Casa Colombia

José and I had dinner at Casa Colombia a few Sundays ago. I wasn't prepared for a post, didn't bring my camera, so there are phone pictures to document the meal.
The place was busy, loud with live music that made it almost impossible to talk to each other. But sometimes that's alright.

I ordered a bandeja con pollo, because I like to get as much food as possible onto one plate, but still keep it light with the chicken. And believe me, compared to some other bandejas, this was pretty tame.


Bandeja Con Pollo: Arroz, Frijoles, 1/4 De Pollo, Chicharron, Huevo Y Maduro Rice, Beans 1/4 Chicken, Pork Skin, Egg and Sweet Plantains (their translation) $7.50

The chicken was your regular rotisserie chicken, tender meat, salty skin, a good flavored, not too dry, breast and a wing. White rice, soupy beans, a salty, meaty, crispy, fatty piece of pork belly. I have yet to meet a chicharron I don't like. Sweet, soft, caramelized plantain, and a strange sort of egg. The yolk was cooked all the way through, but the whites were perfectly white. They must be steamed. I need to eat more bandeja platters. I could have gotten the Bandeja Campestre: Arroz, Frijoles, Costillas, Pollo, Chorizo, Heuvo, Maduro, Chicharron Y Arepa 1/4 Chicken, Rice, Beans, Ribs, Eggs, Sweet Plantains, Pork Skin, Corn Cake for $13.50. But I didn't.

Jose was not as happy with his dish. He got the Sobre Barriga a La Plancha (Arroz, Frijol, Maduro Y Ensalada: Grilled Top Flank Steak (Rice, Beans, Sweet Plantain and Salad) $10.95.
The rice and beans were good, the plantain was good, the marinated red onions atop the salad were good, but the meat was stringy and a little tough. It shred like a slow cooked brisket without being tender. He just covered it in green sauce and ate what he could.
We put the green sauce on everything. It had a kick to it. Not like Peruvian green sauce, nor like Mexican salsa verde; just a spicy, acidic sauce that went well with the mild beans, salted white rice, and the proteins.

So what if we didn't have the best meal ever. It was fun, it was festive, and a good time was had by all.

Casa Colombia
86-23 Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson Heights

Pollo Peruano, First of Many

La Casa del Pollo Peruano specializes in, as the name might suggest, Peruvian chicken. What's so great about Peruvian chicken, you might be asking yourself? It isn't the chicken that's so exciting. Rotisserie chicken is rotisserie chicken, be it Peruvian or from any other country. For me, it always has been and always will be about the sauce. Oh, that green sauce! While the quality of the food may differ from location to location in the small chain that is Pollo Peruano, the sauce remains consistent. José and I have a system when it comes to our meals there. We always order the same thing and the one time that we differed (there was a chop suey incident that I don't care to discuss) was a disaster. The location on National Street close to 103rd is our preferred location, but since we no longer live in Corona, we make do with the Roosevelt and 82nd St. branch. Here's our order: Number 3 (1/4 chicken, roast pork fried rice & salad $5.20) and Number 7 (1/4 chicken 3-piece spareribs, rice & beans $9.90. And for some reason, and this began about seven years ago, when we eat in, I always get a ginger ale, and Jose gets an orange Snapple. Why? Who knows. It just needs to be done.
Next comes the sauce. For take out, it's whatever they give us, and then I ask for a little extra, and after that I ask for a dollar's worth more. At $.25 a container, it's well worth it. Then the division of the sauce begins.
There are larger containers and smaller ones, the small ones go first. I have yet to figure out the secret to green sauce, or how it's made. I don't know why the sauce is so great, it just is. Tangy, garlicky, and a little spicy, with a very unique flavor from the mystery ingredients. After much research, the secret ingredient might be an herb called huacatay, otherwise known as black mint. Or it could be the Peruvian chile, aji. I don't know. I really don't. But I'm not doing it justice in this description at all. What I do know is that it is delicious, and goes perfectly with chicken, ribs, rice, beans, salad, and fried rice. The vinegar and heat cut the fattiness of the ribs, the salt of the chicken, add depth to the fried rice, and it's perfect on crisp iceberg lettuce (ask for no dressing otherwise you get 1000 Island). For those of you who love Pio Pio and their creamy green sauce, this one is lighter, spicier, and tangier. They are both good. But I like this one more.
The 1/4 chicken and ribs. Sometimes the ribs are amazing. Huge, lots of meat, tender, and fall off the bone. A nice charred taste with a hint of sweetness. Sometimes the meat is tough. Most of the time, if you don't get there early enough on a weekend, there are no ribs left at all. The chicken is much more reliable. Mahogany-colored skin, full of herbs and salt, the meat is soft and shreds easily.
White rice and soupy beans. I don't usually want rice and beans with my chicken because I get...
fried rice! I love the rice here, it's better than most Chinese places. Bits of roasted pork, scallions, and lots of soy. And with the sauce mixed in, perfection.

