Little Moscow by the sea

So I'm coming to the conclusion that there is nothing better than having fast and cheap public transportation that will take you from your door to countless destinations including many beaches within an hour. After a rather disappointing trip to rock, rock, rock-a-away beach I decided to see what other seaside destinations the silver bullet could take me.

Just past Coney Island lies Brighton Beach with clean sand, and a tight knit Russian community with many cheap eats possibilities.


M&I International Food at 249 Brighton Beach Ave in Brooklyn is one of the largest eastern European markets this side of the Kremlin. Hosting endless displays of smoked fish & meat, pickled goods, breads, cakes, lots of great fresh produce and a nasty selection of Kvass.

Some Russian tough guy started speaking to me IN Russian as I was holding a big ol bottle of Kvass. I have to assume the rough translation to English went something like this:

"That bottle will grow hair on your chest, do you think you can handle that little man?" Followed by an awkward wink.

Upstairs at M&I is where to go, there is a small cafe with a hot food bar, everything is $5.99 a pound. I got a plate full for under $5.00. My favorite was the golumpkie, it reminded me of my grandmothers Polish golumpkies she use to make for my grandfather and I. There were some mystery meat filled "tortellini" dumplings, potato pierogies and also a strange ground chicken pattie which was saltier than the dead sea.

There is a lot to choose from at M&I, most of it was pretty good and very reasonably priced. After soaking in some rays head over to Brighton Beach Ave to fill up.

Learn some Russian phrases before you go to better enjoy your trip to little Moscow by the sea.

pocket change.

Let's just say you go to see a show, it's late, you're hungry, you've got some coins flopping around in your pockets, you stop.

I don't want to know what rogue ingredients were in this $0.63 biscuit and gravy combo.

The biscuit did taste surprisingly like a home made bisquick biscuit. The dipping gravy, oh the gravy, I couldn't quite place it as chicken or beef but it did taste somewhat like chicken a la king sauce.

1 Biscuit

Calories: 240
Fat: 13
Sodium mg: 490

I don't think we need to research the gravy...


Let's not stop there again.

Creative Spaces

A garden grows in Brooklyn...

Totally Tropical Pork Mojo

With summers heat and humidity creeping in the desire to eat or even cook inside seems to fade.

Start with a pork tenderloin, you may have to trim the excess fat and pull off the "silverskin" before this is ready to marinate in the MOJO baby.

The Mojo sauce or marinate is a very common in Cuban cuisine. It's simple as pie to make and is lip smacking good.

Tropical Mojo

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 8 garlic cloves thinly sliced

• Juice of 2 limes & half an orange (traditionally a sour orange is used in place of the orange and lime)

• A bunch of fresh oregano & cilantro chopped

• Salt and pepper to taste

• Splash of vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water

Heat the oil over medium high heat; throw in the sliced cloves till lightly browned. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a quick boil.

After the Mojo has cooled allow tenderloin to marinate in this for at least 24 hours.

This totally tropical pork mojo was served with the following!

• Grilled onions
• Grilled asparagus
• Grilled plantains mmm
• Black beans with cilantro, cheese and grilled onion

Nicely washed down with a DOUBLE IPA homebrew from two good friends. Very malty, sweet and high in booze. Tasted like a cross between a Sam Adams and a Dogfish 90 min..

Damn fine.

Parisian Loaf Pizza

Who are we kidding this is just french bread pizza. Just because you're a food blogger does it mean you have to be some swanky haute cuisine endorsing fool?


At the same rate when we do something we do it right. This nice snack was a callabro with our like minded foodie amigo "The DMB."

Nice crusty loaf rubbed with garlic and oil, sweet sweet caramelized super star onions, extra sharp cheddar, crispy buffalo chicken sausage rounds, drizzled with home made buttery buffalo sauce and pepper jack ranch.

Paired well with a refreshing, easy drinking Allagash White to numb the heat.

Disgustingly good.

Apple Celery Tomato Soup!

Hello there lovely, loyal TSC fanatics.

I am currently on tour right now, and I am writing the bulk of this blog from our van driving across Ohio.I made this soup before I left, and I really wish I hada bowl of it right now (but most of it is in my freezer waiting for me to get home).


This Apple Celery Tomato soup has a light, refreshing taste that makes it a killer side dish or first course. Its notsubstantial enough to satisfy on its own, if you're hungry like a Lumberjack. Like most of my soups, it's pureed which automatically makes it soup-erior.


Ingredients

4 Tbs butter

4 ribs chopped celery

2 chopped granny smith apples with skins

2 large plum tomatoes

1 medium white onion

4 c water

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 large piece of parchment paper, cut to fit just inside the pot

Heat butter over medium heat, and sweat out the onion. Then add chopped celery, apple and tomato and nutmeg. Allow these to cook for a few minutes and get a nice coat of butter. Add water, and turn heat down. Place parchment over simmering soup and leave on low heat for about an hour.

Blend soup in small batches. Now comes time to strain out all the bullshit: those celery stringsand apple seeds really can ruin your day.

Note: You want a sieve with the smallest holes imaginable, a regular wire sieve didn't do the trick for me on the first pass through. I used my yogurt strainer and it worked perfectly. I suppose lining your wire sieve with some cheese cloth or somethingwould be cool too.


I hope you enjoy this one, I love the light flavor, and I seemingly always have these three ingredients in my house...

-T, T.S.Q

New England Real Ale Exhibition 2008

Cask conditioned beer is real beer.


Cask beer is unfiltered and unpasteurised, secondary fermentation is done directly in the fermenting vessel. These style beers are served in the 55 degree range and have much smoother carbonation due to the secondary fermentation period. CO2 and Nitrogen are not added to draft these beers, handpumps and gravity spigots are used.

I was lucky enough to make it in the door at the 12th annual New England Real Ale Exhibition. I was actually the last person let in, the thirsty mob behind me was kind enough not to attack me. Inside the small hall offered some of the worlds finest cask beers available to you for a mere $5.00 door entry, refundable $5.00 glass fee (our take the loss and keep the glass.) Tasting prices were as follows: pint $5.00, 1/2 pint $2.50, 1/4 pint $1.50.


Some highlights included:

Wachusett Brewing Co: Ryde
Very smooth, extremely drinkable or session-able as they call it, this beer is also flaked with rye for a slight rye flavor. Very nice.

Rogue Ales: Brutal Bitter
refreshing, floral, hoppy.

Moat Mountain: Spruce Tip Brown
This was the most unique of the day, a malty brown ale which was dry hopped with SPRUCE TIPS. It wasn't overpowering like pine sol, it was strange but did work well.

Gwynt y Ddraig: Haymaker medium cider
This was my favorite of the day. I am a huge cider fan and this was the best farmhouse style cider I've ever had in my life period. Oak conditioned, such a ripe, fresh, apple taste, not overwhelmingly sweet, almost herbal undertones. I went back for seconds and was proud to say I got the last one.
Incredible.


Put down the bud light and drink a real ale.