Pink Lady Stops for a Chat

Pink Lady Stops for a Chat, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

I couln't resist taking this picture from across the street. Welcome to Williamsburg.

In Search of an Urban Paradise

Brick, Steel and Glass

Two weeks ago, as we were on the endless search for event spaces, we landed in the too-cool-for-school haven they call B-Burg. And it is, by the way still way too cool.
We took the L all the way out to Montrose. I'm sure that is 5 stops too far on the L for most of you. We landed in an industrial lagoon. Marooned between treeless streets. We saw some amazing old warehouses, beautiful, urban, scrawled with years of graffiti. We checked out an amazing space that serves artists and performers, it houses dozens of old vending machines and arcade games. The fixtures were reminiscent of a well worn high school albeit not one I attended. The rooftop had a fantastic view of the city, smoggy and grey.

Presence of Urban Color

We hopped back on the L and headed back to Bedford St. in search of Oslo, a coffee house known for their artisanal brew and trained baristas. Wandering the streets, we happened upon some magnificant warehouses whose exteriors were wrapped with beautiful murals and vibrant color.

After my visit to San Francisco, urban art has been on my mind. I carry my camera in my bag, preparing myself for my next encounter with unforseen hidden treasures hiding in alleys and lonely city streets.

This building on Roebling St. was covered with amazing art. I couldn't help myself...

A fine day for baking

As you all know - or those of you living in the neighbouring village of Manhattan and environs, we here in Brooklyn were blessed with a little late winter, early spring festival of ice, snow and general unpleasantness. In order to get myself out of this winter doldrums, and in spite of this weird arbitrary Daylight Savings nonsense, this past Sunday evening I decided to try my hand at baking something warm and carb-o-licious. Indeed, it was adventure with yeast. Why bread? because I am a shitty baker. Then why even try? Well, because my attempt at baking rugalleh has failed pretty miserably and I was feeling a little low.
I know I can McGuyver-up a meal in minutes from a can of artichoke hearts, some garbanzo beans and a handful of dried mushrooms thanks to my amazing mother. No sweat. Baking, well, lets say that baking at our house was one of 3 things. Passover sponge cake, the famous 1 bowl apple cake and the cheesecake (later turn tofu-cake). My grandmother, of blessed memory, won no blue ribbons back in Poland. So there. A challenge.
A packet of yeast, some warm water, sugar - set for 10 minutes. 3 cups of flour and some salt. That's it! knead, place in a greased bowl, covered with a damp towel, in a warm place for an hour. To make this breaded concoction even more delicious, I decided to add to it some curry vegetables I cooked up as the dough was rising. Diced onions, carrots, red pepper, potatoes and a zucchini flavored with cumin, cury, garam masala, fresh garlic, salt and pepper. See what happened!!

A Neighborhood Awash in Color

One of the highlights of our wonderfully colorful trip to San Fran was the early Saturday morning tour of the Mission neighborhood's many amazing murals we took with our resident guide and BFF, MagikaDisFUNKchanel.

The photo on the left is of the inside of the Precita Eyes's storefront where one can buy art supplies, postcards, drawings and sketches of murals around the city and where the tour begins with a very long slide show. These are times that it's helpful to get there late...)

We joined the Precita Eyes tour (non-profit community arts organization founded in 1977 that plays an integral role in the city's cultural heritage and arts education community). Patricia, our head-to-toe corduroy bedazzled guide took us through the streets of Balmy Alley where the largest collection of murals live and breathe.

It was like walking into a magical alternate universe where color and beauty was part of the landscape. Where people in the community actually took an active role in painting their neighborhood, keeping the art on the walls free of vandalism and taking pride in their diverse cultures, histories and ethnicities. It was amazing to see these murals, many painted by well known muralists and many others painted by the youth of the Mission through the Precita Eyes program.

