Brookdale Park Dog Run

Under furs:

Brookdale Dog Run
Bloomfield & Montclair, NJ

Whew! Lenape Trail just gets so packed at times, we can't find any parking! Today we headed to the doggie run at Brookdale Park.

Brookdale Park is a pretty big park in the Bloomfield and Montclair Townships. It always has a lot going on, from soccer and archery practice, to kiddie playgrounds and free summer concerts. The doggie run opened sometime around 2007 with great hoopla, as doggie parks in the North Jersey area are very rare (because everybody has a backyard?). Every time we go here, it tends to be crowded.

Doggies this way!

The doggie run has a big dawg (right) and a little dawg (left) area.

Bad dawgs go here for time out.

Brookdale Dog Park gets points for their doggie fountains, on-site pick-up baggies and their little training courses.

Chibby says: "I'm not sure why everybody's following me!"

Doggie pipe.

Doggie hurdle. This is for the birds... look how low it is!

I don't know why Chibby and Babams just get into the pack mentality and start harassing other dawgs. Specially the younger ones. No biting, of course, but they just go bark-bark-bark like it's a full-on brawl goin' on. So we get dirty looks from the good people of Montclair/Bloomfield about this (thanks a lot, furs). But hey, they're just doing what doggies do.

We next headed off to the meadow outside for more running around.

Brookdale Dog Park never made it to our rotation ever, mainly because we find it too crowded. Personally, we find the doggie owners here are not as laid back as those from the other spots we frequent. If you have a very docile low-energy dawg, this might be the place for you.

Get the royal treatment at King Spa

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King Spa Sauna

321 Commercial Avenue

Palisades Park, NJ 07650

(201) 947-9955/7665/7666

http://www.ekingsauna.com/

Happy new year! Nothing quite like a good scrubbin' to wash away last year's grit and grime, and to beat the winter cold! King Spa is a bath emporium in the industrial section of Palisades Park. It caters mainly to Koreans, who are very fond of their baths.

King Spa at night.

As you walk in, you'll notice that the lobby is quite small. The basic entrance fee is about $40, but with a coupon (available in Korean establishments in the Bergen county area), you get a $15 discount. King Spa requires that they hold on to your picture id while in the premises. You'll get a numbered key with a barcode that you can wear on your wrist or ankle.

The men's section (the baths are separate) is upstairs, on the third floor. The women's section is on the ground level, to the right. You grab a towel and shirt/shorts (pink for women, blue for men) before you walk in. There are shelves for shoes, which you are required to take off (in typical Korean/Japanese bath house fashion). Your key opens your locker, where you can stash your clothes and personal effects. For the women's section, there is a numbered cubby right outside the wet spa area where you can stash your toiletries and towel/shirt/shorts.

Taking a camera inside would not be prudent given that everybody's nekkid for the most part, so I've taken some pictures from their website.

Women's wet spa. It includes shower stalls and sitting showers. You take a basin and a stool so you can squat down and scrub yourself good. Soap, shampoo, conditioner, toothbrushes and toothpaste are available. Should you need the exfoliating pads, you can ask the attendant, who will scan your key. There is a hot pool, a lukewarm pool (with herbs) and a cold green pool, as well as a clear cold pool with a powerful shower (make sure you shower first!). Their herbal sauna is nice and hot-hot-hot!

You can get the full body (and I mean full body) scrub and an oil massage at the wet spa area, available at extra charge. No new age-y relaxation here. They treat you like a slab of tuna and will scrub you to an inch of your life. The massage is more soothing, and they do try to stretch your joints. Afterwards, you can definitely feel that your skin is softer and smoother.

DJKung says that the men's side is pretty much set up the same. They do not have the little cubbys for towels that the women's side does. The men's side also does not have the big ice-cold pool.

You can then get dressed and check out the co-ed saunas on the second and third floors. King Spa has a very nice array of rooms and saunas for a variety of ailments. I prefer the hotter saunas. It is nice just to just close your eyes and relaaax.

This is my current favorite igloo---Bul Hanzung Mok (for women only). It is pretty warm inside and you will start sweating almost immediately. It smells like dried herbs and wood inside. I think this is supposed to be good for your reproductive organs.

Bulgama room (co-ed). This one is supposed to have infrared rays and ions. It is not as hot as the Bul Hanzung Mok. Muzak is usually playing, and it is easy to fall asleep here.

