Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 18, 2012 at 12:30 PM
Editor's note: January is Vegetable Month on Serious Eats: New York! Every day this month we'll introduce you to a different vegetable dish we love. Do you have a veg dish to nominate? Let us know!
[Photograph: Andrew Strenio]
When's the last time you were really, really wowed by a plate of broccoli? Much of the wow factor here has to do with the housemade stracciatella nestled on top, but to be fair to the broccoli, it's roasted until shriveled, sweet, and a deep forest green. The florets form a bed for the soft tangle of stracciatella, which starts as Brucie's fresh mozzarella—you might see someone pulling strands of it during lunch service—and soaks in cream overnight. It wakes up the next day as luscious, delicately stringy stracciatella.
Poke the soft-boiled egg to release all the golden yolk ready to spill out over the plate. Of course the broccoli will have to wipe up these pools of rich yolk, which mingles with the creamy stracciatella milk. The broccoli side is available at dinnertime.
About the author: Erin is the national editor of Serious Eats. You can follow her on Twitter: @erin_zimmer
Brucie
234 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map); 347-987-4961
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Posted by Stephanie Klose, January 18, 2012 at 11:15 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Stephanie Klose]
Smith Street smoked fish emporium Shelsky's has plenty of appetizing sandwich options, but, for me, it's hard to imagine ordering anything other than the Spicy Blue ($11). The rich, savory bluefish salad is nicely balanced by the addition of orange and fennel, while coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts add crunch. The cucumber salad listed on the menu appears in the form of paper-thin, lightly pickled slices and toasted seeded rye from Orwasher's holds it all together. And they get a gold star for service: while they were out of Sriracha when I stopped in, the affable proprietor ran out to borrow hot sauce from the taco place next door so I wouldn't have to go without a little heat.
Shelsky's Smoked Fish
251 Smith Street, Brooklyn NY 11231 (map)
718-855-8817
shelskys.com
About the author: Stephanie Klose has more mustard than you. You can follow her on twitter at @sklose.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 16, 2012 at 11:45 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photo: Andrew Strenio]
This sandwich popped out on the lunchtime menu at Brucie in Cobble Hill. Fried scallops? Don't eat enough of those on a sandwich. The juicy, plump gems are fried to order in a beer and tempura batter. They arrive still hot, that beautiful fried-brown shade. The aroma takes you to a seaside shack for a second, but then you realize that a seaside shack probably wouldn't make their own pepperoncini or Greek-style yogurt.
The yogurt (can yogurt be used as a condiment more often, please?) is a cleaner, less globby departure from tartar sauce or mayo; the vinegar-soaked peppers cut the fried bites with a slightly bitter tang. Though Brucie bakes their own bread for some dinner plates, they stick to the fluffy, seed-topped rolls from the old-school Carroll Gardens bakery Caputo's down the street, which is the right call.
About the author: Erin is the national editor of Serious Eats. You can follow her on Twitter: @erin_zimmer
Brucie
234 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map); 347-987-4961
brucienyc.com
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 6, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Editor's note: January is Vegetable Month on Serious Eats: New York! Every day this month we'll introduce you to a different vegetable dish we love. Do you have a veg dish to nominate? Let us know!
[Photograph: Andrew Strenio]
The Shira-ae ($5) under Hibino's "tofu" section of the menu looks like a big mass of green, which it is, but it's a little more nuanced than that. The chefs at this cozy, Kyoto-style Japanese corner spot simmer the greens in a dashi broth just long enough for the veggies to absorb its light, clean flavor while remaining crisp.
The broccoli, asparagus, snow peas, sugar peas, and okra aren't overly salted, overly oiled, or overly fussed. Just fresh-tasting and simple. It's a plate you'll return to between obanzai, the daily-changing small plates (check out the chalkboard). Dip the greens in the blob of tofu sauce on the side. It's their tofu, made in-house each day, whipped up with a little soy sauce and sugar.
Hibino
333 Henry Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (map)
718-260-8052
hibino-broolyn.com
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, January 5, 2012 at 11:15 AM
Editor's note: January is Vegetable Month on Serious Eats: New York! Every day this month we'll introduce you to a different vegetable dish we love. Do you have a veg dish to nominate? Let us know!
[Photograph: Andrew Strenio]
You almost expect to see a beet salad on every menu these days, but this one's unlike any other you've met. Forget the predictable goat cheese and walnuts. These roasted beet wedges are carefully layered with paper thin, shattery shreds of cocoa tuile. Chocolate and beets together? And you get to call it a salad? The sweet, earthy beets actually work really with the delicate, slightly bitter cocoa sheets.
