CHOW: Outer Boroughs Digest

Winter Warmup in the South Slope

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:29:00 -0800

As winter creeps nearer, the goulash at Korzo is sounding mighty fine. Served with pan-seared spätzle, it’s “first rate, spicy and soul-satisfying,” promises Deb Van D. Other winners on the wide-ranging Mitteleuropean menu include latkes, Czech-style slow-roasted pork fier, and a white bean soup that Deb found “really good, really zippy.”

Korzo, which opened a year and a half ago under the name Eurotrip, has settled into a groove that’s unexpected and welcome, Bob Martinez suggests. “Central European food in New York is usually formulaic. It can be good but it’s stuff you’ve had before,” he writes. “Korzo is trying to break that mold. The chef isn’t afraid to branch out a bit and the flavors are distinctive.”

Korzo [Park Slope]
667 Fifth Avenue (between 19th and 20th streets), Brooklyn
718-285-9425

Board Link: Korzo (f.k.a. Eurotrip), 5th Ave.

A Saloon Turns Back the Clock

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:05:00 -0800

Hounds are settling comfortably into Henry Public, a brand-new/old-school watering hole in Cobble Hill. jmh loves the hamburger, made from grass-fed beef ground in-house. EJC (who prefers Waterfront Ale House for burgers) thinks snackish small plates—marrow bone, radishes with salted butter, house-made juniper pickles—are the way to go. There’s also been tantalizing talk of aebleskivers, the Danish pancakes that are an occasional hound obsession, known here as Wilkinsons.

But Henry Public, like its sister bar Brooklyn Social, sounds as if it’s less about food and more about drinks, including cocktails like the Eagle’s Dream (gin, lemon, egg white, sugar, crème de violette). The owners turned back the clock, transforming a former TV repair shop into a 19th-century saloon, and it works. “You would think it had always been a pub,” says jmh.

Henry Public [Cobble Hill]
329 Henry Street (between Atlantic Avenue and Pacific Street), Brooklyn
718-852-8630

Board Link: Henry Public

Three Reasons to Come to Williamsburg

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:57:00 -0800

C Elise was stopped in her tracks by the Car Bomb, a dessert at the newish Saltie in Williamsburg. It’s a scoop of salted caramel ice cream drowned in Guinness. “How perfect is that?” she muses. That same caramel ice cream might also turn up between two dark-chocolate cookies in a winning sweet/salty sandwich, says tabs.

Saltie, opened in September by Caroline Fidanza (Diner, Marlow & Sons) and two other Diner alumnae, also makes a few simple but out-of-the-ordinary sandwiches. Try the Captain’s Daughter: sardines, pickled egg, and salsa verde on focaccia.

Williamsburg seems to be quite the sweet spot these days. A few blocks from Saltie is Bakeri, opened this summer by the owners of Sweetwater. tabs singles out the lavender shortbread: “So delicate and wonderful.”

Saltie [Williamsburg]
378 Metropolitan Avenue (near Havemeyer Street), Brooklyn
718-387-4777

Bakeri [Williamsburg]
150 Wythe Avenue (at N. Eighth Street), Brooklyn
718-388-8037

Board Links: The Car Bomb will change your life
Bakeri–Extremely Charming and Tasty in Williamsburg

Pizza Every Which Way, Brooklyn to Queens

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:41:00 -0700

Grandma pizza, the home-style sauce-over-cheese Sicilian variant, is better known on Long Island than in the city, though it seems to be pushing westward. Mike R. loves the one at Ciccio’s in Brooklyn: “it’s got all the right flavor, with sweet rich tomatoes and the burnished edge like good Sicilian pies should have.” As long as you’re there, he adds, check out the special fresh-mozzarella slice and the regular slice (with relatively rare sesame-seed crust).

There’s another great grandma pizza, in Queens, advises Jeffsayyes, at Louie’s in Elmhurst. The regular slice is also hound-worthy, boasting a very thin crust with a nice crisping of flour. This relative newcomer is “seriously good,” icelandadam declares, and especially welcome in a neighborhood where first-rate pizza is scarce.

