Category Archives: Good Eats

Pow! Right in the Kishka!

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It was during a peripatetic jaunt through Brooklyn’s Brighton Beach area in search of new goodies to share with guests on my Exploring Eastern European Food in Little Odessa ethnojunket that I spotted it. The tiny handwritten sign read “Chicken Skin Stuffed with Matzo,” an Ashkenazi Jewish dish I recognized as helzel or possibly kishka. Like most food establishments in the neighborhood, the pork laden steam table offerings were anything but kosher with cuisines hailing from Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and the like. It looked so out of place that I had to purchase it.

A couple of definitions which the aficionados among you will recognize as oversimplifications:

Kishka (aka stuffed derma) is basically beef intestine stuffed with matzo meal or flour enhanced with grated onion plus the occasional carrot, combined with schmaltz (chicken fat), and baked. Tastes far more appealing than it sounds. It is a paragon of heimish cooking: essentially Jewish soul food.

Helzel substitutes chicken neck skins for the intestines – crispy casing is imperative.


And how did this specimen taste? Salty (of course), carby (of course), fatty (of course), and although swathed in skin, anything but skinny.

Obviously, they couldn’t fit all that on the tiny sign. That’s what tour guides are for. 😉
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Shawarma By Any Other Name?

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You’ve probably eaten shawarma but have you ever tried shaurma? It’s more than just an orthographic alternative: it’s Georgia’s (the country, not the state) answer to the popular Middle Eastern street food – and the rendition served at Genatsvale is first-rate.

Instead of being stuffed into a pita pocket, shaurma is rolled up in thin lavash and then pressed, a technique that happily puts the focus on the filling; you can choose chicken or pork or a mix of the two and opt for spicy or non-spicy. In this photo, I’ve snipped off a bit of bread to reveal the chopped veggies that accompany the generous portion of marinated meat.

I’ve written about Genatsvale’s best-in-the-neighborhood achma and habit-forming qada here and of course, we always pay a visit on my Exploring Eastern European Food in Little Odessa ethnojunket where there’s a thriving Georgian population.

If you’re curious, “genatsvale” is a touching Georgian word that doesn’t readily translate into other languages. At its essence, it is a term of endearment but it’s actually an elision/concatenation of a longer phrase which loosely deconstructed is, “If you are ever in trouble, let me take your place.” Sweet.

Genatsvale Georgian Bakery is located at 3070 Brighton 3rd St in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn.
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Alpha: Bravo!

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I’ve written previously about Alpha Bakery & Mediterranean Marketplace, the paragon of Greek cuisine on 5th Avenue in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn; I praised their comforting Bakaliaros and Skordalia (Fried Codfish and Garlic Mashed Potatoes) and their sweet Bougatsa (custard filled phyllo dough dusted with cinnamon and sugar).

On this visit, the Olympic-sized tray of Pastitsio (παστίτσιο) beckoned. It’s a three tiered affair: pasta at the base (typically the long tubular number 2 variety), a layer of meat sauce, (optionally another thin layer of noodles) and a dense, creamy béchamel topping.

Searching for a word to describe it adequately, I stumbled upon this: Meraki – “a Modern Greek word (μεράκι) that describes doing something with your soul, creativity, or love, putting a piece of yourself into your work. It refers to a deep, passionate devotion and undivided attention to any task, leaving a part of yourself in what you create.”

Obviously, the Greeks have a word for it!

Join me on my Flavors of Little Levant in Bay Ridge ethnojunket and taste some for yourself!
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Hakka Kau Yuk

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More Bensonhurst as promised. In my last post we explored Italian 86th St but Chinese bakeries also cohabit the area. The word “bakery” falls short because some of these establishments offer a selection of lunchworthy steam table dishes as well.

I seldom order anything I’m familiar with; when faced with mutual unintelligibility, my modus operandi is to point at an unlabeled tray and hope for the best. In this case I could identify slices of pork belly and taro. I watched the woman behind the window as she carefully placed a slice of the first alternating with a slice of the second and so forth into a small aluminum container until it was filled. I brought it home, plated some of it as you see here, promptly texted the photo to my Number One Spy since I had no idea about what I had purchased other than it was delicious, and asked if she knew what it was.

Of course she did. It’s Hakka Kau Yuk, comfort food that hails from China’s Guangdong province and often shows up on the Chinese New Year dinner table. Preparation is laborious but the result is extraordinary; the steamed delicacy is elevated by a savory sauce that’s the perfect complement. So good!

Thanks again, Number One Spy. I’m a lucky guy for knowing you!
 
 
Stay safe, be well, and eat whatever it takes! ❤
 
 

Love Is Blini

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A couple of days ago, while hunting for some new international treats for my “Exploring Eastern European Food in Little Odessa” ethnojunket guests, I spotted this sign in one of my favorite markets: “запеканка – сыр + грибы.” My Russian is good enough to translate “cheese + mushrooms” and a couple of clicks on my iPhone returned “casserole” for the first word.

The sign was well lit, the food behind it less so; I couldn’t quite see what I was grabbing with the tongs. But I plopped it into a plastic container – hastily, since the customer behind me was already reaching toward the same tray. Peering through the hazy, ridged plastic, I could see the chopped mushrooms and cheese but I couldn’t make out what might be creating the interleaving layers. Thinly sliced potatoes? Noodles?


At home, I warmed it up enough to melt the cheese and the answer was obvious. A stack of Russian blini layered with melty cheese and mushrooms! What’s not to love?
 
