Alley 41

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My Instagram posts are usually brief takes on restaurants accompanied by a photo or two. (You can see my feed, updated almost daily, here in the “Instagram” category – no signup required.) But folks sometimes ask for fuller reviews and more photos, so in response, here’s a more comprehensive report on one of my favorites.

It is my distinct pleasure to turn you on to Alley 41 in Flushing, one of the new breed of contemporary Sichuan restaurants, and not to be missed. Alley 41 describes itself as “authentic Szechuan cuisine with a touch of creativity”. I describe it as amazing, awesome, and astounding. And that’s just the As. Award-winning Master Chef Jiang has composed a menu of dishes that could make even the most stoic diner gush with delight; everything we ordered had a unique, personal spin and was wonderful. There are only so many synonyms for delicious, and toothsome fell out of favor half a century ago, so I’ll abandon verbal descriptions and let you ogle the photos. With a seemingly infinite menu, this is one restaurant I’ll never tire of.

Here are a few of the extraordinary dishes we tried. (Click any photo to view in glorious high resolution.)


Our first visit to Alley 41 occurred when Chinese Lunar New Year was just around the corner, and I recalled that enjoying long noodles portends a long life. These Sweet and Spicy Noodles are the longest and thickest I’ve ever encountered, so I gather I’m headed for a long (and chubby) lifetime! If memory serves, each was about a yard long (no hyperbole in this hyperbowl) with an awesome chew, napped with a sauce made of sheer happiness. I say that because their name, tiánshui miàn (甜水麵) taken literally character by character, means sweet water noodle, but the first two characters together can mean “happiness” and I’m sticking with that translation. It’s a Sichuan restaurant, but I’m told that these noodles hail from Dongbei.


Three of the appetizer/snack items we tried: Chinese Beef Burritos, Thousand Layer Pancake, and Chinese Leek Turnovers.

Seafood and Pumpkin Congee. Deceptively light, the unique blend of ingredients – savory seafood, crispy youtiao (Chinese cruller) for texture, scallion for a little punch, and that surprising pumpkin jook made for a delightful combination.

Pork Belly in Garlic Sauce was beautifully presented. Rolled up with cucumber, scallion and cold noodles, not to mention the perfect accompanying sauce, they were irresistible.

They may look simple, but the Smoky Wok Tossed Spicy Asian Green Chilies brought a touch of heat and a ton of flavor to what only seemed like a modest dish.

Spare Ribs with Salted Duck Egg. (Along with a few others, this one doesn’t appear on the current menu. If you’ve got some kind of portable internet access device and you’re eager to try these dishes, bring it along and pull up my photos; a picture is worth a thousand words!)

Sautéed Cauliflower with Soy Sauce. With this cauldron of cauliflower, folks at the table who cry “more veggies” were more than satisfied. The structure of Chinese cauliflower is less compact than the dense Northern European version you might be accustomed to and that makes for a more tender texture after cooking and allows it to soak up more sauce.

Lamb with Hot Pepper Sauce. Delicious and delicate, I wouldn’t have minded a little more heat, but I’m not complaining.

Sautéed Diced Chicken with Basil and Yib Veggie Buns (or so the menu read). I believe the name refers to Yibin, the city in Sichuan province. To me, the little buns looked like mini wotou, hollow, conical, steamed cornbread (and yes, you can buy those in food courts in Flushing if you know where to look).

Braised Tender Beef with Veggies. You’ll want some rice with this one to counterbalance the savory sauce. Good eats!

Frog with Dry Pepper. Green pepper, lotus root, leeks, bean curd skin and more combine with bits of frog in this tasty stir fry.

I admit it; I’m a sucker for dishes like this one. Steamed Fatty Meat (pork belly) with Sticky Rice – to me it tastes like the most unimaginably rich comfort food!

Flounder in Garlic Sauce. Crispy and light with just enough spice to complement but not overpower the delicately fried fish.

