Monthly Archives: January 2019

Forcella Fried Pizza

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Instagram Post 1/14/2019

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Two words that consistently hover near the top of my Guilty Pleasures list are “fried” and “pizza” so it’s little wonder that Forcella Fried Pizza’s stall in DeKalb Market, 445 Albee Square West in Brooklyn, grabbed my attention.

The procedure entails tossing the dough to shape it, deep frying it, adding toppings, and then subjecting it to their fiery pizza oven; the finished product is the puffy Neapolitan style pizza that’s been the rage for several years with enough crispiness to distinguish it from an unfried pie. I like the combination of blisteringly hot oven char and deep fried crunch – the best of both worlds.

Just the right size for sharing, here’s their “Italian Sausage” option: sausage, tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella, and pepperoncini – yes, sometimes I go basic on a maiden voyage. I prefer sausage in chunks (but pepperoni in slices) and that’s their MO, so I was happy. Good stuff; next time, a more challenging version!
 
 

Farmers Restaurant – Part 3

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Instagram Post 1/11/2019

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The more I post about this place, the more I want to return, if only to have another go at establishing a communications link with the folks at Farmers Restaurant, 1692 86th St, Brooklyn. Everything we tasted at this eatery in Bensonhurst’s Chinatown (yes, that’s a thing) was wonderful and I’m keen to sample some different dishes next time despite the language barrier. It’s worth noting that verbal exchanges aside, the take-out menu differs from the online menu which differs from the heavily redacted in-house menu – not to mention any specials of the day. I like a challenge.

Here’s Crab with Sticky Rice from the Chef’s Specialties section of the take-out menu. This kind of dish looks deceptively simple, but it’s not always easy to get it right; working with sticky rice requires some finesse and the chef had plenty.

This one is for friends who accuse me of never posting photos of vegetables (let alone ordering them 😉): water spinach, aka water convolvulus, aka water morning glory plus a frustrating litany of increasingly misleading names, served here with garlic sauce (another vegetable!) – tasty, green, and good for you. Right? It grows in water and its hollow stems are the clue to positive ID; they provide the buoyancy that keeps the leaves afloat. I’m not entirely sure if this was on any of the menus!

Looking forward to going back!
 
 

Her Name is Han

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Instagram Post 1/10/2019

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Four of us went to Her Name is Han, 17 E 31st St in Manhattan, for the delightful lunch special in which several types of bapsang are offered. Bapsang comprises the words for rice (밥 bap) and table (상 sang) and has a well-defined structure that varies primarily with the number of dishes served. Expect rice, soup, small plates of a seasoned vegetable or salad, kimchi, additional banchan (side dishes are where the number can vary), plus a protein like chicken, beef, pork or fish; sometimes, the dominant item is jjigae, a rich soup or stew. Because only the featured dish varied in our selections, it was particularly easy to share, especially since the company was so convivial. In this set, the focus is Grilled Garlic Chicken; absolutely delicious.

[2] A close-up of Boodae Jjigae, spicy beef broth with three kinds of ham, rice cakes, kimchi, noodles and vegetables

[3] Grilled Hokke (mackerel)

[4] Fire Grilled Pork Barbecue which was everything one could hope for. Definitely warrants a return visit for dinner!
 
 

Farmers Restaurant – Part 2

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Instagram Post 1/9/2019

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More from Farmers Restaurant, 1692 86th St, Brooklyn, in Bensonhurst’s budding Chinatown where the food was delicious and the language barrier insurmountable. I’m certain about the first dish shown here, Crab and Fish Maw Soup. Fish maw is swim bladder, dried and then reconstituted for soup; if you frequent Chinese markets, it’s easy to find in transparent cellophane or plastic packages. It has little flavor of its own, but is quick to take on that of other ingredients. See second photo for a closer look.

Apologies if you are troubled by the sight of disembodied birds’ heads but there’s a carefully placed specimen on our serving of tasty Crispy Fried Pigeon.

