Flavor Paper

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Karlyn, you need to start blogging! But until you begin, I'm happy to share the cool stuff you send my way.

Since I'll soon be settling into a new apartment, Karlyn told me about Flavor Paper, a small handscreened wallpaper company that started on the Oregon coast, moved to New Orleans and now has four-story showroom/factory in Cobble Hill. Home to the company's design and screenprinting operations, it's apparently a really cool space where customers can see the process up close and check out the designs. I've never used wallpaper before but have been thinking about giving it a try and already found a bunch from Flavor Paper that I really like. They even have some scratch and sniff ones that little kids would love.

Flavor Paper

216 Pacific Street

Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Wrap it Up

Last week, we had a special dinner at Del Posto with some friends who were visiting from Brazil. We started at The Lot on Tap, Tom Colicchio's new outdoor bar that's at the bottom of the new part of the High Line, right next to Rainbow City, a fun art installation that's open until July 5.

I think I'll always feel funny taking photos of my food when I'm out to eat, especially in fancy restaurants. At El Bulli, I made an exception since that was truly the meal of a lifetime, but at Del Posto, a place that's slightly stuffy (I could do without the piano player, for example), it just didn't feel right to snap pictures. So, a shot of Rainbow City, taken from the High Line with my (new!) iPhone, en route to dinner is all I've got.

I went to Del Posto when it first opened a few years ago for a work dinner and wasn't wowed. Now I completely understand why it was recently awarded 4 stars from The New York Times, the first Italian restaurant to get such a high honor in 36 years. It had been awhile since we'd seen our friends and they're expecting their first child in September, so we decided to go all out and order the 7-course tasting menu. It was incredible and each course was impressive and creative, but the sheep's milk ricotta nudi di ouvo, two wobbly balls of pasta filled with egg yolks, really stood out, both for flavor and presentation (they were served on top of shaved raw asparagus and looked like eggs in a nest), and the basil gelato that came with dessert was unbelievable. We had three types of fritters, including one with bacalao that rivaled the ones I've had in Brazil, lard butter and homemade foccacia, 100 layer lasagna, spiced ostrich, crudo with burrata and homegrown herbs, and so much more. Each course was finished off with a different type of olive oil and since I can't remember all the details, here's the full menu.

As you can imagine, about halfway through our meal, I was full. This led me to tell our friends about the time Daniel and I went to Per Se with my Mom and Daniel's Dad and had a heated discussion over doggy bags. Daniel's Dad is from Brazil and he and his wife live in Portugal, two countries where doggy bags are frowned upon, if not unheard of. Long story short, they were appalled when we asked to wrap up some of our food.

I know, I know, it's a cultural thing, but cultural divides aside, I just don't get it. Aren't there people starving in this world? Why is it better to throw expensive, high-quality food away than to take it home and turn it into awesome sandwiches which, I might add, is what we did with our Per Se leftovers the next day. Wouldn't a chef prefer to see his food come back into the kitchen and get wrapped up, a sign that their patrons loved it, but just couldn't take another bite because normal human beings are not built to eat multiple courses in one sitting? Or, would they rather see the food they worked so hard on get thrown in the garbage?

So, there I was at Del Posto with a plate of veal braciole in front of me and I could only take a bite or two. When our waiter came to check on us, he noticed that I hadn't finished my food. I explained that I was completely stuffed, and I'll admit I said it kind of dramatically since I was hoping he could take a hint. The fabulous Federico immediately whisked my food away and promptly returned to let me know it was safe and sound in coat check. (Oh, and you better believe I had no problem polishing off our next course—roasted nectarine with a grilled lemon cake and that intense, but refreshing basil gelato. There was no way I could wrap that up.)

When it came time to claim my leftovers, the guy in coat check looked at my ticket and asked, kind of gruffly, "Is this food?" At first I was embarrassed until I saw him reach into A MINI REFRIGERATOR to retrieve my doggy bag. And there it was. Proof that I'm not the only person in New York City who asks for them.

It was such a nice sight to see.

I'm curious to hear what others think about doggy bags. Would you take home food from a fancy restaurant?

