savortooth

The Good News...and bad.

      

The good news is that our area is getting a health food store! B and I have been going over to 30th Avenue once in a while, but now there is a store, Fresh Start, opening soon on 23rd Ave. It will be an organic cafe, too, with a garden. That strip of 23rd Avenue just got a yoga/tai chi studio and is getting a pilates studio, too. Exciting.

The bad news is that there was a fire at about 2:30am(last night) near the Ditmars subway stop, that destoyed Thirty-One cafe, Twin Donut, an optometrist, and the McDonald's. I was up late and heard many, many sirens. I thought it was a factory fire. It's shocking to see it right in the main area here.
   

Still Summer

This week we've had some good meals at our local Astoria haunts. Back to Philoxenia(baked feta and cod croquettes), back to Fatty's with friends and JJ's(soft shell crab- mmm) on my birthday.

    

I also got this amazing cookie jar this week. An original from 1979!

Oh, and Susan got me the Diner's Deck for West and East sides. http://www.cityshuffle.com/
It has a ten dollar coupon(off of a minimum $20 meal) for each of the fifty-two restaurants per deck.
There are really good restaurants in the deck,including Prune, so hopefully, I'll use the cards soon!

Chilean for Dessert

 

Ok, I've been bad again. On Thursday, I seized the opportunity to return to Kabab Cafe and eat when it wasn't 100 degrees inside. But as I reached into my bag for my camera, it wasn't there! I will get pics eventually, and I have to go back more often anyway. The dumplings! After last time's pumpkin dumplings, I had to have more. This time they were crab. So incredible, served to us out of the pan onto our dishes. Again, the humita(corn tomato crepe) and yes,the mushroom Iwashi ! Undescribably delicious. I still don't know if the sticky cheese-like substance is really yogurt.

Well, on to dessert. On our walk over on Astoria Blvd., we stumbled into San Antonio Bakery(near Steinway).  I stopped because of a stack of meringue covered sweets in the window--  shaped like ice-cream sandwiches(It's-It). It's two crackers filled with caramel, then swiped with meringue. B opted for the cake- thin pancake layered with caramel, which was moist, as opposed to my crunchy disc. They were good, and we wanted to try the food there, but they only make steak sandwiches.

Pantry Pleasures

My favorite honey is back! If I had known Cory was bringing his hard case suitcase when he visited, I would have asked for more than two jars. This is the Amen Bee sage honey from San Martin, CA.  The woman who makes it is named Lynn. If you ever happen to be in Aptos, you must try it. They have it at the farmer's market there, or you can get it at Whole Foods in San Francisco. http://slowfoodmontereybay.org/content.php?contentid=173  My all-time fave is sage, but she has orange blossom, avocado, and many others. There is an alternative if you want to get some sage honey shipped. It is Gipson's Golden. http://www.gipsonsgolden.com/  I prefer Amen Bee because it is thicker and very rich, but Gipson's also has great flavor.

I thought there was no sage honey in NYC, but Kristen found me some from Sandt's (PA). It just wasn't as good.

On the right in the pic is Agrimontana fig preserves. It is just better than any other jam, aside from homemade. At my last party we had it on French baguette with a thin slice of brie on top. Memories...
You can get this at Buon Italia in Chelsea Market. http://www.buonitalia.com/  I also had a bar of hard honey nougat dipped in dark chocolate- Alberti Torrone Strega. They sell them by the register, and they have beautiful wrappers, which gets me every time.

The Donut Incident, The Coffee Incident

                

How is it that a week after I documented this scene on Ditmars Street, B should have a coffee incident in the kitchen? The glass broke perfectly in half, and now the pieces are on the kitchen shelf shrine.

The World's Most Perfectly Spherical Dust Bunny

Hospitality

Cory arrived late Friday to stay with us for a few days. Saturday night we met up with Alec and Debbie at their new discovery, Philoxenia, which means hospitality in Greek. Debbie thought it was "Greeks only" until her friend told her otherwise.I have no pics- sorry. I always forget when I get wrapped up in the food and conversation. But I did find a fellow food reviewer who has pics: http://yearinfood.blogspot.com/2005/07/jul_19.html

Philoxenia is more of a meat place than seafood, different from our usual Greek haunts. B ordered the broiled shrimp- they were not too fresh. Is this becoming a pattern? I got cod croquettes, which were pretty good, in the style of fish n' chips. But not as good as the dishes that got me to have a little meat, and I wasn't even with my family. The Greek sausage came in a dish baked with bacon and an egg cracked into a tomatoey, eggy/creamy sauce. yum. Also, hot grapeleaves/dolmas stuffed with meat and rice, with an eggy sauce, reminding me of my beloved avgolemeno(soup). Nice Greek salad, and the baked feta appetizer- really tasty. Hot cheese usually is.

This is a family-run place, and has a casual environment. But it did get a little crazy(and our service slow) when the place got packed. Finally, the complimentary desssert there is Greek yogurt with giant wine-soaked golden raisins. Sooo good.

The rest of the weekend included getting soaked in the storm, getting cranky at the gift show(I don't have the stamina I used to, which Cory pointed out), and then stressing out as we got detoured by our car-service driver in Brooklyn. Apparently, he thought I said we wanted to go to Ditmas Street, as opposed to Ditmars. But Cory and I got a grand tour of the slums of Brooklyn(scary!) and saw some giant houses near Ditmas Park. I kept saying as we drove, "I don't recognize any of these parts of Brooklyn." Ahh, summer.

