Food Adventuring Around NYC
Brian Hoffman is a classically trained actor who is now a full-time tour guide, blogger, and food obsessive. He leads food and drink tours around New York City, which not only introduce tour-goers to delicious food, but gives them a historical context. He has written food articles for Gothamist and Midtown Lunch in addition to overseeing this blog and a few food video series, including Eat This, Locals Know, and Around the World in One City. His latest series is an international cooking show with his son which can be found on this site.
I grew up on Chinese food. Besides Italian, it was the only ethnic cuisine my conservative (on the food front, not politically) parents ever dared to let me try. I begged them to let me try sushi when I was younger, but their fear got the best of them. Interestingly enough, the two cuisines I’m …
I work at a restaurant so I completely understand how annoying it is when a group of people come in to have dinner a few minutes before we close. But when we arrived at Bamiyan at 10 and they close at 11, I expect to have full service and not be rushed out the door. The …
I remember once many years ago when I worked at California Pizza Kitchen, a guest asked the bartender if she knew of any good tapas bars in the area. Without missing a beat, the bartender told him about Scores down the street. You see, Scores is a topless bar and a tapas bar is a …
Octopus is a tough dish and often a “tough” dish. I was never a huge fan of octopus sushi because it’s very chewy and I always felt like my jaw was getting a work-out. And I hate working out. I have had some pretty spectacular and tender octopus dishes outside of sushi and it’s one …
It’s nice to return somewhere from last year’s list to get a new list item. Last year I had an amazing duck and foie gras ravioli at Scarpetta thanks to Time Out. And I’m hoping their entry this year, the Tagliolini will be just as mind-blowing. We sat at the bar and were given good …
Unctuous. What a great word. And one that I don’t get to use very often. Although when we went to the fancy new seafood palace, Marea just off Central Park to try another list item, I found myself saying the word over and over again. The list item was number two on Time Out’s Top Ten …
SADLY, AUEROLE IS NOW CLOSED. This is getting too stressful. Two possible failures in a row! After the maple crusted versus maplecrest debacle, now I get to Auerole, the fancy schmancy Charlie Palmer restaurant which has recently relocated to the very strange location of 42nd Street, and find that the foie gras and quail terrine is …
SADLY, THE BROOKLYN STAR IS NOW CLOSED. My heart dropped tonight. We got to The Brooklyn Star in Williamsburg to order the roasted maple-crust chicken. It sounded delicious and I had checked their website to make sure they had it on the menu. The restaurant was hidden on a quiet, unassuming street. It was rather small …
Yellow pickled eggs do not sound like a terribly appetizing conquest. But if it’s on the list, I’m gonna eat it. And so this brings me to The Vanderbilt in Prospect Heights. The Vanderbilt is not inside a hotel, but rather on Vanderbilt Avenue. It was a bitterly cold night and the bar/restaurant was pretty …
Some might call it cheating, but I call it strategy. I didn’t actually purchase this list item at Mast Brothers Chocolate Factory in Williamsburg, but rather at Bklyn Larder, where I picked up the pickled cauliflower. Now just to set the record straight, I did go to Mast Brothers a few weeks earlier and they …
SADLY, SINGAS PIZZA IS NOW CLOSED. When I walk into a restaurant and it smells like Subway (the sandwich shop – not the transit system), the only menu appears in a big bright marquee above, and the cashier gives me a number when I order, I expect the food to be fast food. And I think …
I went in to the very homey cheese and snack shop Bklyn Larder a few weeks ago in search of another list item: pickled cauliflower. The girl told me that the cauliflower was in the process of being pickled, but they had pickled carrots which I was assured tasted the same as the cauliflower since …
We had an amazing time at Oceana, the recently relocated seafood palace close to the Theater District on 49th Street. We sat at the bar and the staff was incredibly accommodating and friendly. The seafood was all fresh and pretty inventive. I especially enjoyed a sausage stuffed seafood dish, where the chef ingeniously used a …
SADLY, VELOCE PIZZERIA IS NOW CLOSED. Comfort foods are dishes that bring us back to our childhood and make us feel safe and warm. And usually have at least 500-1000 calories per serving. Macaroni and cheese, meat loaf, and middle school sloppy joes are all examples of comfort food. And just for kicks, let’s add pizza …
I went out to the very diverse and colorful Jackson Heights to track down one of the list items with the hopes of having a fun food adventure in Queens. Well, it turned out to be more adventurous than I had anticipated. Now, as usual, I had a limited time frame since I had to …
SADLY, ALDEA IS NOW CLOSED. Aldea es un nuevo restaurante fantastíco! El arroz de pato es absolutamente delicioso y creo que todo el mundo debería probarlo. Sólo desean que sus tamaños de las porciones fueron un poco más grande, pero George Mendes es un gran cocino. Aldea is a great new restaurant and if you …
SADLY, ALDEA IS NOW CLOSED. It’s fun to notice and follow food trends in New York City. And nowhere are the trends more noticeable than on Time Out’s Top 100 list. For instance, there are three fried chicken dishes, four egg dishes, and four items that contain sea urchin. I have already mentioned my very …
SADLY, SALVATORE OF SOHO IS NOW CLOSED. One of the newer pizzerias that gets talked about a lot in the press lately is Salvatore of Soho. Look as hard as you’d like in that fancy neighborhood downtown among boutique clothing stores and high end restaurants. But you won’t find this pizzeria on Prince or Spring Street or …
Back in 2000, Sasha Petraske opened up a very unusual bar. It was called Milk & Honey and in order to go there for drinks, you had to have a secret phone number, make a last minute reservation, then have the inside scoop to know exactly where the unmarked door is in the Lower East …
Well, here’s a special occasion where I can check another item off my list AND continue my search for NY’s best pizza. I was eventually going to make my way out to Salvatore of Soho in Staten Island to try their coal-oven style pizza, but after the clam pie appeared on the list, it happened …