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Even when withdrawn from their namesake basket, tacos de canasta are hard to distinguish once their slim contents are striped by salsa. These, proffered during the after-school rush by a mobile vendor — I didn't check to see whether his kickstand was down — variously held frijoles, papa con chorizo, or chicharrón.
Bicycle-mounted tacos de canasta vendor
This afternoon, on the southwest corner of Junction Blvd. with 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
(This venue is closed.) Dum pakht (or dum pukht) is a means of slow-cooking under tight seal. Often a strip of wheat dough weds the cooking vessel to its lid, encouraging the return of juices and aromas to the simmering food. For our generously seasoned lamb curry enriched with heavy cream, dough was fashioned into the lid itself. (It covered the serving vessel but probably replaced a permanent lid just before the final stages of cooking.) At the table we sliced open this now-bready lid, called a pardah ("curtain" or "veil"), and spooned our curry over rice, then employed torn bits of the pardah to swab up after.
The dum pakht technique was developed in northern India and neighboring Pakistan is but evidently well-established in the United Kingdom: Vintage Curry proclaims itself a home for "British style Indian" food and Chinese halal cooking, too.
Vintage Curry
8777 168th Pl. (Hillside-88th Aves.), Jamaica, Queens
718-206-4206
Both locations of this Bed-Stuy cafe bake their bread (and pastries) in-house. That's an important consideration when the proportions of a sandwich are inclined as much toward bread as toward filling — a common state of affairs for the jambon buerre, the simple French classic named for ham and butter. Nice crisp crust.
Although the capitals of France and Senegal (a French colony for more than a century, ending in 1960) figure in the name "Le Paris Dakar," little on the regular menu is specific to West Africa. Exceptions include a pair of drinks, one made from ginger, the other, from dried hibiscus flowers. Senegalese influence is more evident in the decor, in the background music, among the patrons, and among the staff. "Some of us are from Dakar," a counterman told me, "some are from Paris, some are from here."
Le Paris Dakar
518 Nostrand Ave. (at Macon St.), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
347-955-4100
Also at 1365 Fulton St. (Marcy Ave.-Verona Pl., shown with a Bed-Stuy neighbor)
718-708-5093
www.LeParisDakar.com
Unpersuasive but accurate sign at a liquor store, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
For a Nigerian lunch of mackerel with egusi (squash-seed) sauce, my sole "utensil" was a softball of cassava fufu. The firm-fleshed fish parted cleanly beneath my fingertips and — especially after I uncovered the tail and took it up like a drumstick — between my teeth. Suggested pairing: Mexican Coke.
The Green Place
180 Rockaway Ave. (Atlantic Ave.-Herkimer St.), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
347-785-2738
The steam table is an often misunderstood — even maligned — concept. For those unfortunate souls who know only a lackluster corner deli, it's a repository of "food that's been sitting around all day." A restaurant inspector might insist on stricter criteria — something to the effect, perhaps, of maintaining already-cooked foods at safe holding temperatures by displaying them in pans above a bath of hot water. For us, particularly in the case of a praiseworthy steam table, it's "a picture menu in three dimensions." A poetic definition, perhaps, but to us it rings true. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.
Beside pale half-moons of chả lụa (Zha low-ah), or pork sausage, the dark-leafed bindles each contain a treasure. These translucent chewy tapioca dumplings, traditionally filled with shrimp and pork (and also shown below), are called bánh bột lọc. Rather than spell out a poor suggestion of the sound, let me point you (once again) to Forvo, an invaluable pronunciation dictionary crowdsourced from speakers of hundreds of languages.
Continue reading "Vietnamese Lunar New Year Celebration of Mekong NYC" »
We have ways of ensuring your loyalty: Tesser's roster of specialty items is uncommonly extensive and varied. But complete? No — missed it by a nose.
Tesser's Meat Market
87-84 Parsons Blvd. (Hillside-88th Aves.), Jamaica, Queens
718-523-1041
"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
Shown: a pastelito de carne and a bola de yuca, each with a little bit off the top. H/T Jared Cohee, Eat The World NYC
Dominican snack window beside Mariel Barbershop
271 East 188th St. (at Tiebout Ave.), Fordham Heights, Bronx
Thank you!
