only in ny #4: smoke joint.

snack: black angus dog / spicy french fries
drink: abita jockamo i.p.a.

even though i've lived in brooklyn for almost a decade now, my knowledge of the fort greene, brooklyn food & drink scene is relatively lame. i haven't really had all that much reason to hang out there until this summer, when i've found myself at the brooklyn flea on most weekends. as a result, i've been spending much more time in the neighborhood lately. a couple fridays ago, on my quest to find "a place to drink that has food," my brooklyn flea partner-in-crime jessica suggested the smoke joint, a bbq restaurant right off of fulton st. i'm not exactly a huge meat eater, but i do go for quality meats every once in a while, so the promise of bbq sounded good to me.

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flea at laff #1: asiadog.

snack: "sidney" chicken dog
drink: fresh squeezed limeade soda

here in brooklyn there's the brooklyn flea, a flea market held every weekend at two different locales--on lafayette ave in ft greene on saturday & right outside the atlantic center on sunday. it just started up again back on the 10th & this year, they've assembled an impressive lineup of TWENTY-FIVE hott food vendors, with folks like sigmund pretzel shop, kumquat cupcakery, pizza moto, mile end, porchetta & red hook lobster pound serving up treats to flea-goers. since i need to get outside more often, i've decided that over the next few months, i'm going to try to pay the flea as many visits as possible & sample as many of the copious snack & drink options as possible.

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nosh nook #164 - thursday, october 29, 2009

sanchez donates dogs (link)
10.28.09 - ny post - by mark cannizzaro

i don't follow pro or college football all that much, but i do follow the news & if you're a new yorker who follows the news, it's almost impossible to have not heard of the NY jets rookie quarterback mark sanchez. for now, the new york papers friggin love him. before he'd even stepped foot on the field for an NFL game, he was a multi-millionaire with a $50 million contract. since he's one of those uber-sexy quarterback types, he appeared in GQ back in may & had been dating sports illustrated swimsuit hottie hilary rhoda, who'd appeared with him in the GQ spread. in my outsider's opinion, he's basically tom brady, but not as good & with less super bowl rings and, at the moment, less swimsuit models. i'm confident he'll one day get a swimsuit model of his own.

this past weekend, sanchez & the jets were out in oakland for a game against the hapless raiders & since the raiders are awful, the jets ending up blowing them out 38-0. by the fourth quarter, the jets were relaxed, so much that the tv cameras caught sanchez eating a hot dog on the sidelines, which is apparently a sports ettiquette no-no. he's young & didn't know any better, but according to the ny post, he's trying to take his silly mistake & "turn it into a positive" by donating "500 hot dogs and 500 hamburgers through a&p supermarket to the community soup kitchen of morristown, nj." i'm not sure why he chose morristown of all places, but he's probably made a lot of folks happy. i can't wait to see what he donates when he gets caught out late one night with a hooker.

head coach rex ryan feels that sanchez has handled the hot dog incident fine, but since he's "an old-school football guy," he's still sort of disappointed in his rookie quarterback. "it is unfortunate. we have a great game, run for 300-some yards, have a breakout game, a 38-0 score, get a shutout, and now the focus is on the hot dog." don't pat yourself on the buck that much. you were playing the raiders. i heard that they lost to a high school team two weeks back. can you really blame the media for focusing on a hot quarterback eating a hot dog?

nosh nook #95 - friday, july 24, 2009

hot dogs should carry a warning label, lawsuit says (link)
07.23.09 - los angeles times - by jerry hirsch

in the future! in the future, we will have a superbly super advanced society! the awesomeness of the whole thing will be totally awesome! life will be full of life. technology will become extremely technological. health advances will have advanced to a level where the average age will be somewhere around 120 & we'll have one thing to thank...labels pasted on to absolutely everything!

as the l.a. times reports, the cancer project, a vegan advocacy group, is suing hot dog makers to make them begin labeling their packages with the words "warning: consuming hot dogs and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer." um, what? apparently it's true, because neal barnard, president of the group, compares hot dogs to tobacco, arguing that "processed meats are linked to colon cancer."

the l.a. times isn't so sure. while the cancer project claims that studies show that nitrites play a role in the development of cancer, the times notes that "it's not clear whether it is because of the nitrites or other factors such as high fat content." regardless, it's ridiculous to be labeling everything. are we that dumb that we need labels on everything to know what's good & what's bad?

plus, it's like michael jacobson, executive director of the center for science in the public interest is quoted as saying, "the overuse of warnings can lead to 'warning fatigue.'" damn straight, mike. as far as i'm concerned, i'm already sick & tired of labels...but i've got time for one more. i label this whole effort "ridonkulous."

nosh nook #73 - wednesday, june 24, 2009

the new breed of NYC hot dogs: are they really better? (link)
06.23.09 - serious eats: new york - by ed levine

we're less than two weeks away from nathan's annual hot dog eating contest, held every july 4th down at coney island. last year, american joey chestnut (the reigning champion) successfully defended his title, but was only able to do so after an eat-off against japan's kobayashi (a former champion himself). as of right now, the record for most hot dogs eaten in the competition's ten-minute time frame is 66...by chestnut in 07. basically, he ate more hot dogs in ten minutes than i've eaten in the last ten years.

it looks like that could change though! here in nyc, the hot dog's been making a bit of a comeback recently...a deliciously trendy comeback! as ed levine reports, nyc chefs are starting to turn hot dogs into "haut dogs," as "fancypants chefs" have introduced a wide array of hot dog options to their menus. for starters, at PDT (please don't tell), a slightly secret locale in the village, there's the "david chang dog," a hot dog "bacon-wrapped and covered with very dark, very salty kimchi." they also have one that's a deep-fried hot dog with "a deep-fried mayo baton that's been breaded with hot-dog-bun crumbs."

as far as haut dogs go, those are relatively tame. the two crazier ones that levine mentions are from new york hot dog & coffee, who offers a korean hot dog topped with bulgogi & kimchi and from fatty crab, who has a hot dog "made from pork shoulder, fatback, thai chilies, pickled ginger and garlic, and belacan, or fermented shrimp paste." as if that wasn't enough, they also top it with "aioli, pickled thai chilies and radishes, cilantro leaves, and in a nod to chicago hot dogs, cucumber."

despite all these gourmet haut dog choices, levine knows where it's at when it comes to getting a nyc hot dog--papaya king or gray's papaya king.  here, you can always get their recession special--two dogs & a medium papaya juice for $4.45.  sure it's just your average hot dog with a topping or two, but as an eater of a few handfuls of their hot dogs over the years, sometimes a basic hot dog is the only kind you really need.