 

July is National Ice Cream Month! Celebrate Globally!

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The story began here:

Every August, as a routinely flushed, overheated child, I would join in chorus with my perspiring cohorts, boisterously importuning, “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” Little did I realize that rather than conjuring dessert, I was conjugating it and probably laying the groundwork for a lifetime of fascination with foreign languages and world food.

We lived in close proximity to one of the best dairies in town; it was known for its wide assortment of locally produced natural flavors, certainly sufficient in number and variety to satisfy any palate. Perhaps my obsession with offbeat ice cream flavors is rooted in my frustration with my father’s return home from work, invariably bearing the same kind of ice cream as the last time, Neapolitan. Neapolitan, again. My pleas to try a different flavor – just once? please? – consistently fell on deaf ears. “Neapolitan is chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. That’s three flavors right there. If you don’t want it, don’t eat it.” Some kids’ idea of rebellion involved smoking behind the garage; mine was to tuck into a bowl of Rum Raisin….

There’s lots more to the story, of course. Click here to get the full scoop! 🍨
 
 

Autentisk Then, and Autentico Now

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Some years ago, a unique stop on my Flavors of Little Levant ethnojunket in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn was Leske’s Bakery, the last vestige of that neighborhood’s Norwegian community. Although specifically Scandinavian baked goods proliferated primarily around Christmastime, Leske’s also catered to the local Italian and Irish populations with first-rate Irish soda bread, Danish pastries and Brooklyn specialties like black & white cookies, blackout cake, and New York cheesecake. It was an unexpected site amid the dozens of Middle Eastern and Yemeni venues we frequented. Sadly, after a long and bumpy run, much beloved Leske’s closed permanently.

Subsequently, I was pleased to discover the arrival of a new bakery in the same digs at 7612 5th Avenue that was equally legit but Italian this time, Il Fornaretto with authentic roots in Italy by way of Bensonhurst.

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This is one of their takes on focaccia and it was the real deal, topped with onions, herbs and a touch of tomato sauce; they also offered a cherry tomato version.


Being incapable of leaving an Italian bakery without something sweet to look forward to, I selected a sfogliatella (or “sfol ya del” as we pronounced it in my yout’) aka lobster tail (which we never called it).


The inner workings reveal a filling made from sweetened ricotta, semolina, and eggs that evokes happy, high-calorie kidhood memories.

I haven’t tried their artisanal prosciutto bread yet, so check out my Flavors of Little Levant ethnojunket and we can taste test it together!
 
 

Dyslexicon

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Here’s a treat that we always get on my Flavors of Little Levant ethnojunket in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. It’s “goulash,” a savory meat pie – crispy layers of phyllo dough on top, juicy perfectly seasoned beef beneath, and more phyllo on the bottom that has benefitted from soaking up those perfectly seasoned juices.

“Isn’t ‘goulash’ a sort of Hungarian stew?” I hear you cry.

“Yes, but this is Egyptian ‘goulash’. The two couldn’t be more different. There’s no connection.”

“Then why are they cognates?”

“They’re not cognates. It’s just a remarkable coincidence.”

“You’re trying to convince me that the Hungarian and Egyptian Arabic words ‘goulash’ and ‘goulash’ aren’t cognates? You expect me to believe that?”

“Well, if you insist on cleaving to that rationale, you might want to consider chewing over ‘galoshes’ then, also part of this linguistic conundrum. None of them are cognates.

“They’re cognots.”
 
 

Fauxdizio

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I recently returned to Newark’s Ironbound district, the mecca for all things Portuguese and Brazilian. The area is host to six suburban-sized Seabra’s supermarkets all within walking distance of each other – the mother lode of Portuguese and Brazilian food cravings! Since I was traveling solo that day, I and my OCD decided to hit every one in order to compare and contrast.

And it was absolutely worth the exercise, because I struck gold in the form of Brazilian prepared food.

I’ve written here about churrasco, Brazilian style grilled meat; churrascarias often offer rodízio where waiters parade an assortment of meats impaled on formidable skewers directly to your table. So I was more than pleased to see that a couple of the Seabra’s I visited had continually replenished extended steam tables and refrigerated counters brimming with a diversity of grilled meats, seafood, authentic Brazilian dishes and the best pão de queijo I’ve had in a long time.

Item by item, I filled my containers, hastily scribbling notes between each addition in order to subsequently identify and further research it.

I arrived home with my treasures and piled them onto the three plates shown here – not for serving purposes but so that you could see the sheer variety and abundância; obviously, there are considerably more than three meals represented here. Everything was delicious and, more important, a fraction of the cost of venturing out to a churrascaria a few times.


So it wasn’t quite rodízio because I had to serve myself, but it was close enough, hence the title of this post.

And yes, I’m going to do this again. Soon.
 
 

Herring in Garlic Sauce

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Okay. One more post from my Little Poland explorations. I discovered several brands of herring each offering a number of divergent styles in the refrigerator cases of Polish food markets in Greenpoint. In this case, the brand was Lisner and the style was “in garlic sauce”. Not all of the products were equally enjoyable but this one easily made the cut.

Plated over shiso leaves (yes, I know, but I’m all about multiethnic), I dressed it up with cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced sweet onion and tiny adorable cucamelons, aka Mexican sour gherkins (yes, I know, but I’m all about…), Mediterranean capers (yes, I know, but…) and snipped Chinese garlic chives (yes, I…you get the idea), accompanied by a hyperbuttered toasted poppy seed bagel.

Lots of good eats in this neighborhood!