Posted by Andrew Coe, October 7, 2011 at 11:00 AM
[Photos: Andrew Coe]
When Francois Danielo sticks his paddle in the oven to pull out another batch of loaves, you can see the joy in his eyes. After a detour that took a couple of decades, he's finally doing the job he loves. He discovered baking when he was 13, making cakes and pastries in his family's kitchen in Brittany. Summers, he worked in his uncle's boulangerie baking baguettes and other very white, very French loaves.
He wanted to be a baker, but his father said, "Why don't you stay in school for a little while longer." So Francois became a mechanical engineer, moving to the States to work in California and New York. But the baking bug was still inside, and it flowered when he took an international bread class at the French Culinary Institute. He quit his job, worked at bakeries around the city, and began to plan. In July, he opened his bakery, La Boulangerie, in Forest Hills. It's evidently a good-bread-deprived neighborhood, because on weekends the line is out the door.
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, March 18, 2011 at 8:45 AM
[Photos: Sara Markel-Gonzalez]
Purim is this weekend, and Jewish bakeries all over the city are hard at work churning out hundreds of the delicious, triangle-shaped cookies known as hamentashen. Of course, many bakeries sell them year round, but Purim is when they are meant to be eaten. I traveled around Queens, home to so many Jewish bakeries, to find the best of the best.
A good hamentash should have the right ratio of dough to filling—and while the fillings are varied, some swear by prune, raspberry, even chocolate—I narrowed the search down to two fillings: poppy seed and apricot, when available, since those are my preferred flavors. The search took me to Kew Gardens Hills and Forest Hills and beyond—sweets from seven bakeries in total. Check out the slideshow for the details.
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, July 12, 2010 at 2:45 PM
Maybe walking around Queens searching for the best Cuban sandwich during a heat wave wasn't the best idea I've ever had—but the hot, humid weather sure felt like we were in Florida (or what I assume Cuba to feel like), so it kind of made sense. Whoever invented this sandwich was a genius. In a well-made Cuban sandwich, all of the ingredients combine together perfectly in a thin, crisp, salty, cheesy, meaty slice of deliciousness. Buttered sweet bread is filled with thinly-sliced ham, chunks of roasted pork, Swiss cheese, a swipe of mustard, and a few pickles for crunch, then pressed together and toasted to a golden brown. For everyone who wants not just one but two types of pork on their sandwiches, there is just so much to love. Is it possible to find a great version of this classic sandwich in Queens?
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Posted by Leah Douglas, June 15, 2010 at 9:00 AM
In my opinion, there is no better way to learn about a neighborhood than by looking at how that neighborhood throws a street fair.
Forest Hills Gardens, a pretty place. [Photograph: About.com]
Austin Street, the main commercial strip of my hometown of Forest Hills, Queens, is always bustling. Dozens of restaurants and clothing shops are a draw for people of all ages. Teenagers love to loiter around on the corners; someone is always passing out fliers for cheap manicures at one of the many spas, or happy hour at the local bar. I'm buddies with the fruit vendor who parks a few paces from the subway station, and am always drooling after passing the chicken-and-rice guy a few paces later. It's a fun place to be.
Never more fun, however, than during the twice-annual Forest Hills Festival of the Arts—more commonly known as the Austin Street Festival. Thrown once at the beginning of the summer and once at the end, this festival takes up the entire five-block-long strip and features vendors of all varieties. Each business sets up their own stand, and dozens of non-local businesses are represented as well. Anything you could want, from clothes to shoes to jewelry to newspaper subscriptions, are available for a reasonable price.
But I wasn't interested in those things. I was looking for some good food.
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, May 10, 2010 at 2:00 PM
It's starting to get hot out, summer is almost here, and I can hear the ice cream trucks jingling through my neighborhood every night. Now I love soft-serve as much as any kid, but sometimes Mr. Softee just isn't enough. For the times when real ice cream is necessary—a good, old-fashioned sundae, or a great new flavor—I decided to seek out places across Queens that specialize in icy, creamy, cold confections.
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Posted by Sara Markel-Gonzalez, May 3, 2010 at 10:00 AM
There are so many great places to find falafel all over New York City; we will be exploring the best of the best here at Serious Eats. And we're starting the search in Queens. Every place had their own little twist on the classic Middle Eastern sandwich of fried chickpea fritters topped with tahini sauce and stuffed into pita bread. From Kew Gardens Hills for kosher-style, to Forest Hills for a Lebanese version, to Astoria for the King of Falafel cart, I traveled Queens far and wide for falafel, and loved every bite.
