Brooklyn: Bay Ridge
Posted by Robyn Lee, December 18, 2008 at 4:00 PM
My friends I weren't planning to add a dessert to our already Chinese food-filled bellies at King Star Restaurant in Bay Ridge until I spied a waiter bring a plate of deep-fried mantou and condensed milk to a neighboring table. There was no question about it: We were ordering it.
Mantou are soft, fluffy, steamed bread rolls. While rather boring on their own, they become a must-eat when deep fried to a golden brown, giving them a thin, crispy crust. Slather with thick, super thick condensed milk and you have a combination of the two of the best flavors: "sugar" and "deep fried." Just make sure to wait a while before digging in or you'll unleash the bread's skin-scalding powers.
King Star Restaurant
6022 8th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11220 (at 60th Street; map)
718-492-6888
Related: Dim Sum at 88 Palace in Manhattan Chinatown
Posted by Barbara Hanson, August 21, 2008 at 1:00 PM
When people think of Bay Ridge, they most likely think of Saturday Night Fever, Tony Manero strutting along 86th Street scarfing down two slices of pizza folded atop each other, or later rehearsing disco moves in a mirrored studio. I don’t quite think of it that way, myself, even though my parents practiced in that same Phillips Dance Studio before Tony Manero was a glimmer in writer Nik Cohn’s overheated imagination. The Bay Ridge I think of is the one in which Scandinavians so predominated that it was once known as Little Norway. The one in which my father’s own Norwegian roots go back generations.
Even into the 1980s, the Scandinavian presence was still strong enough that, when the sole remaining Norwegian restaurant was sold to a Chinese couple, the outcry was so overwhelming that the couple agreed to take lessons in Norse cooking from the previous owners. Thus was born Wee Kee’s, Brooklyn’s first and only Norwegian-Chinese restaurant. It remained open for about ten years. In trying to track down its name (I had only been there once), I came across several articles claiming the restaurant served Norwegian-Chinese fusion. Nope. No fusing. Each cuisine had a menu page to itself. Alas, no sweet-and-sour venison, or even a herring stir-fry.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, July 18, 2008 at 8:30 AM
Those 600 stores that Starbucks is closing? Ten are in New York City. So sayeth the Times.
Is your Starbucks closing? Here's the list.
Manhattan
All in Midtown:
- 340 Madison Avenue (at 44th Street)
- 400 Madison Avenue (near 48th Street)
- 1600 Broadway (near 48th Street)
- 1675 Broadway (near 52nd Street)
- 565 Fifth Avenue (near 46th Street)
- The one on the fifth floor of Macy’s in Herald Square
Queens
All in Glendale:
- Atlas Park shopping center location
- 8989 Union Turnpike
Brooklyn
Bay Ridge, 8414 Third Avenue (at 84th Street)
Additionally, one Starbucks in Newark is closing, 744 Broad Street.
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 10, 2008 at 6:30 PM
7-Eleven is giving out free Slurpees tomorrow in honor of it being "7-11 Day"—July 11. (Find a location near you, but call ahead, as not all are participating.)
People outside New York can stop reading this post now. You all are not Slurpee-challenged. You see, one thing I've noticed is that New Yorkers don't know how to pull a proper Slurpee.
I'm a child of the Kansas City suburbs, where 7-Elevens are at every intersection, so this stuff is second nature to me. But as I went to the 7-Eleven today to make a training video for my clueless New York friends out there, I watched as the guy ahead of me did everything wrong. First, he didn't cap his cup prepour. Then he pulled the dispenser lever slowly, guaranteeing an anemic dribble of syrup instead of a full-on rush of ice-cold Slurpness. No, no, no. I'm sure this comes from the lack of 7-Elevens in the area, but this is no excuse. After the jump, I'll teach you all how to pull a Slurpee, in pictures and video. With a (small) list of participating 7-Elevens in New York.
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Posted by Ed Levine, September 27, 2007 at 9:00 AM
Free at last! Free at last! My New York Times pieces are finally free at last for me and everyone else in search of the delicious. Today I'm going to update my cheesecake story.
Although I remain resolute in my belief that New York is the best cheesecake town in the country, I am open to hearing about other cities and their cheesecakes. So, Serious Eaters, if you know of any commercially available cheesecake worth shouting about, we want to hear about it. Note: Junior's is not on my best cheesecake list. Don't get me wrong. I like Junior's cheesecake just fine, but there are others I like more.
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