a smokin brunch

in

Friday morning Mack and I hit the soccer field at Bushwick Inlet Park. After kicking the ball around and yelling "GOAL" about 500 times, I had the idea to visit the Acme fish market's "Fish Friday" where all the smoked goodies are available at lower prices to the public.

I’m always trying to turn sports outings into food outings and Mack’s too young to complain. So far. Plus he was fascinated by the bubbles on the factory floor, which were hiding all the fish guts and goo under them. We waited in line with a lot of polish people who knew exactly what they wanted and since we’d been before, I could sort of sound authoritative when it was my turn to shout “Pastrami smoked salmon, Whitefish salad, Whole trout and Honey baked!”

The only person, maybe in the world, who can eat all this smoked fish is my brother-in-law, Avi. So we invited Avi and family to brunch.

dave herman knows all

in

Dave Herman knows everything. Really. And especially everything about food and where to dine in Brooklyn. So I'm using this post as a space to record his brilliant ideas and advice before they are lost to the world. 

Dave on.... where to buy fresh oysters in Brooklyn

There's an old Italian fish market on Metropolitan Ave heading towards Graham Ave which has very good quality across the boards. I'm friendly with one of the owners of Lobster Joint & they were getting a lot of their seafood from them when they first opened, but frustrations with the delivery schedule made them change to a bigger supplier. It's the one seafood shop in the neighborhood here people I trust get any seafood so I'd call them first. Here's the Yelp:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/metropolitan-fish-market-brooklyn

A friend of mine used to work the cheese counter at one of the Union Market branches & she said they had great seafood, but they're in Cobble Hill & Park Slope.

I know there are wholesalers nearby (one up on Meeker near Brooklyn Kitchen, at least one towards the more industrial part of East Williamsburg on Grand) but I don't know if they take walk-ins, or if they even do oysters specifically. I would think some of the more hipster gourmet markets &/or oyster bars would sell them fresh to go, but that's just a guess. And maybe Tops on N6 but I know nothing about their seafood.

Not Brooklyn but not far is Chinatown. Because of the insane volume they do there are a bunch of shops who have surprisingly good & cheap seafood- even a couple of chef friends of mine in the neighborhood run down there for seafood (they prefer that because lunch options there are better than near Metropolitan). I can think of one off the top of my head right on the corner of Grand St & Chrystie near the Grand St B/D stop where I've gone & was impressed by the sights & smells although I obviously didn't eat any of it.