Towards the end of the 2.5 hour tour, we were joined by Eduardo, a 'man of the streets', so to speak. He was following us through the last few murals, alternating swigs from the bottle in the brown paper bag with nods of agreement at the tragic history of civil wars in Latin America.
Patricia was telling us that the community came together to renovate and rehabilitate a small green space on 24th St. at the heart of the neighborhood. People came to lay tiles, paint walls, install the hi-tech bouncy ground covering made of old tires. Eduardo took a few jumps on the padded, bouncy surface and exclaimed "this is very nice! Old tires, you say?"

We rewarded our patience and satiated our sugar craving by visiting La Victoria Mexican panaderias where we had a very tough time choosing our Pan dulce (sweet pastries). Imagine a whole store of freshly baked goodies - floor to ceiling.

Armed with tongs and a tray, I went straight to work. An almond pastry, a sweet custard flaky sugary delight and a baked ricotta cake. A food loving girl's dream come true. A perfectly delicious ending to a brilliantly colorful afternoon...




A fabulous restaurant sign... I couldn't help but include it in this post all about color!

mission mural

mission mural, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

One of my favorite musals on the tour... there were 3 owls hidden in this brilliantly colored forest scene.

mission mural

mission mural, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

mission mural

mission mural, originally uploaded by miyarotstein.

No trip is complete...

We just returned from a fabulous weekend in Montreal- celebrating Netta's 30th Bday. We drove up for a quick trip which culminated in a snow bound weekend up in the laurentian mountains. There was a group of 13 driving up north, car trunks packed with food, drinks warm sweaters and woolen socks. We all met up at the Orange Julep on Decarie Blv to regroup before the 2 hour drive. I just couldn't help myself! I had to buy some Montreal frites...



Since we have not yet gotten our fill of winter here in New York (well not the snowy part at least) it was so beautiful and picturesquely Canadian to be completely surrounded by whiteness. Driving up to the cottage we drove by trees and fields covered in a thick quilt of deep fresh snow.

On Sunday, on our way back to Montreal, a van load of us drove to the snow tubing adventure mountain right outside of St. Sauver... barreling down a steep snowy mountain, 7 of us holding on to each other's inner tubes for dear life... what an amazing feeling to be flying over the snow...

Warm Tummy Part 2: Rice Balls and Rabe

As promised here is dinner idea #2.
On another famed trip to Fairway, we took a gamble on these delicious looking Italian rice balls with cheese. They are cooked rice, stuffed with Mozza and rolled in breadcrumbs, pan fried and dee-licious!
This simple winter meal should be made and eaten right away. The broccoli rabe will be the most time consuming step. Boil salted water in a pot. Drop in rabe (which has been trimmed of its rough stems) and boil for 5 minutes. As it is cooking, prepare a bowl of ice water in the sink. After the 5 minutes are up, drain rabe and plunge into cold water, shocking it and stopping its cooking. It should be bright green and beautiful. After warming the rice balls in a lightly oiled pan, heat up left over red sauce (from the previous post). Rabe should be drained out of the cold water, and thrown back into a hot olive-oiled pan with some garlic. heat and coat with olive oil garlic, toss and sprinkle with salt, pepper and some finely grated Parmesan or assiago. Arrange all parts on a plate and serve!

Cold Night, Warm Tummy Part 1: Pizza

Over the past few weeks, there has been a lot of experimental dishes concocted in our Brooklyn kitchen. Most of the meals involved seasonal produce and a little inspiration from our local food coop (which as you know I am totally in love with). As I worked my usual shift today, I was dreaming of the next exciting meal...

Enjoy!


We found an organic, multi-grain pizza bread - vacuum packed and ready eat at the coop a few weeks ago. Inspired by amazing array of root vegetables, we decided to make a roasted vegie pizza.
First step: Cut up some beets (golden and classic red), turnips, parsnip, onions and garlic. Toss with olive oil, fresh or dry herbs (thyme, rosemary) and salt + pepper. roast in the oven at 375 degrees until fragrant and browned (about 40 minutes).
Second step: Prepare a simple red sauce (canned tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper). If you have a simple pasta/pizza sauce from a can - well, i guess that's acceptable.

