Posted by Jenn Sit, July 23, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Meeting up with friends for food and drinks in the city always seems to end with me bemoaning the state of my ATM balance the next morning. Last weekend, my solution to going out without going broke was to skip the wine bars and take advantage of the beautiful weather by having a wine and cheese outing in Central Park. With wine from Trader Joe's and cheese and bread from East Village Cheese, it was a great way to catch up with friends, people watch, and most of all, relax.
Trader Joe's love is not an unknown sentiment on the pages of Serious Eats, but you can never sound enough praise for their three-buck-chuck. If you've never had it before, go out and buy a case—now. It goes for cheap, but doesn't taste like it, and will put your $10 Barefoot wine to shame. I met my friend in front of the NYU dorms on 14th Street, conveniently located next to the Trader Joe's Wine Shop. After picking up a bottle or two, we turned the corner at 3rd Ave and headed down to East Village Cheese to complete our Friday afternoon picnic.
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... after reporting that its delivery boys were cute: "When I called, the woman who answered the phone had to ask the delivery guy if he was still delivering, because that night they 'had about 30 more delivery orders than usual.'"
Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 21, 2008 at 10:00 AM
As Brooklyn bands played in the backyard of East Williamsburg's 3rd Ward on Sunday, the real rock star was making music by taking a big, serrated knife to a 200 pound roast pig. Butcher Tom Mylan of Diner, Bonita, and Marlow & Sons fathered the pig roasting part of the 1st Annual Pig Roast & Dance Party, and all eyes were on him. Watching Mylan is like watching an indie rock band on the cusp of stardom. He'll be big soon enough, but for now, it's mostly just hip Brooklynites fawning over him—the Ray-Ban-protected ones willing to trek out to Morgan Street yesterday for his meat. Whether you're stalking him at the Un-Fancy Food Show (he was one of the organizers), watching him spread pate at the Taste of Brooklyn, or attending one of his many butchering demos at The Brooklyn Kitchen, here are some tidbits of info from yesterday's event that every card-carrying-fan-club-member will want to know:
- Mylan's guest of honor weighed 197-pound and came from Mario and Son's Italian butcher in Williamsburg (Mario himself delivered the animal.)
- As a Southern California native, he misses his good, dirt-cheap Mexican food, hence the taco interpretation of a pig roast. He basted the animal with a salsa roja made from Mexican chilis like cassia, garlic, onion, and cilantro.
- Other garnishes for the tacos included a salsa verde made of roasted tomatillos, cilantro and lime juice, and a dressing with onion, lime, and cilantro. So good, the salsa stock depleted early, but Mylan threw together more onions with salsa roja for a wing-it replacement. (Nobody seemed to notice.)
- Mylan was exhausted by 6:15 p.m. taco scarfing time. He first got his hands on the fresh pig at 9 a.m. Sunday morning, roasted it from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and didn't stop all day—except for a few sample bites of crispy skin between cuts.
Warning: Giant roasted pig after the jump.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, July 9, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Two surprises welcomed hipster attendees of the McCarren Park Pool's free showing of Wet Hot American Summer last night: actors Paul Rudd and Michael Showalter showing up to introduce their 2001 flick, and across the way, the Taste of Williamsburg, a hardly publicized event going on at the same time.
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Posted by Jenn Sit, July 1, 2008 at 3:00 PM
This weekend, I was on the prowl around the neighborhood in Williamsburg looking for delicious late night eats. The idea of late night dining may conjure up the sights and smells of greasy pizza, hot dogs, Halal trucks, and kebabs, but sometimes even a piglet like me needs to class it up a bit. A few too many indulgences at Artichoke the night before had left me wanting to decrease the grease for once. I ended up at Bozu, a Japanese tapas lounge inconspicuously hidden behind sleek wooden slats amid Williamsburg's otherwise abandoned-factory-turned-hipster-apartment landscape.
I took a seat at the bar, passed on the drink menu, which included a wide range of cocktails, shochu, and sake—from Wabi-sake (wasabi, sake, and vodka) to kumquat shochu—and went straight for the dinner menu, which was lined with cocktail napkin drawings by past patrons. The menu featured what you might find at other Japanese joints, but with a Bozu twist— the tuna tataki is topped with grape and plum sorbet, while the tuna tartar gets lemon-infused shochu sorbet.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, June 27, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Clockwise from top left: Like many places, Egg provides crayons for you to color on the white paper tablecloths; I drew an egg whose color comes from a thin wash of coffee. If you're not an early bird, you'll wait for 40 minutes to an hour with the rest of the worms. My breakfast—two eggs scrambled, toast, a hash brown, and bacon.
Until a couple weeks ago, I had never been to Egg, the famed breakfast-brunch spot in Williamsburg. I live in Park Slope, so it's a little out of my way for the morning meal. Usually I'm hungry and cranky and just want to get something in my stomach to take the grouch off. But the girlfriend and I were in the Valley of the Hipster for the Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair, so we decided to try Egg while we were in the neighborhood.