Stir-Fried Smoky Pork with Green Leek. With the one-two punch of smoky pork belly and zesty leeks, this dish makes its presence felt in no uncertain terms.

Spicy Lamb with Cumin Flavor. Sizzling, spicy, succulent, scrumptious! Seems to be a universal favorite.

Braised Pork with Chinese Chestnuts. Pork belly and chestnuts in a savory sauce turned out to be a wonderful combination.

Sautéed Prawns with Spicy Chili Minced Pork. Delicious head-on (is there any other way?) prawns with bits of pork in a gently spicy sauce with scallions and red pepper. Straightforward and elegant at the same time.

Sizzling Minced Beef with Black Pepper. Got this one because I wanted to see what the geniuses at Alley 41 would do with black pepper – not that I’m tired of red chilies or Sichuan peppercorns or any other form of kicked up goodness, of course – and I wasn’t disappointed. The flavor was surprisingly complex, not at all one-note which can happen with black pepper, the beef perfectly tender, and the onions were just the right accompaniment. The dish came to our table steaming and sizzling with bonito flakes dancing atop as if in celebration of our get-together. Naturally, the platter was extremely hot – not a bull you’d want to grab by the horns!

My highest praise for Alley 41, 136-45 41st Ave, Flushing. I guess I’m not going to be satisfied until I’ve tried everything on their 46 page menu. If you haven’t been there yet, I strongly recommend it. And if you have, isn’t it time to go back? 😉

 

Sevan

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Instagram Post 3/26/2018

Love is where you find it, or so goes the song, but we never thought to look in Oakland Gardens, Queens! An authentic Armenian 🇦🇲 lunch organized by @restaurantfairy at Sevan Restaurant and Catering, 216-09 Horace Harding Expressway, held us in its thrall for course after surprising course. Some photos from our banquet: (Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

Every nation that honors sujuk and basturma has its own spin on the recipes (and its own spellings I might add). Sujuk is a beef sausage seasoned with a bespoke blend of spices that usually includes cumin; basturma (you probably recognize the word pastrami lurking in there) is pressed, dried, cured beef; and I found Sevan’s offerings so tender and tasty that after lunch I wasted no time in visiting their market next door to see if they were available there. They were, and I happily brought some home to savor in the afterglow. The cheese pies were moist and buttery tasting and the yalanchi, hand rolled grape leaves stuffed with rice, onions, herbs and spices (not pictured here), were flavorful as well.

Perfectly seasoned chicken and deeply marinated steak kebabs with an unexpected side of grilled potatoes arrived next along with lule kebabs, ground beef infused with a truly delicious spice blend. No need to ask if we polished off the bread beneath that had been quietly collecting all those savory meat juices! Dessert was baklava that – another surprise – wasn’t overly sweet. But first….

Just when we thought the enchantment couldn’t get any more intense, strains of Armenian music pealed from the back of the room to catch our attention. Our waiter sailed in bearing a flaming tower of lamb chops that elicited enraptured moans from the group and, needless to say, set off a flurry of photos and videos!
 
 

Akwaaba

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Instagram Post 3/21/2018

Akwaaba is a tiny, unassuming Ghanaian restaurant at 604 Parkside Ave in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens neighborhood of Brooklyn. Akwaaba means “welcome” which is precisely how we were made to feel: don’t expect a menu or even a specials board, just friendly folks who are eager to share their cuisine and tell you what they’re offering that day. (I suggest that if you don’t have prodigious instant memory recall skills, jot down some notes as the bill of fare is recited.) Ghanaian cuisine is largely, although not exclusively, based on a starch plus soup/stew paradigm or on rice dishes; the four of us shared four dishes that are typical of the region.
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

Jollof Rice, served here with some crispy fried porgy and plantains (kelewele), was certainly tasty. There’s a keen rivalry among West African countries over whose version is the best but tomato paste figures heavily into all of them. We were more than happy with ours.
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Wakye, most closely associated with Ghanaian cuisine, is a coconut milk enhanced rice and beans dish evocative of West Indian rice and peas. The dark bit peeking out at the top of the plate is shito, the hot pepper Ghanaian condiment redolent of fish paste and authentically potent. You can purchase it jarred at many West African markets and in my experience, it keeps in the refrigerator almost indefinitely.

