the faces and places of june

The menu at Mission Chinese

Its finally hit. Summer, that unforgiveable season in New York where the heat often gets unbearable and you are forced to take shelter in whatever air conditioned space you can. But before true New York summer hits, you get  a wonderful taste of late spring, a time of 20 degree days and cooler nights that actually make frolicking in the city something that's easy to do. Here are some pictures from early June, a time when the weather was (mostly) forgiving and fun times were had.

June has been a hectic month as I started a new job, and have been insanely busy with work. But despite all this, I've managed to enjoy the company of a slew of wonderful visitors. The first round of visitors were Mark and Laura, my food-loving friends who took me to Mission Chinese, a restaurant that can be described as extremely hot, both in terms of its popularity in the food scene, and its heavy use of Szechuan spices. This New York outpost of the famed San Francisco restaurant serves up innovative and bold Chinese dishes at reasonable prices in a really unique atmosphere. Nothing like biting into "thrice cooked bacon" in a room with a giant paper dragon, while gangsta rap blares through the speakers!

Laura had to stop for a Babycakes cupcake while we waited, obviously :)

Mark scopes out the menu

The view from outside

My friend Sarah also stopped by in June, and way too much fun was had. We had a lovely day in Brooklyn, including brunch at Pies n' Thighs and a afternoon at the Brooklyn Flea. We had a fantastic brunch at Prune (the restaurant started by Gabrielle Hamilton, you should all read her memoir), which Sar and I were fangirl-ishly excited about. I had the huevos rancheros which were sublime, while Sarah had the mindblowing steak and eggs with rosti. The sizeable steak came with a GIANT smear of herb butter on top - the perfect dish for some hungover ladies. We also caught a glimpse of the Dutch pancake which looked amazing and I would probably try next time (along with a Bloody Mary off their Bloody Mary menu). Sar and I also had one wild night on the town, which ended at 3AM in the morning in at two jam-packed bars in Williamsburg. Haven't gone that hard in a while! Below are some pictures from that weekend, and some others I pulled from my phone from the past little while: runs under the Williamsburg bridge, and the awesome panel I got to check out at the Food Book Fair in Brooklyn, featuring Tamar Adler (read this book) and the brilliant Bryant Terry.

Our brunch at Prune. Photo credit Sarah L.

The photo booth at Union Pool! Lady friends!

On my morning run under the Williamsburg bridge

Lincoln Center before the American Ballet production of Giselle

The Food + Cooking + Change panel at the Food Book Fair