I was recently in Brooklyn and I am trying to find the name of a diner that was recommended to me and I ate at. It was a very old school, and was on Washington Ave a few blocks from the museum.

Fushimi
9316 Fourth Avenue
Brooklyn, NY

An upscale dinner that had existed on this site died, but this did not deter the owners of Fushimi. Fushimi is an upscale Asian Fusion restaurant and lounge decorated in the style of a hip Japanese disco with a branch in Staten Island. There is a Sushi Bar, a liquor bar, seductive dimly lit bathrooms and even a water lily tank in the floor.

Personally I found the décor over the top and done with less taste than their annoying website. Will some tell the web designer that thin knockout type on a dark background is simply illegible? There us a tiny barely useable parking lot guaranteed to generate lot of parking lot scraps and arguments.

I went for the $15 dollar luncheon and I was very impressed. There was a choice of Miso or Lemongrass w/seafood soup for starters. The appetizer list was mostly sushi, a calamari dish, edamane, shrimp shumai and gyoza. The edamane was cold, the calamari was nicely plated and well done but the portion was very small. However the Sushi was first rate and the spicy tuna was flavorful without burning your mouth,

The main lunch course had a surprising number of choices. The sesame chicken, sliced beef steak in a mushroom sauce, and scallops were stand outs. The scallops fresh and well seasoned, the chicken crisp and not dried out and the beef, the best I tasted in Brooklyn. Alas, the rice was cold.

While the portions were not big and the atmosphere a little over bearing, I am looking forward to dinner at Fushimi’s. While, the economy is not conducive to upscale restaurants in the boroughs, but if I had to bet on a survivor my vote is with Fushimi

Slated to have opened 12/17. From NY Mag:
One thing you can say about Ortine, a Prospect Heights electric-kitchen café, is that it’s decidedly family owned and operated. Sarah Peck, a former Schiller’s and Pastis manager, oversees the herb garden, the kitchen, and the eclectic menu (everything from Belgian waffles to braised short ribs). Her husband, Steve Guidi, an acupuncturist by day, acts as the restaurant’s beverage director and thus is in charge of the kombucha and the egg creams. Steve’s mom, Barbara, is the pizza and lasagne maven, and if the bulk of the menu skews Italian, blame it on her. Even the restaurant’s publicist’s father, Yossi, is involved: He contributed the recipe for the Israeli shakshuka.

622 Washington Ave near Pacific

Alerted to a Friends and Family night at Visions, 752 Coney Island Avenue on Friday night and were pleasantly surprised. I remember 752 a dark and dirty bar you tried not to remember, because you went into it inorder to forget. But today’s Visions is a bright and sometimes loud café that’s is full of laughter and good times. The décor while unimpressive is nevertheless pleasant and even inviting.

The owner, Marack, is attentive and eager to please. And the service although not professional was very good. For example, someone dropped a fork and without being told our waiter was there promptly with fork in hand. We started with a Romaine salad, fresh, large and nicely topped with grated Parmesan cheese. For an appetizer we had the Mozzarella in Corozza, a grilled white bread sandwich of Mozzarella, topped with a cream of tomato sauce, o.k., but a zestier sauce might have helped. A rather plebian, but fresh lightly breaded fillet of sole was made a little special by a sweet glaze and a nice mesclun avocado salad. The star of the night was the fettuccini scampi with a wonderful strong but not overpowering sauce of garlic, wild mushrooms and olive oil, worth the trip. A nice Crème Brule finished the dinner nicely. Cost $ 60 with a beer and tip (there was an approximately $ 10 discount). The only downer, Marack needs a better selection of beers, there is no draft beer and Brooklyn Beer does not do it for me.

The menu at Visions is limited, one chicken, one pork dish, one steak, and a few fish dishes along with the usual wraps and burgers. As they say---The cook doesn’t do much, but what he does do, he does very well. Come hungry as the portions are large and expect to meet friends.

As we walked home, across Cortelyou we noticed is that we now had was a real choice of restaurants and places to go--- Indeed a good Vision of Cortelyou.

