It’s better with Good Food: Love you Jess!
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Why not with good food. The better the better. Catching up with Jessica at “Gen” today. It’s raining outside. It’s cozy inside. So we stay and chat and eat and chat and drink.
Great weekend brunch special starts at $12.00 with organic green tea, soup and bowl of rice. Gen, 659 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn.
Salted grilled Salmon, Miso soup, salmon roll, potato salad sandwiched in grilled yam.
Home made sesame tofu ( had this soft yet stickier texture), seaweed salad, seafood gratin.
I call it “Furry dragon lying down over the rice island blessed by deep brown home made veggie curry ocean”. Spicy and excellent hearty flavor ( Not so usual thick and dense texture. It was rather light and peppery)
Organic matcha green tea.
Jess’ choice. Salmon, sashimi, egg maki, grilled yam potato salad sandwich and miso.
Easy breeze decor and friendly vibe. ( Love the Japanese musician staffs with dreadlocks!!) The whole menu reminds me of those small local food bars in Tokyo: like 6 hour braised pork belly with ginger and soy, beef shank, oyster fritters and much more. Sushi and sashimi are really fresh!
Our favorite sushi roll here is ” Melting in the mouth”: White tuna roll. It melts in your mouth. last time with tania, we maybe had like 7 rolls of them.
This one’s from the last time. Braised daikon and fresh cod, veggie frittata, a roll and crispy sweet rice. Below with braised beef shank.
Spiderman looking out the window.
A Day of Manhattan: Soho, Nolita and Lower East side
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It has been a while for us to walk around the Manhattan like we did today. I work way too much during the week, so I don’t mind just ” being” at cozy home with Emi and Gael on the weekends.
But the weather was pretty nice today( 48 F) and we have a long weekend a head of us, so we wanted to give a shot at Manhattan to run a couple of errand and also just enjoy the city. Wow, Soho over the weekend is way too crowded now. I don’t see any more beautiful people and feel that special energy I used to see and feel. It’s all shops and more shops and way too many people.
Nolita is maybe bit better. Still there are many small boutiques believe in doing what they are doing carrying on making dress shirts, selling vintages, one of kind bridal gowns or selling crapes. From Nolita we had walked to lower east side. Katz was still standing ( I thought they were closing?) and Las Venus was still there ( this used to be our weekly stop in back in the days) and what else, oh the Sombrero Mexican place where you can get frozen margarita to go in a paper cup so no one knows what you are sipping on the street is still there too.
Starting with stopping by at Grand Daisy Bakery , 73 Sullivan Street , Soho ( for some reason, I thought all these years this bakery was called Sullivan street bakery, but it’s not!)
Yum yum yum, love how everything is handled here in this shop. Famous for their bread and Pizza. The thoughtful thin and crispy crust, bold and simple flavor of core ingredient and even the paper they serve the pizza in. Just divine and just perfect! This is zucchini pizza.
Potato and rosemary= The perfection!
The one and only Hardware store in the heart of Soho. Spring Street. I’m always amazed by this store for the fabulous look but also the stubborn spirit of keep it going. I’m always surprised this has not taken by Disney store or something yet.
Some shopping at “Inven.Tory” , 237 Lafayette street, Nolita. Good menswear. They had good sale going on.
A charming dress shirt maker on Elizabeth street, Nolita. Elizabeth street is one of my favorite in Nolita. Famous high end vintage shop Resurrection is on this and also other many small businesses that make this street more special! I realized the shop ” Zero” was closed down on Elizabeth street.
Always great double RL window. Mr. Lauren, thank you for not making every store of yours so big and enornous. This one in Nolita is just perfect!
Emiliano’s favorite shop in Nolita. “In God we trust”, 265 Lafayette street; a great all American/speak easy/army navy vintage store. They have great selection of vintage boots and jackets. Very authentic and Menswear focused. Emi got a nice pair of old motorcycle boots. Very sexy!
The friendly shop helper offered Gael to try this vintage ski helmet. haha, Gael thought he looked like a mushroom. I love the double layered strap details. It does look bit too tall on him. Baby bello?
