Death by chocolate....cake! in b-burg

Went to brunch @ Relish in Williamsburg on N. 3rd and Wythe. Came late (as I tend to) and noshed on half of Claudia's eggs in casserole (everything was on point, much better than the one at Viceroy b/c it had other elements--potato slices etc that made it a heartier meal), and then the 4 of us split THE CAKE. :)

Quite a decadent little sucker--not as moist as *mine* ;) but ginormous layers + pretty tasty frosting + pretty yummy to begin with cake = yummyYumYUM. HERE's the ODD thing...we all ate it with the whipped cream! We all *had* to eat it with the whipped cream--it was...compulsion beyond comprehension. About halfway thru--we were angling on asking the waitress for another dollop to finish the cake with...except...my god. I normally HATE whipped cream O.o it's just *garnish* like...cilantro! (we'll get to that some other time)

I'm sure the cream was made on premise (or something) or specially sourced since it had none of that airy bland lardy-lightness --> my version of "buttery" in an undelightful (read: uninteresting) slant. We couldn't exactly pin point why the cake tasted so much better with the whip cream--or rather, just...tasted really incomplete without it even tho the cake itself didn't taste like it was lacking. *shrug*. Regardless, it was still magnificent!

I've only wandered in Williamsburg in daylight a handful of times (got some new cords at the Built by Wendy sample sale, my awesomest new winter coat at In God We Trust blahblahblah). Today--LO AND BEHOLD--we came across the Bedford Cheese Shop--which is SO MUCH MORE THAN CHEESE!!!

it's perfectly what I needed after being in Italy and since then avowing to really be good to myself w/ products, produce, artisanal foods etc. I've fallen into a slump of eating just to feed myself and move on b/c I get so carried away with life as a whole and everything becomes such an arduous task (as I tend to make it) that even cooking and eating is laborious.

Will do a full blown post of it some other time....but here's another pic I took there :) They sell jams, pickles, breads, sweets, oils, condiments, snacks--general goods from Italy, England, Germany, Switzerland, Holland--and wherever else. All in one shopping. YESSSS.

This is the same brand as my Oven Roasted Lemon & Thyme Chicken potato chips :) Just mine were Walkers' Sensations and these are regular. MY GOD. i love the british crisps!! :D

...oh what the hell...one more shot of the cake--tipped over! :)

WEEEEEEEE!!!

iKEA Swedish Almond Cake!...

First time I had this was a few wks ago back when I was visiting family in CA--when my bro and his gf took me to Ikea for BREAKFAST....and *tasty!* it was O.o So, on Sunday when I drove w/ Carolyn to the new Ikea in Redhook I had to buy a whole cake ^_^

It's very moist, light, not very sweet--bordering on NOT sweet--but just perfectly tinged with a sweet flavor. There's also, surprisingly, a complete lack of that strong almond extract essence that I'd normally expect with anythign 'almond' (i.e. almond buttercream...see SSS entry).

Also bought the chooooooocolate version! This plain white one--from the ingredients page I guess it's just buttercream? but much gooey-er than the cupcake buttercream frosting which I'm assuming is just not whipped, more oil, *way* less sugar. YAAAAAY!

I lub me some Ikea...I lub me some Ikea food.

Celeste...

Went to Celeste on 84th and Amsterdam last month w/ Carolyn!! YAAAAAAY to Carolyn moving back from Espagna (I hadn't seen her in like 5-6 yrs!), and yay to Celeste. Jun took me here a while ago and ever since our office relocated uptown I pretty much go here as much as I can.

Italian gets thrown around here a lot so it's great I get to practice (sorta, when I'm not too meek or caught up to start tossing phrases out here and there). The ownder is a lean faced man with bony features, longer hair...an affable man that I guess goes to the fishmarket all the time so much that the Sushi chefs know him (just not by name!).

I only recently got into mussles--this is a basic garlic and white wine sauce but the quality of the mussels are amazing (which makes the owner's little stories believable, and endearing vs. some ridiculous braggadoccio BS!) It has a tinge of sweetness, succulent, well seasoned but lightly seasoned so u really just get...the quintessence of the mussels in what you're slopping around in ur mouth as opposed to stuff that sits in the yummy broth you're sucking down.

