What a seriously great weekend: not only was Brooklyn Flea out in bright sunshine, the Greenpoint Food Market was also in full effect! The monthly Greenpoint Food Market brings dozens of culinary artisans together to share their homecrafted goods with the masses who appreciate them, a true Brooklyn event not to be missed.
The Greenpoint Food Market is held at the Church of Messiah, a completely charming location with a convenient bike rack outside.
Inside there were 5 rows of long tables filled with locally prepared food. The place was packed with ready eaters!
There was also a great live band in the back, complete with accordion!
One of the first tables I passed was La Tia Faby's. She serves a variety of empanadas (like spicy beef, kimchi and sausage and others) and adorable cake pops in both chocolate and red velvet flavors. Diana had alerted me to the existence of these cake pops on Etsy, so I was delighted to see them in person here at the Market!
Too cute with its mini M&M arms.
But not too cute to eat! This cake ball was DELICIOUS. Amazingly moist on the inside. I am immediately in love. My new goal in life is to make these and eat all of them. I really aim high in life.
Bacon marmalade !! Seriously I love bacon, but I hesitated before trying this (wtf? bacon marmalade?!), but I am SO glad I did. This was the tastiest bacony concoction I have ever had. Apparently the creator, Chef Ross Hutchison, from Houston, TX (go Texas!) created it by mistake and now makes it out of his small Greenpoint apartment. You can see the Chef talking about his brilliant mistake here and demonstrate how he makes it. I have a feeling people will be getting this from me for Christmas this year.
I ordered some homemade soda from P&H Soda after I saw ginger as a listed flavor. I cannot resist ginger anything! Here he is handspritizing my drink.
Chocolate marshmallow bars from Moodle's Morsels. I sampled these and really liked the cinnamony cake base. It was only $1.50 for a slice, reasonable for such quick marshmallowy satisfaction !
Cookies in brown wax sacks (why does that always make everything look so nice?). I sneaked a sample of a cookie, and the girl caught me; she immediately looked at me with a smile: "How did you like it?" "It's great." And it was.
Practically every vendor offered samples of their treats making the Greenpoint Food Market one of my favorite food events ever! I tried a great sample of quinoa from I Heart Keenwah and was really delighted with how great it tasted. There was also this one Asian man selling red cooked pork buns (hello, my love), but he was unfortunately out of them by the time I got there. So. Next time. I am arriving early, and I am going to stock up on some artisan treats!
I exited the event and walked around the neighboring park.
We are having such great weather lately !
Spring!
I sat at the park bench and drank my refreshing ginger soda,
and stared at the chocolate truffle I bought from the Market from Molly's Chocolates.
It was a nocino spicy chocolate truffle - nocino is a walnut liquer (learn something new everyday!).
The chocolate did have a nice spicy kick and a whole hazelnut tucked inside. I also sampled an Earl Grey truffle from there, and I thought it was pretty awesome.
I passed by a glass display where these suckers caught my eye:
Ugh. Had to resist going inside and ordering everything.
Next time.
Next time !
I am coming back for this.
I cannot imagine the amazingness that would be red velvet doughnut + ice cream !
So I continued down my walk and was finally ready to eat again ! (Sadly, it didn't take much time.)
Walking down Manhattan Ave in Greenpoint, you immediately realize the dominant population in this community as 90% of the restaurants lining the street are Polish. So I found it fitting to go ahead and try my first Polish restaurant while I was conveniently in the area.
A little Google search revealed Lomzynianka as the best bet for my inaugural Polish meal.
Lomzynianka
The interior of this restaurant was completely strange. It was really dark, despite being the middle of the afternoon, and the decorations, like the streamers hanging down from the ceiling, were from a birthday party from 20 years ago that never got taken down. Kind of charming.
I ordered the Polish platter as it came with the most variety to really sample Polish cuisine.
This salad came first. It had clumps of raw, salt and peppered tomatoes, some iceberg salad, a cluster of grated carrots and coleslaw.
The coleslaw and grated carrots tasted pretty good and sweet.
The Polish platter featuring 3 pierogies, mashed potatoes, half a kielbasa, bigos and a hefty stuffed cabbage. Apparently this platter used to be available for only 6 measly dollars, but now is $8, which is still a great deal.
So much food.
Seriously. So. Much. Food.
This kielbasa was immediate love at first sight.
I love the way they X'ed the skin across the top making it extra crispy.
I love the way they X'ed the skin across the top making it extra crispy.
The kielbasa was really tasty. Firm and great flavor.
The stuffed cabbage was piping hot and filled with ground pork, rice and potatoes.
The bigos appeared to be stewed cabbage, beef brisket and tomato. It was a soft, interesting mush, but not my favorite.
Pierogies, stuffed dumplings of unleavened dough. I knew I would love these when I saw them fried! At first I thought they would be all the same type of pierogi, but much to my delight, all three pierogies had different fillings. What a great platter!
Pierogi stuffed with farmer cheese, which reminded me of sweetened cream cheese. The exterior tasted like thick egg roll wrappers (which I love). This pierogi was definitely my favorite of the three and tasted more like a dessert.
The second pierogi: potato and cheese, though I only tasted potato. Was plain but fine.
Third pierogi: mushroom and sauerkraut. My least favorite, but I am not a fan of sauerkraut.
I really liked this restaurant since it was so small, and I could tell it was real homecooking, especially after catching a view of the chef in the kitchen door window:
My Polish grandmother!
This menu cover does sum it up best: Lomzynianka - Home Cooking in the Heart of Greenpoint.
A definite recommend into the introduction of Polish cuisine!
Church of Messiah
129 Russell St
Brooklyn, NY 11222
Next market is 5/22 from 12-5p
646 Manhattan Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11222
(718) 389-9439
your polish plate looks amazing!! i want to try everything, too! i've always wanted to try pierogies because they look just like potstickers hahah.
ReplyDeleteand OMG. the cake pop. you know it. i looooooove that picture of the half eaten cake pop. kinda sad and SUPER CUTE at the same time. hahah. poor chick. :)
oh also, can we talk about the ginger soda. because that is just so unfair.
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