Once the sauce is ready and the vegies are finished roasting, it's time to assemble the pizza! You can make your own crust, buy one pre-packed like we did or use pita or roti bread.
We topped our pie with fresh mozzarella cheese (from the amazing Red Hook Fairway - see Red Hooker post archive...) and fresh basil leaves.
De-damned-licious.

Next yummy post will feature a rice balls, and broccoli rabe dish using leftover red sauce from the recipe above. Stay tuned!

hell-way subway

I think the reason why we New Yorkers feel completely drained, angry, frustrated, hostile and very aggressive on Monday mornings is probably because most of us have spent the past 45 minutes or longer pressed up against strange people, smelling foul morning breath and sweaty bodies wrapped in too tight winter coats and scarves. Watching passengers attempting to open their morning newspapers without whacking someone in the face, clamoring for a seat the moment another body peels itself off of the orange plastic bench as the train squeals into the station.
The subway commute, with its irritatingly cheerful "this is an important message from the New York City Police Department" messages, the lack of oxygen and the loud hacking phlegmy winter coughs and sneezes definitely make me question my ability to sustain this lifestyle for very much longer.
How do you deal with it? Maybe I should carry around a little flask in my bag and take an early morning shot to keep from being so damned irritated or maybe I should come in late to work and catch the later train...

Red Hookers, livin it up at the end of the world.

This past weekend, New York City experienced yet another out of body, bizzaro, non-winter weekend. In celebration of this Global Planetary Charring, we decided to venture out into the wild outlands of the borough, Red Hook.

Our afternoon began with a ride on the infamous B71, making our way down Union St. all the way to the BQE where the driver let us off at the last stop. We began the adventure on Columbia St. following our eyes and noses, we ventured in and out of some very interesting establishments. A memorable visit to DUB (Down Under Bakery) for a most delicious and inspiring veggie curry pie – a meat free version of the iconic meat pie (savory filling tucked away in crispy flakey pastry dough). The visit later inspired us to cook up a 3 tiered vegan Shepherds pie for dinner. Apparently, one small pie is just not enough.


We continued our walking up Columbia St., walking past a number of interesting bars and restaurants.
From Columbia, we found our way to the main strip, Van Brunt St. We were like those cartoon characters, caught in the drifting, wafting smell of bakery. There was a huge asterix drawn right beside the name, Baked. It didn’t take much to get us through the doors. Café, bakery, neighborhood chocolate center. We drooled over peanut butter brownies, mini cupcakes, scones and cookies. After having consumed way too many pastries before noon in one day, we thought we needed to cut ourselves off.

Some interesting things we noted on our walking tour:
1) Nativity Scenes are not only prevalent all over Brooklyn, but are amazingly intricate and way out there.

As we were walking towards the waterfront, we walked on Van Brunt on a pretty industrial stretch of road. We had to stop and take this picture of a spirited scene of the Holy Family and friends with giant cranes and towers gracing the background. Later in the afternoon, we walked by a house that had illuminated Jesus, Mary and Josephs complete with a “tv monitor” scrolling the Twin Towers and messages of world peace. Very inspiring.

2) We found the hidden lot where all the Mr. Softie Trucks hibernate over the long winter months. (Though this weekend, we could have used a melty Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar to help us through the day…).


3) In spite of all the hype, Fairway Red Hook rocks. We sampled our way through lunch, I met Will, one of the owners of the joint who I recognized from the uptown Fairway. He gave me a very generous helping of imported French artisanal ginger chocolate. We came home with olives, snacks and very happy tummies.

Tune in next week as our borough travels continue....

Je Me Souviens du Dep - Long ago and far away....

