Photo Friday

05/31/13 1:50pm

Taste of Lahore: Best Pakistani Noodles and Ice Cream Ever

Taste of Lahore's falooda takes care of your refreshment and noodle needs.

Taste of Lahore’s falooda took care of my refreshment and noodle needs.

Yesterday I went on a fascinating crawl of South Indian and Pakistani hot spots in Jackson Heights with Suketu Mehta. Mehta was raised in Bombay, but grew up in Jackson Heights. He had many valuable insights about the neighborhood’s history,which will come in handy for the book I’m writing, “Queens Cuisine Along the 7 Line: World’s Fare.” Plus, he turned me on to the sev puri at Bombay Chat. I’ve taken many a tour group to the Tibetan/Indian spot for chaat,but we always get the pani puri. He also showed me the proper way to eat a paratha, with butter, raita, and pickle. (more…)

chaat, chat, dessert, Indian, Jackson Heights, Pakistani

Flushing

05/03/13 10:17am

What to Eat in Downtown Flushing Besides Chinese

An old school slice in the midst of New York City’s most dynamic Chinatown.

Unlike Manhattan Chinatown, which borders Little Italy, downtown Flushing has little or no Italian food. There is precisely one Italian restaurant, Lucia Pizza. It sits across from New World Mall, and has been there since well before that mall was a Caldor. Its opening also predates New York current pizza Napoletana craze.

The draw here is unreconstructed old-school New York City pizza, by the pie,or more often the slice. Hand over $2.25, grab a perch at the counter and dig into a taste of days gone by. The Sicilian slice is pretty good too. I once asked the counterman here why he didn’t have kimchi pizza, like T.J.’s a spot that has since closed. He looked at me like I was nuts.

Lucia Pizza, 136-55 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, 718-445-1313

Chinatown, Flushing, Italian, old school, pizza

04/19/13 11:51am

‘Coktels’ in the Sunshine at La Esquina Del Camaron Mexicano

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Shrimp cocktails in the sun, a taste of Mexico City on Roosevelt Ave.

Shrimp coktels in the sun, a taste of Mexico City on Roosevelt Ave.

I recently wrote about the return of Pedro El Cevichero to the streets of Jackson Heights. This past weekend I checked out his new digs. Pedro has taken his old sign reading La Esquina Del Camaron Mexicano, or “the corner of Mexican shrimp,” with him and he’s gained three helpers. By the time I got to him I felt like I’d already eaten my way through half of Thailand. So in lieu of eating a coktel de camaron, I took a mouth-watering photo of a pair of freshly made ones. I can’t wait to go back and try the first coktel of what are sure to be many. Shrimp coktels are available in three sizes ($8, $10, $12). The excellent mixto, shrimp and octopus is ($6, $8, $10). Find Pedro on weekends at Roosevelt Ave. and 80^th St. from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

ceviche, cocktails, Jackson Heights, Mexican, Roosevelt Avenue, shrimp, street food

Flushing

04/12/13 9:39am

Chinese Donut Stacking at Flushing’s Golden Mall

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Chinese crullers and soy milk are a favorite breakfast in China and Flushing.

Even though I am constantly munching during my food tours I always make sure to have a small meal beforehand. That’s because if my blood sugar drops, then it becomes the moody foodie death march, and that’s not good for anyone. One of my favorite pregame meals is a very traditional Chinese breakfast of crullers, or yóutiáo, and soy milk. I like to dip the absurdly long doughnut into the warm, nutty soy milk. Incidentally yóutiáo translates to “oil strip.” The other morning I noticed that they are sold from Tianjin Xianbing the stall in the front window of Flushing’s Golden Shopping Mall. I love how they are stacked like a game of doughnut Jenga.

Tianjin Xianbing, Golden Shopping Mall, 41-28 Main Street, Stall D1, Flushing

breakfast, Chinese, crullers, doughnuts, Flushing, food tours

Flushing

03/22/13 10:47am

Soybean Chen: Flowers and Tofu, for All Occasions

New York City’s only combination florist and tofu vendor.

