I came back to Brooklyn for some terrible heat and humidity, so I thought I’d help us all cool off by weighing in on two Brooklyn ice cream places I’ve visited this year. I’d heard a lot about both Van Leeuwen and Blue Marble, but I’d never been to their shops. I had once gotten a scoop of Van Leeuwen’s Earl Grey flavor from their ice cream cart, but I thought the texture was a little grainy.

Unfortunately the texture problem continued in the store. The cinnamon flavor (above, left) had a little bit of a kick, but the ice cream was still strangely grainy, rather than creamy (and it appears I’m not the only one disappointed with their ice cream). I appreciate that they use such carefully sourced fresh ingredients, but it feels like a waste.

Blue Marble, on the other hand, was incredibly creamy. Donny tells me that their green tea flavor is the best he’s ever had, but they didn’t have it on the day we visited their Atlantic Ave location. I went for ginger (above, right) instead, which was delicious and rich. It could have used a bit more ginger-y bite, but it was still flavorful and delicious. Van Leeuwen has it’s staunch supporters, but for me Blue Marble blows it out of the water.

Van Leeuwen — 632 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn
Blue Marble — 420 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn

I was hoping to make an ice cream sandwich with CHOCOLATE COVERED STROOPWAFELS! but alas it didn’t happen. I only had 1 chocolate covered stroopwafel left so instead I used a regular old plain stroopwafel. It looked and tasted pretty good but it was so difficult to eat. The caramel in the plain stroopwafel harden from the ice cream which made it very tough to bite. But the chocolate one was fantastic since the chocolate shielded the stroopwafel from the ice cream.

I was really craving for anything salt and pepper. Salt and pepper squid, salt and pepper pork chop and salt and pepper shrimp. I wanted to try and make it but wasn’t tooooo sure the exact recipe. But I think all you need to do is first deep fried the squid or pork chops or shrimps then in a hot wok cook garlic and peppers and then add in the squid or pork chops or shrimps. Right?

Well I guess eventually what I made was different yet similar. I got a pound of ground pork, garlic, ginger, scallions, onion, bull’s horn chili, and Thai basil.

This will cook fast so get all the prep work done before you start cooking. Diced up 1 whole medium sized onion, grated a piece of ginger which yield about 1.5 tablespoons, diced a WHOLE bulb of garlic, sliced couple scallions, get a about cup worth of the basil and sliced up the chili without the seeds. I realized after eating this the bull’s horn chili isn’t spicy at all, I think next time I’ll chop up some jalapenos. So to make this dish, heat up a wok. Get it really hot then add about a tablespoon or 2 of oil. Throw in the ground pork and cook it till they’re just about done, then put the pork into a bowl. Put the diced up onions and cook it till they’re translucent then throw in the rest of the ingredients. Stir stir stir! When everything’s about done, add the pork back in and stir stir stir, mix mix mix. Season it with salt and pepper to your liking. Annnnnndd done.

This goes AWESOME with plain rice.

First time hearing about Gambrinus Seafood Cafe was on Serious Eats. Whats not to love about a Russian pirate themed restaurant in Brighton Beach that served sushi? The author of that blog post didn’t dare to try the sushi but WE DID. Oh hell yeah, that was one of the reasons why we went or why I REALLY WANTED TO GO!

After hanging out a bit at the Beer Island on the boardwalk, it was not an island at all but just a fenced off area filled with sand, umbrellas, tables and chairs and loads of beers, Howard, Matt, Phae and I strolled down the boardwalk towards Brighton Beach. Of course being on the boardwalk I just had to get an overprice corn dog. By the time we got to Gambrinus I was sweaty and sticky. Once we walked in we were greeted by waiter wearing a blue/white striped shirt. It was more a sailor look than pirates but oh well. We were seated outside which meant no nice a/c. But once I cooled down it was pleasant to be outside with cars zipping by behind and large group of people drinking bottles and bottles of vodka next to me.

Now we were here for the sushi, lets order some food!
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I had no idea it was THIS difficult to find a decent breakfast place in Tribeca. But thanks to Serious Eats I found Locanda Verde which perfectly was connected to the hotel that my sister was staying while she was in town. Though I thought I had found a new place to eat but she had already gone there for breakfast the day before. Ah oh well it was new to me.

There weren’t that many things I wanted to eat on the menu but finally decided on Uova Modenese poached eggs with cotechino hash, spinach, and tomato hollandaise. I didn’t know what “cotechino” was and wasn’t having high expectations. When the dish came I still wasn’t expecting much seeing how tiny the dish was, yes yes I eat a lot. It does look pretty though. With the fork I got a some eggs, spinach and sausages and ate it. !!!!!!!!! WOW!! The tomato hollandaise sauce was amazing! It was my first time having hollandaise sauce with tomatoes in them and I’m sure without them this would’ve just been a plain dish. I really wanted to eat slowly just to savor the moment and wished there was more bread.

- Locanda Verde 377 Greenwich St New York

Back in the day 5 dumplings for $1 was pretty common in Chinatown. But nothing last forever, especially in NYC. The only 2 places that I know of that still sell dumplings that cheap are Fried Dumpling on Mosco St and Prosperity Dumplings on Eldridge St. And if you want a picture perfect definition of what hole-in-the-wall places look like then these 2 dumpling places are pretty much it. I’ve been to Prosperity Dumplings many times and each time there would be a crowd inside, all trying to get dumplings. On the other hand, I’ve only walked by Fried Dumpling and usually its quite empty. People either know exactly where to look or they randomly discovered it. I was the latter. I was just randomly exploring Chinatown when I first moved here and found it by chance. I’ve must have walked by this place more than a dozen times but never really bothered to try it. Then finally yesterday I was craving for some cheap dumplings and was in the area so I decided to try it out.

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