This picture reminded me of highschool, circa 1987. Back then I was not yet aware of how lacking in super cool style I really was, my feather hair not quite a look I should ever replicate again and my love of candy was an intense affair. I went to school on the picturesque Staint Kevin Street, parallel to Rue Victoria, home of the famous Montreal pizza bagel, the shady Greek diner, the Vietnamese Restaurant we were too scared to enter and most importantly in my memory birthplace of the competing 7Up and Pepsi Deps or Depanneurs (or for you New Yorker types, The Deli).



The dep was the place to blow that hard earned allowance or to spend those 34 cents collected from inside the couch or the floor of your dad's rusted Plymouth Reliant that he insisted was a 'terrific car'. At the dep, one little penny could buy you a Swedish Berry or a lone Sour Patch Kid. If you had a nickle, you could splurge on a real life sized Hot Lips or big Swedish Fish. They later came out with the Tropical Fish; sour gummi with 2 flavors in one! My candy accomplice Amy and I would splurge on the Tattoo Gum which for whatever reason was enticing and exotic (probably duing to the sacrilege of the real deal...)

I remember the mini brown paper bag by the cashier, excitedly filled with 1 cent candy by a 4 foot 7th grader at lunchtime... Those little mini bags would be clutched tightly under your desk, throughout the long, boring school day, with each passing minute, you would check to see what gummi treats were left at the bottom. Just one more period left, and it's Talmud with Ben, so really it's like school is over....

Decadent Dinner at Applewood

If you were ever thinking to yourself, how can I have a most amazing dining experience right here in the heart of Park Slope? Where can I find a restaurant that uses the most fragrant, fresh and thoughtful ingredients, supports local farmers and buys only wild fish and meat that has enjoyed a life of leisure and pampering? Well, the answer my friends is blowing down 11th Street between 7th and 8th Ave. Applewood. What an amazing night.
We started off at the bar, and ordered a delicious and warming spiced pear hot toddy.

Sweet and fragrant, definitely the drink of choice on a cold winter night.

New Line available now at Fabrica!

Fellow readers,
I am so pleased to announce that Fabrica - a home furnishings store in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn (619 Vanderbilt Ave at the corner of St. Mark's Ave.)is now carrying the new winter line of TemperamentalGlass designs AND (drum roll, please...), the first ever store collection of Urban Ceramix! (That, by the way, is my pottery line)

The window display includes two beautiful green pieces, Coreolis and Celery Stalk.
Demi, the charming owner of Fabrica was so helpful and encouraging and took more than 15 glass pieces and Nesting Spaghetti bowls for the store. She arranged the glass in color schemes throughout the shop, placing them alongside textiles, teapots, masks... and it looks quite elegant and beautiful. Please stop in to check out the store, Vanderbilt Ave. has some really lovely little shops, restaurants and bars. Tell Demi I say hi!
xoxo
miya

Deep Fried Goodness

One of the most exciting culinary adventures we had over the Thanksgiving weekend was witnessing firsthand the amazing invention that is - the Fried Turkey. It all began at around 2pm on Thursday November 23rd. It was a miserably cold, wet and windy day. The sky was grey and ominous. Clyde, the turkey, was taken out of the fridge. His pale pink skin flecked with an assortment of herbs and spices.

Clyde was then rigged to a hook and taken outside.

Out in the garage, sat a very large pot which was propped up on a propane burner. About 3 gallons of canola oil had been slowly heating to temperature, awaiting Clyde's appearance.
Rawle, the turkey fryer, put on his yellow glove, held Clyde tightly, crossed his fingers and hoped he measured correctly.
With sizzles and crackles, Clyde was lowered into the oil. We all stepped back. The huge pot of golden canola steamed and hissed.

We were told that a turkey that size would need a good 2 hours in the oil. Oh boy!


When time was up, all 24 guests held hands around the dinner table, we prayed together, blessed the table and the hands that cooked the food we were about to eat. We blessed the hot apple pie, the sweet orange yams, the quinoa-tofu-apple-curry vegetarian side dish and most of all, we thanked Clyde for his courage, his selflessness and most importantly, for his deep fried goodness.