Mojito Cuban Cuisine First Taste

Got delivery last night from this Cuban restaurant, Mojito that's located in the Chocolate Factory building near the Navy Yard. The menu on their website, the Myrtle Avenue Partnernship site and Menupages are all pretty outdated and our dinner wound up costing about 25% more than I had anticipated. We ordered a side of tostones and two sandwiches, with a plan to share them half and half: the Cubano and the Pan con Bistec, thinly sliced steak with Swiss cheese, potato strips, lettuce, tomato and garlic mayo. Despite the restaurant's proximity to us nothing was overly warm upon delivery, which took about 30 minutes. The tostones managed to retain some its chewy but crispy at the same time texture and were a nice compliment to the sandwiches, especially when dipped into the two sauces that were provided. The mojito was a little thick and viscous, but anything that garlicky is never a bad thing. I loved the green sauce, which was similar in consistency and taste to what you get a Peruvian joints. The Cubano held up way better than the steak sandwich, where the meat was a little tough and the cheese hadn't really melted to bind it all together. Neither the garlic mayo or the potato sticks were discernible either. Still we were mostly satisfied and we'll definitely give this place another try. Something tells me in-house dining is the way to go though.

Skippy and Cortney Get Married and We Get Stuffed!

This year we had four weddings and three were conveniently located in Park Slope. The 2007 circuit came to a conclusion with the union of Skippy and Cortney at the aptly named Union Hall. Of course with these two in charge, there were delicious foodstuffs to be eaten.

I'm not exactly sure who catered the event, but I heard it might have been Ditmas Park's the Farm on Adderley, a restaurant high on, if not at the top of, my to-eat list. Guests were greeted with drinks and snacks seconds after entering. The bartenders churned out Pimm's Cups and Bloody Marys, the latter featuring lots of produce - celery stalks, cornichons and spicy pepperoncinis - which is how I like 'em. We also noshed on stuffed dates and crostinis with pulled pork and pickled onions before the ceremony began.

After quite possibly one of the best, if not the best wedding ceremony I've witnessed, the spread appeared! There were plates of cheeses and charcuterie and various salads, including a warm chickpea salad which may have featured some bleu cheese. Throughout the night, more plates appeared. Shell-on shrimp poached in a butter sauce! A sauteed dish of squid and potato! Yummy brussel sprouts!


And there was a taco fixin's corner. A big bowl of stewed beef was flanked by smaller bowls of finely diced red onion, cilantro, sour cream and flour tortillas.


Here's the plate I made glowing in the candlelight. Of course I went up for seconds, especially since new dishes were being rotated in.


Then it was time for desserts - mini key lime pies and delicious cupcakes. Dan and I split one of each, but then later in the evening I had another cupcake all by myself.


Congrats Skippy and the People's Cortney!!! I hope you're eating lots of plate lunches, SPAM musubi and poke in Hawaii!

This Morning's Brunch + Fresh Direct

We were planning to go out for brunch this morning but I wanted to clear out some of the contents of the fridge. I made a frittata using four medium eggs (which were tiny!), cooked spaghetti and cheddar cheese. Then I broiled up the remaining slices of Flying Pigs Farm bacon that Mary had given us as a housewarming present months ago. Bacon holds up really well in the freezer. I dressed up some leftover romaine with Frankie's olive oil and aged balsamic to serve o the side. Rounding out the meal was some toast with small amounts of butter and raspberry jam. I used slices of white bread from Parisienne, a Japanese chain whose products Cafe Zaiya by my work carries. The bread is soft and squishy and I'm a sucker for it. I also grabbed one of the last oranges left from a Fresh Direct order earlier in the week but when I went to slice it, I discovered it was rotten! I've had some bad Fresh Direct orders with bunk produce and missing items, but this one really took the cake. First they were late, then I found mold on some of the fingerling potatoes and worst of all rotten fruit. I have never seen a rotten orange before in my life. Nasty.

Noo Na First Taste

I've been avoiding NooNa. The review were not the best when it first opened about a year and a half ago and so we've stayed away. Plus we've got a Korean place Sushi Okdol down the street that does the job for the most part. But my last meal there was really disappointing and sometimes a girl just needs her kimchi, so NooNa got the delivery call.

I ordered the duk mandoo guk - a really homey soup of beef dumplings and rice cake slices. Did I mention I was suffering from the worst cold ever that last like three weeks?

The dumplings were obviously homemade, which was nice to see since so many places rely on frozen product. There were three rather large, plump mandoos and a nice portion of duk. However, the meat filling in the dumplings was way too sweet. This is apparently a trend here. Also, I like to toss kimchi pieces into the soup to slightly cook them and also spice up the broth since this is one of the tamer Korean dishes you'll find. Very bummed to find no banchan included with the delivery order. Come on guys, throw me a plastic container of the stuff!

Dan got a mini hamburger topped with kimchi and some kimchi fried rice.


I had a bite of the burger and the meat once again was overly sweet. The bits of bulgogi that dotted the kimchi friend rice suffered from the same mis-seasoning. Otherwise it was a pleasant meal that pretty much it the spot. I doubt we'll be doing delivery from here again any time soon since the bill came out to be about double what we normally spend.

Kyedong Chicken First Taste

We visited the Palisades Park branch, which is actually an annex in a Korean food shop. Its location threw us for a loop. We were confused and hungry. Our original intent was to eat at Baden Baden which is more of a sit down place, but they weren't opening til later in the afternoon.


I love how each chicken chain has a distinct way of packaging the goods. Kyedong's chicken is packaged in a container that's flatter than its competitors. It features an opening where a free can of Coke is placed. The ajushi on the box reminded me of someone - maybe an actor on a Korean drama I watched when I was a kid?


We went with two large orders of wings, one sweet and one spicy. The crust was nice and crispy and the chicken was well-cooked, but both flavor varieties were lacking in intensity. I did enjoy their radish kimchi, which was spicier than what you usually get due to some sliced jalepenos thrown into the mix.


A couple containers of rice and two varieties of kimchi from my parents' fridge round out the meal. Dan and Dave dig in.

Frittata at Frankies 457

I've wanted to try the brunch at Frankies 457 in Cobble Hill for a while now. Of course DMR and I decide to trek out there on a super rainy day. The brunch menu turned out to be a lot smaller than I expected. There were two choices of frittata, a BLT and french toast in addition to the sandwiches and crostini available on the regular lunch menu. I went with the proscuitto and onion frittata and Dan the french toast. We were planning on sharing half and half, but once Dan saw the frittata, he remembered he didn't like room temperature eggs.



The frittata was overall tasty, but the proscuitto was cut into bigger chunks than I anticipated and had a strong gamey taste that I wasn't a fan of. The french toast was amazing. The sugar in the batter melted to form a delicious caramelized crust on the bread.

The addition of a few hunks of bread and a small dish of their house olive oil which I love, rounded out my meal. Coffee isn't included so we wound up spending $4.50 on three Americanos and another $3 on a little bottle of seltzer.