Flavor du Jour

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What’s your favorite flavor? My favorite flavor varies radically from day to day. That particular day was a sweltering New York City scorcher that reminded me of childhood trips to the boardwalk on Coney Island – ocean breezes, blue water beneath bluer skies, cumulus clouds poised to be redefined, the blare of AM transistor radios blasting Top 40 hits competing with a Yankees game, the screech of seagulls in a feeding frenzy fighting over a fried clam – and a mandatory visit to Williams Candy Shop on Surf Avenue for a cup of pistachio/banana twist soft serve.

“Pistachio and banana?” I hear you cry. “Is that a good combination?”

Of course not.

But this is artificial pistachio paired with artificial banana. A perfect match made in food laboratory heaven; the two share a strong chemical family resemblance and thus are highly compatible.

So on that particular day, this was my favorite flavor: The Flavor of Nostalgia.
 
 

Tukhum Barak

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Here’s another treat I discovered while looking for new goodies in Little Odessa. These are Tukhum Barak, unusual egg dumplings from the Khorezm region of Uzbekistan.

About 3½ inches square, they are unique in that during construction the filling is added while still a liquid. Picture a rectangle of dough folded in half, pinched tightly on both sides leaving a gap at the top into which the filling, made primarily from eggs, milk, and flour, is poured and then carefully sealed. They can then be boiled or pan-fried.

In this case, the dough was surprisingly rich, more so than a typical raviolo. The slightly salty filling was barely eggy, sharing the spotlight with the milk and flour, with a subtle touch of sweetness.

Want to try them? Of course you do! So join me on my Little Odessa ethnojunket. (Hint: there’s one coming up on September 1!) Please check out Exploring Eastern European Food in Little Odessa and sign up to join in the fun!
 
 

Kielbasi!

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We’ve arrived at the final post in the “Should-I-offer-an-ethnojunket-in-Little-Poland” series and I’ve saved the best for last.

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Fortunately, the champion kielbasi purveyors are still going strong, their kielbasi are still the best I’ve ever tasted, and they still have the most bewildering assortment I’ve ever encountered.

Being an OCD type compelled me to do one of my “one of each please” shopping trips in every one of the best stocked venues. What I did not expect was that each shop had a considerable assortment on display that was almost entirely different from that of their nearby competitors!

Among these culinary masterworks, some distinctions are fairly easy to quantify along a sensory continuum: fatty<–>lean, barely smoky<–>double smoked, chunky<–>finely ground, dry<–>moist, and the like. But then you get into specific flavor profiles: wiejska is garlicky with coriander seed, mustard seed, and thyme, kabanosy is flavored with caraway, wiśniowa is smoked over cherry wood so there’s a subtle sweetness to it, myśliwska (hunter’s sausage) is flavored with juniper and slightly spicy (“spicy” is a relative term and these are very tame), bukowiańska is flavored with marjoram and bay leaf…I could go on.

They’re all pre-cooked, ready to eat, and conveniently consumed in chunks (the best way to eat them IMHO) rather than in slices from a 3-inch diameter log. And I’m not even covering varieties like biała (white) which are fresh and require cooking.

So now it’s your turn!

If this series has piqued your interest, let me know if you’re interested in joining me on a Little Poland ethnojunket to taste some of the goodies from this post and those before it: please email me directly at rich[at]ethnojunkie[dot]com.

I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
 
 

Polish Baked Goods

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A few posts ago, I wrote about Moe’s Donuts in Greenpoint. They’re outstanding, they’re unique, but they’re not Polish.

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A few of my favorite neighborhood bakeries haven’t survived, but that doesn’t spell the absence of authentic Polish goodies. And speaking of spelling and authentic Polish goodies, this is Drożdżówka z Makiem: “bun with poppy seeds”. Polish bakeries typically offer an assortment of sweet poppy seed pastries. The seeds are ground and cooked together with sugar and other ingredients to make a distinctive coarse paste used in dozens of Eastern European dessert recipes. If your only contact with poppy seeds is in the form of a scattering on top of a Kaiser/Vienna roll or a bagel, understand that those savory sprinkles and this sweet poppy seed filling are Poles apart. (Sorry, not sorry.) My recommendation: the more plentiful the poppy seed filling in the pastry you choose, the happier you’ll be.