Del Posto
85 10th Avenue (16th Street)
212-497-8090

Blue Kitchen Cabinets

We're leaving for Brazil in a few weeks and will be settling into our new apartment when we get back in August. Right now I should be checking things off our long to-do list, but instead, I'm thinking about kitchen cabinets and how I really want to paint our new ones blue.

I've always been drawn to light kitchens with pops of color and will miss our current one's white cabinets, greyish counters and blue penny tiles. Our new kitchen has butcher block, matching cabinets and white subway tiles. We're keeping the counters, but want to brighten up the cabinets and add some contrast. I just can't decide if we should go with a deep, dark navy or play it safe with a cooler shade of blue. For now, I keep pinning kitchens with blue cabinets until I decide which way to go.

Images: Melanie Acevedo via Habitually Chic, House Beautiful via Simple Nest, Stewart Shining for Domino via The Kitchn, Domino Magazine via Kitchenisms, Terra Cotta Properties via Knight Moves, Ashley Whitaker Design 

Vicarious Vacation

Every year, my Mom takes a big vacation abroad. Before we had kids, my brother and I used to join her, either on our own, or together. Our trips to Spain, Italy, Portugal, Ireland and many other places, are some of my fondest memories. She spends months preparing for her trips and always finds the coolest places to eat, stay, and visit. She refers to multiple books, websites, newspaper and magazine articles and compiles all her information in a binder. It becomes her bible while she's away. I'll never forget when we went to Spain and she left her binder on the plane. We realized while we were in baggage claim and had to race back to our plane to retrieve it.

Sometimes one or both of her sisters have joined her, but lately, my Mom's been taking these trips on her own. On Saturday, she left for Europe and will be spending the next two weeks in Russia, Sweden, Denmark and Holland. When Nico heard she was going to Copenhagen (because he called her hotel there by accident while playing with her iPhone), he became fascinated with the word. Now he keeps asking if we can take the subway there. Some day, we'll all take a big international trip together.

For now, my Mom is keeping us in the loop on her latest trip with daily updates. She sends us photos of special meals with captions or short stories. Most people would shy away from traveling solo. She completely embraces it and secretly, I think it's her favorite way to go. I've always told her she should start a travel company, or at least a blog, because as anyone who has traveled with her can confirm, she plans the best trips.

So far we've gotten a few emails from her. The one today included the photo above and had the following caption: Traditional Russian salad, potatoes, carrots, beets, herring, pear and egg white on top, with a glass of Russian Chardonnay, preceded by a shot of cranberry flavored Russian vodka.  In another she told us that she saw Swan Lake in St. Petersburg and how it made her cry. After, she walked back to her hotel broad daylight since the city is in the middle of its White Nights, before stopping in at what she called the most happening bar to have a white Russian and some caviar.

No photos of the St. Petersburg yet, but she promised they're coming.

South Brooklyn Pizza

When it comes to food in Brooklyn, I try my best to stay in the loop. Rarely do I just stumble upon a place, especially one that's been around for a few months and has a few locations. But that's exactly what happened last night.

Daniel and I were about to go to Moim, a Korean place we really like, when we noticed a bright red storefront on a nearby side street. Inside we discovered South Brooklyn Pizza, a tiny place with a lot of charm and unbelievably good pies and slices. It's pricey—$4 a slice and $25 a pie—but after trying a slice of margherita, a four-cheese artichoke pie, and two cucumber and tomato salads with an amazing pesto-spiked dressing that I wanted to sip straight from the bowl, it's clear they use high quality ingredients. The pizza's crust was crispy with just a few charred spots, and rather than being paper thin or ultra thick, it was somewhere in between.

We sat outside at a marble table with red chairs and had fun showering the owner, a jolly Italian man, with lots of compliments on his perfect pizzeria. Next to us, a big family shared a bunch of pies and through the window, I played peekaboo with an adorable baby girl. It made me think of Nico and Leo. They would happily eat pizza every day if we let them. With such a special place in our neighborhood, it's going to be hard not to.