I realize after re-reading this post that I haven't said much of anything. I guess that's what happens with something that I eat fairly regularly, something that is often so good, and sometimes not so much. I don't have the right words, but I wanted to write about it anyway.

La Casa del Pollo
Peruano II
81-12 Roosevelt Avenue
Jackson Heights

Pupusa Time

Dinner with Stella the other night at Izalco, a Salvadoran restaurant. One of the many benefits of meeting the nice people, such as Stella, of the Jackson Heights Food Group is that if I put up a post on Facebook on a Thursday afternoon to see if anyone feels like dinner in Queens that night, someone is bound to answer, since they live here too. It's great. So that's how dinner happened. Forgive me, people of El Salvador, for using Mexican cuisine as my frame of reference, but with the same names, the comparisons are inevitable.

I ordered horchata to drink, which is very different in flavor from Mexican horchata, in case you were wondering. Mexican horchata is made from rice milk and Mexican cinnamon. Horchata at Izalco, as the waiter told us, is made from rice, milk, peanuts, and a special seed from El Salvador. This special seed, I am assuming, is the morro seed, or calabash. I liked the drink, it was nutty, sweet, and light.


We ordered three types of pupusas: chicharron, queso, and mixtos (beans and chicharron)
Pupusas are corn cakes made from corn masa, much like a Mexican gordita, stuffed with various fillings. They are usually served with a mild tomato sauce and curtido, a vinegar-y cabbage salad.
The three pupusas.


The bean pupusa, topped with the cabbage. Of the three pupusas, the bean filling was mild, the chicharron was not really seasoned, but the cheese had the strongest flavor and most contrast of textures. Earthy corn, griddled crisp outside, soft insde, then melty, salty cheese.

I love cabbage.

I also love Salvadoran tamales de elote (corn tamales) because they are what I imagine all tamales should taste like: soft, sweet, and of fresh corn. Like the best corn bread you could imagine. Plus it doesn't hurt that they serve them with sour cream.

This strange looking picture was the Salvadoran Enchilada. Nothing like a Mexican enchilada. A crisp fried tortilla (tostada in Mezican, as my favorite dishwasher Juan used to say) topped with a mix of meat and potatoes, finally chopped, which reminded us both of empanada filling, and then that was topped with more cabbage. The crunch of the tortilla with the soft potato and tender meat, and the crisp, sharp cabbage was an unexpected and absolutely delicious combination. The hit of the night. A good, cheap dinner. There is a much larger menu with entrees and platters that go for $13 and up, which we did not try. It was too much fun to order small plates. Still lots to do in Woodside, I have to catch up on my eating. This week I'm in Jersey catering, so it's slow going, but I'll be back, and ready to eat, on Monday.


Izalco
6405 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside

Donovan's Pub

There is a banner hanging outside of this pub proclaiming that it has the #1 Rated Hamburger in NY. Of course, even if it didn't advertise the supremacy of their burgers, I would have gone in. It looks mysterious and castle-like from the outside, and the interior is dark and cozy. Jose and I were led to a booth in a private corner, close to the fireplace, but separate from the rest of the diners. I guess we looked like we wanted a romantic dinner. We were looking for burgers, not romance, but it was a nice thought. We decided to snack on wings as a starter, this being a bar and all. And a pint of Guinness to wash them down. The wings came out quickly, extremely hot, very crispy, and the meat inside was steaming and tender. The only light source was the flickering candle on our table, so the following pictures are quite dark.
The wings were not tossed in sauce, as buffalo wings often are. Instead, they were freshly fried, and sent out in a basket with two sauces: sweet and sour, and blue cheese. I like my wings to be spicy. But the wings themselves were meaty and delicious. If the worst thing in my life is that I had to dip my crispy fried wings in some sweet and sour sauce, then I really can't complain.

