Brooklyn Food & Drink Round-Up

The Best of Hot Plates Live
We checked out Metromix’s premiere Hot Plates Live event at the Bell House on Monday night, sampled beer and cheese, ate lots of great food from new Brooklyn restaurants, and wholeheartedly recommend that you check out the next Hot Plates tasting event. (We’ll keep you posted when Metromix plans another.) Our favorite bite of the evening was the Chinese sausage and sticky rice with chili-lime sauce (pictured above) from Umi Nom. We’ve been long-time fans of this dish at Kuma Inn on the LES, so we’re excited that chef King Phojanakong has brought it to Brooklyn. Sui Ren‘s quail egg wrapped in seaweed and maguro was another favorite. We’ll be adding both spots to our restaurant database shortly.

Opening This Week: Mercat Negre
65 Grand St between Kent and Wythe Aves, Williamsburg; no phone yet
“This sister location of the East Village’s Mercat features an open kitchen in which [Barcelona’s chef Oriol Sala] Colomer will cook shareable dishes, such as grilled red mullet with eggplant puree and marinated endives,” says Time Out New York.

No Reservations: NYC Outer Boroughs
In case you missed Tony Bourdain’s recent romp around the boroughs, you can check out all the places he visited on the No Reservations website. We thought it was a pretty solid episode, featuring stops at Tortilleria Mexicana Los Hermanos in Bushwick, East Harbor Seafood Dim-Sum Palace in Sunset Park, and Diner and Marlow & Sons in Williamsburg.

After the jump: Hecho en Dumbo is leaving Dumbo, Chicago dogs, dumplings, Chickadee Chick’s menu, Spanish wines, and more…

Hecho en Dumbo Relocating
According to Fork in the Road, Hecho en Dumbo is “planning to close up shop at Dumbo General by October 31 and shooting for a late-December opening on the Bowery.”

Brooklyn Chowhound Buzz
Chowhound scooter is raving about The Landing, the hot dog cart across the street from Grimaldi’s: “I’ve only had the Chicago dog, and it’s been fantastic. Covered with tomato, pickle, hot peppers, diced onion, mustard, and seasonings, it’s the only C-dog I’ve ever had that made any damn sense. (I particularly like the spice level and the heftier bun it comes on.)” …’Hounds are into the tiny menu at Smith Street’s new French spot, Sue Perrette — jpbelmondo says: “We started with a tasty lentil salad, and for an entree, I had the roast pork, which was falling off the bone and quite good… Entree portions were large, and prices are in the $17 – 22 range. The owners, a French couple, are very friendly.” …Chowhound hhhippo tips us off on the killer dumplings at XSG Dumpling House in Sunset Park, on 53rd Street just east of Eighth Avenue: “They were shaped relatively long and narrow, with a thin and pliant skin, fried just golden crisp on the bottom, housing a flavorful and juicy pork-and-chive filling. An order of four dumplings costs a dollar.”

Quick Bites
Grub Street shares the menu at Chickadee Chick in Park Slope… BushwickBK has a heart-to-heart with the owner of Life Cafe… And Brian Robinson of Gnarly Vines writes about pairing Spanish wines with African food in Fort Greene. (Click on “Contents” and then “Global Plate: Cuisines of Africa” to read his article.)