Official website. Unfortunately, they don’t say WHERE it is. They do say June 29 to July 31st, which doesn’t sound right. Nor do they have a contact number or email address. They must have outsourced some sweatshop website designers.
Another site told me it’s at 66 Water Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn. June 29 to July 1st. Admission is free. Singapore food emphasizes seafood!
Don’t hate on big shitty food festivals, Mr. Kim
Wednesday night’s Stone Park Cafe / Six Point Brewery dinner.
Short post about it because I was in a rush and forgot my camera. They had a couple of Six Point brew masters there. Not only was the theme beer pairing, but it was also smoke. Cold smoked creme fraiche potato salad. Alder smoked black cod. And smoked choco ice cream! (Which I think may be a novelty, but it was fun to try nonetheless.)
The beers were well paired (you got about eight ounces of beers per course), except for the wheat beer with the amuse of Vietnamese spare ribs. Matt said they should have served something with more carbonation to cleanse your palate of the grease. The brewmaster said he paired it because the wheat beer has a hint of pineapple at the finish and he thought it might have worked well with the Asian style of the mini ribs.
The almost barely visible sprinkle of Maldon sea salt on the sirloin means told me that I was in a fine dining establishment. Fine dining seasoning! (Which is a phrase I’m going to use anytime I put salt on anything. Thanks, Michele!)
They did something cute and brought out teeny servings of hops, malt and barley between courses for you to sniff and taste. The malt and barley would make for awesome granola. The hops were inedible, but look like green rabbit pellets and smelled faintly like weed.
I got the itis halfway through the meal.
Service was poor for the first part of the meal, but I think they were slammed. Apparently they were supposed to know someone from The Restaurant was coming in, but I didn’t get to meet the chef. It’s okay though, I wasn’t in the mood for schmoozing because of said itis.
This was delicious and fun and I’d definitely do it again. I think $55 pp for six courses and booze is pretty fair.
How did I not know about The Brooklyn Pigfest?
I mean, for $85, I wouldn’t have gone (from the photos, it’s looks like only yuppies shelled out for it).
But still, it would have been good to know about.
I get really psyched when I hear about a beer pairing dinner. They are pretty rare and harder to pull of than wine pairing (due to beer losing carbination once opened). It’s a nice, freshing alternative to wine pairing. Especially for this kind of weather.
Stone Park Cafe in Park Slope is having a Six Points Brewery beer pairing dinner this Wednesday. $55 prix fixe, six courses. Reservations required. 718-369-0082. Peep the menu.
I’ve been thinking of having a meet-up for Brooklyn food bloggers. No so serious plans as of yet, but hit me up if you are interested and I will make it happen. Maybe an outing to 360 or any affordable, fun eatery that you can suggest.
So you probably already know about my love for the Fairway in Red Hook. But I got really mad at it last week.
The produce is awful. Associated Supermarket awful. It’s not just getting organic fuji apples that were mealy and leeks that were stringy, it’s that most of the perishable produce was visibly not fresh. Most supermarkets will sell fruit and veg that is unripe, knowing that most people only go grocery shopping once a week and the stuff has to last for a few days. Most of Fairway’s fruit and veg is ready to eat. You better take it home and eat it all that day because it won’t keep for more than a day or two (Kinda like that Chris Rock bit about meat from the ghetto supermarkets). I know that markets in Chinatown do this, that’s why I can get a pound of ginger root for $1 or a carton of mangoes for $4. But that’s Chinatown, I expect more from a supermarket that can offer me twenty different kinds of artisanal blue cheese as well as family packs of chicken thighs for $1.99/lb and has a view of the Statue of Liberty.
I don’t know why the Fairway produce sucks. Maybe they don’t keep it cold enough. Maybe they don’t have a mini-sprinkler system that mists it every so often. Maybe they just get one huge delivery every once in awhile as opposed to little deliveries often. Maybe they just don’t care. Maybe no one has complained.
But it makes me all like this little emoticon `,:(
(I think that emoticon, that I just invented [patent pending], is a good alternative to “WTF?!”)
Peter Meehan from the New York Times has a big food boner for Fette Sau. I liked it more than my friends, but granted, I don’t know BBQ as well as they do. Meehan recommends the ribs, so maybe he knows even less about BBQ than I do.
