4 New Things I Learned About Dale Talde After Reading this Nona Brooklyn Interview

Dale Talde. We just can not get enough of this man.

A FiPS reader (and fellow blogger) sent us his Nona Brooklyn interview with Dale, which is absolutely worth reading (because I said so, that's why).  If you were reading this in a fucking airline magazine, you'd get 200 words about how awesome his new restaurant is, and then you'd think, "Oh, look!  They're selling cereal dispensers in the SkyMall Catalog."  Oh, no, motherfuckers, this is substantive food writing, and if you care at all about eating things that are delicious, you should read the whole damned thing.

Great food.  Great food writing.  Great GOD, why don't we just mention a few key points for you?

1. Dale Talde confirms that Park Slope is an awesome neighborhood, because you can be authentic in Brooklyn.  He says he "always wanted a neighborhood joint" because he'd get to know his customers and people would come back.  Friendly note to Dale Talde: you have SO many people coming to your restaurant these days that you'd better start taking Ginko Biloba extract with extra Omega-3, because there's no fucking way you're remembering all of us, and we're ALL coming back to eat your delicious food.

2. When asked if he had a creative process for coming up with his dishes, Dale says, "You have to start with what’s available. Soft shell crabs are just coming into season, so we wanted to put it on the menu. We had to come up with a dish. So it’s like, 'It’s soft shell crab season. What do I want to do with crab? I love Singapore crab sauce…hmm.' So we’re doing Singapore style chili crabs on a banh mi." What?  What?!?  Are you trying to kill me with delicious food ideas, Dale Talde?!?  I think you're trying to kill me with delicious food ideas.

3. And here's the best quote from the article: "I’m cooking in my kitchen. I was grinding octopus heads before you walked in here. I just braised fifty pounds of octopus right now. That’s what I do."  Oh, man.  That's an awesome line.  The next time someone gives me shit at my stupid, boring office job, I am totally going to say that to them.  Though I might add, "FUCKER!" at the end.  And maybe I'll poke them in the chest with my index finger. 

4. The whole thing about how watching himself on Top Chef drove him to Therapy and made him a better person is...well...I don't know what to say about it, except that I think it takes real balls to put your shit out there in a really unfiltered way like that, and it deserves respect.  Also, you wouldn't be the only person who was driven to seek psychotherapy because of reality TV, but most of the other people are viewers of The Bachelor, so, you know, you've got a claim to fame there, if you want it.

Okay.  That's all you get.  Four highlights.  Go to the blog and read the whole thing for yourself.  You can thank me later.