Dinner And A Movie: Veselka & Nosferatu

Veselka
144 Second Avenue
New York, NY 10003
(212) 228-9682
veselka.com

HALLOWEEN IS AN excuse for New York City, as it is everywhere else, to revel in absurdity, which is a welcome departure, especially around these parts, from daily obsessions with excess. Somehow, dressed up as Santas and slutty nuns, the people of this city come alive with a warmth that emanates from someplace deeper than the flask tucked in its collective pocket. It's a bemused sort of goodwill, dare I say the Christmas spirit in costume, alive in October, only without all the secular bickering.

At Veselka, warmth emanates from steamed pirogis, and tastes like pumpkin, goat cheese and arugala, mushroom and sauerkraut, and meat. Warmth is delicious (and you can wash it down with 21 oz. of cool Obolon beer for $5.25). Warmth is also cheesy. Ukrainian fare might be Veselka's specialty, but this is, after all, a 24-hour diner set-up--the mac n' cheese is commendable.

We were joined by Brian (of Plataforma fame) who had suggested for afterwards a Halloween showing of Nosferatu, F. W. Murnau's classic 1922 vampire flick, its soundtrack performed live by the Devil Music Ensemble. All this, in the grand theater of Village East Cinemas, a towering hall of gothic-meets-arabic design, a terribly appropriate venue for the godfather of all monster movies. It was almost as frightening as taking the L-train back to Brooklyn.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: And probably drinks again, too.

{The Menu - 10.31.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Cafe 57, New York, NY

Night
Veselka, New York, NY
+ Popcorn

{The Menu - 10.30.07}

Morning

Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Cafe 57, New York, NY

Night
Candy +
Land Thai, New York, NY

{The Menu - 10.29.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Cafe 57, New York, NY

Night
Fresca Tortilla, Brooklyn, NY
+ Candy

{The Menu - 10.28.07}

Morning
Cafe Grumpy, Brooklyn, NY

Noon
Leftover Maki + Pocky

Night
Maple Syrup Oatmeal w/ Rasins

BRUNCH! @ Paloma

Paloma
60 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 349-2400
palomanyc.com

RAISE YOUR HANDS if you love Saturday morning cartoons!

Okay, yes, I know, cartoons kinda suck these days. I enjoy Spongebob as much as the next guy, but Viva Piñata? Yu-Gi-Oh? Ugh, I can barely stomach Futureama, and my 10-year-old cousin recently asked me, "Who's Yogi Bear?" Are you kidding me, Boo Boo!? Hey, hey, I say, what are we teaching these kids today?!

The good news: Paloma understands. Not only can you now find yourself a tasty brunch at the Greenpoint joint, but you can kick back and enjoy it while watching the flickering frames of good, old fashions, hand-animated Looney Tunes.

How the food? My eggs over-medium with a slice of potato pancake was perhaps the simplest plate I have ever seen come out of Paloma's kitchen. The eggs were impeccably cooked. Mint's duck hash piled atop one of those tasty potato-cakes was reportedly awesome. A warm popover, crispy crust outside and buttery soft inside, hit the spot. And, as always, the bar served up a hit, this afternoon mixing up a ginger soda with skewered chunks of candied ginger as garnish.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Yup, yup.

{The Menu - 10.27.07}

Morning
Coffee + Banana Larabar

Noon
Paloma, Brooklyn, NY

Night
Sapporo Haru, Brooklyn, NY

{The Menu - 10.26.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Cafe 57, New York, NY

Night
Cassanova, Brooklyn, NY

{The Menu - 10.25.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Bouchon Bakery, New York, NY

Night
Hummus + Carrots + Soy Delicious

{The Menu - 10.24.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Candle Cafe @ Cafe 57, New York, NY + Ginger Snap LÄRABAR

Night
Madsen Donut + Pita + Roasted Red Pepper Hummus + Carrots + Pocky

RECIPE! Classic Hummus

I CAN'T FIGURE out how you could make this without a food processor. Perhaps with a lot of smashing and rapid wrist movement? I suppose. But this is really one for those of you with access to a blender or some other kind of knife propelled by electricity:

1 can garbanzo beans
1/3 cup tahini
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
salt + pepper

Combine in a food processor or blender the garbanzo beans (a.k.a. chickpeas, ceci beans), tahini, garlic (chopped in half), juice of one lemon, olive oil and spices to taste. Blend in bursts, stopping and checking occasionally. Blend to a thick paste.

A few helping hints: Reserve the water from your canned beans in case the hummus is too thick; add water in small amounts. Garlic can be used to taste--if you've got really fresh garlic, perhaps two cloves will do. You can do without the cumin, but don't skip it if you've got it. That's all for now.