The delicious Peanut Stew and the Okra Stew (stews thickened with mucilaginous okra are an acquired taste, or perhaps more accurately, an acquired texture) featured goat and beef and are meant to be eaten with a starch….
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Our two starches were fufu, cassava pounded into a sticky, dough-like consistency (left), and banku, a fermented corn-based staple that smells vaguely like bread dough waiting to fulfil its mission in life. Best dining practices for both involve pinching off a bit with your fingers, dipping it into a stew, and popping it into your smiling mouth. Messy, yes, but once accustomed to it, you’ll happily see why fork and knife just don’t cut it for these dishes.
 
 

Allan’s Quality Bakery

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Instagram Post 3/16/2018

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Unquestionably and quite simply the very best Trinidadian currant rolls and coconut rolls I have ever tasted in my life; these are definitive and the real deal. What’s more, I’m told they often have CHOCOLATE currant rolls (!) and white chocolate coconut rolls as well. Head to Allan’s Quality Bakery at 1109 Nostrand Avenue, Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn for some amazing Caribbean baked goods and a guaranteed smile on your face.
 
 

Hao Noodle and Tea

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Instagram Post 3/14/2018

Still going strong after nearly two years at 401 Sixth Avenue, Manhattan, Hao Noodle and Tea by Madam Zhu’s Kitchen is an absolute delight. With its focus on small plates perfect for sharing by two or three diners, sampling cuisines from wide-ranging regions of China is effortless: Madame Zhu has restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou and the menu reflects those as well as other regions. The décor is comfortably contemporary and casual, the service more than attentive. Everything we ordered was unique and delicious and there were enough intriguing items on the menu to warrant a return visit.
(Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)Bean Curd Strip in Chili Sauce was perfectly executed with just a little kick.
Looking a bit like a twin to the bean curd strips, shredded Le Shan Chicken with Sichuan peppercorns and chili oil, one of their signature dishes, was tasty and juicy, a neat trick for white meat chicken.

Although somewhat unusually plated – as if one nugget had skidded away from the pack – the boneless Sweetly Smoked Sole, another signature dish, was delicious nonetheless.
We had to order a noodle dish of course, so Dried Shrimp Scallion Noodle, a delicate salute to Shanghai, filled the bill.
 
 

Shanghai Zhen Gong Fu

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Instagram Post 3/12/2018

Very much in the throes of their soft opening when we visited, Shanghai Zhen Gong Fu restaurant, 86-16 Queens Blvd, Elmhurst, Queens was still shy a number of menu items that we were craving. Here’s what we did get: (Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

Cold Noodles with Sesame Sauce
Steamed Soup Tiny Buns with Pork
Kau Fu – braised wheat gluten with mushrooms


Cabbage with Salty Pork
Stir Fried Eel in Ninpo Style
Shredded Pork and Preserved Vegetable with Rice Cake

Curious about the rest!
 
 

Kafe Louverture

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Instagram Post 3/11/2018

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A quick visit to Kafe Louverture, 392 Halsey St, near Marcus Garvey Blvd, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn yielded these two hot and fresh hand-rolled Haitian patties: salted cod (morue, my favorite) and vegetable. Not to be confused with denser Jamaican patties, these bbs were delicate, flaky and satisfying. Kicked up with a splash of hot sauce, they got my day started with a bang.

Be sure to check out the artwork while you’re there, much of which is for sale. Gotta go back for a deeper dive into the menu!
 
