Last Ode to Summer Smorgasburg's Landhaus, Good Batch, Nana Bananas and Gimme Coffee!

In my effort to catch up on everything that I have eaten this summer, my heart looks fondly upon this set of photos from my last summer visit to the Smorgasburg where we all tried a few new things:

Landhaus

Landhaus maple glazed bacon: grilled on the flattop, dusted with paprika and drizzled with maple syrup

Landhaus lamb burger with the fixings

Oozy, messy beyond belief and quite good.  Not very gamey!! Quite juicy!

Grilled peach buttered corn on the cob.  I forget who was dishing this up, but they were next to Landhaus.  The peach notes were not too strong, but the butter sure was!  You won't need any lip balm to keep your lips moist after gnawing on this cob.

Market Share brings a variety of local artisan goods.

I grabbed the "Doc," a root beer flavored ice pop.

Strong emphasis on the ice.  This sucker was frozen way solid.  I wish it was creamier and softer.

Meat Hook was offering pig head parties, good for six people who want to sit around and eat the meat/fat off a pig head.  Some big Filipino ladies were totally diggin' that kind of face-fest.

Grilled peaches topped with coconut cream and basil? herbs? from Bite Size Kitchen.  Solid.  (Grilled peaches - you can't eff that up!)

Thanan wolfed down the takoyaki balls from the Takoyaki stand.  He ate all of them but said he didn't like them as much as Otafuku.

Stroopwafel ice cream sandwcih from the Good Batch.  If these are still available at the Smorg, I would definitely recommend it.  The  spiced stroopwafels and the salted caramel drizzle were mmmmlicious.

The chocolate covered frozen banana dipping process at Nana's

Toffee is one of the variety of toppings you can select from with a variety of bright colored sprinkles

Toffee and sea salt banana - Nick thought it was a bit too much salt, but otherwise good.  Oh, Arrested Development memories!

Gimme Coffee! just opened up a new branch a half block away from my apartment.

Ice coffee latte

This is my new favorite ice latte in the city.  It's so creamy and doesn't quite taste like coffee.  Not sure if that's how it should be, but boy do I love it!

These pictures make me miss summer in the city!  Hopefully this winter will be a warm and fun one.

Smorgasburg

N7th & Kent

Gimme Coffee!

Roebling & N6th

A trio of Brooklyn pizzas: Best Pizza, Forcella and Roberta's

This post was from earlier this summer.  What began an innocent pizza crawl became one of my most beloved hipster Saturdays, including friends bathing in open fire hydrants,

watching an outdoor amateur wrestling match with referees wearing luchador masks 

and watching a female roller derby in a college gymnasium.  

Random summers in New York are the best.

The mini-pizza crawl centered on Williamsburg / East Williamsburg.  

We started out sharing the grandma slice at Best Pizza (because we sort of ate a ton at the Smorgasburg within minutes earlier).

Simple and crisp, the sauce is flavored with anchovies, adding a bit of complexity.  Lovely!  I especially liked the paper plates decorating the small spot, featuring artwork drawn by their patrons.  Late night bar-goers should walk the extra few blocks to grab a late night bite here post-drink.

Second, we headed to Forcella, a new pizza place on the Brooklyn scene specializing in Neapolitan pies.

The unique dish to get here is the pizze fritte - a pizza made with a deep-fried crust!  (How do you make pizza even better?  Fry that sucker up!)

We opted for the montanara - simple margherita pizza to taste the flavors better here.  

Though deep fried, the dough was airy and light.  It was then topped with amazing crushed tomatoes sauce and fresh, melted mozzarella across the top.

What was surprising was that this pizza was not hot.  The tomatoes were still cold, but I actually did not mind - the whole combination of ingredients, textures and temperatures just added to the absolute freshness of flavors.  This pizza was such a delight and perfect for a summer day.

Fried crust = awesome.

Lastly, we found ourselves right in the center of the most hipster block party as we walked to Roberta's.  I saw a Japanese guy with the longest hair rocking out on guitar.  So fun.

Roberta's was serving up free slices outside at the block party, but we headed inside to rest our limbs, cool off in the shade and order a proper pie.

We let Nick pick the pizza, and he opted for the Rainbow Connection which was really a wilted rainbow chard salad on a pizza with lemon zest, garlic and parmagiano reggiano.

