Food and Drink: May 2007 Archives

So not all of us are going to be in Spain this holiday weekend, or the Hamptons, or, hell, even Jones Beach. But that's no reason to hang at the pity party. Any New Yorker knows these are the best kinds of weekends, cause with all the vacation-home set out of town, the rest of us can actually get into things.  So without further adieu, my top 5 list of things to do this weekend, not all Brooklyn-related.

1) Eat at wd50. A friend has a reservation, and I'm so tagging along.
2) See Paprika, the coolest-sounding movie ever in the history of cool-sounding movies.
3) Take Crafty's recommendation for BargeMusic and get myself some classical edumacation.
4) Check out the new waterfront park in Williamsburg, laugh at ironic "Baywatch"-style bikinis.
5) Follow it up by watching the tips of asymmetrical haircuts get accidentally dunked in BBQ sauce.

There's a new fruit and veggie market in the neighborhood and it might qualify as the neighborhood's largest, though it comes without any of the "gourmet" bells and whistles that seem to accompany most openings recently. And that is a compliment--less flash, lower prices--and do your vegetables really need chichi surroundings? K&Y fruit and vegetable is at 291 Court Street, between Degraw and Douglass. 

I don't read cookbooks, I flip through them, I ogle the photography. I even occasionally cook from them, but I do not sit down, curl up, and settle in for a good read. All that changed yesterday, on the F train, with an open copy of I Like Food, Food Tastes Good by local author (and brooklynrecord contributor) Kara Zuaro.* Who knew that cookbook prose could be so--forgive me--meaty?

Whereas most cookbook writers devote a scant sentence or two to introduce a recipe, Kara spills the, er, beans (OK, I'm sorry!) on the more than 100 recipes from indie rock bands across the country and across the pond. The stories that accompany each reveal the sometimes banal, sometimes transcendent affair that is late nights in the studio and too-early mornings after.

With Big Apple quiche puffs (Bling Kong), chocolate balls (Ben Kweller), "bacon and eggs" (Tilly and the Wall), and the HRT sandwich (Belle & Sebastian) you'll have visions of a clever little dinner party with a kick-ass playlist humming along in your brain before too long.

To get you started, Kara is throwing a bit of a party with contributor Chris Mills and with DJ Never Forget and Matty Royale from Dinner with the Band. There will be grilling, although hopefully Mills won't be throwing his bologna, mustard, and pickle sandwich on the coals.

5 p.m. and onward
Saturday, 5 May
Union Pool, 484 Union Ave.
free

*Kara and I first met (where else?) at a potluck. Since that somewhat drunken meeting we've dined and drunk together at one very fine New York City establishment and at a significantly higher number of less-than-respectable haunts.