some memorable experiences included eating mapo tofu ramen in Yokohama’s Chinatown, trying jajangmyeon in Seoul, and meeting a family from Yunnan at their Thai-Chinese restaurant in Chiang Mai.
In New York there are also a few notable Indian-Chinese, Cuban-Chinese, and Jamaican-Chinese restaurants. I’m starting a new feature for Brooklyn Galley that highlights great dishes and drinks from around Brooklyn (and some hits from the other four boroughs too). For this inaugural post, let’s take a look at jerk chicken lo mein.
When you’re gearing up for the launch of your first cookbook, and trying to work on two blogs while planning a book launch party, weekdays can get a bit hectic. Sit-down lunches start becoming a luxury. Heck, lunch becomes a luxury. Or at least, lunch that doesn’t involve grabbing a slice of pizza on the go.
Last week, after lecturing to myself that I really did need something healthier, I decided to whip up a batch of Provencal chickpea dip that could last for several days. And pair it with olives, sun-dried tomatoes, and pita bread, everything that could be picked up quickly from the neighborhood market. This super easy recipe comes from Anne Willan’s wonderful and beautifully photographed The Country Cooking of France. Poischichade is a Provencal version of hummus and baba ganoush, and has an intense smoky flavor from the roasted red peppers and ground cumin.
It seems like everyone I’ve talked to is just eager to finish up work before taking the rest of the week off. I’ve also been running around doing errands and tying up loose ends with work before the Thanksgiving cooking madness begins. This year I’m visiting a close college friend in Nashville, and she has tasked me with helping her plan the big turkey day feast.
There are some picky eaters in the group, so menu planning is a little tricky, but fortunately we seem to all agree on brussels sprouts. Which is a good thing, because brussels sprouts gets a bad rap from many people who were used to eating them steamed or boiled to mush when they were children, and as adults still have a prejudice against them. I grew up in a Chinese family, so I was spared from eating mushy brussels sprouts as a kid. So when I tried them for the first time in my 20s at a restaurant, roasted with beautiful crispy leaves, I was instantly hooked.
For the past few months I’ve been taking morning walks several times a week in Prospect Park. I am, mind you, not a morning person. I used to habitually set my alarm on weekday mornings with good intentions to go to the gym or yoga class, then proceed to hit snooze 10 times, until it was actually time to get to work. It was a bad habit, to be sure. And a waste of a gym membership.
But in August, my friend Elizabeth and I decided that it’d be much harder to make excuses for not exercising (or keep hitting snooze, in my case) if we had scheduled power walking dates. And so as much as I still hate getting up at 7am, I actually feel much better once I get going and take in some fresh air.
And Prospect Park ain’t a site for sore eyes either. Especially in October, with all this gorgeous foliage:
Prospect Park Foliage
And logically, exercising regularly makes me more aware of eating healthier breakfasts. (As in, no more thrice-weekly croissants from the best bakery in NY.) This week, I’m craving everything pumpkin. So it was only a matter of time before I made a big batch of pumpkin spiced oatmeal.
I had almost everything I needed already in the kitchen, and just had to run out for some pumpkin purée. The recipe uses steel-cut oats, which take longer to cook than rolled oats, but they have more body and a creamy but still toothsome texture, which I like.
Plus, you can store leftovers in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. I made much more than I could eat, but just portioned out the remainders in Mason jars to be reheated over the next few mornings. The next day, it was still delicious, with an even deeper pumpkin flavor.
I changed up the original recipe (from The Essential New York Times Cookbook) a bit, by using both milk and water and doubling the amount of pumpkin puree and cinnamon. This oatmeal is so nice and filling, and you just want to put your face right up to the bowl and inhale the cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. It’s really the best of autumn in a cereal bowl. I topped off the oatmeal with chopped apples, but you can also use apple sauce, sliced bananas, dried cranberries, cashews, etc. The sky’s the limit!
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Pumpkin Spiced Oatmeal
Makes 4 to 6 servings
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups canned pumpkin puree
4 cups water
1 1/2 cups steel-cut oats
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 or 2 apples, chopped
In a small skillet, toast the cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg for 30 seconds, just until fragrant.
In a large pot, heat the pumpkin puree over medium-low heat. Stir in the toasted spices and brown sugar. Add the water, raise the heat, and bring to a simmer. Stir in the oats and simmer uncovered over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.
Add the milk and simmer for another 5 minutes, until the oatmeal is tender but not yet mushy. Stir in the salt and adjust the flavor with more brown sugar if desired.
Divide into individual bowls, top with chopped apples, and serve.
Summer is long gone, but I'm still finding myself craving iced coffee in the morning. I blame the radiator. Like many NY apartment dwellers, I have no control over the heat, so once the heat comes on for the season, the entire apartment becomes a furnace unless you leave the windows wide open.
This is where the iced coffee comes in.
Usually, to get my iced coffee fix, I just make enough coffee in the French press for two or three days, then refrigerate what I don't use. But recently I started using Grady's Cold Brew, which I had heard about for a while but never tried. And wow, this stuff is strong. I'm hooked.
What do you do on a 64°F October day, possibly the last 60-something degree weekend day for the next 6 months? You look for any excuse to eat outdoors, preferably on the grass.
Luckily, on Sundays until Nov. 18th, Smorgasburg is at the Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO, just a short train ride from me. Also luckily, my friend Elizabeth was also experiencing cabin fever and was up for a trip to Brooklyn Bridge Park.
