Williamsburg. What Happened?

Kerry Smith, a former firefighter, opens the Right Bank Cafe on Kent Avenue. An early customer, the writer Ando Arike, describes it as a place for “the lost, the confused, the drunks, the drug-addled, the drinkers, the poets,” as well as “the old-timers, the Latinos, the Russians, the Poles, the Hasidic Jews, the bridge workers,…

Superpunchy One-Pan Eggplant Adobo

Substituting vegetables in traditionally meat-centric dishes is one of my favorite hacks — whether mushrooms for beef, zucchini for shrimp, or, as in Kay Chun’s new take on Filipino adobo, eggplant for chicken. It’s a brilliant swap: The eggplant stays just firm enough to hold its shape, but gets suffused with the tangy flavors of…