Oh, that is just the fucking coolest. I need more theme cakes in my life. (Scroll through the photostream to see more pics.)

The funny thing is, I was just at the Brooklyn Kitchen, for a pig-butchering demo (more on that in a bit), and I saw that very same pirate-ship cake mold. “Rad!” I thought. And then, “Agh–dangerously close to Williams-Sonoma.” And I turned away.

I’m having the same super-conflicted issue with Brooklyn food hipsterism as a whole. When I moved to NYC, there was no punk-rock organic-butcher scene to be part of. I thought I had my priorities straight because I moved to Astoria for the produce. And we do have great butchers here. So I ate well, and scoffed at the malnourished hipsters in their neighborhoods where everything is sold shrink-wrapped.

Now, though, I’m feeling a little like I’ve been chillin’ on the local platform while the express whizzed right past me, headed for the Cool Food Central stop up ahead. Damn. Everyone on that train is having such a fab time that they didn’t even look out the train window, and see me keepin’ it real. Where were those whippersnappers when I confited three ducks from the live poultry joint, and made pate? That was somewhere between 2000 and 2003 (it predates this blog), but I can pretty much guarantee I was going to the live poultry dudes before anyone on the Edible Brooklyn masthead was considering it. Where were they when I was freestyling curry? Where were they when I was cooking goddamn snails? (Which I bought live, right here in Astoria, thank you very much.)

This all sounds a little self-pitying, and kind of like the kid who wants to be cool but just has to content herself with believing that different is better, like your mom says. It’s also a little disingenuous, because I have been rewarded for my culinary dedication with a juicy cookbook contract–so there’s certainly that. And I do love my life in Astoria.

But, on a day-to-day basis, like I said, I could use some more theme cakes…