they put a woman on the moon
Two weekends ago, my sister Kat and her boyfriend Reid visited me in Brooklyn, filling the apartment with their energy, Kat’s vast knowledge of chocolate, and Reid’s curiosity about design in real life. I expect great things from both, of course, and they proved my expectation well-founded with a breakfast they made one morning with tomatoes and tomatillos from their Portland, Oregon garden.
My kitchen full of family, they let me record the Adirondack potatoes roasting (from Evolutionary Organics at the Union Square Greenmarket), the shallots and garlic divided into small piles, the eggs scrambling…
It’s a family tradition to bring local food when you travel (I flew to Oregon last Christmas with ripe tomatoes from Miami), and the chanterelles deftly folded into the eggs made for a morning feast we spread across the living room floor.
It was, I think, their first time in Brooklyn, so we walked through the Ft. Greene neighborhood to General Greene, where we ordered half the menu (all kinds of lovely vegetables to order) and battled with forks over the quinoa – preserved lime perfumes the simple dish, elevating the ancient grain in a way we three are working to replicate in our kitchens.
On Saturday, Kat and I strolled to the Brooklyn Flea, talking more about chocolate and choices, sampling cannoli with fresh ricotta and noticing the same thing at once, just smiling at each other the way we always have.
Reid’s cousin Galen Zamarra is the chef at Mas (farmhouse), which again, raises expectations, and we were treated to an incredible sequence of dishes the night before they left.
The service was perfect (two servers glide over at once, whisking away), and Chef really was cooking for us, sending out an enormous scallop, a new fried rabbit cake he’s playing with (imagine rilletes formed like salmon cakes and topped with frisée), Long Island duck, and his signature tuna with crispy shallots in a butter sauce that loyal patrons won’t let him take off the menu. (”I know I always order this, but how can I not?” a woman seated near us laughed as the server nodded sagely.)
For a very polite neighborhood, everyone around us relaxed into the space that somehow feels bigger than it is, and Galen emerged to sit with us as we pretended to share the different desserts—salted caramel ice cream with milk and dark chocolate, nectarine sorbet in a fruit soup with glistening berries underneath,
and my favorite, the olive oil cake crispy on the edges, with a clear brittle studded with pine nuts.
Although they managed to visit almost every Brooklyn neighborhood and most of the museums in Manhattan, I hope Kat and Reid will begin planning their next Brooklyn trip soon; we will return to Bark for veggie dogs and then, we will seek out new places to explore…
Last Saturday, my friend Jenne and I embarked on a quest for the elusive mooncake, the traditional food of the Mid-Autumn Festival (中秋節) made with lotus seed paste and an egg embedded in the center (the egg is for the full moon). The mooncake is eaten to remember the woman on the moon, Chang’e, and some intriguing stories about the occasion figure the cakes as steganographic food (ask me in the comments).
We began with modern sweets; I was overwhelmed by the cheery packaging in an Asian grocer,
but Jenne managed to find Hello Kitty strawberry marshmallows with little jelly centers (surprisingly good),
and we walked off part of Momofuku Milk Bar’s pork buns and “volcano” finding the Pickle Day celebration.
Sampling pickle truffles that almost worked, we admired Pickle fashions (not many people had dressed accordingly, and yes, I was wearing green),
before learning about the Pickle Time-Space Odyssey (one gentleman was studying this intently).
Venturing toward Chinatown for more ethereal notions, we found a bakery where Jenne explained pastries and I spotted icing pandas holding fish;
Jenne bought me a peanut pie that I ate very slowly later that afternoon (the furry coconut enrobes a jellied inside and the red dot is important).
We found moving and reconsituted seafood everywhere,
and finally succumbed to burnished ducks hanging in windows; Jenne decided we needed noodles and beef and food I cannot pronounce but am so happy she knew to order—
And later that night, I unwrapped a mooncake, only to learn that the sweetest part of this quest was in the seeking with a close friend who tapped her secret stores of knowledge to navigate…
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Posted Saturday, October 10th, 2009, 8:14 pm * Filed in Food, brooklyn, restaurant. * Tags: chinatown, farmhouse, festival, fish, kristen, kthread, mas, mooncake, taylor. Follow responses through the RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
You don’t mess around when it comes to food. A great adventure here told in meals.
October 10th, 2009 at 9:17 pm
Thanks, Jay. I am always inspired watching the food you and R preserve and create (cheese wheels!) It’s so nice to be able to source traditional food for many types of celebrations here in NY, I’m embracing that–
October 11th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
I would order that tuna dish every time, shamelessly. Can’t wait for you to visit and chronicle the culinary offerings of Monterey Park, home to some of L.A.’s best Chinese food.
October 12th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
A pickle day celebration? How fantastic!
Everything looks delicious here, especially the beautiful moon cake at the end.
I thought of you during the marathon! In some kind of cruel punishment, the race course veered down Broadway, passing right by Molly’s Cupcakes!
October 12th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Ben, I cannot wait to visit, and the tuna is very much your dish. We’ll have to go when you visit NY; Galen is such a wonderful chef.
Mica, I would have been inside Molly’s cheering you on! (Okay, actually, I would have stood outside and waved a cupcake :) ) Truly, I was wishing you all good speed during the race, and you would have appreciated Pickle Day—