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Peter’s Since 1969 – Slow Cooked Pork n’ Grits

I had passed Peter’s Since 1969 in Williamsburg several times and never really knew what kind of food they had or what to expect from them until it was recommended for a large brunch with friends. This place rules! Peter’s has a whole lot of awesome rotisserie chicken and amazing lunch and brunch specials.

I scanned the menu and my eyes immediately honed in on the Slow Cooked Pork & Old Fashioned Grits from the brunch menu. At $9.95, this brunch meal is served with coffee, orange juice, and salad. That is a deal. The slow cooked pork is ridiculously tender and tasty and goes perfect with the grits. The grits are both chunky and creamy and delicious. A wonderfully simple meal served in a generous portion. Go here on a weekend and get this. Mmm savory pork and lots of it.

Peter’s lunch menu also offers a 1/4 rotisserie chicken that is served with your choice of soup, two sides and focaccia bread. Mac & Cheese and sauteed spinach complement the chicken well. Get the dark meat, yessss. At $7.95, that is a pretty heavy deal.

Peter’s Since 1969 is located at 168 Bedford Ave between N7th and N8th st

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Broken Social Scene’s World Sick

So awesome pop/indie rock band Broken Social Scene is releasing a new album in the near future, Forgiveness Rock Record, 5 years after their amazing self-titled album dropped. To stir up the buzz, Broken Social Scene gave away a track on their website recently, “World Sick.”

Now I know everyone has already blogged the shit out of this song, so you most likely have already heard it, but… whatever. This track is catchy and it definitely sounds very Broken Social Scene with super clean guitar lines, epic drums and of course, these guys are great at group/mob vocals.

Their sound is slightly updated but it still sounds good ol’ Broken Social Scene. The bass line is very electronic and sounds very ‘watery.’ That being said, I think the song is good but doesn’t evoke the inspiration to get up and start screaming like when I hear songs like “Fire-Eyed Boy,” “Almost Crimes,” and “Major Label Debut!” I’m excited to hear what the rest of the album has in store… will try my best not to hype it up in my mind just because they’re Broken Social Scene…

LISTEN:

Download the track at Broken Social Scene’s website (e-mail required)

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Sade – Soldier of Love

After a ten-year hiatus, psuedo R&B /soft rock outfit Sade has released Soldier of Love. The album features 10 new tracks as well as a lot of hype for the re-emergence of the award winning band. So, does it live up to the hype? With only a brief listen, the album on the whole has great songs and the overall sound is pretty slick.

My only beef is that the band sounds a little dry on a few tracks, while Sade’s voice sounds really, really full. This album suffers from a lack of real drums. I get that there are amazing things that can be done with drum machines, but that doesn’t seem to be capitalized here, the drums are very stiff and boring. A little behind the beat might’ve solved this problem for me. That being said, this music would sound amazing live. Michael Olatuja’s Speak achieves that live-thumping sound that is missing here. I like the songs on Soldier of Love, but they don’t make me feel like I need to start moving.

Regardless, it’s a good album and has been killing on the charts.

LISTEN:

p.s. If that turns out not to be a drum machine, then. Wow, weird production.

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Codeweavers’ Crossover Games Rules (and so does Team Fortress 2)

After being a computer game fiend for almost all of my childhood up until early college, since moving exclusively to using a Macbook, I have been absent from the gaming world for quite some time. A combination of not having enough time (not that I have enough time now…) and just lack of interest had me disregarding computer gaming in favor of console games when I lived with a roommate who decked our apartment out with a huge flatscreen TV and an XBOX 360 and.. Call of Duty 4 and Soul Calibur 4.

Anyway, recently I stumbled across the wonder that is Wine, an open source software application that allows Windows applications to run on your Unix-based operating system (such as Mac OS X and Linux) by implementing the Windows API and running the applications natively.

Being the lazy nerd that I am, I got frustrated while attempting to get some games running through Wine binaries and eventually stumbled on the wonder that is Crossover from the talented crew at Codeweavers. Crossover is a third-party application that strives to make your Mac-Windows experience super easy.

As you can see, the Crossover UI is very easy to use. The software comes with a pre-filled list of software that installs automatically and also gives you the option to install unsupported Windows applications manually. Steam is running without problem in the background. Counter-Strike: Source and Half-Life 2 ran flawlessly, but those games are on the older side.

My new favorite game (aside from Machinarium, of course) is Team Fortress 2. I used to love Team Fortress Classic, which is fun but also happens to be one of the ugliest games I have ever played. TF2 on the other hand is attractive in its awesome cartoon style. The character modeling reminds me heavily of The Incredibles. TF2 offers a few different gameplay modes: capture the flag, arena (team deathmatch), control point maps (along with a King of the Hill variation like Halo), and payload maps (where on the offensive, you and your team must push a cart full of bombs across the map through different waypoints, eventually into the enemy base. defensive is you attempt to prevent this from happening). There are also nine character classes, all with different weapons and strengths and weaknesses: the scout, soldier, pyro, demoman, medic, heavy, engineer, sniper, and spy.

