Search for ‘Robert Sietsema’ (6 articles found)
Lengua franca
One of the characteristic specialties of the Alamo City is the puffy taco. This consists of stewed, braised, or barbecued meats deposited in a tortilla that has been formed into a U and deep fried, causing the tortilla (usually flour) to puff up. At Goat Town, little corn tortillas are used, but they puff up very nicely, too. Inside the trio is deposited long-braised cow tongue, cut in strips. The tongue tastes faintly of chilies, and the dark broth is especially rich. The appearance of the puffy tacos is decidedly labial, and thus it was appropriate, as the chef noted with a wink, that they are filled with tongue.
Malai chicken roll
4. Malai Chicken Roll at THELEwala — The explosion of places serving Indian urban street snacks has been a boon to the New York habit of walking and eating at the same time (and sometimes talking simultaneously on the cell phone, too). THELEwala cooks up the street food of Calcutta, and it’s no Black Hole — the Malai chicken roll is a splendid wrap-up of flatbread, pulled poultry, fried eggs, spices, and purple onions, and you won’t go away hungry. 112 MacDougal Street, 212-614-9100
Cornish Pasty
The Cornish pasty (pronounced “pah-stee”) is one of the glories of British cooking, an oblong hand-pie with a flaky crust, enfolding cubed potatoes, peas, carrots, and ground beef or lamb.
It was once a meal for miners, carried into the pits of Cornwall wrapped in brown paper, and easier to carry than a lunch box. The pasty makes an entirely satisfying meal.
But it didn’t originate in the UK, at least not in modern history. As you can see, it resembles an empanada, a pastry common across the Spanish-speaking world that was first invented in Galicia, Spain, as a big round pie. The empanada/pasty is just a portable version of the original
What do Galicia and Cornwall have in common? Both are populated with Celts, which is presumably how the pie got from Spain to England long ago.
You can get it in refrigerated form at Myers of Keswick. In the afternoons, you can sometimes snag one hot out of the oven. Just crane you neck over the refrigerator counter and see if you spot a tray of them sitting there, cooling.
Our 11 Best Places to Eat in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
11. La Fe – Though it flies the flags of a dozen Spanish-speaking countries in its comfy dining room right on the corner of 36th Street and Fourth Avenue, La Fe represents the Dominican Old Guard that once dominated the neighborhood. You can dash in for a snack from the steam table or a Cuban sandwich, or order one of the more elaborate Latin-Caribbean preparations, such as mofongo de camarones (shown above, originally a Puerto Rican dish), arroz con gandules, or the vinegar-laced chicharrones de pollo. 941 Fourth Avenue, 718-788-0139
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10. Ba Xuyen – The beloved Vietnamese sandwich shop is open only from 7:30am till 6:30pm, but I’ve known people to hurry home from work just so they could score a banh mi for supper. Dark horse favorite is the one made with canned sardines. It works. Over the last few years, the place has added sidelines that make good apps (spring rolls, for instance) to its original one: Chinese pastries and cakes in the Hong Kong style. 4222 Eighth Avenue, 718-633-6601
9. Green Fig Bakery Cafe – Conveniently located just uphill from the 36th Street express stop, this newcomer is seen by some as a sign of gentrification around Greenwood Cemetery, by others as an excellent source of coffee, overstuffed sandwiches, darling little square slices of pizza, and even vegan cakes, cookies, and pastries. And you know what? Everything is solidly good. 462 36th Street, 718-369-8937
8. Super Pollo Latino – This Peruvian restaurant under deep cover (on several websites, it’s described as a “Mexican restaurant”) would be indispensible if for only one purpose: a source of excellent rotisserie chickens you can carry up the hill of Sunset Park right across the street just as the sun is setting for an impromptu picnic. (Bring plenty of their green sauce with you.) But the Peruvian fare you can enjoy in the more formal dining room in back is also worth visiting for. 4102 Fifth Avenue, 718-871-5700
