Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

I've said it once and I'll say it again.  West Indian people know how to party!  Today was the West Indian Day Parade on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn and boy, was it a party. Alex and I went once two years ago, but we did it all wrong.  We stayed very briefly and made a quick exit without submerging ourselves in the culture.  This time, we witnessed a pretty crazy, diverse, hyperactive, loud, delicious celebration of pan-Caribbean culture.  We walked up Eastern Parkway, peeking meekly at the local vendors - most likely hailing from a Caribbean country themselves and out to celebrate their culture and share their food with the world - grilling and frying food right on the street.  The air was quickly filling up with thick smoke, as well as delicious, tantalizing aromas of fried fish, grilled meats, and jerk spices.  We were surrounded by these swirling smells all afternoon. First, pre-parade, Alex had a dish of sweet plantains from a vendor fr...

No, I don't have a stutter! Brown and Yellow, Brown and Yellow Our friends have been raving about this little hole-in-the-wall places in The Village, so in between classes we went for some macaroni & cheese.  The menu was pretty simple and straightforward, not as haute cuisine as MacBar, and not as rich as S'Mac.  I opted for the small marinara and Alex got the small spinach artichoke.  The containers were a decent size for a meal, not overly filling but just shy of being fully satisfying, I think. Our mac & cheeses arrived with a crumbly, crunchy crust on top.  Once I dug my fork past its golden-brown crunchiness, it gave way to a concoction of mac & cheese that was thinner than some other places.  I prefer my mac to be a little more liquid-y, but Alex likes mac a bit drier.  Macaroni Macaroni's macaroni & cheese was right up my alley! See Mom, I'm eating my vegetables! The mac & cheese remained piping hot while I was...

You know when sometimes you simply crave macaroni & cheese?  I get those a lot.  Last week, we had a quick dinner at MacBar, which is an offshoot of Delicatessen down on Spring Street and Lafayette.  MacBar is kind of a hole in the wall with really yellow, bulbous furnishings: just like macaroni & cheese!  How d'you like that. The menu looks and sounds really cool and yummy and intriguing.  "Mac quack"?  Macaroni & cheese with duck confit.  "Mac lobsta'"?  Macaroni & cheese with lobster and cognac.  I know what I'm getting next time... This time, we had "Mac 'shroom" and "Cheeseburger Mac".  The medium-sized "Cheeseburger Mac" came in a tupperware-looking container shaped like an elbow macaroni (super-cute; I'm stealing one next time) and my small-sized "Mac 'shroom" came in an unadorned metal take-out container. The "Mac 'shroom" was topped with curli...