Collectages

Saturday morning we extracted ourselves from moving madness mode to go to the Bay Ridge green market. I was craving good fish and I know I can always rely on the American Seafood stand, they do catch all their fish on Long Island Sound and  to this day they have always provided top quality fish, [...]

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Also called monkfish, lotte or baudroie in French, this excellent  —not so good looking— fish belongs to the Lophius family. The firm consistency of its flesh resembles lobster meat. The liver, cheek and tail are eaten. The head is rarely seen at the fish store. The tail is the piece most often available for purchase. [...]

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I walk along the Verrazano Narrows on Shore Promenade several times a week. On Memorial Day Shore Promenade was busier than usual so I decided to “catwalk” next to the water on the other side of the fence. It was low tide and I wanted to look at what had drifted into the boulders. Between [...]

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It can be spelled Molokhia, Mulukhiya, Malukhiya, Molokia; A.k.a: Juteplante in Germany, Jew’s mallow in the UK, corète potagère or chanvre du bengale in France, Crain-Crain or Krin-Krin in francophone’s Africa, Corchorus Olitorius in Latin and finally, in Arabic, ملوخية. Until my trip to a Syrian grocery store yesterday in Bay Ridge, NY, I had [...]

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Still not much time to cook due to the last crunch on my next cd with Michael Bisio (title: “Whisk! Don’t Churn”) scheduled to be released on March 12 at Justin’s in Albany where it was recorded live November 20th 2008, remember? We still had to eat and I must say I like the challenge [...]

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Nymphéas Pour John & Wayne The sun has set too fast today. Can a water lily show me the way? An impression by Claude Monet Let Giverny bridge Albany. Wet paint into wet paint Emphasizes your qualities. The perception of your movements Belongs to les effets de soir. Your blue shadow is a landscape Your [...]

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Since October 5th we have a farmers market in Brooklyn Bay Ridge. It is held every Saturday from 8am-5pm  at the corner of Third Ave and 95th Street, in parking lot of the defunct Key Food. This location is temporary, a Walgreen pharmacy (another pharmacy?!) is schedule to open in the Spring 2009. Merci à [...]

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Bay Ridge is the most Southwestern neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. The area got its moment of fame in the late 1970′s with the movie Saturday Night Fever. The tip of our neighborhood displays the commending Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. I moved there a year ago and truly enjoys the area despite the long commute to Manhattan. [...]

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Last night we were invited to dinner at the home of Joseph & Yoori. Joseph Mastantuono is my older son, and two years ago he and Yoori Kang got married. I am so blessed to have such an incredible daughter (don’t like to say in law, daughter in love would be better!). Yoori came from [...]

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From Bay Ridge (Brooklyn, NY), Staten Island looks like a stone throw away. The reality is that Staten Island is the third largest in size of the five boroughs, with 59 sq miles (153 km2) with a population close to 500,000 people; so even though I live less than 40 blocks north of the the [...]

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