South Brooklyn Pizza
447 1st Street (between 6th and 7th Aves)
718-832-1022

Pretty in Pink

In the summer, all I want to drink is Rosé. It works well with most warm-weather foods and is refreshing. Last summer, I fell in love with Jelu Malbec Rose from Argentina. It had a really bright, cherry flavor and unlike most Rosés I've tried, it was deep and dark in color. My local wine store isn't carrying it anymore, so last night I decided to search for a new favorite. I went with a 2010 Wolffer Estate Rosé, 2010 Cabochard Cote Roannaise, 2009 Rubiconda Canavese Rosato, and 2010 Jean-Maurice Paffault Chinon.

When I'm choosing wine, I'm usually guided by the descriptions on the bottle or the ones that the wine shop provides, and occasionally I get swayed by cool labels. After trying to describe the type of Rosé I like last night and only being able to come up with crisp and a little bit sweet, it's time to finally take a class and learn a thing or two. I've bought wine at The Brooklyn Wine Exchange before and they offer all sorts of classes, so it seems like a good place to start.

Couleur Café

Some of my favorite places are on Seventh Avenue in the South Slope. There's Cafe Grumpy, Beer Table, Thistle Hill Tavern (whose owners are opening another restaurant just a few blocks down with Dale from Top Chef!), and now I have a new one to add to the list: Couleur Café.  It's a French cafe that just opened and now has me craving a sweet brioche topped with crunchy sugar crystals and an almond croissant every day. Oh, and their fresh lemonade is on the tart side, just the way I like it.

On Saturday, Nico helped me do a few loads of laundry. While our clothes were washing, he tried out his new scooter. After we transferred everything to the dryer, we went to Couleur Café for a treat. Being there with him reminded me of the diner trips I used to take with my grandfather every week when I was little. We'd squeeze into a booth, put some quarters in our jukebox and after drinking my own cup of coffee and eating a donut twist, I'd practice my dance moves on the leather seats. I loved that diner and our special outings so much and am sure they encouraged my love of restaurants and food.  Nico still has a long way to go when it comes to restaurant etiquette. When I told him to calm down on Saturday and explained that we were in a restaurant, he responded, "But Mama, this is a cafe, not a restaurant!" Still, it's so fun to be starting some rituals of our own.

He devoured a chocolate croissant in about one minute. He ate in silence and didn't take his eyes off it for a second. After, we built train tracks out of sugar packets. Before I knew it, he was laughing wildly and ready to run around outside again.

Couleur Café 
435 Seventh Ave, between 14th and 15th Streets
Park Slope, Brooklyn

Five Years

The other day, I remembered that I moved to Brooklyn on June 1, 2001. I can't believe I've been here a decade. Ten whole years in an amazing place where I never expected to end up. And then today, I realized that I published my very first blog post on June 16, 2006, half a decade ago. Life has changed a lot since then and I love looking back and reminiscing.

To commemorate five years of blogging, here are some of my favorite posts from the last five years.

Dinner at El Bulli
Gramercy Tavern's Gingerbread Cake and a Goodbye
The Best Meal I had in Brazil
A Thank You Lunch at the Spotted Pig
Brooklyn or the Burbs
This Week, I'm Elephant
Butcher's Ragù with Fusili

It's always nice when friends and family tell me they've enjoyed something I've written. This year, I even got a special and surprising shout-out, a reminder that other people are also reading. So, just like I did back in 2007, I'm hoping you'll leave a comment either here or on This Little Piglet's Facebook page in honor of this special occasion. Feel free to just say hello or to tell me how you found my blog and your favorite post.

As always, thanks for reading and here's to five more years of good food and This Little Piglet.

P.S. The image above is from a post I wrote on my 29th birthday, another favorite.

Cupcakes and Weddings

Last weekend, my friend Mona got married. She and I grew up together and were inseparable for many years. At her rehearsal dinner, we feasted on Lebanese food at Al Bustan and listened to lots of funny and touching speeches. Secretly, I hoped I'd get away without making one. I had plenty to say, but have never been a fan of public speaking. As the microphone kept getting passed around the room, I wanted to crawl under our table and hide. Soon enough, I found myself trying to explain to 125 people just how much Mona means to me.

