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Brownstoner is hosting a new blog from folks renovating this big house on Albemarle, full of gory details for fans of this stuff.
The second installment includes this:
One contractor walking through remarked, "Oh yes, the old Federal Pacific firestarters." -- and that was before he saw [fuseboxes] concealed behind [a white door] which was in the back of the "hers" closet in the master suite. Yes that door is made of wood (though some cautious soul lined the inside of it with sheet metal). The contractor giddily took a pic with his cellphone and emailed it to his electrician.
Matt Archambault of the NYC Social Sports Club emails that if it's fall, it's "Ice Broomball" season.
His blurb:
Part casual competition and part social outing with fellow Brooklynites, Broomball is played outside and on the ice in your sneakers! Their five-week season, starting December 2nd, is perfect for beginners and non-athlete types...and if you bring a few friends with skills, you may pull a few victories along the way!He also says it's "the ultimate winter sport."
All games are followed by trips to the bar, with transportation provided!
Click here for more information and to register!
To continue our obsession with this place, here's the menu:
Sambal, Chutney, Nam prik, Kimchi
$ 15 • Tamarind shrimp with suman sa pandan (rice cakes wrapped in pandan leaves)
$ 13 • Duck leg betutu with taro leaves (slow cooked in Balinese spices and coconut milk wrapped in banana leaves)
$ 9 • Korean meatballs with kimchi in purple yam pockets
$ 10 • Spicy tofu & Manila clams soup
The pig
$ 6 • Tocino (sugar-achuete cured pork) sliders in purple yam pan de sal, served with pickled persimmon
$ 12 • Sisig (pig cheeks, ears and snout in lime & chilies)
$ 18 • Lechon kawali (deep fried pork belly) with pickled papaya
$ 18 • Barbecued spareribs from our Chinese oven
Veggies
$ 12 • Green market veggies in green curry with Asian greens
$ 12 • Bibimbap with shitake, spinach, squash & gingko nuts (made with Philippine heirloom rice from the terraces)
$ 9 • Breadfruit & lotus root chips with eggplant caviar
$ 8 • Pomelo, green mango & jicama salad
Sides
$ 3 • Haegeen’s homemade kimchi of the day (red or white kimchi, baby radish, scallions... the possibilities are endless)
$ 3.50 sml / $ 5 large • Kimchi fried rice
$ 3.50 sml / $ 5 large • Bagoong fried rice (Philippine fermented shrimp)
Cendrillon classics
$ 8 • Ukoy, (vegetable & shrimp fritter)
$ 7 • Fresh Lumpia (sautéed Napa cabbage, leeks & mushrooms in a rice crepe) served with peanut
and tamarind sauce
$ 10 • Beef tapa (air-dried beef) salad
$ 12 • Goat curry with fresh rice pancakes
$ 13 • Wild boar pizza
$ 16 • Chicken adobo (braised in vinegar, garlic, soy sauce)
$ 12 • Pancit bihon (Philippine rice noodles with chicken, pork
& veggies)
$ 17 • Oxtail kare kare with bagoong (braised in peanut sauce & veggies. Served with fermented shrimp paste)
DESSERTS
$ 6 • Pandan leche flan (steeped in pandan leaves)
$ 6 • Halo halo (Philippine iced dessert with sweet beans, palm seed, cocogel, agar agar, coconut sport, jackfruit topped with flan and purple yam ice cream)
$ 6 • Buko pie (young coconut) with a scoop of macapuno ice cream
$ 6 • Champorrado (sweet rice in chocolate & cream) topped with coffee ice cream
$ 6 • Apple tart with macapuno ice cream
Homemade ice creams
$ 2 / scoop • Purple Yam
$ 2 / scoop • Coffee
$ 2 / scoop • Macapuno (coconut sport)
$ 6 / 3 scoops
New heights of local restaurant hype from Eater, which calls Purple Yam a "potential neighborhood gamechanger." (Not too much, I hope.)
Grub Street has a little more detail.
The hype may be deserved: The food we had Sunday was amazing, and when we returned last night for dinner, there was a wait of at least an hour. (We consoled ourselves with Farm burgers and beer.)
Neighbor Miles Rohan emails over this invite to the Grand Meeting of the Corduroy Appreciation Club, happening tomorrow in Gowanus.
The New Yorker explains.
The P.S. 139 PA emails that they're hosting a Scholastic Book Fair through Sunday in the school auditorium, entrance on Rugby just off Cortelyou.
The schedule:
Tuesday November 10th 1 to 3pm and 5:30 to 8pmFunds from the event will go to stretch the budget for the Argyle yard renovation or purchase more Smartboards for classrooms.
