Gotta Catch 'em All

Gotta Catch 'em All

And just like that it’s July! I’m spending most of 4th of July weekend cat sitting again (the women in the mansion rebooked me and brought me back baklava from Turkey so I’m figuring out how I can get her to just adopt me). I love staying in the city during holiday weekends because a lot of people leave and that means lines are shorter for me to do the things that I want! So thank you to everyone who is making the trip out to the Hamptons or wherever this weekend, I will enjoy waiting in slightly shorter lines.

I checked my Letterboxd account and realized that I’ve mostly watched mid movies this year. I rated so many of them a 3 or less! Have we just not gotten any good movies this year? Is this a residual effect of covid and the strike both coinciding at this particular time? I don’t know tbh so I think I’m going to have to revisit some older films that I love so I can fucking feel something. This week I rewatched Detective Pikachu, which isn’t a film I remembered loving but I love pokemon so maybe upon rewatching it would hit. Spoiler: it did, but not for a good reason. In addition to that, this week I also wrote about a delicious meal at Chiangmai Diner in Bushwick. I feel like Thai food in the city is blowing up lately and I’m super happy that there’s more variety in the Thai cuisine that we’re seeing.

I’ve been wanting to visit Chiangmai Diner in Bushwick for a while now and when my haircutter told me it was good (thanks

Markee

) I knew it was time. The space is actually pretty big with lots of indoor seating, a long bar, and a backyard with a few tables. Sure the backyard just opens onto the janky corner of Flushing and Central ave, but in NY we’ll take outdoor dining wherever we can get it.

They serve Northern Thai cuisine there which is generally very herby and includes sour flavor profiles like tamarind (yum). They tend to favor sticky rice over jasmine rice and one of my favorite dishes is from Northern Thailand - Khao Soi! The menu also includes “Thai Classics” aka white people Thai food. So there is truly something for everyone.

We started with the Wing Zaab and Moo Ping (skewered pork). Y’all, don’t sleep on these wings. They were crispy AF and had a nice spicy/sour dry seasoning. They tasted a little numby to me like there might have been some sichuan peppercorns mixed in. Lorenzo said they were very spicy but he also has a very weak spice tolerance so take his review with a grain of salt. The Moo Ping was ok; some bits were a little fattier than I like but the overall flavor was really good. They also came with a sweet/sour/herby dipping sauce that was bomb. The sauce totally made that dish and reminded me that we’re just not good at sauces here in the US.

Moo Ping and Wing Zaab - Lorenzo got 2 Thai Iced Teas because he thought the wings were that spicy (they weren't)

Lorenzo doesn’t like Khao Soi as much as me, so we settled on sharing the Short Rib Hung Lay for dinner and our server assured us that it was an excellent choice (she was also sooo nice, shoutout to the staff here). It’s a curry dish of stewed short rib, ginger, garlic pickle, peanut, and potato served with sticky rice. Fam, those ribs were tender AF and the perfect slide off the bone texture. The blob of sticky rice was the perfect compliment to soak up all of the rich gingery curry underneath. We did order one item off of the Classic Thai Menu too - fried rice. Lorenzo is a fried rice boy and he gets it everywhere we go and tbh he’s usually disappointed because I make really good fried rice at home. I’m afraid this visit was another disappointment as far as the fried rice goes. It was so bland compared to the flavors of the other dishes we got. But listen, that’s what you get for ordering off of the white people menu!

Overall, I was super happy with the food here. I feel like more Thai places are popping up around Bushwick and I’m very happy for the additional food options. That said, Bushwick is a largely Hispanic neighborhood and I know that what seems like happy changes for me are not necessarily good for the community at large. For now, I feel that the added diversity is a good thing but I’m also saying that from a very privileged perspective.

Even though Chiangmai Diner has mango sticky rice on the dessert menu (another favorite of mine) we opted to walk off our dinner and get dessert elsewhere. When we passed by Maria Hernandez Park I knew we had to stop because the nieve guy was there! I’m not even going to bother writing about this guy because Rob Martinez already did a phenomenal 3 part series on Fidel Cortes and his nieve business so please do yourself a favor and watch parts one, two, and three. We got the pineapple and cantaloupe and they were delicious. Fidel offers two sizes ($3 and $5) and will ask if you want the sauce on top (you want the sauce).

Eat it in the park, grab napkins

I recently rewatched Detective Pikachu. Do you guys remember this coming out in 2019? I saw it when it did and it just didn’t leave much of an impression on me but with actors Justice Smith and Kathryn Newton blowing up since then, I wanted to give it a rewatch. And then I remembered why I blocked this movie out of my mind:

THE POKEMON TEXTURES ARE ALL WRONG! As a certified pokemon master in the ten official regions and one unofficial one, I feel that am qualified to speak on this topic.

During the pandemic I went to my mom’s house to get my binder of pokemon cards because my brother threatened to sell them during the Logan Paul pokemon craze. I sent this photo to my brother to remind him he still doesn’t have a Charizard.

