I’m a walking itch. As I write this I’m scratching the 10,000 bug bites on my knees and ankles. Who knew there were so many mosquitoes in Brooklyn? I thought bugs preferred the country. I guess that was the price to pay for an enjoyable Saturday in Brooklyn— first hanging with my friends Denise and Thao, and then going to Moki’s for a BBQ.
Thao took us to a cute little place in Clinton Hill called Choice Market.
The fresh, funky menu of sandwiches, salads and prepared foods was impressive, but like a beautiful woman, my eye was drawn to the desserts.
Would you look at those red velvet cupcakes? I’m not even a cupcake person, but those look killer.
Other people must agree because the bakers at Choice were whipping out batch after batch of these; we heard they were catering some big party that night. Let’s hope they were also serving this, the grilled skirt steak panini.
Paper-thin sliced skirt steak, queso fresco, crunchy grilled bread and chipotle mayo dripping down my arm— that’s a scary good sandwich.
While we were sitting outside, a Choice employee passed by us four times with trays of those decadent cupcakes. “I hope one of them falls off the tray,” Denise said. No luck. We didn’t get a cupcake, but Denise and Thao did share a brownie.
Then I was off to Moki’s for his second annual BBQ.
You talkin’ to me? Don’t mess with a man and his grill.
Moki thinks big and he loves to entertain. He videotaped the entire party so he could edit it down into a time lapse sequence; he’d also intended to set up an elaborate “dessert bar”. For the sake of editorial accuracy I emailed him to verify his original plan. He wrote back: “Yeah, the desserts were supposed to be on a bed of ice with Xmas lights below.” Who’d even think of that? He’s the Diddy of Brooklyn. Unfortunately, the dessert bar/ bed of ice idea didn’t pan out (not sure how that would have worked in mid-July anyway), but we still enjoyed our desserts.
Red velvet cake from Billy’s Bakery in the city. Red velvet cake can be cloyingly sweet; this one was just right.
Classy: blueberry port and chocolate. Moki instructed us to “Take a bite of chocolate, then sip, bite, sip”. Good stuff.
Maybe it was the desserts that attracted them, but the bugs got me. They got me bad. Oh well, what’s a little malaria when you can eat red velvet cake.
Choice Market
318 Lafayette Ave.
Brooklyn, NY 11238
718-230-5234