There are a few more igloos and rooms that you can check out. Basic rules apply: don't bring any reading material (although some do), keep quiet, and try to respect other people's space.

There are also private massage rooms. I have never gotten a dry massage here. DJKung had the thirty-minute foot massage before, and he said it was worth it. He described it as a deep tissue massage, with special focus on the joints.

Afterwards, when you are feeling squeaky clean and pleasantly drained, you can hang out by the restaurant and get some food. This is the meeting spot for friends and family that come to King Spa together. After you place your order, they will scan your key and call your number when your food is ready. The food is pretty good and reasonably priced. We like the rice drink, an iced drink with rice and beans served in a big glass bowl. It is so refreshing after a nice long sweat.

Restaurant section. I love the rocco furniture with the stone sculptures. The restaurant section is usually lively and full of shiny-faced, freshly bathed patrons wearing their King Spa shirts and shorts.

There is also a lounge section where you can read Korean newspapers, watch tv, play go, or fall asleep on their leather recliners. It is not uncommon to see people snoring away. Relaxing is really hard work!

Welcome Daisy Dawg!

Under furs

Daisy Dawg

Welcome Daisy Dawg! Daisy was a shelter dawg who was adopted by DJKung's godson's family in Fresno. She is now nine months old and is a super good dawg. She had a little bit of kennel cough upon arriving at her new home, but is getting better.

Daisy the dachshund.

See how well she does "beg"! Daisy loves all types of non-dog food.

Takin' it back to Takahachi

Under food:

Takahachi

It felt like we haven't been to Taka in a while. We were craving tempura one day, so off we went. DJKung ordered the Spanish medium-grade toro (fatty tuna), beef skewers (unpictured) and tempura soba. I got my fave bento box. The only gripe we had was that the tempura shrimp was not up to Taka's par; this evening, it was rather tiny and had extra breading.

Spanish medium toro. It tasted pretty fresh, a bit firm and a bit fatty. DJKung described it as "balanced."

Tempura soba. This was pretty hearty, and DJKung commented on how rich the broth tasted.

Bento box. Isn't it purty? From top left: tempura shrimp and veggies; sashimi (yellowtail tuna, tuna, salmon); braised pork and veggies; fried oyster; grilled salmon. I never get bored of the selection and can switch up my bites. This also comes with either soup nor salad, and either white or brown rice.

Somebody next to us ordered the toro sushi, so we were kinda jealous. We ended up getting it too (copycat!).

Left: unagi (eel) hand roll. Right: two pieces of toro sushi. The unagi was devoured after a few bites. The toro sushi was good too, melt-in-your-mouth buttery tuna. Yummmm.

Back yet again at Binh Duong

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Binh Duong

DJKung was in real bad shape with the flu after his California trip. After a few days of chicken soup, he wanted to have something else to eat. As soon as he started feeling better, we were off for pho.

Besides pho, we also ordered their vegetarian crepes.

Vegetarian crepes. The filling contained mostly bean sprouts. We tasted a hint of coconut, but were unsure where it was from. I thought it was a tad greasy, but DJKung liked it.

Lettuce leaves, cilantro and pickles. Nuoc cham dip (fish sauce and lime).

DJKung also felt very restored after the meal. Once again, Binh Duong hits the spot!

Max's Restaurant, San Francisco, California

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Max's Restaurant
San Francisco, California

Our Fresno friends had high hopes for Max's Restaurant, a highly regarded fried chicken joint in the Philippines. DJKung recalled dining at a Max's in Manila and remembered that they had excellent chicken. Unfortunately,everybody was let down by their recent experience at the Max's in SF.

First, the service. It was appallingly slooow. Mind you, the Ultimate Fun Club tries not to be superserious with the non-food/fur/fun aspects of things. Max's, however, merits special mention for their truly atrocious service. DJKung found that the wait staff, even after making eye contact with you, tries its best to evade actually providing any service.

Second, most of the dishes they got was pretty bland.

Max's Teasers. Includes fried lumpia (eggrolls), fried calamari and fried pinsec (wontons). Everything was very greasy.

Sizzling pork sisig. Good. It was garlicky, fried, very tasty.


Lechon kawali. Deep fried pork belly. It is simply impossible to mess up this dish.

Fried chicken. DJKung thought that this was pre-fried and sat under the warmer lights too long.
It was dry and tough. Terrible.

