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.

Giving Thanks. This one is for the tourists. One New Yorker's Rant

And a happy Thanksgiving weekend to those of you lounging around for the past 4 days in your stretchy pants and slippers! We have been really taking advantage of the beautiful fall-ish weather and crisp air to get re-acquainted with the city. Of course being as this marks the beginning of the tourist-take-over-Manhattan time of year, we are limiting our trips over the bridge to charted destinations, versus meanderings in the streets.

Those of you who know me well know I have been blessed with amazing patience and calmness. I never get annoyed, I never loose my cool with frustrating situations. I love being irritated. So, for me, staying in peaceful, tourist-minimal Brooklyn, seems to be the perfect antidote to an instant breakdown.

Certain neighborhoods must be avoided at all costs. It goes without saying that obviously Times Square is #1 on that list, followed closely by Herald Square, Canal street, Broadway between Houston and Canal streets and anywhere along 5th Ave. Around this time of year, if you look to your left or to your right you will see them. They will be visible in your blind spots, in your day dreams, in your night sweats. Hoards of them. Tourists. Visitors. Consumers. Whatever you want to call them. They come out of the charter buses taking over the curbside, they wait in line for the $35 red double deckers; cameras a-snapping. They stand in the middle of the street with absolutely no regard for the busy pace of NY walkers, maps unfurled, gazing up to read the street name, looking back down at their guides, looking back up again to make sure they got that street name, turn 180 degrees around to survey the landscape. 'Excuse me... Uh, do you know if there is a Starbucks around here?' Thanks.