At the wedding on Saturday at The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, a beautiful spot where I once sat next to Glen Close and made Matthew Modine think he knew me (more on that another day), I was so happy to see our friends, a big group that goes back over 20 years. I didn't want the night to end. This might explain why I let some of them persuade me and Daniel to attend the after party at the SoHo Grand.

We knew we'd pay the price the next day, and indeed we did. Leo woke up less than two hours after we got home and Nico soon after. My Mom had slept over and kept them entertained while we "slept in", but our little boys sound a lot like wild baboons first thing in the morning. Needless to say, we were dragging the entire day.

Daniel likes to tease me about how I eat too many sweets. On a day when we were dreaming about bedtime by 3pm, a few cupcakes from the new Butter Lane in Park Slope helped us both wake up.

Butter Lane
240 7th Ave (between 4th and 5th Streets)
Park Slope, Brooklyn

Smith Canteen

The owners of Seersucker, a really good southern restaurant on Smith Street, just turned a century-old pharmacy on the same block into a cafe. I checked it out on Monday and fell in love on the spot. Outside, pretty plants line the sidewalk and rest on marble-topped tables, while inside, they kept the original tile floor, tin ceiling and wood shelves, and added pale blue cabinets and more marble. The space is really bright and sunny and gave me good ideas for my own kitchen.

I went in the afternoon when most of their pastries, such as homemade strawberry pop tarts and strawberry rhubarb muffins, were long gone, but the chocolate chip cookie I tried was excellent, with big chunks of dark chocolate and a touch of sea salt. They started rolling out their lunch menu this week and I'm curious about the duck confit banh mi. Coffee and espresso is from Counter Culture and they also have sweet tea and hand-squeezed lemonade.

There are only a few small tables, but Carroll Park is right across the street. If you tend to travel with a bunch of kids like I usually do, get your treats to go and enjoy them over there. The F train stops on the same block and it's absolutely worth the trip from other parts of Brooklyn. Since Smith Canteen opens bright and early every day every day, I'm planning to go again soon for breakfast.

Smith Canteen
343 Smith Street (at Carroll)
Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
7am to 7pm, daily

Brooklyn Boys

Last week, we braved the blazing temps and spent a fun-filled day in the city with Karlyn and Fox. Unfortunately, the photo above is the only one we managed to take, but it's probably better that way. If you try to capture every moment with your kids, you often end up missing the moment altogether.

Nico loves books from the Urban Babies series, so to help us remember our fun day in the city, I thought I'd write one of my own. I'd call it Brooklyn Boys Romp Around Manhattan.

Brooklyn boys ride the subway. They prefer window seats, like to press their noses against the glass, and sometimes befriend people who look a little creepy.
Brooklyn boys take trial classes at Gymboree and pick up sweets at Tribeca Treats after.
Brooklyn boys eat watermelon at Whole Foods and pretend to cook carrots in a play space.
Brooklyn boys splash in sprinklers and cover themselves with sand at a playground along the Hudson River.
Brooklyn boys cool off in the dairy aisle of a West Village supermarket during a hot and sticky walk to Chelsea.
Brooklyn boys run happily along The High Line, up and over benches, through the new lawn, sometimes bumping into people or skinning knees, and admiring all the pretty wild flowers along the way.
Brooklyn boys eat shave ice with sour cherry and rhubarb syrup and are only willing to share once it's turned to water.
Brooklyn boys find room for mini passion fruit ice pops and licks of bigger ones with rhubarb and chamomile.
Brooklyn boys play with huge striped balloons and burn off energy in bouncy castles.
Brooklyn boys get brain freeze from citrus slushies that are a bit too sweet.
Brooklyn boys ride home in taxis when their parents are too tired to take them on the subway again.

Looking forward to more fun in Manhattan and Brooklyn this summer!

