Appetizers

Down to Fizz-ness

Awaiting entry to the second annual Brooklyn Seltzer Festival this past weekend, I overheard someone say that he couldn’t believe this many people (one thousand, according to the organizers) would show up for “water and carbonation.” That was the last bit of skepticism I encountered at the sold-out event, as parents, children, and even some unaccompanied adults effervesced around a rented floor inside warehouse-tastic Industry City. I had my fill of samples—babka, bagels, Peter Pan donuts, Ritz crackers topped with Sammy’s Roumanian chopped liver—and drank a $5 coffee egg cream from Brooklyn Seltzer Boys (“Good Seltzer Should Hurt,” read their t-shirts) while listening to a seltzer-themed klezmer performance; a guy I’d seen wandering the event in a Pittsburgh Penguins Jewish heritage night jersey showed up on stage rapping about seltzer under the name Kosha Dillz. The Borscht belt cabaret act from Willie Zabar (yes, that Zabar) was the highlight of the event for me, although I missed the National Egg Cream Invitational. The People’s Choice Award for Seltzer went to Topo Chico after a day-long taste test, but the event’s own judges gave top honors to Seltzie, a newer brand with one flavor: “None.” —N.S.

Eid Alert

The nutty acid of fesenjoon had already permeated the apartment of FrOG (Friend of Gourmet) Ali Gharib when I walked in, and soon I was stirring Dutch oven upon Dutch oven of delightful khoreshts for the dinner party while he flipped the crusty tahdig. Once we sat down, amid the extremes of buttery rice and silken, stewed dried limes, I discovered the halibut, slathered in a sauce that Gourmrade Nozlee Samadzadeh will be sharing for Thursday’s recipe: a bracingly tart tamarind-pomegranate mixture gurgled over heat until concentrated enough to pucker your lips like a Kardashian.

This Friday marks a rare calendrical conjuncture: it’s both Eid al-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and Nowruz (the beginning of the Persian new year). Thursday’s hashoo mahi recipe (the fish with tamarind-pomegranate sauce) is fit for both, and we wanted to give you a heads up that now is a good time to source some tamarind paste and pomegranate molasses in case you’re looking to bolster your menu with Gourmet. Nush-e jan! —A.T.

Esprit d’Upsellier

Over the weekend, Gourmrade Cale Weissman and I went to the downtown banchan-and-wine destination Sunn’s with our S.O.s, where we had a delightful trip through dinner and a bottle of—what was it again? My partner Sharanya, who had made the rez, received an email from the restaurant the next day reminding her exactly what we’d ordered (Scythians, California Palomino 2022). 

The helpful reminder was accompanied by an explanation that Sunn’s sources many of their wines from Parcelle, and even provided a list of bottles Sharanya might enjoy from Parcelle’s webstore. A surprisingly charming use of our personal data. (Scythians, with grapes perhaps more readily recognized in a sherry, was certainly a Frasierian wine I didn't want to forget.) — A.T.