Category Archives: Restaurants & Food Courts

La Roja de Todos

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Instagram Post 7/15/2018

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Our light lunch in Corona, Queens at La Roja de Todos, 108-02 Northern Blvd, consisted of Ceviche de Pescado and a pair of empanadas.

[1] Chilean 🇨🇱 style empanadas are baked and, as you can gather from the photo, are made from a soft, doughy pouch that swaddles the fillings. Our Empanada de Pino, in traditional Chilean fashion, featured beef, onions, raisins and black olives, and was enhanced by pebre, their housemade hot sauce; the Empanada de Marisco (not shown) was its mixed seafood sibling, redolent of the sea.

[2] The fish 🐟 used in the ceviche de pescado came from the flounder/fluke school – I would have preferred one with a little more character: not bad, but it didn’t quite set the hook. 🎣
 
 

Sing Kee – House Special T-Bone Steak

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Instagram Post 7/12/2018

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Another scene from our Cantonese banquet at Sing Kee, 42 Bowery in Manhattan’s Chinatown. I had heard about their battered, fried, House Special T-Bone Steak from a reliable source so I was totally down with trying it. Insiders’ tip: In order to determine your preference for degree of doneness, they don’t use terms like rare, medium, or well done; rather it’s expressed in terms of percentage. I discovered this when our waiter asked how we wanted it done. As we looked at each other, stumped for a decision, he offered, “17%? 25%?” I think our final vote was, “Um, yeah.”
 
 

Claro

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Instagram Post 7/7/2018

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The Spanish word claro carries many meanings from “clear” to “sure!” and among those definitions is “distinct”. Perhaps that one best describes Claro, 284 Third Ave in Gowanus, in that it’s not your typical Brooklyn Mexican restaurant. Attention to its Oaxacan roots is evident not only in their distinctive spin on the cuisine but also from the clay dinnerware to the décor. Claro’s reputation is as much about its aura as it is about the food, and although we weren’t blown away by any flavor bombs, the freshness and quality of the ingredients were evident as we enjoyed the boon of ideal weather in the charming backyard.

[1] Yellowfin Tostada – tuna marinated in a pasilla oaxaqueña sauce with avocado, orange, and chicharrónes

[2] Barbacoa Tacos – beef cheeks and garlic scapes

[3] Pork Memela – made with heritage pork ribs in a sauce of chile de arbol, topped with fresh crumbled farmer cheese

[4] Mole Negro – meltingly tender short ribs with grilled Mexican green onions and potatoes

Portions are a little on the short side; upscale to be sure, what you see here is exactly what we ordered plus a single drink for each of us – total for our party of four including tax and tip was about $190.
 
 

Fan Fried Rice Bar

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Instagram Post 7/6/2018

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A relative newcomer (about three months) to Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and certainly a welcome one is Fan Fried Rice Bar at 525 DeKalb Ave. A cozy, sunny spot with only a few tables, they offer a number of Taiwanese delicacies like Popcorn Chicken, Fried Bone-In Pork Chop, Taiwanese Sausage, and Mushroom Mapo Tofu, but the real focus is on their novel fried rice variations.

[1] Numb Numb Pastrami Fried Rice with chili paste, scallions, pastrami, onions and peanuts. I get a pronounced Szechuan málà peppercorn hit delivered with a lot of char (as opposed to wok hei); the pastrami itself is salty, moist, and a little smoky, but unlike the deli style pastrami you might expect from the name. Definitely good eats.

[2] Breakfast Fried Rice is good any time of day with tasty thick cut bacon, eggs, peas and carrots, and everything-bagel seasoning. No numbing peppercorns in this one, but plenty of salt, intensified by the toss of potato chips atop.

And yes, I’m a fan of the Fan. 😉
 
 

Sing Kee – Fresh Squid with Pepper and Spiced Salt

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Instagram Post 7/3/2018

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Perfectly tender, perfectly seasoned, perfectly fried Fresh Squid with Pepper and Spiced Salt was one of the best dishes we had at Sing Kee Seafood Restaurant, 42 Bowery – OG Cantonese in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Sometimes, less is more.

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More dishes from Sing Kee to follow….
 
