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Delicious Food at Mu Ramen

chandelier-tin-roof-mu-ramen-lic-queens

The other day I decided it was time to check out Mu Ramen, a pop-up ramen spot in Long Island City, Queens, so I met a friend there Wednesday night. By day the space is Bricktown Bagels, and at night on Tuesdays through Saturdays it transforms into an intimate ramen joint. They serve a couple kinds of ramen, a couple kinds of buns, a few appetizers. The menu is simple and the food is amazing.

dining-room-mu-ramen-lic-queens

The folks behind this venture, Joshua Smookler and Heidy He, started things up a couple of months ago. Joshua Smookler, who has worked at places such as Per Se and Nobu, starts working on the food each evening around 5 p.m., and they start taking reservations after 6 p.m. There are only 14 seats available, and they fill up pretty fast; we hear the busy time is between 7 and 9 p.m each night. I was happy to be there at 6:30.

short-rib-buns-mu-ramen-lic-queens

We started with the short rib buns, which were meaty, rich, and delicious. Continue reading “Delicious Food at Mu Ramen”

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Dinner at Brooklyn Grange – a Summer’s End Celebration

brooklyn grange building

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending an event at Brooklyn Grange, a rooftop farm in Long Island City. My understanding is that it is the largest urban rooftop farm in the country, which is pretty impressive to me. It is set up on the roof of the Standard Motor Building (37-18 Northern Boulevard), and is the size of approximately an acre. 1.2 million pounds of soil are on that roof, too!

crops

fields of green at brooklyn grange

Continue reading “Dinner at Brooklyn Grange – a Summer’s End Celebration”

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Queens Harvest Food Co-op

tomatoes

One of the most exciting food developments in Queens is the coming of the Queens Harvest Food Co-op, which happens to be the first food co-op to be developed in the borough of Queens.  I was involved in the very early stages of this project, so I know the efforts are heartfelt and determined by those involved.

According to their website:

The Queens Harvest Food Co-op is a new community driven venture into the world of fresh, high-quality food at affordable prices. They will be a member-owned and controlled market that puts community before profits. Anticipated opening in the Queens Plaza area in 2011.

The location of the co-op will greatly benefit western Queens’ low-income populations by being near the Queensbridge Houses and other housing developments nearby.  This will provide access to real, quality food to people that would otherwise not be able to easily find it.

The Co-op is participating as a host of the upcoming Queens Green Drinks, details of the event can be found here.  I am hopeful to attend so if you are local to NYC, perhaps I’ll see you there!

I will be very interested to see the co-op plans progress and excited to shop there once it’s up and running!