Today’s special: Duck rillettes and egg salad crostini, Colonie, Brooklyn

I chose to live in the Carroll Gardens/Cobble Hill area of Brooklyn because it was an area that became familiar and dear to my heart after a number of visits to friends who lived in that ‘hood. The brownstones, the trees, the mix of young people, families, and lifers, whose families have lived in the area for generations. Oh, and the restaurants. Williamsburg is tops for Brooklyn trendy, but my neighbourhood always ends up just plain tops. Reviews of places always mention the subway trip from the city being worth it. And hardly a trip it is. It may be twenty minutes for Manhattanites to get to some of the neighbourhood haunts, but for me? A five to ten minute walk. So so dangerous to the waistline and the pocketbook.

Ten minutes to Colonie on Atlantic Avenue from my apartment. And that’s considered far by New Yorker standards. Although I generally hate small plate eating, you can manage it very well at Colonie, especially if there’s only two of you. (They have big plates too, but the small ones and the salads sounded so much more interesting.) The uniquely topped and well-sized crostini definitely help you make the small become satisfying. Although I had read that the ricotta crostini were outstanding, the server’s sell on the egg salad with bone marrow and the duck rillettes with rhubarb meant that the ricotta could wait.  My affinity for duck won out over my aversion to pasty meat, and I was thankfully rewarded with rillettes that looked just a bit manhandled by a fork. The sour rhubarb paired well with the rich meat. The egg salad was was more like extra creamy scrambled eggs, with the bone marrow and veal jus acting like dollops of melted butter: salty and rich. A gold star to whoever chose and toasted the bread. It was crispy enough to hold the weight of the toppings and offer textural contrast, yet it was still chewy enough not to shatter during a bite (no knife and fork for crostini!).

Each of the other dishes I tried easily could receive its own post as well.
So, so dangerous.

Colonie
127 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn