Category Archives: Instagram

Just Noodles – Leng Zaap

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Instagram Post 8/8/2019

I spotted the sign months ago on one of my visits to HK Food Court at 82-02 45th Ave, Elmhurst, when it initially opened. The photo, pinned up at Stall #12, Just Noodles, was vaguely reminiscent of Devils Tower, the recurring mountain image in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For some reason, I felt compelled to order it.

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This is Leng Zaap, stewed pork spine, culinary and anatomical cousin to pork ribs, and one of those dishes that requires a certain amount of patience and time to navigate thoroughly. The spicy broth/sauce in which the bones were steeped conveyed the quintessential flavor of Thailand that you’d expect from folks who clearly know their way around the kitchen. Good eats.

I brought home what remained of the spine along with any meat that was still clinging to it and concocted a Thai bone broth amped up with some of the remaining sauce; it wasn’t bad considering the bones had already given their best to the stew. I noticed that Instascribe gustasian also ordered this dish on another occasion and hers was presented in a decorative shiny silver Thai hot pot style tureen. Mine just came in the plastic bowl you see here ☹️. Musta been something I said.


The aforementioned sign.
 
 

Hazar Turkish Kebab – Pide

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Instagram Post 8/7/2019

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In Turkish cuisine, “pide” is one of those chameleon words whose meaning changes with context. Always describing something bread related, it can refer to a pita cousin used to wrap around meat and accoutrements, a circular, puffy, seeded (sesame and nigella) loaf traditionally earmarked for Ramadan, or this canoe-shaped dish. Think Turkish pizza if you must: it starts with soft wheat dough called yufka laden with a cargo of cheese, meats (here: chopped lamb and the Turkish sausage sucuk – multiple spellings abound of course), green peppers and onions, baked and crowned with an egg because #putaneggonit.

This one came from Hazar Turkish Kebab, 7224 5th Ave, Brooklyn, one of the stops along my Bay Ridge Little Levant ethnojunket. They offer at least six pide variations along with a raft (no pun intended) of other skillfully executed entrees and desserts. Definitely recommended.

(Okay, the pun was intended.)
 
 

Fernandes Steak House

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Instagram Post 8/6/2019

A follow-up post on my recent visit to Newark’s Ironbound district where carnivores congregate to choose from among a clutch of churrascarias – restaurants specializing in prix fixe AYCE grilled/barbecued meat, Brazilian style. And that was precisely my conundrum: which one to select? I knew I wanted a rodízio where waiters meander from table to table flaunting hunks of meat impaled on imposing skewers, armed to carve a slice onto your plate. I’ve enjoyed this form of dining in numerous spots in Manhattan and Queens because it’s fun and you get to sample a little of everything – Brazil’s answer to Chinese dim sum – and I thought it high time to sample Newark’s wares.

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NYC’s editions often sport compelling salad bars laden with considerably more than salads: typical Brazilian side dishes including plantain, yuca, polenta, pão de queijo, feijoada with farofa, plus cheeses, seafood salads, sushi (sort of) and lots more. It’s possible (and dangerous) to make a satisfying meal from just the salad bar items but then you wouldn’t have room for meat which seems to defeat the intended purpose of going to a churrascaria. My research into the Newark contingent revealed that most salad bars are light and lean toward leafy green items which was fine this time. We ended up at Fernandes Steak House, 158 Fleming Ave. They offered an agreeable assortment of traditional Brazilian styles of beef, pork, lamb, and chicken, but wanted for one of my favorites in this setting, skirt steak. Often, the meats are medium-well-done, so props that there were some rare cuts available.


An unusual offering was a cheese infused slab of beef (“cheese steak” he called it).


Another surprise came at the end of our meal, cinnamon encrusted grilled pineapple – no complaints there.

There’s a lot more to explicate regarding churrascarias in general, particularly regarding dining strategies, and this visit inspired me to return to one of the better ones in NYC and write a long-form piece here on ethnojunkie.com where I can stretch out a little – because like a rodízio, there’s a limit to how much one can finish in a single session. More to come….
 
 

Naranjilla/Lulo

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Instagram Post 8/4/2019

Newark New Jersey’s Ironbound district is a mecca for all things Portuguese and Brazilian. I did a somewhat comprehensive post way back in April 2019 about Teixeira’s Bakery although I need to do another now that I’ve emerged from the sugar coma. Just kidding. I haven’t.

