From the Nest

Reader, if you're anything like us, you've been virtually on the edge of your seat for the last four years, waiting with breath abated to see what this extra day—this Leap Day, as they call it—holds in store for you. Turns out, all we've been missing the last 3,670 days was grey skies and a dreary, wintry mix. We shake our fist at thee, Leap Day! Shake our FIST!!! (picture us making that upset turtle face the dude from "New Girl" makes and shaking our collective fist at the sky)

Always the ones to find the silver lining, though, we'll take this opportunity to tell you about a favorite grey-day, winter-weather warming food—SOBA NOODLES! More specifically, we'd like to tell you about a new soba shop on the lower east side that we absolutely LOVE—Cocoron.

Situated on Delancey between Allen + Eldridge, this tiny noodle shop embodies everything kawaii—for the record, that's 'kawaii' being the japanese concept of tiny, cute things, not Kawaii, being the still tiny, still cute island in Hawaii. Back on course though, the shop is remarkably small—it was packed when we were last there and had only a few table tops and then a string of people eating at the bar—but its diminutive nature is matched evenly by it's cozy atmosphere, japanese-tea-house-like decor, and ultra-nice wait staff.

 From Cocoron's site—"Through soba, I want people to discover that being healthy isn't an alternative to taste," (shop-woner, Yoshihito) Kida states firmly. "In the US, the concept of health is almost like a choice or a sacrifice you have to make, but in Japan, health and taste somehow co-exist together, and I want to deliver that through my store." The store decor is "casual and friendly, with custom made stools and tables to recreate an atmosphere true to the concept of cocoron," comments art dir. Takeori Motohashi. "We wanted to incorporate our taste and flavor, not just through our food but through this place as a whole."

And of course we wouldn't be writing about the place if they didn't have a significant vegetarian/vegan area of the menu, which they do. We partook of the Vege Tororo Wakame Soba (pictured in the bowl below), which was a brothy, warm soup filled with buckwheat soba, japanese yam, and wakame seaweed; an assortment of exciting vegetarian appetizers; and the Vege Yuba Dip Soba, which was exciting—dipping soba noodles, greens, and tofu skins into a hot vegetable broth and soy milk mixture—but a little less satisfying than their straight up soba noodle dishes.

The menu online gives you a glimpse of what they have to offer at Cocoron—which appropriately means, "heartwarming" in japanese—but they've got a more extensive explanatory menu int he shop, complete with culturally appropriate, crazy soba-centric characters that help you along, like Yamji San up there or Master Seiro, the wise...bamboo steaming basket.

So next time you find yourself wandering around the lower east side in search of a dry, cozy escape from the harsh elements of New York and in need of release from the harrowing pangs of hunger, step into the world of kawaii at Cocoron. Hurry up though—it'll probably be 80° out tomorrow given the bizarro winter so far.

The Song

Jonquil • It's My Part

Reader, first off, our most sincere apologies for leaving you high and dry last week. We initially thought we were only excited enough about Presidents day for day's worth of celebration. Turns out, we needed a whole week for that shit.

Now, as you may or may not recall, last fall we learned many lessons from the 2011 CMJ Music Marathon, prime among them—don't miss Chad Valley, AKA Oxford's Hugo Manuel (second from the right, above). Sadly, we failed to take our own advice, but this year, with Austin's South by Southwest nearly upon us, we intend to learn from past mistakes and catch the electro aficionado as he smoothly rocks that town to its core. 

But, after checking out their brand new full-length last week, we're even more excited about catching Manuel's full band, Jonquil, who's happily also playing SXSW. The new release, Point of Go (out this week), pulls in Manuel's catchy, plucky electronic melodies but builds off them using solid traditional instrumentation and some pleasingly upbeat rhythms, some of which veer surprisingly sonically close to a calypso feel, more in a Tanlines way than a Vampire Weekend way. Add to all that some smooth, brit-y, not-quite-as-crooney-as-Morrisey vocals and you end up with a seriously pleasant, pretty-pop start-to-finish album.

Check out "It's My Part," this week's Song and then, if you like it, head over to Paste to stream the album while you can. It's well-worth a full listen. If not two. Below, the video for the same song, featuring female models mouthing lyrics; strange, animal-headed beings playing in alleys; and *shudder* letters cut out of school-cafeteria-style pepperoni pizza rotating on turntables. We DO NOT condone this....

