Brooklyn: Bensonhurst
Posted by Carey Jones, October 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[Photos: Robyn Lee]
Our Top Five
- The Winner: Two Little Red Hens
- Mona Lisa Pastry Shoppe
- Lady M Cake Boutique
- Cheesecake Factory
- Fairway Market
In the pantheon of iconic New York foods, not much outranks the proud cheesecake. Whether after dinner at Luger's, by the round at Eileen's, or shipped across the country by Junior's, New York cheesecakes are a force to be reckoned with. The cheesecake is a dessert that's perfect in its simplicity. A silky, creamy base, an optional thin crust—and that's it.
What makes a first-class cheesecake? It's smooth and creamy, just sweet enough, with a hint of tartness. If there's a crust, it adds something extra without overwhelming the taste of the cheesecake itself. And it's rich enough to seem a bit decadent, without going down like a cement pour. You should want to keep eating—at least, for more than one bite.
So we canvassed the boroughs for New York's best cheesecake, arrived at our finalists, and assembled our panel of crack tasters. All cakes were tasted blind, brought to the same temperature, in similar-size slices. We even scuffed up the edges of the more cosmetically privileged. And we had our tasters start with different samples, to cancel out the effects of palate fatigue—a real concern, after 14 cheesecakes. As it turns out, the first bite wasn't always the best bite.
(For the purposes of fair comparison, we went only with bakery cheesecakes, rather than restaurant ones. We also excluded all flavored and ricotta-based cheesecakes—stay tuned for later taste-tests.)
So after countless miles traveled, bites considered, and calories consumed, we've arrived at our winners. Our favorites, our surprise showings, and the best cheesecake in New York—after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 17, 2009 at 2:45 PM
I recently realized that since I had already visited so many hand-pulled noodle shops in New York City, I may as well try to visit them all. My latest hand-pulled noodle excursion brought me to Bensonhurst, a part of Brooklyn that, for the most part, doesn't strike me as a place to go to unless you live there. But as one of my best friends lived near the hand-pulled noodle shop, spending the afternoon with a friend and noodles gave me enough reason to make the one-hour schlep from Bed-Stuy.
Hand Pull Noodle and Dumplings House has been open for about five months. The interior is clean and minimal with four condiment-laden tables and a flat-screen TV that will accompany your meal with the sounds of whatever Cantonese soap opera is currently playing. Bowls of hand-pulled noodles accompanied by beef, pork, duck, or seafood (but mostly beef in all different forms) hover around the $5 mark. (The only item on the menu I didn't recognize was "beef omasum," which, for those as unlearned in the language of offal as I am, is tripe.) The kitchen is open so you can watch the chef pull your noodles moments before they're dunked into the pot.
Continue reading »
Posted by Barbara Hanson, March 9, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Editor's note: It's time for another dispatch from Serious Eats community member BaHa, aka Barbara Hanson, who checks in now and again about the various one-of-a-kind food stores and markets in New York. She told us that this title is a nod to "Hunt the Slipper," a childrens parlor game from the 1800s that's featured prominently in PG Wodehouse and other fiction of that ilk.
A couple of months ago, my friend Jim (who, earlier, had led me to the land of cevapcici) mentioned that his mother made a fish stew on Christmas Eve that invariably contained slippers.
I was about to ask Jim about that, as I was pretty sure his family wasn’t dining on a combination of seafood and footwear, when he told me that he didn’t really know what they were, but that they tasted a bit like lobster, a bit like shrimp.
Obviously, I was going to have to do some research. Armed with a sketchy description and complete faith in Google, I found that the slipper lobster is a clawless relative of both the spiny and furry lobsters. They are also known, not quite so appetizingly, as bugs, and look rather like seagoing rhinoceri sporting CDs for antennae.