They made a bunch of pokemon furry that should not be furry. Let’s take our main man Pikachu, for example. I know Pikachu’s design is based on the real life pika, which is a furry little mouse, but Pikachu is an electric pokemon. Do you know what happens to a furry mouse when it gets struck by lightning? Yes, Halle Berry as Storm: The same thing that happens to everything else! Fur fucking burns when lightning hits it so logistically, Pikachu would smell like burnt hair any time Thunderbolt was used. I understand I’m arguing the physics of imaginary beings, but please continue to indulge me here.

Animated Pikachu has not a single ounce of texture because he should be smooth and rubbery to better protect himself from electric attacks! Maybe he can have short peach fuzz like a pig, I'll allow that. Movie Pikachu is too goddam furry

Why is Psyduck furry when he should have feathers? Why does Jigglypuff have human hair?? I always thought Jigglypuffs head curl was like Ahsoka’s “hair” - kind of just a weird hair-shaped mass. They even gave Jigglypuff fucking ear hair. We’ve seen these pokemon rendered in both 2D and 3D animation before and at no time did they have all of these textures and I find it alarming. It’s simply too much.

Why do they have hair??

They made the pokemon too real and this isn’t the only time this has happened. Do you all remember the Sonic snafu? When the trailer for the Sonic movie came out, people were horrified at Sonic’s realistic eyes and teeth. Oh god, the fucking teeth. The backlash was so massive that they completely redesigned the character. We ended up with a Sonic that was not fully grounded in reality like the original toothy nightmare fuel, but managed to exist in this nice in between state. Some things are simply not meant to be rendered realistically because then you risk veering into uncanny valley territory.

That said, while the visual effects team for Sonic managed to create a realistic-ish creature that won’t cause me nightmares, the overall look of the Detective Pikachu movie is way better. They really made Pokemon Blade Runner. Textures aside, the way the pokemon were integrated into this movie was spectacular and the set design felt both realistic and like something straight out of my gameboy. The story even managed to get pretty dark at times, which actually tracks with how deep some of the pokemon game lore is.

But the one thing that I absolutely cannot forgive is Pikachu’s voice. Pikachu is voiced by Ryan Reynolds, who is Justice Smith’s dad in the movie. Throughout the whole movie Justice and Pikachu have their little adventure and at no point does he think “hey, this Pikachu sounds a lot like my dad.” This is insane. But Eden, you’ll say, he hasn’t seen his dad in years so maybe he forgot what he sounded like. First of all, Ryan Reynolds has a very distinct voice so you shut the fuck up. And second of all, I have not seen my father in 10+ years and I goddam know what his voice sounds like. Justice had his dad in his life until he was at least 12 years old; that’s long enough to form a memory of his voice. So you’re telling me that Justice finds a talking Pikachu with his dad’s voice and just has no idea through the whole movie? Meowth, that’s wrong.

• It’s July 4, do you know where your fireworks are? Sure there’s the big Macy’s Fireworks Show on the Hudson, but that’s going to be so freakin crowded. Did you know there are also fireworks at Coney Island on July 4 and every Friday during the summer? But like, this is NY. There will be homies on most blocks with their own janky fireworks launching. Just stand clear, find a rooftop, and look up.

• Broadway babes can catch free lunchtime performances of hit Broadway shows all July at Bryant Park. The performances run from 12:30 to 1:30 pm on Thursdays so if you work nearby you are about the have the best month of lunches ever.

• Also all July - Mahjong Nights at Land to Sea in Williamsburg. This is open play for all levels, so you have to already know what you’re doing. It’s easy to learn the basics though and I’m sure folks will help you along. Check our Green Tile Social Club if you’re interested in learning how to play!

• Did you miss Spike Lee’s Block Party last week? You can still catch a screening of Do The Right Thing for free at the Prospect Park Bandshell on July 6. Before the screening they’ll have a panel featuring special guests.

• Something I read about in

  CAFÉ ANNE
  that I am obsessed with is the Locavore Guide. It’s a directory of nearly every single mom and pop shop in NYC. Please do yourself a favor and read about the woman putting this directory together in Anne’s newsletter.

• The new Din Tai Fung is finally open in Manhattan! DTF is a a Taiwanese chain that offers delicious soup dumplings among other classic items. I ate there when I was in China and their food truly is very good. It’s opening in the old Mars 2112 space and if you know what that is, you may be entitled to compensation.

• I was thrilled to learn that Filipino donut popup Kora is opening a permanent space in Sunnyside. I ate many of their donuts during the pandemic and they made probably the best flan I’ve ever encountered. They launched a Kickstarter to help them reach their launch goal because it’s hard out there, y’all. If you pledge $650 you get to create your own donut with them!

• I only just learned that July is Disability Pride month. Disability education is so important and as an able-bodied person I know that there is so much I don’t know. I recently listened to the Ologies podcast on Disability Pride and it was super informative.

How it started > How it's going. Stay cool out there, babes.