Brooklyn Commune

Vanderbilt Playground in Windsor Terrace is one of my favorite places in Prospect Park to take Nico and Leo to play. It was renovated last year and has lots of different structures that appeal to big and little kids. Occasionally, we stop at the pizza place across the street for slices, and for a while, I thought it was the only food option nearby. Then I read about Brooklyn Commune, a new cafe on Greenwood Ave. We tried it out last week and just a few blocks from the playground and right next to the Fort Hamilton subway stop, it's a wonderful, and much needed addition to the neighborhood.

Opened by a couple with culinary backgrounds, the cafe uses CSA-sourced produce and sells a small selection of local products. We went for an early breakfast on one of those days when it was sweltering by 9am and cooled off with some grapefruit juice mixed with mint before sharing a bowl of homemade granola, an egg sandwich with mushrooms and spinach on multigrain, and a blueberry yogurt muffin with an incredibly light crumb.

We picked up a jar of rhubarb rose petal preserves and have been enjoying it all week on buttered toast and I'm hoping to go back again for lunch to try one of their salads. They also sell prepared foods that would be perfect on nights when it's too hot to cook, and since Brooklyn Commune is BYO, it was nice to discover The Juice Box, a cool wine shop one door down.

Brooklyn Commune
601 Greenwood Ave
Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn
718-686-1044

Strawberry and Chocolate Ice Cream Cupcakes

Ice cream cupcakes aren't exactly ideal in 98 degree weather, but how was I supposed to know it would be that hot on Leo's first birthday? We ordered a dozen from Blue Marble using the Doodledeal I bought back in February and went with strawberry ice cream with crushed Newman's O's and chocolate icing. Leo and Nico both loved them. I thought they were way too rich and the buttery icing kind of clashed with the ice cream.  I'd prefer a simple scoop of Blue Marble's stawberry ice cream any day, but first birthdays call for something extra special and these did the trick.

The Rapture, Roberta's Style

At Madison Square Eats last week, I finally tried a pizza from Roberta's. The guys behind the Bushwick pizzeria brought a mobile wood-fire oven to the pop-up food court and were making a few of their specialty pies on the spot. I went with The Rapture: mozzarella, kale, spring garlic, lemon and pecorino, the lightest of the bunch. I loved the crispy kale (something I've been adding raw to smoothies and salads a lot lately), but thought there were a few too many charred spots on the chewy crust. The Bee Sting—mozzarella, tomato, spicy soppressata and honey—was another contender and I hear the sweet and salty combination is awesome. Since the actual pizzeria is much closer to me than Manhattan's Worth Square, I need to finally plan a trip there this summer.

TLP Loves: Little Brown Pen

When I first started reading blogs, I focused on food. I still read The Wednesday Chef and Orangette regularly, but last year, I discovered some new ones that focus on fashion, home design, parenthood and travel.

Little Brown Pen is full of pretty Paris photos—but not the city's usual sights and scenes—and has quickly become one of my favorites. As Nichole Robertson, the woman behind the blog (and camera) explains it, she tells stories of color in the city of light. In many of her posts, she strings together photos of seemingly unrelated things—think subway seats, cafe chairs, flower boxes—that share similar shades, like perfect purples, sage greens and weathered blues. Because of her, I find myself looking for similar color stories in Brooklyn and other places I visit. I love Nichole's creative view of Paris. I spent close to a year there when I was 20. Seeing the city with fresh eyes is such a treat and a reminder that inspiration is everywhere.

Nichole and her family moved to Paris in 2009 and her photos are a visual record of the things they'd discover during long walks. Though they now live in New Jersey, she and her husband go back every 6-8 weeks since they run an online store and Etsy shop where they sell a selection of her shots. It's affordable art at its finest. I have my eye on more than a few photos, but am forcing myself to not place an order until we're settled in our new apartment.

The funny thing is that I happened to work with Nichole at my first web job. She and I lost touch after the company laid off our entire editorial staff and it was so cool to find her via her blog a decade later. During our About.com days, we would sometimes meet at Amy's Bread before work for big bowls of cafe au lait and buttered baguettes with Bon Maman jam. Finding her by chance because she now spends a lot of time photographing a French city seemed fitting. 