The place to go, Jim told me, was the Sea Breeze Fish Market in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a Sicilian fishmonger that has served several generations of Brooklynites; the line of customers runs out the door and down the block on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 27, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Our pal Zach passionately declares: "World Tong is the best dim sum in New York City. And it’s not in Manhattan’s Chinatown, or Flushing or even in Sunset Park, Brooklyn’s under-appreciated Chinatown. It’s in Bensonhurst, and despite being an overly crowded, small-scale dim sum parlor, the quantity of food that flies out of their kitchen is more astounding then some places five times its size." Read Robyn's review here.
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 2, 2008 at 12:15 PM
When dim sum lover Zach Brooks recommended World Tong in Bensonhurst, he warned that it was popular and gets crowded early. How did my friends and I get a table so easily? We went at 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
The three friends (yes, a paltry three) who managed to roll out of bed were rewarded with fresh, mostly awesome dim sum with a few never-before-seen dishes thrown in. Here are the highlights.
Continue reading »
Posted by Carey Jones, October 19, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[Photos: Robyn Lee]
Our Top Five
- The Winner: Two Little Red Hens
- Mona Lisa Pastry Shoppe
- Lady M Cake Boutique
- Cheesecake Factory
- Fairway Market
In the pantheon of iconic New York foods, not much outranks the proud cheesecake. Whether after dinner at Luger's, by the round at Eileen's, or shipped across the country by Junior's, New York cheesecakes are a force to be reckoned with. The cheesecake is a dessert that's perfect in its simplicity. A silky, creamy base, an optional thin crust—and that's it.
What makes a first-class cheesecake? It's smooth and creamy, just sweet enough, with a hint of tartness. If there's a crust, it adds something extra without overwhelming the taste of the cheesecake itself. And it's rich enough to seem a bit decadent, without going down like a cement pour. You should want to keep eating—at least, for more than one bite.
So we canvassed the boroughs for New York's best cheesecake, arrived at our finalists, and assembled our panel of crack tasters. All cakes were tasted blind, brought to the same temperature, in similar-size slices. We even scuffed up the edges of the more cosmetically privileged. And we had our tasters start with different samples, to cancel out the effects of palate fatigue—a real concern, after 14 cheesecakes. As it turns out, the first bite wasn't always the best bite.
(For the purposes of fair comparison, we went only with bakery cheesecakes, rather than restaurant ones. We also excluded all flavored and ricotta-based cheesecakes—stay tuned for later taste-tests.)
So after countless miles traveled, bites considered, and calories consumed, we've arrived at our winners. Our favorites, our surprise showings, and the best cheesecake in New York—after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Robyn Lee, March 17, 2009 at 2:45 PM
I recently realized that since I had already visited so many hand-pulled noodle shops in New York City, I may as well try to visit them all. My latest hand-pulled noodle excursion brought me to Bensonhurst, a part of Brooklyn that, for the most part, doesn't strike me as a place to go to unless you live there. But as one of my best friends lived near the hand-pulled noodle shop, spending the afternoon with a friend and noodles gave me enough reason to make the one-hour schlep from Bed-Stuy.
Hand Pull Noodle and Dumplings House has been open for about five months. The interior is clean and minimal with four condiment-laden tables and a flat-screen TV that will accompany your meal with the sounds of whatever Cantonese soap opera is currently playing. Bowls of hand-pulled noodles accompanied by beef, pork, duck, or seafood (but mostly beef in all different forms) hover around the $5 mark. (The only item on the menu I didn't recognize was "beef omasum," which, for those as unlearned in the language of offal as I am, is tripe.) The kitchen is open so you can watch the chef pull your noodles moments before they're dunked into the pot.
Continue reading »
Posted by Barbara Hanson, March 9, 2009 at 1:30 PM
Editor's note: It's time for another dispatch from Serious Eats community member BaHa, aka Barbara Hanson, who checks in now and again about the various one-of-a-kind food stores and markets in New York. She told us that this title is a nod to "Hunt the Slipper," a childrens parlor game from the 1800s that's featured prominently in PG Wodehouse and other fiction of that ilk.
