Limited-edition strawberry shortcake pampushky, brioche donuts coated with a sour cream glaze and a shortbread cookie crumble and filled with strawberry jam.
Dacha 46
Pop-up at 657 Washington Ave. (Bergen St.-St. Mark's Ave.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
www.Instagram.com/Dacha_1946
Closed Monday and Tuesday
Surviving signage, 617 Vanderbilt Ave. (St. Mark's Ave.-Bergen St.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
(This post is based on a visit to Ursula's former location, in Crown Heights.) Despite their different postures, these sopaipillas (So-pie-PEE-yahs) — New Mexican fried dough pockets, one filled with carne adovada, one with ground beef — were equally substantial. This was lunch for two. Available from 11:30, just as the breakfast burritos begin to disappear.
Ursula
387A Nostrand Ave. (Madison St.-Putnam Ave.), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
www.UrsulaBK.com
Closed Monday and Tuesday
The Burmese rice noodles called mee shay khaut swe ("Cow-sway") were much more colorful as presented (above, shown with pork) than after being mixed (first photo below, though those noodles still look good). Compare the la pi at Xing Shun Da. Also shown below: Lahpet thoke, tea leaf salad, required mixing, too, but for pazun thoke, spicy shrimp mango salad, we just dug right in.
Rangoon
500 Prospect Pl. (Classon-Grand Aves.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
917-442-0100
www.Rangoon.nyc
Open Thursday through Sunday evenings
"Debris," in New Orleans lingo, is a good thing: It describes cooked-to-pieces beef soaked in pan drippings. For this roast beef debris po' boy, Lowerline uses a slightly harder roll than for its fried-seafood sandwiches, so the bread doesn't quickly soak through and fall to pieces itself. That's less of an issue when the sandwich is cut in two (only my half is shown), shared with a dining buddy, and cleaned up double-quick.
Also shown: a shot-sized Cafe du Monde cafe au lait panna cotta, compliments of the owner. It's excellent. If only Lowerline had room for a dedicated dessert window, à la Court Pastry, to serve walk-up customers in warm weather.
Lowerline
794 Washington Ave. (St. John's Pl.-Sterling Pl.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
347-533-7110
www.LowerlineBK.com
Tuesday through Saturday, dinner only
(This venue is closed.) "Case of the Mondays": pretzel crust, Nutella, peanut butter, chocolate, potato chips. Ask your pie-maker if it's right for you.
Daly Pie
665 Vanderbilt Ave. (Prospect Pl.-Park Pl.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
347-425-9251
www.DalyPie.com
As I arrived, the midday meal was about to be carried upstairs, to the living quarters of the resident monks. It seemed an inordinately large lunch for two.
Continue reading "America Burma Buddhist Association and Meditation Center" »
For many centuries, the soft inner bark of Broussonetia papyrifera has provided raw material for paper-making and cloth-making, especially in East and Southeast Asia and the South Pacific. Often planted as an ornamental, the tree has been naturalized in New York thanks to its tolerance for pollution in less-than-gracious urban settings such as the roadside verge shown here.
Originally identified as a member of the genus Morus, which includes the familiar finger-staining mulberries, the paper mulberry is in fact only a close relative. Even so, the ripe red fruits are reported to be edible; if you know someone who's actually tried them, clue me in.
Paper mulberries
Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Temporarily surviving signage, Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
Tabodowe, the eleventh month of the traditional Burmese calendar, typically in February, is the occasion of this harvest festival. (Yes, harvest; the rhythms of the seasons in Brooklyn and in Burma are very different.) One customary festival activity is the communal preparation of the namesake htamane (tah-mih-Nay), a concoction of "glutinous rice, coconut slices, sesame seeds, peanuts and a generous amount of cooking oil."
Preparing htamane is very labor-intensive. In addition to oversized woks, the most notable tools are paddle-like ladles used to stir-fry shredded ginger, then to mix it with soaked glutinous rice. The real muscle work begins, however, when a given batch (this was the sixth of twelve) has thickened enough to be removed from direct heat. The wok is moved to a relatively shimmy-free location, in this case atop an old automobile tire resting on the floor, and held fast by several gloved hands. What was vigorous paddling becomes even more concerted as coconut, peanuts, and ultimately sesame seeds are combined into the increasingly coagulated mass. Typically, more strong hands hold each ladle near the business end, both to guide it and for extra leverage.
The resulting savory snack, shown with a fork but commonly eaten with fingers, is then portioned out; most will be eaten on the day of the celebration itself, or afterward. It's not appreciably better warm than cool, with one exception — the slightly burnt scrapings from the wok (not shown) are "the best part," several of the htamane crew told me. I don't disagree. Though I can't provide the transliteration of its Burmese name into English, should you ever find yourself at a htamane-making event, ask for "joe."
Htamane Pwe
At the America Burma Buddhist Association and Meditation Center
619 Bergen St. (Vanderbilt-Carlton Aves.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
718-622-8019
www.MahasiUSA.org
(The 2014 celebration, held a day after these preparations, was on March 2)
Thank you!