I had the Homemade Papardelle Special which is reminiscent of their old Shrimp Papardelle (which now comes with cabbage, goat cheese, and i forget what else). CLOSE UP!!...

But this incarnation has scallops, asparagus, and a light tomato marinara sauce. The pasta really is something to experience (well, the paparedelle anyway) b/c u can more plainly feel the different texture of hand-made/rolled/whatever pasta versus the shit u just pop in and boil at most restaurants.

Carolyn got the Butter-sage cheese ravioli that Julia's gotten too. It was def tasty and the sage was strong but pleasantly so b/c i feel like i don't get to really enjoy sage in a lot of things, and not as a focal point. (pumpkin ravioli @ fig & olive still def rocks my socks!!)

The thing I like about Celeste better than Pisticci's is that Celeste has more distinctive and rustic flavors, a little more pungent in comparison--but I mean the two are so restrained in their seasoning and composition, everything works together well and stand on their own. It's simple, and clean--just Celeste is a little more hearty, but...Pisticci's has so many different and refreshing ideas in their dishes! It's like talking about 2 very diff things joined by an effortless composition of tastes and fantastic ingredients!

...i like to finish my plate :D

Redhook vendors (@ the Bklyn Flea!)...

Went to the Brooklyn Flea w/ Claudz so she could buy an arm chair--also to pilfer the foods and find Salvatore ricotta cannolis!! And of course...the Redhook ball field vendors! woohoo! Now, being originally from southern CA (see post on Tijuana!), the "Mexican food" here in NY has never quite...hit the spot. BUT...dare i say...could this be...LOVE??

Huarache (...and NO, NOT THE SANDALS):
They're pretty much just giant corn tortillas (fried masa?) with refried beans inside and then stuffed like tacos etc..

....mmmmmmmm. makes me wanna really have some good Mexican food when I go back to CA to visit for mah niece's bday...

...what's brooklyn flea market without a little...cafe habana outpost GRILLED CORN!!!:

...and....YUM look @ them all ready to go...

Oh what the hell, one more shot:

*sigh* l'amour. you know how I feel about grilled corn.

It was really great seeing them hussle about and make all the food and see how it was kept. I love all the random street fairs b/c I like seeing all the prepwork, all the whatever whatever all up in my face. I think it's riveting seeing them in action not in a kitchen (granted i never get to see the kitchens in restaurants anyway--but it's...hard to describe what I'd imagine is the rush of working in an entirely different, and very minute space! OH! contact high from all that quick thinking and organization and pre-calculation!!

...it's pretty much a giant block of preseasoned/marinaded chicken meats that they're breaking down. YUMMMAYYYYY. I have to say though, the pork in my huarache (choice of meats) was pretty damn tasty and well seasoned. A little hot, a little salty, great texture, a little fatty--fresh pico de gallo was great, the hot sauce was well (pretty hot but on point).
Anyhoodle...so we got a plethora of things including....PUPUSAS!!

Pupusas:

A pupusa (from Pipil pupusawa) is a thick, hand-made corn tortilla (made using masa de maíz, a maize flour dough used in Latin American cuisine) that is stuffed with one or more of the following: cheese (queso) (usually a soft Salvadoran cheese called Quesillo), fried pork rind (chicharrón), squash (ayote), refried beans (frijoles refritos), or queso con loroco (loroco is a vine flower bud from Central America). There is also the pupusa revuelta with mixed ingredients, such as queso (cheese), frijoles (beans), [1], and chicharrón or bacon.

the accompaniments (which I think is pickled red cabbage, other ish, salsa, sour cream? (honestly I liked this stuff much better than the pupusas themselves, but they were a fun little alternative):

...the making of...

Claudz got me the mixed meats pupusa i think--and she got the vegetarian one. I like the texture--kinda grainy but not inasmuch as a regular corn tortilla is (a little heavy, a little dry and not so doughy). This was light, full, and not polenta-y either.

