The Good Fork - Appetizers

It was my Mom's birthday recently, so a big group of us went to the Good Fork (391 Van Brunt St., 718-643-6636, www.goodfork.com) to celebrate. It's such a nice place. The interior is all blond wood with low lighting and the main dining room has a curved ceiling that makes you feel like you're in a cozy and well-decorated boat. The food is incredible too, well-made, with the best, freshest and local when available ingredients.

The Good Fork gets as much local produce as they can from Red Hook's very own Added Value Farm, so they have lots of seasonal options on their menu. The host and waitstaff are also really friendly, and if it happens that they don't have a table for you when you drop in, they will take your phone number, suggest one of a few bars in the area to go to, and will call you when a table becomes available. Each time I've been there has been such a pleasant experience. Since there were so many of us, and so much good food, I decided to take this whole week to describe all that we dined on.

Part One of The Good Fork: Appetizers.

The number one, best, most delicious item we ordered from the menu (and we ended up getting three orders) was the Caprese Salad. Made from red and green Heirloom Tomatoes and fresh Basil from Added Value, as well as the most amazing fresh Mozzarella from Caputo's, it was the hit of the night. Nobody could get enough of the creamy, almost meaty cheese and the sweet tomatoes. It was as gorgeous as it tasted.



My next favorite was the Diver Sea Scallops. They were HUGE and came with currants, curried quinoa grilled scallions in a pineapple vinaigrette. The sauce was subtle, with just the right zing and the scallops were incredibly meaty and delicious; we were finishing off the sauce with our fingers! Please excuse the eclipse-like shadow on the top of the photo. I was trying to minimize the glare from the flash.



I ordered the Grilled Nectarines over Frisee, with Maple Bacon. It was good, but the vinaigrette was too vinegary and there weren't enough slices of nectarine to balance out the plethora of frisee.



The Scallion Pancakes are really good, with a light sesame soy sauce on the side. There were enough of them so that it was satisfying and easy to share as well!



My mom got the Crab Cake appetizer, which comes with a little salad of endives on the side. This cake is a treat, so tasty and flavorful, not boring or ordinary at all. It's done well, which is a rarity when it comes to crab cakes, as so often they are just lumpy things plopped on your plate. Not at the Good Fork!



On Wednesday I will describe the wonderful entrees we enjoyed.