Cocoron

What a great place to discover for winter. This tiny noodle shop on the corner of Elizabeth and Kenmare serves three styles of soba noodles: cold, hot, and dipped (cool noodles with a hot dipping sauce on the side).

Kevin and I came here for the first time after yoga one Wednesday night. They have since added sake to the menu. We have since been back twice, and by now have tried a few appetizers and one soba dish from each category.

On Friday, we took two friends after happy hour. I loved my Mexican inspired dip, complete with jalapeños and blue corn tortilla chips. This will be a cold weather back pocket place, and when it gets warm again, the cold noodles are delicious and refreshing.

Gwynnett St.

Second time was the charm for this reservation. Kevin and I had planned to go to Gwynett St. in Williamsburg yesterday for an early dinner, but the 6:15pm seating time was made impossible by the scheduling demands of my too-long weekend afternoon nap.

I'd read about this in the New Yorker many weeks ago, and upon mentioning it to Kev, found that he'd heard chatter about it also. We found it interesting that although the menu didn't particularly excite, we'd both only heard good things.

After cooking a pasta lunch (and 2 days' worth of work lunch) during the day, I carefully lay down to nap and tonight we showed up 5 minutes early.

We loved the bouillon which was served with the dry ingredients in the dish and the broth poured tableside. What amazed was that the pig's head terrine melted into the broth and made it so wonderfully savory. There were crispy strips of pig's ear in there, and as Kevin said, happily surprised, the dish was "Wow, so porky."

steelhead trout with figs, sweet potato, tobacco roasted onions

roots: beets, picked radishes, walnuts & kale

bouillon: pigs head terrine, quince jelly, rutabaga 

blood dumplings: pig's blood gnocchi, parsnips & apples