Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

What's the one thing you crave after a somewhat intense and pretty exhausting workout? Popeyes!  Because there is one right across the street from my gym. What's the second thing, possibly healthier version, that we crave after a somewhat intense and pretty exhausting workout? El Pollo III! El Pollo III (no word on what happened to I and II) is a Peruvian restaurant right at the hub of 18th Avenue and 86th Street.  Plenty of shoppers abound and the neighborhood population has somehow skyrocketed, judging by the waves of people that get off the D train there.  We've walked by it lots of times, but only recently popped in...and then ordered delivery...and then popped in some more because it is really really good.   Peruvians or people who have travelled to Peru can probably inform me on what proper Peruvian cuisine entails, but I love the simplicity of the pollo at El Pollo III.  We usually get something like a baked chicken and/or chicke...

Let's raise a toast to Pig Island 2014 and to Veritasty's 3rd birthday! Thank you to Food Karma and Jimmy Carbone for hosting us and hundreds of other pork enthusiasts!  I'm still in a semi-food coma after last week's brilliant Pig Island at Erie Basin Park in Red Hook.  It was extraordinarily hot and humid yesterday, and my skin is almost as blistered as some of those pigs that were served, but it was worth it! This was the second year that Pig Island was at Erie Basin Park right next to the Brooklyn IKEA, so perhaps we'll work on rebranding it Pig Park. We were greeted by dessert first: Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies.  These cute mini-pies were served in daan taat tins on colorful trays.  The creamy lime custard sat on top of a crumbly graham cracker crust that was just the right texture and consistency to scoop up with the little folding spoons they gave us.  It was the perfect bookend to my lunch at Pig Island, since I had another on my way ...

In our part of Bensonhurst, very little remains of the old days of the neighborhood.  There's Alex's dry cleaner that is closing down shop after fifty-two years in that same spot in the strip mall next to Food Dynasty.  There's Mona Lisa Bakery, but we don't talk about that anymore .  There are a few good no-frills-but-delicious-food Italian restaurants and bakeries on 18th Avenue: West End Bakery, Il Colosseo, and the like.  But right on the corner of Bay 8th Street and 86th Street is Tommaso's Restaurant, an unassuming but quaint storefront that's been there for as long as I can remember.  In twenty four years of residence in Bensonhurst, never have I stepped foot into Tommaso's until now, and boy was I missing out! It was date night.  Where, oh where, can we grab a nice meal that's not Paco's Taco's or Outback Steakhouse?  We ventured past Tommaso's tiny outdoor patio and into a very homey, rustic-looking restaurant space.  Instantly...

Today, I had a beautiful lunch at Otto Enoteca Pizzeria and it made me realize and appreciate how life-changing good Italian food can be.   In pictures ripped from my Instagram: We had a few cheeses to start, accompanied by my favorite truffle honey .  Gladly, no one else in my dining party was such a fan, so I hogged the whole dish and proceeded to drizzle it on absolutely everything!  I had a delicious arugula prosciutto pizza, which oddly means I had pizza a grand total of four times this week (and lasagna twice more...YOLO).  In hindsight, I'm in awe of the fact that I had Italian food so frequently this week by some random coincidences, but it's all been delizioso . Posts from our other Italian eating adventures to come!

This weekend, beer fanatics and Veritasty flocked to Coney Island's MCU Park for Coney Island On Tap Craft Beer Festival!  Dozens of nearby and faraway breweries served up more than 100 craft beers.  Each guest gets a 5oz glass to proffer to the volunteers pulling the oft-decorated taps, built into blue plastic coolers (still trying to figure out how those worked).  Although neither of us are huge beer fanatics, we definitely appreciate a cold one now and then, and I know I definitely learned a lot about beer and what types of beer I prefer at Coney Island On Tap! Preface: we are not beer experts, but we dabbled at our homemade beer tasting and this discussion of SixPoint beer by my friend Charlie .  I think I shall divide this post into three categories: beer, cider, and other.  Also...while I tried to take notes on the checklist they provided, it got harder and harder to annotate after five, ten, fifteen different drinks...so here are the highlights! ...

This past weekend, we celebrated the 4th of July at...The Melting Pot in Red Bank, NJ! The Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant, but the way Alex described it to me, it also had an aspect of Asian-style hot pot. Huh?  Do you...cook food in boiling cheese? Turns out there are cheese and chocolate fondue courses, and the entree really is like hot pot, but in a selection of broths.  We had a four-course dinner with lots of poking and prodding and bobbing in broth and it was a load of fun! First, we shared a Classic Alpine cheese fondue course, which was Gruyere, Raclette, and fontina cheese with white wine, garlic, and lemon juice.  The dippers included bread, grapes, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.  The cheese fondue was prepared table-side by our server (who embodied the qualities of a good waitress: loud, enunciated well, and knowledgeable).  Though it was a little too strong in the wine department, it was fun to dip the bits in the cheese. ...

It's about that (only) time of year that the team at Veritasty gets to go on vacation! Earlier this month, we went on a cruise on the Norwegian Breakaway to Bermuda.  Have you guys ever been to Bermuda??  I was moderately excited before we left, but I ended up loving it!! Bermuda is a British Territory out in the Atlantic Ocean.  I, along with a few people I've talked to, had the misconception that the island was somewhere in the Caribbean, but nope - Bermuda is 600 miles due east of Virginia.  Its culture, though, is a mix of British, Caribbean, and American...and you see that reflected in its food too. Our first day in Bermuda was the super-duper active day...biking the Bermuda Railway Trail!  We biked about 13.7 km (from the Dockyards to Gibbs Lighthouse) first thing in the morning and we were starving by lunchtime.  The Henry VIII Restaurant, a funny looking Caribbean/English pub with a crimson facade and white balustrades, called...