Posted by Joe DiStefano, July 25, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Soon after a friend moved to Inwood in upper Manhattan he told me of a 24-hour restaurant near his place that specializes in the Puerto Rican dish known as mofongo. Not to be confused with the beef tripe soup known as mondongo, mofongo is a hearty ribsticking dish made from mashed plantains. Within a week of his move I found myself taking possibly the longest train ride I’ve ever taken for food, DiFara’s running a close second. As soon I exited the A train at Dyckman Street I spotted the temple of all things mofongo: Albert’s Mofongo House.
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Posted by Ed Levine, April 13, 2006 at 4:00 PM
If you love fried chicken as much as I do, living in New York makes it very difficult to satisfy the almost daily hankering I have for great fried bird. The fried chicken is pretty good at Blue Smoke, but that's because Blue Smoke chef Kenny Callahan was inspired by the visit he and I paid to one of the great fried chicken joints on this earth, Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken in Mason, Tenn. But even Kenny would admit that his bird does not really compare to Gus's. The fried chicken is also pretty damned good at Charles' Southern Style Kitchen on 155th Street and Eighth Avenue, but Charles does not season his batter at all. So the news that Allison Vines Rushing and her husband Slade, most recently of Jack's Luxury Oyster Bar, are opening up a fried chicken joint in New York makes me very, very happy. I for one will be one of their first customers when they open Dirty Bird to Go this coming Monday at 204 W. 14th Street, 212-640-4836. The Rushings are planning to soak their brined bird in buttermilk before frying in a double batter. I have no idea what that means exactly, but it sure sounds good. They're also planning to serve rotisseried chicken as well, which I'm sure will be very good as well. But does NYC really need another place to get a rotisserie bird?
Posted by Ed Levine, March 7, 2006 at 12:48 PM
I really enjoyed Kim Severson's poignant piece on hospital food in today's NY Times, in part because I just spent the better part of two days at New York-Presbyterian Hospital (formerly Columbia Presbyterian) in upper Manhattan tending to my son, who had an emergency appendectomy. He's fine now, but it was a rough 48 hours. Within hours of the surgery, his appetite came back with a vengeance. I asked the doctor if I could go get him some great fried chicken at New Caporal, a mere ten blacks from the hospital. To my surprise, the doctor said I could get Will whatever he wanted, that by the time whatever he was going to eat made its way to his intestinal tract it would be the same. I was on my way to New Caporal when I spotted the Jou Jou Cafe kiosk in the lobby of the hospital. I was delighted to find sandwiches and salads that looked really good. I ordered a grilled Vermont Cheddar with chipotle on good bread, and a grilled mixed Italian cold cut sandwich (both sandwiches were made in one of those Italian sandwich presses). My son was thrilled when I returned to the room with the two sandwiches. His jello period had come to a premature end. So if you or a loved one find yourself at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, head for the Jou Jou Cafe kiosk. It closes at 3:30 every day, but the original Jou Jou Cafe serves the same food at 603 W. 168th Street, right around the corner from the hospital, and it's open until 4 a.m. every day. By the way, don't be tempted by a slice of pizza at Famiglia, on Broadway between 168th and 169th Sts. It's NY street pizza at its most generic. Note to Kim: The hospital lasagna didn't look too bad. The string beans looked very tired. What my son really feasted on was the wireless keyboard in the hospital room that he used to change channels, play video games, and watch movies on demand.
