Ample Hills & Outer Borough – Instayums in Brooklyn

Spending a lot of time in Brooklyn lately, due to my involvement in Photoville, I’ve gotten acquainted with the street food scene, which is so easy to love. Aside from exploring the legendary Smorgasburg street food festival yesterday, I also got a taste of the famous Ample Hills creamery. Here are my highlights from these last couple of delicious Brooklyn weekends.

Ample Hills Creamery – Situated right across from Photoville on Pier 5, Ample Hills Creamery boasts a charming little waterfront outpost. I hear it makes for a much more manageable atmosphere than its original location in Prospect Heights, and after tasting their ice cream, I can see why it’s so treasured.

Mexican Hot Chocolate Ice Cream – After trying the chocolate covered banana flavor, I was expecting to be wowed but didn’t fall head over heels, so I instead tried the Mexican Hot Chocolate. I’m happy to report that it was a total win, boasting a perfectly creamy consistency, a dark chocolate rich flavor with a little tickle in the back of your throat from the cayenne. The spicy flavor is subtle but pronounced enough to surprise and delight you.

Outer Borough Taiwanese – Yesterday’s visit to Smorgasburg produced some serious sensory overload. With such a beautiful weather day, the place was packed to the gills with vendors and hungry visitors.

After making my initial rounds and scouting the place out fully, I knew I wanted to commit to the Outer Borough truck, which serves Taiwanese street food mostly in the form of flat scallion pancakes. Loving that the fresh pancake (fried on the spot) was just a vehicle for transporting other ingredients, I admired all the offered fillings and finally decided on the Chinese sausage and egg. It came highly recommended by the staff, as it promised something unique.

It only took a few short minutes to cook up, which came as a welcome surprise (given the horrid experience I recently had at the Blend LIC food truck). Even though it was smaller than I expected, the rolled up pancake was stuffed generously with the salty, smoky sausage and bits of fried egg. Although the egg was a little overcooked, it still complemented the sausage nicely and served as a yummy brunch snack.

Service and Cost:
I’m happy to report that the service at both establishments was wonderful – quirky but definitely pleasant and super fast. The folks at Ample Hills were especially interesting and made a lot of effort to engage Angela and I in conversation.

Costs are affordable, given its street style format at $3 for a small ice cream at Ample Hills and $9 for the delicious pancake rollup at Outer Borough.

I hope you visit one or both of these places next time you find yourself in Brooklyn Heights.