Juicy orange segments are sitting underneath with a base of cooling, tart Greek yogurt. And to add a little salad cred to the plate, there are a few handfuls of red frilly mustard greens. The salad's available on both the dinner and weekend brunch menus. It's special enough to earn that multi-menu status.
Colonie
127 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn NY (map)
718-855-7500
About the author: Erin is the national editor of Serious Eats. You can follow her on Twitter: @erin_zimmer
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, October 28, 2011 at 12:30 PM
[Photographs: Andrew Strenio]
Colonie opened on Atlantic Avenue back in February, and the neighbors have been loving it up ever since. It's across from the Shell station in a beautiful space that has a live fern wall in the middle of the room and a buzzing, open kitchen with stools hugging all the live spatula-wielding action.
It's glowing with candles at night but we went on a recent sunny Saturday for brunch. The menu changes regularly given their seasonal emphasis. At brunchtime you can expect to find raw bar options, crostinis (duck rillete with pickles or ricotta with olive oil, honey, and mint; they have more at dinnertime), salads, and cheese plates, as well as brunchier fare.
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Posted by Kathy YL Chan, October 26, 2011 at 10:00 AM
[Photo: Kathy YL Chan]
It's that time of the year again: pumpkin season. We're seeing it in sweets around the city, from pumpkin whoopie pies filled with cream cheese frosting to pumpkin gelato and pumpkin ice cream; pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin cupcakes and layered pumpkin brownies. (And how could we forget about pumpkin loaves and doughnuts?)
This city has no shortage of pumpkin sweets. Celebrate the season with ten of our favorite desserts around town!
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, October 10, 2011 at 9:00 AM
Editor's note: We write about restaurants all over the city. But sometimes, you don't want to travel for food; you want the best eats right in your neighborhood. So we're having the Serious Eats staff share where they eat around their own 'hoods. Today? Serious Eats national editor Erin Zimmer!
View Erin's Neighborhood Guide in a larger map
So I technically live in Boerum Hill, but all of these neighborhoods are cuddling each other and very walkable. While I refrain from using "BoCoCa" (it makes me cringe a little inside), it can be an efficient label for this trifecta of Brooklyn neighborhoods. There are plenty of food and drink options dotting Smith and Court Streets, south of the whoosh of Atlantic Avenue.
Sandwiches: Court Street Grocers
[Photograph: Robyn Lee]
Opened about a year ago, Court Street Grocers is farther south on Court Street nearing the Gowanus, but it's a nice walk on a nice day, or a quickie bike ride. They're making some of my favorite sandwiches in the city, plus the market is quite fun to peruse; they stock otherwise hard-to-find regional and retro items like Quisp cereal and Cheerwine soda. But back to sandwiches!
The triple-decker Turkey Club layers moist roasted white meat with confit'd dark meat between slices of fluffy white bread, sweet mayo, crisp iceberg and a tomato slice. They go through quite the process to get the turkey (both white and dark) that succulent. Trays of the dark chunks absorb duckfat juices overnight in the walk-in, then get pan-seared and crispy-edged to order. The white meat marinates in a fresh green paste of parsley, rosemary, thyme, and a hint of brown sugar, then the meat's roasted. It's in a whole 'nother class from the diner, toothpick-speared Club.
485 Court Street, Brooklyn 11231; 718-722-7229
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Posted by Stephanie Klose, August 31, 2011 at 11:15 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Stephanie Klose]
Balsamic onions and tomato jam could easily overshadow the cheese in a normal grilled cheese. But, happily for sandwich lovers, 61 Local's Imperial Grilled Cheese matches them with a raw cow's milk raclette from Vermont. The aromatic and creamy cheese melts like a dream and stands up beautifully to the other strong flavors with which it shares the plate. The thick-cut country bread from local bakery Bien Cuit is grilled to crunchy-on-the-outside, chewy-on-the-inside perfection and features a parmesan crust for a bonus hit of cheese.
61 Local
61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map)
347-763-6624
61local.com
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Posted by Stephanie Klose, August 23, 2011 at 12:45 PM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Stephanie Klose]
The Tide Is High ($7) stands out on 61 Local's new sandwich menu if only because it sounds so unlikely: taramasalata, hard-boiled eggs, and salsa verde on potato pugliese. But the combination is inspired, with the taramasalata providing a creamy hit of fish roe, the eggs adding some heft, and the salsa verde supplying pungent, tangy flavors for balance. It's a winner. It has plenty of locavore cred too; 61 Local sources all of the ingredients from neighborhood suppliers like Sahadi's, Bien Cuit, and the bar's own CSA distribution.
