Our friend Piers Fawkes over at PSFK just put together a great book about Brooklyn. In a similar fashion to this blog, it takes you through some of the best places that this borough of ours has to offer. First 100 PSFK SNAPSHOT BROOKYLN books at half price: Enjoy! and Spread the Word!
Bloggers (from l.) James Power, Kara VanMalssen, and Dave Cianci
Three Brooklyn friends are trying to eat their way around the world - without ever leaving the city.
The Kensington trio began a mission in August to sample in alphabetical order the culinary delights of all 192 countries in the United Nations.
"We can't go to every country in the world, but we can go to all those countries here," said Kara Van Malssen, 30, an archivist.
Van Malssen came up with the idea last summer while eating at a Ghanaian restaurant on Flatbush Ave. with her husband, Dave Cianci, 30, and their friend, James Power, 28.
They started in Hell's Kitchen with Afghanistan, knocking back lamb kebab and fried pumpkin turnovers called bolanee at the Ariana Afghan Kebab Restaurant on Ninth Ave.
Since then, the group's gastronomical grand tour has taken them from Arthur Ave. in the Bronx for Albanian fare to Astoria, Queens, for an Algerian feast.
Working their way through the alphabet, the food lovers didn't leave the neighborhood for one of the countries. They had sturgeon shish kebab - a taste of Azerbaijan - in Kensington.
They sampled Barbadian pudding and souse - boiled pig's head and pig intestines with sweet potato - in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
"That was probably the most adventurous thing I've put in my mouth in a very long time," said Power, an English as a second language teacher trainer. "It was the only thing I haven't been able to finish."
The Brooklynites launched a blog called Confined Nomad to document their culinary staycation. They've gotten through 17 countries. Most of the meals were at restaurants, but four were home-cooked when they couldn't find an eatery to match the country.
When they couldn't locate an Angolan restaurant in the city, they called the Angolan Mission to the UN and ended up getting invited to the secretary's church in Elizabeth, N.J. They chowed down on some Angolan homecooking - including chicken stew cooked in chicken blood.
"If all else fails, we end up cooking it at home," said Cianci, a law student.
They had to cook at home to check off Andorra, the Bahamas and Bahrain.
Right now, they're stuck on Belize, their 18th country. They haven't found a restaurant yet, but plan to contact a catering business that may be able to deliver them a taste of the Central American country.
Right now, the project is a labor of love. But the group said they are considering trying to turn it into a book.
"We wouldn't mind an expense account," Cianci said, chuckling.
Van Malssen said the trio expects the project to take years, but they are committed to finishing it.
"We're going to try," she said. "That's the goal. We haven't lost steam yet."
Robert Guskind 1958 - 2009: Founder of Gowanus Lounge Dies
It's extremely sad to read about the death of Robert Guskind. He was an early advocate of this blog and was one of the true advocates of Brooklyn. We will all miss him and I hope that his death will inspire us all to look deeper into the truth about the system we all are a part of. His passion for uncovering this truth will force us all to participate extra to achieve anything near his contribution.
updates: Huffington Post Curbed
What is the best thing you like about Coney Island?
Here are the most interesting Coney Island photos.
photo credit: luluinnyc.
Heart of Brooklyn (HOB) is a partnership of the leading cultural institutions located near Grand Army Plaza in central Brooklyn: Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Brooklyn Children’s Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Public Library, Prospect Park, and Prospect Park Zoo.
Heart of Brooklyn encourages tourism and learning by making its world-class collections and historic treasures more visible and accessible. As an integral part of Brooklyn’s renaissance, Heart of Brooklyn is committed to strengthening the future of its neighborhoods.
Last Saturday I had the pleasure and honor of seeing one of the best plays I have seen in quite some time. The play "Brooklyn At Eye Level" was an inspirational and eclectic mix of personalities surrounding The Atlantic Yards development project. For all of you who don't know what that is, it is essentially a Frank Gehry and Forrester City Ratner project that involves building a stadium for the Brooklyn Nets as well as develop the surrounding area with homes and businesses in Downtown Brooklyn. Needless to say there are a number of points of view about the project and everyone has a different opinion about what that means to the fabric of Brooklyn. This play attempts to provide a voice for many of the people involved, from the shop keeper to the borough president. The entire cast of Marsha Stephanie Blake, Billy Eugene Jones,
Greg McFadden, Melanie Nicholls-King, Joaquin Torres and
Colleen Werthmann was superb and each of the characters portrayed were actual characters interviewed for this project. Joaquin Torres was a highlight for me when ended the night with a song that brought the house down. If you get a chance to see the play when it comes to town again you will not be disappointed...... and you may actually learn something.
BROOKLYN AT EYE LEVEL is a theater project that explores large scale development and community change in Brooklyn, focusing on the proposed Atlantic Yards Project and its surrounding neighborhoods. This fall a company of actors and director Steve Cosson conducted interviews and immersed themselves in community life. The company spoke to representatives from all sides of the various issues in an effort to understand a wide diversity of perspectives.
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