AlwaysInformed: Lunch at Dickson Farmstand Meats
Maryse Chevrière — March 16, 2010
Salt and Pepper Sausage on a Roll.
Those in the environs of Chelsea Market during lunch certainly don’t want for good dining options, the new offerings at Dickson’s Farmstand Meats included among them. The butcher shop, which has been serving lunch for three or four weeks, offers about five sandwiches that change daily (check their site).
A representative noted that every day they try to have two sandwiches and two sausages on the offer (the Beef Chili is a staple). The star of today’s menu? It was a deceptively simple-sounding Salt and Pepper Sausage on a Roll ($9.00). The loose, juicy sausage has a snappy casing, and comes drenched in richly-flavored, sweetish, baked beans with burnt ends. The chewy baguette holds up nicely, and the runny whole grain mustard under the sausage adds a spicy kick. Say hello to the new gourmet chili dog. Toss that tie over your shoulder, hunch over the tray, and get ready to chow down. This is going to get messy.
Featured Brunch: Applewood
Michelle Kiefer — March 12, 2010
Roasted Vermont Pork Sandwich at Applewood in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Applewood is a neighborhood brunch favorite amongst Park Slopers that retains a cozy atmosphere despite its popularity. The menu, which is full of consistently delicious dishes, is seasonal and constantly changing, with ingredients sourced from local farmers. You can count on expertly done brunch classics, like Brioche French Toast with Honey Maple Syrup, as well as omelets stuffed with seasonal produce, and some creative meat dishes.
Featured Restaurant: Carteles at Cienfuegos
GutterGourmet — March 08, 2010
The Cubano Cristo at Carteles.
Carteles at Cienfuegos just opened, but it’s already serving one of New York’s best new sandwiches.
That’s right, there is a new authentic Cubano for New Yorkers to celebrate. Carteles (E. 6th St, just west of Ave. A) is named for a Cuban magazine whose covers are the Havana equivalent of The New Yorker. It is a serious Cuban coffee shop that sells Café Cubanos, Cortaditos, Espumitas, and Chino Latinos (a Café Cubano with salt) made with Café Bustelo, the unrivaled king of Cuban coffee. There are five sandwiches including a Sloppy Joe, and the Pechuga (grilled chicken). But the stars are the Cubanos.
AlwaysInvestigating: X-Tudo Burger
Arthur Bovino — March 08, 2010
Cross-section of the X-Tudo Burger at New York Pão de Queijo in Astoria, Queens.
Any sandwich whose name begins with an ‘X,’ especially a sandwich that is Brazilian, deserves attention. That goes double when that X is followed by ‘tudo,’ which means ‘everything’ in Portuguese. Many of Brazil’s snack bars serve a version of the X-Tudo, which is a cheeseburger with many toppings. While New York has its own non-Brazilian, topping-towering burgers (the Sunburnt Cow’s Burger with the Lot for one), finding one with South American flare is more difficult. One place where you can find the X-Tudo is New York Pão de Queijo (left) in Astoria.
Featured Dish: Bereket’s Doner Kebab
GutterGourmet — March 04, 2010
Bereket’s Doner Kebab with the works.
It is late at night. You’re on East Houston. You stroll past Yonah Schimmel’s Knishes, then by Russ & Daughters. You stagger in the door, and tip the counter man who slices the perfectly spiced meat and overstuffs a sandwich for you. The bread disintegrates, unable to contain the mountain of meat inside. No, not Katz’s Romanian influenced pastrami on rye, I’m talking about the Doner Kebab on pita at Bereket Turkish Kebab House.
The lamb-beef fusion is covered with hot sauce and cacik, a Turkish yogurt sauce, which is runnier than its thicker Greek cousin, tzatziki. The meat, which is only a little bit thicker than prosciutto, absorbs their flavor the way pastrami soaks up Jewish deli mustard. The countermen expertly alternate the meat with tomatoes and onions inside the grilled pita before applying the red and white sauces.
The Turkish Doner is distinct though similar to the Greek gyro and the Middle Eastern shawarma. Basically they all involve lamb and/or beef rotated on a spit with the roasted meat sliced by hand and stuffed into pita bread with various vegetables and condiments. Perhaps if we set a long enough table and served all three (and threw in some Jewish pastrami for good measure) we could bring peace to the Middle East, or at least a helluva party to the Lower East Side.
