Food Diaries: The Eating (and Drinking) Habits of 5 Notable Brooklynites
Ariel Schrag
Author, Adam
Thursday
9AM – French press hazelnut coffee that I brought back from Zurich. Don’t really like it. Feel like it may even be decaffeinated, but continue to drink because I like looking at the Swiss German label. 10:30AM – Fage yogurt with frozen blueberries and muesli (also still trying to pretend like I’m in Switzerland). 10:45AM – Two Advil because I have a headache from the weak coffee from Zurich. 2:30PM – Boiled green beans with oil and vinegar and salt and pepper. 7:30PM My cousin’s birthday dinner at Lachlan. We all split the oysters on the half shell, whiskey bread, Brussels sprouts with bacon, charred octopus, and raw artichoke salad for appetizers. I also get my own separate order of Brussels sprouts because I’m worried I’ll like them too much and won’t want to share. Fried chicken sandwich for an entrée, but I’m too stuffed with Brussels sprouts to fully enjoy. Slice of chocolate cake with a candle in it for dessert, four spoons attack.
Friday
9AM – Still trying to make it work with this hazelnut coffee. Eye my can of Café Bustelo longingly but then return to the Swiss label: “Aromatisierter Haselnuss Kaffee”—who could resist! 10:30AM – Muesli with pumpkin seeds, ground flax seed, frozen blueberries, and milk. 2:45PM – Shakeburger from Shake Shack in Grand Central. My girlfriend and I are on our way to housesit for a friend in Beacon. Wash the burger down with a carrot/tomato/ginger juice. Desperately wish it were a Coke. 8:00PM – Homemade Cobb salad cobbled together from a Key Food run.
Saturday
9AM – Café Bustelo double espresso in my friend’s AeroPress. Takes three tries to figure out how to work it right, but when I do—fantastic! Drink two consecutive cups. 1PM – Living the Beacon life. Bibb lettuce with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. Langres cheese from Beacon Pantry on olive bread from All You Knead. Spindrift Seltzer, raspberry and lime flavor. 3:30PM Tea. “What kind of tea?” “Just tea,” British girlfriend answers, annoyed. 5:00PM – Pastry with feta, spinach, and potato from All You Knead. 9PM – Out to dinner at Isamu. Salmon and avocado salad. Sashimi entrée with salad and miso soup. Not bad, but not especially “Beacon.” Looking forward to the farmers market tomorrow.
Sunday
9AM – Café Bustelo in the AeroPress as if I’ve been doing it my whole life—two cups. 12PM – Flit about the farmer’s market sampling things, feeling “local” and “healthy.” Buy some items for dinner along with a margherita pizza from Black Forest Flammkuchen for lunch. Finish it off with some Fishkill Farms apple cider. 3:30PM – Chocolate ice cream in a plain cone from Jane’s Homemade Ice Cream. 9PM – Baguette from All You Knead topped with roasted beets, Edgwick Farm Goat Milk feta, and peppadews. Garlic and fennel fresh sausage from Beacon Pantry on the side. Bibb lettuce with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. Adair Vineyards Black Currant Kir Rouge.
Monday
9:30AM – AeroPress, two cups, glass of Fishkill Farms cider. 12PM Leftovers lunch. Baguette sprinkled with olive oil and toasted in the oven. Topped with goat milk feta and peppadews. 3PM Popsicle from Zora Dora’s Homemade Popsicles, flavor: pineapple with chili, lime and salt. 9PM Home late from Beacon. Back in Williamsburg, pick up Mesa Coyoacan to take home. Mole chicken enchiladas and grilled corn on the cob. Eat while watching Veep.
Odds & Ends
What five things do you always have in your refrigerator?
Milk, pickles, mustard, beer, seventeen kinds of hot sauce.
What’s your go-to midnight snack?
Kashi peanut butter granola bar if I have them. Otherwise a handful of oats. That I eat out of my own hand. Like a horse.
What’s the weirdest food combination you’ve ever tried?
When I was a kid my dad mixed cow brains into scrambled eggs. I’ve told that story many times. Only a couple years ago did it occur to me that he was probably lying.
What’s your usual order at a bar?
Maker’s with bitters and soda or an Amstel light.
What’s your favorite restaurant in Brooklyn?
I eat a slice of Carmine’s pizza at least once a week, so they deserve a nod. Mesa Coyoacan happens a couple times a month. I went to DeStefano’s Steakhouse one time years ago, haven’t been back, but fantasize about their perfect, buttery, Dry Aged Porterhouse every time I pass. I almost don’t want to go back and be disappointed.
What’s your favorite bar in Brooklyn?
Daddy’s.
What’s your irrational food aversion (if any)?
I don’t even want to hear about split pea soup.
Are you pro- or anti-brunch?
I once read a tweet that said: “’Brunch!!!!!’ – white people” written by some white dude. Why are people so obsessed with hating brunch? Who cares? I like Bloody Marys, but then usually feel annoyed that I’m drunk and useless the rest of the day.