The horchata was really creamy but at the bottom u could see the gunk of all the cinnamon and whatever else the drink was loaded with--however, still pretty damn good b/c it's perfecdtly seasoned as opposed to overly sweet like most horchata I've ahd--although the one in Tijuana was much cleaner and more refreshing. (mmm. yeah forgot to take pics of this.) Also had hibiscus tea and watermelon juice. YUMMY YUM YUM YUM. That's all...there are still 3 posts coming in regards to the cupcakes and other crap at the brooklyn flea. be patient, childrens.

Veniero's (confection heaven!)...

Oh HEY--yeah what's up?
It's...it's been, uh, a while, huh?
Yah...I know, I should've called but...you know, you know how it is.
Um yeah so...
Me? OH just fine, good times, good times.

So....
...yeaaaaaah....

...VENIERO'S!! After a month and a half lull..I present you...yummy yum yumness u don't even KNOW homeslice. It truly is a uh...a post to reintroduce mahself with.

In terms of italian pastries and just...pastries period, I've never been that big a fan of Ferrara's, and I truly thought that was the best NY had to offer (a little tear drops down my cheekie-poo). Mike's pastries (esp the cannoli) in Boston...seriously. It's the ricotta cheese and the shell and just...how fab it is PERIOD. Ferrara's uses a custard-y filling but Veniero's....RICOTTAAAAAA!!!

I'd like to go to get some cannoli's from Salvatore Brooklyn Ricotta (at the Ft. Greene flea market too!! ^_^) but this bodes well for me since Veniero's just in the East Village. I had just eaten dinner w/ Albee and he took me to Chickalicious and then "oh this little place it's pretty good you should come back to try stuff if you're too full now"...and OH. MY FRIGGIN'. COW.

Rows and rows of impeccably constructed large and mini versions of tarts (multiple, endless types) The colors, the rows, the freezer...THE EVERYTHING!

Albee, love, you sure know how to make a girl feel giddy! ;)
btw...Veniero's is on 11th st between 1st and 2nd ave...it's 110 yrs old (as in how long it's even been in NYC), and has outposts in Rome and Bologna.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine (final cupcake showdown!)...

I've gotten in the habit of screening a new restaurant or dish before coming back to write about it. I just dont' like lugging the d-SLR around if I don't need to, complete with gorilla-pod, filter, flash, blahblahblabh. It's mostly b/c I'm a gelatinous pig. HA!! GET IT?? gluttonous, gelatinous, was being off kilter funny. *ahem*. anyway...

The first time I had Sugar Sweet Sunshine was @ Karen's bday when Claudz got her the pistacchio cake. Cakey cake cake...yummmmmm. ANYWAY...

The next time I actually had Sugar Sweet Sunshine was an abysmally long time after...like last month actually, before heading out to some BBQ (memorial day mehbeh?) in Billy-burgh. We got the Ooey Gooey (chocolate cake w/ chocolate almond buttercream), Pumpkin Spice (pumpkin cake w/ cream cheese icing),

...and Sexy Red Velvet (red velvet w/ satin buttercream), and Pistacchio (pistacchio cake w/ satin buttercream aka "the moose"). There was also the Sassy Red velvet--which just had the chocolate almond buttercream instead of the regular ish but that was saved for another day.

BOTTOM LINE: I think SSS is the bestest EVARRRRHHHHH because they color outside the lines a bit with flavor combos and whatnot--PISTACCHIO??? yum. Again, the icing on the pistacchio--the satin buttercream--is reminiscent of yet has a lighter consistency than the Marshmallow Fluff spread and I SWEAR...cannot be plain ol' buttercream but whatebbs.

One more shot of the Ooey Gooey w/ Milk b/c it was pretty :)

ALMOND EXTRACT in the buttercream--this ALSO is brazilliant, regardless of how innocuous almond extract really is. It blows my mind here and there when I haven't used it for a while in my cake b/c I kinda forget how aromatic and strong even a smidge of it is. CRAZY LIKE A FOX!!

Anyhoodle, when I came back to SSS the second time around w/ Julia, I got all the same stuff again and then some. Just a note, I've never found yellow cake to be that appealing--but SSS yellow cake, me likes. I wouldn't necessarily order a yellow cake cupcake over chocolate any given time, but for SSS I'd eat that shizz instead of letting it sit or pass it off to somebody else as I tend to. Yellow cake normally is just incredibly pedestrian to me. PSHHHHH...b*tch please. ;) No seriously, it's a little pedestrian.

