We Made a Blog

There’s not really a more perfect time for a cup of tea than a rainy Sunday afternoon. The Lower East Side prepared for just this circumstance with days-old Jujomukti Tea Lounge.

Serving hot (in three categories – classic, challenger and premium) and iced varieties, Jujomukti is strictly about the tea; there’s nothing to  nibble on and concessions to coffee lovers extend only to flagging robust, super-caffeinated blends.

The teas are delicately fragrant with a taste that does not, thankfully, translate into liquid potpourri, even with the fruity Asian Treasures. If you desire to up the taste or healtfulness of your selection, there’s a list of natural extracts and tinctures.

The staff goes out of their way to be helpful to patrons (a bit sparse on this visit) and passersby alike and they were eager to note that Jujomukti will soon be host to a variety of events, including Bollywood movie nights.

Like the apartment of a recent college graduate, Jujomukti is furnished with some mismatched hand-me-downs, items from those DIY Swedes and lighting from Urban Outfitters. Brick walls and a little bronze paint and curtains help the charm factor. Like the grads it emulates, Jujomukti aspires to “liberation” and “universal freedom” (the meaning behind its name) and also like them, its future holds lots of promise.

Jujomukti Tea Lounge
211 E 4th St (near Avenue A)
New York, NY 10009
(212) 533-4075

A solid 100 degrees Fahrenheit on any given New York thermometer on Wednesday, and We Made a Blog made an after-work beeline for a nice, cold…thimbleful of sake. Really.

Semi-secret underground sake bar (and now you see why we couldn’t think of anything cooler) Sakagura celebrated the Japanese Tanabata festival with a sake tasting. The usual astronomical fairytale of parted lovers meeting only under an alignment of stars (with an extra flight of fancy in the form of magpies, represented at Sakagura by bird-shaped cookies), Tanabata is celebrated, like many festivals, with alcohol.

Sponsored by Hakkaisan Brewery (a boutique outfit located in a snowy outskirt of Tokyo), four sakes were proferred, including one, Daiginjo, not available in the United States. It was flown in along with guest of honor and president of Hakkaisan, Jiro Nagumo.

Friend of Sakagura and the brewery, Tim Sullivan (Tim-san) wore a dove-grey yukata (summer kimono) that seemed as impervious to wrinkling or wilting in the damp heat as his smile and friendly demeanor as he poured the sakes into the commemorative cups provided to the guests. He first poured us Honjozo, a fortified sake that had a bolder taste than most. After our tentative sips turned into appreciative gulps, we inquired what it was fortified with. A heartier grain of rice? Wheat? More alcohol, as it turned out. Fortified, we moved on to Tokubestu Junmai. Created from the melted snow that slips off Mount Hakkai, it was the closest to sparkling sake can be without actually being, well, sparkling. Separate flavor profiles announced themselves simultaneously on the tongue.

We took a sake break to sample the appetizers. Finger-friendly edamame were popular with the milling cocktail-hour crowd. Crudite had a Japanese bent with the addition of okra and daikon to the usual batonnet of vegetables and a sesame seed-dressed dip comprised of red snapper and miso paste, redolent with umami. Plump, flaky smoked salmon was snapped up as fast as the chopsticks necessary to eat it were and chunks of savory chicken were so moist they barely withstood the skewers they were served on.

After an official greeting and toast, Nagumo-san began doling out the Daiginjo from a squat cobalt bottle. It was exactly of the transcendent quality you’d expect would cause the country to hoard it from export.

We closed out our sake sampling with a delicate sensation of Junmai Ginjo on our palates. Turned out into the heart of the hot, hot city, we were braver for being saked and sated.

Food writing is at the mercy of the same vagaries automotive writing is – the writer often has to be forgiven an emotional bias. This is appropriately the case with Goods, a restaurant whose kitchen is housed in a refurbished and repurposed Spartan trailer. Just as you might give a biased review of a Ferrari’s handling because you are so overwhelmed by the attractiveness of its exterior, a proper review requires a second, harder look. So it is with Goods.

Parked at the corner of Metropolitan and Lorimer in Williamsburg, it’s damn charming, right down to the woman taking your order, curly hair held up by a bandanna a la Lucy, who interacts with customers in a way that has you considering if she was transported in time along with the trailer. Order your dish off the simple menu, wait for your number to be called  and relax in the wood and pebble garden around back.

