Categories
seafood

Handsome Hank’s Fish Hut @ Smorgasburg

I went back Smorgasburg (foodie flea market) after being stuffed at Rosarito Fish Shack. A pretty big crowd of young folks soaking up the beautiful day on the East River Waterfront. It’s pretty funny. I heard several people around me throw around that dirty word, “hipster”. …”So many fuckin hipsters here!” Then I’d turn around and they looked exactly like everyone else. Same thing happened at the table next to me at Rosarito …hipster girl acting like she hated hipsters. Even if they don’t think they’re hipsters themselves, don’t they realize that they’re at a crowded foodie flea market in the heart of Williamsburg, Brooklyn? They didn’t realize hipsters were going to be there?

Hipster is a good thing. Hip, young, cool looking. People should want to be like that. Let’s be proud of ourselves.

Anyway, I met up with Mar in line at Handsome Hank’s Fish Hut. First, I was hesitant about most of these food vendors, because some seemed overpriced or under-portioned, like Dumont’s $6 puny little burger slider. I love Dumont, but I couldn’t believe what Mar’s friend’s Smorgasburg slider looked like (see photo below). However, there were some big portioned food, like the Cemita sandwich stand and Handsome Hank’s Fish Hut. $10 for a big thing of fried fish and fries. I was thinking people would get maybe 1 filet for that price at a thing like this. I was impressed. That looked to be one of the better deals I saw. I had some of it. Well seasoned and fried.

The biggest line I saw was for Mighty Quinn’s BBQ Pulled Pork sandwich. Never heard of it and can’t find too much info on them, but that line went almost half the length of the market.

Now that I’ve finally experienced Smorgasburg, the lines still scare me, but not the hipsters. A great place to watch people. It’s also good to have your friends give you their food that they waited so long for.

Smorgasburg – East River Waterfront (btwn N 6th & 7th St) Williamsburg, Brooklyn 11211 (Saturdays/seasonal)

Categories
seafood

Sel de Mer’s Lobster and Fish and Chips

Oh man. Sam was back in town and we grabbed dinner at Sel de Mer. They had steamed lobster on the menu again ($17) with fries. Got that and the Beer Battered Fish & Chips ($15). We split that shit. So dang good. My hands were a mess. I dipped my fries into the lobster head. Green gunk is the new ketchup.

I live so close to this place. I don’t know why I don’t eat here more often.

Sel de Mer – 374 Graham Ave (btwn Conselyea & Skillman) Brooklyn, NY 11211

Categories
homemade

Wes’ Fish Fry (Savannah, Georgia)

I’ve posted snippets from the road, but now I’m ready to share our full-on adventures and photos from our Shonali Bhowmik 100 Oak’s Revival tour down South…

Day 5: We got the day off in Savannah and cooled off in the neighborhood pool.

This is Scott & Tracy’s little kid…

Even better in slow motion with the audio turned up!

Then came back to Wes’ place where he threw an awesome fish fry and traded ghost stories. Looking at the last couple of pics, Matt and I had a little too much to drink.

Categories
seafood

Bed-Stuy Fish Fry

Todd took me to Bed-Stuy Fish Fry. Dang, we were hungry. They were out of my top two choices 1) Fish & Grits and 2) Fish & Waffles. Too bad. Those sounds so good.

We both got Fried Fish Dinners ($10 with 2 sides). The whiting fish dinner is 6 pieces and the catfish is 4. I usually like whiting more, but this time catfish was superior. Both fish were fried nicely. Seasoning was a little bland, but dipping it in the sour cream and the salty hot sauce made it quite tasty.

My black eyed peas had a chunk of ham in it and was good. The mac n cheese and string beans were decent.

Our wait was long and Todd fell asleep, but they do say “The Fish and Shrimp are fresh and cooked to order. So give us 3 mins to catch it, 1 min to shake in the batter, 10 mins to cook it and another minute to serve it!!!! Hot and fresh so you can enjoy the best fish on the planet!!”

Although we were the only white people in there, we didn’t feel out of place. The ladies were quite nice to us. Huge ass container of Kool-Aid!

Bed-Stuy Fish Fry – 801 Halsey St (btwn Ralph Ave & Howard Ave) Brooklyn, NY 11233

Categories
seafood

Grand Seafood Feast

Ben and I ran into this guy on the street. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any cupcakes with him.

Then we grabbed some grub at Grand Seafood Fish Market right off the Grand L stop. I’m a big fan of their free steam. I had just gone there a week earlier with Rusty and Dave Dondero for some steamed clams and shrimp. Such a great deal. A dozen clams for $6. A pound of shrimp for $7. You’re literally paying market prices.

Their fried fish sandwiches are good too. We split the flounder and whiting sandwiches. Ben and I both agree, fried whiting sandwiches on white bread kicks ass.

Grand Seafood & Fish Market – 98 Bushwick Ave (@ Grand St) Brooklyn, NY 11206

Watch Ben’s show –Hook, Line & Dinner on the Cooking Channel!

Categories
street

Halal Food – South West corner of 23rd St & 6th Ave

This guy’s going to be my go-to Halal guy, especially since it’s been so cold outside and close to my office –the cart on the South West corner of 23rd St and 6th Ave (in front of Burlington Coat Factory). Sorta new as of this year I believe. I don’t think the food is that much more amazing, but he gives me more than the guy on the NW corner. The rice platters are all pretty much $5, even with combo lamb and chicken. The guy has spicy rice, tops the platter with fried shrimp, falafel, fries, fried eggplant and pickled jalapeño slices. Never had that much extra stuff in my Halal-style garbage plate.

This is one of the first time I got white sauce, hot sauce and BBQ sauce. The guy insisted. I like it. Smells like a McRib when I open the box up at work.

The second time I got freshly fried fish. Took a couple of minutes to cook up. Pretty good. This time the guy gave me two shrimps!

Categories
lunch street

The Munch Truck’s Fish and Chips

Yesterday, I came across the Munch Truck in my hood at Park Ave between 26th & 27th St. It was a massive food truck with a flat screen TV playing The Mummy with Brendan Fraser and speakers blasting out The Monster Mash. I ordered the “special” –Fish & Chips $6. The guy was already smiling at me, proud to show me the fish fillet he had in his hand that he just dipped into the light seasoned breading juice. Fuck yeah!

The fish did look prettier before I told him to drop on the tartar and hot sauce (which sorta melded into a hot wing sauce). But sloppy is pretty too sometimes. It was a nice cooked piece of fish. Definitely ranks up there for one of the best freshly fried fish I’ve had from a food truck or cart. Very lightly breaded and white plumps of meat inside.

Categories
lunch

2 Bros Pizza Plus’ Fish & Chips

First time I’ve seen fried fish at 2 Bros Pizza Plus. I picked it up with fries at only $4. Solid meal at a low price. No tartar sauce though. Still I’m constantly impressed with 2 Bros Pizza …well except for their pizza.

2 Bros. Pizza Plus – 601 6th Ave (btwn 17th & 18th St) NYC 10010