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Brisket, turkey, plantains, and congrí; the sides point to the pitmaster's Dominican heritage. Also shown below, from a previous encounter (and in different light): more brisket, more congrí. I never considered that rice and beans might go so well with barbecue.
H/T NYCBBQ
Bark Barbecue
Smoker and stand on 149th Ave. near the northwest corner with Crossbay Blvd., Ozone Park, Queens
www.Facebook.com/BarkBarbecue
Saturday only, noon till sold out
Old news: Sausage and melted cheese make for good eating. In what this Turkish restaurant calls soudjouk and cheese toast, the sliced sausage is dried, spicy beef, and the cheese is (I believe) kashkaval; in the final photo, they're anointed with hot sauce. The faux-newspaper wrapper did, as I discovered, include a new-to-me crossword puzzle; hot sauce stains made it more puzzling still.
Burchak Pide
1614 Sheepshead Bay Rd. (at Jerome Ave.), Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
315-207-7080
www.Facebook.com/BurchakPide
Uzbek samsy filled with beef, lamb, or onion-laced pumpkin are abundant in Brooklyn and Queens. For a change of pace, how about a samsa filled with chicken and spinach?
Brighton Tandir (principle signage in Cyrillic only)
504 Brighton Beach Ave. (Brighton 5th-Brighton 6th Sts., near the foot of the stairs; service window to the left of Home Made Cooking Cafe), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
It's the unofficial start of okroshka season: a light, refreshing rendition of the cold Russian soup.
Ocean View Café
290 Brighton Beach Ave. (at Brighton 3rd St.), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
718-332-1900
www.OceanViewCafeNY.com
(This venue is closed.) Just one sweet, I told myself. This day, apricot, the apparent crowd favorite, another time, perhaps walnut, farmer cheese, cherry, or blueberry — not to mention all the savory piroshki and chebureki.
Tatar Bakery & Pies
Roadside stand on Brighton Beach Ave. near the northeast corner with Coney Island Ave., Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
Housemade halva ice cream, topped with more halva as well as black and white sesame seeds. After a long walk in search of something cold and refreshing, I'm glad I walked away from the kiddie-colored ices across the boulevard!
Uma's
9207 Rockaway Beach Blvd. (Beach 92nd-Beach 94th Sts.), Rockaway Beach, Queens
718-318-9100
www.UmasRockaway.com
Signage apparently uncovered last year and preserved, appropriately enough, outside collectibles and thrift store The Second Time Around
300 Knickerbocker Ave. (Hart-Suydam Sts.), Bushwick, Brooklyn
347-512-2545
(This venue is closed.) At a West African restaurant, a bowl of runny okra sauce would likely be bolstered by gobbets of meat and accompanied by a wad of fufu. Mine was plumped by compact chicken meatballs, a dozen all told, yet no two alike. Fufu is available, but the chef-owner's first home — Chad, in North Central Africa — is more distinctively represented by the sourdough crepes called kissar. A knife, fork, and spoon will be provided, too, but you might win a smile if "you know how to eat" without them, or at least make the attempt.
Green Garden Buffet
332 East 9th St. (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan
646-575-1248
www.GreenGardenBuffet.com
Pork katsu with curry, some for pouring, more, for dipping, held in reserve.
H/T Ligaya Mishan, from when Suki was a six-seater around the corner
Suki
111 First Ave. (6th-7th Sts.), Manhattan
917-999-6672
www.SukiCurry.com
On a relatively cool evening, this coquito-flavored rice pudding was warmed at my request. Is it just as aromatic on a hot summer day, when served cold? More research required.
Sweet Lucca
83-06 37th Ave. (83rd-84th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
347-335-6811
www.Facebook.com/SweetLucca1
Thank you!