Then the burgers. We each got one, Jose went for the cheeseburger, I opted for a plain burger. The platters were set before us, a nice pile of fried potato wedges, the burger, and the bun. I do like a little something on my burgers, so I asked the waiter if I could have some lettuce and tomato. He apologized, saying that due to a recent change, lettuce and tomato were $1.25 extra. I still wanted them, extra charge or not, and a few seconds later he handed me a small plate with some iceberg lettuce and a slice of tomato. After topping the burger, I took this picture.

The burger, a thick patty, nicely charred on the outside, pink on the inside, was beefy and juicy.
I would have liked an onion, but it was too late to ask. The fries were crisp and hot, and quite addictive. It was fine, it was tasty, it was a good hamburger. Good, not great. I am not a burger purist, I like my toppings, so maybe I should have ordered the bacon cheeseburger. But it was not the best hamburger I've ever had. I liked Donovan's. I loved the atmosphere, the neighborhood feel, the crackling fire, the service; it's an old school pub, and it was bustling. But I was expecting greatness (with exclamation points!) the best burger in New York! Anything less is disappointing. Of the burgers sampled on Roosevelt Avenue so far, I would rate it #2. To see #1, click here.

Donovan's Pub
57-24 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside

Making Sense of Mojitos

Mojitos Cuban Restaurant, I just don't understand you.
Monday night, David and I walked, in the rain, towards this small, inhospitable looking restaurant on the corner of 52nd St and Roosevelt. The outside is not particularly inviting, in fact it barely looks open for business, but for the sign announcing happy hour and that they are now serving lunch. Good, but we wanted dinner. With trepidation we entered the restaurant, to be greeted by 80's freestyle music, a woman standing behind the bar, and a man seated on a stool. Our entrance immediately caused some confusion. The woman was about to put some napkins down when I told her that we were here for dinner. She looked somewhat surprised, but led us through the bar to the dining room, which was (much to our surprise) full of tables set with white tablecloths, folded red napkins, and lit candles. It was completely empty. I sat on a banquette and we studied our menus, looking for clues. Entrees ranging from $9-$16. Vivid descriptions made for entertaining reading. Some highlights
Picadillo - Ground meat mixed in a savory simmer of tomatoes, green peppers, onions, garlic, and olives
Fricase de Pollo - Hearty chicken stew with a perfect blend of vegetables, tomatoes and herbs
Tropical Salad - Blend of leafy greens bathed in citrus, with fresh oranges and topped with sizzling strips of grilled chicken breast.
And then our favorite
Rabo Encendido- Oxtail stew with a sharp, peppery taste, hence the fiery name.
As we were perusing our not-typical-to-Roosevelt-Avenue menu, I began to notice heads popping up from the kitchen window facing the dining room. First one chef, then another. Staring at us with huge grins on their faces. Were they that excited to have customers, were they curious because we weren't regulars, were we just that strange looking? I will never know. But their reactions, and that of the bartender/waitress did not inspire much confidence. Would the food be any good? Is it fresh? Does anyone ever come here?
David ordered a mojito while I asked the waitress what the specialty of the house was. What do most people get? She mentioned that people like tostones. Well I like tostones too. Tostones Montaditos to be exact, topped with your choice of chicken picadillo or ropa vieja. Ropa vieja! She said that the Rabo Encendido was popular too. We both wanted to sample the sharp, peppery taste. Where are all these people who like tostones and oxtails and how often do they come? Maybe for the live music on the weekends. Maybe every day but today.
Freestyle jams (last song played: Cover Girls, Because of You) quickly changed to Linger by The Cranberries (just cause we're white doesn't mean we love The Cranberries. Except we both kind of do love The Cranberries). The snickering in the kitchen died down once there was work to be done, and we sat back, awaiting our meal.
The Mojito:
David said it wasn't the best he'd ever had. But it disappeared pretty quickly.

Cuban bread, pressed and warm, with butter (margarine?) was brought out to snack on.

Tostones Montaditos
Five large, flattened, crisp plantains, topped with the ropa vieja. Shredded beef, sauteed with red, yellow, and green peppers, tomatoes, onions, and olives. A closer look:
It was tasty, and very filling for an app. The meat was tender and well seasoned, and chunks of olives make anything taste great. $6

Our main dish, brought out with the appetizer, Rabo Encendido.
There was nothing encendido about the rabo. The braised oxtails were tasty, I'll give them that. Stewed with tomatoes, onions, and peppers, the meat was moist and seasoned, but its fiery name did not match its spice level. Spice in Cuba is measured on a different scale, it would seem. The rice and beans, or moros con cristianos were a bit dry and clumpy, but they looked beautiful piled on the plate. $12

A spacious, light dining area, bright red brick walls decorated with classic Havana posters and Cuban flags, the place is not what it seems from the outside. The menu was written with too much care to be a throwaway. The food was well-prepared. Yet the experience was so strange from start to finish. Maybe a rainy Monday night was the problem. But maybe I really wanted Cuban food on a rainy Monday night. There is not much written about Mojitos in Woodside, and what I could find is positive, but now a few years old. Can more people please go there and report back? I remain as confused now as when I first walked through the door.

