Category Archives: Restaurants & Food Courts

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….
 
 

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.
 
 

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.
 
 

88 Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles

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Instagram Post 7/25/2019

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Sometimes, you just need to go back to basics. No roof to raise. No lilies to gild. Just quiet, reliable, mood food. These are fried pork dumplings from 88 Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles, 40 Bowery in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The waitress approached. I made my request. Silently, she walked to the back. She emerged with my order in less than a minute. Because when you’re famous for something, you’re prepared to provide. Very Zen.


The obligatory I-took-a-bite-and-of-course-it-was-delicious shot.
 
 

Mama’s Kitchen

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Instagram Post 7/22/2019

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A few weeks ago, I wrote that Mama’s Kitchen, Stall 28 at Elmhurst’s HK Food Court, 82-02 45th Ave in Queens “continues to hone their menu and it keeps getting better with each iteration”. This time the ascent is a significant order of magnitude higher.

My understanding was that part of their repertoire is Cantonese (from whence the chef hails) and part is Shanghai, so when Rui Lee Liu showed me their newest menu abounding with Sichuan delights, I was understandably surprised. I had intended to hold this post until I tried a few more of the latest entries, but the Lamb with Cumin, ostensibly a universal favorite these days, was so good that I didn’t want to wait lest it disappear from the list before you’ve had a chance to taste it yourself. More to come soon though….
 
 

Royal Queen

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Instagram Post 7/20 & 21/2019

Dim sum is one of my favorite meals because it affords the opportunity to taste so many diverse dishes at a single sitting. The tricky part is coordinating schedules with a group of good friends to actually converge on a restaurant at the same time for the experience. We finally succeeded in congregating at Royal Queen on the third floor of the New World Mall, 136-20 Roosevelt Ave in Flushing. As we proceeded to load our tabletop, I realized that it might be prudent to stop taking pictures and actually eat something because, well, FOMO. This accounts for the fact that you’re not seeing everything we ordered. But here are some examples from the prosaic to the unique.

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First photos are from the unusual category; a peek inside revealed a sweet peanut/sesame filling.

Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp

Beef Tendon

Xiao Long Bao

Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sticky Rice with shrimp, lap cheong (Chinese sausage), pork, and salted egg yolk

Flaky crust with a sweet ginger/custard filling inside

Fish Cake

Shrimp Balls on Sugar Cane

Roast Duck

Fried Silver Fish

Shrimp and Chive Wonton

Nian Gao (glutinous Rice Cake) made with Jujubes (dried red dates)

 
 
Serious question: what’s your favorite place in NYC for dim sum? Leave a reply below.
 
 

Battle of the Burgers – Chinese Food Court Edition

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Instagram Post 7/16/2019

A burger, in the culinary sense of the word, consists of ground or chopped meat served on a split bun (at least for the purposes of today’s post). In my ethnojunkets to Queens Food Courts, it’s evident that there’s no shortage of “Chinese Burgers” and they differ radically from one location to the next, both in terms of definition and quality. A few examples:

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Shaanxi Tasty Food, stall #27 in Super HK Food Court, 37-11 Main St, Flushing, boasts a Cumin Fried Beef Burger (item A3 on the menu), one of the best of the bunch IMHO, along with…
…Chinese Burger (item A2), pork and onions, a little less intense than its mate.

This is Cumin Lamb Chinese Hamburger from Liang Pi Wang (item 5) because cumin and lamb. There’s a proliferation of Liang Pi Wang venues, specifically stall #3 in Super HK Food Court (above), stall #10 in New York Food Court at 133-35 Roosevelt Ave, and stall #22 in Elmhurst’s HK Food Court at 82-02 45th Ave.

Yuan Muwu occupies stall #30 in Elmhurst’s HK Food Court. Although they don’t use the word “burger” I’d be hard pressed to call this by another name; they’ve opted for “Pork Pancake” (the menu reads “Poke Pancake” but we know what they mean). This one is pork belly on a sesame seed bun. When I tried it, the bun was over-toasted and its contents was a little dry; they may have better offerings.
 
 

Khanom Thai – Sweets

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Instagram Post 7/11/2019

When I approach Khanom Thai’s stall (number 10) with ethnojunket guests in tow and they ask, “What’s good here?” I can honestly answer, “Everything.” With a focus on sweets but not to the exclusion of savories (that’s another post), Khanom Thai obviates the need to seek out another venue for dessert after eating our way though Elmhurst’s HK Food Court (82-02 45th Ave in Queens).

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These are Bean Cakes with Salted Egg. Soft, flaky, swirly layers of creamy, tissuey dough swathe a confection of mung bean paste surrounding a heart of salted egg yolk. But don’t deconstruct it: just take a bite and taste why it’s remarkable. When you look closely and stop to think about it, these are really a sweet metaphor for the egg reimagined, its white shell protecting its two-tone sunny contents.


Coconut Pancakes, griddled fresh, right before your hungry eyes, warm and chewy. The color difference isn’t chocolate vs something else; it’s merely two different types of ground rice batter.


Obscenely decadent dessert: rich vanilla ice cream, sliced bananas and chocolate sauce oozing onto a warm roti, rainbow nonpareils for a bit of crunch. ’Nuff said.