Tag: beer

Categories
mexican

Yola’s Beef Tongue Texan Nachos

I think we had too many Miller Lites with the new Vortex Bottle at Sam Jayne’s show. It’s dangerous because the beer funnels out faster. We stumbled our way to Yola’s Cafe into the newly expanded side of the Mexican restaurant. I opened the menu and picked the grossest sounding dish right in the middle of the page —Beef Tongue Texan Nachos.

The chips were stale, but the big chunks of beef tongue were some of the best I’ve ever had. Very tender and the fibrous muscle peeled apart from itself so easily. It was almost like slow-cooked pulled pork. There was a lot of food and a lot of tongue there. I could only eat about a third before I got sick of it. Rusty had gone back to Good Co. bar to get his windbreaker jacket. When he got back, he forgot what I ordered. I knew I had to get food inside him like Hasselhoff, so I kept my mouth shut and told him it was just beef. I can’t tell if that makes me a good or bad friend.

Yola’s Cafe – 524 Metropolitan Ave (btwn Lorimer & Union Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11211
…The tacos are solid if you don’t want to chance it.

Categories
bar/drinking restauranting

Brother Jimmy’s All You Can Eat Wings, Rib Tips & Beer

Guys night out at Brother Jimmy’s for Monday night’s All-You-Can-Eat Wings, Rib Tips & Beer for $20. People warned me about Brother Jimmy’s, but I didn’t think the food was all that bad. And especially at this price, it’s frickin’ awesome. Matt’s a veteran here and pretty much only likes the wings, but this time he said the rib tips were pretty good. I thought they were tender and tasty with extra Blazin’ sauce on it. The wings were a little too salty and I love salt. You get a two-hour time limit and the beer is Bud or Bud light. We did plenty of damage. We even went to an Irish pub after for more beer and to play bloody knuckles. Come to think of it, Brother Jimmy’s was well-suited for this dude’s night.

Brother Jimmy’s BBQ – 116 E 16th St (btwn E Union Sq & Irving Pl) New York, NY 10003

Categories
bar/drinking restauranting travel

Cafe Maspero

Jody & Christa met up with us in New Orleans and they were starvin. Once again, where to eat in the French Quarter? This time we used Sam’s iPhone to tell us. First place was a bust. Second on the map was the Johnny’s Po-Boys we ran into after our breakfast, but I knew they were closed because it was 4pm. Sam called them anyway to make sure. They were, but he asked if they had any suggestions for a good non-touristy place and they said Cafe Maspero.

We got in right before the heavy yet short rain storm hit. The food was good. Jambalaya was much better than Corner Oyster House. Not saucey. Christa ordered the Veggie Muffaletta, which was much more olive tasting than the meat version we had at the Napoleon House. Jody hates olives, so no taste for him.

We walked over to look at the Mississippi River. Got bored because there were no beers. Then headed back to Bourbon St to be part of the stupidness. So many beer specials –Huge Ass Beers To Go, 2 for 1 beers. We ended up at the 3 for 1 beer place, because it sounds like a better deal. There, we saw an MC on the mic going nutz by himself on the dance floor and a shot girl selling 20 shots from her boobs to this one old man.  After, she moved onto another scraggly old man. The first old man looked sad.

Cafe Maspero – 601 Decatur St. New Orleans, LA 70130

Categories
mexican

$4 Quesadillas at El Nuevo Amanecer Restaurant

Before our show at Cake Shop, we grabbed some $4 Quesadillas and $3 beers (the Mon/Tues/Wed deal) at El Nuevo Amanecer around the corner. The choices are chicken, beef or cheese. But if you say veggie thinking it’s the cheese, you’ll be paying $7. We learned that the hard way. It’s not amazing food, but a pretty good deal for the Lower East Side. I think chicken is the way to go. The red salsa is kinda bland. You ask for hot sauce and they give you Tobasco. Not knocking the Tobasco, but I’ve never seen that as the sole Mexican restaurant hot sauce ever. Oh yeah, Chipotle does that. That’s weird.