Mojitos Cuban Cuisine
52-20 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside

Ecuadorian Introduction

I have a new favorite snack. What is it, you ask? Potato cakes! Not potato pancakes, but potato cakes. Don't worry, latkes, you will always be my first love. But these particular potato cakes are not from the old country, they're from the new world of Ecuador. Soft, yellow tinged mashed potatoes, fried crisp on both sides. Like a big, round french fry.
Monday night was dinner at Hornado Ecuatoriano, on 76th and Roosevelt. Although I am supposed to start with Woodside this week, I made plans with Rebecca, a fellow blogger, at this restaurant since it worked for both of our projects. For me, it's on my route, even if I haven't made it to Jackson Heights yet, and for Rebecca, of Fabulously Unforeign, a stop on her world tour. A world tour of New York, since she is "trying to eat the world in one year - without leaving New York City. . . attempting to eat at restaurants from 155 different countries / territories." Of course many of the countries on her list are best represented in Queens, and Ecuador is one of them. So we met for dinner, shared a few plates, and traded blogging stories.

Our meal began with drinks. Jugos naturales, fresh juices made with either water or milk. We both chose milk. I got the mora, a type of blackberry, as suggested by our very helpful waitress, and Rebecca got pineapple. Mine was good. A very light, not too sweet, frothy milkshake. Of course I drank mine too fast, but at $4.00 each I was not planning on ordering another.
For an appetizer we split a quimbolito. It wasn't our first choice, but they were out of humitas.
Quimbolitos, as prepared at this restaurant, are much like a sweet tamal, but made with a coarser meal than Mexican masa. Imagine a softer, more pudding-like corn bread, with a few raisins tossed in.

I was very excited when the waitress placed this on the table:
which looked very similar to my very very favorite Peruvian green sauce. I tasted it, and yes! Thicker, and garlickier than the Pollo Peruano version, but green sauce all the same. Oh, that sauce. On a side note, it is particularly delicious on fried rice.

After much deliberation and many questions to our very patient server, we decided to get a bandera, which has smaller portions of 3 different entrees, along with rice, hominy, salad, and the aforementioned potato cake. I knew I wanted the hornado (lechon), since it seemed advisable to order the namesake dish of the restaurant. That was a given, as was the ceviche. But then the difficult choice between seco de chivo or guatita. We learned that guatita is tripe and seco de chivo is not dry goat, as the name might suggest to us non-Ecuadorians, but more stew-like. For some reason or other we settled on the goat. Here is La Bandera from a few different angles.
Seco de chivo. Very tender pieces of mild goat meat, falling off the bone, simmered in a reddish, tomato-based sauce. It was quite delicious, and the meat was meltingly soft. It reminded me of brisket, and not for the first time on this tour. Remember the Nepali soup? All roads lead back to Jewish holiday food. For me, anyway.

The famous hornado, lying on a bed of hominy. The skin was crackly and crisp, but the meat was sort of tough, and I was very disappointed. I chalked it up to Monday night, and am assuming that on the weekends it is the best lechon ever. Right? I hope so. The hominy, or mote, soaked up all of the flavors on the plate. Fluffy and tasty.
Ceviche consisted of 3 shrimp, some red onions, and lime juice. I ate one, it was fine.
I was much more excited about the avocado, and that beautiful yellow potato cake perched so regally upon its rice throne. I always assumed, when I passed them on the street vendor's grills, that they were corn cakes or plantain. How wrong I was. The waitress told me that they were called tortilla de papa, but I am going to investigate further. And soon. It was a pleasant meal, filled with food that was unfamiliar yet comforting, a Telemundo novela on the screen above, and good conversation. There will be many more restaurants and carts from this interesting country in my future, so I'm glad that Ecuador and I have been formally introduced. It was nice to meet you, and your potato cakes.

