big piles of food

I'm in Brooklyn this week for work and last night I went out to dinner with some New York-dwelling friends. because we were in a hurry to catch Eric's show, Riz and Johann suggested a quick place near their apartment. it was definitely quick, but what perhaps would have been more informative was that Mama's Food Shop is a monster of food. Heather and I decided to split a plate of three sides. this is how much food we were served:

those are three sides, folks. not main dishes. sides. it was just a massive amount of food. that plate cost about $10, which was totally fine for two people and the fact that Heather and I needed Eric's help later on to finish it. the brussel sprouts were rad, the beets were tasty. it's not the most flavorful food in the world, but it was fast and enormous and pretty convenient. there are plenty of options for both veggies and meat eaters. I don't know if I would suggest this for a tourist, but this would be a rockin' place to have in your neighborhood.

step up succotash

when I was in high school, one of my friends prepared a dish called 'white trash succotash' it consisted of corn, lima beans, salt, and butter and - despite its offensive name - was ridiculously tasty considering the few ingredients. she simply sauteed the corn and lima beans in butter, sprinkled salt over the whole mess, and scooped it out to eat. tonight I wanted something easy, quick, and not terrible for me. what I came up with is what I'm calling Step Up Succotash, since it's a step up from the succotash I first knew and is also a step up from the days where calling things white trash was acceptable.

• 1 pepper, chopped into small squares
• 1 onion or 2 small scallions, which is what I had lying around
• 1 can of corn
• 1/2 avocado

saute the onion/scallions in oil or butter until they start to get that nice smell. toss the pepper in and saute, followed shortly by the corn. add a pinch of salt and mix every so often, making sure nothing is burning. after about ten minutes, take it out of the pan. I had some brown rice cooking, so I put it on some of that. then chop half an avocado into the bowl and mix everything up. add salt to taste.

it's pretty. also, it was clean-tasting and fresh. I think this is one of those recipes that is going to have variations upon variations. next time I might try lima beans as well. the point for me was not to have something mind-boggling delicious, but something that tasted like the food it was. I feel like there are endless possibilities. I kind of want to look up different succotash recipes and see how they can be revamped.

in other news, I had incredible veggie sushi this weekend. if you're ever in brooklyn and find yourself in park slope, go to mura. stat.