Food Adventuring Around NYC
If you’ve ever heard the term, “A kick in the kishke,” you know it’s probably painful regardless of if you know what the word kishke actually means. And if you’ve ever actually been kicked in the kishkes, I am sorry for you. I hate to make these connections, but kishke means guts. And that’s basically …
One of my consistently favorite restaurants in New York over the years is Kuma Inn. I remember my first experience there many years ago (but barely since I got wasted on their sake flight). The food was great, the service was friendly, and I was amazed that the chef personally came by each table to …
Some of the dishes on the list are obvious. Others I cant quite figure out why Time Out included them. Is it to publicize a specific restaurant? Or do these dishes have a sentimental meaning to one of the writers? For instance, the drink on our list at the very sleek, but welcoming Bussaco is …
I wonder how the people of Naples ate their tomato flatbreads in the 1700’s. I mean, if they wanted it for dinner, did they just eat them in the dark? Not knowing which topping they ended up with? Or did they eat them by candlelight huddled around an old table? Well, I don’t think Mark …
One of the things I love about this list adventure is that it takes me to places I would never normally enter. Like this little hole in the wall bakery in the middle of Flatbush (an area of Brooklyn I have not spent much time in). I’d probably walk by in another circumstance and not …
Now I want to say up front that this doesn’t even come close to being a complete critical analysis of Brooklyn’s slice joints. There have got to be hundreds of them and I bet at least half those are worthy of a special trek. But there were two places that had been coming up quite …
SADLY, PRIME MEATS IS NOW CLOSED. I’ve never been a fan of big steakhouses. Maybe it’s because my soul was drained when I worked at Del Frisco’s for years, but I just don’t feel like I fit in with the white table cloths and the excessive spending and gluttony. It’s about power just as much as …
SADLY, PRIME MEATS IS NOW CLOSED. The pretzels at Prime Meats in Carroll Gardens are not the ones you get on the street corner in Times Square and they’re not the crunchy Snyder’s variety that you get in the grocery store. However, these side orders are an interesting combination of both. Each $3 order gets you …
As far as I knew, a financier is somebody who handles money. The word makes me think of somebody who could manage my money or figure out a way to double my money. A chocolate financier just sounds completely racist. But as it turns out, a financier can also refer to a French tea cake. …
Mondays are not the most popular night to go out for dinner, but you’d never guess that on the day before Tuesday at Buttermilk Channel in Carroll Gardens. It might be their special $25 three-course prix-fixe menu (which is a great deal) or it just might be that this place is part of the latest …
I’ve started going out early recently. Partly because I am getting old and tired but also because you can avoid the crowds and get into hot spots if you go early enough. I had not been to Draft Barn previous to this night, but I assumed it was a hot spot, partly because it was …
SADLY, MOTO NOW CLOSED. I do enjoy beer, but I’ve never been one of those “alcoholic types” who drink it in the morning. Hair of the dog and all that, sure, but I don’t find myself sloppily hung over too much anymore. Well, granted, by the time I got the Breakfast Beer at Moto, it …
Clover Club is another of those repeat spots from last year. I sometimes think Time Out picks the hippest bars and restaurants first and then tries to find an item that might qualify for the Best 100. And Clover Club is definitely one those hip bars. I came here last year (thanks to the previous …
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 …
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 …
I have recently been referred to as “the pizza guy” among my friends. I have absolutely no idea why. And everybody seems to have a suggestion for what the pizza guy should try next. I love everybody’s enthusiasm. I’ll just feel bad if I go to somebody’s favorite pizza place and then give it a …
Kombucha is a fermented tea that is purported to aid in digestion, detoxing, and hipsterness. It’s one of the latest health crazes in the urban areas of this country. I’ve been drinking it for a while in bottle form from my local health food store. The intense effervescence takes a while to get used to, …
And the list nostalgia continues. I first discovered french dip sandwiches at T.G.I. Friday’s. And even though I’m not terribly proud of it, Friday’s was a huge part of my adolescence. It was in the same shopping center as the local mall so I spent many social hours being waited on by servers with flair. …