Hornado Ecuatoriano
76-18 Roosevelt Ave
Jackson Heights

Off the Avenue, Down an Alley

Tonight I met with the Jackson Heights Food Group for the first time. I was nervous, with no idea what to expect, especially when the restaurant was a nameless, super secret hidden Bengali place at the end of an alley. José was imagining all sorts of situations (kidnapping? being sold into slavery?) as he walked me there, just to make sure, but I was so excited to meet these people, I was willing to wander into the dark alley and risk it.
So it turned out that yes, there actually is a small place called Chillies, which is located at the end of a small alley on 73rd St. between Broadway and 37th Ave. I lived to tell the tale. The owners (I'm assuming that's what they were) served the 20 or so people who descended upon their counter at 7:20 PM this Saturday night for the JHFG with grace and a smile (well, the man of the couple didn't do much smiling but the woman was patient and friendly) as each person made their way up and ordered, mostly by what looked the best. On display were two fish curries, one with eggplant and one without. There was a hotel pan full of chicken curry, a mixed vegetable curry, yellow rice, and a chicken biryani. In another section of the case there were chickpeas, dal, and other cold dishes, but I never made it over there. Also, a tray full of pakoras and some sort of fried bread sat above the selections on the glass case. There didn't seem to be a menu or dinner special, so I asked for half an order of the mixed vegetables, half an order of the chicken, and the yellow rice, which was piled high and enough to feed a family. After each person ordered, their plates were promptly put into one of the two microwaves behind the counter, first the rice, then the curries. Needless to say it took a while for each person to be served. My meal came to $9, although other people paid anywhere from $12 to $16. I'm guessing they charged more for the fish. I sat down at a table close to the door, and dug in, enjoying the conversation around me, and learning more about the group. I wasn't the only first-timer, but most were regulars, and I was jealous to hear about their various food adventures since the creation of the group. Such a great idea, and I'm mad at myself for not finding it sooner.
I didn't bring my camera but here's a phone picture of the chicken:
I liked it. Slightly spicy. Strangely, some of the pieces were nice and tender, and others were incredibly tough. It was hard to eat with just the plastic fork, finally I ended up picking up the pieces and gnawing on the little bones.

Mixed vegetable curry
Terrible picture, I had already scooped half out of the bowl. Carrots, cauliflower, eggplant, onions, for sure. Dried red chillies for spice. Not sure if I am missing other veggies. It had a great caramel-y flavor, which added depth to the curry. Did they caramelize the onions or was it burned? I don't know, but it worked.

I managed to eat most of the rice, even thought the serving was huge. Should I be proud of that?
It looked great, particularly the long, thin, green chillies dotting the bright yellow. It wasn't overtly spicy, but left a slight tingle on the tongue.
I think I chose well from the offerings. Actually, I chose the only things that I would have wanted to eat, since I am (sadly) not a fish eater. A few people that I talked to who had the fish were not thrilled with it, although I can not speak for everyone. Honestly, I could have eaten the worst meal of my life at the secret restaurant and it wouldn't have mattered. It was great to go out on a Saturday night and be able to walk there and back, even in the freezing cold. It was great to finally meet the founder of the group, the famous Jeff Orlick. It was great to go out to dinner with people who care about food and are proud of where they live. I made a detour off of Roosevelt Avenue and into an alleyway on a cold night, and found the community I didn't know I was looking for. Now, I want more food.

Chillie's Grand Sweets and Restaurant
37-18 73rd Street
Jackson Heights

For some better pics of the event, take a look at Judy's flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/judibean/sets/72157623246683199/

Yeti of Hieizan Japanese and Nepalese Cuisine

What to say about dinner tonight? David and I met in Elmhurst and walked all the way down to Sunnyside in the snow, and the wind, stopping for a pair of socks for my cold and sockless brother along the way. I was excited. I've never had food from Nepal, or been to a Japanese-Nepalese restaurant in Queens, or a place called Yeti, so it was a first on all levels. As soon as we opened the door, it was another world. Warm, wood paneled, with intimate booths decorated in a strange (or not so strange, considering the name) mix of woven mats from Nepal and Japanese prints on the wall. I had done all kinds of research this morning, looking for advice, dishes, posting on chowhound with little luck, except a warning to stay away from the sushi. Easy enough, the Japanese half of the menu was not what I was looking for. So armed with a few names of dishes that I looked up online, I began to order. First off, samaya bajee, an appetizer sampler, listed on the menu as choila, bhutun, bhatmas, chiura and achar. We didn't know what to expect, but it came out in a bento box looking like this:

