All posts tagged approved

• A piece of maple taffy (recipe: get a trough of snow and a large metal pot. Boil some fresh maple syrup in the metal pot, then ladle it in long thin streams across the trough of snow. Let it cool for a moment, then whack it into pieces using whatever implement is handiest.)
• Two pieces of maple sugar candy (recipe: boil some fresh maple syrup until it reaches some special candy-like temperature, pour into molds, cool, serve in frilly red or white paper cups)
• Maple-covered Chex mix from a tiny paper cup
• Maple baked beans with salt pork
• Hot black coffee from a medium-sized paper cup
• A tiny paper cup of maple soda (recipe: mix a shot of fresh Grade B syrup with seltzer to taste)
• An even tinier plastic shot-sized cup of fresh Grade B syrup, plain and unadorned (this was the best thing I ate yesterday, out of all the things I ate yesterday in various shacks in the woods)

• Black coffee, two cups
• Absolute Bagel, fresh, untoasted, eaten in Central Park with a friend
• A Levain chocolate-chip walnut cookie, fresh, epic, eaten on the bench outside the shop with a friendly stranger — note to Levain, if two ladies sit on your bench in the sun whilst licking chocolate from their fingers and smiling at passersby, the passersby will stop, turn back and buy your cookies
• A Jonagold apple from a farmer’s market
• A pot of strong, hot Chinese tea; spicy chicken and broccoli; a small bowl of steamed white rice at Grand Sichuan — especially tasty after walking 110+ blocks and spending several hours wandering through the New Year dragon dances
• Whiskey ginger
• Whiskey ginger
• Some sort of yuppie-ish salt & pepper potato crisps from the 5th Ave. deli in Brooklyn, broken into during the 2 a.m. cab ride

Saturday

• Peanut granola bar from Hudson News at Port Authority, consumed on the downtown A platform as I was running to catch the train, an hour late because of the stupid bus, which had gotten in late, and I had been on the bus all day, and my only snacks there were a vegan green foods bar and a large Fuji apple — oh, and a bunch of Gin-Gins ultra strength candies
• Whiskey ginger at the Delancey
• Another whiskey ginger at the Delancey
• Cheeseless veggie pizza slice from the place around the corner from the Delancey, inhaled between sets, wondering what idiot replaced the Gray’s Papaya on the corner with an eyeglass store
• Another whiskey ginger at the Delancey
• A bunch of water
• 1.5 fish tacos at the place that used to be Dash Dogs (thanks for sharing, Sean!)
• More water, more water. By the time I got near a bed (thanks, Erin’s roommate!) I’d been awake for almost 23 hours exactly.

Sunday

• Huge, delicious brunch from Brooklyn Label: roasted veggie hash with potatoes and baked tofu (I’d wanted the version with eggs, but whatever, the place was packed and it was still delicious); toast; approx. 5 cups of Stumptown coffee which was fine but really nothing special.
• I’d thought about going to Chinatown later in the day but I was so stuffed after brunch, for hours.
• Cheap generic deli chocolate-chip cookie, impulse-bought and eaten while watching handball players in a park
• Gala apple from a deli, ditto
• Shortly thereafter I happened to pass a Red Mango, and having read so much about this Korean chain’s yogurt prowess, I decided to try the limited-time-only pumpkin flavor. It was good, but not overly pumpkin-y, though it did have nice tang and a hint of cinnamon. At $4 a cup I wouldn’t do it again. (And then I was too full to eat anything else but I was desperate for something salty or umami after all that sweet — I hate when this happens.)
• Right before boarding the A train to JFK I wandered down Christopher Street and decided to drop in the Stonewall Inn for a drink, a sentimental good-luck toast of sorts for Maine. Perfectly serviceable house Merlot and an extremely generous pour for $7.
• Ended up starving at the airport a couple hours later and eating a Clif bar I had in my bag.

A thing I quite like about visiting New York now, as a former resident, is that I feel no particular pressure to eat landmark foods or visit must-try restaurants. I have lots of memories; I don’t need to scramble about for more. I just need to indulge my whims and fuel my wandering.

Remember this?

It’s been a month. I tasted the fig brandy with a spoon and found it good; a glug of pure Maine maple syrup (extra dark amber) and another 24 hours in the fridge made it even better.

But that’s where my fig brandy story ends, because the following evening was my friend A.’s 30th birthday party so I decided to be that person who strolls into the party bearing a gift of fig brandy. It would have been the best gift of the night had someone not arranged for a visit by an ersatz (and possibly tipsy) Slugger.