I’m sure you’re thinking, “Oh so now you want to post about food crawls and stuff?!”“After the fact you wanna tell me how awesome tacos and wings and Bay Ridge were?”
Well yes, internet, I do. Plus, I have pictures! I have chastised myself enough in my own mind for my lack of posts. Life has been busy! I have moved! I got carpeting! I do a podcast! Do you listen to said podcast by the way? It’s quite insightful. And I’ve been Instagramming the pictures of these events like a mad woman, or really a woman with an unlimited data plan on her smartphone. So there!
But yes, I have been quite delinquent in my posting. And I owe you a few food crawl posts and more regularity in general. Also, I plan on having a doughnut crawl in the next month or so, so yeah I need to catch up on food posts!
Where to start? At the beginning! So the first crawl of the year was in May, yes I know its October, but these places still exist! So you should eat there. Now can we stop with the guilt trip and get to the eats? Yes? Okay then.
Ahem, #WingingItBk took place on a surprisingly humid day in mid-May. Jackie Gordon and Margaret Chen organized this crawl that started in Prospect Heights and I honestly forget where we ended up. The last stop was near water. So that was far; we ended up far from where we started.
First stop was Pizza Loves Emily which was honestly my favorite and we could have potentially not gone anywhere else and I may have been a happy lady. But I was in for the long haul. Seven hours of walking for wings, people! That’s not insanity, that’s dedication.
The Nguyen wings were Asian-inspired perfection! They only serve these wings during happy hour so Jackie & Margaret worked their fantastic foodie magic to get us these wings midday. The sauce is secret but there was garlic and soy and sesame and just….yes so much goodness! It almost makes me want to move to Brooklyn. Almost.
Not on the agenda but nearby we stopped at Chuko Ramen, a place more known for their ramen but also makes of some salt & pepper wings. These were solid wings that reminded me of the kind you get at your divey Chinese takeout food spot. Nothing mind altering but solid and standard wings. A good way to test the barometer of the fry job on the chicken itself.
Semi-full of wings we walked to The Islands. As it turns out The Islands was not serving jerk wings as we had hoped. So we got oxtail, chicken thighs, and rice & peas. We ate these on the front step of the Brooklyn Museum. And I have to say I was all in on the oxtail. Tender and juicy and perfect. Extremely good stuff. And also good to eat with your hands along with a bunch of (food) crawlers on a hot day. Just sayin’.
So the walk between the previous and the next place took us past the museum and the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, past the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library and that’s when I started to get excited because I knew this meant we were near Runner & Stone and damn right I was gonna make a stop to get me an almond croissant on a Sunday.
Anywho, next up was Talde. And thankfully we got there just in time to get in an order before their kitchen closed. The bartender was super kind to take our orders with five minutes to go and also take drink orders, which we all made sure to do and give her a nice tip. The Talde's wings are called Kung Pao wings. They actually weren’t that spicy. And I’m a wuss when it comes to spice. These had a good tang to them and looked even nicer. But still, my heart belonged to the Nguyen wings we’d tried first. I do love me some Asian flavors.
Taldes was where some dropped off and some came onto the crawl. We laid back a bit as the humidity started to get to us and enjoyed some libation before a short walk to the next two places. We decided to skip Dinosaur BBQ’s because, in all honesty, it wasn’t gonna be that grand. Off to….
Bonnie’s Grill for their traditional buffalo wings. Now, I am not a buffalo wing person. However, if you are a buffalo wing person than I would suggest Bonnie’s where you can get them in three forms from mild to extremely hot. We got mild for the crowd and it was fine. Again, not my thing but definitely worth a try.
Literally a couple blocks away from Bonnie’s is Pork Slope your more bar type place. Based on the establishment’s name alone you can imagine that wings are not the specialty but we’d heard good things! So we got the buffalo and also a tangy teriyaki version. I went with the teriyaki which was a bit salty for my taste. Keep in mind I tend to eat low sodium so this ratcheted my salt intake up quite a bit. What I will say is that the space is great for groups, the service solid, and happy hour pricing good if you like stuff on tap be it beer or cider.
After that some more people started to drop off, one by one but we got to Wangs which does Korean-style wings in two forms (spicy and not spicy). These gave the Nguyen wings a run for their money as far as I was concerned. Again, those Asian flavors I’m telling you! Can’t be ‘em. These were perfectly crisp and seasoned and not that salty so you got the sesame and hints of soy with flakes of toasted garlic sprinkled atop. So good. I need to make another detour there.
Speaking of detours this was when me and Kian made one to hit up Runner & Stone for carbs! Once our respective brioche and almond croissant were acquired we met up with the gang at Ganso’s (Yaki) for more wings. Ganso’s is another Asian eatery. I got the crab shumai which was a very big mistake as it turned out. The wings were better but not all that memorable to be honest in terms of spice and flavor. Not bad but nothing that stuck out to me.
After Ganso’s I’d say our ragtag group was now a little less than half of what we started and we had a trek in front of us to Pok Pok NY. But on the way we stopped at Blue Marble and also Paul, Jackie’s boyfriend, was nice enough to treat us to One Girl Cookies. This was a fantastic route as far as I was concerned.
Pok Pok was a wait. The longest wait of all the eateries. And space was limited inside so we got to go and ate our last bits on the street like champions! Once again the options were hot and not hot. I wussed out again and had some salty a** wings that were good, but not worth the hype I felt Pok Pok had accrued. Of course, this could be because it was humid out and I’d been walking around Brooklyn for several hours and was full of wings and ice cream and the hostess at Pok Pok was rude. Who knows? Things start to blur at the end of a 7-hour food crawl.
But the point at hand is we made it! And it was delicious! And I’d do it again!
Jackie provided notes on how to have a successful food crawl which I will include here. So yes, this is one of several food crawl posts to come. So maybe don’t read these when you’re hungry. Or do if you want to get inspired on where to eat!