From the Nest

Reader, if you know me, either on a personal basis or through an in-depth, detailed analysis of this thing they call a blog, you know that I am not originally of this northern locale. In fact, I grew up in sundry regions of southern Virginia, where most food was fried, vegetables weren't done cooking until colorless and/or translucent, and mayonnaise and bread were used in a solid one-to-one ratio in almost every case. So it makes sense that I have some base culinary cravings that may seem a tad out-of-place with a long-time vegan.

One such craving—NAY—the PRIMARY such craving, I'd have to say, is and has for some time been barbecue pulled pork sandwiches. I obviously abhor meat of any kind, but meat from pigs—known to be highly intelligent, social animals who are largely confined to a life of utter horror in our factory farming system—is especially offensive to me. Nonetheless, I won't deny an inalienable fondness for the memory of the taste of pulled pork. So what's a vegan to do? Sure, there are plenty of soy-based meat alternatives (hello, May Wah) and I can make a mean homemade seitan, but we've really been trying to cut down on the overly processed fake meats and gluten of late. Not to mention the texture's way off on both counts.

Enter the jackfruit. What the hell's a jackfruit, you ask? Fair enough, I say. You know how you'll be walking down the aisles of your local asian supermarket and you'll pass all those sincerely bizarre-looking canned products that are purported to be vegetarian but look entirely creepy? Yeah, it's one of those things. More precisely, the jackfruit is an extremely large, tropical tree-born fruit that grows widely in the Indian subcontinent and the Indochina peninsula. And, evidently, when you stick it in a can, it can make for an awesome, awesome meat substitute, especially for dishes that would traditionally include pork. I present to you then, Reader, a recipe for Vegan Barbecue Pulled Jack—pictured above—which I must implore you try at your earliest convenience. We made a big batch for the Super Bowl party we went to weekend before last and have to say, it went over very well with vegetarians and terrible, soul-less, amoral meat-eaters alike. We jest, obviously, but added bonus—we're posting our homemade barbecue sauce recipe, which we have to admit, is also awesome. Awesomeness, we do not jest about, Reader—not now, not ever.

Smokey Blackstrap Barbecue Sauce

• 1 large Vidalia Onion (or other sweet onion, like Maya Gold), chopped
• 1 large fresh mild pepper (depending on propensity for heat, Poblano—which we usually use—Ortego Chile, or, if you're anti-heat, a Bell Pepper)

• 8-10 Chipotle Peppers from the can (Goya makes these, as do a number of other companies, and they can be found canned in adobo sauce in most grocery stores' latin foods section)

• 8 medium Garlic Cloves, smashed and coarsely chopped

• 2.5 - 3 6 oz. cans of Tomato Paste (get a nice traditional Italian brand or an organic one)

• 1/3 cup Blackstrap Molasses

• 1/2 cup Apple Cider Vinegar

• 1/2 cup Balsamic Vinegar

• 1/2 cup Bourbon or Rye Whiskey

• 1/4 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1 tbsp Hickory Smoke Flavor/Liquid Smoke

• 1.5 cups of Water

• 1 tbsp Coriander (ideally freshly roasted and ground, but store-bought, pre-ground is totally fine)

• 1 tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (we like Droste)

• 1 tbsp Brown Sugar

• 1/2 tsp Clove (again, ideally freshly ground)

• 1 tsp Nutmeg (freshly-grated, if possible)

• 1 tsp Cinnamon (freshly grated, is possible)

• Salt, to taste

Pulled Jackfruit

• Young Green Jackfruit in Brine, canned (roughly 1 can per 3 large sandwiches)
• 2 Shallots per can of Jackfruit, peeled, halved, and sliced into thin semi-circles 

• 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• 1 tbsp Hickory Smoke Flavor/Liquid Smoke

So, obviously, you can use store-bought sauce or your own recipe, but we really do like this one, and, if you've never made barbecue sauce before, it's pretty easy, pretty fun, and the yield's pretty generous. Plus it'll impress your friends. So if you're making the sauce, proceed directly below. Otherwise, skip down to the jackfruit directions.

