Best Banana Ice Cream....EVER

Last night the Wifey and I went out with my college roommate M. and his wife L. to eat at Fort Greene newcomer The General Greene. The restaurant is a small-plates affair, and the food was decent, but nothing really to write home to blog about. What was noteworthy, however, was dessert (Well, my dessert, at least. The Wifey had a chocolate pudding that she ate slowly in order to "trick myself into thinking that the next bite might actually be delicious").

I ordered the roasted banana ice cream. Now, perhaps my bar is set too low for banana ice cream. I'm often disappointed, as the majority of producers use clearly artificial banana flavoring. But The General Greene (named after THE General Greene of the original Fort Greene) make their ice cream in-house, and use real bananas. It was AMAZING. Delicious. Scrumptious. Literally, I licked the bowl. In public. That kind of good. So good that I asked them if they could pack a to-go bag of ice cream for me. (M. suggested I go to the nearby bodega, buy a gallon of regular ice cream and carve out a carrying case for my booty.)

Well, needless to say, I didn't get my to-go bag. But I can still taste that ice cream, and I will be back for more soon enough. Only this time, I might just skip dinner and get to the good stuff.

Happy Sandwich Day!!

It all started with a card game, so the legend goes. One fateful night in 1762, John Montagu, better known to the world as the 4th Earl of Sandwich, was in the midst of an all-night card game when he felt a wave of hunger overtake him. Rather than sully his cards with the juice of his roasted beef, the right 4th Earl asked his servant to slap that meat between two slices of bread, and, lo and behold, the modern sandwich was born.


You may be wondering why I bring this up now. Well, in addition to November 3 being the day on which we celebrate the births of Adam Ant and Dolph Lundgren, today is also Sandwich Day - commemorating the birth of the 4th Earl of Sandwich and the invention of one of the greatest contributions to western cuisine in the last 1000 years (right next to SPAM and Cheez Wiz). How do you celebrate Sandwich Day? Easy - eat a sandwich, or four.


The origins of Sandwich Day are not easily traceable, even after a thorough Google search. But I have a pretty good idea when it started, because I was there when it happened. Flashback to the fall of 1993, Wesleyan University. I woke up, ate a sandwich and had the brilliant (brilliant!) idea to commemorate the inventor of my morning (1 PM) meal. And so I plastered the campus with posters exhorting my fellow hipsters-in-training (back then, the term on campus was "coolio", which I also claim to have coined, at least for that purpose. No disrespect to Coolio.) to take a sandwich by the hand and stuff it in their food-holes. In the 15 years since the founding of Sandwich Day, it's celebration has spread to all corners of the world.
So, in honor of the 15th anniversary of Sandwich Day, I hereby present my Top 8 Mos' Favoritest Sandwiches of All Time (in rough, but not exact order):

1. Chicken Parmigiana, Dina's, Middletown, CT (Dina's came under new management sometime in the last 10 years. The new owners make a decent, but not quite comparable sub)

2. Lamb Sandwich with onion marmalade, Alon's, Atlanta, GA

3. "Dagwood" style sandwich with Karl Ehmer's cole-slaw, Karl Ehmer's, Poughkeepsie, NY (now closed)

4. Turkey Sandwich, Love 'n Haight Sandwiches, San Francisco, CA

5. Shwarma sandwich, Shemesh Shwarma, Jerusalem, Israel (no longer serves shwarma - go figure)

6. Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwich

7. Egg Sandwich with Turkey Bacon and a Hash Brown on Toasted Biali, Jay Street Deli, Brooklyn, NY

8. "The Effron": turkey, muenster, tomato and grilled sweet onions, on rye, grilled on panini, 61 Deli, New York, NY (burned down in 2006)

Honorable Mention (because it's The Wifey's favorite): Roasted turkey, thinly sliced granny smith apples, cranberry sauce, and brie on spelt bread.

As you can see, at least half of these favorites are now just memories, but ah... what sweet memories they are.

So go ahead - eat a sandwich, and thank John the 4th Earl Montagu while you're at it.




Feel free to share your favorite sandwiches with us.

Brooklyn Yogurt Turf Wars!

Perhaps this post is best categorized under the label "things I couldn't possibly give a shit about since I don't live in Downtown Brooklyn." But a very interesting (to me at least) development is afoot in my neighborhood. I've lived in Downtown Brooklyn for a number of years now, and have watched as the 'nabe slowly received the gentrification attention that has been lavished on other previously, um, crusty Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg. Despite the introduction of about 5 bazillion (actual number) new banks and even the promise of a new Trader Joe's, the stretch of Court Street between Atlantic and Livingston Street has been slow to clean its act up and trade in bail bonds shops for some gourmet falafel stand (or whatever fancy restaurant marks the first wave of gentrification). Until now.

Within the next few weeks, not one, not two, but THREE new frozen yogurt shops will be opening within 6 blocks of each other. Of those, Red Mango and Yogo Monster (clever, fellas) will be within spitting distance of each other (especially if the spitter is Larry Piagrassi, legendary spit-distance champion from the Flappy Days brothers' days at Camp Androscoggin). This is, of course, good news for the wifey, and c'mon - who doesn't remember their first, delicious cup of that creamy, cold stuff that wasn't quite ice cream, not quite yogurt at their local mini-mall (probably down the hall from a Spencer's Gifts). But methinks what will be most exciting about this freak occurrence is the Darwinian battle these little shops will entangle themselves Who will be left standing? I'll keep you posted, likely 20 pounds heavier from a steady diet of "fat free" frozen, cultured goodness in a cup.