Smorgasburg

70 degree weather and clear skies. It took a while, but New York finally managed to overcome the winter that seemed to never end. And with such good weather, my friends and I decided to check out Smorgasburg in Williamsburg. I had never been before, but it seemed crazy not to go to an outdoor event with dozens of food stalls. We only wished that our wallets would have allowed us to try more food.

Since the weather was warm, we started off at Kelvin’s Slush. You get to pick your base – Arnold palmer or citrus – and then pick a fruit puree to add in. We got white peach ($5), which was very refreshing. You’ll never look at a 7-11 slushie in the same way again.

Sipping on our slush, we stepped in line at the Milk Truck to grab a Milk Truck Classic grilled cheese ($6.50). It’s made with Wisconsin gruyere and cultured butter, with add-ins for an extra charge. It’s a bit on the expensive side, but we couldn’t deny that it was a really good grilled cheese. The outside was completely golden crisp. I’m still wondering if it was worth the price, though.

We also tried the Filipino-inspired spring rolls from Lumpia shack ($9). The sampler comes with nine spring rolls in three flavors: original pork, peking duck, and mushroom. The pork has kale, sweet potato leaves, and shallots. The duck roll had ginger scallion, and the mushroom roll had four types of mushrooms braised in adobo sauce, lemongrass, and truffle oil. I only tried the duck because of my low spice tolerance, but we all agreed that all the spring rolls had strong flavors. This dish was pricey, in my opinion.

Round two was mostly a dessert run. Influenced by the weather, we immediately headed for The Good Batch to grab ice-cream sandwiches. These were the biggest ice-cream sandwiches that I had ever seen! It would be advisable to share one between two people. We tried the Laughter & Lemon ($6) as well as the Goodwich ($6). Everyone really liked the lemon one, which was made with brown butter salty cookies, vanilla ice-cream, and lemon divinity. The salt paired well with the faint sourness of the lemon divinity.

However, the rave reviews didn’t extend as much to the Goodwich, which consisted of oat chocolate chunk cookies, vanilla ice-cream, fudge, and sea salt. The oat cookie was thicker than the brown butter cookies and crumbled all over the place when we took a bite, making the sandwich more difficult to eat. In addition, the sandwich overall was too salty because there was salt not only sprinkled on top but inside the cookie as well.

I was most curious about The Bruffin and was drawn to its stall because of all the flags. The bruffins are inspired by countries around the world, with each filled with ingredients representative of a specific country. It’s supposed to be a meal in a muffin.

I got the Swedish bruffin ($5), which had smoked salmon, capers, and cream cheese. The filling was wrapped inside buttery, brioche pastry. Make sure to eat your bruffin while it’s still warm. I had part of mine once it cooled, and it wasn’t as enjoyable – still delicious, but it would have been better hot.

Finally, there’s the doughnut showdown. I got a butter and rosemary doughnut ($2.50) from Dun-Well Doughnuts. The sweet savory combo was unique, and ground rosemary has actually been baked into the doughnut. The doughnut itself was light with a rich flavor, and the rosemary pieces on top were not overpowering at all. These doughnuts are also vegan.

At Dough, I got a hibiscus doughnut ($2.75), which unfortunately got smashed in transit. Dough’s doughnuts were slightly larger and more dense than Dun-well’s. I actually liked the consistency of the Dough’s doughnuts over Dun-well’s; it was chewier. However, the hibiscus flavor was a bit too sweet for my pallate. It’s a unique flavor, though, and the edible sugared flower was cool. I’d love to try some of Dough’s other flavors.

There were tons of things that we didn’t have the opportunity to try, including the infamous ramen burger, so we’ll go back to Smorgasburg another time for sure to try more savories.

7/10
Kelvin Natural Slush Co.
http://kelvinslush.com/

7/10
Milk Truck
http://milktrucknyc.com/

6.5/10
Lumpia Shack
http://www.lumpia-shack.com/

6/10
The Good Batch
http://thegoodbatch.com/

9/10
The Bruffin
http://www.thebruffin.com/

8/10
Dun-Well Doughnuts
http://dunwelldoughnuts.com/

8/10
Dough
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dough/147336885329768