This week, our editors share what they’re loving: a particular beery favorite, a great book, a new album, a sandwich that’s making them think — anything that’s piquing their interests. Recommend to us what you’re loving right now in the comments!
VIDEO: Walter Martin — The Beatles (When Ringo Shook His Mop) Live
Caroline Lange: Walter Martin’s We’re All Young Together (above)
Okay, I know Walter Martin’s We’re All Young Together is technically an album for children, but holy cow is it great. Lauren Wilson, Marissa Finn and I listened to it on repeat while working together this week, and the lyrics are sweet and smart: In “I-M-A-G-I-N-A-T-I-O-N” he sings that “the moon and the stars are kept in a jelly jar”; and in “Sing to Me,” his duet partner Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs sings, “I want to breach the castle walls of you.” Since my mostly companion this summer is a 3-year-old named Henry, it may well become my summer soundtrack (along with the playlist he made for Edible Brooklyn)—and I don’t mind a bit.
Amy Zavatto: Flagship Brewery
Be still my little underdog heart: Staten Island has a BREWERY! Flagship Brewery is the first one to open since Peels closed in the 60s. Yes, you read right — Staten Island used to be home to quite a few suds-producing spots, spurred by German inhabitants in the mid-nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Chalky White’s gorgeous house in Boardwalk Empire? It’s on Staten Island and was built by a former immigrant beer baron – dig it!). As a current St. George, Staten Island resident, I was not just a little stoked to get to go to the friends and family party a few days before the official opening Memorial Day weekend and check out this thoroughly rad brewery and tasting room walking distance from my home. And I was even more excited to see coverage about it in the Gray Lady here. Read all about it and hop on a (free) ferry to come on over and check it out this weekend. Hell, I might be there, too.
Marissa Finn: Pickles
I’m loving pickles, all day, every day, every way (until I make the informed decision — at least once daily — to limit my sodium intake). My parents recently sent me 9 jars of pickles from Mouth as a gift, and I’ve now tasted and fallen in love with them all. It’s hard to choose between them, but if I had to select a favorite, it’s Sour Puss Pickles Ginger Carrots for the win.
Rachel Wharton: The Veg Flat sandwich at SCRATCHbread
They have this sandwich at SCRATCHbread that I can’t get out of my head, or at least they did last I went. It’s called the Veg Flat. We covered this company nearly five years ago in Edible Brooklyn when founder Matt Tilden was just baking loaves in the borrowed pizza ovens at a bar in Greenwood Heights. Back then he would wrap each loaf in twine. Now he’s got a bakery in Bed-Stuy with a wood-burning oven, and he’s now using breads as the foundation of a full menu, which he sells from a little window on Lexington Ave. just off Bedford Ave. The Veg Flat is like sandwich artistry 2.0. A big floppy piece of flatbread that’s essentially the consistency of Neapolitan-style pizza dough layered with hummus and skinny pieces of asparagus, sugar snaps, radishes, pea greens and big dollops of smoked almond romesco, served with a wedge of Meyer lemon. It’s like a salad on a sandwich! Or maybe the next-gen falafel? Whatever it is, I’ve only had it twice but I think about it constantly.
Lauren Wilson: Beetlebung Farm — Spring Journal
As I saw at Food Book Fair’s Foodieodicals, there’s no shortage of beautiful publications dedicated to exploring what, when, where, why and how we eat and drink. One little gem that I took home with me is a thin quarterly recipe zine from Beetlebung Farm: one of the suppliers for chef Chris Fischer’s The Beach Plum restaurant in Martha’s Vineyard. Beetlebung has been in Fischer’s family for over half a century and is still alive and well thanks in part to the restaurant’s support and events like the upcoming Farm. Field. Sea. Island Culinary Adventure (which looks like the ultimate nearby agritourism experience). This hand bound paperback is a vibrant presentation of everyday farm life at Beetlebung thanks simple seasonal recipes and visceral photography. I want a copy for every season.
Carrington Morris: The backyard at Jane Motorcycles café
I’m loving the backyard of Jane Motorcycles café at Grand and Bedford. With this week’s heartbreaking news of Verb Café’s demise, it’s some consolation to be able sip tea surrounded by greenery, the scent of gardenia wafting through the air along with the sounds of Mariachi coming up from a neighboring home.
Gabrielle Langholtz: Homegrown spring peas
I’m growing a little pot of pea plants and it’s so much fun to show their life cycle to my 5-year-old daughter. We bought the seed packet during the polar vortex and when the world began to thaw, soaked the peas and her little fingers pushed them just the right depth into the pot’s soil. We set up string for the shoots to climb and last week saw the first blossom. Yesterday the first tiny pod took shape and in a few days I’ll be packing them in her lunch box. As they say at McDonalds, I’m lovin it.
Feature photo of Jane Motorcycles café courtesy of Carrington Morris
