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.
As I waited in the 90 minute line at Shake Shack, I realized this is not the first time I’ve done something crazy like this and it probably won’t be the last. Unlike anywhere else I’ve been (except maybe Disney World), New Yorkers will wait in line for almost anything. Especially if it’s free or …
Fortunately, my parents never kept kosher. So growing up, I was allowed to indulge in things like cheeseburgers and baby back ribs. But when I’d travel somewhere with my Jewish youth group or spend the summer at sleepaway camp, I had no choice but to keep kosher for the duration of the trip. As much …
SADLY, ROBATAYA NY IS NOW CLOSED. I’ve been to izakayas, habachis, sushi bars, ramen noodle shops, shabu shabu restaurants, and the Japanese Pavilion at EPCOT. I love Japanese food. And it’s amazing to me how many different options there are within one cusine. The owners of Sakagura, one of my favorite gourmet izakayas (a Japanese gastropub) in …
Pastrami, as we know it, is made from beef. But it wasn’t always that way. In Romania, the first pastramis were probably made from some sort of fowl, like duck or chicken. And at Barney Greengrass on the Upper West Side, they make a special salmon pastrami. Pastrami really refers to a meat that’s been …
There are words, such as fish, furniture, and moose, that are both the singular and plural form of the root noun. You observe a school of fish, move all the furniture, and run from a stampede of moose. Why has this turned into a grammar blog all of a sudden? Because my next list item …
There haven’t been too many surprises on my corned beef/pastrami journey. The popular spots have pretty much been the best and the ones that don’t get as much love, aren’t quite as good. But way up in the suburban Jewish community of Riverdale, in the Bronx, I found a deli far from the crowds at Carnegie …
Episode two is finally here: Brian is forced to choose between the affections of two girls during his search for the best corned beef/pastrami in NYC.
SADLY, FORT DEFIANCE IS NOW CLOSED. My second trip to Red Hook brought me back to Fort Defiance. I was here just a few days earlier for another Time Out list item, the Iced Coffee. But this time, it was time for dinner, so the deviled eggs were now available. There’s a very funny moment on …
Some folks like to get away, take a holiday from the neighborhood. When Billy Joel sings those lyrics, he’s implying that no vacation is as satisfying or comfortable as being in his home state. But New York State of Mind was written long before the gentrification of Red Hook. In the last few years, this …
Ask anybody who knows anything about New York food to name the 3 most popular Jewish delis in the city and you’ll probably get the same answers: Katz’s, Carnegie, and 2nd Avenue Deli. They’re like the kosher triumvirate. Over the years though, one spot has been trying to sneak its way into that coveted group. …
SADLY, FORT DEFIANCE IS NOW CLOSED. I might be the only person out there who doesn’t drink coffee. Seriously. If there are any other caffeine-free folks out there, let me know and we should start a support group. People look at me funny when I tell them I don’t drink the stuff. I just never got …
It used to be a tradition every year to go to a different BBQ restaurant for my birthday. For the first 5 or 6 years I lived in New York, I’d chow down on baby back ribs. I think the tradition started when I was growing up in Florida but I made sure to explore …
Before I began this crazy caloric search for the best corned beef and pastrami in the city, there was only one place I thought deserved that title. How could you not go to Katz’s Delicatessen? It’s the oldest delicatessen in the city (dating from 1888) and it just reeks of New York history (and cured …
SADLY, RECIPE IS NOW CLOSED. I know I read an article a few months ago in New York Magazine where they listed a handful of tiresome food trends. But now I can’t seem to find the article in my back issues or online. Did I imagine it? One of the items I remember them listing (or …
SADLY, DBGB IS NOW CLOSED. It seemed to me that the name DBGB refers to the restaurant’s East Village location. It’s just down the street from where the Ramones and the Misfits cemented punk rock into the New York consciousness. Of course, that happened at CBGB, which unfortunately no longer exists on Bowery. But if you …
When I decided to do corned beef and pastrami, I set some ground rules for myself. First and foremost, I couldn’t get one without the other. Well, rules are meant to be broken. Especially when they’re broken with such unique style and deliciousness as at Mile End. If you read any New York publications or food …
My mission, should I choose to accept it is to hunt down the strangely marked building on West 48th Street close to 11th Avenue (practically in New Jersey!), call the phone number I was given by a certain hour, and wait for somebody to emerge. If I do all these things correctly, I will be …
SADLY, PULINO’S IS NOW CLOSED. I was invited once again by Jason Feirman (I Dream of Pizza) to Pizza Club. I first joined the group a few months back at the classic coal oven joint Arturo’s. This month, we headed down Houston Street a bit to the other side of the pizza spectrum to sample the …
My favorite issues of Time Out each year are the 100 Best Food and Drink issue and the Cheap Issue. It’s clear that I’m both a foodie and a Jew (a Jew-die?) So when they write articles about cheap food in the city, I am in heaven. The lunch special at Yakitori Totto, the semi-hidden (it’s …
Saraghina is one of those well-respected new pizza restaurants that I just didn’t get to during my intense pizza search. So I’m very thankful that it happened to find its way onto TONY’s list. Partly because it helped make my pizza search more comprehensive, but also because it was quite delicious. Michele Iuliano, the chef …