AlwaysInvestigating: Sunny & Annie Deli Sandwiches
Arthur Bovino — March 03, 2010
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Clockwise from top: Mr. Bloomberga, The Louis 649, Kimchee Sandwich, and the P.H.O. Real.
Even if you don’t live in the East Village, you’ve probably heard about the deli sandwiches at Sunny & Annie Deli on Avenue B. It’s a veritable Yelper’s delight, that place your friend keeps telling you about that supposedly has “thousands” of sandwiches on their menu, many written in magic marker on scraps of paper taped to the glass shield. He’s always stopping off there for a sandwich after a night of drinking, or ducking in between sessions at Alphabet City bars. “You know, that place on the corner! They’re open all night!”
The sandwiches have numbers that sporadically climb to 1,005, then jump to 10,000. But they really serve the same function as the names— there aren’t actually thousands. The folks there put the count at “about a hundred.” Still not a number to scoff at. A few, like Joe-Bama, John Kerry, P.H.O. Real, and the Biden, have even garnered press. While it’s not new to the scene, we recently visited to sample some of the most popular, more interesting sandwiches.
First Look: Pies ‘n’ Thighs
Arthur Bovino — March 02, 2010
From top clockwise: Literally, Pies (Key Lime and Tarheel) and Thighs (Chicken Box with Biscuit), inside, and outside.
It is one of the reassuring quirks of a city that is constantly changing that occasionally it returns something once given up for lost. So it is with Pies-n-Thighs, Williamsburg’s own Mary Mac’s.
The original (literally under a bridge down by the river), by Sarah Buck and Stephen Tanner, was a place that people felt they had discovered even after it was trendy. You couldn’t be mad at it for becoming popular. And when it closed, you felt as if a good friend who knew how to perform miracles in a kitchen smaller than yours, had moved.
Everyone knew it would be a hit when it reopened. The question was, “When?”
AlwaysTraveling: Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop (Miami, FL)
GutterGourmet — February 23, 2010
Clockwise from top: Cubano, Croquetas de Jamon, Cuban Milkshake, and the line outside Enriqueta’s.
Restaurant: Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop
Address: 186 Northeast 29th St, Miami, FL 33137
Hours: Mon-Fri, 6:30am-3:30pm; Sat, 7am-2pm; Closed Sunday.
Contact: (305) 573-4681
Grade: A-
Always Hungry Recommends: Cubano, Croquetas de Jamon, Batido
I don’t always rely on Zagat when I travel, but there is a system I’ve invented that uses it to scope out the best restaurants. I call it “Restaurant Arbitrage.” You go through Zagat and find the greatest disparity between the food rating and the decor. Invariably, the higher the food rating and the lower the decor, the better and more undiscovered a restaurant will be. The reason: only food diehards eschew atmosphere in favor of sabor.
Enriqueta’s Sandwich Shop in Miami, is a corner truck stop with a takeout window and a miniscule parking lot. Zagat gives the non-descript Cuban coffee shop inside a 22 for food and a too generous 9 for decor. It has received honorable mentions in Travel + Leisure and Food & Wine for good reason.
AlwaysHungry: The New White Gravy
Maryse Chevrière — February 18, 2010
Fried Chicken Sandwich at Georgia’s with Cheese Grits.
Always Hungry has a tradition of eating outside the box. Fresh lobster tail becomes a topping for bar pizza. Dessert at Momofuku Milk Bar is an exercise in creating the ultimate double-decker ice cream sandwich. At a place known for French dip, a burger gets dunked in hot beef broth. This, my friends, is what we call “the move.” It is how a traditional southern side dish was reincarnated as a decadent sandwich topper at Georgia’s Eastside BBQ.
As has been documented, and recently noted by GutterGourmet, “Georgia’s perfectly fried not-too-greasy, heavily-battered chicken is, for lack of a more perfect description, well, perfect.” The meat is tender and juicy, the coating is golden brown, and audibly crunchy. Recently, to switch things up, we ordered it as a sandwich. The caveman-sized portion of fried chicken dwarfs the toasted bun you’re meant to pick it up with. This is not your average crispy chicken sandwich.
Delicious as it was, something was missing. The lone melted Kraft Single did not add much value to the flavor profile. Enter Cheese Grits: the new White Gravy. Georgia’s Cheese Grits and Bacon are a regular special on a menu of rotating sides. But the combination of Cheddar and Monterrey Jack cheeses, and salty bacon are enough to make it as a stand-alone dish. In this application it morphs into a creamy, savory sauce that finds its way into all the nooks and crannies of the crispy batter. It’s a messy beast of a Southern sandwich that you won’t be able to put it down— nor will you want to.