I like greens on pizza.  I really do.  But this one was just too green!  Seriously!  It was tart and bitter, and it just lacked any other flavor dimension.  I ended up adding red pepper flakes all over it, but I think some salty meat would have helped balance this pie out.

The brunch pizza offering at Roberta's has the pies more up my alley, including the bee sting which features pepperoni + honey.  Yum!  I also hear their fried chicken is amazing, so stay tuned for that soon !

Best Pizza

33 Havemeyer St
(between 8th St & 7th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Forcella

485 Lorimer St
(between Grand St & Powers St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211

Roberta's

261 Moore St
(between White St & Bogart St)
Brooklyn, NY 11206

A Rather Delicious Brunch at Diner in Brooklyn

Things I love in NYC brunches:

1. Fun, hip scene
2. Great scrambled eggs
3. Celebrity sightings

With Greeshma in town this past weekend, we hit up Diner, located at the southern tip of Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

I had seen Anthony Bourdain eat a rather tasty piece of bone marrow there for dinner, but the place is also known for dishing up a rather fine brunch.

The spot is very stereotypical Brooklyn, the chef slinging rustic-gourmet style cuisine in an aged broken-in diner with worn woods and crackling paint.  The menu is very minimal with just a handful of items like "Scone, Pancakes, Omelette, Country Breakfast and Cheeseburger" listed.  The waiter then takes a seat to explain the daily variations of each item in addition to writing some of the daily specials on the paper tablecloths.  The specials of today included chicken sandwiches, a plate with a sunny side egg and griddled ham and beet salad.
 

 

Greeshma ordered the "sausage" special which featured a cracked pepper topped sunny side egg nestled on top of a warm summer succotash and housemade pork sausage.  It was fresh and perfect for a vegetable loving girl such as herself.

I opted for the country breakfast that came decked out with a biscuit slathered with raspberry jam and basil butter, a grilled peach, one housemade sausage patty, a handful of fried okra slivers and a fat pile of golden scrambled eggs.

Two more life conclusions from this meal.  One: peaches should always come grilled (unless they are placed into a pie and then shoved into a cup of ice cream).  Two: okra should always be fried.  Goodness them sides are fine!

 

I am not a huge raspberry person, but the basil butter added a nice element of fun flavor.

After finishing the fantastic scrambled eggs (seriously top three contender?!), I then noticed Rose Byrne, a la Damages and most recently Bridesmaids, sitting in the corner of the restaurant.

She was with a full host of friends in rigorous conversation.  Fun side perk to a terrific brunch!

I am going to have to come back for dinner and eat that bone marrow.

Diner

85 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY 11211-6005

(718) 486-3077

The Shake Shack Corn Dog & Peach Pie Oh My Concrete

Yesterday, I had the day off from work (what a treat!), so it was the first day I actually had to walk around the city again.  It is only fitting that my first restaurant meal back in the city would be at my favorite all-American spot, Shake Shack.

Despite living in New York for three years now, I have never been able to experience Shake Shack's corn dog since  it is available just a few times a year: Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, all holidays which I normally find myself back home in Texas, but not this year!  The stars have aligned, and yesterday I found myself on the UES with no line in front of me and an instant order of the corn dog and concrete of the day: Peach Pie Oh My.

Man.  It was good.  Sometimes you just imagine something to be so good for so long and when you have it, it isn't quite what you expected, but this really hit the spot.  It might be because I have not had beef for over a month, but with the fantastically crunchy outer shell, this all-beef corn dog was nothing short of awesome.

The corn dog was accompanied by Rick's Picks corn relish, which if you like pickles, you might fancy.  The corn kernels were fresh and plump.  I didn't eat too much of it though because it didn't quite jive with this delicious beast:

Peach Pie, Oh My! indeed.  After having the pie shake at Hill Country Chicken and now experiencing this peach pie concrete mixture, I can only come to one conclusion: pies and ice cream are just meant to be together as One. Thick. Gooey. Gob. Of. Yumminess.

The concrete essentially involved someone smashing up a thick fat slice of peach pie into their signature vanilla custard.  Each custard-soaked chunk of peach pie (with a rather good buttery crust, I might add) was a reminder of how much I love America.  So super good.

I could eat this whole meal again today.  I think I might have to do this.  I think you might have to do this too - hurry, before the weekend is over !

Shake Shack

multiple locations, NYC

PS.  Sorry for the crappy shots.  I was sitting under a shady tree :)