Follow the money: At a recent Burmese fundraiser, shrimp fritters arrived fashionably late and quickly drew a crowd.
Continue reading "National Humanitarian Fundraising for Myanmar Food Fair" »
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U peel 'em, U lose lots of wok-kissed flavor: crispy fried shrimp. For more photos from a Taiwanese lunchtime gathering that spanned two tables, each with a lazy susan, see the EIT page on Facebook.
Q Town Asian Cuisine
82-87 Broadway (at Whitney Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-898-8281
www.QTownAsianCuisine.com
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The nieve code: Colored hand towels identify tubs filled with flamboyant Mexican ices. Clockwise from right, they signify limón, tamarindo, piña, guayaba, melón, and (partially tucked away) mango. Also shown: my guava ice, in bubblegum pink.
Mexican ices vendor
North side of Roosevelt Ave. between 88th and 89th Sts., Jackson Heights, Queens
Daily, afternoons
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"Each year in late summer, some of the best athletes on the planet converge on Flushing Meadows Corona Park to compete in the United States Open Tennis Championships. ... The tournament site does provide hungry fans with several cafés and casual bar-restaurants as well as a pair of 'food villages.' But when in Queens — where some of the best food in the city is so close at hand — why would we confine ourselves to the boundaries of the tennis center?" Read more on Culinary Backstreets.
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"Kueh" (pronounced Kway, also spelled kue and kuih) is a broad term embracing many small Southeast Asian savories and sweets. Kueh are everywhere in Malaysia — the previous home of the Little House owners — as well as Singapore and Indonesia, but they're hard to track down in New York. Sanur, a bi-level establishment on Doyers St., in Manhattan's Chinatown, once showcased the city's brightest and most varied selection in the window of their upstairs cafe, but when the owners chose to focus on their downstairs restaurant, the windowside shelves were left bare.
A few kueh, consigned by an outside confectioner, do crowd their way onto the countertop at Little House. Layered kueh like these commonly are made from layers of steamed rice flour blended with mung bean starch, and customarily are colored to signal their flavors, in this case, pale green for pandan, deep brown for palm sugar. I expected that these kueh would be purely sweet, but to my surprise the pandan layer was salted, too, a tad much.
Also shown: a tray of housemade bak chang, the pyramid-shaped Malaysian analog to zongzi, and pulut panggang, leaf-wrapped cylinders of glutinous rice filled, for this variety, with shredded coconut and dried fish. More details, you can unwrap for yourself.
Little House Café
90-19 Corona Ave. (90th-Hampton Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-592-0888
www.Facebook.com/pages/Little-House-Cafe-Elmhurst/474707772715154
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Kang hung ley goes hand in hand with kang hoh. The first is a thick pork-belly curry; its sour and spicy flavors evoke Myanmar (where the curry originated) and neighboring Northern Thailand (where Lamoon's chef was born). The second is based on the curry, which is stir-fried with noodles and vegetables.
At a restaurant where both dishes are available à la carte, such as Lamoon, sufficient kang hung ley must be reserved for the explicit purpose of preparing kang hoh. But kang hung ley is also well-known, in its homeland, as a festival food. And when large quantities are made for the monks at a temple celebration, the often copious leftovers are commonly transformed into kang hoh for congregants and volunteers — and, perhaps, a second meal for the monks.
For many more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.
H/T Joe DiStefano, Chopsticks and Marrow, and Jared Cohee, Eat the World NYC
Lamoon
81-40 Broadway (at 82nd St.), Elmhurst, Queens
917-745-1168
www.LamoonThaiNY.com
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What's the difference, I asked the counterwoman, between the baked goods at top center and at top right? Just the names and the shapes, she told me. The pandebono is more pyramidal, while the flatter, knobbier rosca suggests a crown, its literal translation, but each is a cheese bread. (To be sure, these names and shapes vary from bakery to bakery.) Standard tiebreaker, since I had room for only one savory Colombian pastry while on my way to lunch: Heed the wisdom of the crowd that came before me, and have what they've been having.
For more on baked-goods style and substance, see this Guatemalan trio.
Blue
82-63 Broadway (at Elmhurst Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-396-0717
www.Facebook.com/BlueCafeRestaurantNYC
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"Stewed pork noodles with pork" is the menu's less than forthcoming translation of 红烧肉炖粉条, hóngshāo ròu dùn fěntiáo. How about "red-braised pork belly over noodles" instead? For more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.
Chef Guo
83-29 Broadway (Whitney-Dongan Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
(on the former site of Uncle Zhou, which is temporarily closed during relocation)
718-393-0888
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(This venue is closed.) Bandera of beans, rice, and chilorio — pulled pork, Sinaloa style. In that Mexican state the meat is often simmered with and gently sweetened by orange juice; traditionally it is then fried in lard with chiles, garlic, cumin, and other seasonings. On this platter, an especially nice touch was the addition of green olives to brighten the refried beans.
Previously: The spicy Mexican soup called birria is traditionally prepared with goat or lamb, but it can also be made with beef, as shown below. My bowl, as a consequence, offered lean meat and a little skin but no chopped-to-order off-cuts — who can butcher a side of beef on the spot? — and the tortillas, though pre-dipped, had the too-regular shape of mass production. Compare the exemplary version at Birria el Güero. At that Mexico City restaurant, however, "no hay birria chica"; in Elmhurst, a fellow like me, working on his second lunch of the afternoon, can limit himself to a small order like this and have more than his fill.
Birria is best-known from the Mexican state of Jalisco; Sinaloa, this restaurant's namesake, is somewhat to the north. Awaiting a return visit, for breakfast, is a Sinaloense specialty: machaca con huevos, shredded dried beef scrambled with eggs.
Sinaloense
40-80 Case St. (Elmhurst-Whitney Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
917-832-7797
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Thank you!
