(I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures in this post; I completely forgot to take any of the food.)
For Mothers Day this year, my sister suggested that the family should have brunch somewhere in Brooklyn, since we've already sampled a good number of the places in Hoboken, where she and my brother-in-law live. Always cognizant of an opportunity to let my borough of residence make a good impression, I suggested No. 7 in Fort Greene, which has received some excellent reviews since opening a little over a year ago, including (perhaps most notably) being named one of 2009's Top Ten Best New Restaurants In America by Bon Appetit Magazine.
We arrived for our 11:00 reservation to a crowd waiting both inside and outside the restaurant; they apparently open for brunch at 11, so nobody had been seated yet, but once they had begun seating parties, we were quickly shown to our table. The interior is lovely; it has a retro-country look with a tiled floor and antique mirrors and a marble-top bar, and towards the back of the restaurant, where we were seated, there are skylights and windows to let in natural light. Everyone who worked there was very friendly; full marks for service.
When we sat down, we were greeted with a plate of bite-sized raspberry cakes, one for each of us, as a Mothers Day special; they were good enough that my father asked for more of them, but they didn't have enough, so he ordered a very tasty cherry-cheese pastry-type-thing for us to share. (I can't remember exactly what it was called.) My father and I both had bloody marys, which were pretty good, though I thought there was a little too much going on in them (two sticks of celery, a toothpick with two olives, a wedge of lemon, a wedge of lime, and a straw). My mother and my sister both had lemon lavender spritzers, which they enjoyed.
We also shared, among the five of us, an order of tater tots and an order of corned beef hash. The tater tots were good, but, I mean, they were tater tots. The zesty dipping sauce they were served with was nice, but I preferred them with the (house-made, I assume) hot sauce that was on the table. The corned beef hash was a whole other animal; not like what I've seen elsewhere, the corned beef was shredded into pieces that were maybe a little smaller than what I'd call bite-sized, and was mixed with zucchini and yellow squash and onions, rather than potatoes like expected. I think we all agreed that it was very good.
No. 7 appears to do the "deconstructed" thing with their food. When our main orders came out, my mother observed that they must have a whole lot of the little ramekins that the side ingredients all come in. For example, my scrambled eggs (perfectly cooked in my opinion, though I prefer scrambled eggs a bit less well-done than some people do) arrived in a medium-sized bowl on a large plate, with three freshly-made tortillas (about the size of my closed fist), and separate smaller bowls with sliced fontina cheese, rhubarb pico de gallo, and curried crema (sort of a crème fraîche; the curry flavor was so understated that I couldn't even remember what it was seasoned with at the time). All the ingredients worked well together; like the tots, I thought the eggs were excellent with some hot sauce added.
As for the rest of the family, my mother and brother-in-law both ordered yellow squash grits, which were served with spring vegetables (a mix that included broccoli, I'm not sure what else), swiss cheese (they both agreed that cheddar would've been a better match), fried hominy, and a poached egg (also served in one of the ramekins, and with only the white showing at first; my mother forgot that it was an egg and put her fork into it thinking it was sour cream, and was quite surprised when egg yolk started leaking out). My father ordered the french toast (which seemed to be made from corn bread, quite an interesting choice) with passion fruit syrup, hummus (another interesting combination), and coconut chantilly. Finally, my sister ordered the waffle, which had the most traditional accompaniments of any of our dishes: almonds, banana butter, and real maple syrup.
Though some of the combinations were odd, we all agreed that everything we ate was very good. I'm definitely hoping to go back for dinner sometime, and I highly recommend it if you're in the area, or even if you aren't but you're looking for someplace new to try in the city. It's pretty much right above the Lafayette Avenue station on the C train, and a quick walk from the Fulton Street stop on the G train, or the big 2/3/4/5/B/D/M/N/Q/R Atlantic-Pacific LIRR Flatbush Avenue complex.
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Soon to come... a short addendum about yesterday's dessert.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Cinco de Mayo, Dos Mil Diez
Tengo una gran idea: voy a escribir este entrada de "Josh Eats" en español. Las señoras Gerson y Gordon (mis profesoras de español en mi colegio) estarían muy orgullosas!
