Another FIPS Food ROUNDUP!

While the big food & drink news this week in Park Slope was OBVS the continuing "not cool dude" fallout from last weekend's Great GoogaMooga, there were still a handful of non-Googa "that's cool dude" announcements that somewhat countered all that burning GoogaAnger™. Basically, they're all news related to storefronts & eateries going through transitions. As such, that's how we should think of the current state of the Nethermead. It's going through a transition...a six-month transition. Thank god for reseeding huh?

First up: The Beer Table space. For years they were one of Park Slope's homes for good, pricey beer paired well with food. Then, at the end of last month, they closed up shop as they searched for a new, larger locale. Sad face. Sorta. Then this past week, we learned who was moving into the new space, as DNAinfo reported that Roberto Santibanez of Fonda had applied for a liquor license for the space. There's been no word thus far as to what he plans to do with this liquor license, but I'm fairly certain he won't be using it to open a dive bar. My suggestion: KICKASS TAQUERIA. Just tacos & booze & perhaps a velvet rope.

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GoogaMooga 2013: Less Shitty Than GoogaMooga 2012

Oh, GoogaMooga. Thou hath been dubbed "Great" & thou hath been highly-anticipated for two years running now & thou hath now twice befuddled those expecting to be wowed by your bounty of food & music. Should we hate you? Should we love you? Should we think of you as that one crazy friend who we have that crazy night out with once every year but who we definitely don't need to hang out with any other weekend? 

Last year, your inaugural edition started off as an absolute shitshow, with a first day that saw vendors running out of food and festival-goers bereft of working ATMs & cell-phone service and a general air of anger & incivility. After that much-maligned first day, you worked through most of your first-day hiccups, er...belches & things ran smoother on the second day. Sure two full days with tens of thousands of oft-drunken people trampling across the Prospect Park grounds left a definite impact but, in the end, you gave ticket holders a refund & in doing so, acknowledged your awfulness. Since money makes the world go round, 'twas a very grown-up step for such a young festival.

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FiPS Food Throwdowns: Thai Edition

FIPS Food Throwdowns is a series where we order the same exact thing from two different Park Slope restaurants and evaluate which was better. It's a culinary smack down...a triumph of the will of sorts.

Oh Park Slope. Home to what has to be more Thai restaurants per capita than anywhere else in Brooklyn. Two or three isn't enough for your insatiable craving for Thai. No no no. You need a dozen Thai restaurants to calm your bloodlust and for every one that collapses & dies, another one always springs up to take its place. For me, my heart still bleeds for the first Thai restaurant I ever visited in Park Slope, over a decade ago--T Thai (RIP).

For today's Throwdown, we're pitting one of the neighborhood's older Thai joints--Song--against one of the relative newcomers to the hood--Nahm Thai. When we're done, they'll have smacked each other so silly that one will eventually drop to the mat and the other will be declared ULTIMATE VICTOR. That is unless, after sampling food from both, we end up in a THAI.

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Get Your Kringler On at Leske's for St. Patty's Day

As a "man" who's "roughly approximately 50% Irish" (COUNTY LOUTH RULES!), I LOVE St. Patty's Day. Come March 17th, there's nothing more appealing than annualy celebrating the TOTALLY SUCCESSFUL arrival of Christianity in Ireland by downing a corned beef & cabbage sammy, washing it down with seventeen pints of Guinness and urinating all over Hoboken. That's just the Irish way, people.

With St. Patty's mere days away, I've already started getting in the mood. No, I haven't guzzled a bunch of Jameson & sucker punched a cop. No, I haven't gone all ironic & embraced the potato diet. I haven't even managed to find the time to go "full shamrock." Instead, yesterday I picked up a St. Patty's-inspired treat from a Scandanavian bakery that found its roots in an Italian neighborhood & recently expanded to an area littered with breeders.

Said treat: The St. Patty's Day Crème Puff from Leske's Bakery.

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Bark at the Moon

Wordplay's fun, right? Take a common word, twirl the context around a lil' bit, get a satisfying internal chuckle...we humans love the wordplay. Without it, we would be but bitter chimpanzees, evolving at a snails-pace, begetting wildly & wondering why Ann Geddes won't take adorable photos of US instead of stupid babies. This is all foretold in the bible, people. JOHN NUMBER COLON NUMBER, PEOPLE. LOOK IT UP.

While we're on the subject of wordplay, let's discuss wordplay in the world of food. It's pretty much a given...if you're running a restaurant, give your foodstuffs quirky names & watch the chuckles roll in. Got a disgusting 6,000 calorie burger on the menu? Call it the "Triple Bypass." Chuckle when your spokesperson dies. Want to make light of everyone's favorite gay, sweater-vest-sporting former Republican presidential candidate? Add a "Santorum Salad" to the menu. Chuckle when he bows out of the presidential race. Some dude in Miami just gnawed off another dude's face? Announce a new sandwich on Twitter & then chuckle quietly to yourself whilst quickly withdrawing your idea. Also, see everything made at Guy's American Kitchen & Bar.

Here in Park Slope, Bark is jumping on the food wordplay bandwagon with their "Barkbecue Burger," the first in a line of forthcoming monthly burgers.

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