First Look: Mile End

GutterGourmet — February 01, 2010

Top: Mile End’s Smoked Meat Sandwich Bottom left, Exterior. Right, Jars of pickled cabbage.

Like the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton introducing traditional American blues to a new generation in the 60’s, sometimes it takes a foreigner to make you appreciate your own culture. So, maybe it’s not crazy that a French Canadian can make New Yorkers remember what the soul of a great Jewish deli is all about. Mile End (named after a neighborhood in Montreal) in Brooklyn’s Boerum Hill is faithfully recreating Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen much the same way that Hill Country recreated Lockhart’s Kreuz Market barbecue.

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AlwaysPartying: Poutine Tasting (Park Slope, Brooklyn)

Josh Kaplan — June 26, 2009

Wednesday night at the Australian Park Slope gastropub, Sheep Station, Chef Martine Lafond (a Quebec transplant) held a Poutine tasting in honor of “La St. Jean Baptiste,” (Saint Jean Baptiste Day, June 24th), a national holiday of Quebec that celebrates French Canadian culture.

Poutine has been on the rise around the city. Draft Barn threw a disco fry tasting this week. TPoutine is supposed to open on Ludlow soon. Even the swanky Hotel Griffou makes poutine with duck confit. This Canadian junk food classic, (French fries cheese curds and gravy) is said to have its etymological roots in the Quebecois slang, “une maudite poutine,” which describes what it resembles, “an unholy mess.”

Of the three poutines at the tasting —Classic, Chicken and Peas, and Italian— the first (above) was the best. Fries were bathed in a straightforward pan gravy and topped with five curds— salty, chewy bites reminiscent of mozzarella balls. There just weren’t enough curds.

Click for AlwaysHungryNY.com's poutine pictures and descriptions >>