29 December 2008

Henry's End & Some Sirens

Dec.19
I met Rex at work and we made our way to Henry's End to meet Jack, who promised us an amazing dinner on him. My shoes were filled with gallons of slushy black NY snow water by the time we stumbled into the cardboard covered entry way of the Brooklyn Heights establishment.

I was in love with the brick wall and the sadly filled in fireplace. They have a neon sign right in the middle of the wall that looks like it would be at home on the set of an 80s TV show. It's green and pink versions of the Brooklyn Bridge and Twin Towers seeming almost Miami-esque. It borders on being tacky but is saved by its obvious connections to the history of the restaurant.

The room is close, you are always at elbows with someone, but the atmosphere is too friendly to let this get in your way. The service is pitch perfect and the staff is very knowledgeable about the food and wine.

The wine list is pretty great. I know little to nothing about wine but the bottle of pinot the waitress suggested was spectacular.

I opted for the Pear, Walnut & Blue Cheese Chicken. The tastes blended very well and aside from the cheese being slightly overpowering the dish was perfect. Rex had Blackened Shell Steak and Jack went for the Raspberry Duckling. Henry's is fairly well known for their duck dishes.

We shared a Chocolate Confusion for dessert. This is essentially chocolate bread pudding covered in sauce and ice cream. It was lovely.

Overall the whole experience was great. The food was filling and incredibly well made and the wine list has something for everyone. It might be one of my new favorite places to eat in Brooklyn.

We ended the night at a lovely holiday concert called Sirens of Brooklyn. It was a benefit for viBe Song Makers, a non-profit performing arts organization for teenage girls. The concert was held at the First Unitarian Church's Revival Gothic Sanctuary in Brooklyn. The choir performed beautiful new arrangements of old Christmas standards and traditional songs. I found a new favorite as well - Snow is Falling by Yoko Ono!

I know I'm tardy in updating this thing but I plan on beingmore onthe regular in the new year. I also want to expand the scope to include general awesomeness in food, art, design, etc...

17 February 2008

Chicken Vindaloo


Vindaloo
Originally uploaded by michael j wilson
I made a beautiful meal!

It's Chicken Vindaloo with coconut and squid ink pasta. I threw in some green peppers for color and spice! It was fun. The sauce was from Maya Kaimal. I added a lot of olive oil to the sauce and some extra chile pepper.

I finished it off in about 10 seconds. By myself.

And...look at that awesome plate.

13 January 2008

Spring Street Natural

So let me start off by saying that everyone I talked to yesterday seemed to be in a terrible mood. I know I was.

To counter act the terrible I went shopping for paint for my dining room. I decided on a lovely pale yellow color called Fresh Creme from Pratt & Lambert. It goes very well with the dark purple I painted sections of my living room last week.

From the paint store I walked down 6th Ave in Park Slope. I never explore this street and I stumbled on a lovely vintage store. I got two pairs of light wool pants, a summer weight sports coat and an amazing Dior tie all for around $100.

My mood had improved obviously.

I ended the day at dinner with Hayley. I met her at Spring Street Natural on Spring and Lafayette in SoHo. She was in an even worse mood than I was, so we talked ove ran appetizer of hummus. For the meal I chose a very tasty ground chicken burger with chipotle mayo on brioche. It was under $10 and had fries with it.

After we took in Before the Devil Knows Your Dead. A supposedly good film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke. Terrible film. Bad script, bad directing, and terrible performances from Mr. Hawke and Marisa Tomei (she spends the whole film awkwardly naked).

The day gets to go to hell for everyone being in a bad mood.
The meal was great and it lifted our spirits : A+
The movie gets -F for making me question Philip Seymour Hoffman as a smart actor.

06 January 2008

Stress and Holidays

Lately I've been in a funk.

I've painted my apartment and bought new clothes in response. This is irrational and silly. But everything looks fabulous.

On the food front I've been boring. Doing the usual breakfasts at Perch, eating a burger at BLT. Grabbing a slice of pizza at Roma in Park Slope.

So this is where I've been.

Things I've loved recently:
- fresh apples from the farmer's market in Grand Army Plaza
- butternut squash lasagne at Hayley's
- my sister's orange sugar cookies

It's been unseasonably warm. I think this weekend I am going to pick a random restaurant and travel to it. I will report back.

Happy New Year