The Food of the God's

This past weekend a friend and I were doing a little exploring in Brooklyn. After eating some delicious BBQ,we decided to do some galavanting through the streets. Which is when we stumbled into these gent's shop.

                                 The Mast Brothers from The Scout on Vimeo.

The chocolate gods must have blessed us because we were able to sample a half dozen their decadent chocolates free of any charge.

(photo credit: Ilana Pulda) 

I have an incredible amount of respect for these two gentlemen, and everyone who works with them throughout the process of creating their fantastic chocolates. These guys do it right. The Mast Brother's purchase only the highest quality coco beans in the world, from coco farmers in countries such as the Dominican Republic and Madagascar. Which they in turn transport to Brooklyn to use in each and every of their unique, 100% additive free, hand made chocolates.

(photo credit: Ilana Pulda)

A personalized craft, Rick and Michael Mast are not into mass producing millions of candy bars. Instead they sacrifice time, and I'm sure profits, to make a product incomparable to most. In the video above they share how the ancient Central and South American peoples used coco beans as a form of currency, and believed the coco bean to be the food of the god's. From my personal experience the Mast brother's chocolates are the most heavenly tasting sweets I've ever encountered. I'm sure if the Aztecs were around still they would agree too. Which is why if the opportunity presents itself you should definitely make a point to try their phenomenal artisan chocolates. 

A C.I.A. Tradition

After a grueling four days of orientation (roughly 32 hours of lectures and tours) my friend Ilana and I headed down to New York City to eat some delicious food, and walk off that which was previously consumed throughout the course of my first week at The Culinary. I was informed prior that traveling to the city after your first week at The Culinary is somewhat of a tradition among friends, and I definitely didn't want any kind of bad juju right off the bat.
We started the day by taking the train from Poughkeepsie to Grand Central, then catching another into Brooklyn. At this point it was around noon and neither Ilana or I hadn't eaten anything. Needless to say we were both starving. Which is probably what fueled our purchase of over a pound and a half of food from Fette Sau BBQ.


Pork belly, ribs, BBQ baked beans with pork, dinner rolls, and half sweet pickles.

Fette Sau's main dinning room wall depicts the various cuts derived from the livestock served at the restaurant. An interesting factor in the Fette Sau experience, you actually order all your food by the weight opposed to ordering à la Carte. Which is fitting because the entire restaurant has a somewhat butcher shop/rustic tavern vide going on which includes wooden picnic tables, dim or natural lighting, and an exposed brick interior. Also for all the drinkers out there, Fette Sau has one of the biggest selections of American whiskeys in New York and also features a substantial list of other liqueurs and beers.
 
If you like dry rub BBQ, and I mean who doesn't like dry rub BBQ, then you definitely should check out Fette Sau's BBQ in Brooklyn the next time you're there.