Ciccio’s Pizza [Gravesend]
207 Avenue U (at W. Fifth Street), Brooklyn
718-376-9695

Louie’s Pizza [Elmhurst]
81-34 Baxter Avenue (between Ithaca and Judge streets), Elmhurst, Queens
718-440-9346

Board Links: Upside Down Pizza at Ciccio’s
best pizza in elmhurst?

South Asian Heat in a Bowl of Soup

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:05:00 -0700

As winter moves in, hounds have been talking soup around Queens. round2 tosses a newcomer into the pot, Herb International Soup Factory up in College Point.

The owners are Indian and Afghan, and the menu—around six soups and four stews, plus daily specials—leans South Asian. round2 and her husband loved a vegetarian dal soup, another with chicken and lentils, and delicious, freshly baked Afghan-style bread. Other soups in the lineup might include pumpkin and vegetables, lentil with lamb and vegetables, chicken with rice and vegetables, and chicken curry or tandoori masala with vegetables.

Servings are a generous 16 ounces for $3 or $4. The setup is mostly takeout, though the interior is “rather lovely and comfortable,” round2 adds. Those who stick around might find themselves doubly warmed—by robust soups as well as Bollywood heat on the video screens.

Herb International Soup Factory [College Point]
15-20 College Point Boulevard (between 15th and 18th avenues), College Point, Queens
718-886-2266

Board Link: Any new or interesting South Asian in JH or elsewhere?

Forecast: Soup Days Ahead

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 12:30:00 -0700

Soup’s on, just in time for this month’s rude preview of winter. ferdia says Mexican hound haunt Taqueria Coatzingo makes two of the best broths in Queens: a rich, porky posole (spike it to taste with lime juice, cilantro, onion, and cumin) and spicy, bright red chilate de pollo, full of chunks of tender chicken and hauntingly scented with an unnamed Mexican herb (2slices guesses it’s papalo, which also turns up in Coatzingo’s terrific cemitas). Either of these soups is a meal in itself, ferdia advises.

A few blocks up the street, Jose Fish Market, a go-to spot for Jackson Heights hounds, is on its game, dishing up cheap, delicious seafood soups: “Surprisingly good and very well seasoned,” says janethepain, especially with some hot sauce and a squeeze of lemon.

For lentil soup with a Turkish kick, phylrose suggests the ezogelin at Mangal in Sunnyside. (Get it with a slice of lahmacun, the crisp lamb flatbread, urges Anicca.) megc counts on Il Bambino in Astoria for “pretty kickass soups.” Recent choices have included split pea or Tuscan white bean with prosciutto; an autumnal pumpkin-apple; and a popular smoked-tomato bisque.

In Long Island City, Sage General Store also makes excellent soups, including daily vegetarian choices, phylrose reports. Coming up this week: chicken-vegetable with lime, roasted tomato-fennel, and roasted butternut squash, among others.

Thai soups can deliver heat in more than one way. ferdia goes for num tok noodle soup at Chao Thai in Elmhurst, which can be ordered with beef or pork, and light or dark (that is, enriched with pork blood). Nearby Ayada makes a killer beef tendon soup, also offered light or dark. icelandadam swears by it.

For a restorative tonic, ferdia recommends the Malaysian-style bak kut teh at Taste Good, which is a rich brew with medicinal herbs, fried tofu, and pork stomach and rib (just the thing to scare away the swine flu).

And Miss Needle fortifies herself at Woo Chon with sachul jungol, a spicy Korean lamb casserole with vegetables and perilla (shiso) seeds. “Stick-to-your-ribs hearty comfort food for the winter,” she promises.

