Sunset Park (Brooklyn)

Huazontle, a Mexican Spring Green That's Rarer Than Ramps

While seasonal foodie rapture over ramps and fiddlehead ferns is starting up, there's another vegetable that's also having a moment--and is even harder to find. Huazontle, a sturdy edible weed from Mexico that you won't find in farmers markets, remains even more elusive. The leafy green branches hol ... More >>

A Sole Cup of Birria at Tacos El Bronco

Those who have tasted a good bowl of birria, the Mexican soup from Jalisco made from toasted chiles and roasted goat, know it's a soup that inspires a rapture more consuming than what tweens feel for Justin Bieber. In Los Angeles there are entire restaurants dedicated to birria -- the soft simmeri ... More >>

Fork in the Road's Updated Dim Sum Dictionary

Fo tiao qing, braised pork tendon Way back in 2009, Fork in the Road offered readers an original dim sum visual dictionary, our tool to carry with you as you seek out the best small-plate parlors in the city. It was intended to be a resource for identifying and enjoying the traditional dim sum dish ... More >>

Tacos Cachanilla: Pass Me the Pigskin

A visit to one of the city's most evolved taquerias

5 Best Things To Eat at Tacos Cachanilla

What the hell is this? It looks like some abstract 3-D painting. [See Tejal Rao's review of Neta in photos] This week, Counter Culture sneaks into Tacos Cachanilla in the shadow of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Sunset Park. It's probably the city's most evolved taqueria and claims to mo ... More >>

Happy Father's Day! From Fork in the Road

Sunset Park, Brooklyn Forget to make dinner reservations? Here are some Father's Day suggestions.

Humongous New Chile Relleno Taco Placeros Sighted in Sunset Park

How lush was my taco? At the invitation of Serious Eats Mexican-food expert Scarlett Lindeman, I visited a newish taqueria in Sunset Park in the shadow of the looming Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Brooklyn's largest Roman Catholic cathedral. The place is called Tacos Cachanilla, and one of the lures ... More >>

Year of the Takeout Day 154: Best Bakery

Melon Cookie and Walnut So from Best Bakery (5812 Eighth Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, 718-439-5138)

Year of the Takeout Day 153: Empire BBQ Restaurant Inc. (Translation Help, PLEASE!)

Soy Sauce Chicken(?) from Empire BBQ Restaurant, Inc. (5805 8th Avenue, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, 718-435-9692)

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Chicken Dishes in NYC

The fried chicken at Sunset Park's Madly Wildly. Will it make the grade? Everybody loves chicken. Or almost everybody. Who doesn't like chicken soup? Fried chicken? Roast chicken with garlic and olive oil rubbed into the skin? Chicken mousse wrapped in a banana leaf and scented with lemongrass? Th ... More >>

Banana Leaf: Here's Your Skanky Wallop

Brooklyn's Sunset Park goes a little more Malaysian

This Week in the Voice: Ray Kelly's Secret List, Boring Married People

​This week in the Voice, out today: Graham Rayman reveals the existence of Ray Kelly's list of police officers who cannot be transferred without his personal approval. "The list, which the Voice obtained from an NYPD employee, is part of a 23-page spreadsheet that contains the names of 2,300 o ... More >>

Cops: Attack in Sunset Park Last Night Doesn't Fit the Pattern Of Other Brooklyn Assaults

DCPILast night's attack in Sunset Park doesn't fit the pattern attributed to these suspects.​In the last few days there have been two sexual assaults in south Brooklyn, one in Windsor Terrace and the other in Sunset Park. The attack in Windsor Terrace, in which a young woman was groped from be ... More >>

Asam Laksa at Banana Leaf in Sunset Park, Dish No. 13

​Asam Laksa is very, very tart. Asam Laksa is a signature dish of a Malaysian group called Pernanakans -- Chinese immigrants who settled on the Malay Peninsula as long as 400 years ago, and intermarried with Malays. Their cooking is often called Nonya ("Grandmother"), and represents one of t ... More >>

Petition Requests Free Self-Defense Classes for Brooklyn Women; Rapist Still at Large [Update]

​Not to be alarmist, but there is a serial sexual assailant on the loose in Brooklyn. We've written about him here before, but he's still at large; he's suspected of one rape and five attempted rapes along Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park, on 16th Street in Park Slope, and in Bay Ridge. The most r ... More >>

Madly Wild Fried Chicken Debuts in Sunset Park With Wildly Cheap Chicken, Dish No: 33

​It may not be the world's best fried chicken, but it's pretty good, and the price is right. Who isn't a sucker for a great restaurant name, or at least a really catchy one? One recent addition to this cadre is Madly Wild Fried Chicken in Sunset Park. Though the place advertises itself as a f ... More >>

Who Is — and Isn't — the Sunset Park Rapist?

