By Erin Gleeson
Originally posted on October 6, 2007

That’s it, I’m hooked. The pizza’s amazing, but the best thing about a trip to Di Fara in Brooklyn is to visit the divey little joint and watch the one and only man who is responsible for these glorious slices in action. Domenico De Marco, a small little floury man from Naples, makes all the pizza himself and even rings you up. He has raw crusty pizza dough up to his elbows and happily cuts fresh basil with scissors over each and every big bubbling pie. As we walked out the door with smiles he yelled, “Grazie! Buonanotte! Ritornate!” and went back to grating his undoubtedly imported cheese.

Oh, don’t worry- we’ll be back!

You know it’s true: it’s damn near impossible these days to find a good sandwich. What’s up with that? I mean seriously, it should NOT be that hard to make a decent-tasting sandwich. I blame Subway’s $5 Footlong entirely– they’ve made it impossible for the public to have any standards when it comes to the art of the sammy. What a tragedy.

That said, I randomly stumbled into Brooklyn Gourmet Deli on Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, the last time I was in town. The decor is not what I would call “gourmet”, it really looks like your ordinary corner store, if not better lit and cleaner than most. But never mind this– the most important fact is that this little deli is bringing integrity back into the sandwich. YES!

First thing you notice when you walk in is that the sandwich station is positioned much higher than ground-level, above the meat fridge, creating something of a centerstage upon which all hungry onlookers look up to gaze.

There was a long line around noon, and I patiently waited at the end of the line with other local folk– not so many hipsters, as is the usual crowd in this neighborhood. Rather, it was the working folk on their lunch break, like EMT guys and a dude that looked like he was from The Wire (yes, they get a lunch break too). No matter, we were all mesmerized by the meticulous movements of the BGD Sandwich Master.

This theater is definitely worth checking out: with short, speedy moves, The BGD Master slices the bread, puts it in the toaster, and slithers the meat of your choice through the deli slicer. Then, he carefully adds one item atop the other, slathering the mayo and mustard and stuffing peppers and tomatoes into the sandwich along the way.

He places the sandwich into the plastic box, along with a banana, and other goodies, like sliced cucumber. How lovely!

No frills here, nothing fancy. Just a fluffy hero, an abundance of roast beef, some horseradish cheddar, extra onions and peppers. Mmmm… All the sandwiches have silly names like “The Godfather”. I forgot what mine was called but, but it was one excellent sandwich, made and packaged with love and care. And only like $6. Does Subway give you a banana with their grossass sandwich? I don’t think so.

Let there be integrity in every sandwich!

BROOKLYN GOURMET DELI
313 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn, NYC
T: 718.486.8261

Last week I was invited to dinner at the Farm on Adderley in Brooklyn and by chance there was a special dinner going on, so we signed up for it! The butchers from Fleisher’s in Kingston, NY were hosting the prix-fixe meal at a handful of communal tables in the back room. Their shop supplied all the meat and the shop’s founders, Josh and Jessica, spoke about their dedication to local, sustainable meat.

Sometimes I love how small the world is (or maybe just living in New York) because I happen to be reading the book Cleaving right now, and Josh and Jessica are two of the main characters. They are as cool in real life as in the book and I hope to visit their shop someday soon. The menu was delicious but quite pork heavy- there was even bacon in the dessert! My favorite course was the butternut squash soup (above) that had a juicy pile of pork in the middle.

Sometimes when I’m lazy, I order delivery. And sometimes when I’m lazy, it will be during the middle of the day. When these powers combine, I seek comfort in the lunch special.

KHAO SARN

My love affair with Thai food began in 2001, when I first tried pad thai and since then, has blossomed into a love of even more pad thai. I’m boring, yes, I order the same thing when I go to Thai restaurants. Then again, I just like to say I use it as a barometer to judge how good the restaurant is by their pad thai.

There are several choices for Thai in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area of Brooklyn. And all of them offer delivery. I tend to bounce around depending on what I feel like eating.

This was my second time trying Khao Sarn. The beauty of the place is not that their delivery is pretty quick, but also they offer online ordering. However, every time I’ve tried online ordering, it hasn’t really worked so I end up calling anyway. That’s okay, though.

Their lunch specials are reasonably priced ($6 chicken or veggie based, $7 beef or pork), come with tom yum soup or salad and vegetable spring roll. Because minimum delivery is $10, I had to order two dishes but I’m not complaining. Although my pants are.

Thai Salad

Really nice salad. Usually the salads that come with any lunch special or meal are simple: lettuce, maybe a few grated carrots, a tomato wedge, lots of greasy dressing. This was a pretty complete salad molded into a tiny takeout box, with lots of vegetables, fried tofu, and a sweet and nutty Thai dressing (which I actually don’t like).