El miércoles pasado, fui a Chelsea Piers con algunos amigos de mi equipo de softbol de este verano para practicar al bateo. Por supuesto, porque estaba el Cinco de Mayo, después fuimos a un restaurante Mexicano cerca de Chelsea Piers para comer y (claro que sí) beber. Porque es lo más cerca que encontremos, fuimos a Tequila Chito's en el calle veinte y tercero entre las avenidas octava y novena. Porque estaba el Cinco de Mayo, el restaurante estaba muy lleno de gente, pero no esperábamos mucho tiempo antes de recibir una mesa.
Desafortunadamente, la primera mesa que recibimos estaba muy cerca de los altavozes, y la música estaba muy fuerte. Pedimos y recibimos otra mesa más lejos de los altavozes, y después pedimos unas bebidas. Unos minutos más tarde, recibimos las bebidas (una cerveza para Janssen, y algunas margaritas para mí y Emily y Tom), y también ordenemos nuestra comida. Si las margaritas no fueron las mejores de todas las margaritas que he bebido en mi vida, tampoco no fueron las peores.
Emily disfruta su margarita:
Tom bebe delicadamente:
A Janssen le gusta el olor de su cerveza:
Algunos minutos más tarde, recibimos nuestra comida. Estaba bastante bien, pero pedimos salsa caliente y el camarero no lo nos traí, hasta que lo pedimos otra vez mientras estábamos pidiendo mas bebidas, y cuando finalmente lo recibimos, casi hemos acabado de comer. Pero, entonces, nos traí más bebidas que no hemos pedido, y estábamos muy feliz.
Emily disfruta ambos margaritas al mismo tiempo:
Más tarde, nuestra amiga Nicole llegué, y traí pastelillos pequeños de Baked By Melissa:
Y, claro, también disfrute una margarita en su cumpleaños:
En totalidad, fue una buena noche, pero yo no volvería al mismo restaurante a menos que estaría muy cerca de lo.
(Renuncia: No he hablado ni escrito en el español en algunos años, y tal vez hay faltas en este entrada. Discúlpame.)
El miércoles pasado, fui a Chelsea Piers con algunos amigos de mi equipo de softbol de este verano para practicar al bateo. Por supuesto, porque estaba el Cinco de Mayo, después fuimos a un restaurante Mexicano cerca de Chelsea Piers para comer y (claro que sí) beber. Porque es lo más cerca que encontremos, fuimos a Tequila Chito's en el calle veinte y tercero entre las avenidas octava y novena. Porque estaba el Cinco de Mayo, el restaurante estaba muy lleno de gente, pero no esperábamos mucho tiempo antes de recibir una mesa.
Desafortunadamente, la primera mesa que recibimos estaba muy cerca de los altavozes, y la música estaba muy fuerte. Pedimos y recibimos otra mesa más lejos de los altavozes, y después pedimos unas bebidas. Unos minutos más tarde, recibimos las bebidas (una cerveza para Janssen, y algunas margaritas para mí y Emily y Tom), y también ordenemos nuestra comida. Si las margaritas no fueron las mejores de todas las margaritas que he bebido en mi vida, tampoco no fueron las peores.
Emily disfruta su margarita:
Tom bebe delicadamente:
A Janssen le gusta el olor de su cerveza:
Algunos minutos más tarde, recibimos nuestra comida. Estaba bastante bien, pero pedimos salsa caliente y el camarero no lo nos traí, hasta que lo pedimos otra vez mientras estábamos pidiendo mas bebidas, y cuando finalmente lo recibimos, casi hemos acabado de comer. Pero, entonces, nos traí más bebidas que no hemos pedido, y estábamos muy feliz.
Emily disfruta ambos margaritas al mismo tiempo:
Más tarde, nuestra amiga Nicole llegué, y traí pastelillos pequeños de Baked By Melissa:
Y, claro, también disfrute una margarita en su cumpleaños:
En totalidad, fue una buena noche, pero yo no volvería al mismo restaurante a menos que estaría muy cerca de lo.
