Grimaldi's: Brooklyn New York

If this is your first time reading this hella rad blog, then you dont know that I love pizza. So welcome to K&S, I love pizza. That being said, when I was recently in New York I really wanted to try some east coast pizza. Months ago I was watching food network and something came on about Grimaldi's. I remember thinking, if I ever go back to NYC I will try it. Well we did and boy, was it an adventure in time and patience.

My mom and I were staying in Manhattan in the Theatre District and we set out that morning walking towards the Financial District. We had no intention of walking the entire way...but we did and yes, that is about 6 miles. After the long walk past several duane reade stores we decided to take a cab over the bridge to ensure we would be on time for our lunch date at Grimaldi's with a new hip hop supergroup "They Live".

As the cab pulled up we had no idea the line would be that serious. It was down the block.

A few minutes later a man came out and let us know it would be about 30min from where we were standing. It actually took like 45min, but it was cool our hip hop friends were running late anyway. The wait was too long, the heat was too much and the complaining people were getting on my last nerve. But I was doing fine actually because I knew once inside I would be able to eat pizza and sometimes nothing in the world compares to that.

When we got seated I got right in the line for the bathroom. I was surprised how small it was inside but that makes a lot of sense why the wait is so long.

The line for the bathroom is right next to the kitchen. So you are able to catch a full view of the pizza chefs and the historic coal fired brick oven.

While we were still waiting on our friends we ordered some chianti and after the wait outside my mom and I pretty much pounded our first glass. I dont even remember what it tasted like.

First came out the veggie pizza my mom ordered which she asked for mushrooms and onions.
The sauce was bubbling and the smell was amazing. The smokey crust looked so damn amazing. I couldnt wait for it to cool down so we could eat.


They Live asked me to order them a pepperoni pizza with ricotta cheese. It also looked extremely tasty with the scattered basil and chunky tomato sauce.

The four of us killed two large pizzas. I dont think They Live ate anything before meeting us because they stopped talking when the pizza came out. The pizza's were both very good but I did like the pepperoni a bit better because of the salty meat. The mild fresh mozzerella cheese and rich sauce were extremely kick ass. The only thing that didnt hold up was the crust. The ends were perfect but as the crust got to the middle it was a bit too soggy for my favor. I love a thin crust as long as it doesnt turn into mush. Taste wise, I will admit...they have something going here.

Everyone agreed that this pizza was good, but I don't know if anyone thought they would wait and hour to eat it...I think I might. After our late lunch we headed back to the city and all made the trek over the Brooklyn bridge. It was beautiful even though we got caught in the rain but the sun was out and it didn't matter, I just had pizza.

19 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn NY

My trip to Newburg, Wisconsin 2009

West Allis, Wisconsin is where I was born. I lived in a suburb of Milwaukee for the first 13 years of my life, then we relocated to hell, or what some refer to as Spokane, Washington. Regardless, I turned out just fine, sort of...

My dad still lives in Wisconsin, 30 some miles north of Milwaukee in a village called Newburg where he lives with my step mom in a very rural area. My dad is also a firefighter and the local fire department holds an annual fundraiser every year in June. This "picnic" is a 3 day beer drinking, cover band featuring, carnival ride having, greasy food serving insane party. This year, myself along with my brother and our significant others took the trip to visit and support my dad. Below are a few pictures and comments from the trip including some insane food sampled along the way.

first night at my dads and he wanted us to get in on the schlitz because apparently
its back and better than ever. Not bad.

after a few beers we drove to Cousins for some sandwiches. These sandwiches are so good and so simple.
Its gotta be the bread or oregano. I had the club sandwich.

the following day we drove to Port Washington (where Dustin Diamond lives, and yes, I did see him at the grocery store)
and we got down on Friday Fish Fry at Newport Shores.

I started with a dinner salad, it was pretty standard along with the honey mustard dressing

i also decided to go with the blatz in a bottle, my grandpa use to drink this by the case when we were kids.
it tastes pretty good ice cold, pretty malty...but when warm, its a bit much.

for lunch i had the baked potato with the fried lake perch. The fish was decent, a bit dry but nothing like a local favorite.

the restaurant is right on lake michigan with a pretty nice view of the water.
the decor is dated but it works. average age of other patrons about 85.

Later that evening...

later that night we went to the first night of the fireman's picnic on the park grounds in Newburg.
we drank at home and then took it to the streets. First stop, the carny food wagon for a walking taco.

basically you get taco fixings on top of a bag of smashed doritos.
apparently i ate a lot of this, i dont remember.

the next day...

the next day we went to another part of the area called Grafton and we hit up a spot called Vino 100 for a Saturday wine tasting.

with our australian wine's we shared some garlic jack. wisconsin sure makes some good cheese.

Saturday night was fun, b. and I worked in the beer tent and served hundreds of people pitchers of beer and mikes hard. It was a lot of fun, didnt take any pictures... but feel free to check out the fire department's photos here.

sunday is the finale of the picnic, they have a parade including all the firetrucks and a lot of other things
like tractors, dancing grannies, kids, classic cars and marching .bands


after the picnic we headed to the park grounds to hang out and drink a few beers.
we stopped by the carny food wagon and got a snack. they were out of deep fried pickles so i got the deep fried cheese.

i swear this is american cheese, my brother said it was cheddar...regardless it was a
bit much. the first bite was hot and tasty, after that it became thick , strange and solid. damn, what a healthy snack.

Monday...

monday everyone wanted to go get some custard, naturally we went to Kopps.

you can read my other posts about the amazing custard at kopps. i ate mine so fast i didnt take a photo, it was hot and it was melting. I got the standard vanilla. the flavor of the day was mint chocolate chip or this other monday mystery special of chocoalte custard with chocolate covered peanuts. my brother and L. also got a burger. b, loves these burgers, they are huge and greasy.

that night we went to the firehouse to say goodbye to the locals and watched my dad cook steaks for the guys.


the last thing i remember about monday night is playing quarters with my family and a few brave locals. i fell on the floor.



Well that was it, 5 days of kicking it in the midwest.
Below is my favorite random photo from the trip:

a proper chinese birthday

my mom's birthday was last week, and being the low-key woman that she is, i asked if she even wanted to do anything...a sunday dinner, perhaps? she said she wasn't sure and would let me know later. the last thing i wanted was for her to prepare dinner for "the kids"...it was her birthday, after all.

a couple days later, my e-nbox pinged, and my mom invited us out to her house for hot pot! yay! i love hot pot, but it wasn't really a food tradition in my family. heck, i didn't even think my parents would break out the burners for the real deal. boy, was i wrong.

my parents bought the hot pots with the divider in the center so that we had both a hot and a "normal" broth. they went for extreme variety, offering chicken, beef, and vegetarian broth (whee!).

yeah, i took a picture of the blue flame, so sue me for nerding out!

the spread included spinach, baby bok choy, lotus root, bean sprouts, snow peas, green onion, purple basil, cilantro, fresh and fried tofu, shrimp, chicken, pork loin, and two types of beef, one sirloin (i forget..?) and one "ungraded" per vietwah. mmm, check out that red broth! i would've gone hotter, but with the temp and the spice combined, i was pretty satisfied.

here's my brother dunking some chicken into his broth. delicious.

i had a lot of fun engaging in the communal activity that is hot pot. i love interactive food, and this was super tasty, filling beyond words, and a fantastic way to celebrate my mom's birthday.

thanks for dinner, guys!!

Happy New Year

Well Happy New Year, sorry for the lack of posts on my part. Might as well explain myself, for those who care. A few things contributed to this...First came the start of the holidays which if you are going out to eat then you just haven't gotten invited to enough holiday parties. This time of year is perfect for overeating small snacks and hearty comfort foods. So, first there was Jive Turkey 2008 an annual holiday party that I have attended for the last few years hosted at T's posh West Seattle digs. This year was pretty amazing...nothing like over eating, drinking and dancing in someones living room.

appetizers included m.'s special deviled eggs, they were bomb

picture of my plate mac and cheese, stuffing, turkey, mashed potatoes,
brussel sprouts. so glad my friends can really cook! Shout out to the amateur chefs

Second up was the great Seattle Snow Storm of 2009 which caused me to barely leave my home for a week and a half. Therefore going out to eat wasn't a top priority. Now, I love a snow day here and there just as much as the next guy. Waking up and running to the window in hopes that school would be closed is a fond memory of mine from growing up in Wisconsin. My current job operates on the same schedule as Seattle public schools, so I was out of work for a week and a half. Wow. I will give the city a D on how well they performed in this weather.

picture of snow at cal anderson park by my house
later that week i shared a nice cup of hot chocolate spiked with everclear with l.
ps. dont ever try this drink

One thing we did do during the blizzard was make a gingerbread house...it was a lot harder than I thought and quite messy. L. was not sure what the point was but by the end, we ended up making an amazing piece of artwork and having a good time.

if you cant tell from the theatrical lighting this was inspired by the
infamous stop motion animation flick Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Third, it was Christmas Day dinner at my Mom's. Everyone in the family was in charge of bringing a dish. I seem to have forgotten to take a pic of the apps, by B. which were really nice spreads as well as the kick ass sundae bar prepared by little B. Great job by all, I must say.

I made cornish game hens stuffed with bacon cornbread, L. made broccoli mashed potatoes,
other L. made polenta with veggie chorizo, and B.'s mac and chesse and squash.

