Brooklyn – Page 2 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Isa

38 Wythe Street off South 2nd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
347/689.3594
$70 each for 2 people, with 2 drinks, without tip
♥ ♥ ♥

When Eater.com announced that Masten Lake would be closing, a small part of me hurt. I haven’t been in a restaurant that was as delicious and creative as Masten Lake since Momofuku Ssam, and even though I had to trek to Williamsburg from Harlem to eat there, I was so excited about it that I didn’t mind the L commute. Enter Isa, another restaurant in almost the same area that could very well replace my love for Masten Lake.

Notable:
1. Their prix-fixe menu is the best deal in town for $50 for three courses.

Tastiest:
1. The beet salad was so pretty. Each plate reminded me of Eleven Madison Park, which I totally did not expect in a hipster place like Isa.
2. The mackerel was overwhelming in that same awesome way Masten Lake’s version impressed me.
3. The grilled and shaved celeriac was a nice surprise.
4. The grapefruit curd was so interesting that I had to compliment the cute Asian girl in the back responsible for it.

Service:
The dapperly-dressed man at the front of the house–ascot, natch–told us that all tables were committed until 10:30pm, but that we can sit at the bar since it’s first-come first-served basis. We returned a few minutes later and ordered some nice cocktails with bourbon and lemon dew and also a rum drink with mint. Said dapper man stopped by later to say that he was glad we made it after all.

Masten Lake

285 Bedford Avenue between South 1st Street and Grand in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718/599.5565
around $125 for 2, with 3 drinks, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

I was talking to my friend Stacie about where we’ve both eaten lately and as we went through our list, she said, There really hasn’t been anything exciting since Momofuku Ko. I thought about this for a few seconds and I agreed. Sure, I’ve been to some good restaurants the last few months–August and Riverpark among them–but she was right: nothing has stood out. That is until I sat at the bar of Masten Lake in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

During my first visit, there was a generous piece of fresh and unadulterated mackerel served with sour tomatillos and sunchokes with a dusting of Japanese ground spices and a hint of yuzu. It made me get up and walk towards the open kitchen to ask who was cooking that night. It wasn’t a new dish, and any mortal can buy that spice from Sunrise Mart on St. Marks Place–I just haven’t had it that way before.

My second visit was a more wintry night and my companion and I split a comfortable bowl of pici with tripe. This is definitely hand-rolled, he said while pointing at the pasta with his fork. Of course, it is; an alumna of Lupa wouldn’t have it any other way, right? Its heftiness lent itself to the subtle offal taste of the tripe; the crushed tomatoes rounded the dish off. It was a little heavy on the salt, as heavy-handed as the tagliatelle with mussels during my first visit, though the burrata with the shellfish made it more palatable. There are other, shall I say, whimsical and lighter dishes to share, which change almost nightly, like the apples with sheep’s milk cheese and foie gras with smears of melon and mascarpone. You get used to sliding and passing ceramics back and forth, creating works of food art on plates and bowls. Order several wedges of cheese and a plate of thinly-sliced lardo to compliment the easy choices of wine and nicely-made cocktails.

The next time I visit, I’ll take Stacie with me and we’ll cover our palettes with smudges and smears of the day’s freshest ingredients.

Fatty ‘Cue

91 South 6th Street off Berry in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718/599.3090
$55 each for a group of 10, with drinks, with tip
♥ ♥

I donâ€™t think the ten of us overdid it at Fatty ‘Cue at all.

To celebrate the Dr. finishing residency, I organized several friends to get together and eat at Fatty ‘Cue in Brooklyn. Not a lot of people at our table were big fans of Zak Pelaccio’s first endeavor, Fatty Crab, but they were willing to try Fatty ‘Cue solely because of the promises the name â€œcueâ€ can offer. We spent about two hours eating and passing plates around to share family-style, and I can assure you, we all left pretty happy in food coma state.

The dishes were served as soon as they came out of the kitchen. We started with the pork loin, thinly sliced pieces of the best part of my favorite animal. They were soft and surprisingly light and were perfect with the green peppercorn aioli.

The coriander bacon was to die for. They had those perfectly burnt ends that were crispy. The crispiness prepared you for the fatty goodness that was underneath. If I only had to eat these, I’d be completely satisfied. The yellow curry custard, in my opinion, was almost unnecessary, but I ended up asking the waiter if I can keep the rest of it to dip the vegetables that were served later.

One of my favorites was the grilled mackerel. Iâ€™m already a big fan of the oily fish, but the way Fatty ‘Cue grilled it in banana leaves gave it so much more flavor. The chili-lime-garlic sauce was that Southeast Asian flavor that I was craving. I wanted to be in some tropical island, in a hut, ceiling fan quietly oscillating overhead, and patiently picking the fish bones.

