Photo by Scott Lynch
Where to Eat in Brooklyn This Week
Three magical mash-ups that are too good to think too hard about
Keeping up with the culinary action in Brooklyn is almost futile. Even with our help, there aren’t nearly enough meals or minutes in the day to hit them all, which is why we’ve been trying something new these last few weeks, sending some suggested destinations directly to your inbox, so you always know where to eat, no matter which corner of Kings County you might be exploring.
This week, we travelled down to the borderlands of Bay Ridge and Sunset Park to explore the convergence of two distinct cuisines and cultures at Bombay Birria, the Indian-Mexican oasis tucked into a bodega beneath the BQE. It was a ball, and no matter where we landed on the extensive menu—featuring everything from 10 different strains of halal tacos to rice bowls to standard (but beautifully executed) deli fare—it was a win, by any and all metrics.
Naturally, it spun us off into some other recent mash-ups (not the Girl Talk type) that are too good to try too hard to make sense of. Take, for instance, the madcap experimentation currently underway at Kelang in Greenpoint, where traditional Malaysian recipes are hitting the table with an accent unquestionably local and ingredients that could only come from the mind of a South Brooklyn native. Then there’s SYKO in Windsor Terrace, which is not fusion-y or remixing anything in particular, but is housing excellent Korean and Syrian dishes under one roof. We’d argue that Caputo’s “lard bread bagel” represents a similar synthesis of previously unmingled food concepts as well—but maybe that’s pushing it.
See where to eat in Brooklyn this week below, and check back for a new batch of recommendations every Monday.
Photo by Scott Lynch
The Indian-Mexican Oasis in a Bodega Under The BQE
It seems like an unlikely spot, perhaps, to settle yourself and tuck into a relaxing, satisfying, freshly cooked meal at a wrought-iron patio table with an umbrella shielding you from the sun. After all, your host for this occasion is, at its core, simply a classic Brooklyn bodega, well-stocked with everything you’d expect from such a place: toilet paper, six packs of beer, milk, chips, boxes of mac and cheese—you know the drill. The location—the only retail operation in sight—standing alone on a concrete island, squeezed between an elevated stretch of the Gowanus Expressway and a row of forbidding high-rises, doesn’t exactly scream “come on in for some fusion cuisine and a cup of milky chai.”
Ah, but where others may have seen only desolation, Jay Jadeja, a chef and owner of several NYC restaurants over the years, saw the opportunity to feed people something new and fun (and actually quite delicious) here along the Sunset Park/Bay Ridge border. And so we get this nifty little Indian-Mexican spot, with seating both inside and out, folded inside a fully functioning bodega called Bombay Birria.
“The cuisines of India and Mexico are so well meshed,” Jadeja, a world traveler who was born and raised in Gujarat, India, told Brooklyn Magazine. “We eat the same kind of food. They eat tortillas; we eat rotis. We use more or less the same spices. There’s a lot of crossover, and I believe this is the perfect city, and the perfect neighborhood, to try a place like Bombay Birria.”
Photo by Scott Lynch
At Kelang, Malaysian Specialties Hit The Table With a Brooklyn Accent
Chris Low, the co-owner and executive chef of Greenpoint’s remarkable new Malaysian spot Kelang, wasn’t supposed to get involved with his family’s restaurant business. He helped out, of course, when his parents and sister Rebecca were opening Hainanese Chicken House in Sunset Park a couple of years ago, but Low is a filmmaker by trade, and this was his father’s dream, not his.
But when the Malaysian, hawker-style dishes at Chicken House earned the place several rave reviews, the family’s modest counter-service spot became a surprise hit, and the once-reluctant Low found himself wanting more. “Based on the setup there, and the neighborhood, I felt like we couldn’t really dive into all the stupid things I wanted to do,” Low told Brooklyn Magazine. “So we decided to expand, and do something new. I’m still working in film, still shooting, but I figured, why not? Why not explore this restaurant thing further? We deserve to see what we can do.”
What Low and his family can do, apparently, is turn an abandoned medical office on prime Manhattan Avenue into a rollicking, full-service restaurant called Kelang, named for the small city in Malaysia where their parents are from and featuring a full menu of regional specialties, many of which hit the table with a bit of a Brooklyn accent. “I grew up in Brooklyn,” said Low. “Flatbush, Ditmas Park, Park Slope… and I went to school in Canarsie. So we ate a lot of Caribbean food. A lot of Haitian and Jamaican, which makes its way into the food here at Kelang.”
Photo by Scott Lynch
A Syrian-Korean Counter in Windsor Terrace
For starters, SYKO, a new counter-service restaurant that opened a couple of weeks ago in Windsor Terrace, doesn’t serve mashups of Syrian and Korean food. You won’t find anything called a “falafel bibimbap” here, nor any “kimchi moussaka.”
Instead, SYKO is a collaboration between two friends, Mazen Khoury and James Kim, the former from Syria (he left with his family in 2013 and says he misses it every day), the latter you may have met already if you’re from the neighborhood — Kim’s family operates both J&H Farm and P&E Grocery, both within a block of SYKO. Actually, Khoury and Kim are themselves family now: Kim is married to Khoury’s sister. The portmanteau “SYKO” is, of course, a nod to their combined cuisines, but also, says Kim, what he calls his young son.
Both sides of SYKO’s menu are packed with familiar favorites, from platters of beef bulgogi to chicken shawarma sandwiches, but there are plenty of less-obvious offerings worth exploring as well. Try Khoury’s sujok rolled-flatbread sandwich, which comes stuffed with a funky Syrian sausage, lots of pickles and tomatoes for acid, a scattering of French fries for fun, a garlicky white sauce pulling it all together. It’s delicious and eats something like a Middle Eastern version of a Southern California-style burrito.