First off, heat the oil in a pan on medium heat (as usual, we recommend a large, deep cast iron skillet). Once it's warmed, add the onions, cook five minutes or so until a little translucent, and then add the garlic, cooking another five minutes and making sure the garlic doesn't brown too much. Bring the heat to low and carefully add the smoke flavor, sugar, bourbon, molasses, vinegars, spices, and cocoa. Mix together gently and cook uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring a little as you go. Turn off the heat for the cast iron pan. Now cut the peppers into large chunks and add them along with the tomato paste, salt, and 1.5 cups of water or vegetable broth into a separate tall stockpot over medium-low heat. Then, carefully add the ingredients from the cast iron skillet to the stockpot. If you want, you can do all of this in one pot/pan or the other. We used to do everything in the cast iron, but we found that it made the sauce a little too dark and iron-rich, so we now do the first phase in iron and then transfer everything to a stainless steel pot. Either way, allow the ingredients to simmer for about 1.5 hours covered, stirring every now and then and adding more water/broth if it starts to look too thick or anything looks like it's burning or drying out. Should be fine though. If it's not, consider lowering the heat a bit. After an hour and a half or so, remove from heat and allow to cool for a half an hour or so, long enough that you're not endangering your life if there's any splash-back when you blend it. Then, puree everything in batches in your blender or, better yet, if you've got one, use an emersion blender in the pot.

On to the jack! So, first off, when you're shopping for the jackfruit—which you'll likely need to hit up your local asian market for—be sure you're getting the young green jackfruit in brine. There's also the mature jackfruit in syrup—you don't want that. It's sweet and...well, syrupy. Open the can or cans of jackfruit and drain with a colander over the sink. Now, by hand, crush up the jackfruit so that it starts to break into fibrous strands of meat. You'll likely need to tear the tougher pieces near the fruit core or even cut then with a knife if you're concerned about pieces being too large. You'll also notice seeds in the meat as you do this. You can either use these—crushing them up as well—or toss 'em. Taste-wise, they're pretty much the same, the textures just less fibrous. But if they gross you out, by all means, give 'em the boot. Once you've got everything broken down and looking good, rinse everything in the colander thoroughly in attempt to get rid of as much of the brine as possible and allow to dry a bit. Meanwhile, back in your cast iron skillet, add your olive oil and bring up a medium low heat, adding the sliced shallot and cooking for five minutes or so, allowing it to become fragrant and translucent and allowing the edges to brown but not blacken. Now, add your jackfruit, stirring to coat with oil and mix with the shallot. Cook uncovered for five or so minutes to brown the fruit and then stir and repeat two or three times for another ten to fifteen minutes to thoroughly brown edges of the fruit. Now add the smoke and cover, cooking for another five minutes covered. Uncover, stir, and add 1-2 cups of barbecue sauce per can of jackfruit used, depending on how dry or saucy you want the end result to be. Cook covered for about two hours, giving the fruit enough time to fully take on the flavors it's being cooked with. Check it often to make sure there's enough liquid. Add more sauce as needed and lower the heat if you're having trouble keeping moisture in the skillet.

Once you're done, give it a taste—it should taste pretty good at this point and, if you want, you could go ahead and use it. Ideally though, we've found that the jackfruit really does a superb job of fully absorbing the barbecue taste if you fridge the mixture overnight and then re-heat it stovetop again the next day right before use. As far as dressing it, we like these great vegan sandwich rolls from Balthazar Bakery (pictured above), but any lightly toasted vegan bun will do. And you've obviously gotta top this with some slaw. We don't really have a recipe for the slaw we make, just thinly slice some cabbage, a little less carrot, maybe some red pepper, a little garlic and then mix in a large bowl with a mixture of Veganaise and apple cider or rice vinegar (we like a 1:1.5 ratio or so, but your call), a sprinkling of sugar, salt, pepper, and a decent amount of celery seeds (those are key). The slaw, too, by the by, is best when fridged overnight. 

Beloved childhood memory restored. 

The Find

This week we have two Finds for you, Reader, both of them video-based. First, this beautiful, awe-inspiring time-lapse video of the night sky from Photographer Randy Halverson. From Halverson:

What you see is real, but you can't see it this way with the naked eye. It is the result of thousands of 20-30 second exposures, edited together to produce the timelapse. This allows you to see the Milky Way, Aurora and other Phenonmena, in a way you wouldn't normally see them.

In the opening "Dakotalapse" title shot, you see bands of red and green moving across the sky. After asking several Astronomers, they are possible noctilucent clouds, airglow or faint Aurora. I never got a definite answer to what it is. You can also see the red and green bands in other shots.

At :53 and 2:17 seconds into the video you see a Meteor with a Persistent Train. Which is ionizing gases, which lasted over a half hour in the cameras frame.... There is a second Meteor with a much shorter persistent train at 2:51 in the video. This one wasn't backlit by the moon like the first, and moves out of the frame quickly.