On Monday night, Matt, two friends of his and myself went to Fette Sau - the new BBQ joint in Williamsburg. The owners also own the expensive, yet awesome craft beer bar Spuyten Duyvil, which is conveniently located across the street.
I really really liked the interior and usually I don’t give a crap about that kind of stuff.
To order, you wait on line and order deli style - there’s a chalk board of their offerings. They also have a deli counter so you can see the meats. The workers dress in butcher whites and wrap up your to-go orders in parchment paper. Unfortunately, they often run out of things and don’t make note of it on the board. So I waited on line for ten minutes only to find out that they didn’t have any pig tails ($2.50 each) that day.
The four of us shared 1/2 lb of each bacon belly and brisket and 1/2 a rack of ribs. Large potato salad (simple, just skinless potatoes, oil, butter, salt and pepper), large broccoli salad (a little overcooked), half order of pickles and four potato rolls (these were obviously not made on premises). Cuts of meat are priced by the pound, ranging from about $10-$17 per pound.
The bacon and the brisket were awesome - beautiful color, beautiful char. They were both extremely tender, with the perfect amount of fattiness. A telltale sign of quality is that excess fat wasn’t greasy - it melted in your mouth. This is what meat is supposed to be. The ribs were really dry, but it was almost forgivable because they tasted smokier than I thought food was able to taste. The fact that they had Guss’ New Pickles won me over ($2.50 for three whole pickles). The photo above was taken when we were halfway done. I got so wrapped up in the deliciousness, I forgot to photograph our food before we dug in.
For drinks, you have to go to the bar. They carry dozens of bourbons and ten kinds of microbrews available in 1/2 pint, pint, quart, 1/2 gallon and gallon. Yes, you can get a gallon of beer. Bonus points for serving beer in olde tyme drinkin’ jars. Also, can you somewhat see in the photo below that all the pulls on the taps are of BBQ implements (meat slicers, a cleaver, a tenderizer).
It was quite busy for a Monday night and it seemed to be mostly young locals. I’m assuming they get slammed on the weekends by Manhattanites because Fette Sau’s opening has been announced in all the Manhattan mags and blogs. And I like this place better than the famous Manhattan BBQ joint, RUB.
Outdoor seating in the front.
$45 fed the four us well, without obtaining a case of the itis. My pint of cider was $4.
Not suitable for vegetarians.
ChewFood Rating: Nine thumbs up. Or an A. That means that if you asked me if I wanted to go there tonight, I’d be all like, “Um. Fuck, yeah!”
Matt and I went to the Fairway in Red Hook yesterday for the first time. Dear lord, this is what a supermarket is supposed to be. It’s a gourmand’s wet dream. They have practically everything you want or need (well, except for the $18 pepper, I checked). Regular and organic and health foods in one building. It’s like a less pretentious, somewhat more middle class version of Whole Foods.
I only have four complaints. The first is that it’s designed as a maze: You are forced to walk through the entire store (like Stew Leonard’s, minus the animatronics), so it makes it really hard just to pop in and just buy some milk and bread. Secondly, you need a car to go there. The third is that the produce wasn’t as fresh as you’d think. Fourth, is that even despite the three previous qualms, Fairway is too awesome. Too awesome means that I will want to go there all the time to buy stuff that I don’t really need. Pretty soon I’ll end up like Jeffrey Steingarten or Hedonism-Bot (as seen above, being smothered in chocolate). I’ll be smacking my lips loudly and wheezing while I eat.
Anyway, here’s a brief list of awesomeness I found:
Goose fat! For $9 a jar!
So I say fuck Whole Foods coming to Brooklyn. Fairway doesn’t need gimmicks like conveyer belt sushi and a “shower” in the cheese department.
Dine In Brooklyn (aka Brooklyn Restaurant Week) is going on right now and until the 30th of March. Three (or sometimes two) course prix fixe for lunch and/or dinner for $21.12.
The hot-spots seem to be: Bay Ridge, Carroll Gardens, Fort Greene and, of course, Park Slope (including Blue Ribbon).
Neighborhoods with only one participating restaurant: Canarsie, Bushwish, Columbia Waterfront (which is really just WeCaGa for you n00bz), Coney Island, Crown Heights, Ditmas Park, Flatbush, Greenpoint, Mill Basin and Windsor Terrace.
Categories: 
Discussion: