Fort Greene Restaurants

When my boyfriend and I decided to move in together to this loft in a rather unknown(at least to us) part of Brooklyn, we were sure we would go broke if we ordered in every night.
So we made a pact to cook at home instead. This was a good idea for health reasons both our own and of our finances.
And we do save a ton of money.
We do also go out to eat and being lazy we tend to stick to this area when we do.
Here are 4 of our tried and true favorites:

  • Chez Oskar
  • Mojitos
  • Thai 101
  • Castros

Chez Lulu, on Myrtle avenue just opened up a couple of months ago and we haven’t gone there yet.

Chez Oskar [211 Dekalb ave]and Chez Lulu [387 Myrtle Ave Cross Street: Between Clermont Avenue and Vanderbilt Avenue]are-if you hadn’t guessed yet, French and so are a bit more expensive then the others.

Once you have staked out a few places as “tried and true” inevitably changes inside the establishment will happen.Take Thai 101,[located 455A Myrtle ave]. After keeping our eye on this place for almost a whole year we all decided that the best day of the week to either eat in or order from is Saturday.All other days return really rather mediocre thai food.This is a mystery,yes.But we work with it.

The most famous place on Myrtle is probably The Five Spot[459 Myrtle].It’s a jazz club and restaurant combo that also has takeout.
It’s a mix of standard American and soul food.
They offer delivery but be prepared to wait an exorbitant amount of time before getting it.
And it will be ice cold upon arrival.
Even walking up there to place an order isn’t recommended ; I thought this was the way to go but found out that a simple order of a burger and fries took them over half an hour to assemble.
I haven’t yet worked out a workaround to the Five Spot’s horrendous customer service as unlike Thai 101 it is a 7 days a week problem!
I remain mystified as to why it takes me 15 minutes to walk there but takes a delivery guy over an hour and a half to get to my door…
So if I were you I’d just eat in the restaurant itself.
And yes-it is good food which is why I even cared to mention it as a possibility.Too bad.

If you want good food and good drinks, there’s Mojitos [82 Park ave and Washington st.,near the Chocolate Factory building].
It’s inexpensive but those drinks prices add up. My boyfriend seldom drinks but at Mojitos he can down 3 Bloody Marys and that will cost around 20 dollars all by itself. They make a deliciously spicy version of a Bloody Mary here.I’m as fond of all those sweet mojito,fruit flavored margarita and sangria type drinks as anyone else but a savory drink in my mind just goes better with food. Sweet is for dessert and teenage girls, ah, who ought not to be drinking.
Ahem. If you are a teetotaler, Mojitos for you will be downright cheap.
Their Churrascaria Chicken,@12 dollars, is very very good.And funnily enough their version of the gratis bread and butter is better than anything they have for sale on the menu:
a plate of bruschetta like toasts covered in garlic butter accompanied by ramekins filled with an assortment of dipping sauces.
They aren’t stingy here,either and if you ask they may bring out more.But it does depend on whether or not they are “busy” and in this small restaurant that means,I guess, more than 6 full tables(?)
On my last visit I noticed 2 favored patrons(who did look like big eaters) got a massive portion of bread and dips and we were very envious of them.
Like I said; this place is good for drinkers and teetotalers alike but if you are a drinker be prepared to spend at least 50 dollars a person for 3 drinks 1 entree and 1 appetizer.

Castros[511 Myrtle Ave Cross Street: Between Ryerson Street and Grand Avenue]
Mexican food.Decent guac.A bit expensive:3 people ordering can be up to 44 bucks.Good
food,though.Big bags of tortilla chips arrive with the excellent salsa-you’d never eat them all. Their Chilaquiles are really bad,however.Soggy.Too bad, as that was one of my favorite dishes.They skimp on sour cream.But they have Jarritos soda and I forgive them.