This is a really excellent recipe to experiment with. The only thing to remember is to be careful to maintain your consistency--if you add too much liquid, you'll need to add chickpeas to thicken the mix. We enjoyed this recipe with fresh purple peppers picked (finally!) from the plant that's been growing in our kitchen window since spring. Not to brag or anything, but they were pretty awesome.

{The Menu - 10.23.07}

Morning
Coffee + Muffin

Noon
Cafe 57, New York, NY

Night
Hummus w/ Purple Peppers + Chocolate Peanut Butter Soy Delicious

Fusia Asian Cuisine

Fusia Asian Cuisine
677 Lexington Avenue
(entrance on 56th St)
New York, NY 10022
(212) 308-2111
fusia56.com

Mint had a toothache. It got worse. Then, it got worse. And so she decided it was time to see a dentist. At 9:15 p.m. on a Monday night. The pickings are slim, let me tell you.

We decided to grab dinner while wandering up towards a dentist's office before her appointment, not sure she'd feel much like food after. Something soft was is order, and since we only had an hour, something quick, too. Noodles were declared the perfect choice and so we started looking. We found Fusia.

Excellent eel

And we were impressed. The miso soup was rich without being salty, large slices of shitake mushrooms floating about in the broth. The rice under the unagi don was piled high and dotted with beets, seaweed, and slices of avocado. Mint, of course, ordered noodles. They were soft.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Prices were a bit high for an everyday dinner, but I'll admit it was the first time I've ordered unagi don outside of Sapporo Haru and thoroughly enjoyed my meal. That's definitely a reason to consider returning.

{The Menu - 10.22.07}

Morning
Coffee + Bagel w/ Cream Cheese

Noon
Cafe 57, New York, NY

Night
Fusia, New York, NY

I-80 East to New York

Mary's Diner
666 East Main Street
Geneva, OH 44041
(440) 466-6393

THIS MAKES TWO trips to Mary's Diner in my last two trips to Ohio. I'm quite happy with this trend. Mary's serves up classic diner fare in a classic diner setting. It's comfort food. I love it. In particular, I loved the pumpkin pancakes. Tis the season, after all.

In other news, I-80 East was not nearly as quick a drive as I-80 West. Adam and I spent at least an hour and a half sitting in traffic at various points along the way. Which sucked. At the the fall foliage was a pleasant backdrop? To make matters worse, this not-driving part of our drive ensured that we would arrive in New York well after the start of the Indians-Red Sox game. This put us in a bad mood.

Objects in mirror are closer than they appear

You know what made it worse? The part where, once finally back in the city, the Indians lost the third of three consecutive games to crash out of the playoffs and send Boston to the World Series. Blargh!

Speaking of blargh, we did stop for lunch/dinner somewhere halfway across Pennsylvania. Adam wanted Arby's. So, I got a milkshake. That was my dinner. I love roadtrips.

{The Menu - 10.21.07}

Morning
Coffee + Donut

Noon
Mary's Diner, Geneva, OH +
Pretzels + Swedish Fish + Arby's Chocolate Milkshake

Night
Donut

If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Now

Piero's Pasta House
5367 Lake Road East
Geneva-On-The-Lake, OH 44041
(440) 466-2498

NO SOUND IS more comforting than the crashing of waves washing up on the shore of Lake Erie, and there is no better time to hear them than first thing in the morning as they wash you out of sleep. Of course, nothing makes their wake-up call more worth heading than the knowledge that a blue and white-striped box of Madsen's Donuts awaits you downstairs. Madsen's Donuts, as has been previously noted, sells the finest creme sticks, jelly sticks, cinnamon sticks, chocolate-glazed, cinnamon-sugared, and powder sugar-dusted doughnuts this side of anywhere (sorry, Peter Pan). The frosted and sprinkled varieties aren't half-bad either. Get 'em $8.20 a dozen, and just try to not eat more than one a day.

For dinner, aside from doughnuts (which, rest assured, is a side dish), we stopped by Piero's Pasta House. This place has been written up by several Cleveland-area newspapers (that a local paper would recommend its readers make an hour's drive is no small accomplishment) and alongside Alessandro's is one-half the dynamic Italian duo of Geneva-On-The-Lake. The pasta is suspiciously fresh, the sauces light but rich, and there always seems to be a crowd inside, even in the town's off-season when the Lake Road strip is eerily deserted.

Dessert, a peach bread pudding made by my mother, was so good I've asked for the recipe so I can make it and pass it along. It was the perfect way to cap off a day of delicious treats, even if the Indians couldn't cap it off with a trip to the World Series. There's always tomorrow?