(Renuncia: No he hablado ni escrito en el español en algunos años, y tal vez hay faltas en este entrada. Discúlpame.)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
The Deceptively-Labeled Frito-Lay Truck
Like I mentioned when I wrote about the chicken and rice carts at 53rd and 6th a few weeks ago, I have a preferred street-meat truck near my office that I'll visit typically once a week, though occasionally more. It's the one parked on Cedar Street just east of Broadway, right next to the HSBC. Normally, I can actually see it out my office window, but naturally the day that I'm writing about it is the day that it isn't there. In lieu of that, here's a previous photo out my office window, with the truck in the top left:
And, in fact, it's also visible in Google Street View:
View Larger Map
Anyway... why was I writing about this? Ah, right, because it's almost lunchtime, and I'm hungry, and I was thinking about going there today. And then I remembered that a couple of weeks ago I had snapped this dynamite photo (with my camera, even!) of food I'd bought there for the purpose of sharing it, and I wanted to pass it along:
How delicious does that look? Lamb and rice, white sauce, hot sauce, lettuce and tomato, grilled carrot and onion and pepper and eggplant, usually a couple of spicy banana peppers. $5! With a 20-ounce Snapple and a grilled pita on the side for scooping, $7! I think I decided what I want for lunch...
And, in fact, it's also visible in Google Street View:
View Larger Map
Anyway... why was I writing about this? Ah, right, because it's almost lunchtime, and I'm hungry, and I was thinking about going there today. And then I remembered that a couple of weeks ago I had snapped this dynamite photo (with my camera, even!) of food I'd bought there for the purpose of sharing it, and I wanted to pass it along:
How delicious does that look? Lamb and rice, white sauce, hot sauce, lettuce and tomato, grilled carrot and onion and pepper and eggplant, usually a couple of spicy banana peppers. $5! With a 20-ounce Snapple and a grilled pita on the side for scooping, $7! I think I decided what I want for lunch...
Monday, May 3, 2010
I now present to you...
The Jerseyest ("Jersiest"?) wine in the history of wine:
Seen, naturally, at a liquor store in Jersey.
If this isn't consumed in mass quantities during the next season of Jersey Shore, I will be sorely disappointed.
Seen, naturally, at a liquor store in Jersey.
If this isn't consumed in mass quantities during the next season of Jersey Shore, I will be sorely disappointed.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Detroit Part 3: Coneys
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one thing I was looking forward to doing in Detroit was trying out some Coneys, especially since the two places that will be featured on the forthcoming Food Wars episode, Lafayette Coney Island and American Coney Island, are right next to each other and only a few blocks from the hotel where we stayed. (By the way, the new Doubletree is quite nice.)
We didn't make it to either place the first night we were there, but the second night, after some adult beverages, we decided to give it a whirl. The bartender at the last bar of the night, Pappy's (also recommended), recommended Lafayette, so that's where we headed. I ordered (if I recall correctly) a loose meat coney, pictured here:
Excellent, excellent post-drinking food, though that practically goes without saying. Tasty hot dog, tasty chili, mustard, raw onions, what could be bad?
Of course, intrepid culinary explorers that we are, we decided we couldn't let the night end without doing a compare-and-contrast at American while Lafayette was fresh in our mind. For the sake of consistency, I ordered the same thing, pictured here:
After a few bites and a pause to consider, the natural question was asked: which did we like better? As luck would have it (since we we wouldn't want to have to split up on subsequent trips), a consensus was reached: American was the winner of our personal food war. We thought the casing had more snap (though both are natural casings, we're told), and the chili had a better flavor. (Chopped raw onion and plain yellow mustard can't and didn't really vary much from one another.) Once that had been determined, it seemed only natural to return to American, and return we did for our remaining two nights in the city.
One more photo (this time taken with an actual camera, rather than the camera on my phone) of a pair of coneys at American:
But really, it's a hot dog with chili on it; you can't go wrong at either place, nor, presumably, at other places around Michigan that make the same thing.