Red Bamboo Restaurant

271 Adelphi Street

Brooklyn, NY



At one time vegetarian restaurants that served mock meat dishes were a place to recommend only to your worst enemy. I am a CARNIVOIRE and unashamedly so. So, I went to the Red Bamboo, only under duress or threat of familial rendition.

I was pleasantly surprised and in some cases even amazed. The Citrus Beef served Chinese style, no only tasted like good beef, but had beef’s texture. The half chicken, no only had the right taste and texture, but also looked like a half chicken. How did they do that? I guess the next thing will be to get a drumstick, bone and all out of Soya. Tell me if a chicken goes cluck, cluck, what sound does a Soya make? The portions were not large, I guess, Vegetarians can be concerned with their weight too.

There is a good bar and you can real alcohol there (Just because you don’t eat animals doesn’t mean that you can’t be sinful as well).

The crowd is mainly young gentrifiers and the noise is moderate, the DJ, plays ridiculous pop tunes, ballads or blues might be more appropriate. My biggest beef ( ha!ha!) is the eighteen percent service charge automatically put on your bill. What happens if you don’t like the service? Luckily, we did, but I still think that is kind of tacky.

gimme comfort, gimme calories.

whatcha eatin to be sure you don't waste away to nothing in these dark days?

here's a little blog post about some quick and easy comfort food:

http://brooklynfoodbitch.blogspot.com/2008/12.....lo-for-december-soul.html

A Vision of Cortelyou


Alerted to a Friends and Family night at Visions, 752 Coney Island Avenue on Friday night and were pleasantly surprised. I remember 752 a dark and dirty bar you tried not to remember, because you went into it inorder to forget. But today’s Visions is a bright and sometimes loud café that’s is full of laughter and good times. The décor while unimpressive is nevertheless pleasant and even inviting.
The owner, Marack, is attentive and eager to please. And the service although not professional was very good. For example, someone dropped a fork and without being told our waiter was there promptly with fork in hand. We started with a Romaine salad, fresh, large and nicely topped with grated Parmesan cheese. For an appetizer we had the Mozzarella in Corozza, a grilled white bread sandwich of Mozzarella, topped with a cream of tomato sauce, o.k., but a zestier sauce might have helped. A rather plebian, but fresh lightly breaded fillet of sole was made a little special by a sweet glaze and a nice mesclun avocado salad. The star of the night was the fettuccini scampi with a wonderful strong but not overpowering sauce of garlic, wild mushrooms and olive oil, worth the trip. A nice Crème Brule finished the dinner nicely. Cost $ 60 with a beer and tip (there was an approximately $ 10 discount). The only downer, Marack needs a better selection of beers, there is no draft beer and Brooklyn Beer does not do it for me.
The menu at Visions is limited, one chicken, one pork dish, one steak, and a few fish dishes along with the usual wraps and burgers. As they say---The cook doesn’t do much, but what he does do, he does very well. Come hungry as the portions are large and expect to meet friends.
As we walked home, across Cortelyou we noticed is that we now had was a real choice of restaurants and places to go--- Indeed a good Vision of Cortelyou.

so. can´t find cranberries in ecuador. made a different sauce. thoughts?

mango citrus sauce

6 tiny limes (look like key limes but ... aren´t)
3 sour oranges (to the latins in the room, naranja agria. you know, what you use to roast pork if you´re cuban but not born in havana)
3 navel oranges
6 clementines or other sweetish tiny mandarin
half cup of sugar (raw pref.)
1 tsp of salt
half cup of water
4 tsp of ground black pepper (to cut rind bitterness)
half tsp of mild curry powder
dash of both ground allspice and ground ginger

chop fruits up after washing. remove seeds and other ooky stuff. throw them into a pot with remaining ingredients. put pot at high temp on the stove until at a boil, then lower to a simmer until thickest rinds are of tolerable texture. if the mixture is too bitter, still, add a pinch of black pepper. if the mixture is too sweet, go back to the market and grab a grapefruit to add.

Hi all,

My aunt in on a search for a good babka from a kosher bakery. She is coming to visit next week, and I don't know where to take her. I have googled around, but I don't know what bakeries are good. Anyone have any ideas?

