The new West Village Big Gay Ice Cream spot has been opened for few weeks and the guys have been making new flavor ice cream almost every week. The space is bigger with benches and tables for people to sit down while they enjoy their ice cream. Though the biggest advantage of having a bigger space is the room to experiment. Doug and Bryan have been making ice cream flavors like coconut and hazelnut brownie. Yesterday Doug even tried making sundaes (vanilla ice cream, hazelnut brownie ice cream, awesomesauce, whipped cream and caramelized bananas).

Check out their new space and the banana sundae after the jump…
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How do you feel about dipping ramen? The kind of ramen that you eat like cold soba. That’s what I had at my most recent trip to Minca. The spicy tsukemen ramen was the kind of spicy that gave you a little bit of sweat, the refreshing kind. For an extra kick, it came with a small dish of kimchi. Dipping ramen lets you decide how much broth you want to drench your noodles in and you don’t have to worry about the ramen getting all soggy for sitting in the broth.

- Minca 536 East 5th St, East Village

I’ve kept a close eye on Fletcher’s, waiting for it to finally open. Having a BBQ joint just few blocks from your apartment is a pretty exciting thing though I’m also walking distance from Fort Reno.

One night, my friends and I decided to check out this newly opened place before getting drinks at Skylark. We walked into a pretty bare and boring looking place that I felt didn’t had much personality. But I was there for meat and not the decor. Sadly that night they were out of the char siu but had everything else. With the four of us, we decided to get a platter of all the meats (ribs, brisket and pork shoulder) plus 3 sides (mac n’cheese, beans and cucumber salad).

Both the brisket and pork shoulder were mighty good, tender and delicious. The ribs were a little dry and tough and while the beans and cucumber sides were good, I was quite disappointed with the mac n’cheese.

I will most definitely go back for more since I really want to try their char siu and heck, it’s only a few blocks from my apartment. If you’re like my friend, Scott, that cares more about brisket than anything then head on over to Fletcher’s.

- Fletcher’s 433 3rd Ave, Gowanus

The Windsor Terrace Greenmarket was more crowded than usual this morning. I assume it’s due to te impending arrival of Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Frankenstorm Sandy; people are stocking up on everything, including fresh vegetables. Hey, whatever gets more business to the Farmer’s Market is a good thing, I’d say. I decided to feature these Brussels sprouts on the stalk, because most people don’t realize that this is how they grow. There’s not really any difference in the flavor or anything, but when you’re buying fresh veggies you’re looking for something that has been touched as little as possible. That means carrots with the tops still attached; peas still in the pod; Brussels sprouts still on the stalk. Plus they look very dramatic.

The New Amsterdam Market, down by the South Street Seaport, is happening almost every Sunday on until the end of December. This is a great time of year to visit, and enjoy the fall weather and the view of the bridges. You may remember our friends at Lonestar Taco (see here); well they have a booth at the market, making tacos fresh to order. I got one of their Green Market tacos, in this case filled with butternut squash and cauliflower with a sweet and spicy sauce.

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I guess I can’t deny that it’s fall anymore. There were several varieties of squash at the Farmer’s Market this morning; along with the usual butternut and acorn squashes, there were these little sweet dumplings. I don’t think I’ve ever eaten them before, but according to the internet they are good for stuffing and baking.

Donny: I’m pretty sure by now most of you have heard of the story behind M. Wells and ultimately M. Wells Dinette, so let’s just skip all that and go straight to the food at the new dinette.

Howard: I had never been to the original site of M. Wells. It’s true LIC was just a little too far out of the way, but that was only part of the reason. The other is that I had the impression that it wasn’t too vegetarian friendly. They might have gone over the top with bone marrow and foie gras, but I hadn’t heard anything about vegetarian food. But when Donny suggested we check out their new location at PS1 I admit I was curious. So we made the trip for lunch on a rainy day, during the NY Art Book Fair.

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