The Smith Street chef who blazed the trail to great cooking in Brooklyn.
Artisans
Locavore liquor it’s not. But all the ingredients in his spirits—which include, besides the vodka, goji berry and coffee liqueurs—are fair-trade certified.
How often do you get a chance to learn how to properly tie a roast? Stuff a sausage? Butcher a bird? Not too often? Never at all? Yup, we didn’t think so. In our upcoming installment of our popular “How-to” series, we’ve gathered some of the best butchers around to show you how it’s done. How to Slice it will go down at the Brooklyn Brewery on Wednesday, February 22nd from 8 pm to 10 pm with doors opening at 7:30 pm.
We’ve been geeking out on Spatzi’s Granola for a few weeks now, and not just because they Put a Bird On It! (Thanks, Portlandia.) The stuff is hand-made in Brooklyn from organic oats and other seeds and nuts and fruits, and comes in brown paper sacks at shops like Depanneur at the corner of Wythe Avenue and N. Third in Williamsburg. If you’re still scoping out a Valentine’s day gift we’d be plenty pleased with a bag of the Eat Your Heart Out Blend above ($8.25), whose sweet strawberry scent drew us from across the room. (For more anatomical heart gifts made in the borough, by the way, there’s also SugarBuilt Cookies’ V-Day line.)
In case you missed it the first time around, this week NY1 is airing a repeat of one of our current favorite Edible segments: The one on the beautiful new 3,000 square-foot bean-to-bar factory built by Mast Brothers Chocolates right on N. Third Street in Williamsburg. Last year we covered Rick and Michael Mast as they sailed to the Dominican Republic for cacao collection, but this story is on their homebase. If you haven’t taken one of their tours (Thursday through Sunday at 4:30 pm) or been to the really lovely new tasting room (where a new pastry chef makes cookies, cakes, brittle, truffles and other constantly tweaked concoctions) we urge you to make the trip to the Northside. Or just watch us take ours right here.
For all those headed out there in the next few days to hunt down one last gift for your holiday list, we’ve got a few ideas. In fact, last-minute gifts are practically the only kind we give. So here goes… 1. Buy a couple of Ball or Mason jars from your local hardware/kitchenware store and any of the canning, pickling and preserving books cataloged here by the Punk Domestics, a very modern DIY site dedicated to preserving traditional foodways. (We must admit our favorite is Tart & Sweet, by Brooklynite Kelly Geary, whom we’ve lauded countless times on these digital pages ourselves.)
Sadly we can’t claim Anson Mills as our own local producer, but we’re damn proud to eat the product all the same. Owner Glenn Roberts, the South Carolina miller who runs the company, has got to be one of the most cutting-edge guys in the country when it comes to finding, sourcing and saving heirloom and artisanal grains like corn, wheat and rice–including many varieties that were nearly impossible to find.
The recent news in The Brooklyn Paper that the Bay Ridge soda shoppe called Hinsch’s has shuttered reminded us of a very cool link a friend sent us a few months back to a site called Project Neon. Hinsch’s was known as much for its neon signage at Fifth Avenue and 86th Street as its scoops of ice cream, which were still served old-school style in tiny metal trays. It’s one of the many city places cataloged by Brooklyn photographer Kirsten Hively on her Tumblr and Flickr sites.
Until now Brooklyn’s Heritage Foods only sold its meats directly to chefs and restaurants or online, serving as broker between small family farms who can’t afford to process their proteins and city customers who want sustainably sourced meat. Last week they moved into real brick and mortar digs, in what used to be Jeffrey’s Meat Market in the Essex Street Market.
With help from Laena McCarthy, who runs Brooklyn’s Anarchy in a Jar, head Brooklyn Grange farm guy Ben Flanner uses tomatillos, chiles and an surprising selection of herbs from his Long Island City fields to create salsa verde that’s bright, layered with flavor and utterly fantastic. Damn, is this stuff good.
