(This venue is closed.) Javanese-style Surinamese, to be exact. At Mae's Kitchen, East Indies meets West Indies, thanks to their shared Dutch colonial heritage.
I haven't tried their Caribbean take on lumpia, satay, and the noodles they call bami; Mae's opens early in the morning, and shortly after noon, much of the menu wasn't readily available. Lunch specials ($6 each) of tangy-sweet chicken with rice, and soupy "cookup" rice with chicken, black-eyed peas, spinach, and carrots, were accompanied by a few spoonfuls of "salad," which amounted to pickled cucumber.
The food might have seemed more interesting if the setting weren't so bare. Trust me, though: Neither I nor my lunch buddy, John Roleke, who manages the Queens pages on About.com, left anything but bones on our plates.
Mae's Kitchen
134-06 Liberty Ave., Richmond Hill, Queens
718-206-1282
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