A couple of months ago, my friend Jim (who, earlier, had led me to the land of cevapcici) mentioned that his mother made a fish stew on Christmas Eve that invariably contained slippers.
I was about to ask Jim about that, as I was pretty sure his family wasn’t dining on a combination of seafood and footwear, when he told me that he didn’t really know what they were, but that they tasted a bit like lobster, a bit like shrimp.
Obviously, I was going to have to do some research. Armed with a sketchy description and complete faith in Google, I found that the slipper lobster is a clawless relative of both the spiny and furry lobsters. They are also known, not quite so appetizingly, as bugs, and look rather like seagoing rhinoceri sporting CDs for antennae.
The place to go, Jim told me, was the Sea Breeze Fish Market in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, a Sicilian fishmonger that has served several generations of Brooklynites; the line of customers runs out the door and down the block on Christmas Eve.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 27, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Our pal Zach passionately declares: "World Tong is the best dim sum in New York City. And it’s not in Manhattan’s Chinatown, or Flushing or even in Sunset Park, Brooklyn’s under-appreciated Chinatown. It’s in Bensonhurst, and despite being an overly crowded, small-scale dim sum parlor, the quantity of food that flies out of their kitchen is more astounding then some places five times its size." Read Robyn's review here.
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 2, 2008 at 12:15 PM
When dim sum lover Zach Brooks recommended World Tong in Bensonhurst, he warned that it was popular and gets crowded early. How did my friends and I get a table so easily? We went at 10:30 a.m. on a Saturday morning.
The three friends (yes, a paltry three) who managed to roll out of bed were rewarded with fresh, mostly awesome dim sum with a few never-before-seen dishes thrown in. Here are the highlights.
Continue reading »
Posted by Zach Brooks, October 2, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Brooklyn Paper asks this week if the best gelato in New York City is being served out of the back of a tanning salon? The answer is yes. Yes it is.
Posted by Ed Levine, February 29, 2008 at 6:15 PM
I know it's winter, so you're probably not thinking about ice cream, gelato, or any other frozen dessert, but listen up. Gino Cammarata, as I wrote in the New York Times in 2002, might be New York City's best artisanal gelato maker, and he is back this week after a prolonged absence from Gotham's food scene.
He's making his transcendent gelati in the front of a popular tanning salon in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
You heard me right. In a tanning salon.
Continue reading »
Posted by Ed Levine, September 18, 2006 at 7:27 AM
A number of ELE users commented, and rightly so, that all the places on my Best Italian restaurant list were all pretty damned pricey. So I thought I should take a stab at a list of potential top five neighborhood Italian restaurants. How do I define a neighborhood Italian restaurant?
A restaurant where you can eat two courses and a glass of wine and spend $25. Neighborhood restaurants that don't require as much of a financial commitment and advance planning. You might wait on line because in many cases these restaurants don't take reservations.
The trouble with most neighborhood Italian restaurants is that most often they serve food that is well-meaning but mediocre at best. That said, there are a number of wonderful neighborhood Italian restaurants sprinkled all over NY. The over-all experience at these neighborhood spots will not likely be as satisfying (service and space can often be lacking), but the food can be delicious.
Here is my list of contenders:
Anthony's: Park Slope
Bianca: Noho
Biricchino: Chelsea
Celeste: Upper West Side
Cono & Sons: Williamsburg
Da Andrea: West Village
Frankies 457 Spuntino: Carroll Gardens
Frankies Clinton St. Spuntino: Lower East Side
Franny's: Park Slope
Gennaro: Upper West Side
Il Bagatto: East Village
Inoteca: Lower East Side
Joe's of Avenue U: Gravesend, Brooklyn
Manducatis: Long Island City
Nick's: Upper East Side
Sapori D'Ischia: Woodside, Queens
Sette Medi: Morningside Heights
Tommaso's: Bensonhurst
Via Emilia: Flatiron District
Have I missed any?
