Tag: comfort food

11/18/13 12:21pm

Knish Nosh’s Perogies are Classic Comfort Food

Knish Nosh’s perogies are pure Eastern European comfort food.

Sixty-year-old Knish Nosh is best known for its namesake old school New York City snack. The Forest Hills shop sells seven varieties of hand-rolled potato knishes, including sweet potato, broccoli, and mushroom. As much as I love the knishes, come late fall I like to snack on one of Knish Nosh’s lesser known, but heartier potato products: perogies. The hefty packages smothered in caramelized onions taste like they were cooked up on the stove of an Eastern European grandmother. That grandmother would be Romanian-born Ana Vasilescu, who prepares spinach and potato varieties ($2.50) as well as ones packed with brisket ($2.50). I prefer potato, but when especially hungry I get brisket. I have yet to try the spinach version, but I am sure it’s only a matter of time before my adopted Romanian grandmother tells me to eat my vegetables.

Knish Nosh, 100-30 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, 718-897-5554

comfort food, Eastern European, Forest Hills, old school, perogies, Romanian

10/28/13 9:58am

Banging Bakso Returns to Astoria’s Masjid Al Hikmah

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Soto bakso is one of my favorite Indonesian soups.

The bazaars held throughout the summer at Masjid Al Hikmah are among my favorite food events. As fall approaches, the parking lot, once crammed with satay hawkers, fish grillers, and gado gado grannies empties and I’m left with no place to enjoy this most wonderful of Indonesian pot lucks. I sorely missed the smiling vendors and their delicious food. Or at least I did until this Saturday. It turns out that the food festival still goes on every Saturday from about 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., albeit in very abbreviated form. (more…)

Astoria, comfort food, Indonesian, soto bakso, soup

Recipes

by Anne Noyes Saini

10/14/13 2:00pm

Desify: Indian-Italian Comfort for Your Inner British Student

by Anne Noyes Saini

I first learned to cook during the year I studied in England. University students there typically fend for themselves in dorm kitchens, rather than relying on meal plans.

With little free time and even less money, most of us took to dumping readymade soups or canned beans over toast or pasta. If we were feeling fancy (or starved for protein), we crowned these starchy, carby meals with a fried egg.

That experience left me with an abiding kernel of culinary wisdom: Any light dish can be transformed into a stomach-filling meal simply by adding pasta.

Enter my Punjabi mother-in-law, who re-educated me in the kitchen and taught me Indian home cooking. Thanks to her, I can whip up a full meal from my usual pantry staples (i.e., lentils, rice, spices, garlic, and ginger) and a few stray vegetables (e.g., onion, tomato, potato, carrot). If only she’d been there, in England, to save me from British student food (and my own culinary incompetence). (more…)

British, comfort food, daal, Desify, Indian, Italian, lentils, pasta, Punjabi, vegetarian

Twofer Tuesday

09/03/13 9:58am

A Pair of Thai Soups from a 900-pound Gorilla

Moo toon is a mellow pork and mushroom soup.

“Everybody loves that King Kong,” Pap the owner of Pata Paplean said by way of explaining his funky little lounge is named after Pata, a Bangkok department store whose rooftop zoo houses Thailand’s only gorilla. Tempting as it might sound it wasn’t this joint’s tom yum cocktail that lured me inside. It was a sign promising bowls of Thai street noodles for $4 a pop.

Moo toon is a mellow bowl of amber broth with tender bits of pork, meaty mushrooms, and some greenery. It’s available with a choice of noodles: rice, broad, or egg. I went with broad noodles, and doctored up the bowl with some dried red pepper powder. It was a perfect Saturday afternoon snack. (more…)

comfort food, Elmhurst, noodles, offal, pork, soup, Thai

06/13/13 10:39am

Arepa de Queso: The Crown Jewel of Colombian Street Food

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An arepa de queso in all its gooey griddled glory.

An arepa de queso in all its griddled glory.