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Posted by Carey Jones, October 6, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Or, 'Ed Levine's Existential Bagel Crisis'
[Photographs: Robyn Lee and Carey Jones]
The Heisen-Bagel Uncertainty Principle
n. The principle of bagels that holds the following: The act of transporting a bagel to a second location produces fundamental uncertainties in its inherent qualities, such that determining a true "best bagel," in a head-to-head face-off, becomes impossible.
It's a question asked so often that it's astounding that we've never attempted an answer.
Who makes the best bagel in New York?
There are a few clear contenders. In the past, Ed has leaned toward the Upper West Side's Absolute Bagels; his exhaustive 2003 bagel hunt for the New York Times also saluted Bagel Oasis and Hot Bialys in Queens, Terrace Bagels in Windsor Terrace, and Manhattan stalwart Murray's.
And then there are Ess-A-Bagel and H&H, and neighborhood favorites like Bagel Hole and Brooklyn Bagel—all of whom have their fanatical defenders.
So we organized a simple taste-test. Serious eaters would fan out over the three most bagel-happy boroughs and hurry back to World Headquarters with their piping hot loot, as fast as their feet, bikes, buses, trains, subways, or Zipcars could carry them. We'd cut them all up; we'd do a blind tasting; we'd ponder their merits and crown a winner. Simple, right?
But it wasn't that easy.
Ed, hard at work.
The problem became clear as we chomped our way through Round One, pens at the ready, taking bite after bite. None of the bagels were more than two hours old. All of them had been hand-delivered that morning. But chewing through so many mouthfuls of plain bagels, we all felt the same uneasy feeling descending upon us. Ed broke the silence.
"They all taste the same."
Well... not quite the same.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, May 12, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Wafa’s Authentic Mediterranean Food is an apt name for this tiny Forest Hills storefront. But this joint could just as well be called Wafa's Soul Food or Wafa's Home Cooking because that's exactly the type of grub you'll find Wafa Chami cooking in her namesake restaurant. Wafa's cuisine isn't African-American soul food though, it’s food with soul. Specifically Lebanese food as taught to Wafa by her mother.
Lamb shawerma
As numerous Chowhound posts have pointed out, there are usually daily specials ranging from fusilli in a sauce of lamb, beef, and red beans, to stuffed cabbage and other treats. On my visits I tend to stick to the basics, though I'm itching to try some of the specials.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, March 24, 2009 at 12:00 PM
With the notable exception of Danny Brown Wine Bar & Kitchen the stretch of Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills is pretty much a culinary wasteland. So I was surprised when a friend who runs the Japanese foodie web site PECOPECO! gave a ringing endorsement of Katsuno, a four-month old spot from the folks behind Manhattan’s Restaurant Seo. Several meals later, I’m quite glad I took her advice.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, September 5, 2008 at 10:00 AM
Sakura-ya in Forest Hills is one of my favorite Japanese groceries in New York City. And not just because it’s closer to home than the East Village. The selection isn’t as vast as in Manhattan, but there’s still a good variety ranging from dry goods to premade sashimi and the occasional bento box. I’m particularly fond of their uni, which is reasonably priced and fresh. Last week I didn’t see any on the shelf, so I grabbed a small container of seasoned scallop instead.
I popped the top off the ornate plastic tray expecting to see something vaguely scallopy. My preconceived notions were shattered as I gawked at ribbons of flesh that resembled pan-fried noodles. The tangled heap was shot through with tiny sesame seeds, slices of red chili, shards of ginger, and just a touch of garlic. The crunchy strands had a decidedly more oceanic flavor than scallops. A slightly sweet sauce pulled it all together making for a delicious snack. As much as I enjoyed it those brown edges of flesh, along with the strong flavor, raised a nagging question: Had I just eaten seasoned scallops or a Japanese version of scungilli?
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Posted by Ed Levine, December 6, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Today is the second day (and the third night of Chanukah), and I feel like I should share what I know about latkes in New York. The Manhattan latke world suffered a great loss recently when the Polish coffee shop Teresa's on First Avenue closed. Thank God the Teresa's in Brooklyn Heights is still open. Teresa's makes crisp, thin, oniony latkes that were to die for. Thin, crisp and crunchy on the outside, and soft and oniony on the inside. That is my latke Platonic ideal, and I hope you agree. I don't want my latkes to be more than an inch think. That's why I have so many problems with latkes at kosher-style delis. They make them too thick and they often don't fry them to order. That is a major latke sin. In fact, I think those deli owners are commiting latkecide. That's why you're likely to do so much better at Polish coffee shops, where they wouldn't dream of trying to get away with serving reheated latkes. So where does one go just such latkes worth the calories, the cholesterol, and the carbs?
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