Three weeks ago, the cops arrested William Giraldo, 24, for allegedly raping one of four women who they think are victims of a serial rapist in the Sunset Park area of Brooklyn. But Giraldo (who was arraigned on the day he was supposed to be getting married in Florida) was charged with only one of ... More >>

Southern Brooklyn Left Out of Wi-Fi Plans

via NYC Department of Parks & RecreationNot in southern Brooklyn.​Life in southern Brooklyn is rural. Last week we brought you the news that Wi-Fi is coming to 20 parks around the city this summer. But an article in The Brooklyn Paper today points out that none of those locations are south o ... More >>

New York City Loses Yet Another Food Plant; Scientists Create 'Super Wheat'

​Maramount Corp., a Sunset Park food production plant responsible for school lunches and homeless shelter meals around the city, is moving to Pennsylvania, leaving more than 140 workers unemployed. [NY Daily News] McDonald's and Wendy's are among fast-food chains that have added new summer sa ... More >>

No. 15: Bun Bo Hue at Thanh Da

​The bun bo Hue at Thanh Da presents a dark tempest of a beef broth. Let's enumerate the ways bun bo Hue -- named after the city of Hue (pronounced "Way") in Central Vietnam -- differs from the signature noodle soup of Saigon, pho (pronounced "FFFah"). First off, the noodles are wheat instead ... More >>

No. 10: Bifstec con Nopales at Xochimilco

​The cactus paddle could also serve as a ping-pong paddle. Ever had a fresh prickly-pear cactus paddle? Any Mexican bodega-taqueria can provide one, made from a fresh specimen, broad as a human hand, the spines singed off and the flesh grilled over smoky charcoal.

No. 5: Bamboo Pith and Sauteed Winter Melon at East Harbor

​This dish of pith and unsweet melon is as wan as a wintry day -- but the taste is supremely delectable. Bamboo pith is not a common ingredient in Western gastronomy. In fact, I've never seen it outside grandiose Hong Kong-style restaurants. Winter melon is more common -- you can see it in e ... More >>

Fried Dumplings and Soup at North Dumpling on the LES

​North Dumpling is an old-timer in dumpling-shop years. There are nearly a dozen dumpling shops on the Lower East Side alone, not to mention those in Sunset Park and Flushing, and the vast majority now dispense four for $1. But North Dumpling is different.

What's the Weirdest Thing You've Ever Eaten?

Barb N. asks: I know you've probably heard this one a thousand times before, but what's the weirdest thing you've ever eaten? Dear Barb: I never get tired of answering that question, but the answer is usually the same. It's not the cow penis I ate in a Chinese place on College Point Boulevard in F ... More >>

Rescue Chocolate Aids Sweet Tooths and Homeless Pets

Rescue ChocolateSweet, chocolatey pit bulls.​Park Slope has given us numerous whimsical and highly specific food products, but until now, it had not produced a line of chocolate bars inspired in part by feral cats and castration.

Posts of the Week

There are but a few precious short hours left until the weekend, and thus it is time to cast a fond eye back to the best posts of the week. We ranked Our 10 Best Things to Eat at Locavorish Food Markets. The battle of Smarties vs. M&M's: an England-U.S. Rematch. Asked the Critics weighed in on th ... More >>

Sunset Park Weekend Street Eats: Stinky Tofu and Homemade Noodles

Behold the stinky tofu: Too bad the screen isn't scratch-and-sniff​Skewer grills and noodle-slingers always line the busy Chinatown corridor of 8th Avenue in Sunset Park, but on the weekends, the crowd multiplies and street food vendors come out of the woodwork to feed them. You might walk by ... More >>

New 8th Avenue Noodles: Peel Noodles Proliferate!

Peel noodle soup with beef​The new storefront on Eighth Avenue displays cheerful bunting outside and a lump of dough as big as a Labrador inside.

