Shauna Eats Sunnyside

weekend wrap-up: heat wave eats

we were in hardcore heat wave mode in sunnyside all weekend long… B fancies himself a seasonal trouper (“a/cs are for pinkos and commies,” he gleefully snickered the other night), so our cooling machine continues to lie dormant in the junk closet while we bathe in dense humidity. the only way to get by: emotional eating.

and now, the weekend in pictures, because the more i type, the more knuckle sweat develops…

(in other news, we finally got domestic and threw down on some ice cube trays.)

our mandatory “get tha fuck outta the sweatbox” stroll on saturday evening yielded new starberry signage over that vacated fishery. not bad… hell, at least it looks clean. i won’t sling another potential insult their way until i have the opportunity to sample their chemical compounds. pretty much, frozen anything sounds good right about now, no matter what the eventual cystic growth resembles.

what the hell happened to quizno’s?? the space (on queens blvd b/w 47th and 48th sts) is now for rent… nice building, i’ll bet a freakin bubble tea joint would rock the neighborhood from this locale (please no more authorized cell phone dealers in that neck of the woods…)

the most clichéd abomination peeped on queens blvd yet. shame on that nameless dollar store with the solid bootleg kung fu selection.

we made a pit stop for a delectable $2 sweet croissant with ham and cheese and a $3 watery guanabana juice from el buen sabor (queens blvd b/w 45th and 46th sts), or as B contends, “the best colombian bakery in the ‘hood.” we bypassed our usual bangin cafe con leche in favor of the guanabana refreshment (nice, but can’t hold a stick to pecas y mas), and scarfed our stroll snacks in the sweltering freon-less dining area before escaping back into the (slightly more manageable) 90-degree evening…

sat. night back in our breezeless den, mama whipped up an epic stir-fry using the little udon that could (tasty, tender… although not entirely filling), tofu and veggies, complemented by everyone’s favorite, rooster sauce! we also broke out the bek se ju (essentially a tasty korean herb-infused sake-type liquor) that had been camped out on the third shelf of our refrigerator waiting for the night when we’d be too parched to pass. accompanying our meal of champs: a classic sonny chiba bootleg, and the pinnacle of our hot-n-heavy night, the CHOCO MANAKO … good f’n lord. eggshell wafers, a layer of thin chocolate, and melty ‘nilla ice cream center. by the time we finished, i was up to my elbows in residual sweetness and still…freakin…licking:

…a night well spent, even if back sweat was involved.

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day two of heat wave weekend brought us more action than jenna jameson at an ecw showdown. ‘the B show’ consisted of an uphill skillman ave. trek for la marjolaine’s fresh-baked baguette, awesomely rich iced coffee from daco romano, the hunt for a suitable blender, and another dopey dollar store. when we returned home, drenched and electrolyte-depleted, we dug straight into a pot of rose preserves from the turkish convenience store up the street and slathered that shit on hunks of french magic:

i had it in my head that i’d attempt to master some frozen lebanese-style lemonade (the secret’s in the orange blossom water. see page 48). by batch three, we were out of ice and the blender was practically smoking:

…tasty, but not yet legend.

that night, we went head-to-head against mass transit, bane-of-my-existence port authority, and this unrelenting east coast steam bath to jockey out to giants stadium for the usa vs. argentina men’s national game.

record 78k crowd. mama got good seats:

understandably, when it came to heat, stadiums, and $10 beers, we worked up quite an appetite. i can’t believe we ate this and lived to tell about it:

…despite being inexplicably heated (like, by a microwave) and a deeper hue of red than i’ve ever seen salsa achieve before (a salmonella conspiracy?), these fuckers were crisp-n-tasty. side note: plastic miller lite bottles, perfect for chucking at landon donovan’s cranium.

oh yeah, we ate this too:

(chicken cheesesteak, holla!) …hadn’t had one of those in years, but damned if the gooey mess that it became didn’t just hit the spot with another $10 brew. later in the game, the skies took pity on us and opened up for a brief storm, which only further riled the crowd as we watched donovan botch goal attempts and mascherano run his big mouth.

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Starberry Frozen Yogurt & Gelato
Queens Blvd (b/w 42nd and 43rd Sts)
Sunnyside NY 11104

El Buen Sabor Colombian bakery
Queens Blvd (b/w 45th and 46th Sts)
Sunnyside, NY 11104
(718) 361-8714

La Marjolaine French bakery
50-17 Skillman Ave (b/w 50th and 51st Sts)
Woodside, NY 11377
(718) 651-0495

Daco Romano pastry cafe
46-11 Skillman Ave (b/w 46th and 47th sts)
Sunnyside, NY 11104
(718) 433-0339