Food Hall Blog

Food hall

Professor Krondl Food & Beverage

Sarah Hemmerle

HMGT 1102

10/40/18

I chose to go check out the DeKALB market hall in the city point shopping center Saturday October 6th from 2-3pm. I wanted to go because I have never been to a food hall and it was located in Brooklyn close to where I live. When I entered the market I was overwhelmed by the many stands and options. Smells were coming from every direction, it was busy, people were eating and enjoying their food. There were neon signs hung everywhere which made the place a whole lot brighter. There was a variety of vendors, each with a unique touch to their cuisine. The diversity of the food and the cultures was amazing, there was the Eight Turn Crepe which is a Japanese crepe shop, there was the Arepa Lady which served arepas which is most found in Colombian cuisine and Fulton Landing seafood Co. which serves a variety of seafood.

When I went to the market I tried out the Tikkai chicken from DK Jani, an authentic pakistani food stand. It was a pita wrap with lettuce, tomato, red onions, chicken, cucumber and a creamy spread with herbs and mint. The dish was very pleasing to the eyes, had quite an amount of heat to it. I payed $12 for the meal and thought that It was a little pricey because the portion size was small. I also ate food from the Foragers Market and got their home style with a choice of 3 sides and 1 protein. I chose to get brussel sprouts, sweet potatoes, salad and chicken. The meal was very filling and perfectly seasoned. I was stuffed after eating half that I had to take the rest home as leftovers. I payed $13.49 for my meal which I thought was a pretty good deal because of the size of the portion. Afterwards I got a creamy matcha latte from the Noble Tree. It was on the pricey side ( around $6 ) but I think its because its a specialty drink and I added almond milk to it.

When walking around the market I saw a lot of varieties of stands one of them included Cafe Davignon that served coffee and pastries. I was interested but thought it was too basic of a place to get food from because in NYC there’s plenty of coffee shops and they all serve similar options. I wanted to try new foods I hadn’t before and step outside my comfort zone. I usually don’t prefer to eat spicy cuisine but wanted to try something new which was the pita wrap from the pakistani stand. Something I was not willing to try was Guss’ Pickles because they only served pickles and I felt that they needed to serve it with something else. I’ve always seen pickles as a side to a dish or eaten it with something that blends well. At Guss’ pickles all I could get were pickles, I didn’t want to purchase just 1 item that wasn’t filling and didn’t think it was worth buying because pickles are pretty simple.

I was tempted to buy food from Wiki Wiki a shop that serves Hawaiian food. The reason I didn’t get any of the food was because I thought the bowls were higher in prices around $12-14/bowl and the food offered reminded me too much of the food I work with at my job. I wanted to branch out. The portion size was pretty large and I wanted to save room for different foods I wanted to try.

Overall the market had a lot of vendors and each shop had an open kitchen which made it interesting to watch. In the kitchens not only had fewer workers than a restaurant would but, I noticed a lot of the workers were of spanish and asian origin. The shops were smaller in size, and had smaller menus compared to if they were a restaurant. I think the prices were the same whether the shops in the market would have been a restaurant because the items on a lot of the menu were pricey or the same as prices in restaurants which is a range of $8-15. I noticed when walking around the market that the customers were made up of a lot of hipsters, young families and adults.

I would definitely go again to this food market because there is so much I hadn’t gotten to try. I loved the variety of choices and how it was all in one location. It’s a lot more fun if you bring friends or family to share the food with and explore. The food was delicious but a bit pricey and I would recommend not going on a busy day because you don’t have to wait in a long line and trying foods you’ve never had before.