Taqueria Coatzingo [Jackson Heights]
76-05 Roosevelt Avenue (near 76th Street), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-424-1977

Jose Fish Market [Jackson Heights]
81-04 Roosevelt Avenue (near 81st Street), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-478-0232

Mangal [Sunnyside]
46-20 Queens Boulevard (between 46th and 47th streets), Sunnyside, Queens
718-706-0605

Il Bambino [Astoria]
34-08 31st Avenue (near 34th Street), Astoria, Queens
718-626-0087

Sage General Store [Long Island City]
24-20 Jackson Avenue (between 45th Avenue and 45th Road), Long Island City, Queens
718-361-0707

Chao Thai [Elmhurst]
85-03 Whitney Avenue (near Broadway), Elmhurst, Queens
718-424-4999

Ayada [Elmhurst]
77-08 Woodside Avenue (between 77th and 78th streets), Elmhurst, Queens
718-424-0844

Taste Good [Elmhurst]
82-18 45th Avenue (between 82nd and 83rd streets), Elmhurst, Queens
718-898-8001

Woo Chon [Flushing]
41-19 Kissena Boulevard (near Main Street), Flushing, Queens
718-463-0803

Board Links: Good soups in Queens?
Recent Jackson Heights meals #3

Where Kimchee Meets Wheat Dough

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:44:00 -0700

HLing went nose-to-nose with a gigantic kimchee bun at Ming Chan Dong, and came out a winner. “The bun was almost as big as my face,” she swears, but it went down in no time thanks to its well-balanced and spicy but not overpowering filling stuffed into tasty wheat dough. The same dough is made into buns filled with pork, red bean, or vegetables (robust and delicious), as well as ma hua, deep-fried foot-long braided rolls that are slightly sweet and agreeably chewy.

Ming Chan Dong is on Union Street in Flushing, which marks the rough border between New York City’s richest hunting grounds for Korean food (mostly to the east) and Chinese food (mostly to the west). Not surprisingly it’s a Korean-Chinese hybrid, serving kimchee soon dubu (soft bean curd), more tart and flavorful than most, and both the Korean and Chinese versions of noodles in bean sauce with pork. The menus are in Chinese and Korean only; the waiter, who speaks both, is from an area of China near the Korean border.

“This is a new type of restaurant that’s got the best of both worlds,” HLing writes, “a very unpretentious place that suits my ‘peasant’ taste well.”

Ming Chan Dong [Flushing]
36-24 Union Street (between Northern Boulevard and 37th Avenue), Flushing, Queens
718-358-3935

Board Link: Giant Kimchi Buns from the borders of China & korea

Honduran Discovery on Staten Island

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:35:00 -0700

Los Catrachos on Staten Island rolls out an excellent baleada, Flaco reports: chorizo, egg, beans, cheese, and sour cream in a freshly made flour tortilla. This Honduran place in Stapleton also brews a very good horchata (“not sickly sweet like you’ll find too often”) and makes good-looking soups and pupusas, too. All in all, Flaco says, it’s cause for celebration in the neighborhood: “Viva Stapleton!”

Los Catrachos [Staten Island]
125 Beach Street (at Van Duzer Street), Staten Island
718-448-4820

Board Link: Los Catracho’s Honduran, Staten Island

A Snow Crab Hat Trick, Cantonese Style

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 08:10:00 -0700

Snow crab three ways—spicy, spare, satisfying—is the don’t-miss special right now at Imperial Palace in Flushing. This blowout banquet order features the signature house preparation, crab steamed over sticky rice, but “a touch spicier than usual and fantastic,” says wew. A stir-fry with scallions comes as a welcome contrast, simple and delicious. And snow crab steamed in a comforting custard with light soy sauce shows once again “just how unbelievable food can be,” wew promises.

Imperial Palace, a Chowhound perennial for Cantonese seafood, also came through for wew with, among other things, a sublime steamed fish with ginger, Hong Kong fried shrimp, stir-fried fresh conch, salted-fish fried rice, and XO oysters, delicious and huge (“I think they were from Bikini Atoll”).

To any wine-lovers thinking of bringing in a bottle or two, wew says knock yourself out. Three especially happy pairings were a 2005 Savennières Clos du Papillon with the crab over rice, a 2005 Brewer-Clifton Sweeney Canyon Chardonnay with the crab custard, and a 2007 F.X. Pichler Dürnsteiner Kellerberg Grüner Veltliner with the stir-fried crab and the fried shrimp (though really, wew adds, the Grüner is “a wine that is fine with anything”).

Imperial Palace [Flushing]
136-13 37th Avenue (near Main Street), Flushing, Queens
718-939-3501

Board Link: Imperial Palace–what to order?

