Summer IS Coming - Part 1

Summer IS coming, at least I hope it is.  Today in NYC on June, 2nd 2015 it was a high of 50 degrees!!!!!  

summer means goya season in Japan and it's used in Goya Champuru, the representative dish of Okinawa.  Goya is a bitter melon and they don't sell it in New York so you have to use chinese bitter melons that don't look as cool.  Japanese goya looks like godzilla skin for real. Photo of Japanese goya below from from https://jennampollard.wordpress.com/2011/08/08/okinawa-style-goya-champuru/img_7009/

Goya Champuru is like the history of Okinawa on a plate.  The bitter melon was introduced from trade with southeast asia and the SPAM, yes SPAM is a result of it being introduced by US soldiers during WWII.  I saw someone's website with a recipe and she asked an old Okinawan grandma what they used to use before SPAM and she said she couldn't even remember.  There is tofu and egg and it's all stir fried up.

I used to drink tea every day when I lived in china and japan.  I miss that little clay tea pot Fumika's mom gave me, what happened to that thing?  Now we have this new one and I drink tea sometimes cuz I don't want to be drinking coffee every day.

a tree falls in brooklyn.  This was down the street from Lucali and there is the Lucali chef who was stabbed in some street fight mob thing in front of the restaurant and was back making pizzas the next day.  Later on there was 1 police car and 1 police van and literally 6 cops around this tree putting up yellow police tape.  seriously wtf 6 cops to do this job?

we discovered this awesome bar and music venue next door by seeing it on googlemaps.  The Jalopy Tavern, it's in this weird doldrums btween carroll gardens and red hook that no one would ever venture into unless you knew a secret.  This place is awesome.  This guy knows it.  He wouldn't leave for a good 2 minutes just seeing people inside and wondering why he couldn't be having fun with them.

I collected a bunch of these traditional Chinese tiger toys when I lived in Beijing.  It was a hobby of mine.

The Brooklyn Crab is gonna be packed this summer! (if it ever comes)

we went back to the Jalopy Tavern the next night and saw the 5000 Jazz Assassins who's style was "riverboat pop".  Basically ragtime and jazz classics and originals.  But seeing is live is a lot of fun and the singer really went for it and delivered on the intense notes.  I took a photo of this interesting dude before the show and he ended up being the singer.

this place is a find!  live music every night, usually in the vein of bluegrass and folk.

We met this amazing family from the neighborhood at Greenwood Park beer garden.  Dads, daughters, brother in laws, sisters, wives, a lot of their fam was out together enjoying the beautiful weather.  They were so friendly!

bocce ball and corn hole are HOT right now.  Everywhere is getting bocce ball and corn hole.

the rooftop on 15th and 5th

jealous of this guy bbq'ing

 manhattan in the back

a late dinner at Fletcher's BBQ 

I hate wind blowers!  especially early in the morning.  I don't get the point of them!!!!!!!  If I ever had neighbors that I hated I would buy a wind blower and just blow stuff from one side of the yard to the other whilst drinking a beer at random times of the day.