Here is the wikipedia definition of choila:
Choila is a typical Newari dish that consists of grilled water buffalo. It is considered a necessary part of the diet among the Newari people along with several other ingredients.
That isn't very helpful, is it? We did not get water buffalo, but we did have beef, cold chunks of it, marinated and spiced with red chili.
Chiura, as far as I can tell, is beaten rice, or rice flakes, "a dehusked rice which is flattened into flat light dry flakes". They are meant to be mixed into things, like the following dishes.
Bhatmas according to Yeti are stir fried dried soybeans/peanuts
They were definitely soybeans, toasted and crunchy, stir fried with a little oil, hot green chilies, garlic, and onions. It was addictive and would make a great bar snack.
Bhutun, say Yeti, are sauteed stomake, intestine, liver, with garlic, onion and nepali herbs. Of which animal? I would have to say mutton. Apparently, 2 of the 3 Markel children like to eat stomake (I'll have to ask my older brother how he feels about it). The pieces of various innards were chewy and crunchy, especially with the beaten rice mixed in.
Achar I'd had before, it was the one familiar thing on the plate, a nice pickle.

Next up, a Nepali Thali. Our guide for the night, our very pleasant waiter, advised us to get a thali if we wanted something authentic. He recommended the beef thali, but then he recommended beef for everything. The man really likes beef. So we got mutton for a little variety.
A pile of rice, potato and string bean curry, sauteed mustard spinach, dal, the mutton, more pickle, and rice pudding. All for $11.95. I particularly liked the spicy greens, David enjoyed the potatoes,and we both were surprised by the very gingery dal, after having been warned that Nepali dal is sometimes lacking in flavor.

A close up of the mutton
The mutton did have a lamb-y taste, but not quite as strong as we were expecting. Lots of bones. We both agreed that we liked it, but the sauce was very rich (butter, I presume), and as it grew colder, got thicker and even richer.
Pickle close up.

We wanted to try all sorts of different things, so we kept ordering.
Out came the soup:
Also endorsed by our waiter friend, who told us that their soups were special since the noodles were all handmade, was the thinduk. We couldn't resist ordering a large bowl full. The noodles were flat and wide, and had a nice texture to them. There were slices of radish, chopped scallions, and more of the greens, plus bits of mutton floating throughout in a mild broth that smelled just like brisket cooking on Passover (and David backed me up on that one).

Lastly, the momo. By the time these came out, the manager had dimmed the lights so much that I couldn't get a good shot. We got the mixed order, although if it were up to our waiter they would have been all beef. He really likes beef. He told us. There were veg, pork, chicken, and of course beef. There was some confusion as to which was which, but with so many sauces to dip them into, it didn't really matter.
David and I were both so happy to be eating something that was slightly familiar but at the same time completely new. With each dish brought to the table, we looked at each other, smiling but hesitant. We had nothing to compare it to, but it was fun. Should we like it, did we like it? The only way to answer that is to embark on a food tour of Nepal. Or maybe Jackson Heights.

Yeti of Hieizan
43-16 Queens Blvd
Sunnyside

Samosas in Sunnyside

It was with some hesitation that I decided to tackle the next restaurant of the route. Sonali Cuisine seemed perfect: it's on 44th street and Queens Blvd, it adds some variety by not being Turkish or Korean, and I'm always in the mood for Indian food, or Bengali as the case may be. Plus there's a huge poster on the window with a glowing review from the Village Voice. Sounds great. However, when I began my customary research on the place, I came across some horrible, really bad reviews. My favorite one ended: "Someone else please go there just to CONFIRM the SUCKINESS" (yelp Oct09). Well, if you put it that way...
There were complaints about the emptiness, the microwaving of the food, the small portions. Chowhounders weren't too into it, only one person on Yelp said it was worth going to, but Robert Sietsema made it sound so irresistible. I can't let a good review or a bad one shake me, though. It's about the route and the experience, and a bad restaurant will only make for a good story, right? Right?
So with slight trepidation José and I went there for dinner on Friday night.
It was empty, aside from a man with his computer and a cup of tea who alternated between nodding off in his chair and checking his email. But it was only 5 pm (earlybirds that we are), and there did seem to be a pretty brisk delivery business. I knew that I wanted the butter chicken, after having read in the VV that it was "unspeakably rich" and made with "gobs of butter". Otherwise, we would leave it up to the staff. Whatever they might recommend, we would get. That was the plan and we stuck with it.

