the Pabo page: March Madness

This weekend consisted of whatever my wife and I happened to be doing between various March Madness matchups. It began Friday, meeting friends after work between Midtown and the Upper West Side. After far too many, my last clear memories had something to do with how wonderful the combination of Korean red pepper, SPAM and soju were while closing the night out at Po'Cha 32 in K-town (which btw more than deserves it own post, someday).

Originally the fantasy was to start Saturday early with a 9:00am visit to Williamsburg's Egg for some breakfast. But as often happens, our hangovers derailed any hopes for such an early start. Still with temperatures heading toward the mid-70's we were motivated to make it out to breakfast and still make it to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden while admission was still free (Saturday's 10am-12pm).

Daffodils

The garden was absolutely wonderful. By the early afternoon it was so warm that standing in the direct sunlight was almost too hot. While the garden is still awaking from its long winter slumber, signs of spring abound everywhere. If they aren't already open, buds are about to burst, while daffodils, snow drops, crocuses, magnolias, and many other flowers are in full bloom.

Crocuses light up the Brooklyn Botanical Garden

As if to show how food is always on our minds. Seeing a field of crocuses reminded my wife that we were out of saffron. As it happens, a few days earlier I was trolling the interwebs and found that Despaña (perhaps more famous for its SoHo store) had its wholesale outlet in Jackson Heights. Thus we decided that on our way back to Astoria, we'd stop by and see what kind of Spanish goods we could enjoy on this lovely Saturday.

It turned out that on Saturdays, Despaña offers a wide sampling of their goods including an array of Spanish cheeses, meats, olive oils and pastries. These included several types of and ages of hams and cheeses, as well as varying types of chorizo. To top it all off, it was all accompanied by copious amounts of complimentary wine. What was to be a routine jaunt to the store turned out to be a wonderful (and free!) siesta.

After such a busy Friday night, and Saturday morning, we'd eventually spend the rest of the day largely vegging out while watching more bball at home. As the games wound down, we found ourselves calling it an early night.

Sunday was far more mellow, yet we still managed to stumble upon some new discoveries as we made our back to Jackson Heights for some Desi lunch at Dosa Place. We left our house having skipped any sort of breakfast, thus eagerly awaited sitting down to eat. Much to our dismay we got to Dosa Place around 11:15 and were told they were still getting ready to open (though the sign and menu claim an 11am opening). However as they say back in the mothership "SaeOngJiMa!" This roughly translates into something like "every cloud has a silver lining" or for you Sino-Korean scholars out there 새옹지마 / 塞翁之馬 .

With the choice of finding alternate plans or killing time, we choose the later. It was then we found on our silver lining, as we'd eventually come upon a storefront (Bhim's Cafe) which had a sign proclaiming "Momos Sold Here." We had heard a lot about momos from our Nepali friends, but had never actually eaten them, thus we took this as a sign that the food gods had decided that now was the time.

Walking into Bhim's, we found that they too were just opening. fortunately they were ready to serve us up some momos. We were given the choice between chicken and veg, and we went with the veg. A few minutes later our auntie brought us a plateful of steamed veggie momo's.

Veggie Momos

Perhaps just like Nepalis and other Himalayan peoples, momos resemble their East Asian brethren but have an uniquely South Asian influence. With the momo initially we expected to taste something just like most other mandoo-gyoza-dumpling kind of experience we've had but from the first bite, we were to be delightfully suprised. On the outside, the momos we ate were indistinguishable from a mandoo, and even the innards were pretty much the same cabbage, carrot, etc stuffing you'd find in any generic East Asian dumpling, but the seasoning was definitely more Indian type curry tasting, and delightfully so. It is certainly something that everyone should try.

Momo innards

Finally after finishing up our momos, we made our way back to the Dosa Place, where despite the name, my wife ordered Vegetable Biryani and I ordered the Thali which included the whole lot of what is pictured below for only $8.95. I can't really think of a better brunch in NY for such a price. But if its out there I know that we'll be searching for it.