DaveCook's Profile
Whelk - Westport
Local whelk chowder was indeed listed on a recent online menu.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Food stalls on the corner of Maple and Main street Flushing?
They do offer noodles as well as dumplings, but not till lunchtime.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Anjappar
This restaurant serves Chettinadu cuisine, that is, food associated with the Chettiar caste from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It's part of a multinational chain, which includes locations in California and New Jersey. Opened yesterday. The menu...
www.anjapparusa.com/pdf/anjappar-newyork-lexington-menu.pdf
...doesn't give prices, but they're on the high side for the neighborhood. Appetizers begin at $5-something for three pakoras, then climb. I'll probably hold off on a meal here till one particular friend, who's traveled widely in India, returns from his current excursion.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Lotus Blue
This restaurant serving "Yunnan-inspired modern Chinese cooking"...
www.facebook.com/lotusbluenyc
...had its soft opening this past Friday. A friend and I had dinner Saturday. The two crossing-the-bridge noodle options were unavailable, as were a couple of other menu items we would have liked to try. I won't go into the pluses and minuses of specific dishes, not from Lotus Blue's second day open to the public; this is more a heads-up. N.B.: Our check was discounted 10 percent for "friends and family," though we're neither. Presumably this will apply throughout the soft-opening period, however long that might be.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Puddin' is great! Tried the new pudding establishment on St. Marks Place--YUM!
If they were out of everything, then their production is precisely up to the level of their sales. I do take your point, but Clio is in the fortunate position of not needing to scale up her operation, not till she's ready.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park
I liked it fine. Top Taste is worth trying if you're out that way, but I wouldn't make a special trip until someone who knows Guilin chow says otherwise. The menu is below.
Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park
Yes, on my previous visit to the neighborhood, early this month. It's more floral than pungent; I like it very much.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park
Revisited yesterday. Ate middling hand-pulled noodles with fish balls from Grand Noodle House. The Ribeye and South Asian stalls still seem far from opening, and the Saigon stall, whose business was very slow on the day of my initial visit, seems already to have called it quits. The stall previously identified as Chili Time is almost ready to go, though only in retrospect have I realized that the signage had changed. I didn't take a photo, but I'm pretty sure that the new name is Laoma Ma La Tang, with a logo like that of the vendor at the New World Mall, in Flushing.
The crew at Shanghai Family Dumpling were intently picking crab meat for xiao long bao. Lena, the owner of the nearby No. 1 Ice Cream, later told me (over a scoop of avocado) that this stall was opened by the owners of Shanghai Traditional Dumpling, a small business set into the frontage of Fei Long. At that older business, pan-fried is the order of the day.
I noted at least two other newish businesses that let space from Fei Long: Chili Chilly, which despite the name serves only savory food, and Top Taste, a family-run operation that claims to serve "the only authentic Guilinese cuisine" in New York. I noshed on rice noodles with beef, crispy pork (labeled "chicharron," owing to a Spanish-conversant menu maker), toasted soy beans, and preserved green beans, but I've never been to Guilin and don't know what's what. Perhaps other Chowhounds can look into Top Taste.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Puddin' by Clio....
Yes, Clio had a problem. So many customers visited in the first few days that she needed a day off just to catch up. To "replenish the pantry [and] Clio's energy," the doors were closed one day this week, too. Generally the shop is open after 4:00; you can double-check via all the usual avenues.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
La Orquidea -- great Honduran food in the South Bronx
I found La Orquidea shuttered in July 2010. Too bad; they made a nice baleada.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Bahn Mi - Vietnamese Sandwiches on the Upper West Side
Quick & Quality does in fact employ this apparatus to prepare Vietnamese coffee but sets it atop a takeout cup. There aren't too many seats for dining in, at the moment.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Beer Lao
That's still a bummer, but thanks for the update Udom's.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Beer Lao
Udom's Thai and Indonesian Grocery (81 Bayard St.) carried both the light and the dark last time I stopped in. You might also contact the Paleewong Trading Co., which distributes Beer Lao as well as Singha.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
bo zai fan at neighborhood bakery inc
Would you share the address and telephone number?
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Puddin' is great! Tried the new pudding establishment on St. Marks Place--YUM!
The chocolate cake -- which incorporates veins of two puddings, coffee and chocolate -- is also very good.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park
Only the sawdust pudding -- which has the flavor but not the texture of tiramisu -- not any of the more traditional Asian desserts.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park
You may not be far off. But $3.75 is a deal for six nice pork xiao long bao (crab-and-pork are $6.75). So is $9.95 for a lobster stir-fry, though next time I'll remember that the salt-and-pepper style was very salty and pretty peppery, too. I've blogged both of these, briefly. I'm pinning some hope on South Asian Delight, which, like the other yet-to-open stalls, has signage in Chinese as well as English.