El Nuevo Amanecer Restaurant – 117 Stanton St (btwn Essex & Ludlow) New York, NY 10002

Categories
restauranting

Big Nick’s Pizza & Burger Joint Too

Met up with Jody & Christa at the second Big Nick’s in the Upper West Side. George Plimpton look-alikes, who probably have gone there for decades, eating pizza with forks. $1.50 Miller beer & $2.40 Jumbo Pizza slices. We went with the Fried Eggplant and Mozzarella sticks for appetizers. Nothing special with the appz and ended up realizing we could have gotten five more slices instead. Also tried the Giant Hot dog $2.25 which wasn’t so giant, more normal sized. –Sticking with the basics: cheap beer and Jumbo slices and you’re good to go. Although next time, I’m trying the Sumo Burger.

Big Nick’s Pizza & Burger Joint Too – 70 W. 71st St (@ Columbus) New York, NY 10024

Categories
bar/drinking concert/event

Chocolate & I, New York – Food For Art. Art for Thought.

Last night, I was invited to the press party for the week-long Chocolate & I, New York event presented by Migration of Senses. I lured by the promise of drinks and I get to eat chocolate? Well there were no chocolates for me to eat, no vender booths that I expected. There was an art exhibit.

And here I was a little confused. Some art made sense as far as food goes, like the candy dot paintings and the chocolate dripping piece. Some didn’t, like the LED wind blowing lights and the digital shadows that poked each other. They were all interesting and pretty cool, but I didn’t know what it had to do this food blogger. So I got my hands on some Tanteo chocolate-infused tequila and Brooklyn Brewery’s Black Chocolate Stout, then proceeded to pet a music-playing box to calm it down. I spoke with the artist, Elim Cheng, about it and asked what it had to do with chocolate. She said it had to do with the feeling of what chocolate does to you. In this case, comforts you. In that moment, I think I got it. It could have been tequila though.

As for the drinks, the tequila and beer did have a chocolate taste to them. However it was more reminiscent of chocolate scratch n sniff –a faux chocolate taste. They were decent drinks. But since texture is such a big factor in what chocolate is to me, I missed it here.

There are different themed chocolate tastings each night this week, ranging from $25-65.  All sound intriguing. I wish I could have witness one of them. The art exhibition is free to view.

Check the Chocolate & I, New York website for more info and schedule of events.

Categories
bar/drinking concert/event

Global Kitchen: Beer with Garrett Oliver

Last night I got to attend one of the educational series at the American Museum of Natural History …about beer! It was a lecture by Brooklyn Brewery’s brewmaster, Garrett Oliver. Very informative, but started off pretty boring …maybe because I kept staring at the beer on the table next to him. It wasn’t until he started talking about opening your eyes to the Matrix of life in the supermarket that things started to get interested. He comments on how food and beer at some point years ago started to become less real. Like how cheese slices have become not real cheese and supermarket bread is not real bread and how American beer (once great in pre-prohibition) turned into stuff that was less like beer. For me, I always thought Buds and PBRs were more beer and the expensive stuff was too much flavor for me. Maybe that’s why I’m liking seltzer water a lot lately. I get those Canada Drys free at work. I feel like I’m cracking one open in the office. Well Garrett gets rolling and I’m well entertained, especially during the tastings of four special Brooklyn Brewery beers, one which is really rare (something like only 20 cases made). It doesn’t even have a label. They were at 9% alcohol content and pretty tasty. I feel like I’m learning to appreciate the good life lately. Thanks Antonia for hooking me up here.

Garrett Oliver has a new book out, The Brewmaster’s Table: Discovering the Pleasures of Real Beer with Real Food.
And the next in the Natural History series of food/drinks, Global Kitchen: The Magic of Pickling is Tuesday October 13, 2009.

01 Brooklyn Brewery Special Brews02 Tonight's Beers Program