The lunch/dinner menu has seven items on it, but all you need to know about are two – the biscuit and the fried green tomato sandwich. The biscuit is a delicate, properly sized platform for the addition of eggs, an organic sausage patty and fresh local cheese. It’s very cool to order an egg sandwich and see a rind on the cheese. The assembled sandwich is a thing of beauty, not surprising considering the same talent behind 3rd Ward is responsible.

I once was a vegetarian and often made the argument that my meat-free meals were just as satisfying as the dishes my non-vegetarian friends enjoyed. When I started eating meat again, I understood why they found the concept silly. But the fried-green-tomato sandwich – all thick-fried tomato goodness and spicy relish topping – is not to be trifled with. It stomps on lesser, meat-filled concoctions.

Of note is that they have fried-chicken Sundays, which I have yet to try, but when I do, it will be held to the standard of Pies ‘n’ Thighs.

Go to Goods for their dedication to preparing delicious, comforting food. While it seems destined to be the next fashionable hipster eatery (take that to mean what you will), there is substance behind the facade that’s so pretty it could have been the place’s undoing. Thankfully, they really do have the goods.

Asia Dog teamed up with Trophy Bar this past Wednesday to help promote their Asian-inspired hot dog creations. Many know of them from their stand at Brooklyn Flea and their meanderings through Brooklyn and NYC. All eight varieties of Asia Dogs were in attendance, with beef-, chicken- or veggie-stuffed casings (sadly, no pork).

Asia Dog took what they’ve learned from working the Brooklyn Flea to make an event that ran smoothly. Show your ID at the door step, get a beer at the bar, wait on line for your dogs in the backyard. You were allowed two at a time and, considering some of these dogs come with a full Vietnamese sandwich piled on top, no one complained about the restriction. Most people came in pairs and simply ordered four different dogs and shared.

Then the rain came. Once again, Asia Dog’s flea-market chops came to the rescue as they were prepared with a tarp and only lost a few orders in the process. There was a definite pause in the flow but the open bar tempered any angst. Friendly staff and friendly food is always a good combo.

Wherever you happen to make their acquaintance, be sure you order the “Vinh,” the Vietnamese sandwich-inspired dog; the “Mash,” full of spicy kechup, jalapeno and mustard; and the “Wangding,” a dog piled with barbecued pork belly. Like anything good, an Asia Dog stands the test of time; the ones we carried home were still tasty cold.

DBGB, Daniel Boulud’s lowerish-end restaurant, can be summed up by the photo above: a split femur whose marrow has been completely scooped out, devoured and savored. Not pictured is the extra bread that was ordered just to make sure not even the most ephemeral spot of moisture redolent with marrow, pickled mustard seed, salt and little else went to waste.

From everything ordered, it was the offal that was best. The Berliner, a wurst with curry and kraut, was a bland thing, tasting like something from Oscar Meyer. There was just a never fully realized sausage flavor. The pork schnitzel was delicious, the cocktails were spot-on and the burger was sufficient (not too much money, but not an overwhelming amount of flavor either). The pig’s head terrine (read: head cheese) was better than Craftbar’s. But the Boudin Basque? The Boudin Basque, you ask? The “spicy blood and pig’s head sausage scallion mashed potatoes” dish? If you come to DBGB and do not order this, you are wasting your time.

The Boudin Basque, well, it’s just hard to explain. The piggy bits are encased in grainy blood sausage and sit atop smooth mashed potatoes. The combination does something to your taste buds. It tells them: “Stop thinking about what you’re eating because, yes, you are experiencing your sense of taste evolving. Changing. Learning to love again.”

The warm strawberry cupcake was nothing but perfect and the PB&J cake showed a playfulness you won’t always find in a restaurant of this quality and pedigree. Adding to the fun nature of DBGB is the extensive list of appetizers and sausages that you are encouraged to mix and share amongst your fellow eaters.

Even if you go just for the  bone marrow and the Boudin Basque, you will have spent your time and money like a person who understands the value of those things.

Since anyone who reads this probably already reads Tasting Table, I’m sure this is redundant. But fuck it I’m too excited about it not to let ya’ll know.

“On Tuesday, June 22, AsiaDog and Trophy Bar are hosting an all-you-can-eat hotdog and unlimited beer happy hour from 7 to 9 p.m. exclusively for TastingTable readers (click here to download the full menu).

Tickets are $25 a person and must be pre-purchased (click here to buy). Ticket price includes unlimited hotdogs and beer from 7 to 9 p.m. Guests must be 21 years of age or older.”

–From Tasting Table