Summer Love

Red Hot Summer

West Indian Day Parade

I spent Monday with other New Yorkers (almost all of them, I think) at the parade and carnival on Eastern Parkway. It was an incredible cultural mash-up that included noise, color, food, and togetherness...no wonder I had such a good time!














Pholourie. Fried spiced dough balls with a thin sweet chutney.

Delicious goat roti...

Jerk chicken...

Some alcoholic thing from Barbados...



Fab earrings!

Girl vs. The Branzino

Wherein Amelia Goes to the Hamptons and Cooks as a Private Chef

Here are some of the photos I took this past weekend, when I cooked eight meals in four days for a private household.


Whole Roasted Branzino

Here is the cherry chutney I made to have with roast pork, corn, roast potatoes, and sauteed red chard with pecans. It was deliciously dark, sour, spicy and sweet.

Moroccan Spiced Roasted Chicken

Summer Squash Corn and Poblano Soup

Chilling watercress vichyssoise.

Green beans and carrots, duh.

Roasted Curry Cauliflower

Wild Rice Salad

Fennel Watermelon Mint Salad

Different day, different fennel salad...

Tabouli

Turkish breakfast with poached eggs in toast cups and ginger scones.

Pear Sorbet, Poached Pears, and Ginger Meringue Cookie

Strawbrerry Rhubarb Tart (for the recipe, see the post I did on Saucy Little Dish here)

Lemon Cake Pudding with Lemon Ginger Caramel

Plum Sorbet with Cherry Tuille and Fig

I Love Lettuce

I just realized that I have taken too many pictures of lettuce this week to not acknowledge it here. It's fresh at the store, it takes up yards of table at the farmers market, it's overflowing CSA shares. To see all those lacy green piles... I am so taken with how beautiful they are. Sure I make salads, and I've made an intricate lettuce soup with a savory custard on two occasions, but no portrait series or Ode to Lettuce. Until today- I declare my love!

Growing up we had "real" lettuce, or green leaf lettuce. This was because my mom grew up on white bread and iceberg (among other things) and so she bought dry, dense wheat bread (boy has that come a long way) and real lettuce and did not stock soda or cereal more sugary than Honey Nut Cheerios. As soon as I was at other houses or comparing lunchboxes I yearned for the exotic crunch of iceberg and remember begging for it (she must have been so horrified). I was rejected with "there is nothing IN iceberg lettuce". I have forgiven her for that and am in fact totally grateful that she made the choices she did in feeding me. I actually still love iceberg, particularly involved in a red onion-blue cheese dressing situation, but now I love all the other lettuces too...

This varietal is called Salad Bowl! It truly fills a huge bowl...at least briefly.

Nice Coffee

The iced coffee drinking days of summer are growing numbered, but how else is a girl supposed to do the research unless she spends most of those days with an iced coffee in each hand? I offer up this end-of-summer review of some cold coffees you can grab in Brooklyn (and Queens) for one more month. (5 *'s is the best).

Cafe Grumpy
193 Meserole Avenue (at Diamond St.)
Brooklyn, NY 11222 (there is also one in Chelsea)

$2.75/Lg
Frequency card: Yes
Food: Some ?
Consistency: Pretty good

Comments: The most expensive of today's list, the coffee is good and strong with a bit of sourness. The environment is large and varied with windows and a cozy, relaxed front room and a cavernous back room. There is a bench out front.

Rating: * * * * Strong is good.


Wyckoff Starr
30 Wyckoff Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11226

$2.50/Lg
Frequency Card: No
Food: Yes
Consistency: Medium. Get it together!

Comments: They have the market cornered in Bushwick, and sometimes the quality can be a toss-up. However, they have the nicest staff in NY and when the coffee is good, its good. They have ok pastries. They have some interesting new savory tarts. They have fresh orange juice. They have good bagels. They have the option of tofu or regular cream cheese, with onions and cucumbers and tomatoes. This is a great breakfast sandwich, but hard to eat. They need to SLICE these options THINNER because big hunks of raw onion are unpleasant. They have seating out front and a tiny indoor space and they play good music. It is truly a community place.
Rating: * * * * This is a great place for making connections and feeling at home. One less star for the quality problems.

Baruir
4007 Queens Blvd.
Sunnyside, NY 11104

$2.50/Lg
Frequency Card: no
Food: Sort of

Consistency: Decent
Comments: This Turkish grocery and coffee store has some canned and dry goods and some cheeses and coffee by the pound. I had a wonderful spinach pie for $1.25 from the counter, and they dress your cup with milk and sugar before handing it to you, like at the deli. They use sugar instead of simple syrup so it's a little grainy, but they carefully plunk in homemade ice cubes made from coffee fetched from a Tupperware container. Aww.
Rating: * * * I'm sold on the cubes.

Gimme Coffee
495 Lorimer St (betw. Powers and Grand)
Brooklyn, NY 11211 (part of a mini-chain)

$2.20/Lg
Frequency Card: Yes
Food: Balthazar pastries

Consistency: Good
Comments: Gimme Coffee! really cares about coffee, and they sell coffee beans as well as coffee drinks. They seem dedicated to developing the farm-to-cup perspective meaning that they are involved in pursuing and selling fair-trade, organic, sustainable or shade-grown coffees, as well as organic milks in their stores, compostable plastics and sourcing locally when possible. As far as the iced one goes: it has a creamy texture and a balanced flavor. The red interior and the graphic logo help create a dynamic brand that is focused and simple.
Rating: * * * * * Devotion to this kind of thoughtful behavior in business earns another star. All companies should address this stuff and not need to show off about it.

Champion Coffee
1108 Manhattan Ave. (betw. Clay and Dupont)
Brooklyn, NY 11222

$2.50/Lg
Frequency Card: Yes
Food: Yes!
Consistency: Awesome

Comments: The iced coffee is Americano (3 shots of espresso over water and ice) and it is perfect every time. Strong, never bitter or sour or burnt. There is a bench out front. There is a great backyard and a cozy interior. The staff is friendly. The food options are VERY good. There is a limited but quality selection of pastries, egg dishes, sandwiches, salads and a great gazpacho. I love the mini baguette sandwich with goat cheese, tomatoes and Calamata olives. Everything is appropriately priced and the logo is snappy.
Rating: * * * * * Champions.