flea at laff #7: mile end/crop to cup.

snack: the ruth wilensky
drink: large iced coffee

oh brooklyn flea! how i've (sort of) missed you! what's it been, like a month or so since we last played? i'm truly sorry. i've been slightly broke & slightly busy recently & visiting you just hasn't been in the cards. plus, after a bunch of visits to you this summer, i've determined that for me, you don't have that much to offer other than the food. no, i'm not interested in a bunch of plastic, marquee-sized letters. i think i'm all set with that sparkly prom dress as well. ditto for 75% of the other non-food items you have for sale. as much as i try to tell myself that some end table or old-timey soda shop sign is going to one day catch my eye & come home with me, i'm only kidding myself...it's mostly just junk.

this past saturday, i once again met up with my flea partner-in-crime, miss jessica, at her place & after a brief layover at her apartment, we headed out into the OVEN-LIKE TEMPERATURES & over to the flea. as soon as we arrived, she was on a mission for salvatore bkln's open faced sandwich & once she procured & consumed that, we went straight to the back of the flea to give the food vendors a once over. it was a moot point though. going in, my mind was pretty much made up, so while jessica went off to get her ultimate flea combo (a red hook lobster pound lobster roll & a red hook vendors watermelon drink), i went to the booth for brooklyn's mile end.

i've been hearing all about mile end ever since they opened up in boerum hill last january. it's a montreal-style jewish deli that's made a name for itself for two main reasons: its smoked meats, which are available after noon & often sell out, and the bagels they have delivered down every day from montreal. people apparently go nuts for this shizz, so i figured i should check them out some time, especially their bagels from another country. every time i go to the flea, their lox & cream cheese on a bagel is on my short list of foods to try, but unfortunately, i can never bring myself to eat that in sweaty, ninety degree weather.

this week was no different, so i decided to forgo the bagel & give their smoked meat a try, opting for the "the ruth wilensky," a grilled/pressed sandwich named for the wife of the man who opened montreal's famous wilensky's light lunch. it's made with house smoked beef salami & mustard on an onion roll & is a perfect example of what you can do with basic ingredients. the salami had a satisfying, smoky taste to it that worked quite well with the spiciness of the mustard & the onion roll added some sweetness into the mix. while it's not a huge sandwich, for $5 it's definitely worth checking out.

i've been off the caffeine for a while now, but on saturday, i said "screw it" & got a large iced coffee from crop to cup to go with my sandwich. i had to. under the scorching heat, a tall, cool iced coffee was totally calling my name. crop to cup's one of those globally conscious coffee companies who build "respectful and credible relationships with the farmers" & offer them all sorts of economic & social benefits, including paying them 20% above market purchase price. all their coffees come from africa--the "uganda bugisu," "burundi bwayi" & "sebei specialty" (also uganda). i'm not sure which one i was drinking, but it was pretty tasty. i hate it when my coffee is darker & richer than a wealthy nigerian businessman & luckily, this one was neither. after adding in a lil soy milk & sugar, it was flavorful but not too much so. it was no monkey poo coffee, but what is, really? i enjoyed it, especially after going without real coffee for so long.

all told, we probably spent forty-five minutes at the flea, but it was just too damn hot outside, so as soon as we were done with our food & drink, we left, picked up a growler of mcneill's ruby red ale & a six pack of honey moon from american beer & returned to jessica's place to hide out in the AC, play scrabble, watch episodes of drawn together & order indian food. next thing i knew, the entire day had passed. by that time, the sun had gone down & it was safe to go outside again. as i caught the subway home, with a growler of good beer & a lump of indian food swirling in my body & high-scoring letter combos swirling in my brain, i was content. still, i couldn't help but hope that my next trip to the flea won't be so damn sweaty.