i guess this makes me a cheap jerk, but i like eating at home best, second only to eating at the homes of friends who also love good food. so when i’m running from one place to another in manhattan with two dollars in my pocket and no lunch or snack packed (yes, we are nine years old over here and sometimes we pack snacks) and i don’t want another bagel or cup of coffee or donut or whatever, i like the produce vendors in the street…thanks to them it is easy to be an urban forager, looking for plant material.
they’re all over manhattan in downtown and midtown, and they’re the best. if i had it my way every neighborhood in the outer boroughs would have a few as well. i like the one in front of astor place by the halal truck, he’s a gentleman, and he always gives me a good price on emergency strawberries or urgently needed citrus (ie, fruit eaten furtively out of lap in class on top of paper towel). today at the vendor by work i bought a pound of white cherries, three nectarines, and two avocados. those avocados made a nice snack with salt & teaspoon upon arriving home from work. polished em off. somehow they never last in our house.
nectarines –> 2 serving cream tart, which i am not planning to post the first time around because it will probably be a disastrous first foray into the world of homemade buttery tart crust. i can only hope it will be edible.
white cherries –> probably will get pitted and sliced and turned into cherry and candied ginger ice cream, made with the french custard base of course. what a delicious way to celebrate the fourth of july.
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& if i did have time to eat at a restaurant, here’s the several places where i’d go to spend my money:
1. chavella’s. mexican food in crown heights. oh man, we used to live around the block from this place, and i narrowly escaped a permanent food coma. get on the 2/3/4/5 and go immediately. enchiladas (cheese), green sauce, rice and beans. wonderful.
2. kafana. one of the few places to get serbian/croatian food; in alphabet city. a little pricey, probably because they know they have a kind of monopoly on that kind of food. but if you order the mixed grill you are going to eat for three meals. i also like the stuffed pepper special, lamb & spinach stew, and the wheat berry dessert, and some other things, none of which i remember the actual srpska names of. i don’t really go to stari most or djerdan in queens, or trio in manhattan (too expensive), though i might give the united miners soccer club in queens a try if i’m ever up by steinway.
3. dos hermanos tortilleria in bushwick. tortilla factory/mexican restaurant in a car garage in bushwick. everything is less than four dollars. get extra salsa. get peppers. feast.