Going back tomorrow to see “Urs Fischer” exhibition. Can’t wait!
New Favorite store found in Lower east side. ” Assembly NY”, 174 Ludlow street. //assemblynewyork.com/ What a great store! Mix of re-worked vintage such as over dyed with added or reworked detail. Vintage uniform inspired great pants and more pants. Some imported designer’s. All mixed and work great together. Love it!
To end a long fun city day? Good coktails ( all cocktails are done with Korean Soju and they are delicious) and good Korean food at Bonjoo, 107 1st Avenue, East Vilage.
Road trip to PA 1
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It was my second trip to Adam’s town in Pennsylvania. If you like flea markets, you are in. Woooooh, I love the whole action. Get a car. Hit the road. Finally arriving. Browse and browse. Photos. Brainstorming. Silly ideas. Laughs with Emi and Gael. Earliest dinner ever at whatever restaurant in town. More Laugh. Cheap Wine. Holiday Inn. Hitting outdoor markets at 5 in the morning. Crisp air. Fog. Sun rise. Gas station coffee in my hand. Good talks with townees at the markets. Always inspiring to be out there and see things sharpening and relaxing my eyes and tastes. I just love it!
I so regret I had never taken pictures of Twin towers from the Manhattan or the Brooklyn bridge. When we used to party a lot till sun rise, I remember gauging at beautiful Twin towers from the Taxi crossing over the bridge and thinking how hot NY was…
I think the Manhattan bridge is just beautiful as Brooklyn bridge. And also it’s just that much closer to our house on Washington Avenue.
I always complain how America is bit weird with timing. We have not had Thanksgiving yet but everyone is selling things for Christmas. Though I liked what’s going on in Adam’s town. Bit of Christmas vibe here and there…
Duckies in front of Mad Hatter Antique.
The green one looks almost not real.
So wanted to get this, but too big and waaay too heavy to carry to where we wanted… Darn!
Absolutely love this. It turns and all.
It’s the peak of Autumn!
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Love summer, but something about Autumn, and prefer to say Autumn rather than Fall. Cuddle with Emi and Gael, new outfits, new vintages, much much good food and time to switch out chilled white to oaky red… Chestnut is so important for me with very good port. Crusty bread with warm drizzle of spicy olive oil. Weekend means farmer’s market and much home cooking. Good hiking through hilly hills with friends, chasing wild mushrooms for the sake of finding them, thick wool socks and hand knitted sweater, I may not wash my face on Saturday morning, hot tea, coffee, make pizza at home?, books, now down comforters out, thinking to clean up the chimneys so we have wood burning fire this time… dinner at aurora, dried corns and pumpkins at all the brown stone stoops… Now is the amazing peak of Autumn.
Madison, NJ
Strolling Brooklyn: One fine Weekend
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3 weekends of non stop work and quick trip to Paris and upstate NY and late work days everyday have been quite exhausting. But this weekend was one fine weekend with Emi and Gael. Finally I was able to sleep in, despite having so many thoughts in my head, and lots of good food and wine at home with friends and laid back afternoon strolling in my favorite area, my home Brooklyn.
The first 2 fine dudes on Fulton street near the Havana Outpost. It’s just fun, isn’t it? Love to see people dress up.
Our Fort Greene Flea has been a smashing hit. Well, it started just kind of OK at the beginning despite how popular the opening day was considering the quality of the vendors. But now it has gotten quite hip with many good looking vintage clothing vendors, soulful groovy house DJ and the famous and delicious taco ladies from Red hook. It has been a great attraction to NYC fellows and so many Williamsburg hipsters. ( you know what I mean).
Now I feel like entire Fort Greene is turning into one big Flea. Now there are 2 more open lots tucked in between the buildings on Fulton street had turned into small markets. Still they have more of hand crafty new stuffs rather than true vintage items, but I like to give a few months or another summer for them to grow into real ones. Here’s the one of the best booth by Benjamin Pasteur.