Soy Bean Chen Flower Shop is one of the more unique establishments I’ve encountered in my travels through downtown Flushing’s bustling Chinatown. For years I passed by it vaguely aware something good was being sold from the window facing Roosevelt Ave. I’m not sure why I finally stopped to check it out, but I’m glad I did. Some of the freshest, silkiest tofu ever is sold from that window, which upon further examination turns out to be a repurposed Good Humor ice cream cart. A $1.50 buys a small container of sweet or saline style. Ask for the former and Chen or his wife will pour in a generous ladle of sweet gingery syrup. The “saline” version is topped with a bright spicy sauce made from crunchy preserved vegetables, and dried shrimp among other things. Either is a great way to get your palate primed for day of eating in New York City’s most dynamic and diverse Chinatown. That’s why it’s always one of the first stops on my Flushing food tours.

Soy Bean Chen Flower Shop, 135-26 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing, 718-321-3982

03/15/13 12:16pm

Woodside’s El Sitio Still Keeps it Old School

Woodside

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The sign is gone, but the Cuban sandwich is still as good as ever.

PLEASE NOTE THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED

“Oh it’s at my house,” the owner of El Sitio, the wonderful Cuban luncheonette hard by the corner of 69^th St. and Roosevelt Ave. said to me about the restaurant’s old sign. That sign, with its old school lettering that evokes 1960s and 70s salsa music and Don Quixote was a true classic. The piggy in the top hat at right enthusiastically beckoned passerby to try the lechon asado. And in the smallest letters on the sign a humble plug for what is quite possibly this joint’s greatest achievement, sandwiches cubanos. It’s 2013 and that old school sign has been updated with a flashier, more modern one. Thankfully nothing has changed about the Cuban sandwiches here or the orange formica counter in the front room where they are best eaten. They are still a celebration of porky, cheesy, garlicky goodness. That little guy in the top hat would be proud.

El Sitio, 68-28 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, 718-424-2369

closed, Cuban, old school, sandwiches, Woodside

02/15/13 10:15am

Northern Boulevard is NYC’s Real Korea Town

This shop features many products imported from Korea,including soy bean paste.

This shop features many Korean products, including soy bean paste.

I like the fact that there’s a Korea-town in Manhattan. I used to visit it with a Korean girlfriend, back in the day. She taught me all about soju and BBQ and first introduced me to Kunjip. So I have a certain fondness for Manhattan’s K-town, but I’m here to tell you that the real K-town in New York City is the stretch of Northern Boulevard that runs from Flushing practically all the way to Long Island.

I say this not just out of Queens pride, but because it’s true. There’s a seemingly endless number of Korean restaurants of all kinds—BBQ, sushi, kimbap, several live octopus joints, Korean-Chinese, even a porridge specialist—that I have yet to wrap my mind around. There are also plenty of markets ranging from supermarkets to small shops that sell all manner of ingredients imported directly from Korea. As my buddy Joe McPherson of ZenKimchi Koreaan Food Journal pointed out after a visit, “So, New Yorkers, that stuff you say that you can’t get is out there in Flushing.” Indeed it is Joe, indeed it is.

Flushing, K-town, Korean, Northern Bouelvard

Jackson Heights

02/01/13 10:06am

Harvesting History and Dumplings at Merit Farms

Merit Farms in its more old-school incarnation.

I’ve always wondered what was the story behind Merit Farms. For a long time the Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Indian restaurant with a Tibetan, Nepali, and Bhutanese counter in the back had a super old school blue and white sign. I could never quite reconcile this 1960s style signage with the food being served inside. The disconnect was on the order of walking into B&H Dairy in the East Village to find dan dan noodles.

A while back the name of this grand Himalayan-South Asian wonderland changed to Merit Kabob and Dumpling Palace. Still I wondered about that name. One day a guest on one of my food tours told me Merit Farms was an old school Queens grocery chain. A Google search reveals that there was an outlet in Forest Hills that sold that classic old school Jewish immigrant snack, the knish. I find it pretty cool that what was once Merit Farms in Jackson Heights stills serves immigrant snacks, albeit Tibetan momos and South Asian kababs.

Merit Farms, 37-67 74th St., Jackson Heights, 718-396-5827

Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, dumplings, Indian, Jackson Heights, Nepalese, Pakistani, Tibetan

Elmhurst

01/25/13 10:38am

Zak Pelaccio and I Fight Over Uncle Zhou’s ‘Dial Oil’ Noodles