Featured Restaurant: The Meatball Shop
Arthur Bovino — February 10, 2010
Clockwise from top: Spicy Pork Meatballs with Spicy Meat Sauce over Rigatoni, Chicken and Salmon Meatball Sliders, Beef Meatball Hero, and White Beans.
Meatballs. Even if you didn’t grow up in an Italian-American household, just bringing the word up in conversations can kick off impassioned discussions that involve meat methodology, combination theorizing, and philosophizing about technique. But a restaurant dedicated solely to meatballs? That would have made my great-grandfather laugh. And that’s exactly what co-owners, Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow, are going to do with The Meatball Shop, all the way to the bank.
AlwaysInvestigating: Trini-Gul’s Bake ‘n Shark
Arthur Bovino — February 08, 2010
Trini-Gul makes Bake ‘n Shark that has inspired references to renditions in Trinidad (left, Richard’s).
Just before the end of the year, Trini-Gul, the new Trinidadian eatery on Nostrand Ave, got some love for its bake and shark, roti, and doubles. Any place that inspires references to Maracas Beach had to be checked out. So we visited Crown Heights to taste the bake ‘n shark, and to see where Trini-Gul’s doubles might place among the City’s best.
Featured Dish: Berliner Brat Burger
GutterGourmet — February 08, 2010
Clockwise from top: Berliner Brat Burger, Freakin Deal, and a Bratwurst.
Rolf Babiel has been missed since he passed last October, but thankfully, his brother Wolfgang carries on the Hallo Berlin cart tradition. I spent many a day on the corner of Fifth and 54th, waiting for my order to be ready— one of the great combination specials, often the ‘Dr. Atkins,’ or the ‘Churchill.’ Then there’s the ‘Freakin Deal,’ a wurst with onions, potato salad, and a warm crusty roll— a freakin’ deal indeed for $4.00. I loved to eat from an overflowing paper tray at one of the little folding counters on either side of the cart while watching Rolf slice the wursts and throw fresh ones on the grill.
But it’s a little cold for standing around outside, so lately I’ve taken to visiting Hallo Berlin Express on 9th Ave and 50th St. It has given me occasion to enjoy a sandwich that has not been given enough attention— the Triple B.
The Berliner Brat Burger is served on toasted bread with horseradish mustard and a pickle ($5.00). As the name suggests, it’s actually not so much a burger, as it is a salty, porky sausage in burger form. The one problem you encounter is that the bread doesn’t hold up to the juicy patty and its other toppings: rotwein, sauerkraut, and sautéed onions. But that won’t matter much when you down it while quaffing one of the German drafts they have on hand.
AlwaysPartying: Superbowl Edition
Jeff Zalaznick — February 05, 2010
The spread.
Throwing a Superbowl party is something that must be done in style. Always Hungry style. The goal is to put together such an epic combination of food that your friends at the game wish they had stayed home. Normally this takes great meditation and planning, but if you stick with us, we will put it together for you. Follow these instructions and we guarantee that you will have the best Superbowl spread that any of your guests have ever seen.
Here is the move:
- New York’s best Buffalo Wings from Cercle Rouge
- Sloppy Joe Sandwiches from the Town Hall Deli
- A Bo Ssäm to-go from Momofuku Ssäm Bar
- And cook a Bacon Explosion just to ice the cake, and give the apartment that signature smell.
AlwaysTraveling: Café du Monde & Central Grocery
Jeff Zalaznick — February 05, 2010
Clockwise from top: Café du Monde, Powdered Sugar-Covered Beignets from Café du Monde, Central Grocery, Muffuletta from Central Grocery.
There is a long checklist for New Orleans eating, and it is no mistake that both Café du Monde and Central Grocery have found themselves at the top of this list for over 100 years._ These Decatur Street institutions are symbols of one of the country’s great cities and a reminder that the people of New Orleans have been eating and drinking better than we have for a long, long time.
When you visit, there is no better way to start your day than by taking a stroll through Jackson Square, sitting outside at Café du Monde and having Chicory Coffee and Beignets, and then strolling down the street to pick up a world famous Muffuletta at the Central Grocery. Last week, I did it three times in a row, and I cannot tell you how natural it felt. It is the most pleasurable morning routine that I have ever experienced. There is no question that both Café du Monde and Central Grocery deserve their iconic reputations.
Click for More About Café du Monde and Central Grocery >>
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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