Four for a dollar dumplings are among Manhattan's finest exports. Photo by Rachel DeLetto.

There are plenty of things I’d rather not see migrate over the bridge from Manhattan. Like sports stadiums. Or more Manhattanites. But when the exports involve cheap eats, it’s time to roll out the welcome mat.

Case in point: the arrival of four-for-a-buck dumplings on the shores of the East River, or at least within a half-mile of it. Fried Dumpling on Mosco Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown has long been a starred spot on the Brokavore’s cheap-chow map, so when I got wind of a like-minded spot opening in Downtown Brooklyn — Golden Fried Dumplings at 192 Duffield St. — it was time to investigate. (more…)

Skip the fast food, you've got better options! Via Flickr's Evan Mulvihill.

Downtown Brooklyn, at first glance, can seem inhospitable to the hungry pauper-gourmand. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court looms, a reminder of what might be; the brightly-lit fast food outlets and vaguely biblical-sounding Joralemon Street can suggest a kind of food hell. This, I learned after a good deal of exploration, was a false suggestion. You can eat cheap and well in downtown Brooklyn — it’s just a matter of finding the right spots and doing a little walking. Here are a few restaurants that will keep your wallet and stomach full.  (more…)

Pine needles or sap en brochette? Prospect Park photo by Karen Orlando, of the Outside Now blog.

The feast-happy foodies over at Issue Project Room tell are sponsoring a free (multi-course!) meal on Feb. 4, featuring foraged and gleaned local plants and animals. We’re not exactly sure what sort of vegetation to expect in the dead of February when even the feral cats are on the DL, so we’ll let hand it over to them:

Interested in eating a foraged meal but don’t have the time/mycological certification/emergency care insurance to forage yourself? Join Spurse at Issue Project Room on 2/4 for a mid-winter multi-course feast comprised of foraged and gleaned local plants and animals in UNIQUE preparations (think novelty, not decompo-stronomy). (more…)

Good news, healthy and helpful Brokelynites! After a long closure due to one of the blizzards collapsing its roof last winter, the Brooklyn office of the New York Blood Center is reopening Sept. 8! So remember that post from last month where we told you all the sweet swag you get from being a blood donor, from Mets tickets to air hockey tables to racks of lamb? Now you don’t have to lug your big veins full of human juice all the way up to midtown to do it: the Brooklyn Donor Center is at 120 Lawrence St., near the Jay Street-Metrotech station. And if you make a donation before Sept. 30, you get 50 bonus points, which will put you well on the way to that new air hockey table.

Photos by Christine Herskovits.

By now you’ve heard of the Dekalb Market, where local artisans and foodists peddle their wares in shipping containers parked on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Willoughby Street. But are there deals lurking in those the steel-encased shops? Here’s what we found on a Brokelyn-style scout… (more…)

Is your art at home in this Hotel 718 room?

“Hotel art” is used as a slur against less-than-great paintings. But this is Brooklyn, and hotels here aren’t exactly the Red Roof Inn in Norman, Okla., so you’ll probably get a good shake with something on the walls of a new boutique hotel. The Brooklyn Arts Council is seeking artwork by Brooklyn artists to be purchased (as in, for moneys) for Hotel 718, a new hotel on Duffield Street downtown opening this fall. The deadline to be considered for the 128-room hotel is June 14. (more…)

She's donating.

Dying to see Inception at a big theater in Brooklyn, but you can’t dream upon dream of dropping $12.50 for the ticket? (And that’s not even counting the sustenance you’ll need for the 2.5 hour extravaganza). Well then, plant this idea somewhere deep in the ice fortress of your subconscious: You get a free movie ticket every time you donate blood at the bloodmobile on Court Street. And you can do it today. (more…)

Planet Fitness on Duffield St.

We just got turned onto to this hot offer from a new gym near Fulton Mall: the recently opened Planet Fitness on Duffield Street is offering you the ACT NOW deal of $29 to signup and $10 a month after that. The deal is good through Feb. 26, so you’ve got less than a week to talk yourself into doing it (ladies, two words: swimsuit season. Dudes, three words: Board short thighs).

The gym looks brand new, with spiffy yellow-and-purple machines everywhere and a bank of flatscreen TVs against the treadmill wall, each labeled to what station they were turned to (The Fresh Prince was a popular eye-grabber this a.m.). Planet Fitness is open 24 hours Monday-Friday and 7 a.m.-7 p.m. on the weekends.

Why not wire some summer shoes? Pumps by Poly Verity.

Annie get your glue gun: NYC Resistor, a hacker collective located in downtown Brooklyn (397 Bridge St., Floor 5), is saying goodbye to its old space with a 48-hour hack-a-thon starting Friday, Feb. 12, at 6 p.m. To those unfamiliar with the concept of a hack-a-thon, think cyberpunk knitting circle where you can end up with a wristwatch, new speaker, tricked-out Ham radio, mysterious brain wave machine or other novel gadget. (more…)