Category Archives: Uncategorized

Journey to Brighton Beach

My most restful nights have been by the sea.

I can sit on a vinyl recliner and let the air wash my face. The sea air is delicious and full of extra oxygen. It is especially nutritious and satisfying to breathe. The wind lifts ancient minerals off the waves. They trickle through the nasal epithelium and tickle the brain. My lips tingle. My most restful nights have been by the sea.

If you start from Coney Island and follow the sea you will eventually find Brighton Beach. Last Saturday looked Moscovian. Gray and white clouds dwarfed the sand and sucking waves. Highrise apartments were flat prints on the skyline. The subway lurches across metal stilts and shelters beneath its pantaloons a romantic avenue of liquor stores, groceries and restaurants and fruit markets, Soviet electronics, cell phones, CDs and VHS tapes, souvenirs, dance halls and nightclubs, cheap insurance, doctors, etc. An alternative universe has budded off the train and dangles, contained by its own surface tension—two blocks away from the umbilical bubble, you are in dark uterine trenches, suburban, overgrown and peeling like seashore homes tend to during unseasonably cool summers. Even compared to Flushing or Sunset Park, Brighton Beach is glowering and mysterious. With less friendly teenagers and more grumping octogenarians, maneuvering through the barricaded shops can be stifling. Frankly, if you are young and hanging out you considered a threat to general order and unwanted. Although we encountered  welcoming and interested faces, we also met rude clerks who wanted nothing to do with a few Russian Jews strung out along a genealogical strand. When exploring this neighborhood, the intrepid cosmopolitan must prepare for the best: confusion and outright hostility. Continue reading

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Filed under New York City, Restaurants, Uncategorized

Too Sweet for a Funeral

Zach B., Yale University

When I came home from college for winter break, my Dad requested that I bake him a raisin pie, also known as “funeral pie.” A favorite of Old Order Mennonites and the Amish, raisin pies were traditionally baked for funerals due to the availability of ingredients on short notice and its ability to keep well for several days at room temperature.

Once again I decided to attempt a homemade crust, using a 3-2-1 ratio recipe. Unfortunately, I must have added far too much shortening (a half butter, half shortening crust for a balance between flavor and flakiness), as the dough was extremely sticky, not pea sized crumbles of fat. So  I added another quarter cup of flour, and then another… and another, until the consistency felt correct.

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Filed under Food, Miscellaneous, pie, Uncategorized, Zach B.

Sushi Yasuda, Hold the Yasuda

I listed Sushi Yasuda as number ten on my 2010 bottom ten list. Why? In January 2011, the restaurant’s namesake chef, Naomichi Yasuda, is leaving to open a small sushi bar in Japan.  Just a few weeks after I arrived at Columbia as a freshman, I turned 19. Without my family and closest friends, I felt alone on my birthday. In order to celebrate, I went to Sushi Yasuda, seeking an education in nigiri from one of New York’s most acclaimed practitioners. Notorious for enforcing a set of sushi-eating rules and his uncompromising fish, Yasuda ruled the sushi bar with authoritarian precision. With his smiling eyes and deft hands, however, he made even the most inexperienced diners feel welcome. I wrote about my dinner for the Columbia Daily Spectator’s now defunct blog, Spectacle. My birthday blues obliterated, I left Sushi Yasuda confident that I could return in the future after visiting New York’s other noteworthy sushi spots

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Filed under New York City, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized

Betting “La Granja”

Zach B., Yale University

The world of New Haven burritos is a wide and varied one. From national chains like Moe’s Southwestern Grill, to the numerous carts lining Elm and York streets, burritos are a common choice for quick lunch. In contrast to the more well known spots, many people walk right by a small restaurant called La Granja (The Farm), located on Whitney Ave.

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Filed under Food, Restaurants, Reviews, Uncategorized, Yale, Zach B.