These are freshly baked Pączki, genuine Polish jelly donuts that frequently come coated with a sugar glaze; you’ll find that the distinctive dough differs a bit from most American jelly donuts. It seems that they’re available just about everywhere that sells fresh food in the neighborhood – even if it’s not a bakery – if you just look for them. The filling in these tasted somewhat like apple, but I suspect there’s more to it than that.

And of course we’ll sample pączki if I do a Greenpoint food tour – but that’s up to you. I’ll do one more post after this one (Kielbasi!) and after that I’m looking forward to hearing from you to see if you’d like to join me on a Little Poland ethnojunket.

Stay tuned!
 
 

Pierogi in Greenpoint

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I’ve sampled pierogi from at least four Greenpoint locations (I’ve lost count) in my quest to find the best of the best for a possible ethnojunket to that neighborhood. Here are two of six varieties that also included sweet cheese, blueberry, mushroom, and potato along with a ubiquitous Polish side dish.

The one on the left is called Ruskie (pronounced rooskieh) and no, it doesn’t mean Russian; it refers to Ruthenia, a historical region that spans what is now western Ukraine and southeastern Poland, so Ruskie means “Ruthenian”. The filling is cheese (specifically twaróg, Polish farmer’s cheese) and mashed potato, and these were sufficiently cheesy to yield a mini cheese pull when I cut them open. The pieróg (singular) on the right is filled with mięsem (meat).

Sałatka Jarzynowa is shown in front (literally “vegetable salad”) and there were as many iterations of this dish in the area as there were pierogi. They all consist of the same basic ingredients chopped together: potatoes, hard boiled eggs, carrots, peas, celery, onions, pickles, mayonnaise, and a variant or two like apples, but despite the similarity in recipes, some were simply better than others IMHO. I suspect it has as much to do with the coarseness of the chop as it does the seasoning.

I’m planning another couple of Greenpoint posts to see if you’re interested in joining me on an ethnojunket to Little Poland, so stay tuned!
 
 

Advocat Cookies

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If you read me with any degree of regularity, you know that I’m a foreign language nut. You also know that I’ve been prowling around Greenpoint with an eye toward putting together a Polish ethnojunket.

So I was pleased to find an entire aisle of Polish filled cookies whose wrappers I could actually translate: wiśnia – cherry flavor, śliwka – plum flavor, cytrynowy – lemon flavor, advocat – lawyer flavor…wait, what? My BFF Google Translate was no help; it translated Polish advokat as lawyer. And no, having D as the second letter rules out avocado; awokado is Polish for avocado.

Of course I bought a bag. The English printed on the pack was even less help: “Crispy biscuit with delicious cream of advocat flavour in the chocolate shell.” Gee, thanks. It was only then that I noticed a picture of a tiny glass containing a yellow liquid lurking behind a stack of cookies on the package. I looked up “advocat drink” (how did we even survive without internet search engines?) and discovered: “Advocaat is a traditional Dutch alcoholic beverage made from eggs, sugar, and brandy. The rich and creamy drink has a smooth, custard-like consistency.” So it’s eggnog flavor that makes them unique and almost Christmassy! We’re definitely getting these treats if we do a Greenpoint food tour.

Because if you read me with any degree of regularity, you know how I feel about eggnog! 😉
 
 

Chłodnik Litewski

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I know. It looks like the dollop of sour cream had begun to temper the borscht in advance of the photo being taken thus rendering it Barbie pink.

But this isn’t quite borscht. Yes, the borscht we usually encounter is deep red and beet-based – there’s white rye-based borscht and green sorrel-based borscht too – but this is Chłodnik Litewski. It does contain beets but one difference is the presence of cucumbers, radishes, and herbs like dill and parsley. Another distinguishing characteristic is that dairy in the form of buttermilk, yogurt, kefir, or sour cream is an essential ingredient, not an afterthought, hence its unvarnished ungarnished color.

So it’s a hot pink cold soup.

Polish Chłodnik (“cold soup”) Litewski (“Lithuanian”) is light and refreshing and perfect for a summer food tour in Greenpoint where I selected it as another example of a treat we’ll experience if I actually do an ethnojunket there. That’s up to you, of course. I’ll post a few more examples and when we’ve reached the last one, let me know if a Greenpoint ethnojunket sounds like a good idea to you!

Stay tuned….
 
