Wednesday Food & Drink Round-Up

Time Out New York‘s Best Cheap Brunches
TONY’s Cheap Eats 2010 features a bunch of Brooklyn restaurants, but we were especially into their best cheap brunches. This distinction awarded to three Brooklyn dishes — the dutch apple pancake at Fort Defiance ($9, pictured above), the smoked meat hash at Mile End ($8), and the green shakshuka at Mimi’s Hummus ($10). Any other favorite brunch items that didn’t make the list? Photo by TONY.

Things Are Getting Bullish in Williamsburg
Eater reports: “A walk down Berry Street revealed that Viva El Toro, the split level restaurant next to Radegast, had finally open for business. A pop in revealed a long bar with a few TV’s showing baseball to a sparse Monday night crowd. But that’s when it came into view. At the top of a small set of stairs was the machine that changed North Williamsburg forever. El Toro. A mechanical effing bull.”

Recently Reviewed: Brancaccio’s Food Shop
3011 Fort Hamilton Parkway (East Third Street), Kensington, brancacciosfoodshop.com, (718) 435-1997
The New York Times has nice things to say about this Kensington take-out spot: “the real winner here is an old New York favorite, the meatball sub ($8). When you watch them making the meatballs in the open kitchen, adding pine nuts and raisins just as the chef and owner Joe Brancaccio’s grandmother did to hers, you know these meatballs are light, beefy and fun to eat; so is a tomato sauce that’s shot through with fennel. This is a sandwich that’s savory and sweet, substantial and refined.”

After the jump: White House chef pays a visit to Purple Yam and Dickson’s Farmstand Meats offers 4th of July packages…

White House Chefs Visit Purple Yam
Over the weekend, White House chef Cristeta Comerford and White House pastry chef William Yosses made a special trip to Brooklyn just to have brunch at this Ditmas Park restaurant. According to the Purple Yam blog, “They ordered just like everybody else: ukoy (fritters), chicken adobo with bagoong fried rice (coincidentally that was the combo that NYT food critic Sam Sifton had recommended), pancit luglug, and Romy gave them a taste of Chef Perry Mamaril’s ilocano-style dry dinuguan which we serve during our Lutong Bahay (home cooking) lunch from Wed Fri, 11 am 3 pm. For dessert, they ordered buko pie and champorrado and Romy gave them a taste of more homemade ice creams: avocado, banana rum and mango.” Next time, we hope they save room for the delicious kimchi and scallion pancake…

4th of July BBQ Alert
We just got word that Dickson’s Farmstand Meats, a local, hormone-free meat purveyor in Chelsea Market is delivering their weekend meat packages to Brooklyn Larder and the General Greene. But you’ve got to place your order by midnight tonight in order to pick it up on Friday afternoon. Their specials include the $70 Dickson’s Grilling Spectacular, which promises “a number of Dickson’s house-made products such as Dry-Aged Ground Beef, House-Smoked Bacon, and a selection of Chef Gabe Ross’ sausages. The sausages will rotate weekly and may include Salt & Pepper Pork, Pork with Fennel & Garlic, and Beef & Lamb with Sichaun Peppercorns, among others. Easy to prepare on any grill and enough to feed 15-18 people.”