"Spread" and "Frito tamale":

http://ridiculousfoodsociety.blogspot.com/200.....ead-and-frito-tamale.html

Try as I may, I have yet to find a Lebanese restaurant in NYC that serves kibbee nayee.

Lil help?

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Was there for cocktails and a bite about a week ago and was checking out their brunch menu. I feel that their bacon tasting mandates a brunch excursion.

Has anyone tried it? Based on the food I've tried there before and the high caliber of their cocktails, I have confidence that their brunch will be excellent.

I love the Steinhof. I love $6 goulash night, (formerly $5 goulash night) I love kostrizter black. I love their apple bread pudding.

But.

I was so annoyed by the ineptitude of the service last night that I just had to post something.

Last night they just sucked at simple shit like clearing off empty plates, dropping checks, cleaning tables once customers left, to the extent that it was about half an hour wait from the time we entered until our order was taken. For the entire time we were looking at several tables with stacks of empty plates.

They needed more staff working last night. One waitress, one hostess, and one manager type guy was clearly not getting it done.

The goulash was probably the best I've ever tasted from there though. SO that was good. But hire a bus boy dammit.

thought this place was good.

I serviced them a while back (computer stuff), but the owner gave me a free meal to boot.

While things normally taste better free, I was kind of impressed with size of their shrimp.

I'm italian, so i like fish (hitokiri...italian? no way!), so I had the shrimp appetizer and it took 2 bites for their shrimp when it normally takes me one lol (screw you outback steakhouse and your "jumbo" shrimp) ;p

It's a French place, so I stuck fairly close to my safe places and ordered a burger, which was nicely sized.

Other than that shrimp dish and the burger, I thought it was good.

edit:
oh yeah, this is on 5th Ave next to La Villa and the bank.

Does anyone know of a place in PS/PH/CH that sells good roasted chicken or turkey? Something I could preorder before Thanksgiving, since my kitchen isn't really big enough for all that baking.

Having the family over for the first time

Thanks

I'll be in ecuador for t-giving. the turkeys run around like chickens, which is great and everything. however, no one really eats them and think of them as a novelty item for stupid americans because they're tough little mothers (and like half the size of turkeys here). now, I know how to cook a turkey here - even the wildesque, anti-body/hormone free turkeys are relatively easy.

but how do you make a tough, wild bird that even locals have trouble figuring out how to cook taste (and have the texture) of something vaguely resembling not-teh-suck?

thanks!

Anyone catch the news on the strong buzz blog about the new bbq truck in bedstuy? i think it is on quincy st off bedford.sounds like a good idea. hope its as good as it looks.

hey all. so, in the VERY near future I'll be cooking a whole lot more. I love cooking, so I'm cool with it. but, given that I've always lived in big cities, figuring out how to make my own buttermilk, for instance, has never been a priority for me. so I kinda need a book on the basics from when, well, you couldn't buy buttermilk on every street corner (or sourdough starter, resolve an altitude issue, etc.) a complete reference, if you will, to the classic recipes - from the simplest thing (timing a perfect hard boiled egg at 9k feet) to classic sauces (romescu, for instance - I hate that bourdain guy) to beef wellington (well, I know that one, but you catch my drift, I hope). my poor mother probably still suffers from when I found a recipe for baked alaska at the age of 8 and was determined to make it - thankfully, when we moved to miami, we found this awesome cuban restaurant that made this ghetto, yet way better version with fluff instead of merengue and a blow torch. but I digress.