Ketching Up

It's still hot and I'm still itchy, and another spurt of busy-ness is finally over. I won't go on about the bad food at Javits. Just get on to the past week of better eating.

I'll start by saying that B and I went to Rai Rai Ken one day(10th Street bet 1st and 2nd Ave), and it is just really good ramen. B had the seafood fried rice. But they had antibacterial soap! Alas.
    

Last Wednesday, Susan, Jill, and I met for dinner where Michelle works,Cafe Deville. http://www.cafedevillenyc.com  I have to say, I was surprised at the quality of the food. It was also comfortable and not super noisy. I had the "vegetable strudel" and Michelle was right that it wasn't a good description. It was flaky philo with goat cheese, bell peppers and green beans inside. Mmm. My mashed potatoes looked like ghost poops, but was also good. Susan's skate dish was loaded with capers and on a bed of potatoes. The only thing not up to par was the peach puff dessert.

In the area of Chiense take-out, I decided to try the other highly recommended(online) place in Astoria besides Dragon and Phoenix on 31st, Wah Fung on Steinway and Ditmars. I was pleased to find a similar dish to my fave at Wu Liang Ye, the tangerine shrimp. It was a decent sweet and sour version. The other items were pretty good. BUT, now that I've eaten there twice, I have to say the shrimp was "shrimpy" Also, Wah Fung got my order for "chow fun" wrong and gave me "chow fon"(fried rice) by mistake. Granted, it's easy to mix up tones, but...  Now I must go back to Dragon and Phoenix. They have really crispy spring rolls(thank god I don't have to eat "egg rolls") and my mom even approved of their chow fun. And of course I am just really glad that I don't have to eat at Dragon Gate anymore.      

On Friday night, we finally had the long-delayed trip to Kabab Cafe with Sam, and Meka was in town to join us. It must have been the hottest night of the summer, so the place, being tiny, was broiling. We had to convince Sam to stay. We decided that it was as if we were actually dining in Egypt. As we sweated over our food, which came out slowly, we were entertained by Ali, the chef/owner.(We discovered this place while walking by one day, and saw him in his beige beret, drinking a tiny cup of coffee and adding briquets to his hookah. His brother runs the famed Mombar two doors down.)

This place is just the best. The food- the best ever, especially all the vegetarian dishes, despite the fact that the mushroom layered flaky dish(can't remember the name). My fave is still the corn/tomato crepe casserole, but that night we had the pumpkin dumpkins(amazing!) on the recommendation of the table next to us. The place was crowded with regulars, including two guys named Alex(I believe at different tables) and a nice man who took this pic for us(thanks! hope we dine together again!)
     Kabab Cafe- Steinway bet. Astoria Blvd and 25th Ave
Sam thought it was the best hummus he'd ever had; ditto on the baba ghanoush. Nothing tastes like what you expect- the beet salad was hot and savory. And the heat was somewhat relieved by extra-cold beer and wonderful hibiscus coolers that had apple slices floating in it and a bit of apple juice, too.

Sunday Sino-ma

We saw "2046" yesterday, the new Wang Kar-wai movie. It was really beautiful, and luckily, since I hate long movies, I understood most of it. He speaks in Cantonese, she in Mandarin, and there's Japanese in it. A little long, but really reminded me of those photos of Hong Kong in my mom's photo albums. I also luckily ate a giant potato knish before the movie. The Sunshine was a mess for some reason, due to a broken ticket pick-up machine and only one exit door.

Also not the best restuarant day. I wanted to try vegan-Chinese Tien Garden, but it's closed on Sunday. We had drinks with Eliza at Teany, which had anti-bacterial soap in the bathroom!

So did Kate's Joint- well, they had a tiny bit left in the bottle, in their usually gross bathroom.  What's wrong with these vegan places? B wanted the fake buffalo wings, but it was all downhill from there. They were OUT of vegan cheese for my nachos, and OUT of mushrooms for B's fake steak au poivre gravy. When my mom had her restaurant, they'd run out to get stuff they were out of.

To top it off, the mushroom-less gravy was extra strong, tasting like mustard and herbs. B could only eat a bite, and all of his fries(of course). He sent it back, but they charged him for it and gave him a dessert- good banana tiramisu. But we're never going back.

Clean Enough to Drink from

Just a few things I've been checking out.

There have been a lot of articles out about Nalgene bottles, and other plastics leaching carcinogens into the food stored in it. I found these stainless water bottles with no plastic lining.
http://www.kleankanteen.com/products.html
The logo is not so attractive, but the products look good. They have a link to articles on the plastics topic:  http://www.kleankanteen.com/toxicplastics.html
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Meka has also just started using Pyrex straws! A great idea, but they don't come with a carrying pouch. I think she is going to make her own.
http://www.rawfood.com/cgi-bin/order/index.cgi?id=499702678662&d=single&item_id=0510&c=Appliances&sc=Eating_Utensils&tc= Lastly, it's not for everyone, but you can get the same thing Cafe Habana in Brooklyn has(althoughthe NY TImes said it got stolen, so I don't know if it was replaced yet). http://www.bikeblender.com/    I have seen a company that uses the same thing to make soap. http://www.justsoap.com/