We didn't make it to either place the first night we were there, but the second night, after some adult beverages, we decided to give it a whirl. The bartender at the last bar of the night, Pappy's (also recommended), recommended Lafayette, so that's where we headed. I ordered (if I recall correctly) a loose meat coney, pictured here:
Excellent, excellent post-drinking food, though that practically goes without saying. Tasty hot dog, tasty chili, mustard, raw onions, what could be bad?
Of course, intrepid culinary explorers that we are, we decided we couldn't let the night end without doing a compare-and-contrast at American while Lafayette was fresh in our mind. For the sake of consistency, I ordered the same thing, pictured here:
After a few bites and a pause to consider, the natural question was asked: which did we like better? As luck would have it (since we we wouldn't want to have to split up on subsequent trips), a consensus was reached: American was the winner of our personal food war. We thought the casing had more snap (though both are natural casings, we're told), and the chili had a better flavor. (Chopped raw onion and plain yellow mustard can't and didn't really vary much from one another.) Once that had been determined, it seemed only natural to return to American, and return we did for our remaining two nights in the city.
One more photo (this time taken with an actual camera, rather than the camera on my phone) of a pair of coneys at American:
But really, it's a hot dog with chili on it; you can't go wrong at either place, nor, presumably, at other places around Michigan that make the same thing.
Detroit Part 2: Beer and Pizza and Beer
As I mentioned in my previous post, we went to a Red Wings game the first night we were in Detroit. We'd enjoyed some good beer with dinner, and it would've been a shame not to keep that going at the game, so keep it going we did.
Now, Detroit is practically in Canada, and one of the nice things about that proximity is that there's no shortage of Canadian beer. In particular, at Joe Louis Arena you can get 24-ounce cans of Molson XXX. If you're not familiar with this fine product (which isn't available everywhere in the USA), it's Molson's strongest offering at 7.3% alcohol by volume. It doesn't really taste the best (it's on the sweet side, if I recall correctly), but, like Samuel L. Jackson beer, it'll get ya drunk! (Or, if you prefer, like Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor, you'll get bent just as fast as possible.) So... mmmm mmmm good.
Another stop we made while we were in Detroit was for Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Pizza Papalis in Greektown. Those really thick pizzas (they're practically casseroles, they're so deep) take a while to cook, so they have a clever ordering system. First you put your name in for a table. While you're waiting for a table, you go to the pizza counter and put in an order for your pizza and they give you a receipt for your order. Once your table opens up, you give the server that receipt so that s/he knows to bring your pizza to you, and also order anything other than pizza. While you're (still) waiting for your pizza (which takes about 40 minutes), they bring you your other food (we shared a salad, which was probably a good idea), and then the guest of honor arrives and is devoured. Here's a picture (not mine):
The pizza (bacon cheeseburger pizza) was delicious, and tremendously food-coma-inducing. Chicago-style pizza: not really the same food product as New York-style pizza, but still good.
Later that same night, we also stopped at the Detroit Beer Company, a brewpub with some good house-made beers. I was still pretty stuffed from the pizza so I didn't have too much, but everything was tasty, and the decor was classic brewpub, with the tanks visible there and all that good stuff. I also snapped this picture, part of a bigger photo on the wall showing (if I'm not mistaken) a party celebrating the repeal of prohibition:
People and dogs agree: beer is awesome.
Now, Detroit is practically in Canada, and one of the nice things about that proximity is that there's no shortage of Canadian beer. In particular, at Joe Louis Arena you can get 24-ounce cans of Molson XXX. If you're not familiar with this fine product (which isn't available everywhere in the USA), it's Molson's strongest offering at 7.3% alcohol by volume. It doesn't really taste the best (it's on the sweet side, if I recall correctly), but, like Samuel L. Jackson beer, it'll get ya drunk! (Or, if you prefer, like Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor, you'll get bent just as fast as possible.) So... mmmm mmmm good.
