“I don’t know anything else, no office job or anything like that, just fish. So, I fell into the fish.”
Meet Aftabudin Rayman and Peter Wojick, the fish smokers behind the hot-smoked fish division at ACME Smoked Fish in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. ACME Smoked Fish is the largest smoked fish house in the country, processing 6-8 million pounds of assorted fish for stores and seafood counters every year. According to Rayman, the head fish smoker, “to be successful at this job, you can’t look at it as just a job, an ordinary job”. To him, a successful fish smoker’s priority should be the fish, always the fish, that internal drive to achieve moist, smoky meat with a perfect golden hue everytime – not doing the job “to get an increase in pay”. And running a hot-smoked fish operation isn’t an easy task: working 10-12 hour days on your feet, constantly breathing in smoke, wheeling heavy racks of hanging fish over slippery floors. It’s physically demanding, which is why devotion like Rayman’s is hard to come by.
So come watch their story and discover the fascinating and delicate process of hot-smoking fish. It truly is a craft, a craft that takes passion, a certain “thoughtlessness” to it, and tens of years to master. Enjoy!
And for a real Brooklyn experience, stop by on Fish Fridays at ACME where they open up the smokehouse outlet to the local Greenpoint community for 5 hours to shop for freshly smoked seafood. You’ll get to meet the employees and mingle with loyal ACME customers who’ve been eating their product for decades. Here’s the address:
Mike’s Hot Honey. Take note everyone. This new artisan condiment made locally is only a few months old, but it will be in your pantry for a lifetime. Trust me. It’s sold and featured on the Hell Boy pie at Paulie Gee’s Pizza on Greenpoint Avenue. Watch the founder, Mike Kurtz’s, compellingly funny story from food. curated. about his obsession with creating his secret spicy pepper infused honey. So good. Get a bottle now!
Why drink the artificial stuff when you can make your own all natural soda at home? I want to introduce you local food artisan featured this week on food. curated.: Anton Nocito, the founder of P&H Soda Co., a hand made soda syrup company based in Greenpoint (and first introduced to us at The Greenpoint Food Market)! Anton is on a personal mission to wean soda lovers away from mass produced colas, and to get them to start thinking about making better-for-you sodas at home – sodas made of natural, organic ingredients.
So take a moment to hear what he as to say about bringing back old soda fountain traditions while getting a peek into his production process. I don’t know about you, but I want a hibiscus soda STAT!
To get a bottle of P&H‘s inspired and complex-but-not-too-complex soda flavors, hop on by to Eastern District on 1053 Manhattan Avenue where he brews and bottles his creations. Thanks for watching and supporting our local food artisans.
Inside the dark, wooden, stained-glass lit bar many hipsters call “The Heavy Metal Bar” on the edge of McGolrick Park in Greenpoint lies a small, narrow kitchen where Anna Wolf crafts small batch artisan beer mustard. You would never know or never guess the smells that take over this pub in the early morning hours. But, in fact, the bar takes on a new life as the home to My Friend’s Mustard from 5-11am, a whole grain, spicy, and full-of-texture mustard inspired by good food and locally brewed Brooklyn beer from Sixpoint.
Come watch an inside peek into the production process, meet Anna Wolf, the founder and owner of My Friend’s Mustard, and see for yourself the birth of a small food business inside the Palace Cafe.
To buy a jar for your condiment collection, you can visit the semi-new local beer & cheese shop: Eastern District. 1053 Manhattan Avenue (Eagle/Freeman)
There is no question that pizza newcomer Paulie Gee is humbled by how well he’s been received by the locals here in Greenpoint. He truly puts a lot of love into his pies and food. curated. was able to capture all the passion and pizza making magic right here:
Hope you stop by to support Paulie and taste it for yourself!
Something’s brewing in an apartment building in the middle of Greenpoint, and that something tastes like nothing you’ve ever had before…sweet, bacony goodness.
Meet Chef Ross Hutchison, the founder of Bacon Marmalade, Greenpoint’s best kept bacon secret. He was profiled this week in this video by food. curated. and thank goodness for that!
For more information or to order yourself a jar of homemade, local bacon marmalade, email Ross at [email protected] Best thing is, you can pick it up right here in Greenpoint. Go on now, your taste buds will thank you…
Local Polish kielbasa can’t be beat, but for a selection of fresh, unique artisanal sausages featuring recipes from all over the world, you should stop by The Meat Hook on the eastern edge of Greenpoint.
The Meat Hook is a sustainably focused, fully stocked butcher shop helmed by three incredibly talented butchers: Tom Mylan, Brent Young and Ben Turley. Just three fun, likable guys obsessed with meat, making sausages…and picking on each other.
Food. Curated. featured them in their local food video this week. Watch and see:
The Meat Hook is located on 100 Frost Street, under the BQE. Hope you head over this week and try something in their meat case! They carry beef, lamb, pork, chicken, poultry and rabbit from small, local farms.
Just in case you’re looking to buy your special someone something truly made with love this weekend, come watch these videos about the hard work that goes into making local food that matters.
As seen in our post yesterday, Kumquat Cupcakery and Liddabit Sweets start their Valentine’s Day Pop-Up Sweet Shop at Kill Devil Hill today through Sunday on Franklin Avenue. These are sweets made from scratch that’ll impress just about anyone. And better yet, you can help support local food artisans here in Greenpoint/Williamsburg.
Spent many hours last week filming a little piece on something very underground here in Greenpoint, it has to do with a very passionate resident and his love for traditional New England lobster rolls:
Meet Ben Sargent, Founder of The Underground Lobster Pound. Ben is a die-hard seafood fanatic and makes lobster rolls to-go out of his little basement apartment for anyone who really wants to experience a what a true lobster roll really is…
If you want to get your hands on this local specialty, you’ll need a secret number. More info in the video! Or DM me here.
Spent some time last week hanging out with East Williamsburg restauranteurs who are keeping illegal beehives in the Greenpoint area. Got a little video show & tell of them handling bees without protective bee suits! And believe it or not, they aren’t doing it all for the honey…
I will be harvesting close to 100lbs of honey with them this week. It’s their first harvest EVER. So it could get interesting. Hopefully, I won’t get stung!