 

Chao Thai – Soft Shell Crab Chu Chee

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Instagram Post 7/1/2018

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It’s soft shell crab season, so we sidled over to Chao Thai at 85-03 Whitney Ave, Elmhurst, Queens for their Soft Shell Crab Chu Chee bathed in a mildly spicy sauce of Thai red curry with coconut milk and topped with red pepper and kaffir lime leaf. Missing from this photo, but not from our table, is an order of sticky rice to soak up the savory goodness.
 
 

Chao Thai – Tod Mun Pla

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Instagram Post 6/20/2018

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Always a favorite, here’s Tod Mun Pla from Chao Thai at 85-03 Whitney Ave, Elmhurst, Queens. This deep fried fishcake appetizer with its contrasting dipping sauce is a Thai classic that never fails to satisfy. (Sunlight courtesy of a table near the window! 😉)

More posts with more dishes to follow.
 
 

Pikine

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Instagram Post 6/19/2018

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Pikine, a West African restaurant at 243 West 116th St in Manhattan is definitely worth a visit, particularly if you’re unfamiliar with Senegalese food. Portions are large (suitable for two, I’d say) but be forewarned that oftentimes many dishes are unavailable, sometimes because they’re served only on certain days of the week (typical for many African restaurants) but sometimes just because the kitchen reports that they’re out.

We ordered Senegal’s national dish, Thiebou Djeun – spellings vary widely but pronunciation is close to Cheh-boo Jen – and to call it rice and fish is an understatement even though the words translate as rice and fish. It’s made from “broken rice” (easily found at nearby African markets) and if you look closely you’ll see its short grains, but it begins its life as standard untruncated rice that breaks in the field or during processing or milling; the shards are sorted by size and are highly desirable since they cook faster and absorb flavors more readily than whole grains. The rice, combined with chopped onion and garlic, is cooked with tomato paste that lends its deep red color and rich flavor, plus okra, carrots, cabbage (your vegetables may vary) and perfectly seasoned fish.

Our second dish was Maffe (often spelled Mafé), lamb stew with vegetables in a tomato/peanut butter sauce, another Senegalese classic that’s not to be missed.
 
 

Chao Thai

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Instagram Post 6/16/2018

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The venerable Chao Thai at 85-03 Whitney Ave, Elmhurst, Queens had always been a standard bearer for Isan (Northeastern) Thai food; since I hadn’t visited in years, I was overdue for a refresher. It’s still good, but there is a lot of competition in that category now, not to mention the burgeoning popularity of Northern and Central Thai cuisines.

This whiteboard special caught my eye so I gave it a try. Called Northern Style Green Chili Dip, it would make a worthy addition to their regular menu. Surrounded by an assortment of fresh vegetables including cucumber, broccoli, long beans, carrots, cauliflower and (happily) Thai eggplant in addition to sweet potato and crispy crackly pork rinds, the zesty, dominant dip was a perfect partner to the gentle, submissive accompaniments.

More posts with more dishes to follow.
 
 

Al-Mazaq Restaurant and Bakery

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Instagram Post 6/13/2018

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An Iraqi (🇮🇶 – not often do I get to use that flag!) meal at Al-Mazaq Restaurant and Bakery at 46 East Railway Ave in Paterson, NJ turned out to be a novel experience. Al-Mazaq (المذاق) is the Arabic word for taste and I assuredly tasted some flavors I hadn’t come across before. A family operated business, our food was appropriately homespun and humble, elevated by the charming assistance of sisters Riyam and Hiyam.

[1] From the breakfast side of the menu, we ordered the Bagila Platter, seasoned broad beans (bagila) with eggs served over a foundation of Iraqi bread, languishing there to soak up every bit of flavor. But what was that vaguely familiar but elusive dusty seasoning?

[2] The mystery close up. Many questions and a lot of research later yielded the answer: البطنج – butnij, or crushed, dried river mint, a first for me.

[3] Next up were gaymar, a homemade fresh cheese supplemented with clotted cream and “black honey”, [4] and its accompanying kahi, squares of syrupy bread; dishes that when consumed together were elegant in their simplicity but ambrosial in their lusciousness. I found a similar cheese in a nearby market and intent upon reproducing this delicacy at home, tried numerous permutations of honey, pomegranate molasses, and date molasses along with clotted cream and heavy cream. Alas, I never even got close.

h/t Dave Cook, @eatingintranslation and by extension, Peter Cucè, @baoandbutterblog