Not Quite Your Grand-Mère's Country French

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:08:00 -0700

The food at Sue Perette is simple, seasonal, and more or less French. Nehna, who is rarely blown away, finds herself blown away.

This month-old spot in the old Café Doré space makes one “stunningly good” Berkshire pork shank, she says, falling-off-the-bone tender and served with cumin cauliflower and greens. But that was just one of a procession of hits from the brief menu: a trio salad of celery remoulade, wine-braised leeks, and marinated mushrooms; the pastifret, a delicious cross of pâté and rillette; double duck, an entrée of roasted breast and braised leg with Brussels sprouts; and, for dessert, fromage blanc with berries, honey, and lemon zest. Others recommend the lentil salad (with arugula, mirepoix, and preserved lemon) and the fish entrée, in a ragoût of fennel, tomato, and olives.

So what about that name? First, it refers to the superette, or French country store, and Sue Perette does sell house-made preserves and pâtés. Second, it’s a nod to the homey cooking of the owners’ grandmothers, both named Susanne. As co-owner Benoit explains, “we decided to make a person out of it, and there you have Sue Perette.” Enchantée, as Nehna might say. “Enough of the generic French bistros,” she writes, “this place needs to survive.”

Sue Perette [Carroll Gardens]
270 Smith Street (between Degraw and Sackett streets), Brooklyn
718-643-2861

Board Link: Sue Perette (on Smith between DeGraw and Sackett)

Taiwanese Revival in Flushing

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 13:13:00 -0700

Temple Snacks has been a wandering ministry for devotees of Taiwanese street food, starting a few years back at the Flushing Mall food court. Last year it decamped for a new place a couple of blocks east, a Chowhound favorite that was sadly short-lived.

Now it’s back where it started. Among other things, it makes superior versions of the thick, comforting soups beloved in Taiwan, including one with pork intestine that FattyDumplin considers the best in Flushing—which would most likely make it the best in New York. Overall, he adds, the food is “very simple but yummy,” including a fine Taiwanese-style sausage. Past reports praise Temple Snacks’ gua bao, a snackish sandwich of stewed pork belly and pickled vegetables in a steamed bun, commonly called a Taiwanese burger.

That’s not to be confused with the delicious cumin-scented lamb burger from Xian Famous Foods at Golden Mall on Main Street. These days you can also get one at Flushing Mall, at the newish Xian Famous Foods outpost one stall over from Temple Snacks. Try the lamb noodles, FattyDumplin suggests.

A block away, Jim Leff has struck gold at Golden Szechuan. Beef shank with garlic is supertender stewed meat in succulent brown sauce, a brilliant union of Sichuan, Shanghai, and even old-school Jewish cooking, with an “ultra-slow building burn that was so unexpected and so wonderful.” Fish in hot bean paste sauce is spicy and sublimely cooked, and tea-smoked pork boasts perfect, elegant smokiness. All three dishes are “worth a trip from anywhere,” Jim says. He does fault a lack of numbing/spicy Sichuan peppercorn in his initial order, an omission he ascribes to “gringo displeasure concerns” on the part of the staff. But they came around after he complained. Chalk it up to miscommunication.

No such communication problems these days at M&T, a recent hound discovery that offers dishes from Qingdao in Shandong Province, north of Shanghai. The real-deal specialties, once listed only in Chinese, have now been translated into English, scoopG reports. Some recent hits: pork belly stewed in kelp; fried prawns with dried chile and Sichuan peppercorn; sea worms (a critter something like sea cucumber) stir-fried with Chinese chives; salt-and-pepper Bombay duck (dried lizardfish), rehydrated, battered, fried, and served with basil; and, for dessert, fried pumpkin fritters, crisp, light, and not too sweet. Polecat sums it up: This is “simple food with some subtle and unique flavors. Highly recommended.”

