It's Spring, Hannah is still eating, what else is new
New Cambodian spot, standout baked goods, $4.50 dumplings, & more
Technically, I guess this newsletter has now existed for an entire year, which is kind of goofy. Celebrate by subscribing:
I’m gonna keep it snappy this time. Here’s the best food I ate in March:
Lula Mae (472 Myrtle Ave)
Lula Mae is a new Cambodian spot in Clinton Hill that opened in February. We went two weeks later, and it still felt very fresh on the scene—everyone in the restaurant knew each other, and people were constantly swapping tables and joking with the servers. Chef Dan San himself was popping around chatting with friends who had come in to taste his food, and was so jovial that he even came over to banter with my table. Extremely charming.
As if the atmosphere wasn’t enough to make me fall in love with this place, the food was also phenomenal. The duck salat, above, was one of the most incredible dishes of my 2023 so far: the duck itself is exquisitely cooked, and is served with this RIDICULOUS crying tiger sauce, which is a sauce made differently in every kitchen that usually includes some combo of chiles, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and other things. It’s traditionally called “crying tiger” sauce because it’s so spicy it’ll make a tiger cry. This version wasn’t hot enough to make me weep (well, there may have been some tears of joy), but it had a depth and a sweetness to it that brought flavor out of the duck, and counteracted the bitter leaves I wrapped the duck in for dipping purposes. Loved this dish. Wow.
Shu Jiao Fu Zhou (295 Grand St)
$4.50 for 10 dumplings. I repeat: $4.50 for TEN dumplings. Shu Jiao Fu Zhou may be a fluorescent nightmare of interior design, but no one goes here for the vibes. Some of my friends used to live around the corner from this tiny Chinatown spot, and introduced me to it last year; I, of course, immediately forgot the cross streets and the name, and have been searching for Shu Jiao Fu Zhou ever since. Luckily, I happened upon it while giving my friend Jack a tour of lower Manhattan, and swore I would include it in my next newsletter.
If you go with friends, send one person up to order while everyone else schemes their way to finding a table in what feels like a highly competitive adult version of a high school cafeteria. When we went, we timed it just right—but it’s a madhouse in there. We got chicken and chive dumplings, chicken and mushroom dumplings, and thick rice noodles with peanut butter sauce. Best dumps were the chicken and chive. The whole meal was exactly $12, which is a crime. We couldn’t finish it.
L’appartement 4F (115 Montague St)
L’appartement 4F started as a pandemic project. A French-American couple living in apartment 4F in an (undisclosed) building started baking small batches of sourdough bread and hawking it on Instagram; after a few years and staggering popularity, they went brick-and-mortar with it, opening up an absolutely darling location in Brooklyn Heights. It has what I would label as a dainty, lace-trimmed aesthetic. When I went last summer, the line stretched around the block and it was so hot that some of their workers came and passed out cups of water and samples of cookies. Returning back this time, though, there was no line at all.
I do love the croissants here—they truly feel handmade with love. There is conversation on Reddit about whether this is the best croissant in NYC (I’m getting into food Reddit now, btw), and while I don’t know that I would go that far, I also can’t name a better one off the top of my head. In any case, now is definitely the time to try their croissants, before good weather tempts people to take strolls down the promenade and the long queues return.
ByClio Bakery (400 3rd Ave)
This delightful cafe opened in Gowanus in January, which my food photography hero Scott Lynch reported on, but it took me until March to finally go. For shame! Popular on Instagram for their floral, creamy cake deco, ByClio Bakery is run by Clio Goodman, whose name you might (?) recognize from her stint selling pudding at Pudding by Clio a full decade ago.
My friend Mali and I split a slice of cake—the person behind the counter wanted us to try the passionfruit Thai tea cake, but I vetoed it because I am anti passionfruit, which you can come for me in the comments about if you so choose. Instead, we had the lemon blueberry upside down cake, which is made much in the classic Clio style, with flowers and a thick layer of cream on top. The cake itself was moist and powerfully lemony; the blueberries were made into a compote, with big blueberry chunks still intact so that the bite felt fresh from the garden. Such a good summer cake.
We also tried the Burfi brownie. Burfi is a milk-based treat with the consistency of fudge native to Northern India. This was my first taste of burfi, which was cardamom-y and delectable, especially paired with the also-fudgy brownie. There were also edible sparkles on it, which I messed with even though it kind of was giving unicorn-obsessed.
Misi (329 Kent Ave)
South Williamsburg’s Misi is the second outpost of legendary trendy chef Missy Robbins, who also owns and operates Lilia, otherwise known as the most exclusive reservation in NYC. Misi is similarly impossible to get into—Mali scored this res a literal full month out, at exactly 10am, the moment it was released.
I wish this meal was disappointing so that I would never feel the need to navigate the reservation system myself, but oh my God, I unfortunately have to make plans to go back ASAP (as in… exactly one month from the time of writing). We had the iconic trumpet mushrooms sott’olio and whipped ricotta crostini (pictured above) for a starter, along with the grilled baby artichokes, which were served with a minty salsa verde. The whipped ricotta in that gorgeous curvy shape, the crunchiness of the crostini, the fact that the mushrooms are all oiled-up… it’s just such a sexed-up dish. It felt scandalous to be eating in public.
Misi only serves pasta for mains, so we opted for more ricotta (duh) in the form of occhi served with lemon and bottarga—cured fish roe sacs—resting on top. Every single time you plop one of those occhi into your mouth, it’s just as much of a marvel as the first bite. Flavorful, soft, and buttery, the wrapper of the pasta melts away in a moment, leaving you with the purest, cleanest ricotta. Writing this is making me upset, so I’m not even going to describe the anchovy linguine. Go yourself if you want to find out.
La Cabra (152 2nd Ave)
Another *trendy* Manhattan spot—the horror! I’ve been really pushing myself to try to wait in more lines for food. La Cabra was worth it. It’s a minimalist, sleek Danish coffeeshop in the East Village that opened in 2021 and blew up on TikTok (bleh) for being really serious about their coffee. The shop itself is an outcropping from Aarhus, Denmark, where the first la Cabra opened in 2012—they started roasting their own coffee beans a year later, and quickly became a beloved coffee bean supplier in Denmark for Michelin-starred restaurants.
The coffee was good. You get to watch the baristas prepare the coffee at these fun, futuristic stations, which is aesthetically a pleasant activity. The line was annoying. The cardamom bun was delectable. I would go back if I needed to catch up with someone in line.
That’s it this time. If you’re somehow still hankering for more Hannah Berman food writing in your life, check out my writing at Tasting Table, where I just started working. My next scintillating piece of investigative journalism for them is forthcoming under the title “14 store-bought cinnamon roll brands, ranked worst to best.” It’s the assignment of a lifetime.
Also, anyone want to go to Smorgasburg with me this weekend? Brooklyn Mag is reporting that it’s got the largest lineup ever…
With love,
Hannah