Pad Thai with Chicken

One cannot go wrong with peanuts, egg, daikon, scallions, bean sprouts, tofu, although I cannot even begin to tell you how many times this dish has been messed up for me. I’m not sure about its authenticity, but this is definitely the pad thai I’m used to, with a lime to combat the grease.

Still slightly warm and not congealed, this really hits the spot when you have that noodle craving mid-day. Not too greasy, but will definitely make you bloated the next day. Lots of nice bean sprouts to add crunch and texture. I’m salivating thinking about this.

Eggplant and Basil Sauce

I have this weird fondness for everything eggplant, so I often try to get it when I can in any form. I requested that the dish be made mostly of eggplant and they happily obliged. Sauce is pretty spicy, and very basil-y, almost overpowering with basil. Not too salty, which I find a lot of sauce-based dishes tend to be. It’s a solid dish. I requested brown rice and this made me feel a bit better about my expanding waistline.

Overall, Khao Sarn is a reliable place for Thai food that’s reasonably priced (particularly mid-day), and decent in terms of quality and taste. Fast delivery. Great for those Thai cravings. I’ve never eaten at the actual location, but every time I walk by, they are advertising happy hour specials. Maybe that is worth checking out at some point.

KYOTO SUSHI

I am a sushi/sashimi monster. I admit it. I could eat raw fish until each species becomes extinct one-by-one. And I often crave this when I am not near a sushi/sashimi joint, which basically means I’m not in Manhattan or I’m sitting on my behind at home thinking about food.

Obviously, probably the thought of having sushi and sashimi delivered to your door probably turns the stomachs of many a reader. I am not below this, however, and sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

When I go all out, I GO ALL OUT. So my usual order is a Sashimi Deluxe from Kyoto Sushi, which is basically the largest sashimi combo there is for 1 person, and in my opinion, more bang for your buck. It’s also helpful that when you call in your order, they ask for your phone number and have your address stored so there’s no need to keep spelling out your street name and list the cross streets.

Comes with soup and salad. Generic, but you know, a touch you come to appreciate when a lot of places don’t just give these amenities to you.

White rice. With sesame seeds sprinkled on top.

I wish they offered brown rice like Khao Sarn. I would be willing to pay an extra dollar or two just to help keep my combat a high glycemic index anyday.

Takeout container chock full of sashimi and sushi: california rolls, imitation crab, shrimp, hamachi, scallop, tuna, salmon, white tuna, and an unidentifiable white fish that I cannot tell by taste.

The fish is cut a bit thickly, which makes it seem like a crude sort of meal, but overall, it really hits the spot when you’re craving raw fish. The fish is generally fresh, with no strange odor, and the fish color is decent.

Closeup.

Kyoto Sushi also offers a variety of specialty rolls (you know with names like “dragon” and have a lot of mayo in them), various lunch specials, teriyaki, noodles, etc.

I have only ventured outside the fish zone once, and was hankering for some tempura. I ordered the tofu tempura but they gave me teriyaki tofu, but I found out way too long after the delivery man left and I was hungry so I ate it anyway. It was basically agedashi tofu cut in triangles doused in a overwhelmingly sweet teriyaki sauce with mushy onions. Not cool.

So that was two strikes in one. To this day, I wonder what the regular tofu tempura tastes like. Maybe it is agedashi tofu sans the sauce. I would prefer that, maybe dip it in a little soy or something. Le sigh.

For affordable Japanese (not made or run by Japanese folks, FYI) and an authentic Asian deliveryman, choose Kyoto Sushi for your fishy needs.

KHAO SARN
311 Bedford Avenue
Brooklyn NY
T: 718.963.1238

KYOTO SUSHI
161 Nassau Avenue
Brooklyn, NY
T: 718.383.8882

*Thomas Parke D’Invilliers resides in Brooklyn and covets the Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton luggage set featured in ‘The Darjeeling Limited.’

So one cold and dreary Brooklyn morning, on our way to Costco, V and I figured we’d stop by and have a banh mi. Unfortunately I failed to consider the effect that Chinese New Year would have on a Vietnamese sandwich shop (how did I not see this?), as Ba Xuyen was closed in observance. I had to figure an alternative, and quite honestly, when it comes to a banh mi in this neighborhood, there’s no alternative to Ba Xuyen, though others come close. And those who know me know I don’t like to come close. I like to rage. Ragers are number one, not number two.

Not wanting to leave empty handed–nor with an empty stomach–I had one of my greatest ideas to date: I remembered Rico’s Tacos was not too far off, and decided that’s how I’d celebrate Chinese New Year. As soon as I stepped inside Rico’s I realized the Year of the Ox was going to be a very good year.

