Sunday, April 11, 2010

My New Favorite Favorite: Brooklyn Flea Food Vendors

Reason #24,353 to love New York: You can find an incredible food mecca at the back of a hip flea market, and all the food vendors can be FRIGGINDELICIOUS!

This weekend was the first weekend for the Brooklyn Flea to return outdoors in Fort Greene following the winter spell.  I think I had been to the Brooklyn Flea once before a long, long time ago, but for some reason, I did not eat anything because obviously I did not know anything.

Times have changed my friend.  And now I am just going to toss it out there: Brooklyn Flea is now one of my most favoritest places to eat in New York.  Seriously.  Swoon.  Faint.  Swoon some more.

Here's some snapshots from my awesome afternoon. 

The Brooklyn Flea offers all sorts of treasure like vintage Schwinn bikes, retro clothes,

old expensive glass,

and gigantic varnish remover cans.

After you pass by all the neat flea market wares (including thousands of jewelry items, Diana), you begin to enter a new world of foodie delights!

Pizza Moto makes pizzas fresh on the spot in their roving pizza oven.

You place your order and are directed to return in ~15 minutes.
I spotted so many people carrying pizzas away and they all looked uhhhmaaazzing.

Asia Dogs - hotdogs with Asian toppings like kimchi, banh mi toppings, etc.
And look how cool that Asian guy is.  Like Real Cool.

Choice Market baked goods.  I had to fight all urge to reach out and eat everything by the fistfuls.

How cute are these?!

Beeeautiful apple turnovers from Choice Market

Red Hook Food Vendors: Pupusas.  Pupusas are El Salvadorean, made of maize, and resemble a corn tortilla flatbread.  They are stuffed with various fillings which include cheese, meat, chicken, loroco (a native plant) and squash.

The ladies making pupusas on the fly.

Pupusas are griddled so the cheese becomes nice and melty inside.
They remind me of arepas, but the crust is not as thick, so then you can eat more of them!
The pupusas here are cheese and jalapeno.

My cheese and jalapeno pupusa in a lovely tomato sauce bath

Pupusa innies.  Really simple dish but really good and pretty spicy!
The tomato sauce was a great complement; you can also choose to get sour cream and onions in addition to the tomato sauce to really go wild.

There are stairs behind the food vendors where you can sit, bask in the sun and eat all your delectable foods.  You can also stare at other people and see what they are eating.

This lady is holding a giant huarache, which I know Diana would love. 

Huaraches on the griddle.

Of course, no flea market is complete without Mexican grilled corn.

The corn is slathered in some amazing butter and then coated in some beautiful cheese.

Next to the corn stand is a variety of Mexican drinks including: rice and coconut, watermelon, tamarind and hibiscus.  Three guesses which one I got.

If you guessed watermelon, you win!  But truthfully, we all know I'm the winner since I drank the thing.  Look at that fantastic watermelon !

Fill'rup!

Absolute beauty.

And then after you drink all the juice, there are chunks of it at the bottom to eat!
Loooove it.

While I was enjoying the watermelon, I passed by Porchetta's table.  I have read many an article on the great deliciousness that is the Porchetta pork sandwich.  My eyes were immediately drawn to the gorgeous slab of roast pork on their cutting block.

Porchetta is an Italian way of roasting pork: "the pig is gutted, deboned, arranged carefully with layers of stuffing, meat, fat, and skin, then rolled, spitted, and roasted, traditionally over wood."
That's some totally fierce cooking.

Yes, please cut me off a piece and slap it in a sandwich for me!

And this is what I got!

Look at that pork just laying its fatty arm over the side of the bread like it's hanging out on the couch.

FAT LOVE.  Seriously.  Terrific pork sandwich.  The crusty bread soaked up all the fat juices perfectly and the crust and savory pork just melded together in perfect harmony.  I am a new #1 fan.

After licking my lips from all the porkfat, I passed by Scratchbread's stand that had some interesting, rustic looking desserts, like these scones.

Thick biscuity scones.  They told me one had crystallized ginger, and I was sold!

I had it for breakfast this morning after heating it up in the oven for a tiny bit.
The top of the scone had a touch of crystallized ginger and salt. The inside tasted like a biscuit, but drier.  I had it naked, but it could have used some jam or devonshire cream (which I have never had but trust Diana completely).

The real stunner at Scratchbread's table were these double dark chocolate buttercream filled brownies that were dusted with cocoa powder.  Heck.  Yes !

My buttercream brownie wrapped up and ready to go!

I had it for dessert last night.  It tasted like a fudgy brownie chocolate truffle, utterly decadent, the cocoa powder, the velvety buttercream and slight crunch from the brownie bottom was like a wonderfully synchronized Rock Band in my mouth. 


Things on my list to eat next time.  Whatever meat she is carving off of this slab and slapping onto the bread that the Asian guy in the background is slathering with cheese.

Things to eat next time: People's Pops - fresh popsicles made with organic, locally sourced fruits.

People's Pops also serves shaved ice, hand shaved from this giant block and flavored with organic fruit juices.  This weekend's flavors were organic lemon, rhubarb with optional shots of fresh mint.

Kumquat Cupcakery featuring $1 mini cupcakes.  G and I had eaten a couple of their cupcakes at a holiday event in December.  G particularly liked the lavendar.  The Red Velvet was not bad either.

A cute girl selling stroopwafels, which is best described as a chewy waffle cookie.

I just adore cookies in jars.

And of course, locally made soda drinks from Brooklyn SodaWorks with fresh squeezed juices and no syrups or additives.
I saw one guy getting a nice frothy cup of ginger beer.  This Brooklyn Flea Market has everything!

And I know that was total photo overload, but it doesn't even capture ALL the edible beauty that is the Brooklyn Flea but should give you a good taste.

My new mission in life is to go back every week until I have eaten absolutely everything including:
Pizza Moto, Red Hook Lobster Pound and whatever that meat they were scraping off and slapping into a cheesy crostini.  And that corn.  And those huaraches.  What a delicious mission this will be !

Saturdays at 176 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Sundays at 1 Hanson Pl., Brooklyn, NY

1 comment:

  1. woman, take me with you!!! this place is absolutely amazing!! wow. and more wow.

    how ADORABLE were those red velvet cupcakes? like, i can't even describe. ah!

    and pretty much every other picture. i would have LOVED all those fresh mexican drinks on a hot sunny day. yumyumyum.

    and you're right, i would have left with a ton of jewelry, too. heeeeeeeee.

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