61 Local
61 Bergen Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map)
347-763-6624
61local.com
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, August 8, 2011 at 9:00 AM
Sweet tarts. [Photographs: Robyn Lee]
Walking into Bien Cuit Bakery, which just opened a couple weeks ago on Smith Street in the Boerum/Cobble Hill nabe, you get that overstimulated-in-a-bakery feeling. Rustic bread loaves the size of Jeep tires in baskets next to long baguettes. Dainty tarts piled with plump cherries and wet, juicy peaches behind the glass case. You're also a little intoxicated by the warm, yeasty baking aroma from the ovens (and want to bottle it up for later).
Baker Zachary Golper most recently came from Le Bec Fin in Philadelphia where he led the bread baking program for the restaurant group. Before that he spent time working on an organic farm in rural Oregon, where he learned the art of breadmaking from a man by candlelight without yeast or electricity (how you picture every baker learning, right?).
From there, Golper worked in Austin, Seattle, Provence (for a stage alongside a third-generation patisserier), and Vegas (where he helped open a casino with Jean Claude Canestrier, an MOF and World Pastry champ). Golper and his wife Kate Wheatcroft just moved to Brooklyn to open Bien Cuit. They felt like this neighborhood needed a serious bakery. And by the way Golper talks about almond croissants, you know he's pretty serious.
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Posted by Liz Clayton, August 1, 2011 at 11:45 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around the city. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Liz Clayton]
The Frankies Spuntino empire has spawned another child: a catering line named Francis Louis, available in portable sandwich form at Brooklyn's Cafe Pedlar. The sandwiches come in those little triangular boxes that evoke British supermarket basements or airports, but are full of the promise of your biggest picnic fantasies. The roast beef sandwich ($9) is as cool and refreshing as a drink of water in the desert: medium rare and sliced in superthin sheets, stacked densely on rippled, just-slightly-chewy pizza bianca. It's further brightened by crisp lettuce and a healthy amount of horseradish, but garnished sparingly enough not to drown out the pure simplicity of the sandwich's main focus: tender, perfect meat.
Cafe Pedlar
210 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map)
212-253-2303; cafepedlar.com; francis-louis.com
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Posted by Stephanie Klose, May 27, 2011 at 11:30 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Stephanie Klose]
Nectar's beet and egg salad sandwich ($7.00) is an unexpected and utterly fantastic twist on a classic. The spicy egg salad is liberally studded with chopped sour pickles, piled onto warm ciabatta with sweet, thick slabs of perfectly cooked beets, and served with a side of tangy, mayo-less slaw. This is not a tidy sandwich to eat; you'll need both hands to keep everything inside, but it's a substantial and delicious lunch. Stay to eat in the small dining area or head around the corner to Cobble Hill Park. Any of Nectar's fresh-squeezed juices or smoothies are an ideal accompaniment should you want something a little sweet to follow.
Nectar
198 Court Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map)
718-855-6166
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Posted by Stephanie Klose, May 17, 2011 at 11:45 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Stephanie Klose]
Nectar, the tiny sandwich, salad, and smoothie shop on Court Street in Cobble Hill, has plenty of meat-based dishes on the menu, but their inventive vegetarian sandwiches are where it's at. The avocado and sweet potato ($6.50) is filled with an array of vegetables, including the titular ingredients—plus tomato, sprouts, and red onion—but it's saved from spartan healthfulness by the additions of jack cheese and a spicy horseradish mustard vinaigrette. The toasted multigrain bread is sturdy enough to stand up to the fillings and tasty enough to eat on its own. A side of tangy, mayo-less slaw is the ideal accompaniment to a sandwich that manages to be both wholesome and indulgent, the perfect lunch for those days when you want the nutrient punch of a salad, but need something more.
Nectar
198 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (map)
718-855-6166
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Posted by Stephanie Klose, March 14, 2011 at 10:30 AM
In this great city of ours, one could eat a different sandwich every day of the year—so that's what we'll do. Here's A Sandwich a Day, our daily look at sandwiches around New York. Got a sandwich we should check out? Let us know. —The Mgmt.
[Photograph: Stephanie Klose]
The sausage, broccoli rabe, mushroom, and taleggio panino at Cobble Hill wine bar Bocca Lupo ($11.00) just might be the perfect sandwich. The crisp, pressed crust gives way to a tender interior packed with mild sausage, earthy mushrooms, and plenty of well-chopped, tender, bitter greens (no large, tough leaves to reckon with here!). It's combined with just enough pungent, tangy taleggio to bind them together into a tasty, cohesive whole. All of the elements are discernible and delicious on their own, but the perfectly balanced combination really shines. The crisp pickled vegetables served alongside are the perfect complement. Take advantage of the quiet, sunny space to enjoy it for lunch if you can; the sandwich also appears on the dinner menu, but you'll have to fight hordes of hungry locals after dark.
Bocca Lupo
391 Henry Street, Brooklyn NY 11201 (map)
718-243-2522
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