Despite the communications difficulties, I’d definitely return to Farmers Restaurant; it was a meal to remember.
 
 

Alsalam Restaurant

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Instagram Post 1/8/2019

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Did you know that Fifth Avenue is in Manhattan and 5th Avenue is in Brooklyn? The Bronx and Queens have their own as well, but Brooklyn’s is in our sights today – more specifically, Alsalam Restaurant & Meat Market at 7206 5th Ave in the Middle Eastern Bay Ridge neighborhood. Their awning tells it all: gyros, BBQ chicken, shish kebab, falafel, meat pies, and zaatar “pizza” along with grocery items like cheese, olives, nuts and halal goodies in general – just what you’d hope for and expect ’round these parts.

Here’s their lamb shawarma, a tasty treat enjoyed a few months ago when the weather was more like that of Lebanon – juicy lamb, lettuce, tomatoes, onion, graced with a creamy yogurt sauce (and yeah, I added my own hot sauce! 😉).
 
 

Super HK Food Court

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Instagram Post 1/7/2019

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Another visit to Super HK Food Court, 37-11 Main St, Flushing, in the basement of Super HK Supermarket, this time to Stall 21. I didn’t catch the English translation of the name (if it was even there to be caught), but the Chinese characters are 客來勤 (Ke Lai Qin) literally: Customers Come Frequent. That last character can also mean diligent or hard-working; either way, the name is surely aspirational.

[1] This is Fried Fish Belly, not to be confused with fish maw (swim bladder). I’ve had fish belly elsewhere, particularly in some dim sum parlors where I suspect the bellies were from smaller fish since they were significantly more tender than these. Their unanticipated texture is a little difficult to describe – they’re soft but resilient and chewy, not really crunchy (peanuts are crunchy), not really crispy (chips are crispy), but you can easily hear the sound of your tablemates chomping down on them. A tasty dish, but the texture will be challenging for some.

[2] Braised eggplant, a classic crowd pleaser; they did a good job with this one as well.

Stay tuned for more from the depths of Super HK Food Court….
 
 

Deluxe Food Market

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Instagram Post 1/6/2019

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I promise to write more about the redoubtable Deluxe Food Market in Manhattan’s Chinatown. It’s one of my favorite locations for inexpensive prepared food (it’s a market as well), a place I always bring people to on informal Chinatown ethnojunkets, and will forever hold a place in my heart for its contribution to the day I played hooky from work with a special friend.

For today though, just a postlet about a couple of carbobombs I grabbed to stave off hunger while passing through. And I mean “through” literally since even the layout bears mentioning: Picture a capital H (actually, you don’t have to picture it – it’s right there before the parenthesis) where the vertical strokes are Mott and Elizabeth Streets and the crossbar is the store with means of egress on both sides; 122 Mott and 79 Elizabeth are reciprocal.

Deluxe Food Market is always exceedingly crowded but that’s part of its charm; if you’re there for the ready-to-eat goodies, your patience will be rewarded. In a way, it’s the next best thing to dim sum in terms of tasting a little bit of a lot of things: point to the items you want (assuming you don’t speak the language), pay at the register, and (at least in my case) carry your bag over to nearby Columbus Park and enjoy.

Its size isn’t evident from the photo, but this massive “beef cake” is 6½ inches across and 1½ inches thick.
[2] Photo depicting a deceptively meager amount of meat inside.
[3] Photo depicting a deceptively generous amount of meat inside.
Take the average.

[4] Their “scallion cake” is the chewy, not crispy, variety with a touch of sweetness.

More to come from Deluxe Food Market….
 
 

Kopitiam

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Instagram Post 1/4/2019

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Nonya cuisine came about as the a result of Chinese immigration to Malaysia and Singapore during the 15th through 17th centuries; it’s a happy admixture of Chinese and indigenous Malay cooking with a soupçon of Portuguese, Dutch and British elements tossed in for good measure. Heritage aside, it’s hands-down delicious. The outstanding Kopitiam (Hokkien for “coffee house”) brings this cuisine to their super casual eatery at 151 East Broadway on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

[1] Pandan Chicken – gently seasoned ground chicken formed and swaddled in pandan (aka screwpine) leaf; [2] denuded. Add the browning maillard effect and the permeating flavor of pandan and you’ve got a perfect snack.