The waitress was very nice, I'm not saying she wasn't, but here were our recs:


Samosas, 1 meat, 1 veg.


I liked the chunkiness of the potatoes, and the green sauce was good. And I do love a good samosa. But there were all kinds of other things on the menu that would have been more exciting. I guess we look boring. I'm ok with that, but I think I need a new tactic.


Butter Chicken. I got it, it was definitely butter-y.

Vindaloo. Her rec for José. I guess she could see in his eyes that he wanted something spicy, because she said the vindaloo was hot, and had chunks of potatoes. He nodded his head and made it so. It wasn't very spicy at all, but it had a touch of heat, thankfully (if it had been for me, who knows?). It was well seasoned, the potatoes were cooked nicely, and the chicken was pretty moist.
The rice was definitely basmati, contrary to one reviewer that said it was just long grain rice.
It was perfectly good, plain rice.

Garlic Naan. Chewy, crispy, fresh. I watched through the tiny window into the kitchen as disembodied hands (it was a very small window) stretched out naan dough, so I knew it was house made. The waitress recommended the garlic bread because "it has a smell to it" and I know she meant that in the best possible way.
The meal was not terrible, and that was a huge relief. Yes, they used the microwave to heat our tea, the samosas, and maybe even the rice. But they do that at half of the snack places in Jackson Heights. And it was pretty empty. And I've had bigger portions at other places. But it was fun. We enjoyed watching the man in the corner fall asleep on his laptop, the staff was very helpful and friendly, although they might want to keep in mind that there are some slightly more adventurous eaters out there in the world, we had a nice dinner, and the bill was around $25. Maybe it's better to go in with lowered expectations, or maybe I'm not being picky enough, but I can not confirm the suckiness.

Sonali Cuisine
44-13 Queens Blvd
Sunnyside

Coatzingo

A few blocks and neighborhoods were skipped for tonight's dinner, a delivery.

We don't go out for Mexican all that much. I'm married to a Mexican, so when we want good Mexican food, we cook. And when we're lucky, and my grandmother-in-law is here visiting, we eat really, really good Mexican food. We do, however, eat a fair amount of street food here in Queens; tacos, elotes, esquites and such. But José is very picky about where we get it from. More about that when I hit some taco trucks.

When we do get Mexican, it's almost always a delivery, and we usually order from two places, which are both, coincidentally, called Tulcingo. Not to be confused with all of the other Tulcingos out there, and there are many. We order from the Tulcingo on 82nd street (4011 82nd Street), occasionally, and more often from Taqueria Tulcingo on 83rd street (4010 83rd St). Whatever the specials of the day are, that's what we get. Over the past few years, the meals have ranged from absolutely delicious to just good. It seems to depend on who's in the kitchen that night. Any sort of meat, when stewed with chipotle with chunks of potatoes, is a winner. I've had some great albondigas, costillas en salsa verde, and tortitas de pollo as well.

So tonight, Mexican delivery, but for the sake of this blog, we ordered from Taqueria Coatzingo, a Chowhound favorite, and a place to cross off of my list. Coatzingo is all over the boards, the specials are highly recommended, and I've been reading about it for ages but we, for some reason or other, never ate there.
When asked about their specials, the cashier rapidly listed at least ten different options. As soon as she said albondigas I stopped paying attention. I love meatballs of any sort. And then I perked up again when I heard huazontles (if you want to know what they are, click here) and ordered those too. Two dinners? Why not. With so many choices José was at a loss. When asked which special was her favorite, the woman on the phone did not hesitate in endorsing chuletas en salsa verde con verdolagas. With that sort of recommendation you don't even have a choice, do you? The food came fairly quickly, and a free 2 liter Coke as a bonus. Something was a little off, though. The bill was almost $40 for just 3 entrees and José looked a little shocked. Now that may not be shocking to most of you, and it certainly wouldn't be for us eating out in Manhattan, but when we normally order, the specials are below or around 10 bucks, and here they were $12.50. Is it because Coatzingo has more of a non-Mexican clientele than the other neighborhood places? I will find out in the future as I make my way through the other places on Roosevelt, once I actually get to one for real.
But, back to the food: it was more expensive but was it better?


Albondigas (meatballs): the chipotle sauce was done well, spicy but not overpowering, some nice slices of onions throughout, and four large meatballs. They had the right taste, slightly minty, well seasoned and flavorful. Many Mexican cooks either put rice or stuff their albondigas with hard boiled eggs, but these had neither. I asked José what he thought. He concurred that while he liked the flavor, there was some texture missing.