Besides the fact that it's located in the Lower East Side in what looks to be a run-down, dirty hipster version of the light-Connecticut-Montauk white and pastel decor found at Billy's or Magnolia's where you might feel like making a patriotic pound cake or short cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries for stripes and blueberries for star emblem, drinking mint lemonade out of a mason jar with straw decoratively tied around the edge in the wicker basket of your bike as you pedal around Hyannisport or Nantucket or some crap....

Sugar Sweet sunshine looks like you're in a fonder memory of the 1960's going into 70's complete with requisite avocado/lime/whatever colors and peeling faded pink, playing in the attic with an E-Z oven while a fudgsicle stick drips down your wee little hands while scratching at your scraped up knees from the day's rowdiness in the sand pit watching the light bulb bake intently, while in the background ur older cousins or brother/sister played vinyls from Van Morrison or Stevie Wonder--hell maybe even the Steve Miller Band and possibly locking you out of the attic so they could try their hands at being mid-day tokers instead.

Or in my case, my brothers locked me in a closet so they wouldn't have to watch me when they sneaked out to play soccer w/ the neighborhood kids. I don't even know what that last imagery was like/came from b/c quite frankly my toddler years were in Vietnam playing on our third floor giant patio and watching this man who rented out some portion of my family's building make chalk. Seriously. Chalk making. pretty cool to watch. :)

But yeah--Sugar Sweet Sunshine in a nutshell: more homey-goodness and explorations into interesting cupcakery beyond that banal tripe of a competition between Magnolia's, Crumb's (bleah), Buttercup (bleaaaaaah), and Billy's--not to mention the kajillian offshoots from Magnolia's spreading in the outer bouroughs and such. PLUS SSS cupcakes are only $1.50 while the others are well above $2--not to mention stupid Sprinkles in CA is dry and I swear left out in the open for a long time and not fresh is close to $4 if memory serves me right. I lost pictures of Sprinkles when I went with Peggy the last time I was home =/ *curse you busted hard drive covered by warranty!* *shakes fist!*

....aaaaand *end scene*.

I heart Pisticci's (and you!)...

TO mark the end of my grieving period for my failed & irreparable hard drive, here is (what I think) is ze best food pizzorn on zees blog. Pisticci's on 123rd/LaSalle & B'way.

Fig & goat cheese salad w/mangos, heart of palm (yummers!), strawberries, and dijon sauce.

Another looksie at the salad...NOMNOMNOmnomnomonoNOMnoMoNOmNOMMMMM...first time I had heart of palm. I like. Me also likes heart of artichokies...

The garlic bread, avec goat cheese--they don't...usually have this on top, but either way it was damn tasty.

The house tea (black tea with peach...syrup?). As refreshing as it looks...

I always get the homemade fettucine w/ wild mushrooms--this time with the truffle oil added (oooooooooh...not really, there is a diff but i like the diff in some other medium besides this dish). BUT ME LOVESSSIES this dish!! ^_^ Julie-boolie got the same thing sans truffle oil.

Dan (Julia's sis's hubs) had the peppercorn-crusted filet mignon with cognac and something sauce. It was a beautiful peace of meat and I took a picture of it sliced up and splayed but it's a little blurry :( But here it is!!

There were more entrees but they're not as pretty--but seriously, any specials, anything at Pisticci's is phenomenal. Fresh, simple, well seasoned, perfectly balanced, finger lickin' good and despite the Italian starchy fare, very light and not heavy at ALL. I had the seafood special and meat entrees before too and that shiz is the bizzomb in terms of preparation. Pisticci--fave restaurant in Boston, California, or NY (except maybe Kefi :P...and all the cupcake places.

Anyway...onto desserrrrrrt. Always on the menu but best in season (now): fresh berries and hand-whipped cream. Nothing else holding it up!

I disdain desserts topped with whipped cream--anythign w/ whipped cream really. I just think whipped cream is unnecessary and the devil. BUT, with that said, this cream could convert even moi-self :) Also--tiramisu and Frangelico mousse (tasty!but again both not that pretty so whatebbs :P) Here's the coconut-yellow cake w/ some sauce.

