Ramen Setagaya vs. Rai Rai Ken

Now here's a showdown...

Setagaya's Shio Ramen




(Jared puts spicy anything on everything)


VS.

RAI RAI KEN's Shio Ramen!


This is a curry ramen.


Only 14 stools.


Okay. So here's the results. Setagaya's ramen is lackluster. It is subtle, so if you like a delicate broth and thin chewy noodles, then maybe this is for you. The pork was tough and bland but the soft cooked egg was killer. It is nice to sit against the window and stare at the Village sidewalk scene.

Rai Rai Ken, besides being much more fun to say, I enjoyed their Ramen more. The broth is rich and deep and the noodles are meatier. Overall much better, I think. The curry ramen was very good as well and though it is cramped, it's cozy.

The winner? MOMOFUKU! HAHA (But these places are much cheaper)

Green Acres Is The Place

A couple of months ago, my place of employment took us on an optional field trip up-state to check out some grass-fed cows that we might source for the restaurant. We like to go up to the actual farms, check out the cows, the grass, the air, and the farmer to see if they mesh with our ethos.


Kohlrabis look like green upside-down Sputniks but they are actually German turnips.


"Please take me home with you Scarlett! I want to live in dirty concrete Bushwick, not this beautiful farm!"


COWS!


CHICKENS!


BURGERS!


Generally, a lot of farmers who raise grass-fed beef will consider themselves 'grass farmers' instead of 'beef farmers' because grass is the important link in the system. Grass farming, which is generally a sustainable practice because it relies on natural ecology of sun-grass-ruminant, requires a careful rotation of cows grazing and then letting the grass grow to replenish nutrients. One of the biggest challenges for these types of farmers is the yield of grass. Their farm must be large enough to produce enough grass (dried to make hay) to feed the cows when grass is not growing, for four months of the year, during winter. A tremendous amount of hay is needed for this, instead of relying on cereals like corn, wheat, and barley.


This is a weird fungus that Sean found in the woods.


GOAT! (This is at Sprout Creek. These goats make some mean cheese.)






Bye-Bye

Slummin' It

This is what I had for dinner.

Corner Bistro

This is one of the first restaurants I ate at when I first moved to New York and finally got around to taking Jared there. It's in the running for the hefty title of the city's greatest burger.


The cheeseburger (if you get the Corner Bistro burger it comes mantled with cheese and bacon) contains a soft and chewy cheap sesame bun, just to aid lifting the burger to your mouth but not to detract from the beefiness of the patty-which is like two hockey pucks stacked on top of each other, mustard, ketchup, the superfluous iceberg lettuce leaf and mealy tomato (discard, please), and pickles. It is a true dream of a burger. They also have pints of McSorely's Dark for 3$.


How could you not want to eat this?

Spongebob Popsicle

A cotton-candy cherry lemon cartoon character popsicle never looked so devilish.

Tapas

I've really been into fino sherry lately. It smells like caramel, figs, and raisins and tastes like a salty, tart, apple. Deliciously confusing and great with tapas.

Red Hook Ballfields

At the Red Hook futbol/soccer/football fields on Saturdays and Sundays there is a grand collection of Latin American street food vendors.


Guatemala, Honduras, Salvador, Puerto Rico, Mexico and many others are represented by their expats hawking pupusas, tacos, huaraches, ceviche, elotes, and agua frescas.


MEXICO.


Revuelta (pork and cheese) and jalapeno and cheese pupusas with the standard curtido and pickled jalapenos. Salvadoran food is not characteristically spicy, like some other latin american cuisines. Instead of salsa, pupsas (round, hand packed, corn disks stuffed with different fillings) are served with curtido, a pickled cabbage/carrot mixture similar in some senses to German style sauerkraut. You can chomp on some pickled jalapenos if you are addicted to capsaicin.


Potato and chicken flautas and one carne asada taco from the Mexican truck. They were pretty good but too much lettuce.


This little girl is about to smash this Hummer into the junkyard!!! This is what my birthday party is going to look like.

Burger Joint

Jared turned me on to an incredible Midtown secret. You head to Le Parker Meridien on 118 West 57th St. walk in, pass the suits and soaring ceilings, modernist columns and marble floors, make a sharp left and down a velvet draped dark hallway, you'll see this...


It's a mutherfuckin' burger joint!


The great charred burgers, cooked perfectly, with the works, are only $7.00. A pitcher of Sam Adams' Lager, $18.00.


The fries are forgettable. More useful as lincoln logs than burger accompaniments.


The decor, however, is very special.

This is what a picnic looks like

Mmmm, family.

Mi familia came to visit me and chow down on the NYC offerings.


We ate bagels every single morning. Raw red onion and slices of tomato, salt, and lots of pepper.


To Chinatown for dumplings


and Dim Sum.


We visited the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens (free on Tuesdays!) and nibbled our way through the incredible herb, fruit, and vegetable garden.






In addition to this beautiful swiss chard, there was amaranth, sorrel, lamb's quarters, tobacco, quinoa, and dozens of plants I have never even heard of.


At the New Museum, they have rich and crumbly peanut butter cookies filled with whipped peanut butter-buttercream. 3$!


Cheddar-baked eggs with grits and golden raisin- fennel toast.


Ricotta on toasted baguette with fig jam, dried sour cherries, walnuts, and arugula. Roebling Tea House.


This handsome young guy graduated into culinary manhood when he tried his first on-the-half-shell oyster this weekend. Will it be his last?