{The Menu - 10.20.07}

Morning
Coffee + Madsen Donuts, Geneva-On-The-Lake, OH

Noon
Spinach Salad w/ Feta & Apples

Night
Piero's Pasta House, Geneva-On-The-Lake, OH +
Peach Bread Pudding

{The Menu - 10.19.07}

Noon
Pumpkin Bread + Coffee + Triscuits + Pita w/ Hummus & Tomato

Night
Whole Wheat Pasta + Red Sauce + Veggies + Garlic Bread

NYC to Cleveland in 7 Hours

Hibernia Diner
9 Green Pond Road
Rockaway, NJ 07866
(973) 625-3255
thehiberniadiner.com

WITH CLEVELAND UP three games to Boston's one in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, and my ma holding a handful of seats to game five at Jacobs Field, there was really no choice but to pack up my aunt's car, wake up my cousin and take off for Cleveland.

As the story goes, upon hearing that mother had a pair of tickets to the game leftover after our family had snapped the rest up, my cousin Adam decided that if he could skip school for a couple days, I could skip work. Turns out he was right. So, Adam journeyed to Brooklyn last night, met me at work late this morning, and around Noon we set off through the Lincoln Tunnel headed for I-80 West.

We stopped, briefly, at the Hibernia Diner in Rockaway, NJ. It seemed like a good time to break for brunch. Adam grabbed an omelette, and I grabbed potato pancakes. I'm not sure how that omelette turned out, but the pancakes were perfect little ovals of starch, deep fried to a golden glow. They were awful, at best mildly satisfying, and everything I expected them to be. I gladly chowed down on Swedish Fish for the rest of the ride.

We hit the Ohio border around 6:00 that evening and caught a glimpse of the Cleveland skyline off in the distance about an hour later. We parked downtown a little after 7:30 and found our seats at 8:10. The opening pitch was ten minutes later. Nothing like good timing.

Dinner? Cheese pizza from the fine servicefolk at Jacobs Field. The game? Not so good. A few runs here, a few runs there, and suddenly the Indians found themselves far from clinching the series. There's always Saturday night, but we're definitely not driving to Boston to watch the game.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Hibernia? Maybe, maybe not; Jacobs Field, well, there's always next year.

{The Menu - 10.18.07}

Morning
Coffee + Bagel w/ Cream Cheese

Noon
Pumpkin Bread + Hibernia Diner, Rockaway, NJ + Sweedish Fish + Peanut Butter Crackers

Night
Cheese Pizza, Jacobs Field, Cleveland, OH

{The Menu - 10.17.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Night
Pizza + L&A's, Brooklyn, NY

{The Menu - 10.16.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Cafe 54, New York, NY

Night
Paloma, Brooklyn, NY

{The Menu - 10.15.07}

Morning
Coffee + Oatmeal

Noon
Leftover Pad Thai

Night
Sido, New York, NY

{The Menu - 10.14.07}

Morning
Coffee + Bagel w/ Cream Cheese

Noon
Egg Sandwich + Pretzel Sticks

Night
*erb, Brooklyn, NY

Mint's Birthday: Putting On the Ritz

Regional
2607 Broadway
New York, NY 10025
(212) 666-1915
regionalnyc.com

Mint passed by Regional's wide open windows a week or so back and immediately dubbed it as her birthday brunch spot. The menu seemed reasonable, but Mint knew it would take more than pancakes and nice prices to draw even a few friends to the Upper West Side. Unlimited mimosa refills? Yup, that'll do it.

Joined by Ms. Reeves, Ms. Fader and Sir Hitchcock, things got off to a shaky start--ordering took forever, the mimosas were apparently stuck in weekend traffic at the bar, and the first plate to emerge from the kitchen (less than a minute after ordering, mind you) was a five-inch plate with six pieces of bacon lumped together in a hilariously disgusting log of lukewarm pork. At this point, fearing how things might possibly go worse, we called over a manager who, mimosas in hand, scowled at our bacon log, apologized, and disappeared with it into the kitchen for we assume was a little pep talk. It must have been a good one. From that point on everything was top notch.

After strolling around Central Park for a few hours (pictures above by Ms. Reeves), a squealing Mint was presented with tickets to Young Frankenstein. With curtains going up in less than two hours, it seemed like a good time to grab a light dinner. Bello Giardino more than sufficed.

The show, a Mel Brooks adaptation of his classic film starring Gene Wilder, was faithful to its silver screen forbearer (or so I'm told) and charged with plenty of tongue-in-cheek asides and sexual escapades. This is Mel Brooks, after all. The elaborate sets were changed up frequently and disappeared entirely for a rousing rendition of "Putting On the Ritz," which showcased the comically ernest vocals of a muttering, stuttering Frankenstein and a chorus of boot-clad, Franken-faced tap dancers.

The evening was capped with an obligatory candlelit cupcake, chocolate, with Entenmann's Halloween-orange frosting and candy corn. And in case you were wondering, zero trans fat.

MIKE EATS NEXT TIME: Any place that sets a pitcher of mimosa on your table free of charge is okay in my book.