7. Mai Thai – While this joint on a pleasant corner with big windows open to blessed evening breezes sweeping up from the Upper Bay is not quite up to Queens standards, the Siamese fare is opulent and well-represented, without the revolting sweetness you find in many Brooklyn Thais. For a relaxing late-summer meal go for any of the salads, including a moo larb of ground pork and purple onions squirted with lime, or the green papaya salad, with an exemplary tartness. Duck and barbecued pork salads are also lots of fun. Want to splurge? Whole fish! 4618 Eighth Avenue, 718-438-3413
6. El Tesoro Ecuatoriano – While you may be more familiar with the country’s Andean cuisine featuring goat, cheese sauce, and potatoes, this place slings the seafood-heavy fare of Guayaquil, Ecuador’s second largest city. That means ceviches galore, including one made with black clam, the favorite bivalve of Ecuadorians, pulled from the mangrove swamps of the coast and flown to Ecuadorian restaurants in New York. Seafood soups, and poached or fried fish are other specialties of the house. 4015 Fifth Avenue, 718-972-3756
5. Xochimilco – Named after a resort area west of Mexico City that features Venetian-style canals, this sit-down taqueria specializes in the fare of – you guessed it! – Puebla. Oddities available few other places in town include fiery red pozole (instead of the usual pale white or herby green), sloppy sandwiches called pambazos, and a bang-up homemade mole pipian: chicken smothered in weird green pumpkinseed sauce (above). 4501 Fifth Avenue, 718-435-7600
4. Thanh Da – Great Vietnamese restos in town are few and far between, but this place offers has it all: cheap prices, relaxing ambiance, and a limited menu that mixes standards and peculiarities, all within easy striking distance of public transportation. We loved bun bo Hue, a relentlessly beefy and spicy soup that originated in the middle of the long slender country; Than Da’s banh mi sandwiches are the best in the borough. 6008 Seventh Avenue, 718-492-3253
3. Ines Bakery – Not sure when this Mexican bakery became a hipster hang, but for several years the unassuming place has been hosting budget conscious diners with unusual haircuts at its narrow eating counter. They come for the sopes – rimmed, round, hand-patted masa cakes, gloriously topped with combinations of ingredients – and tne cemitas (above): sesame-seeded sandwiches of Puebla, oozing ripe avocado and white cheese. 948 Fourth Avenue, 718-788-0594
2. East Harbor - By many estimates, this barnlike prominence on an industrial drag produces the finest dim sum (shrimp rice noodles, above) in the city, whirling by on carts amid the decorative opulence and so fresh the almost wheel themselves. Pricier Hong Kong fare horns in after 2pm, but you can always get cheaper over-rice dishes. 726 65th Street, 718-765-0098
1. Yun Nan Flavour Snack – You may look in the door and say, “this place is a dump,” but it provides almost the city’s only source of the exquisite cuisine of Yunnan (a province that benefits culinarily by its proximity to Southeast Asia), via a series of soups featuring rice noodles something like soft spaghetti, some over-noodles dishes, and a few stray apps. Nothing more, yet you’ll remember a bowl of noodles here more readily than you would elsewhere. Ask for it “spicy.” The very simplicity of the menu is a delight. 775 49th Street, 718-633-3090
What They Ate
Gertrude Stein (1874-1946)
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But Stein also had a dyspeptic side, as evidenced by her famous quote, “A vegetable garden in the beginning looks so promising and then after all little by little it grows nothing but vegetables, nothing, nothing but vegetables.”
James Baldwin (1924-1987)
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During the period in which he lived in Greenwich Village, before he moved to Paris, he particularly enjoyed dining in restaurants. One of his favorites was El Faro, an obscurely located Spanish tapas bar that still exists at 823 Greenwich Street.
Truman Capote (1924-1984)
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New Sandwich at Prosperity Dumpling
Now the sandwich roster at Prosperity is expanding. Sunday morning, I brunched on one of the new items — a sesame-bread sandwich featuring a fried egg, shredded pickled carrots, and fresh cilantro. The bread was a perfect platform: moist, heavy-crumbed, and dotted with verdant chopped scallions. Altogether memorable, and the price, at $1.75, makes this one of the best sandwich deals in town. Take that, Pret A Manger!
Prosperity Dumpling
46 Eldridge Street
212-343-0683
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