Our 10 Best Sunset Park Restaurants

Yissel's chimichurris draw a crowd​The neighborhood of Sunset Park is so-called for the park of the same name, a green, hilly spot offering a community pool built in the 1930s and spectacular views of the harbor and the Statue of Liberty. Until World War II, the area was mainly home to Easte ... More >>

Tomorrow: Our 10 Best Sunset Park, Brooklyn, Restaurants

Ridiculously delicious Fujianese-style oyster cake ​Tomorrow we'll bring you our 10 favorite restaurants in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The neighborhood's two main drags, Fifth Avenue and Eighth Avenue, are respectively home to excellent Latin and Asian restaurants. And although Sunset Park's Chine ... More >>

Red Apple: New Fujianese in Sunset Park Fries Excellent Oyster Cakes

​ A new Fujianese spot, Red Apple Fast Food, has popped up on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and today the place was packed with diners lunching on noodle soups and fish-and-rice combos from the steam table. But on a self-service table in the center of the room sat the most exciting o ... More >>

The Early Word: Lot 2

​ Lot 2 is on a stretch of Sixth Avenue in what you might call Sunset Park, Greenwood Heights, or South Slope. It's a quiet avenue. A few blocks south, it dead-ends into Greenwood Cemetery. In the last few years, the area has enjoyed an unlikely mini-boom: Aside from Lot 2, there's Toby's Publ ... More >>

Fly Heads at the Island of Taiwan Restaurant

Taiwanese fare finds its way to Bay Ridge

Somebody Got Murdered: Double Murder Inside Sunset Park

View Larger Map DATE: On Monday, August 31, 2009 at about 8:30 p.m. LOCATION: Inside of Sunset Park near 41 Street and 7 Avenue The police say two men were shot and killed inside Sunset Park in Brooklyn Monday evening. We should note that a double murder inside a city park is pretty unusual.A 28-y ... More >>

East Harbor Seafood Palace Excels at Dim Sum

A new Sunset Park banquet hall provides happy days for chicken-foot fetishists

Market Watch: Albino Bitter Melon and More at Fei Long Market in Brooklyn

​ A rare white bitter melon, shown against a backdrop of the normal vegetable. Actually, maybe it's a fruit. Jaws dropped when Fei Long recently opened on the south end of Sunset Park's Chinatown, and not because it occupies an entire city block, and is twice a big as the next competing groce ... More >>

Prosperity Dumpling Gets a Brooklyn Outpost

Good news for Kings County: Prosperity Dumpling, one of the best $1 dumpling houses in Manhattan, is opening a branch in Sunset Park, at 4317 Eighth Avenue. It joins current favorite Kai Feng Fu Dumpling House (corner of Eighth Avenue on 48th street). More ultra-cheap dumplings and sesame pancakes f ... More >>

In Chinatown Markets Now: Rambutan

​ Brightly colored rambutans are now being featured in sidewalk produce stands in Manhattan, Sunset Park, and Flushing Chinatowns for about $5 per pound. Looking like the hairy intestinal polyps of space creatures, rambutans are bright pink fruits that can run in size from an olive to a small ... More >>

Incredibly Cheap Eats: Octopus Skewers

​ If you happen to be walking down Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park's Chinatown, especially on the weekend, follow your nose to the charcoal fires. There are several carts and street-side windows selling Northern Chinese-style charcoal barbecue skewers--lamb, beef, fish balls, and more, for bargai ... More >>

Posts of the Week

Hey folks, just popping in here to bring you our favorite posts from the past week. Happy 4th, and see you on Monday. Coverage of the Un-Fancy Food show, including salty caramels and beer. Cheap lobster from Red Hook Lobster Pound? Grill it! (Maybe give it a valium first.) Ah, summer, when thoug ... More >>

Vegetarian Delights of NYC--Sauteed Squash and Bamboo Pith at East Harbor

Sunset Park is thriving with new Hong Kong-style Cantonese restaurants, many of amazing size and sophistication. And, yes, the fish are alive in the tanks. At newcomer East Harbor, some of the more interesting dishes fall in the Vegetable category, though beware strict vegetarians that some rec ... More >>

Incredibly Cheap Eats--Lechon

El Bohio Restaurant #3 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, has an awning blazoned with the word "lechonera,"--meaning a place that specializes in crackly-skinned roast pig. And indeed, hefty hunks of burnished pork sit in the window, alongside blood sausage, pastelitos (like empanadas) and fried potato fritte ... More >>

BRIGHT IDEA

A new space for film and art comes to Brooklyn

Close-Up on Sunset Park, Brooklyn

Getting Gooey

Secret specialty of a banquet hall in Brooklyn's Chinatown

A Bowl of Red

East Harlem Beats Sunset Park

Close-Up On: Sunset Park

Great Balls of Masa

Jagged Little Pills

Capsule News

Three O'Clock High

Pedagogic Logic