Dough - Brooklyn

Bus Worthy in Bed-Stuy
As the B38 bus rumbled over potholes, I had a good feeling.  I suspected I'd be adding Dough to the "bus-worthy" list.  To be bus-worthy means I'm willing to ride a bus to eat at a place.  If you've never lived in NYC, the worst way to travel is by bus; they're crowded, slow and attract a high percentage of nutjobs.  To be bus-worthy is the highest compliment I can give.  Only Baked in Red Hook was on the list, but now they've got company.  Dough's donuts are so good I didn't even mind taking the bus back home.  They offer interesting flavors like hibiscus, passionfruit, chocolate earl grey and lemon poppy but being a coffee guy I picked one called "cafe au lait."  It was so big and puffy I could've used it for a pillow.

Blue Bottle Coffee - Brooklyn

Sometimes Less is Smore
It's all fun and games until it backfires.  I'm talking about the trend where you take an old favorite, break it down and build it back up with fancy-schmancy ingredients.  Case in point: the uptown smore I got at Blue Bottle Coffee.  It sported a name card explaining how the graham cracker was made from scratch, all the better to house the hand-crafted marshmallow and single-source cocoa bean chocolate sauce (I'm exaggerating.)  Sorry, but when I think of smores, I think of this.....

B&B Empire - Brooklyn

Two Makes a Trend: Montreal-Style Bagels
I worked in Montreal some years back but it wasn't until Mile End opened that I tried a Montreal-style bagel.  Where my doctor's office once stood, there's now a new place called B&B Empire.  They hand-roll and bake theirs on site, exactly where a female doctor once cupped my sac and asked me to cough.  Come to think of it, I haven't been to a doctor since.  As pervy as this sounds - a bagel with Montreal style is usually skinnier, sweeter and has a bigger hole.

Tacombi - Manhattan

This is What a Cool Taco Spot Looks Like
It's hot in NY, the past few days in the mid-90's.  The Dodomode is in town pretending it's not as hot as Singapore.  She's due to leave soon so we went on a Nolita shopping run and took note of Tacombi, filing it away for a future visit.  The future arrived sooner than planned when the swirling dark skies began to drop water and ice on us.  We ran back to Tacombi, only slightly wet, and tucked into some tacos.

Zuzu Ramen - Brooklyn

Traveling Changes You, Sometimes for the Worse
From a very young age I wanted to travel.  As soon as I graduated college I got a Eurail pass and bounced around Europe for a summer.  I even did a 41 day stretch on the trains, sleeping upright in the seats and pulling into a new town every day.  Now I split my time amongst three continents and am constantly amazed by it.  I've learned more from travel than from any classroom.  Unfortunately, it's spoiled me.  I cannot eat Mexican in Paris (sorry Candelaria) or croissants in New York.  I'm stubborn about ramen, even though I've slurped it many times in Tokyo and should know better.  My latest disappointment was at Zuzu, where they plied me with gyoza with skin as tough as a rawhide football....