Alpha Donuts - Old School Charm

Alpha Donuts
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A glazed doughnut serves as the litmus test of any doughnut shop's worth. Don't get me wrong, I love doughnuts with fillings, toppings, different glazes and even fancy riffs like the Cronut, but sometimes you just gotta have a glazed. 

At least this was our thinking as Sammy and I stopped by Alpha Doughnuts in Sunnyside. We were running late for our Korean dinner so I stood outside as Sammy ran in and got two glazed to go. We ate them on the run, the heft of the doughnuts leaving a smattering of grease spots on the paper bag with each hurried step.

My expectation of this being a random appetizer before kalbi was quickly blown away.

I stopped in my tracks. "Oh my God," I murmured as my eyes rolled back.

"I know," Sammy said. "I've been telling you about these doughnuts for 2 years. NOW do you believe me?!"

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72 hour Shootout Wrap Party

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“Can I get a TC?” yelled Brad.

“Time check! 7:00pm!” I yelled, adrenaline coursing through my veins. The room we were sitting in instantly became smaller and hotter.

It was June 9 and we had 1 hour left until the deadline to submit our short film for the 10th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout competition sponsored by The Asian American Film Lab. This is how it works: You assemble a team (director, writer, editor, DP, sound, actors, etc) and on Friday night at 8pm ET, the contest announces a theme (This year’s was “Color of My Hair”) and you have until Monday night at 8pm ET to submit a finished product. Finalists get their films shown at film festivals. My teammates and I had that weekend free and decided to enter.

“We still need music!” shouted Lawrence, the director. “Brad, go to the keyboard and just play something that fits the intro scene. Think sad. Pixar Sad.”

My team’s experience allowed us to brainstorm an idea and execute everything in the short time frame. We had all the shooting done over the weekend and now we were on the final lap of editing which usually takes the most time. Despite our collective experience, making a short film in 3 days still proved to be challenging.

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The Lure of JKP

Lure FishBar
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I was running 15 min early to catch up with my dear friend, JKP, and decided to partake in happy hour at Lure, a seafood-centric restaurant located in Soho. To get the party started, I ordered 2 dozen Blue Point oysters- slick, briny, and ample. These aren’t the anemic, shriveled specimens you find at other happy hours. The dish of shrimp tempura was also delicious - crispy breading topped with a spicy mayo sauce. After washing that down with a glass of their house chardonnay, I dug into the deviled eggs and the fried oysters with tartar sauce, which is up there with my favorite rendition at Pearl Oyster Bar.

The aroma of Drakkar Noir wafted from behind and I knew JKP had arrived. We exchanged pleasantries but things quickly turned for the worst. You see, JKP is many things: a shrewd businessman always on the hustle, an unselfish wingman who jumps on grenades with arms wide open, and a Jewish Usher/Timberlake/Chris Brownesque dancer that delights the crowd at many bar mitzvahs and K-town karaoke bars.

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Jeepney: Hands-On Heaven

Jeepney
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Christine was the first foodie I met way back in 2007 before I knew anything about food. I remember the casual potlucks at her apartment where she would cook elevated dishes that nobody appreciated at the time (like cauliflower puree) since her friends' college diets consisted of Popeye's and Chinatown porkchop over rice.

Her Brooklyn apartment was nicer than the closet-sized "apartments" of my other friends and had a proper kitchen with utensils, All-Clad pans, and fancy things like bottles of balsamic vinegar glaze. Lastly, I enjoyed hearing her talk about her favorite restaurants and what places to avoid. We lost touch for a few years but recently reconnected last December when we organized a Scrumphsus Supper at Jeepney, a Filipino gastropub located in the East Village.

Our group was there for Kamayan Night, a family style feast where you get to chow down on two appetizers and three entrees that you have pre-ordered a week in advance.

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Fragole: Garden to Garden

FRAGOLE
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A few weeks ago, I took Anna to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden to check out the cherry blossoms that were just starting to bloom. The first few trees we saw were still barren, their empty branches fidgeting in the wind. After making our way deeper into the garden, we saw a Japanese Flowering Cherry in bloom.

Despite the frigid weather in the 50’s, there was still a decent number of tourists milling about, happily snapping pictures to prove that spring had finally sprung.

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