Another stop we made while we were in Detroit was for Chicago-style deep dish pizza at Pizza Papalis in Greektown. Those really thick pizzas (they're practically casseroles, they're so deep) take a while to cook, so they have a clever ordering system. First you put your name in for a table. While you're waiting for a table, you go to the pizza counter and put in an order for your pizza and they give you a receipt for your order. Once your table opens up, you give the server that receipt so that s/he knows to bring your pizza to you, and also order anything other than pizza. While you're (still) waiting for your pizza (which takes about 40 minutes), they bring you your other food (we shared a salad, which was probably a good idea), and then the guest of honor arrives and is devoured. Here's a picture (not mine):
The pizza (bacon cheeseburger pizza) was delicious, and tremendously food-coma-inducing. Chicago-style pizza: not really the same food product as New York-style pizza, but still good.
Later that same night, we also stopped at the Detroit Beer Company, a brewpub with some good house-made beers. I was still pretty stuffed from the pizza so I didn't have too much, but everything was tasty, and the decor was classic brewpub, with the tanks visible there and all that good stuff. I also snapped this picture, part of a bigger photo on the wall showing (if I'm not mistaken) a party celebrating the repeal of prohibition:
People and dogs agree: beer is awesome.
Detroit Part 1: BBQ
My friends and I arrived in Detroit on Wednesday afternoon April 7th, and had tickets to see the Red Wings game that evening. Rather than eat arena food, we decided to find a restaurant for a pregame meal. Slow's Bar-B-Q had been recommended, and sounded nice and filling, so we figured we'd give it a try. It was about 5pm when we arrived, and I thought that would be early enough to get a table without much delay, but apparently it's a popular pregame destination and we had about a half hour wait for our table. While waiting, we had a chance to sample from a great variety of Michigan beers available on tap; I particularly enjoyed Bell's Oberon.
Once we were seated and had a chance to peruse the menu, I decided on "The Big Three," a combination of pulled pork, pulled chicken, and sliced brisket. The table had five different BBQ sauces, (if I recall correctly) sweet, spicy, apple, mustard, and North Carolina-style vinegar, and I thought this would be a good way to experiment with all of them. The entree included two sides, and I went with mac + cheese and coleslaw. The order wasn't cheap ($17.95 isn't, for instance, significantly less than you'd pay for a three-meat combo at Dinosaur BBQ here in NYC), but everything was tasty and the portions were generous. Here's the mac and cheese, which was, by the way, perhaps the best I've ever had:
And this is how much meat was left after I was getting close to full and decided to take a picture:
Everything was, as I said, very good; the brisket was, perhaps, not as good as at Hill Country, but I enjoy when there are a variety of different sauces and you get to try out different tastes in one order. Most of us had leftovers, if I recall correctly, and it was a shame our hotel room didn't have a refrigerator so that we could have brought them back with us. No big deal, though, as we definitely all had our fill of meat.
Overall, definitely a place I'd recommend to future Detroit visitors, and a great example of how someone who's interested in urban renewal can take an old building in a drab area and turn it into something exciting.
Once we were seated and had a chance to peruse the menu, I decided on "The Big Three," a combination of pulled pork, pulled chicken, and sliced brisket. The table had five different BBQ sauces, (if I recall correctly) sweet, spicy, apple, mustard, and North Carolina-style vinegar, and I thought this would be a good way to experiment with all of them. The entree included two sides, and I went with mac + cheese and coleslaw. The order wasn't cheap ($17.95 isn't, for instance, significantly less than you'd pay for a three-meat combo at Dinosaur BBQ here in NYC), but everything was tasty and the portions were generous. Here's the mac and cheese, which was, by the way, perhaps the best I've ever had:
And this is how much meat was left after I was getting close to full and decided to take a picture:
Everything was, as I said, very good; the brisket was, perhaps, not as good as at Hill Country, but I enjoy when there are a variety of different sauces and you get to try out different tastes in one order. Most of us had leftovers, if I recall correctly, and it was a shame our hotel room didn't have a refrigerator so that we could have brought them back with us. No big deal, though, as we definitely all had our fill of meat.
Overall, definitely a place I'd recommend to future Detroit visitors, and a great example of how someone who's interested in urban renewal can take an old building in a drab area and turn it into something exciting.
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