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This post, however, is concerned with produce, specifically the fruit known as naranjilla in Ecuador and Panama and lulo in Colombia. Even a nodding acquaintance with high school Spanish (and I remember a student who did indeed nod off in that class) would lead you to believe that it’s a “little orange” but although the fruit is little and orange, it’s not in the citrus family. It’s a cinch to track down at one of the five (count ’em, five!) Seabra’s markets in the area, all within walking distance of each other. (Next visit.) In NYC, you can readily find the pulp frozen and sold in pouches in many Latin American markets.

The fresh fruit is green when unripe, orange when ripe (like these), and although you can eat the fruit out of hand (squeeze out the juice and discard the shell), it’s more commonly incorporated into a batido or liquado, a shake, either milk- or water-based or ice cream. Some report that the flavor is a cross between rhubarb and lime (well, yes, but…). Suffice it to say that it’s tart (you’ll want to add sugar), the color of the juice is greenish even when ripe, and because it’s not overly sweet (I know how important that is to some of you) it’s an easily customized drink.

The first photo shows it cut across its equator. In the second photo, I’m holding a quarter-inch slice in front of what passes for a window in my apartment in an effort to capture a schmancy, backlit view.

Pro tip: Don’t go on a Sunday – restaurants, bakeries, markets and bars are open, but most other shops are closed. (I know, I know, what else would a foodie be interested in there anyway?)

Watch for my upcoming post about that day’s visit to a rodízio style churrascaria.
 
 

Hey Chick

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Instagram Post 8/3/2019

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As part of the prep for my Elmhurst food tour, I decided to do a compare-and-contrast exercise between Taiwanese style popcorn chicken vendors at HK Food Court at 82-02 45th Ave. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Salt & Pepper Chicken at Hang (stall 15). This post examines the differences between theirs and that of Hey Chick in stall 3.

Given a cursory glance, it’s easy to assume they’d essentially be the same, but there are a few key distinctions. Hey Chick’s chix seems to be a bit juicier, attributable perhaps to slightly larger chunks of chicken. Hang’s hangs its hat on the fact that it’s Salt & Pepper Chicken, not the more ubiquitous and gentler flavor profile. And finally, when I was there at least, Hey Chick has taken a leaf from other popcorn chicken purveyors I’ve visited and was more generous with their fried basil.

Note that IMHO, both were good – it’s just an assessment of the fundamentals. In other words, if you’re a seasoned popcorn chicken lover, it will be a basal comparison.
 
 

Peruvian Festival 2019

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Instagram Post 8/2/2019

If you love Peruvian cuisine as much as I do, you don’t want to miss New Jersey’s annual Peruvian festival held on the last Sunday of every July. Accompanied by an exuberant parade celebrating the country’s culture and national heroes, it’s traditionally staged in “Little Lima”, a neighborhood in Paterson that’s home to America’s largest Peruvian community, although this year’s culinary extravaganza took place in Passaic. A few photos of the delights we enjoyed:

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Anticuchos on the grill. Tender, marinated beef heart – Peruvian street food at its finest. Don’t be faint of heart about trying this: it’s just another cut of beef, and a particularly delicious one at that. If you like grilled meat, you’ll love this.


Anticuchos on the plate, always complemented by papas a la Huancaína, potatoes napped with a yellow, slightly spicy (from the aji amarillo pepper), cheesy (from the queso fresco) sauce. (And yes, that’s a bit of tripe peeking out from beneath.)


Smoked pork with arroz chaufa, Peruvian fried rice seen at almost every booth. It’s borrowed from the Chinese culinary tradition: chaufa and chaofàn are cognates.


Seco de Cabrito. Goat stew with papas a la Huancaína and arroz chaufa (of course).


Ceviche with camote (sweet potato), papa, and maiz tostado (toasted corn nuts), the classic combo. I saw a few versions at the festival; stands offered divergent types of fish and each had its own custom recipe for leche de tigre, the ceviche marinade.


Two of my favorite ice cream flavors sharing a single cup: lúcuma on top and cherimoya in a supporting role. The flavor of lúcuma has been compared to butterscotch or a mix of maple syrup and sweet potato; it’s difficult to find fresh lúcuma locally but the frozen pulp is easy to come by in Latin American markets. Cherimoya, sometimes called custard apple, can be found fresh fairly easily – frozen pulp is also readily available. If you have a blender, buy the frozen pulp and try your hand at making a batido!

