Over the weekend I stopped by the inaugural Brooklyn Flea. My visit was two-fold. First, I love flea markets and the prospect of strolling (as cold as it was) and browsing all morning was too good to miss. Secondly, I have been working with my friends at Three Birds Bakery on the branding and packaging of their Granola and wanted to see how it all came together. And I must say, it came together nicely and the ladies even SOLD OUT! Which, I might add, is not a surprise because their granola is absolutely delicious and freshly made. They have two kinds - one with fruit and one without - both are excellent.

Anyway as far as the flea market itself, there has been a lot of blogging and commenting on how “non-flea markety” it is (sometimes I get so sick of blogs and people complaining on them — like I am doing right now- um- anyway…) . For the record, I thought that the flea was perfectly lovely. It was spacious with a good number of vendors selling a nice variety of things. I thought there were plenty of vintage/antiques to satisfy my traditional flea market cravings and while I’m personally more into the “old” stuff, I really did enjoy seeing what people were crafting and making. I’ve got my eye on a bag from the Etsy table (different fabric than this link) and may just have to go back next week to pick it up. And to all the “haters,” don’t fret, I am sure the laws of supply and demand will, over time, adjust the offerings at the flea market to suit the shoppers. But isn’t it just sort of nice to see an event organized by a small community business/entity (brownstoner) bringing together other individuals and small business of the community.

In summary - go check out the flea this weekend and keep an eye out for that granola!

As mentioned in a previous post, I’ve had a bit of a bacon backlog. I had received the Bacon of the Month packages for February and March but hadn’t had any opportunities to cook them in someone else’s kitchen. This weekend I was able to cook up the March package at the Wall Street Poker Second Chance Tournament at Jamie’s place. I was hoping to cook both month’s bacon but the Saturday event fell through for me. So I still have another package waiting to be cooked up - any volunteers?

March’s bacon was a peppered country bacon from Missouri. This bacon was sweet and chewy and not as peppery as I expected. I was hoping the bacon would be a bit more spicy.

Cooking the bacon in Jamie’s Kitchen

Figure with Meat by Francis Bacon

I just received March’s Bacon of the Month package so I now have two packages of bacon in search of a kitchen. Any volunteers?

I cooked the second package of bacon from the Bacon of the Month Club this weekend at Alceste’s Superbowl gathering. Unfortunately there was no poker but there was Rockband - I played groupie.

January’s selection was hickory smoked bacon from Jim Oliver’s Smokehouse:

This meaty, salty country bacon was a good companion with some of the sweets:

Cooking and cooked:

Cooking it up in Alceste’s kitchen:

Thanks Al!

I cooked the inaugural package of bacon from the Bacon of the Month Club (thanks Al!) this weekend at the I Had Outs tourney. Because Dawn’s cash games are known as the Crackhouse games, I thought I’d call the games with bacon the Smokehouse games.

The first package was an applewood smoked bacon from Vande Rose Farms. This thick, meaty bacon was a good combination of sweet and salty. More chewy than I like it (due to these hearty slabs) but very tasty nonetheless.

Photo courtesy of Dawn Summers

Cooking it up in Dawn’s kitchen:

Photo courtesy of Dawn Summers

Several months ago I entered AlCanthang’s essay contest to win a subscription to the Bacon of the Month club. Knowing that the competitors were talented writers, I thought I’d do a photo essay.

Although the competition was stiff (no double entendre intended) I won the grand prize.

So now I’m known in the poker blogger community as Bacon Bacini Mary. And for the big winter gathering of poker bloggers in Vegas I’ve been added to the list of prop bets for the event:

* Live re-enactment of the infamous Bacon Bikini
46. Yes +300
47. No -400

Hmmm…something tells me I might end up on next year’s list of surviving Vegas tips.

