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 :)

India ! Hampi's Famous Mango Tree Restaurant

Helloooooooo!  I am finally back in NYC (just in time to meet Hurricane Irene)!  I arrived this morning, got some staples from the grocery store to bunker down in the apartment during the storm, cooked some Thai green curry and then took a nap that somehow lasted 8 hours this afternoon.  Oops!  This jetlag might be harder for me to kick than I thought, but maybe it's a good time for a post!

 My favorite meal during my four week stay in India was at the Mango Tree. Mango Tree is quite well-known among visitors to Hampi, a village in Southern India that attracts visitors for its collection of over 300 monuments, ruins and temples from the 13th-15th centuries; the ruins at Hampi are one of the dozen+ World Heritage sites in India.

Monkeys scaling the temple at Hampi

A giant stone Ganesha tucked inside a temple in Hampi

We took a tour guide around and saw so many amazing structures that have stood the test of time, several others did not survive the Mughal carnage, so I could only imagine how spectacular the village used to be in centuries past.

Lotus temple in Hampi

Behind the stone chariot  in Hampi

The famous stone chariot in Hampi

By nightfall, we had all worked up mighty appetites.  Some of the tripmates were a touch cranky at this point, and they were losing patience at finding this illustrious restaurant.  "Why do we have to go to Mango Tree?  What is so great about it?!"

Upon parking outside the gates, we walked several yards through a dark path lined with banana trees.

"Why is it called Mango Tree?!  These are banana trees!  It should be called Banana Tree!"  Man.  Crankiness was increasing.  We needed to get food fast!  

After washing up at an outdoor basin, we had to remove our shoes before walking inside the restaurant. And then instantly, everyone understood why it was so famous.  It was just.  

So.  

Freaking.  

Adorable.  Intimate.  Amazing.

Low wooden tables were lined against stone walls - the only light eminating from old copper oil lamps.  You sit on the ground, atop bamboo mats, backs leaning against the cold stone facing out to a lovely lake, shimmering under the moonlight.

The whole ambience was so unbelievably and ridiculously charming.  

The menu, completely vegetarian, offered varied cuisines including pancakes, Italian pastas, parotas, a few Chinese dishes and several Indian plates.  We ordered several dishes, most for ourselves with some to share (we were hungry!).

Honey lemon tea with a whole half lemon, served with a giant flask of honey

Parotas were described to us by the waiter as resembling a pie with filling.  It is essentially a round turnover and comes with many filling options.  Jaspreet ordered tomato and cheese and was underwhelmed by her dish.  It was nice and chock full of fresh diced tomatoes, but she wanted a bit more punch in flavor.  The crust was quite nice though - crisp and piping hot from the oven.  

I don't remember what Sumit ordered, but I assume it has paneer (cottage cheesesque cubes), and he really liked it, despite the fact that he's a proud non-vegetarian eater to the max.

I ordered the pasta with fried garlic with a special request to make it spicy.  I had my doubts looking at the sauceless pasta after it was delivered, but with the very first bite, I was in love.  The bits of fresh garlic mixed with spicy jalapeno tossed in light oil made an intoxicating combination of simple fresh flavors.  I'm going to have to experiment and replicate this dish at home.  I ate every penne piece, at which point my leftover cheese, garlic, chile toppings were then scooped up to be stuffed into Jaspreet's parota.  Consider that parota's flavor officially punched!

Not sure of the official name of this, but essentially paneer fritters topped with paprika.  Crunchy, hot and tasty.

Ferhana had the great instinct to order fried potatoes.  Seeing as I hadn't had a fried potato for a few weeks at this point, I found them particularly addictive.  Crispy and wonderfully salty - I am pretty sure I polished off half of this plate myself.

For dessert, I ordered banana fritters which were heavy on the batter, but otherwise good, though I was too full on pasta and potatoes at this point to fully appreciate, though I did polish off two.

Jaspreet ordered a pancake for dessert, which resembles more of an open-faced crepe than a pancake.  It was topped with creamy chocolate sauce and fresh bananas.  She gobbled this sucker up.

The food at Mango Tree is quite simple, freshly prepared and delicious.  I couldn't imagine a more fantastic place to spend the eve after imagining the glory of the temples and buildings at their height during the 14th century.

If you make it out to Hampi, which I recommend you do if you love historical ruins and World Heritage sites, definitely make it out to Mango Tree.  I regret not eating multiple meals here!

Mango Tree

Hampi, India

(Not sure on the address, I think all the villagers are aware and can direct your driver there)