Mark your calendars for next year’s event!

 
 

The Bund

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Instagram Post 8/1/2019

Named for the waterfront tourist destination in Shanghai that features modern skyscrapers alongside historical architecture, The Bund at 100-30 Queens Blvd in Forest Hills features Shanghainese cuisine alongside customary Chinese fare.

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My dining buddy had his heart set on hock, specifically The Bund Special Crispy Pork Hock – crackling skin, yielding meat, everything you’d want from a hock plus a gratuitous toss of broccoli florets on the side, presumably a colorful nod to healthiness. (Nice try.)


This cold appetizer is one of my favorite Shanghainese dishes. Called “The Bund Special Spongy Gluten with Woodear Mushroom & Peanuts” on the menu (a mouthful, both literally and figuratively), I know it as Kao Fu. Unpacking the description: gluten is made from wheat (you might have sympathy for seitan, a wheat gluten product) – if you purchase it straight in a Chinese market, it looks a bit like whole wheat bread; spongy, an apt adjective because this form soaks up juices as if it were one; wood ear mushrooms (aka cloud ear, black fungus, tree ear fungus, and a raft of other names) don’t have much flavor but they bring contrasting texture to this dish. If there were any peanuts to be found, I didn’t catch them; still, I liked it well enough.
 
 

Zheng Zhou Noodles – Chinese Fried Pancake

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Instagram Post 7/28/2019

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Zheng Zhou Noodles, Stall #28 in the New World Mall Food Court, 136-20 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing, is arguably best known for its liang pi noodles, but I’m more enamored of this dish, called simply Chinese Fried Pancake. If you’re familiar with Malaysian kottu paratha, you’ll recognize its cousin here. It may look like noodles, but the difference is all in the chew; it starts with a thin pancake sliced impossibly perfectly into noodle-like strips, it’s available in beef, lamb, pork, chicken, egg, or vegetable versions, and it’s wonderful. My kind of comfort food.
 
 

Lao Jie Shi Fang (Old Street)

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Instagram Post 7/27/2019

The (surviving 😢) big three Flushing Chinese food courts get a lot of ink (or bytes, I suppose) and deservedly so, but there are other, smaller, aspirants nearby that beg exploration. Queens Crossing Food Court, 136-20 38th Ave, is home to Lao Jie Shi Fang (Old Street) which features mostly light fare: a selection of fried (pan- and deep-) snacks as well as some noodle soups and málàtàng.

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My initial foray was okay. Shown here is Deep Fried Potato Cake which carried a little kick, I’m guessing from white pepper, flanked by a quartet of Fried Turnip Balls comprising long shreds of turnip, crispy outside and almost creamy inside.


Ham Egg Pancake: bits of vegetables like scallion for bite, carrot for sweetness, and teeny traces of ham on close inspection. Not pretty, but a sufficiently satisfying snack on the run.
 
 

Bon Bon – Swedish Ice Cream

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Instagram Post 7/26/2019

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I wrote about Bon Bon, 130 Allen Street in Manhattan, over a year ago, and I’m pleased to report that this Swedish candy shop is still going strong. In addition to sweet treats in a rainbow array of colors, flavors, and textures, they sell world famous Swedish salty licorice as well as the sweetish kind. Recently, they added a new feature to the mix, Swedish soft-serve ice cream, and since it’s National Ice Cream Month, there’s no better time to try it.

The Swedish soft-serve (mjukglass) recipe is richer than the conventional because of its greater measure of cream, but it’s the unique selection of sprinkles and syrups that provide the vital distinction. Shown here is vanilla (they have chocolate too) with licorice syrup and two kinds of toppings, salty licorice and salty licorice flakes. Amid seven syrups and eleven kinds of sprinkles, this is the combo that I enthusiastically recommend.

Generally, when you think of the customary (in the US) sticky, chewy texture of licorice, you’d question its ability to play well with ice cream, but these adornments are more like crunchy flakes of hard candy – and there couldn’t be a more perfect match. I asked if the idea was something they created themselves, but was delighted to learn that this treatment is exactly what you’d find all over Sweden, right down to the brand of syrup and the unusual dispenser with its inverted bottles. (See second photo.) If you think you don’t like licorice, let alone salty licorice, this may well be your gateway drug.

(Full disclosure: this delicious taste of Sweden was provided gratis by Robert and Ditte of Bon Bon.)