Yup, you read that right. Today I’m gonna tell you all about the Best of Brooklyn Food Tour I went on with Sunny Anderson. Yes, THAT Sunny Anderson. The one from the Food Network.
On the second day of my recent trip to NYC we went on a food tour around Brooklyn where Sunny Anderson shared some of her favorite spots with us. Why did she do this you might ask? Well Sunny Anderson is a big fan of the “kitchen kitchen” that Extended Stay America has and has been working with them for the past view years. They even developed a little cookbook with her recipes that you find in your room to help you take advantage of their kitchens.
Our day started out like any other Thursday… well any Thursday where Sunny Anderson makes you breakfast! Sunny showed us just how easy it is to cook a fabulous breakfast before heading out for the day. Yogurt parfaits and Migas, a delightfully flavorful scrambled egg dish made with bell peppers, onions, cheese, and… fried, chopped corn tortillas. It was just as good as it sounds and let me tell you, once I can have dairy and fried stuffs in my diet again I will be making this in my own kitchen.
After we had full bellies and a chance to get to know Sunny a bit we headed into the city to meet up with Tony from A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours. Tony worked together with Sunny to create the amazing tour we went on. In between our tasty stops Tony was able to show us some of the sights and fill us in on all the things that make Brooklyn so awesome. Our first stop of the day was at Talde. Talde is an Asian-American restaurant owned and operated by Chef Dale Talde. On our visit we had the chance to learn about the restaurant from Chef Talde while trying out some of their signature dishes. While everything we had was amazing, the best part of our visit was the Korean Fried Chicken. This was by far the BEST fried chicken I’ve EVER had. It was moist, juicy, flavorful, and perfectly fried. I think we all would have gladly eaten every piece of chicken on the table if we hadn’t had three more stops to go.
Our next stop was Tanoreen, a Middle Eastern restaurant run by Rawia Bishara and her mother. We were there to try Knafeh, which is crispy layers of fillo dough stuffed with sweet cheese, soaked in orange blossom syrup, and topper with pistachios. This particular dessert was featured on “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” and can you guess who said it was the best thing they ever ate? Yup, Miss Sunny Anderson herself. I had no idea what to expect when she told us that it was a dessert filled with cheese. Please don’t mistake this dessert as anything resembling a cheesecake because that would be an insult to the knafeh and the cheesecake. It was weird and amazing and oh so delicious.
And then there was the Little Cupcake Bakeshop. Anyone that has followed this blog, or knows me, knows that I LOVE cupcakes. When I travel it is one of the first things I look up. One of my favorite things about this spot is that it is family owned, family run, and you can tell they love what they do.
They are famous for their Brooklyn Blackout Cake, which was actually named the best chocolate cake in America. Is chocolate cake filled with dark chocolate ganache and frosted in a milk chocolate buttercream. For our visit they made this amazing cake into, you guessed it, cupcakes. Let me tell you that I have never seen chocolate cupcakes disappear so quickly in my entire life. I was so full but I ate every last bite of that cupcake and would have asked for a second if I wasn’t about to explode. Yum Yum Yum.
Our last stop in Brooklyn was at Di Fara Pizza. Di Fara was opened in 1965 by Domenico DeMarco. To this day he makes every single pizza by hand. Every pie, one at a time. By hand. Did I mention he takes them out of the 900 degree oven, by hand? He is the only one that makes the pizzas so you may have to wait a bit. And the $5 per slice price might scare you a little bit, but believe me when I tell you that this pizza is AMAZING. In addition to amazing pizza the whole family works there and its such a great piece of Brooklyn’s history. One of my favorite parts of our visit was when a customer, obviously new to Di Fara’s, made a comment about the price. Dom’s son-in-law turned to her and said “Do you know where you are?” I giggled to myself and then giggled some more when she forked over the $5 for a slice.
I had an amazing time and went to some places that I never would have gone to on my own. I definitely want to head back to Brooklyn sometime and check out more of the fabulous food they have to offer. Thanks so much to A Slice of Brooklyn Bus Tours, Sunny Anderson, and Extended Stay America for this fantastic opportunity!
*Disclosure: I was given complimentary travel and hotel stay by ESA. As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.