The old seltzer home delivery truck was on our block again this morning. I don’t know which of my neighbors gets seltzer home delivery but it seems like a very cool 1950s dinner party type of thing to have at home. They must have great happy hours. Anyway a few pictures below. The truck is pretty amazing. How it carries all these bottles without having them tied down, and without breaking is beyond me. Oh, and check out the “antique bottles” that have been riding on the bottom shelf for some time.

And secondly, my friends Justin and Hiro, who know of my love of cute Japanese food and product graphics, gave me this box of panda cookies. Look, one has a frowny face. awhhhh…. (translation anyone?)

Went to the Neon Lights show this past friday. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay the entire night as I had an important karaoke appointment in Red Hook . But, I did catch a few dj sets by Matt from Earfarm (nice!) and a special acoustic set by Mancino. So, being as this was my first ever Mancino set I couldn’t tell you how it differs from the electrified version - but they were great. They were down their drummer, but with just the guitar and keyboards (and a little help from some tamborinists in the audience) they pulled off a number of lovely, catchy numbers. They often bust out these very Beatles-y moments too which are a total treat. Ok, so I am not much of a music critic - but these guys are good ‘ol indie-rock. No forced quirkiness, no preciousness, no weird outfits or hair-dos, just solid, sometimes rocking, sometimes sweet music.

But an even sweeter find on Friday night were the cookies baked up by The Cookie Revolution! Andrew and I split a three cookie sampler, and they were all so good I actually couldn’t even say which one was my favorite. I took a bite of the first and was like “oh this is my favorite,” and then I did the same thing for the second and the third. They were perfectly flat-ish and chewy (how I like my cookies) and chock full of whatever bits and flavors were promised. The sampler included Oatmeal Blueberry, Chocolate Peanut butter, and I believe a Chocolate Chocolate Chip. This was nearly the last sweet sugar morsel I had this weekend before starting the raw diet (more to come on that later). In any event, I think they are just getting started and have a website in the works but I’m sure we’ll be hearing more on Cookie Revolution in the future! Go order some cookies from them! Yum.

You may think I am a little biased about this site (as OYG helped to design it) but really, Cookthink is an amazing new recipe site that can not only help you search for the perfect dish by ingredient but also by mood, dish type or cuisine. The great thing is that instead of giving you 100s of random unproven recipes you get a single recipe that sounds absolutely delicious (and you can always browse for more if you want more options). The site is currently in beta but look for an ever growing database of recipes (the recipe mapping project) and some fun new features.

Tonight I’m going to take a stab at the Tomato, Corn, Cucumber And Feta Salad. The site even has nicely integrated tips such as “What makes a mustard “Dijon” and “How to seed a cucumber“. This is especially helpful for those of us who haven’t made it past boiling.

yes there is a hot dog under there!

Went to Chicago for the weekend, ordered room service, walked on the edge of a very big lake, hung out with some good friends from college and their babies, surprised the Goes Cube and saw them play an excellent show, and most importantly we also surveyed both the famous deep dish pizza and the Chicago hot dog.

I am sorry fans of the deep dish pizza, but it just can’t compete with New York pizza. We went to Gino’s East and had a sausage and cheese. It was, well, bland. The crust was so thick and corn-bready we didn’t even get half way through it. Sorry, just not our cup of pizza. New York (and in particular Spumoni Gardens and the new joint in Carroll Gardens on Henry Street) have won the pizza battle, hands down.

But alas, the Chicago hot dog is without compare. We give credit where credit is due, and the Chicago dog, loaded with fresh chopped goodies from onions to relish to pickles and all other items in between along with a serious smear of mustard (ketchup is a serious no-no) it is absolutely delicious.

I do believe earfarm agrees with us.

I need help! I’m having a small dinner party for Halloween (didn’t you get your invite?) and I was thinking of doing an evil tapas type thing. But the only technique I’ve really mastered in the kitchen is boiling. I thought I’d once again turn to the fine readers of 423smith for some easy, tasty (and possibly spooky) recommendations. So far I’ve got “stake through the heart chicken sate.” Any other good Halloween food suggestions much appreciated. (like a dry ice smokey bowl of punch?)

