No assembly required: miang pla too, a Thai lettuce wrap with mackerel. Also shown at the same outdoor table: hoy jor, deep-fried pork, chicken, and crab meat; khao kook gapi Boran, house-special rice fried with shrimp paste, plus all the trimmings; (khanom jeen) nam ngeaw, Chiang Mai style noodles with spicy pork.
Boran
462 Court St. (3rd Pl.-4th Pl.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
929-298-0022
www.BoranRestaurant.com
Closed Monday
Other text, visible or partly so — the shop also occupied what's now a medical office next door — includes "Italian specialties," "latticini freschi," and "Jersey pork sausages made daily." Photographed in 2021, although the storefront has been vacant, and the signage, visible, since before the pandemic.
Aiello's Food Store
Surviving signage, 335 Court St. (Sackett-Union Sts.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
"For most Italian Americans who eat it, lard bread is mainly a Christmas and Easter thing." Perhaps inspired by the bakery's temporary move, during renovations, to a shuttered pizzeria nearby, Mazzola's lard bread pizza is a new thing. It's unclear how well it will be received during Lent.
Mazzola Bakery
192 Union St. (at Henry St.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718-643-1719
www.MazzolaBakeryCafe.com
Intensity of hue isn't always a guide to intensity of flavor. With rare exception, Malai's ice creams employ an undersaturated palette befitting the decor (also shown below). Yet the flavors, as in this twosome of masala chai and carrot halwa, are bright and clean.
Malai Ice Cream
268 Smith St. (Sackett-Degraw Sts.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
347-889-5789
www.Malai.co
For your consideration in the category "costume design": the halo-halo waffle, crowned with a scoop of ube ice cream. Moments later it also made a bid for "live action short" — but, from the finale of our Filipino brunch, no footage is available. Also shown: octopus salad; bangsilog, a plate meal starring smoked milkfish.
F.O.B.
271 Smith St. (Sackett-Degraw Sts.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718-852-8994
www.FOBBrooklyn.com
(This venue is closed.) Share a little garlic with your nearest and dearest: Grandma pie with fresh mozzarella. Garlic-free appetizer: stuffed shells.
H/T Brooklyn Based and @garsleat
Sebastiano's
257 Columbia St. (Carroll-President Sts.), Columbia Street Waterfront District, Brooklyn
718-875-1936
www.Facebook.com/SebastianosBrooklyn
(This venue is closed.) Snowcapped in confectioner's sugar like their counterparts at Cafe Du Monde, Booqoo's beignets are rounder and more regular in appearance but just as hot and fresh from the fryer. Recommended pairing: a side of caramel sauce flavored with chicory coffee.
Cafe Booqoo
478 Smith St. (at 9th St.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718-858-2358
www.CafeBooqoo.com
Closed Monday
This annual event, which benefits culinary programs at the nearby School for International Studies, is also an occasion for participating kitchens to push their usual culinary boundaries. Indeed, several of the soups would fit right in with the new collection of edible mashups from Real Cheap Eats, both for their price ($1 per 4-ounce sample) and for their border-bending sensibilities. Shown: from Nightingale 9, a congee made from nutty Carolina gold rice, with crumbled sausage and biscuit croutons; from Shelsky's, chowder prepared with smoked whitefish; and, from Jolie Cantina, seafood being prepped for a Mexican-inflected bouillabaisse. Also shown: from Provence en Boite, lobster bisque. There's always room for a classic.
Smith Street Soup Festival
Smith St. between Atlantic Ave. and 2nd St., Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
(The 2013 festival was held on October 19)
These lobster tails and their cousins the sfogliatelle look very much alike. Both are painstakingly prepared using many pastry leaves (foglie, in Italian). The clam-shaped sfogliatella, however, contains ricotta, while the more slender lobster tail ($3, Friday through Sunday only) is loaded with sweeter, lighter French cream. This is a common distinction in New York and the Northeast, but it isn't applied at every bakery; verify those fillings before you order.
Previously: At the streetside ices window, the ideal tool of the trade isn't a scoop, it's a spatula. Provided the frozen product is limber enough, as these housemade confections certainly are, spatulating the ice encourages even a penny-wise server to apply it generously, like a mason preparing to set a brick. The impression on the customer is of old-time craft and full value for money. Shown: a half-measure of the almond-flecked custard flavor, called cremolata by some, atop pistachio; a straight shot of lemon.
Court Pastry Shop
298 Court St. (Degraw-Douglass Sts.), Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
718-875-4820
This cherry lime phosphate ($3.95), like the cherry lime rickey, is a New York drink of yore. The rickey, which in some corners of the city has held its place on the menu as an effective countermeasure against spicy food, can be cloying; the lime adds tartness but, sometimes, not enough bite. The phosphate gets its edge from a dash of phosphoric acid, which you'll find in Coke and Pepsi, too. It's less sweet, so as not to distract from the full cherry flavor. That maraschino pales in more than one regard.
Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain
513 Henry St. (at Sackett St.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718-522-6260
www.BrooklynFarmacy.blogspot.com
Thank you!
