I Will Never Not Be in the Mood for a Loaf of Mazzola’s Lard Bread

What:

Mazzola Bakery
@MazzolaBakery
A few blocks of the main Court Street drag of Cobble Hill is a tiny, jam-packed, take-out only, old-school sweet and savory baked goods shop called Mazzola Bakery. There’s a huge variety of baked treats available, but I’ll be honest, I’ve only ever had a single item from Mazzola, but it’s sort of thing I dream about that I’ll buy multiples extras of the bring back home on my flight.

Where:

Cobble Hill / Carroll Gardens
192 Union St. Brooklyn, NY 11231
[wpgmza id=”298″]

When:

Seriously, I could be in the mood for this item literally any day – any time of day. I’d also like to mention that it’s particularly good at soaking up a hangover. Just cross your fingers that they’re not already sold out when you visit. (more…)

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Mike Winston’s Best Bites of 2014

What a year!! I did something like this last year too, but oh boy was 2014 a doozy. I started off living in NYC, then a started a new job that whisked me off the San Francisco and Silicon Valley for a few months before ultimately relocating to San Francisco permanently. And along the way, I squeezed in a couple of vacations too.

Sooooo, I did a LOT of epic eating this year. And truth be told, I found it particularly difficult to narrow down my list as concisely as last year’s, but I somehow managed. So, without further ado, I present the winners (and runner-ups) broken down by category. I tried to cluster similar dish types together, but really they are in no particular order. Let’s begin!

And if you wanna hear about the 2014’s Best Cocktails, read more here.
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Bizarro Sweet Treats at OddFellows Ice Cream in New York

There’s no doubt in my mind that chef Sam Mason is a genius. He in fact runs his ice cream shop OddFellows sort of like a mad scientist would run a lab – inventing crazy concoctions that truly nobody has ever thought to do before. Take, for instance, his famed Chorizo Caramel Swirl Ice Cream – that’s a flat-out bonkers idea to do to ice cream. I can admit that I was a little disappointed to find that it wasn’t available during my visit (not that I wasn’t able to find other amazing insanities to try).

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Crushing Late-Night Bacon-Wrapped Munchies at Crif Dogs in NYC

Let’s face it, New Yorkers love to drink. And with bars that stay open ’til 4 AM, it’s bound to get out of hand from time to time. I know that I, for one, love to drunk eat after a big night out and in my opinion there’s no better place in the East Village to do it than at Crif Dogs.

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If You Want Great Food, Go to the Airport

As a recent transplant from NYC to San Francisco with plenty of reasons to be back in NYC often, JetBlue‘s brand new Mint service definitely had my attention right out the gate. It’s a premium service flight offered only between New York JFK and San Francisco SFO or JFK and Los Angeles LAX. Considering that most of my family is still in the New York area (and I frequently need to fly between SFO and JFK), it feels almost as if this service was designed specifically for me.

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Goodbye NYC. Bucket List Part 2: Peter Luger’s Steakhouse

I ate nothing but a salad on the day of this meal. A few days after our Bucket List Date Night at Beauty & Essex it was time for round two. This time, the destination was the much more dude-ly Peter Luger’s Steakhouse. I know you’re not gonna believe it, but somehow I had never gotten around to eating there before. In fact, I consider myself pretty inexperienced with steakhouses at all. I don’t even order steak very often when I’m out. I don’t really have a good reason for any of this except that going out for steak is prohibitively expensive so I don’t splurge on it much.

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Pig Out with NYC’s Best Texas Style BBQ at Fette Sau in Williamsburg

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With my Texan girlfriend leading the way and teaching me everything there is to know about true Texas ‘cue, I’ve become a bit of a barbecue aficionado, as regrettably also a bit of a snob. I’ve had enough experience consuming the real stuff to know what makes good and bad BBQ and NYC has plenty of each. I’ve travelled around NYC, throughout the boroughs, to Cochon 555, and The Big Apple Barbecue Festival a number of times. Hell, I’ve even been to a barbecue head-to-head event where many of NYC’s top BBQ producers go to show off their chops. I think I’ve got a pretty good handle on what’s what in the New York BBQ world.

There’s been much written lately about the booming NYC barbecue scene, but I’ve often found myself disappointed with many of the most highly-regarded, hyped, big-name places. But there also really is some incredible barbecue to be had around NYC. I’ve written previously about my love for Mighty Quinn’s and I think that Danny Meyer’s Blue Smoke is pretty phenomenal, but I think the best of the best might be at the old Brooklyn mainstay Fette Sau in South Williamsburg. Fette Sau’s name means “Fat Pig” in German and that’s exactly how you’ll feel after indulging in a meat-tastic gorge-fest there.

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Read more about the article Flavorful Filipino Fast Food at Lumpia Shack Snackbar in the West Village
Filipino Fast Food at Lumpia Shack Snackbar in the West Village

Flavorful Filipino Fast Food at Lumpia Shack Snackbar in the West Village

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I’ve been pumped for the West Village arrival of Lumpia Shack from the moment I heard about the impending expansion. I’ve loved Filipino food for quite some time as you may have seen previously on Winston Wanders, but my passion has grown substantially while dating my quarter-Filipina girlfriend and eating with her Filipino family. More Filipino food in my life is definitely a good thing.

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Read more about the article Real Roberta’s Brooklyn-Style Pizza, Cocktails, and More at Oak & Rye in Los Gatos
Real Roberta’s Brooklyn-Style Pizza & Cocktails at Oak & Rye in Los Gatos

Real Roberta’s Brooklyn-Style Pizza, Cocktails, and More at Oak & Rye in Los Gatos

Who’d a thought? A slice of Brooklyn right in the heart of Los Gatos, California. I’m not sure how it happened, but an alumni chef from the famed Roberta’s in Brooklyn relocated out to Silicon Valley and is making pizzas and pastas that live up to the Roberta’s name.

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