Neighborhood Thanksgiving week!

Hello North Brooklyn,

Due tot he fact that it's Thanksgiving week, I haven't been eating too much. :-p Saving up.
A couple of little odds and ends while i'm starving myself in preparation for major binge-eating and laziness tomorrow. Will probably be doing the Prospect Park Track Clubs Turkey Trot tomorrow. 5 miles around Prospect Park = earning the right to guilt-free thanksgiving dinner :)

Wanted to do an update on Papacitos....As I mentioned in my last post on them, they have their liquor license finally...Greenpointers has confirmed it and as you can see from Papcito's own website they are pretty psyched also. This time around there were definitely some jalepenos in the guacamole (SCORE!) and I have to add that they have EXCELLENT bloody mary's and bloody marias (w/ tequila) for brunch. $5. mexican food + spicy bloody mary + dark black coffee = a pretty hardcore hangover cure.

Enid's is also going to be having a little Thanksgiving celebration...for all those in Brooklyn on Thursday. 560 Manhattan Ave to hit that up.

If you can't get enough Greenpoint, you should stop by T&N Wines and check out the anatomically correct turkey chillin in the window a la Miss Healther @ NY Shitty.
So on that note...Happy Thanksgiving, see you in a couple days.

housekeeping

I added a blogroll...I'm going to keep adding to it as the days go by.
And follow me on twitter if you have an account.

I'll also be changing the layout of the site so take it easy on me if it shuts down for a little bit.

La Taverna

Well, well, Manhattan Ave has an Italian place.

Tonight the Empire State Building is Green White and Red. No, it's not for Italy but it should be because there's a very underrated little spot at 946 Manhattan Ave (between Kent St & Java St) in Greenpoint Brooklyn. (The Rockettes Christmas Spectacular opening for the year takes precedence on the lighting schema, I guess...)
A couple weeks ago, while walking down Manhattan, a friendly dude came out and introduced himself to me. Geno is the manager of Taverna. I wasn't in the market to eat pasta at this point since it was still...oh, 80 degrees on average until the beginning of October but i make a little mental bookmarking of the gesture.

Tonight I finally made my way into La Taverna. After procrastinating on a somewhat empty fridge and empty stomach, i set out to find sustenance somewhere in the streets of Greenpoint. Local market closed, I have no choice but to finally stop in. Totally worth it.

The place itself is right at the corner so it's got nice window action. The furniture is a little medieval but OK. Geno is probably working that whole Medici vibe. He plays some Italian tunes, too....which might be weird if you're not Italian speaking-which pretty much rules out everyone in Greenpoint except Geno and myself. They opened in an old Polish bookstore earlier this year and they are still lacking a liquor licence which would probably help alleviate the lack of crowd.

Something this place has going for it is it's extreme value. Seriously, it's downright cheap. Delicious homemade lentil soup for $3.95, calamari (grilled or fried) for 5.95. Pasta dishes between $6 and $9 and most entrees below $13, it's a serious deal.

The food, price notwithstanding, is actually very good. Wandering in around 9:00, we had the place to ourselves. Geno brought out some very fresh bread and spiced oil, and personally thanked us for coming in. So we're off to a good start...which means I'll order calamari. I love calamari, it's my guilty pleasure, so i have to be in the right state of mind to even risk having bad calamari. Tonight's was good, if not perfect....the sauce was a bit under-salted but that's easily corrected on my end. Which reminds me.....they make all their sauces in-house. There is a sauce for each dish. This is not a "slather subpar red sauce all over everything" Italian place. me likey.

This brings me to the main courses. Had to try a pasta dish....had I known before I ordered, like I do now, that La Taverna makes their own gnocchi, i would have had that. They offer a few varieties but, if I am to believe Geno, who at this point wasn't trying to sell me anything as I'm paying the check, the gnocchi is light and delicious. I will fact check this.....trust me. We get rigatoni alla siciliana (pasta alla norma if you're in sicily...) and a stuffed porkchop which was so out of character for both of us that the delicious surprise it ended up being was even more worth it. The pasta was cooked just right, the sauce was light and the veggies were all fresh. Add some fresh basil and ricotta and you've got a winner for $8. The porkchop was the best pork I've ever had. I guess I'm not qualified to be an authority on this because I rarely eat it but it's stuffed with mozzerella and herbs, dipped in a garlic sauce and covered in sauteed mushrooms. Served with rustic roasted potatoes and veggies, it's a filling dish but we wanted to finish it...and hey, not porkchop fans.

oh, don't let me forget that, in addition to making a lot of their own pasta and all of their own sauces, they make their own tiramisu. fresh. tiramisu. stop in just to try that.

I officially love this place. Even though it's a tiny bit tacky, Greenpoint needed a traditional Italian place that has more to offer than marinara and meatballs. If they could only get a liquor license, they'd be pulling in a larger crowd I think, but they DO have an impressive espresso machine behind the bar at the moment. They also take credit cards (big plus for the neighborhood!) and deliver. Give them a try. Say hi to Geno.

Papacitos: Mexican Street Food in Brooklyn

I’ve had a little hiatus, mostly due to a laptop accident (apparently you can’t drop your laptop from 5 ft and expect it to work) and a trip to Boston for the AAMC conference. Anyway, the night I got back, I decided to venture out for a late dinner at Papacitos.

Papacitos is a lovely looking place in a neon-signed-dia-de-los-muertes sorta way, always busy and always with a crowd.

Dear Papcitos,

i have wanted to try you for a while. You have been open for about a year and a half and always seem pretty busy (which is sorta weird for Greenpoint). You inspired me to write a story. Here goes.

