Early October Updates

After a busy week moving house, Jen Lazzaro stopped by Cafe Drake for an easy early-autumn dinner of green salad with roasted Poblano and red bell peppers, shaved onions and pumpkin seeds, followed by a maple and pepper pork loin (see VERY similar preparation below for chicken) and mashed baby Yukon Gold potatoes. We sipped coffee and a swig of a Muscat dessert wine before heading to drinks at the ultra-charming Beco Bar (45 Richardson St, Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211) - a little corner of Sao Paolo in Williamsburg. Highly recommended: the potent strawberry and basil caprihinias and whiskey with coconut water ($8 each); both concoctions are refreshing and not at all too sweet.

Roasting leafy green vegetables seemed an odd cooking method to us, but we trust every word from the keyboard of NPR's Weeknight Kitchen's Lynne Kaspar, so decided to give it a whirl after reading her suggestion for oven-cooked greens and squash. The result was spectacular when mixed with warm pasta, heavy cream and grated Parmesan cheese. A few rules apply but otherwise roast as you would any other vegetable: be generous with the amounts of olive oil and salt, check often for burning (though you do want delightfully crisp edges on your greens), roast with another vegetable of choice and eat soon after cooking.

The always adventurous Susan McKeever-Duys alerted us to a new Sichuan restaurant in her Sunset Park neighborhood, and sharing Susan's taste for the ultra-spicy, Cafe Drake jumped in the car and motored to meet S and daughter Sloane for a leisurely lunch on a chilly, gray Thursday. We soon warmed up nicely with toasted brown rice green tea, juicy and sweet fried oysters ($4 for 4!), flaming hot chicken with dried chiles and fresh green chiles and handfuls of Sichuan peppercorns ($10), steamed rice, fried tofu with peas and onions in a subtle brown gravy ($8.50) and chicken nuggets ($3) and ketchup for Miss Sloane. Excellent food, (very) gracious service and enough heat to (almost) burn away our pesty lingering cold rates this one a keeper.
Metro Cafe, 4924 8th Ave., Sunset Park, Brooklyn 11220