You'd think it'd be a little innocuous for such a place I rave about--but the cake is rich but (like my crazy triple chocolate cake) not that sweet, not that heavy or too airy, and the sauce is great with it. A lot of people seem to be averse to coconut but it really shouldn't be the slightest issue here.

another pic of the fig salad just cuz I think it's purty--that and I've only had fig maybe 3x in my entire life (no even a Fig Newton!) The whole fruit is fascimamating and its applications as well. :)

YAAAAAAAAAy. prepare for the last cupcake entry in the cupcake trifecta/showdown, lemon-and-thyme-roasted-chicken flavored chips from England, comped breakfast @ the Hilton in McLean, and purple 'taters coming this wk!

...and one more of the garlic bread :)

Mama Ly's mama's Bún Riêu...

The Moms' moms (my maternal grandmother, duhhh ;)) has been a devout Buddhist and vegetarian probably for 50+ yrs--but she still cooks savory/meat-filled meals for the fam. She never tastes it given her practices, and yet it's always jussst perfect.

Whenever there's a congregation of the Le progeny* in Washington, DC where my grandmother usually is, she cooks up giant beasts of a feast--which she's inclined to make all the time anyway, but we get the hometown favs when it's the big extended crew. Since the extended fam is in DC, and the my nuclear family is in CA and not hear in NYC, I've spent many a holiday noshin' on some majorly finger lickin' shizz.

A few wks ago my mom and aunt flew over for the couz's graduation and she made us bún riêu. What *is* this bún riêu you ask? Pshhh...you just know, homeskillet--You DON'T EVEN KNOW. teehee! See Noodlepie.com for more pics of bun rieu as vendor food in Viet Nam.
bún riêu as vendor food and more pics.

Bún riêu is a noodle soup (in the same vein as pho and other things) with a pork based broth, vermicelli (the thin white noodles), sometimes congealed pork blood, processed crab and shrimp meat (kinda lumpy scrambled-egg-like consistency but a little more liquidy/viscous), lime, fermented shrimp paste(^_^)

Seriously, it's a little interemeresting smelling but don't be knocking it!!--douchebaggery neither desired nor required. Eat or go home. Don't talk ish on mah people's shrimp paste .

Usually purplish-grey, salty but not in the fish sauce or sea salty way--pungent, maybe give u a little "agita" but OH SO FRIGGIN" good and utterly unfathomably completes the bun rieu.

It's a pretty tedious process making all of this. Mostly tedious to me, because it gets very time consuming for me and consuming mentally to go out and select all the ingredients (all the diff veggies etc) b/c I get really carried away touching/smelling/burping produce. (joke). It's not that I'm picky--I just really like to learn/experience everything tactilely and visually and...every other thing I can imagine it's just really enthralling.

For my little bowlsie, I nixed the pig blood and beignet equivalent (mostly used to sop things and add another texture). I forgot about the other shredded-stuffs. OH WELL. Almost forgot--there's also the SHREDDED BANANA FLOWER!! Courtesy of Bhakshanam.wordpress.com (great entry on making banana flower salad).

The banana flower stuff--it's so pervasive I forget sometimes! and so counterintuitively what it is! It's got a crunchy/hardness/thread-iness like celery crossed with jicama (maybe even green papaya?)--I forget which place/city/state I had it as a salad (maybe with roasted mussels) and it's friggin' awesome. It's a giant bulb--the one at the end of those giant bunches of tiers of bananas from tree--giant and purple.

Oh and we also had tomatoes and "do" which is pronounced like "yaw"--the "d" without that top part crossed like a "t" has a "y" as in "yellow" pronunciation where as the "d" crossed like a "t" is the natural "d" as in "dork" sound. I totally dig me some tomahters do any day of the week.

I also didn't inherit the caffeine addict gene or the super spicy Huế gene. But I like watching them make it from those french presses. I hear it's the shizzzzz. *le sigh*.
Last pic of bun rieu with the beignet-like things and congealed blood so ya know. So NOW YOU KNOW :) Pic courtesy of gastronomyblog.com