 

Paradis des Gouts – Part 1

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Instagram Post 3/10/2018

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Paradis des Gouts – Part 1. It’s always good news when one of my posts begins with “Part 1”: it means that a follow up is definitely in the offing. I hear that there are multiple chefs hailing from multiple African nations in the kitchen on various days – but all with a focus on Ivorian cuisine – and that fact alone compels me to make multiple return visits to this new West African restaurant at 1136 Broadway in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn.

We tried only two dishes that day and both were certainly tasty. A perfectly grilled red snapper was served with attiéké (lightly fermented grated cassava with a texture like couscous), a rich onion/tomato/palm oil based sauce (a perfect foil to the crispy skinned fish) and a toss of sweet plantains. That Maggi seasoning cube you see perched atop the attiéké is ubiquitous at the West African table: just unwrap and crumble it over the top as you would salt over any starch, but it packs significantly more punch than mere salt to anything it graces.

We also ordered one of the Saturday specials, Plakali (cassava pounded into a sticky, dough-like consistency, best consumed with the fingers) and Palm Nut Stew (aka Sauce Graine) with Beef. It’s a dish I’ve enjoyed elsewhere – I’ve even made it myself a few times – and the recipe varies from chef to chef as much as a recipe for any stew might. All are based on palm nut cream (which you can purchase canned or do it the hard way and extract it from scratch) plus a wide assortment of potential candidate ingredients; I found this version particularly satisfying.

True to its name, this restaurant turned out to be a Paradise of Flavors; watch this space for an update on my return to paradise.
 
 

Los Helados de Salcedo

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Instagram Post 3/8/2018

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Thought you might need a palate cleanser after all that rich food I continually post! While wandering around Jackson Heights, a sign in the window of a little shop featuring goods from Ecuador caught my eye. Upon entering Ecuador Records Variedades at 92-11 37th Ave and making my way past piles of hand crafted clay pots and other charming imports, I headed straight to the freezer case and selected the ice cream pop depicted on the sign that sported distinct colorful layers of “mora, naranjilla y taxo con centro liquido de jalea de mora, guayaba”.

The Ecuadorian frozen confection sold under the name “Los Helados de Salcedo” (after the city, I suspect) was surprisingly good. Not only was it sweet and refreshing, but the flavors were distinct and richer than I anticipated.

Translation: Helados = ice creams. Mora = blackberry. Naranjilla, literally “little orange”, although unrelated (I’ve seen it as naranjillo and frequently as lulo), is a fruit with a tart, tropical, quasi-citrusy flavor that can be found locally either canned, jarred, or frozen. Taxo is also known as banana passionfruit; it’s the oblong shaped fruit pictured on the wrapper. Guayaba = guava. I’m not certain that I really detected the liquid center of blackberry jelly; greedily consuming the delectable pop, I may not have given it a fair chance.
 
 

Il Pesce

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Instagram Post 3/3/2018

Feasting on fantastic fish with fabulous friends at Eataly’s Il Pesce, 200 Fifth Ave, Manhattan. Sometimes you go out to enjoy the cuisine, sometimes it’s to enjoy the company; this was one of those times when both were delightful.
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I could have made a meal of the just-baked bread and imported olive oil (and wine, of course) but somehow I managed to exercise restraint as each dish came to the table prepared to perfection. Here’s what we devoured: (Click on any image to view it in high resolution.)

• Ostriche al Forno – broiled oysters with artichokes, basil, parsley, bone marrow breadcrumbs, and black winter truffle butter
• Razor Clams with lemon, parsley, and chili
• Fritto Misto alla Ligure – assorted fried seafood Ligurian style

• Cavoletti di Bruxelles – pan seared Brussels sprouts with capers, anchovies, and oregano
• Zuppa di Pesce – Amalfi style fish soup with gulf shrimp, Atlantic cod, and spicy tomato crostino
• Grilled Wild Tiger Prawns with Polenta and Salsa Verde

• Cavolfiore al Forno – roasted cauliflower tossed in anchovy butter and lemon juice
• Seared Gold Trout with potatoes, leeks, and parsley