Nilagang bulalo (beef shank soup). Bland bland bland. DJKung had to ask for patis (fish sauce), which took thirty minutes to arrive.

Pho 75, Fresno, California

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Pho 75, Number 2
Fresno, California



DJKung was out in Fresno over Christmas to visit some family friends. Upon arriving in the airport, he and his pops were quite hungry. Pho 75, Number 2 seemed like a good pick. It was close to the airport.



Pho 75's menu was quite extensive. The clientele was half-Vietnamese, and was packed. A table by the front had premade banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches).



A little historical tidbit. Following the Vietnam War, the Hmong refugees were relocated to, among other places, Fresno. Our Fresno friends have noted that Fresno has a very vibrant Hmong community.

DJKung, already with full-blown influenza during the flight, wanted some nourishing soup. He got the beef pho.

Garnishes for pho: basil, bean sprouts, lemon wedges, hot green pepper slices. DJKung said that everything was very fresh.



Beef pho. The serving was much larger than what DJKung usually receives. The beef was rather gamy---DJKung opined that the beef was from the local farms that he glimpsed by the highways.

Goi cuon (fresh shrimp rolls) with peanut sauce. The sauce was exceptionally fresh and was made from scratch. Even from the picture, you can tell that it was thicker and richer than your peanut-sauce-from- a mix.

Fried squid. These were on the greasy side.

DJKung's godson ordered the grilled pork chop with fried egg and veggies. Rice on the side. This is his favorite.

718 Sessions

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718 Sessions
http://www.dannykrivit.net/



Santos Party House
96 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10013
http://www.santospartyhouse.com/



Happy New Year! We caught up with our boogie-on at Santos Party House on New Year's Day. There was a last-minute snafu with the location, as the venue was originally at Webster Hall.



Santos Party House is in a nondescript building with large blacked-out walls on Lafayette Street in Chinatown. The flyers mentioned that the party started at 6pm ($5 for the first 100 to get in), but even by then, the outside was eerily empty at 6pm. We were not even sure we were at the right place, but a line started to form a little after. Doors were opened at 6:30pm, so we got in for cheap. Yay!



The main floor of SPH was open that night. It had a roughly crooked rectangular layout, with two bars. There were at least three DJ booths that we saw, with the main one on stage. There was also a "serious" mixing board according to DJKung. The dance floor was wood and pretty even. The wall of speakers hanging on the wall looked impressive at first sight, but DJKung and I felt that the sound system needed a lot of improvement. The music did not really feel very warm, and it was hard to find the sweet spot on the dance floor.



This was our first time at 718 Sessions. We've been fans of Danny Krivit from his days at Body and Soul, so we expected a lot of classics, which he delivered. Even three days later, we're still humming "We're gonna stomp... all night... in the neighborhood...'coz it feels all right!" I must say that even with my eight-year hiatus from boogie-ing, the vibe is still the same. Well, apart from the cell phones and smoke-free environ, that is. The place did get pretty packed around 830p-9pm with a lot of sweaty, singin' and screamin' peoples.

Movies we watched this week

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Donnie Darko (2001)

This was on tv during the long Christmas weekend. Donnie Darko is about a teenaged boy who may or may not be having grandiose and scary audiovisual hallucinations. I prefer to think it is the latter, and that the movie was exploring two universes. The part about the wormhole connecting the two seemed rather illogical, though.

DJKung liked the movie, but hated how uncertain the ending was.



Les Enfants Terribles (1950)

We got this at our local library (yay to public libraries!). I picked it to find out why this movie was such a classic. It is about two overgrown brats. The movie is really dated, with the acting very exaggerated. Nevertheless, the story was quite hilarious and more than a bit disturbed.

Always hoppin' at Hop Kee!

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Hop Kee Restaurant
21 Mott Street
New York, New York 10013
(212) 964-8365


I can't believe that we have not yet posted Hop Kee, the original denizen of our SUPERROTATION---DJKung's parents used to bring him here all the time since he was an itty bitty thing. I blame DJKung for the oversight; he tends to go here after work with his buddies. And he never brings home leftovers. Well, after getting our groove on at 718 Sessions, now was my chance.


The following are our top four picks whenever we go. The waiters know this by heart, because apparently, all their FIlipino customers order the same thing.


