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One of the things I crave when coming to NYC is pizza. In particular, Brooklyn pizza. When I was last in Brooklyn with my father we went to Di Fara and Totonno’s. Both were fantastic, though we didn’t get to try out the third famous heavyweight of Brooklyn – Patsy Grimaldi’s. Today we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to correct that omission.

Grimaldi’s flagship location is located in the DUMBO area of Brooklyn, just on the other side of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges. Walking down Fulton St, you will see the line outside Grimaldi’s from a few blocks away. On line, the owner will ask the size of your party and then fill tables to maximize people, which often means that 4-person parties get a table long before the couples.  Either way, the line moves pretty quickly. And once you’re inside, the pizza you get is more than worth the wait.

All of Grimaldi’s pizza are cooked in a 1200 degree coal-fired brick oven, which turns around a cheese pizza in about 3 minutes. The crust is crispy, chewy, and a little smoky; absolutely perfect. Don’t be deceived by the sparse looking mozzarella cheese. The mildly sweet tomato sauce hides the fact that underneath is a full layer of deliciously flavorful mozzarella that comes from free range cows and is worlds better than the flavorless mozzarella you get from your local supermarket.

Overall we had a great time and awesome pizza at Grimaldi’s. Is it the best pizza in New York? possibly. But I’ll have to conduct a Brooklyn pizza faceoff across Di Fara, Totonno’s, and Grimaldi’s to know for sure 🙂

Side-note: It looks like Grimaldi’s has opened a number of franchises in the Southwest. I’m always a little skeptical about quality control in moves like this, so I will personally be restricting my Grimaldi’s visits to the Brooklyn location.

Grimaldi’s Pizzeria
19 Old Fulton Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-858-4300
11:30AM-11:00PM Sun-Thurs
11:30AM-midnight Fri-Sat

Heh, looks like the MSG150 crew is at it again….

http://www.pbr150.com/

I’ve made it through most of this list from earlier in the year, and now there are new arrivals to check out. These are on my hot list:

• Bastille
• Branzino
• Meza Latin Fare
• Delancy Pizza

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I don’t eat a burger often. But I do get the occasional craving, and lately a number of people have recommended the Smith Burger. Smith Restaurant is right around the corner from me, though I’d only stopped by for a beer and appetizers so far. Tonight, at my visiting cousin’s prompting, we stopped by for dinner. It’s a shame that I waited so long!

Smith’s macaroni and cheese is solid comfort food. They always mix something in with the macaroni. Last time it was peas. Unfortunately for me their latest incarnation was macaroni and ham (I don’t love ham), so most of the dish was left for my cousin to enjoy. 

Then it was burger time for me. I haven’t had a good burger on the hill since 22 Doors lost Trey (and his associated quality control). Fortunately Smith has stepped up to the plate. The medium rare burger was dark pink inside, slightly charred on the outside, and served on a freshly baked roll.

Lauren won best dish of the night. She had the special – gnocchi with wild mushrooms, peas and pecorino in a light cream sauce. 

It’s not often that you can saddle into the local pub and get a dish you’d expect to find at the likes of the Pink Door. Cheers to that!

Smith Restaurant
332 15th Ave E
Seattle, WA 98112
206-709-1900
4:00PM-2:00AM Daily (Dinner)
10:00AM-3:00PM Sat-Sun (Brunch)

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Lauren and I were talking about street food the other day, and she heard about a new truck that served “Korean tacos” called the Marination Mobile. They are currently in Capitol Hill a few nights each week at the Shell station on Pike and Broadway. Last night we stopped by to check it out. We coincidentally arrived right as they opened, but a line formed quickly thereafter:

Marination Mobile serves 4 types of tacos, various SPAM products (I know, I’m skeptical too, but supposedly they’re awesome), quesadillas and a rice bowl. From their website:

Marination’s grub melts Korean heat and aloha love together in corn tortillas, and also in your mouth

Tacos – two warm corn tortillas stuffed with your choice of sweet and savory kalbi, luscious pork, spicy chicken, or sexy tofu (that’s right, we said sexy tofu) and topped with our saucy, tangy, crunchy signature slaw

Miso ginger chicken – You don’t need an explanation of this brilliant marriage of simplicity, right? It’s miso ginger chicken. It’s love and soul and flavor. It’s ginger and miso and chicken. ‘Til death do they part.

Kimchi Quesadilla – a really good thing with another really good thing plus jalapenos and kalua pork. Believe

We ordered a kimchi quesadilla and 4 tacos (kalbi beef and miso ginger chicken for me, miso ginger chicken and tofu for Lauren). The staff were very friendly and happy to answer questions. Orders were served very quickly, roughly on par with how long you’d wait at a Mexican taco truck. Then it was time to settle in curbside and see if the food lived up to the hype.

The quesadilla was amazing! This one had pork in it, but I was informed that they sometimes have a vegetarian version as well. If you like kimchi, you will love this quesadilla. It goes very well with the pork + japapenos + spicy sauce. Juicy, crunchy, and immensely satisfying.

As much as I enjoyed the quesadilla, tacos are king at the Marination Mobile. Kalbi beef reminded me a lot of the Maui ribs from the Golden Steer in Bellevue. Miso ginger chicken was moist and deliciously Asian fusion. All of the meats had clearly been marinating for an extended period of time. Even the tofu taco was very impressive

The hype about Marination Mobile is well deserved. Lauren and I both woke up today salivating over last night’s meal. Fortunately they’ll be back in our neighborhood again next week!

Marination Mobile
Roaming Location (check their website/twitter page)
Mon-Sat
Seattle, WA

Tonight after work + gym, Lauren and I had a fantastic Pike Street double hitter. Amazing Korean tacos from the Marination Mobile followed by opening day ice cream at Bluebird. Happy tummy 🙂

Pictures and more details in a bit…

After reading Food Matters, Lauren and I have been experimenting more in the grains department.  We’ve made a number of variations on the flatbread recipe that is included in the book. It makes a great snack, but is more like a pita than a loaf of bread.

Tonight I made a Quick Bread using whole wheat flour, mixed with some buckwheat and garbanzo flours along with yogurt and some Fireweed honey. I’ve always been hesitant to make bread due to the time commitment, but this recipe took less than 10 minutes prep and 45 minutes in the oven. And it was delicious! I modified the recipe by adding an egg and reducting the honey to about 1.5 tsp.

I didn’t have a camera handy for the glorious moment that I took the bread out of the oven, so I’ll just have to try another variation next week. 🙂