It was awesome. And the breakfast I had there is still in my dreams. I hope that blogging it here will keep it from haunting me. Egg's chef-partner, George Weld, really knows how to do up eggs, as you'd damn well expect from the name of his joint. I was lured by the breakfast sandwich but tried the "two eggs any way" plate, opting for scrambled. It's a seemingly simple dish, but it's a true indicator of an eggslinger's worth, because scrambleds are so easy to screw up. Mine were creamy, moist, and perfect, as befitting the heart-shaped pile they made on my plate, which I'm sure was a bit of an accidental Rorschach.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, June 25, 2008 at 2:30 PM
In response to the Fancy Food Show, setting up this weekend as it has annually since 1955, the Unfancy Food Show will bypass the dehydrated foie gras chocolate-caliber fanciness for its second year to showcase handmade delicacies produced right here in small-scale batches.
Vendors such as Bronx Bee Honey, Jasper Hill Farm cheeses, McClure’s Pickles, Sixpoint Craft Ales and twelve other inspiring artisans will meet, rain or shine, at the East River Bar, a former paint factory and Billyburg institution. Skip the frenetic 675,000-square foot Javits Convention Center to meet passionate bean roasters, cheese mongers and pickle briners eager to feed you samples and stories. Unfanciness will take place Sunday from noon to 6 p.m.
Unfancy Food Show at the East River Bar
97 South 6th Street, Brooklyn New York 11211 (map)
718-302-0511
Posted by Ed Levine, June 24, 2008 at 11:00 PM
Fiore
284 Grand Street, Brooklyn NY 11211 (near Roebling; map); 718-782-8222
Must-Haves: Lardo pizza; cavatelli with broccoli rabe and sausage; skirt steak with salsa verde; fried calamari and zucchini
What You'll Spend: $30 for two courses, a glass of wine, tax, and tip
Grade: B+
Remember back in the day, when going out to eat an Italian meal in New York was not an extravagance or much of a financial commitment? Those were the days of red sauce; chicken, veal, and eggplant parm; lasagna and baked ziti; baked clams and fried zucchini; of an Italian meal that cost less than $25 a head.
Then real authentic fancy-pants northern Italian food appeared in New York when Lidia and Felix Bastianich opened Felidia in 1981. Ten years ago Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich opened Babbo, and now the city is awash with first-rate expensive Italian restaurants. Don't get me wrong. I love the food at Del Posto, Scarpetta, Alto, Fiamma, and the like, but, oh how I long for the first-rate, authentically Italian, seriously delicious Italian repast that doesn't dent the wallet quite so heavily.
Enter Giancarlo Quadalti. Quadalti, the chef-partner at the fine, unheralded Teodora on East 57th Street, is a well-seasoned, incredibly talented Italian chef (from Emilia Romagna) who wants all of us serious eaters to eat terrific Italian food and not pay through the nose for it. He has done that at Celeste on the Upper West Side, Bianca in the East Village, and now he has even raised his game with Fiore in Williamsburg, which he opened with the equally talented chef-partner Roberto Aita (Roc) in a building that Quadalti lives in, above the restaurant. Fiore might be the best Italian food bargain in town.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, May 14, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Basil and chocolate cupcakes get the runner-up prize.
On Monday, the Brooklyn Kitchen held its second annual Cupcake Cookoff at Union Pool in Williamsburg. With the irresistible bait of free homemade cupcakes, the place was packed with competing bakers, their supporters, and cupcake freeloaders (like me). The crowd favorite was probably by no coincidence the cupcake that paired best with beer—the very excellent Rogue Porter Chocolate Cake with Salted-Caramel Icing. Money was raised, cupcakes were judged, photos were taken, and various prizes were given out. Luckily, cupcake obsessed bloggers were out in full effect, making my job much easier. Here are some good links for those of you who can't get enough cupcakes.
Full Official Results [The Brooklyn Kitchen Blog]
Second Annual Cupcake Cookoff Recap [Cupcakes Take the Cake]
Brooklyn Kitchen Cupcake Cookoff [Blondie & Brownie]
Posted by Ed Levine, January 1, 2008 at 1:04 PM
Bonita, owned by the same folks that own Marlowe & Sons and Diner, had terrific fish tacos, a fine heritage pork burrito, and creamy, well-spiced guacamole. The chicken in the chicken taco was a little dry, and I wish the house-made tortillas were a little flakier, but all I can tell you is that I wish I had a taqueria in my neighborhood this good.
Bonita
Address: 338 Bedford Ave., Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Phone: 718-384-9500
Website: bonitanyc.com
Also at:
Address: 243 DeKalb Ave., Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NY
Phone: 718-622-5300
Late this morning I'm headed to Williamsburg with my brother for a little food exploration. I know for sure we's going to hit Bonita and Dumont Burger. I wanted to go to Fette Sau, but it doesn't open until five. Any other must stops?
