The Artichoke boys have done it again, this time in the form of dessert. But it’s not the fried balls of dough they’re pushing at the namesake Led Zeppole, it’s the Cookies and Cream Italian Ices which are now NYC Food Guy’s favorite late night dessert. Led Zeppole’s house made “cream ice” ($2.50 small/$3.50 large) is studded with soft bits of Oreo cookie and icing, making it a very sweet way to end your night. And the best part of all? There’s no hipster-filled line to wait on for this treat. Enjoy that while it lasts.
Led ZeppoleWebsite 328 East 14th Street b/t 1st & 2nd Ave 212-228-2807 Mon-Thurs. 11AM-1AM or later, Fri-Sat. 11AM-4AM, Sun 11AM-12AM
Fresh off the news that the Red Hook Food Vendors will open May 1st, Cesar Fuentes, Executive Director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park, tells NYC Food Guy that he and two partners have signed a lease for an open-air space on Van Brunt Street, Red Hook’s main drag. They’re calling it Red Hook Mercado or market, and the vision is that it will become a place friendly to the Red Hook creative community including musical acts, crafts, movies, and now here’s the kicker – Fuentes’ guarantee that “at least one of the [Red Hook food] vendors will hold a spot at this location.” If Mercado is a success, food from at least one Red Hook vendor will be available weekdays and weekends all year round. According to Fuentes, three vendors currently have “strong interest … in expanding their business to this location.” We’ll find out officially around May 1st, but NYC Food Guy’s money is on pupusa pusher Rafael Soler, who will be featured at Central Park’s Summer Stage this year and is also Fuentes’ stepfather.
According to Fuentes, a Latin American mercado features “some of the best foods and finest works of local artisan craft of the community, but it is also a place where the community comes together and socializes in a festive and vibrant atmosphere.” To that end, Red Hook Mercado will also feature foods from other “well known purveyors” in addition to a garden providing fresh ingredients for dishes prepared on site. Like the Red Hook Ball Fields, Fuentes hopes the Mercado becomes “one of the most unique experiences … in the city this summer.” NYC Food Guy raises a glass of horchata to that. Stay tuned for more information…
Puebla Mexican Food & Coffee Shop specializes in cheap, authentic Puebla Mexican food. Appropriately, the best dish may be the $8.50 chicken mole poblano platter, which is big enough to provide dinner for two days. But if you’re willing to sacrifice atmosphere and an overt sense of cleanliness for breakfast as well as dinner, Puebla offers ample opportunity to squeeze the most out of your dollar and your appetite.
If there’s one thing in the food world that I feel secure assessing, it’s burgers. And when a James Beard Rising Star Chef of the Year Award winner begins offering just 30 burgers per night, starting at midnight, I can’t help but get a little excited. Well the bigger they are, the harder they fall and my expectations dropped like Tiger Woods’ Q rating upon first bite of this burger.
It’s apparent that Nate Appleman is going for simplicity with his griddled burger (which can’t be cooked to order) topped with horseradish cheese and chopped sauteed red onion all inside a squishy white bun. This works for the fries, which are great. But unlike the burgers at Burger Joint or Shake Shack, simplicity does not yield genius.
The mildly spicy horseradish cheese and the hastily chopped, sloppily portioned red onion dominate the flavor reducing the presence of the crisp yet juicy burger patty. If this is the plan, perhaps adding some of the smokey bacon which shined on the Salsiccia breakfast pizza could elevate this burger. Some may say it’s too soon to “review” this newly introduced burger but when a celebrated chef creates a simple burger, how much leeway should we allow?
Pulino’s Bar & Pizzeria 282 Bowery at Houston St.New York, NY10012
This new weekly feature will focus on NYC Food Guy’s single best bite of the week. Tell everyone what your best bite of the week was in the comments section.
Thank you Pichet Ong. Thank you for being willing to take risks when it comes to dessert. And thank you for constantly reinventing sweet tooth satisfaction. Your apple turnover with bacon vanilla ice cream at Village Tart offers so many varieties of awesome. My spoon dissects the flaky, buttery pastry shell revealing fresh slices of crunchy apple coated in just enough gooey cinnamon. Invisible salt crystals coat the surface of the pastry, surging to the front of my palate before the vanilla ice cream’s sweetness seizes control. But an uprising of smokey top notes is surfacing, a prelude to the return of salt complements of crispy bits of bacon. Every bite is a surprise, flavors seamlessly intersecting, gliding past each other closely without colliding.
While it’s too soon to give Keith McNally and Nate Appleman’s Pulino’s a full review, it’s not too soon to tell you that the Salsiccia ($9/$17) breakfast pizza will have me coming back for more. A runny egg unites smokey bacon, still bubbling in its own fat, with sweet, spicy house-made sausage and slightly sharp white cheddar all atop an addictive, crispy thin crust that harbors a surprisingly chewy, almost buttery inner layer. Now pizza for breakfast doesn’t mean the Artichoke sitting on your table from last night. Thanks Nate.
Disco Frites? Fiery and crisp Korean fried chicken? Buffalo chicken pizza topped with bleu cheese? This sounds more like the menu of The Collective than some of the new additions to Citi Field. After a comprehensive Citi Field food preview in 2009, NYC Food Guy reunites with SNY’s Ted Berg for a taste of what’s new and a little competition: Who can put together a better menu at Citi Field? So whose menu do you like better, NYC Food Guy’s or Ted Berg’s? Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments section.