Both the cucumber and celery salads were just the right side dishes for such a fatty spread. Cucumber chunks were tossed in brown rice vinegar, while the slivers of celery were dressed in yuzu and preserved cabbage.

Iâ€™m also going to have to get into my Malaysian recipes, as the Fatty ‘Cue version of nasi ulam was delightfully a high-blood pressure inducer. It was a little too salty for me, but I still couldn’t stop eating it. The anchovies and dried shrimp reminded me of my dad’s recipes from his hometown in Ilocos Sur in the Philippines.

Fatty ‘Cue offers the “whole pig” as a special only on Sundays, an $18 dish that’s a plate of different pieces of a pig, as opposed to a whole lechon. It was actually my least favorite out of everything we ate because it was on the dry side even though the pineapple curry added to the sweetness of the meat. The plate came with accoutrements perfect as beer food: chopped Chinese long beans, pickled red onions, lightly grilled garlic cloves and, oy, chili jam. I stuffed several pieces of everything in the steamed bun and went to town. The buns reminded me of what made Momofuku famous; you can basically stuff anything in those buns and people are not going to complain.

The lamb ribs didn’t come until we were all ready to take a nap, but when they did, no one hesitated to pick a rib and gnaw it down to its bone. The meat wasn’t gamey and fell off the bone with just the lightest bite.

All in all, Fatty ‘Cue is perfect for groups because you can order several things from the menu and share the dishes. Our bill included gratuity, which is to be expected when dining with a group of more than six people, but our waiter was attentive even though he didn’t really have to work for his tip. Food came in quickly and our glasses were refilled just as fast. With a few local brews while we waited for a table, standing by the bar was as difficult as it got at Fatty ‘Cue.

Diner

85 Broadway between Wythe and Berry Streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718/486.3077
about $140 for three people, with cocktails, with tip
♥ ♥ ♥

We waited for our Marlow & Sons seats at the Diner’s bar next door. After comparing the menu between the two sister restaurants, we knew we had to go back to the Diner to try theirs out. The Diner had the more exciting and elaborate menu for less of the wait. Weeknights are definitely less busy, but this block which used to be dominated by Peter Luger’s, is no longer quiet. Hipsters in plaid shirts congregate outside to meet friends, smoke a cigarette and finish a cocktail.

The menu is longer than next door’s and for some reason, management expects the servers to memorize the entire thing including the details of each dish. We cringed as our waitress struggled to remember what was in the pork rilette. I wanted to pat her hand and comfort her when she juggled her words between the frisée and the market salad.

The only struggle involved when the food came was who would get a bigger bite of which. The butternut squash apple soup was delicious and hearty made even better by chanterelles. The flatbreads’ caramelized onions came through so strongly, I wished I could serve them as appetizers at home. The specks of apples on them just showed how much the restaurant was taking advantage of the seasonal produce. Someone in the kitchen was definitely making them with love.

The beef burger was to die for: meat juice escaped from our mouths without the bread breaking up and getting soggy. The mussels were a good match to our basil cocktails and cold lagers and the market salad was a wonderful break that cut through all the lardon.

We were aching by the time the waitress came back for the dessert options. We saved her from having to recite and write them on our paper tablecloths by skipping them entirely.

Marlow & Sons

81 Broadway between Wythe and Berry Streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718/384.1441
about $96 for two people, without drinks, with tip
♥

No paying customer should have to wait an hour and a half to be seated at any restaurant. No one deserves to wait an extra forty-five minutes to eat after that. Alas, we suffered both while sitting on a sliver of wood under some canned goods on a shelf. Twice someone had to excuse herself to reach for a few items while we ate. But at least there weren’t five of us squeezed in the corner of a shared table by the door like those next to us–they looked more uncomfortable on their small Goldilocks chairs than we were on our bench. Welcome to much-hyped Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

When our oysters came, the waiter couldn’t tell us which ones were briny. We had to share our beer and onion soup using one spoon because he never returned with our request for another. I had to get up and get our own forks and knives from the counter when he abruptly put down our plate of brick chicken on our table without a pause. It took another twenty minutes to get our tab; we could have probably just skipped and no one would have noticed our absence.

I liked the dimly-lit and wooden look of Marlow & Sons because I’ve always liked the idea of eating in a market setting, but the staff struggle during the week and can barely eke it out for weekend service. Luckily for them, a lot of New Yorkers will carry the burden of waiting for seats and food just to be surrounded by what’s new and hip.