TF2 doesn’t run perfect on Crossover, I find the game crashing every so often, but when it’s not crashing the game itself actually runs quite well. I had the game running with all settings on high, and while the game ran fine (with quite a good frame-rate), it would always run into a hiccup and simply crash. Toning down the high-dynamic range lighting and water reflections seemed to solve this problem mostly. Settings jacked up to their highest on Counter-Strike: Source and HL2 led to no similar crashes, however.

It’s a charming experience to have a PC game running on my Mac without having to actually run Windows via Boot Camp or Parallels. A license for Crossover (or its games-specific version Crossover Games) is fairly priced at $39.95, and includes a year of support and updates. Codeweavers’ tool is sweet and I applaud their programmers’ efforts at making these games playable! I recommend buying Team Fortress 2 on Amazon as it comes in at just under 10 bucks, while digital download through Steam is, for whatever reason, $19.99.

Here’s two more screenshots… none too exciting, was too busy playing to take any intense action shots, but this gives you a rough idea of how the game looks on Mac. Very nice! The guys over at Codeweavers have gone great lengths to make games playable and I look forward to more updates to get this game up and running at higher visual settings.

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Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire Is Badass Historical Fiction

From Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield:

For myself, I confess the horror of it  nearly overcame me. Though I had loaded up double with two packed quivers, twenty-four ironheads, the demands of fire had come so fierce and furious that I was down to nothing before I could spit. I was firing between the helmets of warriors, point-blank into the faces and throats of the foe. This was not archery, it was slaughter. I was pulling ironheads from the bowels of still-living men to reload and replenish my spent stock. The ash of a shaft drawn across my bow hand slipped from its notch, slimy with gore and tissue; warheads dripped blood before they were even fired. Overwhelmed by horror, my eyes clamped shut of their own will; I had to tear at my face with both hands to drive them open. Had I gone mad?

Wow, Gates of Fire rules. This is an awesome piece of historical fiction that retells the Battle of Thermopylae in 280 B.C. through the voice of the captive Xeones, a Spartan Helot, and recorded by the Persian historian, Gobartes, to King Xerxes. Pressfield does an amazing job of portraying the Spartans military valor and really gets deep into the warriors’ mindset. This is a really powerful book and I love the way the story is told. In between the ‘recorded words’ of Xeones are brief interludes from the Persian historian, who comes to care for their captured foe in the course of hearing his story. It’s interesting to me that Pressfield is also the man who wrote The Legend of Bagger Vance. Anyway, if you are interested at all in the Spartans, I suggest you toss your 300 DVD into the garbage and go read this. Not that I don’t love 300, actually it’s pretty sweet, but this book gets so deep it tugs at the heartstrings. Oh, and the battles are pretty nuts too. It rocks. Go get it now.

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Kafana | кафана – Amazing Serbian Food! Meat fest!

Gao Di and I went to celebrate Valentine’s Day at the same place we went last year, the amazing Serbian restaurant Kafana (кафана) in Alphabet City. I owe the discovery of this place to Eileen, thanks homie! Anyway, Valentine’s Day also happened to be the first day of the Chinese New Year and we rejoiced in the most un-Chinese of ways, having stuffed our faces at Joe’s Shanghai in Chinatown the day before. What I mean by that, is that Chinese people traditionally do not eat meat on the first day of the new year, only eating some Chicken at dinner. They say that brings good luck.

Either way, Kafana happens to offer a most meaty of meals and this place RULES.

Before I get to my comments on the food, I’d like to share a quick story that prefaced our actual meal. Our table was right by the door, and while Gao Di was in the bathroom, a duo of very strange guy plus very old guy appeared hovering by our table. The man asked that the old man, who I assume was his father, take a seat for just a moment. Not knowing what to do, I told him it’d be fine just that my girlfriend would be returning shortly. Sure enough, she was on her way back, and these guys didn’t budge. The owner and service people were stunned. Not knowing what to do we just sort of stood around while this strange business proceeded. All I can say is these people were ridiculously weird and no one knew what to do. The restaurant was super busy but within a moment, the owner opened up another table for us. All I can say is that the workers were champs and handled the situation as best they could. They were super nice and we still had an amazing time! We wound up with dessert on the house… now! To the food…

As I’ve troubled you to read through that story I will keep my notes on the food from being too long winded and make it more of a photo essay… who reads this anyway? Pictures pictures pictures…

We started off with the spinach pie which was quite delicious, dense and flaky!