 

Greenpoint – Part 2 (Farsz)

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There are a couple of Polish/Eastern European food markets along Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint that probably present as 99-cent stores to an unacquainted customer. You’ll find several aisles showcasing jars of pickled vegetables (expect cabbage, beets, cucumbers and the like), canned fish, jams and preserves, cookies, and beverages plus a refrigerator case containing fish fillets packed in a variety of sauces (yes, please) and an assortment of processed cheeses (no, thank you). You won’t find fresh kielbasi: those are left to a (dwindling) number of specialists in the neighborhood that I’ll cover in an upcoming post.


If you read me, you know I’m drawn to the less familiar, like this jar of Farsz. Google Translate, my best friend, suggested “stuffing” or “forcemeat” as a translation followed by “mushroom” (pieczarkowy) and “for casseroles” (do zapiekanek). The product consists primarily of minced mushrooms and just enough bread to hold it together in addition to a gentle touch of seasoning. The company’s website recommends using it for dumplings (pierogi, obviously) as well as in soups and sauces.


Since I’m so suggestible, I decided to make pierogi; served them up with bits of bacon, fried onion, snipped chives, and sour cream on the side. They turned out pretty well for a first attempt; next time (if there is one because making pierogi from scratch is labor intensive) I’d combine the mushrooms with some mashed potato. Unfortunately there’s a good deal left in the jar and I don’t know if it will freeze well until another rigorous kitchen session seems like a good idea. (Yeah, right.) I bet it would make a yummy pasta sauce with a bit of cream though. (Easy, peasy.) Hmmm…maybe with a toss of peas? (Who, me? Suggestible?)

And just a reminder that I’m doing this series of posts to see if you are interested in my putting together a Greenpoint ethnojunket. When we’ve reached the last one, let me know what you think! Stay tuned….
 
 

Moe’s Doughs Donut Shop

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In the year 1 BC (Before COVID), I had been flirting with the idea of adding a Greenpoint food tour to my roster of ethnojunkets (you can see them all on one page here). The plan involved scoring a sampling of several top notch kielbasi, refreshing cold summertime soups, savory pierogi, pickled tidbits and other Polish treats and sweets along with traditional baked goods. The route would include other neighborhood standouts as well, like Moe’s Donuts at 126 Nassau Ave, Brooklyn. (The story began when Moe, who used to work at the nearby and deservedly famous Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop, moved on to do his own thing…but I’ll save the rest of the tale for the tour.)

I returned last week just to scope things out only to discover that, heartbreakingly, many of my time-honored faves had gone out of business. Which raised the question: would there still be enough authentic deliciousness to build a Polish food tour around? I explored the shops that were still standing and fortunately, to paraphrase the song, only the strong survived – easily enough to qualify for a legit ethnojunket.

So I’ve decided to let you decide. Seriously. Over the next few posts, I’m going to share some pix from my recent visit. After you’ve seen them, let me know if you have some interest in joining me on a Greenpoint Polish ethnojunket!


We’re starting the ball rolling with the aforementioned Moe’s Donuts: Dulce de Leche on the left and Samoa on the right. Yes, Samoa like the coconut/caramel/chocolate Girl Scout Cookie but elevated to dessert nirvana because donuts > cookies. I’m usually not a rabid donut fan, but every variety I’ve tasted from Moe’s was a gem.

Keep following to check out more Greenpoint goodies….
 
 

Marrak-ish

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Whenever I purge the freezer it seems like I always unearth an inconsequential and hence forgotten bit of meat, in this case a sausage link that had no business being labeled “merguez”. So I decided to throw together something that might help it live up to its name while still not involving much work or any shopping: all ingredients guaranteed to have come from my fridge or pantry.

The veggie component included onions, garlic, long green hot pepper, sweet red bell pepper, carrots, scallions and a little tomato; the pantry provided dried apricots and prunes. The seasoning was primarily ras el hanout, a blend of Moroccan spices that includes cinnamon, cumin, coriander, turmeric, ground ginger, paprika, and about 20 more plus salt and black pepper, and the garnish was cilantro and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

It’s not authentic, of course, hence the characterization “Marrak-ish”.

Served it over couscous with msemen (Moroccan flatbread) and assorted pickles left over from my last Little Levant Bay Ridge food tour.

Of course, a normal person would have just fried up the sausage and made a sammich out of it with a side of fries.

I definitely have too much time on my hands. <sigh>