I came in around 8:30 on a Monday night and I was HUNGRY! I sat down, got some water. And waited. And waited. And WAITED! Just then, the one waitress on staff walks by and takes the order of a table nearby that came in after us. “WTF?” I think and the more sedate Mike says, “Calm down, no big deal that she took their order, if she goes back to the kitchen, that’d be different.” He says this as I watch her turn the corner and run back into the kitchen (of course).

Oh man. I’m talking to my timid dining partner friend about leaving. He’s like “Wanna?” and my Id was like “Hell to the yes!” My super-ego was being all rational, coming with comments like “but you’re hungry” and “but you love Mexican food” and “BUT THE BLOG!!” Luckily, at this very moment the very nice countergirl/waitress/bartender/good-multi-tasker came over and asked if we were doing ok. Very perceptive! She saved us a likely-disappointing pilgrimage to some other restaurant nearby at this hour (9:00 on a Monday, at this point).

Offering free beer as a concession, she hooked us back in. Clearly the Id is like, “Free beer is ALWAYS worth it,” so, ok, I’m a cheap date, but honestly, I was just hungry and wanted to try the place out, and it was a nice addition. So we order. Lucky for you, Papacitos, you were not out of guacamole (which I hear is a common complaint for you) and we order that to start. It is sorta mild but tasty and comes out with deliciouss and hot, freshly fried tortilla chips. It’s also a couple avocado’s worth so be hungry.

For dinner, I was feeling nostalgic for my summer in San Diego and I get fish tacos. Fish tacos are like a little slice of heaven when they’re done well. From there menu: Grilled Tilapia, House Pickled Red Cabbage, White Sauce, Cilantro and Onions. 1 for $4, 2 for $7, 3 for $9. Not only a great deal for dinner in New York but they were extremely delicious. Ask for some jalepenos and/or add some hot sauce if you like spicy because they are pretty mild but the fish is grilled perfectly and covered in a chili spice. The cabbage is marinated and tasty. They come wrapped in two tortillas each: eat one to save the calories, eat both to save your napkin/shirt. DO NOT leave any fish leftover. It’s too good.

Also tried the chimichanga burrito. It is huge (that’s not what she said). 12' flour tortilla stuffed a 1# 1/2 of mexican rice, FRIED (whoa!), black beans, monterrey jack cheese, homemade salsa, sour cream, olives with meat or vegi option. You can choose your filling from the list: anjito pork (lime and chili carnitas) [AMAZING!] grilled chicken, chorizo, carne asada, ground chili spiced mexican beef, chili verde pork, grilled tilipa ,grilled vegi, spicy tempe, seitan asada, soyrizo…your choice. My only complaint was that I think they might have been out of fresh jalepenos because the ones we had were definitely from a can. Hopefully this is not the case all the time because I love me some spice. Everything else tasted super fresh so fingers crossed because I’m definitely going back. $10. What a deal, folks.

This reminds me, Papacitos is gaining notoriety as a great veggie/vegan place to eat in Brooklyn so nobody who hasn’t already been there should have an excuse not to try it out. While the service is a little slow, the prevailing atmosphere is all good. Dark blue walls, local art and fresh food. They also deliver (see the map on their site) to most of north brooklyn (north of Dumbo…LIC and South of McCarren Park will get you a $3 surcharge otherwise it’s free).

Also, They have a serious hell of a patio and outside dining area. Something to look forward to on the less frigid days somewhere in the distant future (photos courtesy of papacitos website/blog and yelp users).

A Little About Me...

The first bio I wrote when i was hired for my new job wasn't exciting enough so I decided to spice it up a little bit. For anyone who is out to learn a little more about me in this dark time where I have no laptop and a backlog of about 15 restaurants to write about it upon said broken laptop's return, see below:

Ever since the age of 5, Jess has been a nerd. Writing memoranda on the reasons she did not deserve to be in time-out prompted her parents to believe she was destined for nerdery at a young age. Her early love of science was demonstrated while she conducted scientific experiments in the bathroom sink after being asked to leave the dinner table for arguing with her siblings. With the goal of creating a turkey dinner out of nothing more than toothpaste, soap and mouthwash, she nearly succeeded had her mother not interrupted the delicate process by turning the faucet on full-blast and screaming at Jessica to go to her room. Apparently, screaming and flushing with hot water makes budding turkey-crystals fall out of solution.

All was not lost, though, because at the age of 11, it became clear that Jessica was not only a nerd but a fast nerd: qualifying for the US Nationals in swimming. While attending THE most prestigious high school in the country (I mean, JFK went there….), she continued to train at both geekery and jockery. Her efforts were rewarded and she was able to attend the 6^th-or-so most prestigious college in the country where she earned her dual degree: a B.A. in Intellectual Misfitisms and a B.S. in Leisure Studies (it is TOO a science!). And, although she competed in the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic Trials and despite being ranked in the Top 50 in the world in her events, she isn’t from a “slow country like Bulgaria and failed to make the U.S. Olympic team. She then decided to default to the next most prestigious thing: medical school.

After a boring and uneventful first year, it became clear that she could no longer tolerate the ennui of an incessant barrage of patients’ problems and went on a leave of absence. At that time, she began to work for Kaplan at 1440 where she works as a manager/model (have you SEEN the Park Avenue videos?) in her spare time, she is applying to PhD programs in Rocket Science and taking care of her 35 cats, all of which are former-strays that she nursed back to health from the brink of death on various Brooklyn streets.

So now you're all in the know about what's going on in my life.
The short list of restaurants I've eaten at recently and are in the line-up for a review (in no particular order)

1) Wasabi NYC
2) Cafe Duke in midtown
3) Jane (village)
4) Enid's (again)
5) Graziella's
6) Lamb and Jaffe (are you guys closed?!)

and next up for sure....PAPACITO'S (g-point)