New York deli and Ukrainian

This morning I took the Staten Island ferry to get a slightly closer look at the Statue of Liberty and then walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (from Manhattan).  Once in Brooklyn I made my way to the Brooklyn flea, at the base of the bridge.  By the time I got there it was 11.30am and I was famished.  Thankfully in addition to the clothing, posters and antiques there were some food stalls.  I had a cherry pastry followed by a fish taco.  The pastry was wonderful, although not as good as those at the at my Ellerslie local Boulangerie l’Epi.  I watched the fish in my taco being dunked in its beer batter and fried in a gas fired pot of oil before being assembled in its taco with guacamole, coriander, red onions and red cabbage and a white sauce that I didn’t catch the name of.  It was really delicious.

Cherry danish

Fish taco

I also bought some Nunu chocolates (make locally in Brooklyn) which I have just sampled.  I had the coffee and raspberry ones and they were delicious.

Nunu chocolates

I returned to Manhattan and walked to Katz’s delicatessen.  Katz’s is regarded by many as the quintessential New York deli so I patiently waited about half and hour in a shambolic queue before I could make my order.  I was then castigated by the sandwich maker for holding up the queue by asking a question.  Thankfully I wasn’t kicked out of the queue a la Seinfeld in the “Soup Nazi” episode.  I ordered a pastrami Reuben’s: a thick wad of hot melt in your mouth pastrami with sauercraut and melted cheese on rye and pickles on the side.  A work of magnificent wonder and worth any kind of telling off.

Pastrami Reuben's with pickles

I had dinner at the much lauded Veselka.  They’ve expanded their merchandising into cookbooks and opened a new “mini” store.  Despite not being particularly hungry I ordered the deluxe combination meat platter as I wanted to try their Ukrainian signature dishes.  The platter came with a small soup to start.  I chose the borscht which was wonderful.  Chunks of beetroot, cabbage and beans in a thick purple salty liquid topped off with some dill.

Borscht

The meat platter comprised meat stuffed cabbage with a creamy mushroomy sauce, grilled kielbasa (Ukrainian sausage) and three types of pierogi (boiled dumplings: chicken, potato and cabbage).  Fried onions in oil and a beetroot salad were on the side.  It was great to be able to try all of these things in one hit but it’s probably not the sort of food I’d choose to eat on a regular basis.  Also,  I reckon my mum’s Croatian stuffed cabbage (sarme) is better than Veselka’s.  As the locals say: a shout out to you mum!

Meat stuffed cabbage, kielbasa and assorted pierogi

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