catching up on june eatings

Fort Lee, NJ: Somyun in homemade dashi, with zucchini and a semi-poached semi-scrambled egg. You add spoonfuls of a sauce of soy, sesame and chilies to taste. I can be heavy handed with this condiment.

Palisades Park, NJ: Pile of veggies and fishcakes ready to get Shabu Shabu'ed at Pho 32.

Hot tub time for a piece of napa cabbage, a clump of enoki mushrooms and a fishball.

Thinly sliced beef ready for dunking.

Park Slope, Brooklyn: The house omelet at Moim is filled with kimchi, steak, onions and mozzarella cheese and partially bathed in a sort of demi-glace sauce you'd find in a yoshoku style restaurant. The home fries were perfect - super crisp on the outside without a trace of wetness, soft and warm on the inside. And most importantly, they were well-seasoned.

Inside view of the omelet. I'd definitely get this again, but would probably ask for it without the cheese.

Fort Greene, Brooklyn: The fruits of a quick trip to the Brooklyn Flea. Even with the chili pepper on the label, these are a lot spicier than you'd think.

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn: A pre-bocce dinner at Hibino started off so positively, with this duo of obanzai. The chicken meatballs were moist and had a pleasing char. The eel croquettes were like arancini with a decidedly Japanese twist (panko breading, tonkatsu-style sauce drizzled over). Unfortunately, our main dishes took nearly an hour to arrive and one of our orders didn't even make it from notepad to kitchen. We had to rush and were late to the start of the game And we wound up losing.

Edgewater, NJ: Gyoza and congee combo from China Table Tokyo Hanten at Mitsuwa. I almost always opt for ramen here but was in the mood to expand my horizons. This was yummy, but not as satisfying as a bowl of noodles. I did really like the mug of consommé.

Fort Greene, Brooklyn: Pupusas (whoops, I've been spelling these with two As) from a Red Hook ball field vendor at today's Brooklyn Flea! Brought home a bean and cheese and zucchini and cheese a little before it started pouring. Only $4.50!

The bean and cheese pupusa was dry and seemed like it may have been sitting on the griddle for some time, but the zucchini was wonderful. Maybe the water content of the zucchinis helped to keep it moist? By the time I got home, some of the sour cream had melted and mixed in with the salsa to create a delicious cream sauce. Pickles make everything better, and in this case, it was pickled cabbage.

A Red Hook Eating Day

Started the day with some huaraches at the Red Hook food stands.

A vendor sprinkles cheese on the double layered shell.


Two plates needed for the finished product, which is touched with three of the four hot sauces they had available. I thought the lighter green one was going to be guacamole-based and mild. I was wrong. Thank goodness for the extra large horchata that did a very good job of cooling things down.


Hot Tub was visiting with Memphis. Amie had brunch plans with a friend so Hot Tub dug into the corn all by himself. He did pick up a horchata and bean and cheese pupusa for her on the way out.


Then it was a short drive down the road to get some Swingles (a frozen mini key lime pie on a stick and dipped in chocolate) from Steve's.


Dave taunts young Henry.


That evening, dinner at Lucali's gets thwarted by the two hour waiting time, so we headed over to Schnack. We got an order of fries and onion rings for the table. I got a kielbasa and single as well as a Sprecher root beer for myself. I think Hot Tub got the same kielbasa and single combo. Amie ordered the most delicious looking root beer shake and a single. Mooney went with the chili and Chris Larry got the RC Cola ribs. Dan got the two singles - one with bacon, one with cheese - pictured below. By the way, Schnack is now BYOB, but you can still order beer shakes.