After getting some pie, Donny and I went to check out the relatively new bar Mission Dolores. We had the same problems with it that many others do: it was way too crowded and WAY too loud. After our friends Matt and Phaedra joined us for a drink, we moved next door to the beautiful and quiet Rock Shop, where we could actually relax. After a while we got hungry, so a couple of us ran across the street to Oaxaca Taqueria to get some takeout.

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After eating at Sheep Station, my friends Jess and Garrett recommended that we get a slice of pie at Four and Twenty Blackbirds. They both raved about it, particularly about the salted caramel apple pie. To our dismay we found the shop closed, and we continued on our way. I mentioned it to Donny, and we decided to go there one day. A few days later I was at Prospect Park when I got a text message from Donny: “Pie at black birds?” By the time I got there, though, one of the servers was crossing out the flavors of pie that were no longer available. In fact she was crossing out ALL of the pies, including “and more’ except one: buttermilk chess pie.

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What is it about mom’s cooking that everyone seems to love and remember? Especially the Italians! Is it because we eat it so much that we love it or are we just a bunch of nostalgic people or maybe all our moms are just crazy incredible good cooks? Now that I have moved to NYC and my family in LA I rarely get to eat my mom’s cooking. So every time I go home I ask my mom to make specific dishes. But BUT there is one dish that my mom makes that I just can’t get enough of and its chicken wings with thing slices of potatoes cooked in coconut milk. It’s so frakkin good. Maybe because I love rice so much I can scoop a bunch of sauce onto the rice and eat it non-stop. Whenever I eat this dish I tend to eat couple extra bowls of rice. SO GOOD!

Then I thought well maybe it was time for me to actually learn how to make this dish so that I can have it whenever I want. I gave making this dish a try many years ago and totally F’ed it up. I had the correct ingredients but in incorrect amount. What came out of it was a bland watery chicken with potato soup instead of a thick stew like dish. Fast forward to just eh few weeks ago I gave this dish another try. This time instead of pouring the whole can of chicken stock in like last time I followed what my mom told me and poured just enough to cover the potatoes. Sorry if the recipe I’m about to give you isn’t really a proper recipe. Heck my mom didn’t give me a proper recipe either and my mom being a mom told me what moms usually say when giving their kids recipes. A pinch of this and handful of that and just enough of that.

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You have no idea how much good stuff I have heard about Saltie. From the internets to the people I know. I’ve been wanting to go to Saltie for a while but it wasn’t till one of my friend, super picky eater, told me that he likes Saltie that really made me want to go that instant. One random Sunday I had to run to Williamsburg for errands and decided to check out Saltie.

I walked in to find a near empty place except for 2 girls sitting by the window and a couple that seem to know the owners. The place was chilled, roomy and bright. I wasn’t sure what I wanted but I randomly got the Spanish Armada sandwich. I noticed they raised the prices of their sandwiches by a dollar compared to what it is on the website. Maybe they need help updating their website? If so I can help! Gimme a call! Within a minute after I placed my order I got my sandwich.

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Way back when I did my tasting of pizza along the L train, I had a really good Neapolitan-style pizza at Fornino in Williamsburg. I was excited to hear that there was a Fornino opening near me, in Park Slope, a few months ago, and on a recent Friday night I met up with my friends Jeff & Eva to check it out.

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A lot of attention is given to heirloom tomatoes at summer Greenmarkets, and I can understand why. They’re seasonal, beautiful, tasty, etc. It bears mentioning, however, that there are heirloom varieties of other vegetables as well. If you’ve thought about okra at all you’ve probably thought about the long, icicle-looking okra that is seen most often. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised to see these plump, curly, purple streaked pods at the Grand Army Plaza market. Some people say they don’t like okra because it’s slimy, but that’s precisely why I like it. Lately I’ve been stewing it with tomatoes, cooking it down to mush so that the entire thing is slimy and delicious.