Temple Snacks [Flushing]
In the Flushing Mall food court
133-31 39th Avenue (between College Point Boulevard and Prince Street), Flushing, Queens
347-515-4558

Xian Famous Foods [Flushing]
In the Flushing Mall food court
133-31 39th Avenue (between College Point Boulevard and Prince Street), Flushing, Queens
No phone available

Golden Szechuan [Flushing]
133-47 Roosevelt Avenue (between Prince Street and College Point Boulevard), Flushing, Queens
718-762-2664

M&T Restaurant [Flushing]
44-09 Kissena Boulevard (between Cherry and 45th avenues), Flushing, Queens
718-539-3398

Board Links: Flushing Mall Update
Golden Sichuan in Flushing
New in Flushing: M&T Restaurant–A Taste of Qingdao

Street-Smart Tamales in Mott Haven

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:37:00 -0700

Of the two cart vendors on bigjeff’s go-to block for tamales in the Bronx, pick the mom-and-son team to the west. The tamales oaxaqueños are the best: chicken in red sauce or mole, or pork in spicy green sauce, all steamed in banana leaf—$2 for “a monster,” jeff promises.

Also on offer: sweet tamales with raisin and cinnamon, and terrific non-Oaxacan tamales with a variety of fillings, including a nice spicy cheese one. The cart is there on the weekends and maybe other days, too.

Tamale vendor [Bronx]
E. 138th Street (between Willis and Third avenues), Bronx
No phone available

Board Link: McCarren Park Quimbolitos

Winning Upscale Mexican at Fonda

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:40:00 -0700

Fonda, open barely a month, has South Slopers lining up for its dressed-up Mexican food. Sauces and moles are varied and delicious, hounds say: Shrimp enchiladas are topped with a unique hazelnut mole; moist, tasty pork adobo comes with mulato chile sauce.

marksbirch singles out the “Marco Pollo”: achiote-marinated braised chicken with roasted tomato-habanero salsa. Others like roasted cod (with tomatillo-serrano salsa), a grilled chorizo appetizer (with Oaxaca and Chihuahua cheeses), and the burger (seasoned with guajillo chile and served with avocado and pico de gallo). The chef, Roberto Santibañez, is a Mexico City native and Rosa Mexicano alumnus who works the room when he gets a chance and is happy to talk about the food (that’s a touch of vanilla in the hazelnut mole, he says).

Dessert is worth saving room for. One standout is morenitas: moist bittersweet brownies, studded with pumpkin seeds and served with milky/caramelly cajeta and burnt-tequila whipped cream. The tequila presence is scant, but no matter. The brownies are “yummy and very rich,” says jinx.

She ranks Fonda well above other upscale Mexican choices around Brooklyn, like Alma and Barrio. “I think this place will be a regular stop,” jinx says, “if it doesn’t become so crowded that we can’t get in.”

Fonda [Park Slope]
434 Seventh Avenue (near 14th Street), Brooklyn
718-369-3144

Board Link: Fonda on 7th Ave in the Slope

Dumplings with a Light Touch

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 10:10:00 -0700

An uncommonly thin and delicate skin distinguishes the pan-fried dumplings at XSG Dumpling House. hhhippo finds the pork-chive filling juicy and flavorful, the bottom fried to perfect golden crispness, and the whole package one of the best in town.

hhhippo has sampled most of the usual suspects among New York’s four-for-a-buck dumpling joints—the nearby Kai Feng Fu and Family Dumpling, as well as Prosperity, Dumpling House, and others in Manhattan. XSG belongs in the conversation, he says.

It also rolls out the familiar lineup of filled, grilled wheat pancakes. They’re uneven, hhhippo reports. The beef one is light on beef. But vegetable garnishes are more lush than usual: carrot, lettuce, cucumber, and more. What really sets XSG apart from the competition is the sesame pancake, freshly griddled and often served warm and steamy.

XSG Dumpling House [Sunset Park]
5301 Eighth Avenue (at 53rd Street), Brooklyn
718-633-1588

Board Link: New Dumpling House in Sunset Park, 53rd just off Eighth

A Chicago Hot Dog, Best of Breed

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 12:26:00 -0700

The Chicago hot dog, often misunderstood and rarely done well in New York, is done quite well indeed at The Landing in Brooklyn, says scooter.