1. Salty squid with hot peppers. I love how they cooked it today and gave it a slight char. The squid is, yup, salty and chewy-crunchy. No flash-frozen precleaned squid here. You can taste the brine in 'em. Make sure you mind the peppers; sometimes they are benign, but once it a while they are hot-hot.



2. Young chow fried rice. DJKung absolutely digs the fried rice, wheareas I like mine plain white. I think this is what they call Hong Kong style cooking. You can really taste the wok sear in the rice.

3. Peking pork chops. Their sauce is a bit stickier than others'. Sometimes, they do go overboard with the vinegar, which Chibby does not like. I like to dribble a little bit of the sauce on my fried squid.

4. Chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. Hop Kee always cooks it just right. These babies retain their crunch and are just lovelt. In the summer, you can get their sauteed water spinach, which is equally good.

Alas, no oranges today. But plenty of Fresh Naps to clean your sticky paws after some serious eatin's.

Bistro 18

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Bistro 18
Montclair, NJ

Moms was in town last Christmas, so we had my (second? third?) belated birthday dinner. With the holiday traffic, we decided to stay close to home. Pickin's were slim, but I found that Bistro 18 was open Christmas Eve.

Our party of five was still short by two, but we got seated at 7pm with no problem (we had reservations). The place was not even half-full that night, probably because it was wet and cold outside.

Moms was hungry, so we mentioned to our host that we were ready to order. To which the host, in a Seinfeldian-Soup-Nazi huff replied, "I don't like my staff to take orders when the table is still incomplete, it confuses the staff in the kitchen." (WTF*?!!!) I have never encountered such a brusque response, which was odd given that (a) the place bills itself as a bisto; (b) it was not exactly bustling that night, and (c) they seemed to have a sufficient number of staff.
* what the fur

It was certainly bizarre to say the least. The host did grudgingly send a waiter to take our appetizer orders. The waiter seemed to have no problem whatsoever with taking our orders.

Bread basket.

Mozzarella, prosciutto and roasted peppers with balsamic sauce. The peppers were sweet, but the mozzarella was dry and bland. Couldn't even tell if it was buffalo mozzarella.

Potato and celery root soup. Nice starter, very light.

Herb-crusted snails with garlic demi-glace. We were impressed by this, it was really tasty. Chewy, buttery and well-seasoned. It came with a basil sauce and a pepper sauce, I think.

Washed down the apps with the '05 Mondavi merlot that Brother D got last Thanksgiving. It was not bad, fruity but with enough weight, balanced, eminently quaffable.

Yay, Brother F and his friend made it! Of course being the good sister, I immediately dispatched him to the local wine store for more vin. This is what he got.

Frei Brothers Reserve merlot, Sonoma. What a good pick... it was a tad sweeter than the Mondavi we just had, and also worked well with the food. Brother F remembered our sojourns in Sonoma county last Thanksgiving, so he figured that the wines would sorta taste the same. Can't argue with that logic.

I was not able to go and take pictures of everybody's plates. I ordered the tuna. Brother F got the veal, I think, and his friend ordered the seafood pasta. Moms got full from the soup and bread.

Wasabi crusted yellowfin tuna. With brown gaze (soy-based?), yellow rice, steamed bok choy and wasabi on the side. I liked the tuna, which was very generous serving. I also liked the crunchy wasabi crust on the outside, kinda like a spin on your typical pepper-crusted tuna. The sauce was super-sweet and I was not fond of it. The bok choy was alright, a bit on the limp side. The rice did not work well with the fish; too many flavors going on.



Capellini (angel hair pasta) with shrimp, lobster, scallops, arugula and fresh plum tomatoes. The friend said it was pretty good.


I think this was veal scallopini with sun-dried tomatoes and artichoke. The picture does not really match the description on their online menu, so I could be wrong.

Bistro 18 has a nice selection of desserts.

Creme brulee. I think the sauce was raspberry. This was textbook-perfect: brittle crunch of the caramelized sugar and creamy, silky custard. There was also a syrupy sweet sorbet (raspberry? strawberry?) that went untouched.

I think this was ice cream in a crepe cone, but not sure.

Could not get this picture to come out clearly. This was an apple tarte tatin with vanilla ice cream.

Everybody finished their plates, which said something for the food. We even got to meet the executive chef, Ricky, that night. Very young-looking Filipino dude, and he sounded pretty serious when he mentioned his training and experience. I wonder if he was curious about the crazy table that dared to order apps without their party being complete.

Bistro18 is BYOB.