Huazontles: Delicious. Stuffed with cheese, battered and fried, then smothered in a spicy tomato sauce and topped with cream. Huazontles do, as the gourmet sleuth said, have the look of broccoli and taste sort of like spinach. There were all sorts of textures and flavors to the dish: the creaminess of the cheese with the spiciness of the jalapeños in the sauce, the fresh green taste of the huazontle, and the crispy then soft batter. Really good, but I couldn't finish it. Lunch tomorrow.


Chuletas (pork chops): José definitely enjoyed them. The meat was soft, not dry like pork chops can sometimes get. The green sauce was thin and spicy, full of verdolagas, (purslane) which gave it a slightly bitter note, in a good way. It had a complex flavor, and I kept grabbing forkfuls of the sauce, even though I had my hands busy with my two dinners.


The rice and bean container: Lost points for being half the size of the take-out rice and beans that we usually get, but gained points for having a chunk of queso fresco and a spoonful of guacamole.

All in all it was a good meal. Definitely high quality, fresh, and authentic (as authentic as it can get in NY) Mexican cooking. But I have had meals just as good at our usual places, and for slightly cheaper prices. So. I have lots of Mexican restaurants ahead of me. Will I find the perfect place? What does that even really mean? I'm not sure, but it will be fun finding out.

Taqueria Coatzingo
76-05 Roosevelt Avenue
Jackson Heights

Manti Manti Manti!

Turkish dinner tonight at Turkish Grill. I'm slowly, very slowly making my way down Queens Boulevard towards Roosevelt. I met my brother David at the 40th Street Station and when we walked into the restaurant there was only one other couple seated. And at least four waiters. Who were all very friendly, I might add. Our water was refilled at least four times during the meal.
We started with the appetizer platter, which had labne (delish, garlicky with dill), tabule (all parsley but strangely, that made me like it more than usual), hummus (it was ok, but as I stated previously, I am super picky about hummus), baba ganoush (good and smoky, not much tahini, so more like eggplant salad), eggplant salad (roasted chunks of eggplant and peppers) and white bean salad (I liked the one at Mangal better, it had much more onion). We had some trouble deciding what to order for the main course. My biggest problem with ordering at Turkish places is that I never get past the salads. I love salads. That may be obvious by now, but seriously, shepherd's salads, mixed vegetable salads, dips, spreads, all of them, and particularly anything with cheese. I tend to ignore the most important parts of the menu, the parts that most people get excited about. Now don't get me wrong, I love meat on a skewer as much as the next girl, but salads are where it's at for me. To solve the problem, I asked the waiter what the best thing on the menu was, on the meat side. Helpfully, he told me I should get the mixed grill, or chicken kebabs, or the lamb chops, or the doner kebab, or pretty much the whole menu. But he did recommend the Special Beyti Kebab, which was described as grilled lamb wrapped in lavash bread and topped with yogurt and tomato sauce. Who wouldn't want skewered meat wrapped in bread? We also ordered manti, meat-filled dumplings, because David had been reading about them and thought we should give them a try. The dining room began to fill up as we sat there, snacking on our salads. Not too bad for a Wednesday night in January. The meat came out of the kitchen, and the waiters pulled another table over to ours just for our food, so that we had more room to share. Very thoughtful.
The Special Beyti Kebab was certainly special. The grilled lamb slices wrapped in flatbread were delicious when topped with the raw onion and sumac relish that came on the plate, and a squirt of lemon juice. It was also accompanied by a roasted tomato, pepper, shredded cabbage, shredded letttuce, and rice pilaf, which was quite tasty.
I don't know what to say about the manti, though. I love to say manti, and I could say it all day. Manti Manti Manti. But I have never had a manti, I am embarrassed to say (this is going to be a recurring theme in my blog, I fear, just how little of the world I have actually tasted) so I don't know what to compare it to. It tasted like mini lamb meatballs inside of a gnocchi, topped with yogurt sauce. The meat was nicely flavored and minty, the yogurt was refreshing, but I want to know how chewy these things are supposed to be. Somebody please tell me.
After diner we ordered tea, which came in very nice glasses.
I am now one step closer on the 7 train trail, and it feels good. Week 2 has begun! Only 50 more to go...

Turkish Grill
4220 Queens Blvd
Sunnyside