Time Out New York’s Battle of the Burger

Brooklyn Brewery is seemingly involved in everything. There’s not a weekend where we don’t see them at some awesome event, concert or happening. Their main home being 8 blocks from FTHQ gives us incredible access to their next moves like the launch of Brooklyn Brewery Mash. Taking themselves on the road, pop-up collab style, the guys and girls over at BB decided to mini-tour some of our countries best eating cities and smash it together with their brews. The micro-event format includes events like a free concert at the Philly landmark Union Transfer or rare beer and Chinese food mashup between Brooklyn Brewery Chef Andrew Gerson and the team from Bing Bing Dim Sum. This gives us an HUGE excuse to head to Philly. August 25th – 28th in Philadelphia.

Returning this year from last years launch, the Queens Night Market summons the foodie crowd out to Corona, arguably the heart of the original NYC food scene. While hovering over Peruvian, Dominican, Indian, Ecuadorian and Irish neighborhoods while on the 7 train, ready those tastebuds for a similar cultural explosion of food, drink and sometimes music. Jump off at the 111th St. station and head to towards Hall of Science parking lot. Don’t miss the shark sandos, chicken fried bacon and fresh Ecuadorian juices. Starting April 23rd on Saturdays from 6PM-Midnight @ New York Hall of Science in Queens.

The term “No time to eat” is running the hashtag circuit. A report released the other day reported 80% of millennials concede to eating meals quickly and alone. These two statistics are alarming and not the way we like to open posts on FT. So, we’ll get back to that in just a minute. Two mums in East London have started Dabba Drop, an innovative Friday night dinner service using a century-old method of delivery. If that sounds contradictory, it is, but Indian culture has plenty of those. Let’s start with Dabba, the Hindu word for box. You’ve probably seen the metal, stackable, interlockable containers Indians use for food at lease once. What you might not know is that everyday 200,000 home cooked lunches are delivered to Mumbai workplaces in these tins thanks to a service known as DabbaWallas or TiffinWallas, depending on who you ask. Aside from the incredibly complex yet 99.99% accurate operation, Indians are eating hot, homecooked meals for lunch at their place of business. Enter Anshu and Renee and their Dabba Drop service. Inspired by the Dabbawallas, they created a brilliant Friday night meal subscription that’s prepped and dropped for you like Mumbai clockwork. With curry being the unofficial national dish of Britain their mission “to change the way Britain does Indian takeaway” is brilliant. Back to those stats at the top, eating together is one of the reasons this blog exists. If it wasn’t for our upbringing and the maturity those meals provided us as kids we wouldn’t be who we are today. To have the majority of a generation saying they eat alone removes the ancillary, yet equally important, reason for eating. Socialization over meals is a critical and profound bonding moment for us all. Dabba Drop is doing it’s part to ensure that we continue that behavior which we greatly applaud. We just wish they expanded to New York sooner than later so we can stop dealing with inevitable GrubHub mistakes. All the details on the currys they deliver are here. We really don’t think it matters what you choose, they are all delicious homemade specialties that you will crave once you get a taste.

It was 20 years ago now we first sampled Kansas City, Missouri (don’t be confused with Kansas Kansas) at a little roadside joint named LC’s. From the moment one of their burnt ends hit my tongue they were on my map for life. No doubt the barbecue mecca birthed a fest that marries both the BBQ favorite beverages to one crazy slow cooked meat festival. Touting the best bourbons and beers Missouri has to offer, the Pig and Swig is three hours of afternoon, stomach debouchery. While you indulge in your destruction you’ll have some feeding music compliments of the festival and local radio stations. Need some exercise between chow downs? Lawn games will also, appropriately, be on hand. I’d imagine later in the day that just turns into a bourbon-beer fueled slapstick comedy show. Fun all around. Saturday July 30th from 3-6pm in Kansas City, Missouri.