Miso Broiled Mackerel with Potatoes and Spinach, from Not Eating Out in New York
Now here’s a food blog that fits my taste aesthetic. Simple with an emphasis on fresh ingredients - like the California cuisine “movement,” popularized by Jeremiah Tower and Alice Waters of Chez Panisse. Creating dishes like this one is more about putting the tastes together, rather than using a recipe.
What’s good in Union Square?
Seen on the Artifaktori blog: a snapshot of Julie and I after trying on some of the sweetest secondhand I’ve ever found. While I was rockin’ like Blossom, Julie was feeling at least as awesome as this dude.
On Saturday, Julie, myself, and EmVee, featured with Snuggie below, met up at Sew-What, a DIY fashion event in Union Square that I found through an Urban Homesteader’s Meetup group. My first stop was the swap table, where I traded some clothes for two pairs of pants, both huge and high-wasted. Wearing them, I morphed into a winning combination of a) Subway Jared b) an old cat lady. Hott.
After playing around, we roamed the area, stopping to watch a hula hooper who made hula hoops look sexy (not something I’ve ever seen before) and stopping by a vintage shop where I bought white and gold leather earrings. Later, it would join a white lace top and some leather sandals to complete my transition back to the late 80s/early 90s look.
Although I’ve ridden past it several times, I had never stopped by Ricky’s Flower Market - probably the only plant shop in a gutted gas station - so we took a gander. It’s gorgeous! Really a cornucopia (cornucopia!!) of beautiful flowers, interesting succulents, effing huge sweet basil plants, even Christmas trees and berry plants.
We balanced out that wholesome experience by going to Target next. As a kid who grew up in the suburbs, I consider walking around Target to be an important, formative part of my youth, really, part of who I am as a person. I mean, you can see why.
By then we were starving and thirsting, so I took them to Buk-Kyung, my favorite Korean place in the area. I like Wuchon House too, which is next door, but I think it’s more expensive. Anyways, don’t pay too much attention to the mediocre rating from white vegetarians on Yelp - If you want to try Buk-Kyung, go with a Korean person (practically everyone eating in Buk-Kyung is Korean), remember that “vegetarian” means little to nothing to the Korean people (my grandparents would persistently hand meat to my sister, despite her protestations that she was a vegetarian) and enjoy! We shared 2 dishes (jajang-myun, noodles with black bean sauce, and kimchi chigae, kimchi stew with soft tofu) and dumplings, and when we split the price it was only $10 each. A steal.
Yup, it was pretty much a perfect day. I’m hoping to have one of those again real soon.
I’m happy to say that the first Pecha Kuchen on Dimick was a rousing success! Yes, this is a cheesy group shot, but it represents well the spirit of the night: everyone got along extraordinarily well. It’s sort of the host’s dream come true for a dinner party with delicious food and good conversation. We raved about each other’s food. Batted about the inspiration for and making of dishes. The talk flowed really naturally, especially for a group of people who largely did not know each other before. Everyone contributed, and the food really was good! My personal favorite was Oliver’s spicy eggplant and soft tofu dish, served with rice. The most amusing dish was definitely Long’s huge bag (literally, huge, like bigger than his torso) of honey barbeque wings. And there were definitely enough leftovers to tide everyone over until Wednesday or Thursday.
And after we ate, we all tromped down the street to Christina’s Ice Cream where we filled the line (so unnecessary, so ridiculous) with our bodies and requested only 2 pints of hand-packed ice cream (vanilla bean and ginger molasses). I’m praying that those leftovers are still in my freezer, because Christina’s is damn good.
Everyone pitched in to clean, and the apartment is in pretty good shape now. I’m really thankful to my two roommates for not freaking out about 8 people in their kitchen. And I’m very excited to see this happen next week, probably on Tuesday after I come back from July 4th weekend in New York!
My sister and I made candy conversation hearts for Valentine’s Day. That’s right. This year, we wielded the power to say whatever we wanted on Val Day (or VD, which also happens to be the acronym for venereal disease). So F U, Hallmark. If I wanted to say “No.” or “18?” or “No restraining order can keep us apart” to my valentine, I could, and did. In the sweetest way possible.
That is, unless I poured honey on myself while saying, “Barack my world.”
