The Tears of a Clown

Orange and Cajun spiced baked chicken thighs. Super juicy, super tasty. Great for a weeknight meal with wild rice and brussel sprouts. For us its a slice of normalcy from the whole Sandy fiasco.

The water's gone down, I've returned to work, some of the town has recovered, but for so many the real hardships are just sinking in. The mold, the permanent damage, the inability to return to their homes, the lost personal treasures. There is a very solid funk built up around town and you really can't avoid it. It's the weekend but it doesn't feel like any particular day of the week. Probably best to turn off the news and quit watching other people's tragedies. It's not entertaining, you just feel like you should understand the scope. But at some point, its no longer necessary.




Yesterday the vibe in the city was more upbeat. You began to see how strangers were really reaching out to each other, helping in small ways. They were giving away dry ice at Union Square park. People lucky enough to have power were offering free cell phone charges. Bodegas were burning candles and trying to open as normal without power, selling what they could.


The food trucks were out in full force but that provided much needed eats for the stranded trustafarians and visiting workers from all over the US. Various trucks from every state were seen parked and ready to help.




PathMark looked like a bomb had hit it and they were out of a lot, some of their power was off and somehow their staff showed up to work or at least to get paid for working.

Red Hook has never been an attractive neighborhood, so you can imagine what it looked like after Sandy. She was not kind. All along Van Brunt every business was shut down and may not reopen from what I could see without full renovation. There was a boat in the middle of the street. I mean it was not good.



The food this week, like our mood has been modest and humble. Trying to keep it light, or bring some light. I'm pretty much a numb-nut. I just like to make stupid jokes about P being gay or comment about people's balls or penis size. I'm not sure how to process all this hard stuff, so I'm just gonna keep cookin'.