Cute Pony, Pretty Horse

A quick plug for my friend L's gorgeous photo series Herd in Iceland. The collection is full of crisp, gorgeous and very unusual images of the famous purebred Icelandic horses - the stuff of little girl dreams and beyond. 

You can also adorn your walls with these beautiful prints by visiting Herd's Etsy store.

Photograph by Lindsay Blatt.

Photograph by Lindsay Blatt.

Photograph by Paul Taggart.

An Ode to Red Hook

Today I'm spotlighting the quirky Brooklyn enclave known as Red Hook, where I spent much of last weekend's beautiful sunny hours.

The neighborhood is one of New York's oldest, and it's certainly one of its most nautical, having been the point of receipt for much of New York's imports for hundreds of years. A handful of great new bars and eateries now sit among the salty old sailor joints and rusted out industrial buildings.

Here's a short photo tour of my wanderings.

Old cars and old bars forced me to whip out the Instagram.

First stop: the Red Hook Lobster Pound! They ship Maine lobsters in each day for the best lobster roll you'll have south of Portland.

 

Good gawd.

Some local signage ...

And more decor - pretty park benches.

Next stop: Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies, home of the world-famous "swingle" - a frozen mini pie dipped in dark chocolate.

Yes, a swingle. Utterly ridiculous, even from a person who's squeamish about adding *stuff* to her chocolate. Don't forget to eat this sitting on the dock.

Finally, I would be remiss not to mention my beloved Fairway market, where I do my shopping every Sunday with the help of a zip car. It's the biggest grocery I've seen in New York by far, and it doesn't hurt that it's in a historic 1860s Red Hook warehouse building. Just gorgeous.

Do or Dine

I recently had the pleasure of eating at Brooklyn's "whacked out eatery" du jour, Do or Dine. The Bed Stuy neighborhood is not yet known for its fine dining, but all the better: its cheap rent and less-traveled backstreets make fertile ground for some truly exciting culinary oddities.

Here are some of the highlights:

Foie gras donut

Pork tenderloin in duck fat, wasabi-apple gratin

"A fish and some chips", yuzu frites

Atmosphere

Other standouts, I've heard tell, are the deviled eggs ("E666"s) with culantro and bacon, or with baby octopus; and the "heart attack", a sort of jalepeno popper with chevre and salmon.

Do or Dine is at 1108 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn, between Lexington and Quincy streets. G train to Bedford Nostrand.