And FINALLY, I have been on a detox since January 5th, a raw food detox to be more specific. The eve of starting the insane detox I shared a "good-bye cooked food" meal with some close friends at Honey Court. I also purchased some of their chili hot sauce to go. I cannot wait to eat that after the detox.

you know the regular stuff: chow mein, honey walnut prawns
aka mayo covered swimming rats and a few other things like the
interesting ginger chicken that is front and center of the photo.

Now on a solid day 6 of this raw diet I feel pretty good, a bit tired but not hungry. I also got a cold, which I am sure is because all the stuff is trying to leave my body. Needless to say it makes it really hard to go out to eat. A quick idea of what I have been eating includes: raw cereal made up of raw almonds, shredded apple, shredded coconut, a little honey, cinnamon and a splash of almond milk. This is actually so good, I do plan on eating this when the detox ends. If you want to check out some of the recipes check this site. I mean Rawchos? WOW. Another item I enjoyed was the raw spaghetti I made the other night which is pictured below.

Rawghetti

A final, big shout out to Juice It in downtown Seattle who hooked me up an amazing raw lunch today. I did however forget to take my phone for any pics. The place is a hidden gem for those trying to eat raw or healthy downtown. I will be back to dining out soon enough. I have a list of places I have wanted to check out.

See you soon.

Buddha Ruksa Thai Cuisine

I rarely get to West Seattle because I dont drive but on the few occasions that I do, I rather enjoy the restaurants. Perhaps because its something new, but I also like to leave cap hill and the pretentiousness that awaits you at several of the new restaurants.

I picked up B & B music factory from the airport and they wanted to eat. We stopped by their place to drop off their stuff and began calling around to find a place to get a reservation. It was Saturday and lots of places were packed for the evening. However, we were able to get in at 7:45pm at Buddha ruksa. My brothers favorite Thai place, so he claimed. The place is small with low lighting and every table was packed with diners. This is a comfortable spot and you could tell it was going to be good, the mood in the restaurant was very chill.

Prior to arriving at Buddha ruksa we had a few wild turkey's down the street (in honor of our band) even though our 4th member was off gallivanting in LA. We poured a little out for him. When we sat down I realized how hungry I was and the wild turkey was eating my stomach. I quickly reviewed the menu, satay, calamari, egg rolls, tom yum, fried tofu, crab wonton...we needed something quick. B said the best app was the crab wontons, so we ordered them immediately. The crab wontons were very hot and perfectly crispy. I love anything with cheese and the cream cheese to crab ratio was right on. Nice spicy sweet dipping sauce on the side too.

When it came time for ordering the meal, big B. took the lead. He decided to go for the pork green curry, which is one of my favorites. My only complaint is that we didnt order it a bit more spicy. Very tasty and again came out really hot. Perfection.

We also got an order of fried rice, which again had great balance of seasoning. It was a nice additon to our meal and the cabbage was my favorite part of the dish besides the grilled rice.

Alas, the reason B & B like to come to this spot is for the Crispy Garlic Chicken and now I know why...it was amazing. I could have gotten a whole plate of this for myself. The fried chicken topped with rich spicy garlic on top of some basil leaves made me unable to stop eating. Damn! B knew what he was doing when he ordered, because lucky for us he got two for the table.


I will certainly go back and sample more of their menu. I was interested in some of their other signature dishes including the wonton pad thai and the prawns & pumpkin curry. And for those of you who like crispy duck, they have six different ways.

Check it out. Its fairly reasonable prices too, you know if you've heard about the economy.

Buddha ruksa
Thai cuisine
3520 SW Genesee Street.
Seattle, WA 98126
T. (206) 937 - 7676
F. (206) 923 - 6470

Tuesday - Friday
Lunch & Dinner 11am - 10pm
Saturday & Sunday
Dinner 4pm - 10pm
Closed Monday

Brian's Grille

bailey: worlds smartest puggle

This summer we started a Sunday tradition of going to my brothers for dinner and band practice. Yeah, Im in a band...called Wyld Turkeyz, we have like thousands of fans and have been on tour for months from Paris to LA. Watch for us. The posts on this site have been slow, and I have so many pictures in my phone I decided to go back and start getting some new content on this sweet blog. Below are some pictures from a summer Sunday when my brother prepared thai lettuce wraps and a spicy peanut noodle salad. I dont have a grill but I have made these a few times at home since watching him. I am a fan of anything you can put sriracha on...which is pretty much everything!

the meal started with brian cooking the chicken on his awesome wood grill.

brian perfectly cooking the chicken

brian prepping the meal, the peanut noodle salad in the back

the final plate on b & b's awesome patio