Then we moved down toward the Atlantic avenue where there are ton of Antiques and Mid-century furniture shops and many little small boutiques who carries one of kind small designer’s items to high-end clothing shop such as ‘Butter”.
Always love this flower shop, Dig on Atlantic Avenue.
A humble and beautiful Antique shop, Assaf Antiques.
Great window of Butter. Though I think they just changed the shop name to owner’s name instead. Butter usually carries very well edited high end classic items like Rick Owens, Dries, Marni, Paul Smith and more. Always have great atmosphere and newly added farmer’s table for beautiful candles.
Below is her another business, a consignment shop, a few doors down on Atlantic.
Atlantic Avenue still goes through the turmoil of small business closing down not surviving our tough economy. But this one fine outstanding Mid-century shop, C.f has been always there for so so many years and I absolutely love this shop. It’s well organized madness of most beautiful items. He got everything tightly packed in the shop.
The institution of Atlantic Avenue, Horseman Antique. He got 5 massive floors full of Mid century to farmer’s, a few exotic Asian, traditional antiques and more. Price ranges from low to high and you can always find something here.
And yes we have Steven Alan in Brooklyn, and it’s perfectly neighbor hood friendly sized and it’s adorable.
We have so many other great things make Brooklyn so special like laid back people and green and lush trees, beautiful parks and farmer’s markets and amazing architects that goes back when the NY state was born. So come out and check out all the good areas like Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Atlantic Avenue, Cobble Hill and Red Hook.
It was such a beautiful day to walk in hands in hands with my boys and inhale crisp autumn air and beautiful sun light.
I finally feel getting re-charged.
Harpers’s BAZAR October: Tim Burton’s Tricks and Treats
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Ahhh, I absolutely love all of styling, staging and photography (Tim Walker) done by Bazar for this October issue around Tim Burton’s classics to anticipate another great retrospective at MOMA this Fall. ( November 22, 2009- April 26, 2010)
Grande Gautier, Comme, Rodarte, Ferregamo, Margiela and more. It’s a one big heaven of fantasy dress up time!
Burton’s films : Vincent (1982), Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure(1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands(1990), Batman Returns (1992), The Nightmare Before Christmas(as creator and producer) (1993), Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks!(1996), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Big Fish (2003), Corpse Bride (2005),Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Sweeney Todd(2007); writing and Web projects include The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories (1997) and Stainboy (2000).
Where the wild things Are: Spike Jonze at MOMA( October 8-18)
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Of course Gael has this book. Maurice Sendak’s timeless medieval-ish beautifully illustrated million lines of pure wonder and adventure. Gael already had had heart aching moments balling his eyes out watching never ending stories( all of them). I only mention “Never ending story” because I think the film version of “Where the wild things are” would be somewhat like it. Or I may say this too early. We are just about to take Gael to the theater. I am quite excite about this. It seems like perfect for the timing wise with beautiful autumn crosses with Halloween coming up.
MOMA has been always the one of the best sources of the best movies for classics and independents. And I love their savviness about knowing and connecting themselves with what’s going on out there. MOMa will be running their first-ever Spike Jonze retrospective celebrating his work as a director, producer, cinematographer, writer, actor and choreographer. What is so cool about Jonze is that he’s somewhat beloved by people of all areas like down town band as “Yeah Yeah Yeah’s” or the children’s book author like Sendak for this movie or the legendary skate boarders or beauty like Michelle Williams.
MOMa will be kicking off the first day, the 8th with a few short films about Maurice Sendak, the author of the book, Where the wild thing are including 5 minute of clips from the Movie. Then there will be Adaptation ( remember?), Jonze’s award winning Music Videos and short films, Being John Malkovich, Heavy metal in Baghdad and more. So check it out! www.moma.org
Upstate NY NOW 2
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Upstate NY Now
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Island Sketch: Governor`s Island
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It`s like an open exibition of all kinds of bikes when you get to the Island. People bring all sort of them and they are perfet. Island opens till October to public. So check it out.
Oh Bring your lunch basket and a favorite book with you.