The Alex & The Eleanor + 1

This weekend was the last of the season for the Red Hook soccer vendors - a collection of tents serving Central American cuisine adjacent to the soccer fields in Red Hook, so E, our friend Michele and I made a date to head down and check it out before they closed for the season. There’s recently been a lot of press about their run-in with the department of health, where they were almost shut down. Thankfully for us, they weren’t.

I’ve been here once before, and it’s really quite a fun scene. There are about 10 stands, each serving their own cuisine, most family run for many many years, and about as authentic as you can get in the city. There’s a complete ethnic mix, as the vendors have become a foodie destination, and with the recent press there’s been even more attention. There’s a lot of good food, but the star of the show are the huaraches.

Huaraches are somewhat of a cross between a taco and quesidilla. A hand made giant tortilla with a thin layer of beans inside of it. Drop it on the girdle, sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese, and once it melts pile on the meat (steak or chicken or pork or chorizo) and then top it off with lettuce, sour cream, guacamole, salsa and a selection of homemade hot sauces.

There are two stands that make them. Last time I visited one of them and it was good. This time I visited the other and it was divine. I was there with E and our friend Michele and the three of us split one. We chose a mix of steak and chorizo as our meat. The blend of flavors and textures in my first bite were incredible. It was gooey, crunchy and chewy all at once. Spicy and savory, hearty and refreshing all at once. I was sad to see it go. All this for$6.

Next we moved on to a small stand that had a vat of oil that they were deep frying plantains in, and a grill with meat on a stick. Hard to resist that. Combined with a little bit of spicy onion salsa the meat was solid, and the plantain tasty (although really really really HOT!) but I didn’t eat much of it, as I was feeling the call of the huaraches.

I ditched adventure, and I apologize but next Michele and I split another of the exact same huarache goodness while Eleanor opted to try the tacos, one chick and one pork. All quite good, but definitely too much food. I can’t wait to go back next spring when the soccer season begins again. Hopefully the battle with the health department will be won for good (they only got a temporary stay to finish out the season), as this is a place not to be missed.

B+

[Show as slideshow]

After our lunch we get to the second part of the headline - Optional Staircase. E and I have been looking at apartments in Brooklyn recently, and besides getting lunch, that’s why we were out in the borough. We saw a few places, some promising, some not so, and we were heading to a bar to discuss, when we passed a sign for an open house around the corner on state street.

The building looked nice enough from the outside, although the first clue that the architect was out of his mind should have been the street level wall of floor to ceiling windows on the first floor studio apartment. It’s not an apartment, it’s a storefront!

But it got better from there. After hiking up to the 3rd floor (yep, it’s a walk up) we saw one of their two bedroom, two bathroom apartments. All the finishings were very nice, hardwood floors, giant soaking tubs in the bathroom, washer/dryer in the apartment. This all sounds good right?

Well the living room was quite small, say big enough for a small couch a flatscreen tv and a coffee table and nothing else. And as it happens, this apartment is a duplex. And as it happens to get to the second floor you enter from the living room. Boy, those stairs must take up a lot of space you say? Not so! The architect solved this problem with the clever choice of a LADDER to get to the second floor. A FREAKING LADDER!!!

Of course there was a blueprint on the wall of a staircase for the room with the header “Optional Staircase”. May I just say..THE STAIRCASE IS NOT OPTIONAL!!! Seriously, do people actually put up with this crap anywhere but New York City?