Unfortunately there wasn’t any ox on the menu, as I certainly would have ordered that. But no matter, as I ordered the closest thing, the Caldo de Camarones (pictured at top); a dark red, spicy, shrimp-filled wonder of a soup that’s only served on weekends. V ordered the pozole, another weekend-only soup made with hominy, pork, chiles, and other seasonings:

But remember that I rage, so there’s no way I could have left it at just that; so we ordered a Torta de Milanesa de Res (breaded steak sandwich) along with the most intense torta I’ve ever seen, the Torta Cubana: Rico’s version of the Cuban Sandwich, done Mexican style.

Here’s the Torta de Milanesa de Res, a breaded fried steak cutlet made with Rico’s standard fillings of refried beans, tomato, shredded mozzarella, avocado, pickled jalapenos and carrots, and mayo:

And here’s the madness inducing Torta Cubana, made with all of Rico’s standard fillings mentioned above, plus a breaded fried pork cutlet, chorizo with scrambled eggs, and three hot dog style sausages. Lava ass will no doubt ensue, but that’s how you rage! AMMMMMazing:

So although Ba Xuyen was not in the cards for that morning, I’m glad I was able to turn lemons into lemonade, or in this case, banh mis into tortas. Yes indeed, it’s going to be a very good year.

If you thought that life could not get any better than the fake paninis produced by the George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling (Grillin’ ?) Machine, you would be wrong. Because life did get better. Did you ever think that one day a home fryer would employ the principle of centrifugal force to “knock out (up to) 55% of fat absorbed during frying?” Well dreams do come true.

I’ve wanted a “Lean Mean Spin Frying Machine” ever since my friend told me about watching an episode of Oprah in which all audience members received one. He described it to me in detail and we both envisioned the future full of corndogs and zesty Arby style fries.

Well I took everything apart.

This was kind of overly complicated, huge and heavy.

I tested three items, Korean mandoo (dumplings) was first, Pulmone brand. Pulmone is organic I believe and usually my favorite brand of Korean foodstuffs. But I will go ahead and say that the crappier brands taste better.

Load up the frying basket like a normal fryer.

I read all these comments about the basket being too small on Amazon, but quite honestly I don’t think it was. Comment gems include:
“…this machine looks great on my counter next to my stainless steel appliances.”
That’s not true it’s really ugly. Also it’s sort of an embarrassing food appliance, like the Magic Bullet.

“My 15-year-old daughter saw me making her chicken in the fryer and said oh great you are going to make me fat. I told her no it spins the oil out of it. She toke (sic) 1 bite and said this chicken is the best, show me how to use it.”

“Now I don’t feel guilty about letting kids eat French fries! I can make Happy Meals at my own house…We now spend quality time cooking together.”

I just told my sister that the average fat reduction is 38%. She said,”It tastes like more than that.” As a negative.

This is the spin cycle in action. I didn’t really read the instruction manual so it kind of takes me a moment to figure it out.

I spun the mandoo for 2 minutes on high. They basically look like regular fried “goon mandoo” but were seriously super dry tasting! But maybe not in a good way! It’s so bizarre because the texture is normal fried but it tastes baked.

I just ordered these tempura paper things offline.

Does this look like 38% to you?

You know what this means?

Mentaiko mayo! Fish eggs mixed with mayo = best french fry dip imaginable.

This mentaiko wasn’t even good but once it was mixed with the mayo…

My preferred fry brand is Ore-Ida, particularly the “Crispers.” Yes I actually have test fried many of their products so I definitely recommend them. Sometimes I love going to regular grocery stores because you can’t get soda and crappy American brands at my usual grocery stores.

They were amazing.

Finally, the last item was TGIF brand mozzarella sticks (~~**luxury**~~).

I think I spun it too high because mozzarella cheese exploded out of a couple of them. They tasted too baked and not unhealthy enough which is not true because they are still really caloric.

Do I recommend this fryer? Yes I do. Did I suffer a mild heart attack later that night? Yes I did.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I also liked this book because they made up a club called “Pig City.”

These are called “Kamome no tamago” or seagulls’ eggs. What a cute but sort of disgusting idea! White choco around cake around bean paste. Non smelly.

The one on the left is supposed to be the tag off a cardboard box. The one on the right is a soybean/edamame. You can rip off the tag and push out the edamame…forever. Watch the vid to see how they work. She also brought a kitchen appliance by request for me.

*It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia style title

Fucking ace!! I made fried rice with it as well using the pork and the simmering sauce sauce. I made it another time using pork loin which I accidentally left simmering all night long. Luckily no fire resulted but I got asian carnitas.

Cold ramen with the pork. I made a sauce with mustard, sesame sauce and seeds, some of the simmering liquid, vinegar etc.