Last Friday the bf and I made a trip up to Brooklyn for a long weekend. We have both been to the city (New York) many times, and since his daughter lives there and my youngest is there temporarily, we've also been to Brooklyn a few times before, but this trip we decided we would spend all of our time in Brooklyn. We didn't go into the city at all.
We stayed in the heart of downtown Brooklyn at the Sheraton. A really good hotel and, compared to NYC, very reasonable rates. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a hotel in Brooklyn
We dined in Brooklyn - Williamsburg's Bliss Cafe (vegan) for Grilled Portobello sandwiches at lunch, then the abistro (Nigerian) in Fort Greene for dinner on Friday, where I had Pepe Soup, which was clams, mussels, and Vietnamese catfish in a fragrant lobster-coconut consomme, and it was beyond delicious. Saturday was brunch at a place called Char #4 in the Cobble Hill neighborhood, where they had sort of "fancy" southern style food. I wondered if anyone in Brooklyn could make decent grits, and now I know the answer. Yes. Yes, they can. With poached eggs on top. Yum. That night was Thai at M Shanghai in the Metropolitan area of town, where I enjoyed a Lobster fried rice dish unlike any fried rice I've had before. Sunday brunch was at a "famous" Brooklyn restaurant called Junior's. It was one of those places with 70's decor and lots of pictures of famous people who have eaten there over the years all over the place. Nothing fancy there, just good ol' soul food. It was fun. One of the things I most enjoy about going up there (other than the fact that we get to see two of our favorite people) is the chance to eat things we may not get around here. It inspires me to come home and start looking for recipes, or to try on my own to replicate things I've eaten while there. The Nigerian food we had really has my wheels turning. I wonder if I can find Vietnamese catfish around here?
And we shopped in Brooklyn. The bf's daughter had training on Sunday (for an upcoming 35 mile marathon she will be running in South Africa later this spring! Yup, that is correct. Thirty five miles.), and my lovey had to work, so we had several hours after brunch to spend on our own. It was savagely cold (okay, I admit I am a weather wuss, but really, it was cold), but we bundled up and went out walking down one of the main shopping streets in Brooklyn. We ducked into many of the shops (partly to warm up, but also because they had really cool stuff that we don't see around here much). One place apparently specialized in (old) animal bones, horns, and the kind of charts and diagrams that you might find in a biology classroom. Odd, but interesting.
All in all, although I think I ate my own weight in delicious food, I think I walked it all off! It was a fabulous trip. One we hope to make again. Soon.
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| View from our hotel room on the 22nd floor, Sunday morning. Snow was coming down, but melted before it hit the ground. |
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| View from the other direction. |
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| Just an odd building we walked past. Upstairs; a Tyrolean cottage, downstairs; a Dollar Store. |
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| The bf and his favorite daughter. Isn't she beautiful? Oh, and a cow. |
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| One of many adorable neighborhoods in Brooklyn. |
Sounds great and, yes, last weekend was about the coldest weekend we've had in the northeast so your timing was perfect.
ReplyDeleteI need to get my butt down there. I've heard lots of great things about Brooklyn.
Steve, GO! I saw so many interesting shops. Had the weather been just a little nicer I would have spent hours shopping. And eating (oh wait... I did do that!). Next time I hope we'll drive up, so maybe I can take some goodies home with me.
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