Homa Dashtaki and her dad, Goshtasb Dashtaki (whose white mustache inspired the brand), whip up creamy yogurts and top them with potato chips, bacon or other tidbits. (
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It’s time for little piggies to go the market — the Flea food market. The popular Smorgasburg has returned. Every Saturday at the Williamsburg waterfront, or Sunday at the old Tobacco Warehouse in DUMBO, artisanal food lovers can get their fill and then some from dozens of vendors hawking everything from cookie-dough peanut butter to Bolivian sandwiches. This year, about 35 new food vendors are on offer. Here are seven of the tastiest (check vendor sites for weekend locations).
Perfect pairing
High-proof desserts at Butter & Scotch
butterandscotch.com
Keavy Blueher, 30, who’s been at the Flea for years with her Kumquat Cupcakery, has teamed up with Allison Kave, 33, a fellow market vet with her First Prize Pies, to form Butter & Scotch. They call themselves the “drunk bakers” and plan to open a brick-and-mortar bar serving craft cocktails and tasty desserts in Crown Heights later this year. Until then, get a helping of the Bananas Foster Trifle ($5), before it sells out. It features bananas caramelized in dark rum and a little Cointreau and rum whipped cream. Don’t expect to get drunk off these desserts, though. “You would probably feel like you had eaten too much sugar before you had eaten too much booze,” says Kave.
Cultural Revolution
The White Moustache Yogurt
thewhitemoustacheyogurt.com
This family business shows off yogurt’s naughty side, serving tangy Persian-style white stuff over potato chips and topping it all off with bacon ($6). Traditionalists can opt for thicker Greek-style yogurt with fruit and nuts ($6), but no matter what the accoutrements, the Dashtaki family’s yogurt is a far cry from the supermarket varieties. Homa Dashtaki, 34, worked in finance until she was laid off in 2009. Now she makes yogurt just as her father taught her and packages it by hand in quaint glass jars, whose logo refers to dad’s facial hair. Of her career change, Homa says, “I have one-sixteenth of the money [I used to have], but I’m so much happier.”
Beyond beans
Chips and duck confit at El Gato Nacho
Christopher Davin, 26, and a cook at Egg in Williamsburg, and his fiancée, Jill Meerpohl, a manager at acclaimed sandwich spot Saltie, were watching “Monday Night Football” at a Bushwick bar and eating nachos last year when an idea struck them. “We were like . . . we can make better nachos than this,” recalls Davin, and bam! El Gato Nacho was born. The couple takes nachos far beyond liquified fake cheese and sour cream. Chipsters can build their own nachos ($5 to $11) from gourmet ingredients like truffle cheese sauce, duck confit, pickled ramps and beef hearts. Every order is topped off with homemade hot sauce and salsa verde, radishes, cilantro, scallions, creme fraiche and pickled green peppers.
“They’re taking this junk food and instead they make every little part of it from scratch,” enthuses Eric Demby, co-founder of the Flea and Smorgasburg.
Buttery goodness
Biscuits at BeeHive Oven beehiveoven.com
“I’m a Texan through and through,” says baker/entrepreneur Treva Chadwell, 42. A freelance food stylist and recipe developer, she’d never been north of Austin before moving to New York six years ago. Her traditional buttermilk biscuits are based on an old family recipe and are as authentic as they come, though Chadwell is more concerned with her ingredients being all-natural than her grandmother was. Enjoy the fluffy delights topped with fried chicken, squash pickles and honey mustard ($6), country ham and brie ($6) or a simple pat of butter and some honey or jam ($2). The latter is Chadwell’s favorite. “There’s nothing better!”
Oy yeah
Scrumptious sandwiches at Scharf & Zoyer
facebook.com/ScharfandZoyer
Place your bets on the Kugel Double Down ($5) — maple farmers cheese, orange and apricot preserves and fried shallots sandwiched between two slices of kugel. It’s one of several inventive, global sandwiches Noah Arenstein, 28, has on offer. “We’re king of taking a little from Eastern European Jews and North Africa,” says Arenstein, whose ingredients range from pimento cheese to tuna salad to harissa. “We’re just kind of mixing and matching.”
Sweet wheat
Couscous at NY Shuk
nyshuk.com
“We’re here to bring couscous to New York,” announces chef Leetal Arazi, 28. She’s not talking about that box of dried stuff abandoned in your cupboard. She and her husband and fellow chef Ron Arazi, 30, moved from Tel Aviv last fall to start their own business and bring their hand-rolled couscous to previously deprived New Yorkers. Each week, the chef couple will offer it with different toppings; last weekend, a spicy stew of meatballs and chickpeas with raisins ($10) was a standout, as were their rose-scented semolina cakes ($5). Their authentic couscous has ultra-fine granules and is cooked, but never boiled, to perfection. “If you don’t steam it, forget it,” says Ron.
Sweet sips
Maple lemonade at Rockville Market Farm
rockvillemarketfarm.com
Wash down all that food with this somewhat healthier and far more delicious take on the classic summer quencher. The lemonade ($4) is sweetened with Vermont maple syrup instead of sugar, and it retains a refreshing tartness. The farm’s owner, Eric Rozendaal, travels from northern Vermont each Sunday to bring the lemonade, along with pasture-raised eggs and gorditas, to the Brooklyn crowds. Though it’s a long drive, he’s thrilled to be part of Smorgasburg. “I’ve been doing markets for 18 years and this is the most fun I’ve ever had,” says the farmer. “This is the big time, this is the show.”