Brooklyn Flea Coming To Williamsburg, Hipster Orgy Will Ensue

I wonder how this would work; with the Brooklyn Brownstoner Flea coming to Williamsburg AND staying in Fort Greene, does that mean that the hipsters will stay in the burg and strollers will continue to crowd the FT?

I did purchase some cool cuff links made from typewriter keys from a wonderful father/daughter (or what appeared to be that) team. I also purchase a woodprint from a dude who is always there at the flea but I never managed to get around to really examining his stuff.

My better half was pushed around by a red-headed lady, a la the Red-Headed League, one of the wonderful stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his eccentric hero Sherlock Holmes. The flea needs more agitation, a little fight here and there would liven things up. I just can't really stand the amount of earth tones and navy, so I am more resolute to do the flea once or twice a year, because you definitely can find some cool stuff. I'm more partial to the outdoors version probably.

So it's been a while since I've taken the time to post, as the new job has been both stimulating, busy, great, and the whatnot. I figure since winter is taking a while to just end, I'll take a while to post again. I did miss Irish Haven this year for St. Patrick's Day unfortunately due to great conversation at another bar but I'm sure the corned beef was scarfed just fine.

A new fast Chinese food hybrid opened up on Willoughby which I will soon be calling upon for some interesting combinations; according to the pictures posted to the window, they sell waffles in addition to the regular menu. It's called Chang Heng on 54 Willoughby, and I hope it stays around for a while like other businesses; we need consistency on Willoughby considering the lack of volume on the street until City Point opens up in a year or two. It's also one of those places where the kids of the people who run the place have to hang around and that moves me, the dedication to supervision even during work hours.

I also just noticed one of the current Willoughby Windows art pieces was a monkey-looking cartoon pooping a rainbow.

I ran outside with my girl this past week and it was hard; I've never actually gone for a long run, long walks every week but jogging felt good. Certainly tough and I commend anyone who can pace themselves without a treadmill doing it for them and actually push to go as far as they need to.

The be @ Schermerhorn has a sick atrium and really nice lounge. If there's any way to transport the Belltel's lounge up somehow from the basement, in whatever alternate reality that could happen, that would be amazing. New posters went up regarding the retail space (or were they old and I just never really looked at them), not sure how they are carved out considering there's only one real additional entrance.

I now have plenty to work with from my old job in terms of choice of alcoholic beverages and maybe I'll put the old Waverly @ IFC Center cocktail menu to the test again to see if I can make it as good as I used to.

At our house growing up we used to have either swinging doorway garbage cans (or whatever you call them, similar to ones at McDonald's or other fast food chains or cafeterias) and one larger step-to-open-hatch one. Now we have 3 step-to-open-hatch ones, and it certainly contains any smells but you lose the fun or tossing stuff into the garbage quickly. I was never good at basketball but one can dream.

Does the aroma of coffee beans ever go stale?

Recent Netflixing: deep-sea documentaries are so awesome because the creatures are just straight up nightmares. Other than that, I tried to start a number of teen TV series to recreate more angst-riddled days when emo wasn't really classified as such, like Roswell. I'll try and stick it out but I was teetering on boredom. MI-5 has really picked up and it's a pretty solid show, lacking a bit of depth of character but it moves at a fast clip. Cyborg 2 so far with Angelina Jolie when she was like 19 is also surprisingly fast but really doesn't make any sense, although the first one is a complete masterpiece of tomfoolery and terrible BeBop/Rocksteady fashion (by the way, shame on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for making villains out of two storied music genres, although I'll of course take rocksteady ten out of ten just because of my aversion to certain types of jazz).

The Netflix recommendations for "Brooklyn, NY" are very intellectual and probably out of my league in terms of fun Friday night viewing. I can only imagine the Fleasters who hone in every weekend to Fort Greene or 1 Hanson Place are cramping Brooklyn's style of what really would be most appealing to Brooklynites.

Vegetarian Dim Sum For Chinese New Year

Valentine's Day (the film and the day) seemed to have overshadowed Chinese New Year this year with both falling on the same day. Except if you're in Chinatown, where you're either closing up shop for the day, part of a clan or a club complete with some woefully off rhythm drumming and confused dragons, or a tourist taking many a crazy photo of children shooting off pressurized confetti.

This year there were a couple of organized events (concerts/speeches in Roosevelt Park, sponsored by Verizon of course) but the real fun of Chinese New Year is the whole running around the nooks and crannies of East Broadway, Grand, and Mott street hoping to purchase something of value or something completely worthless (Canto pop music for instance?). After running around for 3 hours you sort of get the picture, and I sat down to some vegetarian dim sum over on Pell. We got some annoying treatment ("Sir would you like to sit in the basement?" - "What's in the basement haha...I guess nobody found that funny") and our food didn't come out for about half an hour. Which was fine, but this table that sat down way after we ordered got almost all of their food immedietely. I was pretty peeved at that. Don't you hate when you get your food after tables who have already sat down had gotten their food, and some of the same items no less? That should be a rule or something.

The dragons were a bit off this year; I blame the drumming, some of these kids just aren't very good at keeping the beat. You always want that slightly chubby, 40-something Chinese guy to keep the beat, he won't let you down. The 18 year old scrawny kid? Fail.

Anywho, I ate so much that I went to bed by 9pm and after 12 hours of sleep I was pretty good to go. We brought home leftovers from last night, but I forgot to put them in the fridge.

Girlfriend: Vic, you forgot to put the leftovers in the fridge!
Me: Oh, hmm I was too focused on getting the frozen dumplings in the freezer and I forgot. Different bags, I must have put it down and forgot.
Girlfriend: Barely different bags, I feel bad because you were going to have them today for breakfast.
Me: ....I'll still eat them, what the hell. It's vegetables so I should be good.
Girlfriend: If I wasn't here you totally wouldn't have given it a second thought would you.
Me: Definitely not.

So I ate the leftovers and my stomach felt like a bottle of Penzoil. Worth it? Yes.

With the Chinese New Year, I celebrate with Swordsman II, one of my favorite kung fu movies and favorite movies in general:

Eat It: Brooklyn Knows That Shrimp Inside Flat Noodles Is Sexcellent

There are a few dishes that I would probably steal your dog for a chance at a free year's worth. Pork dumplings. Potato Skins. Jumbo shrimp tempura covered in a honey mayo mix. Spaghetti Carbonara. Minute Maid Fruit Punch (although I haven't had that sugar bomb in years).

There is one dish, when smothered in soy sauce, will smush in your mouth more wonderful than almost any dish. That would be what Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog has to describe for us when she took a trip to Brooklyn Chinatown to get sum (OH SNAP).

The restaurant has your typical off kilter name with possible grammatical errors inside (East Harbor Seafood Palace). But she took some photos of unassuming, somewhat messy flat noodles (cooked extremely soft) with shrimp nestled within, as if a child covered in a blanket, or the yolk of an egg covered in its whites. This dish should automatically make your top 10. If it doesn't, you should make sure you enjoy food. Or 1-10 is Minute Maid Fruit Punch for some reason. Photo courtesy of Eat It.

Eat It: The Brooklyn Food Blog reviews local deliciousness several times a week. Brooklyn Chinatown is such a hidden gem; the KCB is advocating a Brooklyn blogger excursion!

Elvis Presley "Song of the Shrimp"