Brooklyn Food Tour: Local Tastes

When you live in NYC, you often do ‘touristy’ things with out of town guests. My brother-in-law wanted to do a food tour, so we joined in.

Bagel to begin

We met in East Williamsburg and strolled over to Williamsburg Bagel. This Kosher shop – not open on Saturdays – offers perfect rendition of a New York bagel. The hand rolled bagels are chewy and come in basic varieties like sesame, everything and plain. We each had a quarter of a bagel with cream cheese, just enough to whet the appetite.

This is to go only, so ideal for pandemic munchies.

Vegetarian Disappointment

Next we went to Pies ‘N’ Thighs, where the specialty is fried chicken on a biscuit. I knew we were promised a veggie option and we wanted to try the ‘chik’n biscuit’ with a tofu patty. But we were only offered a side of meh black eyed pea salad. My brothers-in-law did enjoy their traditional chicken and biscuit though.

Handmade Dumplings

Vanessa’s Dumpling House has pan fried and boiled dumplings. We had an order of pan fried vegetable dumplings, which tasted much fresher than the usual take out. Vanessa’s started in Chinatown and is a place I’d return to.

The food tour also included a walk along the waterfront, through Domino Park and near the ferry stop that I told some of the others on the tour to take for their trip to Dumbo. Our tour guide, though knowledgable about some things, didn’t know about the ferry. He also said that Orthodox Jewish men and women sit separately in church, so he had a few facts mixed up as well.

Taco Time

We stopped at Tacombi Taco and made a group decision to eat inside for the first time on the tour. We were the only customers – at midday – and decided being inside beat sitting in the cold. Plus we were just sitting for a short time, having one taco – black bean and sweet potato on a homemade corn tortilla – so we felt safe.

Grandma’s Pizza

Rosa’s Pizza is a newcomer to Williamsburg, but it has been in Queens since 1975. It specializes in Gramdma pizza, or Sicilian style, squares of pizza with the cheese under the tomato sauce. You don’t get that wonderful mozzarella stretch, but it’s a tasty thin crust.

Dessert

Right next door to Rosa’s, we picked up cookies from Milk Bar. Everyone was too stuffed to each their cookies, but we savored these later.

Do I think this food tour gave us the best food options in Williamsburg? No. But it did give an accurate picture of various types of food. And I would definitely return for a bagel at Williamsburg Bagel and go to Pies ‘n’ Thighs for a tofu and biscuit. I love Milk Bar (try the compost cookies) and I’d actually been to Vanessa’s before. Tacos were solid but the pizza – well, I live near so many wonderful pizza places it’s hard to give a fair assessment.