Mall foodcourts suck. Unless you like Sbarro, Panda Express, Wendy's, and Cinnabon. I don't. I don't like any of them. So I avoid mall foodcourts like it's the plague: I hold my breath and plan alternate routes to limit my contact with them. But then I visited Dekalb Market Hall, located underneath Brooklyn's City Point shopping complex, and realized that this was no mall foodcourt. (Then again, City Point isn't a typical mall.)
The ride down the escalator led to a huge concrete space filled with vendors on top of vendors. While this layout is utterly confusing and seemingly unplanned, I didn't really mind getting lost amidst food of all cultures. I went in with a plan; I wanted to hit vendors that weren't located near me in Greenwich Village, or really in Manhattan at all. (So Katz's was quickly off my list.)
Full disclosure, I went on this food tour with my best friend, so I wasn't just stuffing myself senselessly alone. The two of us were really out for tamaki from Daigo (scroll down for that), but it was about 11am when we rolled in, so we desperately needed to start with a coffee. I was immediately drawn to Cafe D'Avignon, with their beautiful loaves and boules of bread. (I'm a sucker for good bread.)
I was also enticed by the chocolate coconut croissant, a new addition to the menu, and, of course, a mocha latte. The pastry was flaky, the coconut filling was just the perfect amount of sweetness, and the dark chocolate added a much-needed bitter element. Definitely a good grab-and-go option.
Naturally, after a coconut croissant, you're gonna want sushi. And you're gonna wanna hold it in your hand and eat it like a hoagie. Because it's not sushi, it's called tamaki (like I said above!), and it's essentially uncut sushi with the rice (fluffier than any sushi rice you've had before) on the inside of the nori.
All kidding aside, if there's anything that you take away from this article, it's that you have to go to Daigo Hand Roll. Not kidding; it's so good NYT wrote an article about it, and it's a NYT Critic's Pick. Get two good classics, like the spicy tuna and spicy salmon, and then definitely try something funky, like the salmon with wood ear mushrooms. You're going to love it.
After we got our Japanese fix, we decided to move on to a completely different part of the world: tacos. And a burrito breakfast bowl, from Dekalb Taco. In all honesty, I'd say try the other vendors first; I wouldn't recommended coming all the way here just for this spot. It's not that the food wasn't good, it's just that it wasn't all that memorable.
Then, as if we didn't have enough raw fish, my dear friend needed a poke fix. Wiki Wiki Poke's OG bowl took care of that, with ahi tuna, avocado, cucumber, sweet onion, mango, wasabi, pickled ginger, seaweed salad, spicy mayo, and shoyu sauce. Did ya get all of that??
Back to something sweet: Pop Cake Shop. Choose from red velvet, vanilla, or chocolate cake, and vanilla, chocolate, or cream cheese frosting, to create your own one of a kind cake pop. A literal cake pop!
And of course, we closed the day off with my favorite food of all: ice cream. Sweet cream and cookies on a pretzel cone, and chocolate milk and cookies on a rainbow cone from Ample Hills. New York's (and soon-to-be-your) favorite.
If you're in Brooklyn and looking for something to do on one of these annoyingly cold days, I'd definitely say hit up Dekalb Market Hall. Go with some friends, grab some eats from different vendors, and share it all on one of their long communal tables.