Pio Pio Riko

Pio Pio Riko
996 Manhattan Ave, (Greenpoint) Brooklyn 11222 At Huron St
718-349-5925

When you get off the G train Greenpoint stop, if you can get past the polish drunks laying on their backs unzipping their pants to piss, walk down the alphabetical streets-Kent, Java, India, and stop at Huron. Hidden amongst the polish sausage shops and bakeries, across the street from the painted bagel on fire, is an amazing Peruvian Restaurant. They make the best roasted chicken I've ever had. I even emailed my ex-boyfriend to tell him about this damn chicken. You can get the tastiest half chicken served with rice and beans (the beans are big and saucy, not mushed and pasty) for only $5.50. They have huge, delicious avacado salads with fantastic spicy dressing. As an appetizer they serve you these things that look like oversized corn nuts with a side of green spicy dressing for nut dipping.
The tables are white and red striped, the waitresses have no idea what you're talking about, and you'll end up watching Wheel of Fortune while your there.

Singha Thai II

Singha Thai II
780 N. Jefferson
Milwaukee, WI 53202
414-226-0288

Ever since I ate at the Thai Deli in the basement of the Portland Building, Portland, Oregon, four or three days a week for three or four years straight, I’ve been spoiled when it comes to Thai food. It’s not about the gourmet quality, or really anything particular about the food, it’s just a matter of having gotten so intensely USED TO it, that all other Thai food seems somehow WRONG. So I don’t go to Thai restaurants as often as I used to, but this one opened a year or two ago, downtown Milwaukee—I guess Singha I is out on Highway 100—so this was a happy addition to downtown's “no matter what you call it, it’s still a sports bar” world.

Also, this was my attempt on this evening to have a Friday Fish Fry with BROILED fish, as the nearest sports bar fish fry only had fried fish caked in wheat. I thought I’d try HOU MOK PLA, which is a fish in coconut milk with basil. I don’t know what kind of fish, but it took extra long to prepare (which the excellent waitress took care to warn me about) but it was good. Really good flavor. Though it was too dark to really see it. It could have had the head on, I don’t know, it was dark in this place, I wouldn't have known. I ate it all, and also had the coconut and brown rice dessert which is pretty special as far as I’m concerned. A dessert you can really sink your teeth into, though you might not be able to get them out.

One of the things I especially like about this place is that the bathroom is an adventure to get to—well, not really, but there's an exceptionally long hallway to get to it. The hallway is lit dramatically, and it bends in an “L” shape and continues on. They have placed a really creepy looking easy chair at the bend, kind of like saying, “Sorry it’s so far, stop and rest if you need to!” But what it REALLY says is, “You are now in a David Lynch movie! Watch out for little people, severed ears, and contradictions in logic.

Eat Records

Eat Records (aka "Eat")
124 Meserole Brooklyn,
New York 718-389-8083
http://www.eatrecords.com

Good chili, thickly sliced bread, nice board games, bad local art...sounds like most small owner run cafes, but this one sells used records, and has a listening station. The guys that work here tend to smell like they need a nap and a shower. The backyard is great for smoking a cigarette or eating a bagel under the rhododendron tree. Weekend brunches are made by local quasi chefs invited to create various kinds of stuffed omlettes, strawberry buckwheat pancakes, and various flavors of polish breakfast meat (bacon, keilbasi) on the side. Coffee served is a New York brand called MUD. MUD requests that all it's coffee be served with steamed milk, so when you order a coffee at "Eat" it automatically comes with steamed milk. Eat has a small group of local guys that go there and hang out ALL DAY. One of the Eat locals used to work with me at Beans and Barley Restaurant in Milwaukee. He was my busboy, I was the waitress. Small world. Eat also has prefix dinners, they usually run about $15 plate, and include wine and at least three courses, again made by a random local chef. For the prefix nights, Eat sticks all their tables together, throws a white sheet over them, and everyone eats together family style. The music is usually pleasurable, and if you find a record you like, they'll play it for you.

http://www.eatrecords.com