Sunday night cookout. Tomato basil pie, bruschetta, shrimp cocktail, a corona, a cheese burger, pink prosecco, peach clafoutis, blueberry pie, Washington bing cherries, and pellegrino. Everthing tasted better with the side of coleslaw.
I wanted to love it. Early on, the meal seemed to be running smoothly. I ordered a chocolate egg cream (not on the menu, but of course they make it) and a BLT, every sandwich coming with pickle and coleslaw. The egg cream set the stage.
Then it arrived. The miniscule cup of coleslaw was dull and waxy. It tasted sour, so unpalatable I couldn't finish it. The meal was redeemed by the BLT, but the coleslaw will never be redeemed.
Next time: "I'll have a BLT but hold the coleslaw."
"But it comes with it."
"I don't want it."
"Anything else?"
"No coleslaw."
Price (w/ tip): $10
314 Court St (At Degraw St)
Brooklyn 11231
(718) 852-1162
In the 700 Block of West Main Street in Aspen, CO you can get a pile of smoked pork, enough for three sandwiches, enough to bury the lower bun so you question whether it exists at all. The pulled pork that you can fit on the bun is generously drizzled with BBQ sauce. Alongside the Western (or maybe just American) sized portion of pork, I ordered the coleslaw and fries for $2. As for the slaw, the glistening white milieu was flecked with bits of purple cabbage and carrot. Excellent classic recipe which is always to fluid for my taste. The portion of slaw and fries was, like everything else, incredibly generous. I left some on my plate, and upon being trapped by a storm, I guzzled two glasses of ice water. The food was certainly enough to power me up Aspen Mountain, where I ducked under a building during a hail storm and thought my audibly pumping carotids were going to burst open. Thin air is no joke.
Price (w/ tip): $18
730 W Main St
Aspen, CO 81611
970-925-2313
(pic from NYT.)On Saturdays and Sundays, one of the Red Hook ballfields in Brooklyn, NY, at the corner of Clinton and Bay Streets, is lined with food carts serving up a variety of Central and South American food. Below are two papusas, one bean and cheese, the other loroco flower and cheese, accompanied by pickled cabbage. 
The loroco flower is native to Central America and is edible. It tastes like asparagus-brocolli, or maybe chicken.
Pickled cabbage, which I know involves at least salt and vinegar, is a truly altered product. It requires a handful of spices to reach its transformed state. I'm still more interested in the raw, but the purple stuff was good, still crunchy, and then tangy and salty. It's a good way to hold on to fluids on a hot summer day.
Dallas BBQ is a New York City chain that used to claim this location. With a slightly modified sign and a similar menu BBQ is still serving up cheap food to NYU students and locals. New York Magazine talks about the split from Dallas here. I recently had the pulled pork platter with a side of coleslaw. $8 only gets you so much: tough pork and bland slaw. The photo is a horrible one but it's included because it matches the quality of the food.
21 W. 8th Street, near Fifth Ave.
New York, NY
212-674-4450
Brent's General Store in Amagansett makes its own coleslaw, the dribbly all-American kind. It was displayed in a glass refrigerator case with a big spoon sitting in the long rectangular dish. Give me a pound. It looks especially good with a plate of ribs. Happy Birthday America! Thank you cabbage farmers.