I love a lot of global cuisine. I'd love to get 3 or 4 solid spanish cookbooks - new takes, old classics, true tapas (not the bullshit tapas books you find in bookstores obvi made for stupid americans), etc. I also love indian food - meat or veggie, ethiopian, korean, mexican (from all over, though I'm a bit hesitant about the west coast, just cause I've only been there as a tiny kid, not as an older child or adult. but I love stuff from the east coast - fresh seafood caught two hours ago and thrown on the grill in merida is a wonderful thing as are tamales in oaxaca), turkish/most middle eastern (minus the mystery spice that smells like vomit to me and makes me gag. can't describe it that way to someone's face as they're downing something that reeks of it so I renamed it especie gomito and claim to be allergic to it.), japanese - especially non-sushi stuff, though I do have a small addictive issue with sushi rice covered in those msg laden shaker thingys, and I adore freshly made, custard textured tofu. what else? oh! d'oh! obvi many regions of china (yes, I did mail myself an electronic rice cooker that will make me congee - can't live without the crack), vietnamese (!!!!!!!), maybe thai but I'm not dying for it. american southern, texas bbq and tex-mex are also interesting, though my grandmother, when able to access her memory, can help me with a lot of the southern, and my aunt or mom can help when she can't, so that works. and I can hack a beef brisket bbq once I figure out how to describe the part of the cow I need at the butchers. and tex-mex is also something I get from living there, but what if I can't remember the components to a certain dish? maybe northern mexican is better - need to know how to make machacado - I have a small addiction to that shit with eggs in a tortilla for bkfst. and maybe for contrast, some other carib books (sweet tea - I did email myself a copy of the doubles recipe you posted about on your blog and already have a great curry goat recipe) - but not of the hispanic varietal. I plan to pick dad's brain for the cuban recipes and stick with them. it's fufu, not mofongo!

I already mailed myself thru amazon a batali book and the jamie oliver at home book (mostly because he does a lot of outdoor wood oven and grill cooking that is kinda classic, what to do with a freshly shot quail, etc.) so I think between what I already have in my arsenal (sorry mario, I know you boil your potatoes for gnocchi but I like to bake mine with garlic and shallots and leave that all in the dough) I have enough to fill my italian and UK farm/organic cooking for a bit.

I'd say I want a veggie/vegan cookbook but that'd be a lie. I prefer eating food that isn't trying to imitate the texture of meat, so I'd rather get a tofu recipe from asians, etc. just my own thing. and J#### (fellow cuban) - I tried seitan again and seriously, the flavor, for whatever reason, is a bit noxious to me and I can't deal with it. I'd rather go without protein and drop dead than eat that stuff. seriously. and this was homemade by a vegan hippie expat from the pacific northwest.

so, if there's a go-to book for your favorite food that, for lack of a better word, is authentic (as in not modified for stupid americans who can't be bothered to figure out how to acquire, make or substitute ingredients on their own), please tell me about it. may not get them all first go-around, but will definitely keep the list handy. kinda what I mean is that, for instance, there's a lebanese place in quito that sometimes substitutes fresh peas for garbanzos in falafel and even hummus when garbanzos are scarce - they comprehend that fresh and local is better than moving heaven and earth to acquire an ingredient, and the results are slightly, obviously different, but equally simple, pure and delicious as the more "authentic" versions they can easily make in lebanon. so, I'm not looking for dumbed down - if I can't get my hands on mustard greens, in with the turnip greens, etc.

thanks!

The old La Taq menu is back. Hooray!

I went to the party at The Yard (on the Gowanus, at Carroll St) Friday night...

It's a great space, the bands were fun, and the Six Point cheap, plentiful AND delicious . . . but they didn't do much with mister piggy. Where's the herbs? Where's the Chinese or Italian cooks to help this animal out of the world in style?

They made tacos, but...no hot sauce. Offending Mexico, Carolina, China and Italia all in one fell swoop.
Note to organizers -- it's super cool to make this event happen, but get your spice on next time. The people of the world know how to roast a pig. Enlist them! And cook the corn. Grilled corn is good.
Oy.

p.s. the ice cream was awesome

A bunch of us are heading to the museum and I can't seem to think of a good brunch spot that isn't too far away - either park slope or prospect heights. any ideas guys? Hurry!!!

Hey everyone, I'm writing a Bar column every other friday from Midtown Lunch. Check it out!

http://midtownlunch.com/blog/2008/10/03/midto.....t-dogs-hells-kitchen-nyc/

I could use any recommendations on bars or restaurants in Midtown that are fun and have a happy hour, and maybe food. Send me your ideas! Where should I go next?