This new weekly feature will focus on NYC Food Guy’s single best bite of the week. Tell everyone what your best bite of the week was in the comments section.
I’m a tingling taste bud. Different directions of delicious flavor and texture are sending me into a frenzy. Crispy-edge house made bow tie noodles fold around tender veal meatballs and crunchy toasted kasha, all dripping with the tart vinegary broth they’re floating in. Wonderful! Yet something’s missing. The crown of house made sour cream! Mix it into the heart of this creation infusing the thin broth with a subtle richness that now coats every bite. Harmony.
Kasha & Bowtie Pasta with Veal Meatballs $14 ABC Kitchen 35 E. 18t St. b/t B’dway & Park Ave. New York, NY 10003 212-475-5829 Website
NYC Food Guy is proud to present another great recipe from Homecookin’ contributor Spice Jonze’n. If you’d like to contribute your recipes to the site e-mail lawrence@nycfoodguy.com. Take it away Spice…
With a little help from my Turkish friend this week we bring you Sigara böregi (cigar-ah bor-ek), a thin roll of phyllo dough wrapped around a mixture of sheep’s milk cheese, herbs and spices…oh yea.
Other than Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop and Rainbow Falafel, there isn’t much worth snacking on between Madison Square Park and Union Square. City Bakery fills that void nicely. But it’s not their famously rich hot chocolate, their buttery chocolate chunk cookies or their over hyped, cafeteria style macaroni and cheese that inevitably leads me to their store on 18th street b/t 5th & 6th Ave. It’s the simple yet elegantly decadent pretzel croissant ($3.75). Studded with sesame seeds and hidden salt crystals, the flaky and crisp shell uncoils to reveal a chewy, buttery and sweet interior that delivers the satisfaction a falsely enticing Auntie Anne’s pretzel can only dream of.
Breaking news on the Red Hook Food Vendors, directly from Cesar Fuentes, Executive Director of the Food Vendors Committee of Red Hook Park Inc.:
1) Soler Dominican, who in 2008 became the first Red Hook Vendor to become a Vendy’s finalist, will join several other Brooklyn Flea vendors in taking over the concessions at Central Park’s Summer Stage. This means you’ll be able to eat delicious El Salvadoran pupusas (top row, below, 2nd from right) and Dominican carne asada - complements of husband and wife team Rafael & Reina Soler – during the outdoor arena’s 36 performances and films this year.
2) The Red Hook Food Vendors will return to their respective spots around the ball fields on Saturday, May 1st. Only thirty three more days to Martinez’s Spicy Enchilada Pork Huaraches, quite possibly the most delicious thing on masa. Weather permitting, the vendors return every Saturday and Sunday through Halloween.
If you haven’t visited the vendors, you’re missing the single greatest gathering of Central American food in New York City. You will feast for fewer than $20. Questions? In need of recommendations? E-mail lawrence@nycfoodguy.com.
A designer denim couch? A pill bottle chandelier? A wall made of slot machines? Not a scene you’d expect to find in the Meatpacking District. And not a place you’d expect to find NYC Food Guy. But in New York, anything is possible, even on a Tuesday. That’s how I found myself at the opening party for The Collective, a slightly schizophrenic new restaurant made of completely recycled material. Most of the slightly gimmicky, “Taste of the Hoods”-based menu (pdf) wasn’t served, but as I navigated my way under the Styrofoam ceiling and past scrabble board-topped tables, the few bites I did find were surprisingly good. Read on for a closer look…
Shake Shack really is that good. There, I said it. I’ve been reluctant to admit that for a long time because NYC Food Guy is not someone to buy into hype, especially when it involves a 30-minute wait. But it’s not hype that surrounds Danny Meyer’s burger joint, just pure success. And rightly so for the burger that combines the perfect balance of crispy and juicy beef with cheese, fresh vegetables, a decadent secret sauce, and a sweet, pillowy bun. Well, this past week, I discovered a way to enhance if not completely aggrandize Shake Shack’s signature Shackburger: The Shack Stack ($8.75). All it requires is the not so subtle addition of a cheddar and meunster cheese-stuffed, deep fried portobello mushroom atop the Shackburger.
Texture becomes the name of the game with the super crunchy deep fried shell giving way to a river of melted cheese that quickly overtakes the portobello. Click ahead for the real food porn: the cross section shot!
Forget college basketball! For foodies, March isn’t about sports, it’s about restaurants! And thanks to Hagan at Wandering Foodie, you can fill out your own “Restaurant Madness” bracket and win free food and drinks! There are four competing “regions” with “teams” (i.e., restaurants) selected by four food writers: NYC Food Guy selected Manhattan Cheap Eats, WinedandDined.com selected Michelin Manhattan, World’s Fare selected Queens, and Edible Brooklyn selected Brooklyn. Click on this link or click on the meatball below to learn more and take part in the action. Get your picks in by tomorrow at 5pm! Read on for the prizes…
Hecho en Dumbo is a two-week old Mexican restaurant nestled on Bowery between Great Jones Street & 4th Street. Their specialty is “antojitos” which loosely translate to “little cravings.” And despite the entree-sized house specials, everything else is little and shareable. While it’s too soon to pass official judgment on Hecho en Dumbo, it’s the perfect time to let you know what NYC Food Guy loved on his lone trip. Read on to find out…
April 22, 2010 
Posted in EAST VILLAGE, Led Zeppole, MANHATTAN 
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