Next year, the Brooklyn Eats festival should
be filmed as a "Survivor" for the food world. Cameras
could trail a group of enthusiastic foodies as they wade through
the offerings of 70 restaurants. Camera people would capture
the group’s initial comments, "I can’t wait to try the pate
and the duck confit! And those cakes!"
As their cameras rolled, viewers would admire the group’s stoic
determination to continue as participants’ shaky hands lifted
the final bites of cheesecake to their lips. The last man or
woman standing who tried everything would win the evening’s equivalent
to the immunity necklace on "Survivor" – a day of fasting
and massage at a local spa.
The eighth annual Brooklyn Eats, held on Oct. 18 in the New York
Marriott Brooklyn, wasn’t filmed for national broadcast. But
the event, sponsored by the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, tested
the endurance of about 800 diners. The evening’s challenge was
to sample each of the 62 contributing chef and food purveyors’
delicacies and sip glasses of wine, beer, limeade, coffee and
sodas from the 10 beverage vendors. (Not to mention Schnack restaurant’s
award-winning beer shakes.)
And game they were. Each diner exhibited their own style – some
paced themselves, beginning the evening with small bites of sharp
gruyere cheese and a pungent buttermilk bleu to dab with a swirl
of port wine reduction from Boerum Hill’s Tuller Premium Foods,
building up to the big bang with a slice of Junior’s cheesecake
from the Downtown Brooklyn institution. Others jumped fork-first
into Mama Duke’s – of Prospect Heights – spicy, peppery barbecued
chicken wings with creamy macaroni and cheese then sampled dishes
and desserts in no particular order.
As the night wore on, some diners exhibited glassy eyes, an upper
lip beaded with sweat and trembling hands – signs of a food hangover
– but no one was complaining.
The lure of the chefs’ goods made walking by without a taste
impossible for some. The best of the many shrimp dishes (too
many some felt) came from Peter How, the chef of Bay Ridge’s
Malaysian bistro Banana Leaf, who served large crisp shrimp in
light coconut batter atop tiny cubes of wasabi and tamarind-spiked
sweet pineapple. Chef Walter Plendner of Archives Restaurant
at the Marriott offered huge, tender grilled prawns wrapped in
bacon over a sprightly frisee salad, and Basil Jones of Footprints
Cafe in East Flatbush dished out hair-raisingly hot, smoky jerk
shrimp.
Up there with the best was Great Performances, the caterer of
BAMcafe, whose chef, Carlos Gomez, did a riff on traditional
southern shrimp and grits. His shrimp were grilled with chipotle
peppers, their chili-enhanced sweetness amplified by a delicious
side of creamy grits laced with a generous amount of aged cheddar,
Parmesan and pungent Asiago cheeses.
Milder but equally good were crisp lettuce leaves filled with
salmon ceviche (raw fish and shellfish marinated in citrus juice)
tinged with wasabi and topped with crunchy beads of red caviar,
an ingenious creation by chef Marc Elliot of Blue Star in Cobble
Hill. Monroe Shannon of Akwaaba Cafe dished out rare squares
of salmon (not an easy feat with chafing dishes) served with
a tangy citrus sauce and a sprinkling of salmon caviar. And,
the elegant avocado and crab "Napoleon," a simple disc
of the ingredients napped with a tangy lemon buerre blanc and
a hit of herbal fresh basil oil, from chef Anthony Rinaldi of
the Pearl Room in Bay Ridge, was an understated delight.
Meat eaters headed to the Blue Ribbon table where Park Slope’s
chef Bruce Bromberg served sweet and smoky barbecue pulled pork
on challah nicely offset by the tinge of anise flavoring in the
beef’s partner, a crisp fennel slaw. Somewhere between a meatloaf
and pate, was Jim Tackas’ smoked wild boar and venison meat loaf
with rich "Brooklyn monster gravy." (Tackas is the
chef at the Waterfront Ale House in Brooklyn Heights.) Rebecca
Peters of Cocotte Restaurant in Park Slope managed to balance
rich and light tastes in her lovely roasted squash and duck confit
wrapped in a light, eggy crepe.
Other savory hits that deserve mentioning are the fall-off-the-bone
Moroccan lamb shanks with chick pea salad from Five Front in
DUMBO by chef Paul Vicino; moist, crisp-skinned, deep-fried turkey
from Aricka Westbrooks of Jive Turkey in Fort Greene; the salmon
accented with chunks of cinnamon-tinged mango offered by chef
Karen Pompey of JRG Restaurant Bar & Fashion Café
in Fort Greene; and a delicate, not sweet, eggplant caponata,
served by chefs Mario DeBiase and Gregorio Huerta of Sotto Voce
in Park Slope that was especially appealing. The chefs from Sotto
Voce also poured potent, homemade liqueurs that filled the palate
with a clean hit of lemon, basil or rose; the rose was enchanting.
Straddling savory and sweet, was the luscious kabocha (winter)
squash and pear bisque topped with pear and melted brie croutons
drizzled with a bit of cinnamon creme fraiche from chef Martha
Johnson whose cafe, Zoila in Boerum Hill, was a newcomer to the
event,
Sweets eaters were lured to the tables by many of the borough’s
best pastry chefs. Andrea Lekberg of Sweet Melissa Patisserie,
in Cobble Hill, scored big points for her vanilla cake filled
with caramel cream and slices of ripe banana; its espresso butter
cream icing served to cut the sweetness of the cake. Lassen &
Hennigs, the gourmet prepared foods shop in Brooklyn Heights,
offered slices of ethereal strawberry shortcake cut from coffee
table-sized slabs. The cake’s crumb was fine and moist and the
strawberries ripe. Loulou, a French bistro in Fort Greene, attracted
a crowd with chef Bill Snell’s light, barely sweet crepe filled
with a cloud of whipped ricotta cheese and a slice of Bosc pear,
given crunch with a sprinkling of crisp, sweet pecans.
New York City College of Technology students Shakia Hall, Latoya
Mason and Ronney Williams, were winners of this year’s Brooklyn
Chamber of Commerce-sponsored Brooklyn Eats Scholarships. The
three offered a cake developed for the event, "City Tech’s
Chocolate Cherry Cake." The dessert’s deep chocolate flavor
was lightened with a layer of soft, boozy sweet cherries.
Next year, the same diners, and plenty of others like them, will
face the vast tables of food determined to taste everything.
A few will succeed. Most will leave defeated. Some will collapse
from the strain of overindulgence. That’s the way it goes when
the tribal council has spoken.