You are also always treated to some bread with delicious red pepper spread when you come here. Don’t eat too much of this just because it’s free.. there’s much more to be had.

Behold. Kafana’s Mixed Grill for Two (Mesano Meso) is the perfect meat fest. This feast comes with: Seljacka Kobasica (peasant sausage), Dimljena Vesalica (thinly sliced smoked pork loin), Rolovane Suve Sljive i Dzigerica (prunes stuffed with walnuts & cheese rolled in bacon and chicken liver rolled in bacon), and a Krmenadla (pork chop). That’s a lot of pork products, and that’s a lot of “can’t go wrong” food right there. All of this is delicious. The bacon-rolled prunes and chicken liver are particularly delicious as is the pork chop. All that meat is also a deal at $29.95. MMMMMMM.

Sufficiently stuffed but always game for more food we were treated to one last treasure: a flourless chocolate walnut cake. This thing is ridiculously dense and is amazing for any chocolate lover. I recommend it.

Anyway, that about sums up all that needs to be said about Kafana. The restaurant has an awesome ambiance, the food is amazing and the wait staff is super friendly. My experiences at this restaurant have all been awesome and I encourage you to go there!

Kafana is located at 116 Avenue C between E 7th St. and E 8th St.

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Amazing Open Source Fonts

Now here’s an awesome website I’m surprised I never heard of until just now. The League of Moveable Type offers beautifully made, free & open-source fonts. Check out the website.

http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/

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Jump’s Sneaker Deluxe Collection – The Vanquish

I am a huge fan of Jump, a footwear brand that originated in Taiwan. Simply put, their sneakers are badass. I owe my knowledge of the brand to my old roommate, John, who knew some of the guys over at Jump and told me to get down with their sneaks. I stepped into Jump’s Soho Boutique last week where they were offering a 30% discount in celebration of the Chinese New Year & Valentine’s Day. Awesome.

I snagged a pair of Jump’s Vanquish sneakers from their Sneaker Deluxe collection in Grey Nappa. These bad boys were released last year and I’ve been wanting them since… nothing like a good discount to incent me. These shoes are awesome. When you get a pair of shoes from the Sneaker Deluxe collection you’re given a nice large canvas Jump bag. The packaging is also super slick, coming in a large black box simply with the Jump and Sneaker Deluxe logos embossed in gold. As an added bonus, you get two beautiful carrying cases to house your righty and lefty sneak.

The Jump Vanquish is a beautiful shoe. My grey pair came with two pairs of laces… white laces for a more casual look and dark grey laces for a nice dressed-up feel. I’ve currently got them laced grey. At $188, these badass kicks come at a bit of a hefty price, but they are super comfortable and when I wear them I just can’t stop looking at my feet.

Check out Jump’s blog for some other cool Vanquish colorways.

Jump is really starting to get all over the map these days and I suggest you go grab a pair.

Jump Official Site

Jump is located at 89 Spring St. btwn Broadway and Mercer

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Xie Xie Has Tasty Asian Fusion Sandwiches

I first went to Xie Xie on Ninth Ave a few months ago and decided it was time to come back and give the place somewhat of a formal review. Xie Xie offers some asian-inspired sandwiches without asian-inspired prices.

First up is the Vietnamese BBQ Beef sandwich, which seems to be Xie Xie’s take on the banh mi, using beef, carrots, mayo, basil and kimchee. This sandwich is delicious! The mayo is tasty and this sandwich (like banh mis) goes amazingly well with some sriracha sauce which is provided at the table. At $10.50 this sandwich is a bit overpriced but it is definitely worth the experience. The only annoying bit is that the damn sandwich is so messy and collapses in your hands after the first bite!

Next up is the Sweet Glazed Pork which actually comes as three little sammies. These are fun and surprisingly filling. The pork tastes great as does the dough-y bun. $9.50

Aaand, the best way to complete your Xie Xie experience is with a Thousand Year Old Ice Cream Sandwich (mirroring the idea of the thousand year old egg). The thousand year old ice cream sandwich is a scoop of vanilla ice cream between two chocolate cookies with an amazing black caramel center.

All in all, Xie Xie is a great place to enjoy an asian fusion sandwich although the price is a bit on the high side… like I said regarding Baoguette.. there are cheap banh mis to be had in Chinatown! That being said, Xie Xie offers something a little different and is a fun alternative to the ever popular banh mi.

Xie Xie is located at 645 Ninth Ave btwen 45th and 46th Sts

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Baoguette

So I’ve heard a lot of hype about the bánh mì’s found at serial restaurant-opener Michael Hyunh’s Baoguette. We happened upon their East Village location and decided to see if their vietnamese sandwich was any good. We tried their standard bánh mì as it was a good basis for comparison.