Nichole's blog also has an occasional recipe (I can't wait to try this sangria) and a new post about cheese every week, but if you have time, check out her entire color series. It'll be hard to stop scrolling, and yes, you'll wish you could whisk yourself away to Paris tout de suite.

Black + White's from Lulu Cake Boutique

Leo and a bunch of his buddies are turning 1 this month. To celebrate, a friend is hosting a party in her backyard this morning. I volunteered to bring sweet treats and picked up mini black and white cookies from Lulu Cake Boutique yesterday. I read about Lulu on A Sweet Spoonful and was surprised I didn't know about it since I worked in Chelsea for four years. Turns out it's yet another place that opened after I left the neighborhood. I couldn't believe all the other new buildings, restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques Daniel and I found while walking through there and the Meatpacking District yesterday. The High Line is still my favorite addition of all and it'll be expanding again this summer to include food trucks and an outdoor bar. NYC just keeps getting better and better.

Lulu specializes in classic American treats and has homemade twinkies, yodels, cookies and cakes. I love the swirly L on their labels and since Lulu happens to be one of the nicknames I've found myself using for Leo from time to time (usually when I'm speaking in a silly voice to distract him during a diaper change), it feels like a fitting treat for his first birthday.

I tried to wait till today to try one, but by about 11pm last night, I couldn't resist. It was one of the best black and white cookies I've ever tasted, but slightly too sweet since the icing covers the entire cookie and not just the top. I'm sure Leo, Nico and all their pals are going to love them. I can't wait to have another.

Have a great weekend!

Lulu Cake Boutique
112 Eighth Avenue (between 15th and 16th Streets)
Chelsea, Manhattan

The Best Surprise Party Ever

Daniel turns 36 today. We celebrated last night with some pie from Four & Twenty Blackbirds (rhubarb crumble, lemon chess, and salted caramel apple), this morning Nico and I made The Greatest Waffle Ever Recipe from Serious Eats (which was great indeed), and tonight we're having an early dinner at Madison Square Eats.

Daniel's not one to expect expensive gifts or a big celebration. Give him some food, family time, an afternoon nap, and he's happy. But for his 30th birthday—what now feels like ages ago—I rented a house in Cape Cod for him and our closest friends. I convinced him we were going for a family reunion, and even though we drove up with two friends who claimed to be going on a trip to Boston together, he, not one to ask a million questions (like, ahem, someone else), went along with the plan. I even recall some very excited emails about fishing poles, grilling gear, bike racks, and a motorcycle license because I also convinced him he was getting a Vespa. Ha! Gullible guy.

When we pulled into the driveway at the house in Cape Cod, all of our friends jumped out, party hats on, cheesy 30th birthday decorations taped up. Daniel looked bewildered at first, and then, elated. For the first few seconds, I think he seriously thought our friends had crashed our family reunion (and was secretly psyched). I love surprising people.

As expected, the weekend revolved around good food. We had a lobster bake, grilled steaks (which Daniel made himself), pancake breakfasts and lots of wine. There were also beach trips, riveting card games, rounds of charade, Scrabble and Cranium, late-night dance parties with choreographed routines, bike rides and kayaking, balloon-stuffed bras, and even a man-shaped, speedo-wearing birthday cake in honor of the birthday boy's Brazilian roots.

Our friends have always felt like family, and now that many of us are parents, we can't spend weekends away together, let alone see each other on a regular basis. I'd love to pull off a similar surprise some day and round up the same group and new friends, too. Since someone's 40th birthday is now less than 5 years away (sad, but true!), my wheels are turning again.

Outdoor Eats

When I worked at Food Network, warm days often led to long lunches at La Bottega, an Italian restaurant with one of the best outdoor areas in NYC. The spacious patio's white and blue umbrellas, paper lanterns dangling in between trees, and a view of the hip Maritime Hotel soaring into the sky made it such a fun place to escape the daily grind.

Unfortunately, I haven't been there in a while, but I still included it in a list of my favorite places for outdoor dining on Mommy Poppins.

What are your favorite places for outdoor eats?

Image via The Maritime Hotel