Pies n' Thighs, Brooklyn

I have been wanting to go to Pies n' Thighs in Williamsburg for a while. Two things I love are fried chicken and pie, they're pretty much never bad, but when they're good, they are divine.  

So I finally made it for lunch with 1000yregg and Redneckhunter.  Since we were eating with our cousins later that evening (and we wanted pie!), 1000yregg and I opted to share a 3-piece chicken box, and I ordered a couple sides.  The chicken was hot, crispy, nicely spiced - perfect.

Redneckhunter got his own plate -- his beloved biscuits and sausage gravy, topped with cheese and scrambled egg -- called the Rob Evans.  He had to hand it to them - one of the best he's had north of the Mason-Dixon line.





The collards we ordered with the chicken were wonderfully bacony. I think it was the best of the sides.  1000yregg liked the hush puppies - they were little and crisp and light, but I tend to like mine bigger and denser.  Mac and cheese was fine, but I needed to save room for PIE!

We each got a slice.  I think Redneckhunter's was the best - banana cream.  Mine was pumpkin, and 1000yregg went with key lime pie.  Graham cracker crusts were buttery, whipped cream was smooth and delicious -- everything was just the right amount of sweet - fresh natural flavors and not cloying.  

Pies n' Thighs
166 South 4th Street
Brooklyn, NY
347-529-6090

Marquee Brunch at the Creative Alliance, Baltimore

I'm a fan of Blacksauce Kitchen, and their biscuits at the Saturday morning Waverly Market in Baltimore, so when I heard that they were going to be making brunch at the Creative Alliance in town, I could not pass up an invite to go. This was the second time running the event, and the host said they had got out some of the kinks from the first date the month before.
We ordered several items off the "Small Plates" part of the menu to start.
Before those items arrived though, they brought us small biscuits to start. These were not as good as the ones they have on Saturdays, but they were still tasty.
Our first item was an aged rum sticky bun. It had a generous rum flavor to it, and was my favorite of the starters.

The next item was warm beignets with a sweet lime glaze. I wish there was more of the sweet-sour glaze because it was so good.
We also ordered a small plate of their double smoked bacon. It had a sprinkle of pepper and was topped with what seemed to be a homemade ketchup.

We ordered three "Large Plates" and passed the dishes around so we could all try them.
My favorite item was the beef brisket with poached eggs on top of cider braised greens. The beef was cooked beautifully and had a great flavor that was complemented with the greens.
The second dish was the beef shortribs, fried okra pickles and stoneground grits. The beef was nice and tender.
Our third plate was smoked almond French toast with apple compote on a sweet potato shallot hash.
They are planning another brunch the first Sunday in December.

Roberta's, Brooklyn

Brooklen, LBT, Jude, and I went one Sunday morning to East Williamsburg in Brooklyn to Roberta's for the the weekly NYC ritual of brunch. Brooklen had been wanting to go because he had tried their pizza at Madison Square Eats events.
When we arrived at the address, at first, we weren't sure we were at the right place. The exterior looked very modest, with a very small sign just above the doorway. Inside though, the space was great with long wooden tables, a red wood burning oven, exposed ceilings, a bar, and where we sat, a garden courtyard that looked into a radio studio.

We had to at least get one pizza. Immediately, we knew we wanted to try Paige's Breakfast Burrito pizza. It came topped with tomato, mozzarella, potato, red onion, jalapeño, egg, and Berkshire pork sausage. The crust on the pie was thin, crisp, and a little chewy with a decent char.
We also shared a tasty sticky bun and buttermilk biscuit. Both were scrumptious.

For our main courses, I ordered the fried eggs with beef tongue, salsa verde and potato hash. The tongue was great, really tender and delicate.
LBT got a breakfast sandwich of a hunk of sausage, egg, and cheese on a potato roll. It was a bit odd that they could not scramble the egg for her.

Brooklen got the ricotta pancakes with brown butter and maple syrup. We shared a small plate of thick fatty slab bacon.

261 Moore Street
Brooklyn, NY
(718)417-1118

Biscuit Sandwiches from Blacksauce Kitchen, Baltimore

One of my favorite things to do on Saturday mornings in Baltimore is to go to the year round Waverly farmer's market, and have breakfast at the Blacksauce Kitchen stand.

Their specialty is making wonderful buttermilk biscuit sandwiches that change week to week. Their handmade biscuits are great, fluffy, delicate, and buttery.

My favorite sandwich so far has been the fried chicken with blackberry honey. They fry the chicken to order for this one.

I've also enjoyed their beef short rib biscuit, the merguez sausage and fried egg biscuit, and the "BLT" with bacon, microgreens, & tomato jam.
They also make an appearance at the Highlandtown market on Thursday afternoons, but I fear having their biscuits more than once a week will be hard on the waistline.