This really is pretty much your standard bánh mì and although it’s under the guise of being cheap at $5, it’s still just a bit more expensive than Chinatown spots like Saigon Bakery. That being said, the thing tasted good, with fresh bread and your usual pork, pate, carrots, cilantro, cucumber, sriracha sauce…. but it was a little bit small and unsatisfying.

So, my verdict on the bánh mì found at Baoguette… they’re good! Quite tasty, but I’d only really hop into this place if I was in the area. Cheaper and more satisfying (and arguably better) bánh mìs are to be found in Chinatown.

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The Morning Benders – Excuses filmed by “Yours Truly”

I’ve been hearing a lot about Californian band The Morning Benders, particularly because their upcoming album, Big Echo, will feature co-production from Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor. I heard one track called “Promises,” that, although it sounded pretty good, just sounded a little too much like Grizzly Bear. On the other hand, the following track, “Excuses” is awesome, has a nice original sound and the video is super well produced. Lead singer Christopher Chu’s voice is beautiful. Give ‘em a listen. Very cute, if I do say so…

Yours Truly Presents: The Morning Benders “Excuses” from Yours Truly on Vimeo.
“Excuses” is available for download at The Morning Benders’ official website.

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Puma’s Unlimited Lo Evo

Like I said previously, I cannot help myself for a great deal on Gilt. I nabbed these Puma Unlimited Lo Evo’s in gold and although I have to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of Puma footwear, these sneaks are badass. I love the copper vibe… these are definitely kicks that can get scuffed up and will still look fresh.

photo from Gilt

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Porchetta

Porchetta is an awesome little eatery in the East Village that serves, quite obviously, pork. Porchetta’s menu is small, offering the porchetta sandwich and a mozzarella sandwich (why would you get that here?), soup, a meat platter, some sides, and every now and then a special or two. There’s a lot of hype about this place but don’t let the hype get you down, Porchetta is delicious.

The obvious choice to get is the porchetta sandwich which is simply a healthy portion of pork on a ciabatta roll. At $10 the price is a little steep for such a small and simple sandwich, but the pork makes it well worth it. The pork is so tasty and a little hot sauce (they give you sriracha sauce!) is the perfect complement. Sometimes being really plain yields amazing results, and Porchetta nails it with this amazing sandwich.

This place is tiny and I have seen it quite crowded, but do yourself a favor and get a porchetta sandwich! One time previously they offered a special that was a delicious pork ragu, and although undoubtedly more complex and saucy, the simplicity of the porchetta sandwich still rules my heart.

Porchetta is located at 110 East 7th St. between 1st Ave. and A

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Bangkok 8

From Bangkok 8 by John Burdett:

A mighty leap causes the wooded house to shake and ends with the knife stuck in the panel and his visor clopping back over his face. Compared to my own problems, his next decision is hardly taxing: whether to wrestle the knife out of the wall with visor up or down? I watch fascinated while he attempts both at the same time, pushing the annoying visor up with the left while he pulls at the knife with the right. That thrust of his was quite something; the knife is stuck so fast between planks he needs a foot to press against the wall to pull it out, which requires two hands; whoops, that visor again. I have the feeling that things are not quite as urgent as I had thought, but decide to try a charge anyway.

That was a pretty long quote, but I think it gives you a good idea the tone of this book. Bangkok 8 is a fun read that centers around the Thai Buddhist detective Soncahi Jitpleecheep, the son of a prostitute and a farang (White person) and his quest for vengeance after the calculated murder of a U.S. marine leaves his partner dead as well. This book doesn’t really play like a murder mystery, our narrator, Sonchai, himself states, “This isn’t a whodunit, is it? More like a whatwillshedonext.” It’s an interesting read as Sonchai’s constant meditations lead to figuring out the “who’s” early on, but not the “why’s.” Lots of talk about the jade trade, prostitution in Thailand, corruption, even gender identity. This is also one of those books that just has a really satisfying ending. This is a fun crime thriller infused with a bit of dark humor and I recommend that you go ahead and read it!

Now… on to Gates of Fire…

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Machinarium’s Music So Good

I did a review on the ridiculously cute czech puzzle/adventure game Machinarium last December. I thought I’d dedicate a post to the awesome music featured in the game. The game’s score is composed by Tomáš Dvořák, who happens to be a graphic artist as well. And… come on, he shares last names with famous Czech composer Antonín Dvořák.

This soundtrack is really beautiful, featuring a nice mix of electronic sounds with strings and so on. Here are two completely different tracks from the game. Machinarium is highly recommended, and when you order it you get the soundtrack free!

LISTEN:

1. Mr. Handagote

2. The Sea

Tomáš Dvořák’s Official Website

Machinarium Website