Stop #3 On the TV Food Tour

 Apparently I'm on a mission to try the places in Park Slope that have made it onto Food related TV. A few weeks ago I had my first chopsticks brunch at Talde, which is owned by Dale Talde from Top Chef a couple of years ago. Then I hit Surfish, whose chef was on Chopped. To finish off my TV food tour Blake, Paula and I hit up Sidecar for brunch. Sidecar was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Much like the first two stops on the adventure, Sidecar didn't disappoint.

I started out with a fantastic bloody mary while waiting for Blake and Paula to arrive. I think that's one of the reasons I'm all about brunch lately. I love the meal to begin with. But recently I decided to jump on the wagon as I've been imbibing a bit too much lately. Too many Sundays spent feeling less than spectacular. And at 38. I already feel less than spectacular most of the time. But I gave myself a loophole in my wagon riding...bloody marys are allowed. It's a brunch drink, all's forgiven. Of course, I later broke that rule during brunch when I ventured further into Sidecar's drink menu and had myself a “Spicy Jesus”. Spicy Jesus is a cocktail of gin, Pimm's, grapefruit, ginger and hot sauce...so good. You can't blame me for temporarily jumping off the wagon, the drink was called “Spicy Jesus” for god's sake. I'm a sucker for things with Jesus in the title.

Blake and Paula arrived, braving the rainy misery outside, and after probably 30 minutes and a couple of more bloody marys we were seated. There's a pretty decent crown bustling through Sidecar for brunch. An interesting mixture of every day folks and strange mixture flaunting their irony like a peacock showing off its feathers. People in heavy winter coats and cargo shorts make no sense whatsoever. The hostess was very nice and apologized quite a few times about the wait. Although if you're going to brunch in the Slope and you don't expect to wait at least half an hour, you might have been lobotomized without your knowledge. Our waiter was a very social guy with a plethora of terrible one-liners to drop on us.

We started out our Sunday with fried oysters and biscuits in sausage gravy. The fried oysters were excellent. The breading had a lil kick and the oysters were big and loaded with briny goodness. The biscuits were a little tough and overcooked, just a little. But the gravy made it so that just didn't matter. Blake and I debated getting another order so we could bathe in the gravy at the table. Paula, being the voice of reason, interceded and kept us from getting arrested for public indecency. It's a good thing Paula comes with us on these excursions. If left to our own devices Blake and I would order everything on the menu...we're not very good at moderation.

Paula and I both got shrimp and grits. I'm not an expert on grits by any means. I've only had them a small handful of times. My one try and making them turned out just this side of OK. These grits were creamy and cheesy and otherwise tasty as hell. The shrimp were cooked perfectly and the creole sauce it's all smothered in makes the whole dish. Blake went with something called Migas. This is a kind of egg scramble with avocado, cheese, tomato and tortillas. Good and fresh tasting.

I'm looking forward to going there to try dinner. Lots of interesting sounding stuff on that menu.

Sidecar

560 5^th Avenue

Brooklyn, NY, 11215

718-369-0077

http://www.sidecarbrooklyn.com

Peruvian in Park Slope

Annie and I headed out for our yearly shared birthday dinner last Friday night. We were looking to go a little more low key this year and try something different than the usual steakhouse. So I went searching for a place to suit our needs and wound up suggesting a place that Annie had mentioned months ago. Surfish is a Peruvian based restaurant in Park Slope whose chef, Miguel Aguilar, was trained by Iron Chef Bobby Flay and featured on the show “Chopped”.

Surfish is a small joint tucked into 5^th Avenue. We were looking for it as we were driving and nearly missed it. It's relatively small inside too, probably seating for about 30. I'd imagine that at capacity the place would be cramped. As it was, a person of my somewhat larger stature was just barely on this side of comfortable. That being said, the wait staff were sweet, helpful and attentive. Surprisingly, they were able to be attentive and not obtrusive in a room that small.

Being who we are, we immediately ordered ourselves a pitcher of sangria. You can't beat $20 pitchers that got us 3 glasses each. Not bad at all. Also, the water had a faint hint of orange which was a nice touch. It took us quite awhile to figure out what to order. The menu has a lot of options and they all were very appealing. A tapas menu is like a fresh hell for a Fat Kid. It's hard to just pick a couple. I want to try them all. We wound up going with a few of the tapas as appetizers and then entrees.

We started out with a Ceviche Mixto, which was a brightly flavored and refreshing mix of raw shrimp, tilapia, mussels and octopus. I'll order almost anything that has octopus and this didn't disappoint. Chicharron Sliders, which were roast pork, sweet potatoes and salsa on tasty buns. Much bigger than we expected. The three sliders were easily enough to be an entree. That didn't stop us from devouring it all because they were excellent. That was some good pig. Then we had Anticuchos, miso-marinated beef hearts on skewers. I've never had beef hearts before, but I definitely will again. So tender with a clearly beefy taste and the sauce was bursting with flavor. I was tempted to lick the plate. We closed out our appetizer section of the meal with Zapallitos, which were sections of fried zucchini stuffed with crabmeat, shrimp and goat cheese. Also with an excellent sauce. I generally am not a fan of goat cheese but its tang was perfect in this.

Then it was off to the entrees. I have a hard time passing up paella whenever I see it on a menu. It's generally a combination of things that I love...mussels, shrimp, clams. Surfish's paella had those things along with squid and chorizo with the usual saffron rice. All of the seafood was cooked perfectly. The clams were HUGE. And the chorizo was exceptional with a different garlicky kind of flavor. Great taste...and I always love seeing shrimp with their heads still on. It's like getting a toy with my meal. I'm always tempted to pop the head off and use it as a finger puppet at the table. (It's not an accident that I call this blog Loving Your Inner Fat “Kid”) Annie had the Entrana Tacu Tacu which was skirt steak with sweet plantains and tacu tacu (tacu tacu is a Peruvian mashed bean type dish). The steak itself was cooked to a perfect medium and had a great charred flavor. I always love sweet plantains. I thought the tacu tacu was kind of bland (which is generally how I feel about tacu tacu anywhere I've had it. So it may just be that the dish itself is generally not very flavorful.). Topping it with a fried quail egg was a nice touch. It definitely made Annie happy. She gets a little excited about anything with eggs.

In all, Annie and I had a great dinner for our shared birthday. We easily could've skipped 2 of the tapas and still have been well fed. When we left I was FULL. We ate and drank quite well for a very reasonable price. I'm looking forward to going back there again to try more stuff.

Surfish
351 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY, 11215
718-832-8200
www.surfishbistro.com