Dessert attractions, though not under the same roof as at the New World Mall, include No. 1 Ice Cream and Kulu Desserts, each a very short walk away.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Fei Long Food Court, Sunset Park
This new eleven-stall food court opened two weeks ago on the premises of the Fei Long Market, 6301 Eighth Ave.. The market itself moved to the back of the building.
Shanghai Family Dumpling, whose short menu focuses on xiao long bao, had the longest queue when I stopped in for lunch. It's the first stall on the left as you enter; the others, proceeding clockwise, are New York Ribeye Steak, Shall We Eat (congee, cheung fun, BBQ meats over rice), Chili Time, Emperor's Hot Pot, Saigon Express, South Asian Delight, Maine Lobster House, Grand Noodle House (hand-pulled, with the usual fixings), Sakura Teriyaki Express, and Pan Pan (frozen yogurt). As of my visit, the Ribeye, Chili Time, and South Asian stalls had yet to launch.
Dave Cook
www.EatingInTranslation.com
Flushing Mall To Close In 2012
I don't have an update on the mall as a whole, but I did note one new stall during a late-morning walk-through on New Year's Eve. The food court as a whole was quiet; only Temple Snacks had a decent amount of customers, and, as reported on other threads, a number of stalls have already shuttered. The Chengdu vendor decamped some time ago, but as of one week ago that spot is occupied by a new vendor, Night of Shanghai. Menu below.
Dave Cook
http://www.EatingInTranslation.com
Flushing Report: Yan Bian True Taste Restaurant, 35-38 Union St
Unfortunately Peter didn't attract enough business, it seems. This location is now the home of Chung-Ah Restaurant, whose owner is from the Northeast, but not Yanbian.
Dave Cook
http://www.EatingInTranslation.com
La Marmite in Harlem
For mafe, try Keur Coumba, 125 West 116th, between Lenox and Adam Clayton Powell.
Hakka sighting on new menu at Obento Delight
The new takeout menu needs to be better organized, the counterwoman acknowledged; for the time being the menu in my hands is available only by request. In addition to what seems all the previous Japanese fare, it includes many sections each under the broad rubric "Indo-Chinese." There are many chilli and a few Manchurian dishes, as well as lobster Hong Kong style, Szechuan fried rice, Thai shrimp curry, Amercian chop suey, and a couple of dishes labeled Hakka.
Although I don't hold out great hope for the quality, I give them credit for offering the choice of Hakka chilli chicken either dry or with light gravy.
Asian Taste 86 in Elmhurst--Mostly Indonesian
Stopped in today after an early lunch nearby. The lady I spoke with said they'd been open two weeks, but except to confirm that they had no connection with Minang Asli, she didn't seem to want to discuss that earlier business.
If one Indonesian-owned restaurant disappears, it's nice that another takes its place, albeit with a limited menu. Perhaps with the encouragement of customers -- a large family party entered just as I left -- they'll expand on the bill of fare.
Garifuna Star -- World's rarest cuisine comes to South Bronx
What food does one find at these carts, in summer?
La Marmite in Harlem
Sorry, no, La Marmite has been supplanted by a bistro called Yatenga. I don't believe they serve mafe.
Indo-Pak (specifically Nihari)?
I'll direct you even a bit farther afield. While scouting before dinner in Jersey City, I stopped into Khaja Haleem & Grill ( http://www.khajahaleem.com/ ). It's been open about a month; very clean, lean, almost austere setting. Although I don't see nihari listed online, goat nihari and chicken nihari both appear on my takeout menu. Worth a look next time you take the PATH.
Any Tips on Getting into Rao's ?
For kicks, here's the photo I took of Rao's shortly before I was invited inside for a look-see. It has no evidentiary relationship with the restaurant's seating policy, only with its location on the corner of a one-way street.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/eatingintranslation/3581044035/lightbox/
Any Tips on Getting into Rao's ?
Perhaps a couple of years ago, while doing research in the neighborhood, I walked by Rao's in midafternoon and saw the door open. "You want, you can have a look around, just no pictures," said a fellow who stepped outside. Another fellow, more senior, showed up some minutes later as I was perusing the photo gallery. After we exchanged pleasantries (but not names), he told me that I could stop in any evening and sit at the bar for a drink. "But you won't eat," he added, in a just-so-you-know manner of speaking.
Zaab-Elee, new Thai in the east village, now the best Thai in NYC, perhaps.
You're not, possibly, thinking of Overseas Taste (previously Overseas Asian) or Skyway (successor to Sentosa), are you? The northeast corner of Canal and East Broadway is occupied by Seward Park.