Bojangles' Vs. Popeye's Fried Chicken & Biscuits

It's no secret that Fougoo & I are fans of Popeye's Fried Chicken. I can't call it "Louisiana Kitchen". However, I've always heard from friends who have lived in the South that Bojangles' Famous Chicken & Biscuits makes better fried chicken and biscuits than Popeye's.
I discovered that a short drive from my house to New Carrolton, MD would take me to both a branch of Popeye's and Bojangles' about a half mile apart from each other. I wanted to see who's menu items would reign supreme.
I did drive-thru first to Popeye's then to Bojangles', ordering from both places the two-piece meal with biscuit.
I first compared the two biscuits. On visual inspection, the Popeye's biscuit has a slightly more yellowish color and is just a little less thick than the one from Bojangles'. I've always felt that Popeye's biscuit is a bit too greasy, but I usually cut it with some honey or jam. Bojangles' biscuit is much less greasy, and it is also fluffier. It was clearly better, as I finished the Bojangles' biscuit off. I would most certainly return to try one of their biscuit sandwiches.
Now on to the chicken. The Bojangles' chicken (above) is a little less battered than Popeye's. When you bite into the skin, there is slightly more obvious texture of fried skin. The Popeye's chicken seems to have a little more saltiness and flavor than Bojangles'. My preference between the chickens falls to Popeye's in this case.
I tried a few additional sides. The seasoned fries clearly were dominated by Popeye's. The mashed potato & gravy sides were a draw as Popeye's uses a spicy meat gravy and Bojangles' uses a creamy gravy. Bojangles' offers pinto beans that hold nothing to Popeye's red beans & rice.
Winner: close one, but I would give it to my Popeye's. Loser: me.

The Pop Shop, Collingswood, NJ

My only experience eating in Collingswood up until now was a really awful Taco Bell before a Billy Bragg concert. So I was pleasantly surprised to read about The Pop Shop -- which had been featured in a grilled cheese match on Bobby Flay's Throwdown.

It's a super cute place right on the main street in downtown Collingswood - a retro soda shop all done up in bubble gum colors and black and white checks. On a Sunday at noon, the place was packed with families with young kids.

Redneckhunter ordered a black and white milkshake to start. He decided to go for breakfast with his milkshake, while I chose from among the 30 varieties of grilled cheese. I opted for the one that had been invented by Bobby Flay for the show: brie and goat cheese with applewood smoked bacon and tomato on country white bread. Redneckhunter got biscuits and gravy with cheesy scrambled eggs.

So the problem wasn't with the food itself - just that it came out kind of cold. Since we sat at the soda counter, we had a front row view of the waitresses clearly getting ready for some sort of kids make-your-own-sundae party. They must have scooped 40 dishes of ice cream and put out 30 dishes of toppings in front of us. Unfortunately, the waitresses were probably a little too busy to get our food out hot. Poor Redneckhunter - sausage cream gravy is not something you want to be eating lukewarm...

I liked this place despite all that. I think if I lived in Collingswood, we would be at this place often. It's fun, I love the retro vibe, and there's ice cream...

The Pop Shop
729 Haddon Avenue
Collingswood, NJ
856-869-0111

Revisiting Old Favorites in North Carolina : Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, Fiesta Grill & Locopops

Even though, I tried several new places when in North Carolina, I had to go back to some of my old favorites.
For breakfast, I went to the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, home of some of the best biscuits I've ever had. I got the biscuit with egg and fried pork tenderloin.
While I think the chicken might be a little better, the pork was still good.

I also returned to the Fiesta Grill for simply great Mexican food. The last time, it was the weekend so I had to have the menudo. This time, I tried a longaniza (sausage) taco, and their chicken mole. It was basically a half chicken smothered in a delicious, slightly sweet mole sauce. While I think their corn tortillas could be a little more fresh, Fiesta Grill is pretty great.

Last but certainly not least, I had to return to Locopops. This time, I ended up eating 2 different kinds.
I tried one paletas de agua, the cucumber chile. It was really nice with a pleasant kick from the chiles mixed in. Click on the pic above to see them,
I also tried a paleta de crema, the chocolate pretzel, which had chunks of pretzel in the popscicle. Yummy.

Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen
1305 E. Franklin
Chapel Hill, NC
919-933-1324

Fiesta Grill
3307 Nc Highway 54 W
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
(919) 928-9002

Locopops
128 E. Franklin St.
Chapel Hill, NC

Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, Chapel Hill, NC

One morning, we went to the Sunrise Biscuit Kitchen, a small drive through just off the highway for breakfast. This inconspicuous location served simply perfecy buttermilk biscuits that were large, light, fluffy, and delicious.
I ordered the fried chicken biscuit, which was nicely fried and crunchy on the outside, but the meat still took second place to the spectacular biscuit.
Here is a slightly snooty take on the place from public radio. (Realplayer media)
1305 E. Franklin
Chapel Hill, NC
919-933-1324

Girls Cooking Night: Basil

For last week's girls cooking night, we did it Iron Chef-style (though non-competitive) with basil as the theme ingredient, which yielded one of the prettiest, most colorful meals yet.

Kim started us off with peach, red pepper and basil bruschetta. This was amazing - the flavor combinations were wonderful - who would have thought? The peaches and roasted red peppers were marinated in balsamic and sugar and were so good we ate the remaining mixture straight out of the bowl. Brownie made grilled pesto chicken and Debbie made not one but two types of mozzerella, tomato, basil salad.

I made tomato basil biscuits (recipe came from the New Basics Cookbook by the Silver Palate gals). I was a little worried because my dough was really wet after adding the tomatoes, but the end product came out just fine.

But I think we'd all agree that the piece-de-resistance of the evening was Melissa's fragrant shrimp with crispy basil and shitakes. She actually made her own curry paste for this dish -- so impressive! The recipe came from the Pacific Terrific cookbook, but she added fresh basil as well as the fried crispy basil called for in the recipe. The more basil the better, as far as I'm concerned!

Incidentally, the other portion of the Iron Chef challenge was lemon, which we ended up using in drinks and dessert. But as per usual, by the time dessert rolled around I was too intent on eating to take pictures. I had made lemon lace cookies (also from the New Basics) and Brownie had made a lemon cake (from Ina Garten, I believe), and we toasted with limoncello.