Chez Oskar [211 DeKalb Ave.] is a pretty little bistro with pretty good French food.However:they make the mistake of having a pretty loud band play throughout the dinner service.Big mistake.Obnoxious to not be able to hear your dining companion seated 36 inches across from you.Not too expensive.It’s Fort Green not Manhattan prices.Otherwise we couldn’t afford to go there. The band is not a bad band,either.Just not appropriate for a relaxing dining experience.I mean,I’d give em a dollar if I heard em in the subway…

Shopping in Brooklyn

Ah,Brooklyn …
you have everything a girl needs.
You even have a Macy’s.
But this Brooklyn Macy’s doesn’t quite stack up next to the mega one on 34th street in Manhattan.
It’s sole advantage is that it is in Brooklyn.
I live in Brooklyn and like a lot of Brooklyn-ites-I tend to want to shop nearer to my home.
Brooklyn shopping will invariably lead a shopper to Redhook.
This means I have to take the B61 bus ,shop,turn around and lug whatever it is I’ve purchased back onto the same bus and carry it home.Yeah yeah, we all have to do this,we being the carless.
Redhook now has a massive grocery store called Fairway.I heard it will soon have an Ikea and that means I will be there almost once a week. Some people look down on Ikea, they think it’s cheap(meaning products are shabby and flimsy) .
I love Ikea because it is cheap.I really don’t see the value in buying something that will fall apart in a few months,though. I know for a fact that the goods Ikea provide aren’t that kind of cheap,however. They are sturdy and longlasting and lowpriced.
Take for instance the store West Elm: their stuff looks a heck of a lot like Ikea’s stuff–and so does Crate and Barrel’s .The difference is that it all costs more and isn’t Ikea!
That’s all the difference I’ve been able to discern so far.
The fault of Ikea being seen as cheap lies with snobby people dismissing a store because it started out in the USA catering to poorer people or bargain lovers or to college kids.
I’m pretty sure Ikea isn’t still promoting itself the same way it was 10 years ago but you know snobs, they have long memories.
I was just in Crate and Barrel and noticed they too name their products. You know that Ikea does this,right? A side table is a Joorgen or something like that.A drinking glass is a Duka( I am making up these names) and etc.
C&B doesn’t seem to name everything like Ikea names everything but it names almost everything…but a peppermill will go off as simply a peppermill instead of a Willem.
Ok.

Foie Gras

I love foie gras
I never eat it,though.What I eat instead is pate champignon…the poor woman’s version-I guess.
Speaking of cheaper alternatives, I absolutely can’t stand that stuff they call mousse, as in pate mousse or whatever.It usually can be found in the higher end markets right next to the pate in a little tub with a seal of aspic covering it.
Call me immature but that really grosses me out!
The best foie gras I ever ate was at Le Cirque…the portion I received probably cost 25 dollars.I wasn’t paying and so I chowed down.

Second best was at Cafe des Artistes .My grandma and her late husband Charlie took me as a celebration for graduating SVA art school(college).
It is thanks to my grandmother that I know anything at all about fine food,though she is also obsessed with people being too heavy–so the two interests clash from time to time and mostly over the size of my ass.She is a fineboned bird-like creature.I am the spawn of Irish and Russian(erEastern European) peasant stock.And when I say peasant do you picture me laboring in the fields?I don’t do that anymore! But still, I am nobody’s little flower.
I also owe my dad some credit-for teaching me the value of cooking for yourself.
When I used to work with my dad we spent many hours talking about our shopping for good food ingredients and recipes.My father is a very good cook and I wish he would include in his books more of his recipes-or at least write a book based on his recipes alone.
I think it would go over really well.

I love you,Ham

I may be the worst person to write a food review.

Not only can I not remember the name of the store I am about to reccommend, I can’t even tell you the exact location!

I’m talking about this Polish deli on Bedford street in Williamsburg around north 5th street maybe north 6th–anyway it’s a block away from the Salvation Army store.So if you know Bedford street at all you probably already know the deli I’m talking about..It’s actually right next to another Polish deli–in fact the 2 stores are so alike that it doesn’t really matter which one you go to. All you need to remember is the ham rocks.

When it comes to pork these people know what they are doing.

Here you may purchase an entire pound of the best tasting ham you ever had; salty and smoky and just the right amount of sweetness, for six tiny dollars.There,in the cold case are two hams to choose from.One is smokier than the other and it’s texture is a little less fine as the one I’m raving about.The one to get is smoky enough but has a much better texture.

At six dollars a pound-I’m pretty sure an entire ham would be within anyone’s price range.

Dean and Deluca,Garden of Eden and other such high fallutin vendors of fine food would gasp at that 6 dollar a pound pricing.Not only does this polish ham taste a hundred times better than any I have ever purchased from those snobstores–you also don’t have to deal with snippy or zombified clerks at the register because the same person who slices your ham for you is the one who rings it up.Nice and homey and that is hard to find around town these days.