For my adventure in backyard smoking, I figured some advice was in order. So I turned to a man who knows meat like Dionysus knew wine, Mr. Cutlets, the author of The Hamburger: A History, better known to Web-trolling eaters as Feedbag blogger Josh Ozersky. (more…)

Your devoted scribe once spent two weeks driving through Canada with a singer-songwriter on an acoustic-duo tour, and if there’s one phrase that trip brings to mind other than “indifferent audiences” and “lame beer,” it’s “Tim Hortons.” The Canadian donut chain is a ubiquitous presence on the endless highways of the Great White North, more common than caribou roadkill.

Now the chain is generating some hoopla by opening a dozen stores in New York City, having been imported to replace Dunkin’ Donuts outlets by the Riese Corporation, the Chilis-and-TGIFridays-pimping restaurant group whose influence on the Manhattan food scene is akin to Custer’s influence on the Indians. The question: will they steal the thunder of Dunkin’ Donuts, which has opened hundreds of outlets in the city over the past few years? (more…)

Prime shell steaks are going for a dirt-cheap $7.99 a pound at the Red Hook Fairway. That’s less than half of what you’d normally pay for a prime cut, and the one I grilled to a beautifully charred medium-rare last night was off the charts, minimally seasoned with kosher salt and coarse black pepper. The best steak I’ve had outside a restaurant in some time. Corn on the cob is also a good deal at F’way right now—5 for a buck. Meanwhile, lobsters were going for a rock-bottom $6 a pound, for any size. So if you fancy some surfing and turfing, seize the day—the sales run through Friday.

Fette Sau sausage, photo by J. Nordberg

There are a bunch of reasons to appreciate Fette Sau, the Williamsburg barbecue spot housed in a former auto shop on Metropolitan Ave. There’s the casual, loft-like vibe of the place, with its communal picnic tables, scruffy staffers and industrial-rustic décor. There’s the excellent Red Hook-brewed Six Point Righteous Rye on tap, along with a handful of of other good beers that run a modest $5 a pint. There’s the fact that it’s a rare northeastern barbecue spot that eschews Southern-themed trappings like pictures of Mississippi barbecue shacks on the walls or expressions like “hush yo’ mouth” on the menu. (more…)

Pita at Damascus, photo by Allison Hemler

Walking down Atlantic Ave. yesterday I was reminded of a small pleasure I regularly indulged in when I lived in Carroll Gardens—55-cent bags of pita bread from Damascus bakery. Inflation being what it is, they’re now 75 cents, but you still grab one from a stack of plastic pallets on the shop floor, so recent from the oven that steam may be condensing on the bags. And they’re still soft, chewy and generally a multitude better than any other pita you’ve spent three times as much for. Combine it with a small tub of baba ghanoush or one of the other mezes that abound on the block, and you’ve got an Arabic treat for lunch for a few dollars. (Note: If you’re feeling flush, opt for the triangle-shaped pita points, which for $1.25 are even more moist and pillowy.)

Damascus Bakery, 195 Atlantic Ave., between Court and Clinton streets, 718-625-7070

Photos by Vanessa Velez

Famed for its roast pork, El Bohio Lechonera in the Bronx has been a porcine powerhouse since David Chang was eating pig belly in his high chair. Though it’s on my endless list of eateries to try, I’ve never made it, so when I spied the neon sign announcing the arrival of El Bohio #3 at the corner of Fifth Ave. and 45th Street in Sunset Park not long ago, I took note.

And it’s some fine roast pork, as it turns out, moist, garlicky, rubbed with oregano, and served with a crisp hunk of mahogany skin. That’s the first thing worth noting about El Bohio. (more…)

I’d considered the $8 lobster rolls sold at the Red Hook Fairway’s cafe a great hidden deal, until I lined up for one last weekend and learned a couple things. First, if it was ever hidden, it’s not any more—about 90 percent of the people in line ahead of me seemed to be ordering one. Second, the $8 lobster roll is now a $10 lobster roll. (more…)

Photos by Charna Meyers

Waiting for the bus after leaving Jubilat Provisions last week, I stuck my face in my shopping bag and inhaled. Ahhh, there it is – the smell of victory. Less metaphorically, it’s also the smell of wood smoke, which perfumes this small Polish butcher shop and the pork products that emerge from its back-room smoker. If you’re thinking Greenpoint it’s a logical guess, but Jubilat stands apart from that Polish nabe’s cluster of meat markets. Instead it sits on Fifth Avenue in the South Slope, near a handful of other long-running Eastern European spots, including Milan’s restaurant, Smolen’s Bar and Grill (no grill exists, unfortunately) and the 70-year-old Eagle Provisions (home, though you’d never suspect it walking by, to an astounding beer selection). (more…)

It’s getting harder and harder for Manhattanites to cling to the pretense that they reside in the Chosen Borough. Still, it’s not every day you hear one admit to making regular trips across the East River to score things their island doesn’t offer. So when a woman I know who’s skilled at budget living told me she makes weekly food-shopping expeditions to Brooklyn — from Hell’s Kitchen, no less — it caught my ear. (more…)

Photos by Daniel Myers

Where legendary intersections are concerned, the corner of Eighth Avenue and 58th Street in Sunset Park doesn’t exactly rank up there with Haight and Ashbury or Hollywood and Vine. But bargain-loving Brooklynites ought to think of it as their own little Crossroads of the World. (more…)