These days Roosevelt Avenue is lined with scores of carts selling street food from all over the globe—Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia, even Tibet. One of the oldest, the O.G.—which in this case stands for original grandma—is the Arepa Lady as Maria Piedad Cano has come to be known among her legions of fans. Cano has been selling the griddled corn cakes under the 7 train for almost 30 years. She rose to popularity after Chowhound founder Jim Leff, wrote a piece in the NY Press headlined “The Sainted Arepa Lady” touting her corn cakes as “snacks from heaven,” and extolling her beatific presence. (more…)

Arepa Lady, arepas, Chowhound, Colombian, comfort food, Jackson Heights, Jim Leff, street food

Sandwich Wednesday

04/17/13 11:03am

LIC Market’s Delicious BLT of Exceptional Pedigree

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Peppery baby arugula gives this BLT a nice zing.

The other day I stopped by LIC Market for a late lunch. I was eager to try Chef Alex Schindler’s fish sandwich special. Sadly they were out of it by the time I arrived. As I perused the list of other, presumably less special, sandwiches my eye fell upon the BLT ($9). The bacon, lettuce, and tomato is one my favorite things to order in a diner. It’s a comfort food classic. I’d heard raves about LIC Market’s BLT, but really how good could it be? The answer as I soon found out that day, is very good indeed. Let’s take a closer look.

Creamy avocado co-stars with thick-cut bacon.

The combination of bacon, lettuce, and tomato—savory salty and refreshing—is tasty enough on its own. When you use thick cut premium bacon instead of the supermarket stuff and spicy arugula instead of iceberg things start to get exponentially more tasty. What really makes this sandwich though is the avocado. The creamy chunks of alligator pear become even creamier next to the hot bacon. I closed my eyes for a moment while eating it and I could swear it wasn’t avocado but fluffy scrambled eggs. Sometimes the simplest things are the most delicious. I still can’t wait to try that fish sandwich though.

LIC Market 21-52 44 Dr., Long Island City,718-361-0013

Alex Schindler, bacon, BLT, comfort food, diners, Long Island City, sandwiches

C+M Asks . . .

03/28/13 10:08am

What Are Your Favorite Comfort Foods?

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A well-executed bowl of matzo ball soup comforts body and soul.

In these blustery bone-chilling days of early spring I like a good bowl of matzo bowl soup. Not only does it warm me up, Jewish penicillin helps ward off or cure a cold, as the case may be. My favorite place to get it is Knish Nosh in Forest Hills. I’m fortunate to have a purveyor of such light matzo balls around the corner from my house. Whatever the weather a bowl of soup, be it matzo or Thai tom leuat moo, is one of my favorite comfort foods. So here’s what I’m curious to know. What are your favorite comfort foods? Tell me in the comments or hit me on the Twitter, @JoeDiStefano.

comfort food, Forest Hills, Knish Nosh, matazo ball soup, soup

02/21/13 9:59am

Veal Goulash with Nokedli at Andre’s Hungarian

Forest Hills

Veal goulash is a great meal for a frigid winter’s day.

Veal goulash is a great meal for a cold winter’s day.

Frigid winter days call for bone-warming, rib-sticking stews. Stews that I don’t always want to make. So I’m glad there’s a place around the corner from C+M headquarters where I can get a hearty veal goulash ($8) and a side of nokedli ($2.50) . That place is Andre’s, which knows a thing or two about Hungarian grub. Andre’s is famous for its flaky strudel and other desserts. Unbeknownst to many they also have a nice little selection of prepacked Hungarian specialties. The veal goulash is grandmotherly Magyar comfort food at its finest. Chunks of veal in a spicy sauce of tomato and cooked down onion might just be the cure for seasonal affective disorder. And if they’re not at least they’ll warm you up. You could choose to eat the buttery wheaten dumplings, known as nokedli on the side. Better to use them as vehicle for one of the best Hungarian meat sauces you’ll have all winter.

Andre’s Hungarian Strudel & Pastries, 100-28 Queens Blvd., Forest Hills, 718-830-0266

comfort food, Forest Hills, Hungarian, stews, veal

01/10/13 11:23am

Chef Ana’s Stuffed Cabbage at Knish Nosh

Forest Hills