You can read more from Halverson on his Vimeo page but just watch the video, ideally in full-screen mode. It's outstanding.

Then, our second Find is from our friend, Meredith Bragg, who shot a pretty hilarious video for fans of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice books and the HBO series, Game of Thrones, which returns to television April 1st. Playing Martin, Bragg's father, who does look eerily like the prolific author. Check it out below. And hats off to the senior Bragg for a superbly deadpan performance.

The Song

The Jealous Sound • Promise of the West

Reader, historically we're pretty lukewarm on this whole reunion trend. Like everyone else and their grandmother, we were obviously pretty big fans of the Pixies all through high school. But did we have much of a desire to see an old, sad version of this seminal band shuffling through and likely ruining the fond memories and solid recordings we already have of some of favorite songs of all time? No, not so much. And I was personally one of the biggest My Bloody Valentine fans of all time...like every other My Bloody Valentine fan out there. But the fact that they were charging such kingly sums for their reunion shows smacked of cliché mustache-twirling greed and turned us off on the whole thing.

But then came this new rush of seemingly totally sincerely 'for the fun of it' reunions with the string of Cap'n Jazz shows and the mind-blowing Christie Front Drive reunion at the Bell House last year, making us warmup a little to the whole reunion thing. But, all that said, even if the show's great and the band's back together for the right reasons and the songs maybe even sound better than they did however many years ago...they're still old songs being played with a sense of nostalgia and our involvement as a band member or an audience involves living in the past to a certain extent.

Which is why we were we met the announcement that the Jealous Sound—one of favorite post-90s emo pop bands—was reforming and recording new material with measured excitement. Measured because a) they've been known to not follow through, as a band, on promises in the past, and b) who knows if an old emo band's new stuff would even be any good or at all relevant today (see Braid). But when the band's new aptly named full-length, A Gentle Reminder, came out a couple weeks back, we were pleasantly surprised. They've kept the tense, percussive melodies and singer, Blair Shehnan's strained beloved vocals and seem to have grown the sound just enough to not just be formulaically recreating what worked 12 years ago. See what we mean with this week's Song, "Promise of the West"—a slow build that crescendoes not into a classic finger-pointing screamfest but into a more mature, complex sound that totally makes sense. 

TJS is currently touring to support their new record, with a show Wednesday night at Williamsburg's Knitting Factory (tickets still available) and—as per our agreement earlier in the year to post about bands playing SXSW in 2012—playing some as of yet unannounced shows throughout the festival in Austin this March. Below's a video of them playing the album opener, "Beautiful Morning," live in Richmond, VA a couple nights back, courtesy of Professa Murdah. Totally want to see his birth certificate. 

The Song

Poliça • Dark Star

Following through on our promise to bring you new acts playing Austin's coming South by Southwest music festival, today we're shining the calm, blue spotlight on the chilled out sounds of Minneapolis' Poliça. Reader, if you've been paying attention over the years, you may have noticed bands we like tend to fall into certain categories, often being strung together by certain traits or characteristic sounds. Poliça—with it's musical stage set firmly in soulful sounds accented by glitchy electronics but ever-interested in being pleasing to the ear—definitely fits into our 'stuff we like' file folder. The fact that they have two drummers? Icing on the cake.

The band's still young, but it draws from some well-established mid-western musical talent, being the brainchild of vocalist Channy Leaneagh and producer Ryan Olson, who first worked together with Minneapolis' Gayngs. That's a little less than remarkable given than pretty much every Minneapolis artist you've ever heard of was part of Gayngs at one point (Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Har Mar Superstar...probably Prince). But the music the two now produce—along with drummers Ben Ivascu and Drew Christopherson and bass player Chris Bierdan—is much more remarkable, building song structures that seem to rely on icicle-like keyboards strokes and soft but ever-present click-clacking percussion to allow Leaneaugh's winding, climbing voice room to play and explore.

See what we mean for yourself—check out this week's Song, "Dark Star," from Poliça's debut, Give You the Ghost, out next Tuesday. Which you might notice is Valentine's Day. And yes, Reader, these are pretty make-out-worthy tracks. You can also watch Leaneagh + co. perform another stand-out track—"Wandering Star"—for The Current and, if you like their stuff, head on over to RCRD LBL to download their track, "Lay Your Cards Out," featuring Bon Iver's Mike Noyce. Pre-order the album at Poliça's site.