[3] Pan Mee – chewy, hand pulled, roughhewn noodles are the star of this anchovy broth that also features crispy fried anchovies, wood ear mushrooms, spinach, and minced pork; [4] droolworthy photo.

[5] Lobak – Five-spice seasoned pork roll wrapped in beancurd sheet and fried. Gotta love it!

[6] Salted Egg Chicken Wings – Wings are always great, of course, but the salted egg condiment is a flight of fancy that sends this snack over the top.

[7] Dessert anyone? Malaysian desserts aren’t overly sweet and these two filled the bill nicely. Pulut Tai Tai (pulut is Malay for glutinous rice) tinted with the suddenly ubiquitous blue morning glory flower (that’s the tai tai part) keeping company with Kuih Lapis, the puffy, thousand layer butter cake touched with cinnamon. Kuih are bite-sized sweets or snacks (spelled kueh in Singapore or kue in Indonesia) and lapis means layers; kaya (delicious coconut egg jam) on the side.
 
 

Chutney’s – Part 4

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Feeling the urge to go back to Jersey City for Indian food at Chutney’s, 827 Newark Avenue where everything was wonderful. If you’re a vegetarian (and some of my best friends are 😉) and you like Indian food, you need to go here; no menu scrutiny required – everything is vegetarian and absolutely delicious.

Mount Road Parotta with Salna – listed as a Chef’s Special (and it was special indeed), it’s a multilayered flatbread with a long-cooked tomato curry. I’m told this is a street food in India; if that’s the case, I want to live on that street.

Curd Rice – Curd refers to unsweetened yogurt. So simple: rice that has been steamed beyond the pale with yogurt, mustard seeds and cilantro. Comfort food for sure.

Onion Chili Uthappam – aka uttapham, it only looks like pizza. The batter is similar to that of a dosa, but these are thick as a pancake with (in this case) onion and chili cooked right in the batter.

Punugulu – crispy outside, puffy and pillowy inside, these deep fried treats are made from rice batter and served with chutneys and sambar on the side.
 
 

Weekender Billiard

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Instagram Post 1/2/2019 & 1/3/2019

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Bhutanese food is scarce in NYC and if you find it, it’s often keeping company with the cuisines of neighboring Himalayan countries like Nepal and Tibet. Weekender Billiard, 41-46 54th St, in Woodside, Queens, doesn’t characteristically share its menu with them but does share its venue with several billiard tables. Today, however, let’s not to billiards but rather to the tables earmarked for dining as we take our cue from chef Norbu Gyeltshen.
 
I can’t say it’s the national dish of Bhutan, but it’s probably the best known. Ema Datse (aka ema datshi: ema = chili and datse = cheese) is simple but it packs a punch; it consists principally of very spicy chili peppers with a little cheese sauce for mollification plus some garlic – as though it needed it. Intense and potent.
 
Bumthang Noodle – Buckwheat noodles (soba) in combination with garlic and scallions.
 
Phagsha Sikam Pak – A Tibetan dish made from very dried pork with daikon and other vegetables.
 
Kagkur Soup – beef bone broth cooked for hours and enriched with squash/pumpkin and green chili peppers, of course.
 
Listed under Appetizers, this is Chicken Chili with tomatoes, garlic, and ginger. Did I mention the green chili peppers?
 
A Tibetan dish noted under Side Orders, Shap Tak is a stir-fry of beef, onions and tomatoes with garlic. Oh yeah, and green chili peppers.
 
Everybody loves momos! These are beef and, remarkably, not spicy. (Unless you kick them up yourself!)

It’s a cuisine you should certainly try once. What it lacks in variety it more than makes up for in intensity!