Join the folks at the 2nd Place Transit Garden
this Saturday October 14th for,
Bococa Wine and Food Tasting Event Benefiting
South Brooklyn LDC and The Transit Garden,

where: corner of Smith Street & Second Place
when: Saturday 10/14/06 2PM-6PM

featuring samplings from:

Wine Tastings, Cheeses, and Crudities in the garden. Food Tasting booths will be on Subway Entry Plaza, (Smith/2nd Place) Second Place will be closed to traffic while we allow for music from our local talents and mingling. Seating will be around the entertainment and in the
garden.

There we will be a Ribbon Cutting to celebrate Carroll Garden’s newest garden, The Transit Garden at the corner of Smith Street and Second Place. Five years in the planning and creating, this garden occupies 2,280 sq. ft. at the corner of Smith Street & Second Place.

We will celebrate having secured the finalpiece of funding needed to upgrade the Culinary Arts Facility at the School For International Studies Court & Baltic Streets) to house a State of the art fully NYS accredited three year High School Course of Study in the Culinary Arts for the youth of our Brooklyn neighborhoods, a campaign SBLDC has worked on for many years along with the growth of Smith Street as a Food venue.

Coupon Books with Values of $20 (12 Tastings) and $10 (5 Tastings) (Mix & Match Food and/or Wine) will be sold in advance and on that day. Of course there will also be some child-friendly items to drink & taste, plus bottled water.

Rain date Sunday 10/15 , 2-6PM

Friday night we went to Kabab King in Jackson Heights. Having lived in the DC area for a few years, we are always on the hunt for a kabab place that can fill the shoes of Moby Dick’s House of Kabobs. Kabab King might just be the ticket. While an Iranian Kabob (Moby Dicks) is quite a bit different from a Pakistani Kabab (Kabab king), they are both equally delicious! I ordered the Beef Bihari platter, which is sort of like pulled beef (soft and falls apart easy) but with a hoopla of south Asian spices. The platter included a heaping helping of rice and some salad. Delicious!

Kabab King

Afterwards we went to the Patel Brother’s Grocery Store, where I was introduced to entirely new world of vegetables! Here is a nice map of the area. Kabab King isn’t on this map but it is right next to the Eagle Theater (#9)

Here are some pictures from Patel Brothers.

Bitter Gourd. 2 ladies were kind enough to give us some preparation tips. I gather it is something of an acquired taste. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I thought this looked so very nice and green.

Now that I’ve looked up the uses of Ghee I wish I had bought some.

And last but not least, I bought a bag of sliced frozen Chickoo. There was a milkshake recipe on the back so I figured it must be good. Honestly I hadn’t heard of Chickoo before and it was in the frozen section along with onions, peppers and bitter gourds, so i thought it might just be a spicy vegetable (which made the idea of a milkshake even more intriguing…) My powers of deduction in regards to the grouping of frozen foods failed me and it is actually a delicious fruit also known as a Sapodilla. I look forward to trying out that milkshake recipe tonight.

One of Red Hook’s best treats is the weekend fare at the soccer fields (around the corner from the pool). There are a number of vendors there selling a delicious and affordable selection of South and Central American dishes. Some vendors go as far as to provide shade, seating and music.

A band arrives and take requests. The food vendors turn down their stereos for the occasion.

Coconut, Lime, Cantaloupe, Pineapple and Watermelon Juice. All fresh!

I ordered a pork and cheese papusa which I then smothered in picked onions. Some cabbage salad and fried plantains on the side.

This was a new one for me - fresh mango sprinkled with salt, chili powder, paprika and lime. THIS IS REALLY GOOD!

I can’t think of a better way to finish off the afternoon.

I plan to eat at least one meal this weekend at the 4th annual Big Apple BBQ. The BBQ and Blockparty takes place at Madison Square park this Saturday and Sunday. I’m hoping for some south carolina style vinegar/hot sauce bbq - my fav!

For directions, menu and some info on the pitmasters check out the event’s cool site.