« October 2016 | Main | December 2016 »
Like a nearby J. Crew Men's Shop, this outlet of sibling brand Madewell has preserved a former tenant's signage to add neighborhood flavor. Indeed, the R&L name is much more prominent than the apparel maker's own. In that regard, Madewell echoes its most famous predecessor at this Meatpacking District location, the French bistro Florent.
Madewell
69 Gansevoort St. (Greenwich-Washington Sts.), Manhattan
646-486-7073
http://stores.Madewell.com/en/madewell-meatpacking
(This post is based on a visit to the restaurant's previous location, two blocks away; Mike now has a storefront and a kitchen of his own.) The owners of R&B, the deli-grocery that provides a kitchen for Mike, come from Yemen; though their bus-stop location doesn't preclude Yemeni dishes, sandwiches and sodas are a much easier sell. Mike himself hails from Antigua, but in the South Bronx, his home island's cuisine might not attract many regular customers. Jamaican is his meal ticket, and this afternoon it was mine, too: I carried off a portion of curry goat (small, $7) ladled over rice and red beans, plus cabbage and assorted vegetables. The curry itself was heavy with well-sauced chunks of meat and potatoes — even a marrow bone.
Also shown: Mike's logo, featuring the flags of both Antigua and Jamaica, and a closer look at surviving signage, across the way, for an electronics store. The many-hued plug for "color TV" (at the bottom of the yellow panel; click for a still-closer view) suggests a 1960s vintage.
Mike's Caribbean Take Out
624 Morris Ave. (151st-152nd Sts.), Melrose, Bronx
646-529-4397
www.Facebook.com/Mikes-Caribbean-take-out-1424452947812587
Pigeon peas and stewed kingfish topped my oildown (Saturday only, large, $11), a stew slow-cooked in coconut milk, herbs, and spices. For this Trinidadian version, the oildown itself may have featured breadfruit; doughy, unfilled Caribbean dumplings and various island root vegetables, known collectively as provisions, are also common. Do note that the handful of seats at this "restaurant" are outside and unsheltered; most of the always-bustling crowd comes for takeout.
Bake & Things Restaurant
184 East 35th St. (at Church Ave.), East Flatbush, Brooklyn
718-826-1807
Also at 1489 Flatbush Ave. (at East 29th St.), Flatbush
718-434-1080
Some of these Afghan kolcha (about $8 per pound) will remind you of familiar American cookies, particularly the pale, pistachio-topped, melt in-the-mouth items up front. The brittle triangles are a little less sweet; their golden color presages the flavor of corn. The smaller round variety, whose indented tops sport a patch of nigella seeds, are actually salty; the counterman proclaimed them "good with tea." Over the course of several days, to my surprise, they proved to be the most compelling of the lot.
Kouchi Supermarket
75-01 Parsons Blvd. (at Kissena Blvd.), Pomonok, Queens
718-380-7670
Look past the visual clutter outside this Israeli-American kosher market. Beside one doorway, the cellotape residue of previous flyers throws shade, literally, on a current special.
My dining buddy and I took note, and made haste; a few minutes later we pulled over to a quiet patch of sidewalk a half-block from Holon. Our plastic spoons were next to worthless for photo styling, so there's little to see here, apart from a pistachio garnish, of the orange blossom and mastika ice cream by Joy Betesh (pint, $4, unlabeled and very possibly underpriced by the cashier). So take my word: The orange is wonderful. We made a good dent in this pint before packing it up; my buddy doubled back for another, to hold in reserve.
Holon Middle East Groceries
527 Kings Hwy. (East 3rd-East 4th Sts.), Gravesend, Brooklyn
718-336-7758
Also at 809 Ave. U (East 8th-East 9th Sts.), Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
718-627-5878
Closed Saturday
www.HolonFoods.com
Fried whole belly clams (large, $18) with a grace note provided by lemon zest.
Cape House
2 Knickerbocker Ave. (at Morgan Ave.), East Williamsburg, Brooklyn
718-821-2580
www.CapeHouse.nyc
Autumn leaves and buffet takeout: red rib tips and golden plaintains atop garlicky green beans (pint container plus a can of soda, $3.75). The food, what little I've tried — I was compelled by the electric sheen of the glazed pork — is notable mainly for quantity at low prices. The photo backdrop was a happy coincidence.
Previously: The signboard man shown below is an audio man, too. Like his colleagues in the touristy districts of Manhattan, he's steering customers from the main drag — in this case Fordham Rd., in the Bronx — to an otherwise obscure place of business down a side street. But rather than shout into the wind for hours at a stretch, he's wearing a small loudspeaker from which a female voice beckons, "Merry Land buffet, all you can eat, check it out," cycling from English to Spanish and back again.
The same message plays from a full-sized speaker outside the storefront, which previously was home to an old-school Chino-Latino joint called Haylemon. The current proprietors are Chinese, too, though on this afternoon their customers were exclusively black and Hispanic. The place was packed.
Merry Land
325 East 149th St (Morris-Courtlandt Aves.), Melrose, Bronx
718-665-6568
511 East 163rd St. (Washington-Third Aves.), Morrisania, Bronx
718-292-3411
2496 Elm Pl. (East Fordham Rd.-East 188th St.), Fordham, Bronx
718-220-8588
Surviving signage, Harriet Tubman Sq. (Frederick Douglass Blvd. at St. Nicholas Ave.), Manhattan
H/T Harlem Bespoke
(As of January 2017, covered with white paint.)
Extra doses of Fletcher's: www.EatingInTranslation.com/2012/03/ children-cry-for-fletchers-castoria.html
(This venue is closed.) Curd rice, also known as yogurt rice in recognition of its two principal ingredients, is a common accompaniment to South Indian meals. Not only does it douse the burn of spicier dishes, but in cases of overindulgence — the plate shown below was just one of several, enabling me to try every item from Hoysala's bottomless buffet (lunch, $13.95) — curd rice can serve as an end-of-meal stomach-settler, too.
Hoysala
Highwood Plaza, 2 John F. Kennedy Blvd., Somerset, New Jersey
732-247-4300
www.HoysalaRestaurant.com
Closed Monday
Thank you!
