One Dish with Daniel

Friends, colleagues and people I admire take me out for their favorite dish in New York City. I pay.

Guest 1-Maggie Serota



I wanted to start this off right and ask a friend who is also someone I admire professionally.   I have known Maggie Serota for about 7 years.  We met through Philebrity, a site we both used to write for.  One of the first times we met, I asked her to help with a weird rewrite of MST3K that an old roommate of mine was working on.  This guy was crazy in the best possible way and he hired a dude (a Zamboni driver from South Jersey) to build replicas of Crow and Gypsy.  It was weird, but this site isn’t about failed/unauthorized TV shows.   

Maggie writes for Bite.tv and Philadelphia Weekly and a host of other places.   She also runs the extremely successful Tumblr site (do you need to say ‘site’ after Tumblr?)Daily Urban Legend.   It was featured on Huffington Post, which is a liberal e-rag that I won’t link to. On a personal note, Maggie is someone I count on for opinions on almost everything. Also, She is a TwitterMaster ™!  She is just really good at it and it suits her style.   She is the master of the #hastag game, she gets retweeted like crazy, and…I guess that is all you can do with Twitter.   Oh, she also got hit on by Jose Canseco.     
 
Now, ONTO THE FOODSTUFFS! (Catchphrase still needs work)   

That guy has a cat on his shoulder 

Maggie asked me to meet her at Yola’s Café on Metropolitan Avenue is Williamsburg.  I see this place almost every day and have never thought twice about it.  It is pretty non-descript on the outside, and the font leaves much to be desired.   I probably rely too heavily on font selection when choosing a meal, which is why I can’t seem to stop eating at Taco Bell. I am a sucker for E’s that look like backward 3’s.  Delicious! 
 


I arrive early, because I have never been late to anything.  I grab a spot by the window and wait for Maggie.   Yola’s feels like it is set below ground-level, so looking back out onto Metropolitan offers some solid “people watching”.  I should probably call people watching what it really is, “people ridiculing”. The corner of Union and Metropolitan is home to a HIGH concentration of Brooklyn-based bullshit.  As I sit, I see multiple guys whose look can only be described as Soda Jerk.  There are many sets of suspenders.  As Maggie sits down over her shoulder I see a man walk by with a cat on a leash sitting on his shoulder. 
 

Maggie and I exchange pleasantries like people who talk everyday do.   With us this usually involves talking about the Phillies, the Best Show on WFMU, and a secret project that I can’t tell you about yet.   I am informed that we will be eating Shrimp Burritos, as this is Maggie’s favorite thing to eat in New York, her absolute favorite. You get that?  That is the point of the WHOLE THING!   She tells me they are huge, but we will also be ordering hard-shell tacos. This is serious.  Feast your eyes on the bounty of this! (God, when will a catchphrase come to me?)



Shrimp is not usually my first choice for Mexican food, but this is pretty perfect. The shrimp are perfectly cooked, not rubbery as is often the case with a shrimp burrito. Look, you and I both know that this burrito is delicious but I actually think the big winner here is the taco. Look at it! 


 I opted for the Carnitas which is tender and well spiced.  The shell is so delicate it feels like it might break in your hand, but it stands up to the meat, sour cream and mountain of shredded yellow cheese.   I could easily eat 3 of these, but not after the burrito, I’m not a monster.   I am happy to see that the menu has some more adventurous choices like Tongue and Tripe which I’d be game to try next time.  I’m not one of those Bourdain-like assholes who has to prove how tough they are by eating weird stuff, I am just curious to try things.  (Sidenote: If you REALLY want to prove how crazy you are by eating/drinking stuff, that process was perfected when we were 10 years old.  Just go to the cabinets and combine a bunch of weird stuff in a pot.  Now THAT is a show I’d watch.)  
 

There you have it, a mere 10 minute walk from my apartment, one the corner of Trustfund Boulevard and D-bag Drive we have an authentic, delicious, reasonably priced burrito.   This whole thing just might work.   Thanks Maggie!  
 
Stray observations-
-I saw a guy on Union Avenue wearing a shirt that said ‘The Pretzel Heckler’.  
-Maggie and I can’t understand how there was never a 90’s ska band called The Burritones. 

Yola’s Cafe 
524 Metropolitan Ave (at Union) 
Williamsburg, Brooklyn 
718-486-0757 


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