At The Landing, Vienna Beef franks are “dragged through the garden,” as they say—that is, decked out with chopped onion, tomato, pickle spears, and peppers. Seasoned with yellow mustard, sweet relish, and a sprinkling of celery salt, they’re served in a Mary Ann poppy seed bun, the way they should be. Many New Yorkers just don’t get the Second City’s salad-on-a-bun, but the once-skeptical scooter says The Landing’s version is fantastic and beautifully spiced, “the only C-dog I’ve ever had that made any damn sense.”

Go soon, advises DaveCook, who’s also a fan. This cart vendor in DUMBO wraps up its seasonal run at the end of the month.

The Landing [DUMBO]
20 Old Fulton Street (near Water Street), Brooklyn
718-687-2004

Board Link: ‘The Landing’ Hot Dog Cart, Columbia Heights/Dumbo

Old-School Italian in Ozone Park

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 09:05:00 -0700

For devotees of Don Peppe in Queens—that’s Don Pep’s, to regulars—the baked clams lead the list of don’t-miss dishes. “There are no better baked clams…...anywhere!” promises daveyj.

Not far behind, hounds say, are linguine with clam sauce and the veal chop Don Peppe. Other smart orders include chicken scarpariello, veal with eggplant, pasta with prosciutto, stuffed artichoke, and lobster fra diavolo. “Doggone, it’s good,” says david sprague, “about the best throwback red sauce place—high end—I’ve been to.”

Don Peppe isn’t universally acclaimed though. wonka calls it “nothing special … unless you like a lot of garlic.”

Don Peppe [South Ozone Park]
135-58 Lefferts Boulevard (between 135th and 149th avenues), South Ozone Park, Queens
718-845-7587

Board Link: Don Pepe”s

Perfection in a Bowl of Cold Noodles

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:23:00 -0700

Joe MacBu had the buckwheat noodles at Chung Moo Rollrice & Dongas and hasn’t been the same since. “It was almost as perfect as a bowl of cold noodles could be,” he rhapsodizes. This was bi bim naeng myun, a brothless, gently spicy dish topped with shreds of egg, cucumber, cabbage, and dried seaweed, and a sprinkling of sesame seeds. Turn up the heat if you like with dried chile, mix it all together (bi bim means “mixed” in Korean, as in bi bim bap), and savor “the chewy slipperiness of the mildly spicy noodles, the crunch of the refreshing vegetables and the haunting accent of the toasted sesame,” says Joe. chefjellynow seconds this tip: “off the wall delicious.”

As great as the noodles are, they don’t seem to be the signature specialty at Chung Moo, a mostly takeout shop whose name touts its kim bap (rice rolls) and dongas (fried pork cutlet). Hounds haven’t sampled them yet, though they’ve spied nice-looking dumplings and tempura-like fried seafood and vegetables. The house-made soondae (blood sausage) has also gotten some buzz.

In more news from the shifting border of Korea, China, and Queens, Han Song Ting, a standout vendor from the fondly remembered Roosevelt Food Court, has resurfaced in a nearly vacant shopping center on Main Street, DaveCook reports. Fresh-made wheat noodles are the smart order, advises Joe MacBu, who recommends the number five, a delicious dish with ground meat in spicy broth. Another popular choice, he says, is a soup with noodles and rice cakes. The menu also includes bi bim bap and soondubu (soft bean curd), among other things.

Han Song Ting, whose owners are from Shenyang, was celebrated in its previous digs for its hearty bing, the griddled wheat flatbreads from northern China. Its tiny new kitchen isn’t equipped to make them, sadly.

Chung Moo Rollrice & Dongas [Flushing]
39-04 Union Street (at 39th Avenue), Flushing, Queens
718-308-6502

Han Song Ting [Flushing]
In Main Plaza shopping center, 37-02 Main Street (at 37th Avenue), Flushing, Queens
646-236-0081

Board Links: Chung Moo Rollrice and Dongas - Oh My! The Bibim Naeng Myun!
Moving: Temple Snacks & Little Pepper

Fresh From the Oven, Savory and Sweet

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 12:55:00 -0700

pgreen, not usually a fan of Italian breads, picked up a loaf at Alfonso’s Pastry Shoppe in Staten Island. It was “a revelation,” she marvels, “chewy and flavorful, comparable to the best French breads I have eaten (including in Paris).” Wonderful by itself, it was also “everything I would have wanted” when used to make a sandwich, she adds.