Thursday November 12th 9am to 3pm
Friday November 13th 9am to 3pm
Sunday November 15th 9am to 2pm, including:
Story Time 9:30 - 10
PS 139 Co-President and actor, Christine Siracusa, will read popular books from the Scholastic collection.
Musical performance by Carnaval Kids! 10 – 10:30
Carnaval Kids! specializes in Brazilian and Spanish-themed musical drum parties for children.
Free used winter coats.
Available first come, first served. In good condition. Limited supply. Sizes vary.
The Daily News has a sweet, if occasionally misguided (not sure I'd cal the co-op a "cheap neighborhood staple," plug for the neighborhood today, describing it as "a peaceful place to live."
Also, a nice photo of Picket Fence waiter Ozzie, above.
Sustainable Flatbush's Anne Pope passes on word of a reading Wednesday at Vox of interest to local gardeners, farmers, and eaters:
Tales of Squatting, Dumpster Diving, and other Urban Farming Pursuits: A Night with Novella CarpenterThe reading is Wednesday at 7:00.
Novella Carpenter raises pigs, rabbits, chickens, turkeys, and goats on squatted land in downtown Oakland. Her hilarious memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer, tells the real story of what it takes to grow your own food in a city.
Copies of the book will be available for sale.
We were lucky enough to have lunch at Purple Yam today, in advance of their opening Tuesday, and Amy and Romy exceeded even the very high expectations.
I'm not sure what I expected of their Filipino-influenced food, but it wasn't quite this: It was milder, more accessible, and generally more easy to imagine eating more than once a week than we'd expected.
The likeliest hit, and popular with the kids, were the cured pork sliders, on purple rolls made with purple yam flower, with fresh, unusual vegetables and savory meat. Our platter of samples also had tasty meatballs on skewers, crunchy and fresh mung bean pancakes, and noodles with nuggest of pork and strips of chicken. There was also wonderful kimchee and a sort of slaw made from carrots and green papaya.
Nelson took a lot of photos, so look for those here soon.
Elizabeth Gumport has an interesting, longish, essay in N+1 about one of favorite topics of blog comments sections everywhere, gentrification.
The essay reviews Brooklyn "gentrification novels" through the years fairly harshly, concluding that they're "the most recent and the most hypocritical iteration of Brooklyn nostalgia," but along the way gives an interesting tour of the genre, and has a fascinating passage that could have been written about Ditmas Park/Flatbush, about a novel by Paule Marshall that "offers a glimpse of Brooklyn in the decades preceding gentrification":
Soon after the first steam ferries between Manhattan and Brooklyn began running in 1814, rich merchants developed "Manhattan's first suburb" on the bluff now known as Brooklyn Heights. Wealth spread eastward; by the 1860s, Fort Greene and Clinton Hill, previously rural retreats, began to attract wealthy families. The Pratts, the Pfizers, and the Singers numbered among the golden names of American industry who had settled in those neighborhoods by the century's end. Set during the next cycle of development—when affluent whites departed for the suburbs and West Indian immigrants moved in during the Depression—Marshall's story is told by Selina Boyce, who feels unwelcome in the brownstone her parents rent. ...In Marshall's novel, wealthy whites are not the borough's future but its past. If what was is the only measure by which we decide what should be, then the real Brooklyn might as well still be the Brooklyn of the rich.
The hours are Tuesday-Friday 1-8pm, Sat 10-8pm and Sun 12-5pm at 376A Argyle road between Cortelyou and Dorchester. Tel: 718.854.7486Bed-Stuy - A blend of sandalwood, jasmine, cedarwood and patchouli fragrance oils.
Brownstone - A blend of Cedarwood, Jasmine, gardenia and vanilla fragrance oils.
Canarsie Cookie - freshly baked sugar cookies with butter cream frosting, with vanilla extract.
Church Avenue - A fruity blend of mango, pineapple, papaya and jasmine.
Clinton Hills - A sweet delicious blend of pears, raspberries and strawberries.
Fort Greene Tea - A citrus blend of fruits and mint.
Kensington - A blend of lavender essential oils, vanilla, almond and patchouli fragrance oils.
Mobay Punch - (named for the beautiful island of Montego Bay Jamaica) A mouth-watering island mix of coconut, pineapple, and vanilla.
Park Slope - A floral mix of lavender, rose, gardenia and jasmine.
Red Hook - A juicy mix of sweet berries, peaches, strawberries, oranges, coconuts and vanilla.