Because a Chowhound does not live on bread alone, pgreen also grabbed a couple of Danish pastries. These, too, were excellent: “The cheese actually tasted like cheese and the blueberry of blueberry. Not too sweet, but right where they should have been.”

How about a cookie? Cake Chef and its sister shop Cookie Jar bake the “absolute BEST” in town, Tay promises. She’s partial to the chocolate rugalach and chocolate-nut cookies with a fudge-like dollop of chocolate on top, as well as the delicious apple cheese horns.

For cakes and cupcakes, Tay adds, Mother Mousse is outstanding.

In Brooklyn, One Girl Cookies and Betty Bakery offer cookie lovers a clear contrast in styles. The former makes stylish sweets in unusual flavors (e.g. orange-coconut, chocolate-cinnamon-hazelnut). The latter does classic butter cookies. Both are quite good, says BklnChicken.

And for something very different, check out the cumin-scented salted butter cookies at Narala Bakery in Brooklyn’s Little Pakistan: “sublime,” sighs guide boy.

Alfonso’s Pastry Shoppe [Staten Island]
1899 Victory Boulevard (near Westcott Boulevard), Staten Island
718-273-8802

Cake Chef [Staten Island]
957 Jewett Avenue (near Coale Avenue), Staten Island
718-448-1290

Cookie Jar [Staten Island]
1226 Forest Avenue (between Jewett Avenue and Llewellyn Place), Staten Island
718-448-3500

Mother Mousse [Staten Island]
3767 Victory Boulevard (between Travis and Meredith avenues), Staten Island
718-983-8366

One Girl Cookies [Cobble Hill]
68 Dean Street (near Smith Street), Brooklyn
212-675-4996

Betty Bakery [Boerum Hill]
448 Atlantic Avenue (between Nevins and Bond streets), Brooklyn
718-246-2402

Narala Bakery [Kensington]
744 Coney Island Avenue (near Cortelyou Road), Brooklyn
718-287-8494

Board Links: Best Bakery/Baked Good Near Wagner College on Staten Island?
BEST Cookies

Flavors of Home, Liberian Style

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:14:00 -0700

As VaiMama observes, “there’s nothing like food that tastes home cooked.” That taste is rarer still if you’re hankering for Liberian home cooking in New York. But Maima’s in Jamaica delivers the goods, she reports.

Check out the daily specials for spicy, hearty meat dishes in greens (spinach, collards, cassava leaf) and other Liberian specialties like palm butter—not butter, actually, but a meat and seafood stew made with palm nut cream. Cassava leaf is terrific, VaiMama says, served with Liberian fried pepper. Chicken gravy is fried chicken with a delicious sauce, something like smothered chicken from the American South. Both come with a mountain of rice.

VaiMama comes forward with a disclosure: She learned only after going there that Maima’s is owned by relatives of hers. “It really is good (even if my aunt made it),” she adds.

Maima’s [Jamaica]
106-47 Guy R. Brewer Boulevard (between South Road and 107th Avenue), Jamaica, Queens
718-206-3538

Board Link: Liberian restaurants in NY

On the F Line, a Bagel-Tamale Connection

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:04:00 -0700

New York’s latest stealth tamales have surfaced at F Line Bagels, a little-mentioned deli at the less fashionable end of Smith Street in Brooklyn. Off the menu and announced only on a handwritten sign, they’re fat, moist, and delicious, fmogul reports. The ones with cheese and jalapeño are “improbably excellent,” he adds.

The bagels are also quite good, the best in Carroll Gardens or Cobble Hill, says suefrombrooklyn. She goes for the Middle Eastern–style special with hard-boiled egg, olive oil, and za’atar.

F Line Bagels [Carroll Gardens]
476 Smith Street (at W. Ninth Street), Brooklyn
718-422-0001

Board Link: Outrageously tasty and cheap tamale in out-of-the-way place