Queens: Jackson Heights
Posted by Joe DiStefano, November 3, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[Photos: Joe DiStefano]
While many in New York City spent Halloween watching the parade, I did it up Queens style. There's something incredible about walking the pan-Latin stretch of Roosevelt Avenue, from Jackson Heights into Corona, and seeing all the costumed little kids trick-or-treating with their parents. Plus, I get to eat at food streets carts like Delicias Isabel, a Mexican operation that stands outside of the truly creepy botanica, El Indio Amazonico.
Lately I've been giving Mexican food short shrift, so I was particularly glad to have run across this cart and especially intrigued by the sign reading "picaditas." The gal behind the counter refused to let me takes pictures, but she assured me that a picadita was far better than a mere taco. "Es como un huarache?" I asked, wondering if it was like the sandal-shaped Mexican snack. After receiving an enthusiastic nod in response I ordered a picadita de lengua ($5).
Picadita means "little pinch," and I watched eagerly as she formed masa into a circle and then pinched the edges upwards creating a shallow bowl of sorts. To this she added a shmear of refried beans. While it continued to cook, she crisped up chunks of steamed beef tongue on the plancha. These were then added to the saucer of cooked masa and finally topped off with shredded lettuce, crema, and crumbled cotija cheese. The end result was a tad messy to eat without utensils but nonetheless delicious.
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Posted by Carey Jones, August 28, 2009 at 2:15 PM
[Bionic Bites]
Our contributor Tia Kim heads out to Jackson Heights for a Nepalese/Tibetan meal at Thakali Kitchen: momos, bitter fried karela melons, and stir-fried goat—plus jalebis at Maharaja for dessert. Check out her gorgeous pics over at Bionic Bites.
Posted by Joe DiStefano, June 12, 2009 at 10:10 AM
Photographs by Dan Kim
You’d think a joint named Himalayan Yak would serve the meat of long-haired bovines that roam the mountainous rooftop of the world. However, until Tuesday night the restaurant substituted beef in many dishes traditionally made with yak. The owners of the Jackson Heights restaurant were unable to source yak outside of Nepal.
Chayley, or yak tongue, isn’t quite as rich as beef tongue, but it's still tasty.
Leave it to The Gastronauts, or "the club for adventurous eaters," to solve this problem by bringing their own. They purchased some 40 pounds of yak meat online from Desert End Ltd. Yaks, a Colorado ranch that raises grass-fed yak, and brought it to the restaurant.
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Posted by Erin Zimmer, March 25, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Our Joe DiStefano will eat just about anything plus he isn't afraid of the end of Subway lines—yeah, the perfect trademarks of a Serious Eater. He was just the right guy to be on VendrTV with host Dan Delaney, cart-hopping through Jackson Heights. They stayed near the intersection of 82nd and Roosevelt Avenue and never paid over $2 for any one goodie.
They started with the corn-based snacks esquitas and elotes, then hit up a lady selling tamales from a shopping cart, then a squash blossom and pork skin quesadila (the tortillas were made fresh on the spot), oh, and sure, why not a pork ear taco from Tacos Guicho. Finally, a sugary, fatty churro.
Joe has kept us plenty informed on what's up in Queens, and other ethnic hideaways in his Off the Beaten Path coverage, but it's fun to see and hear him crunch on screen. The video, after the jump.
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Posted by Barbara Hanson, January 8, 2009 at 2:00 PM
My 2009 Resolutions:
1. Refrain from, when in an unfamiliar neighborhood outside Manhattan, calling husband and saying, "We could live here. Totally. I love it!"
2. To consider not only my own health but that of Serious Eaters, and thus seek out foods that are not only delicious but healthy and low in fat. I’m not feeling terribly optimistic about any of this, however.
Resolution #1 fell by the wayside as soon as I stepped off the F train at Roosevelt Avenue and into the swirl of worlds that is Jackson Heights. I was surrounded by Bollywood stores, women in varying degrees of traditional Indian dress, and an astonishing number of jewelry and sari stores. The very streets seemed to shine with gold, turquoise, and pink.
My plan was to head straight to Patel Brothers, which I could see from the subway station. However, it took me well over an hour to get there. The first obstacle in my path appeared around the corner: the huge and imposing Pacific Supermarket. Like every food market in Jackson Heights I visited, the aisles were full not only of shoppers but the endless process of unloading produce and restocking shelves. Also standard were narrow aisles and extremely high ceilings. I searched the aisles for the increasingly elusive pizza-flavored Pretz without success, grabbed some canned rambutan and Malaysian date cookies, then headed through the crowded, colorful streets toward Patel Brothers.
Continue reading »
Posted by Joe DiStefano, November 3, 2009 at 10:00 AM
[Photos: Joe DiStefano]
While many in New York City spent Halloween watching the parade, I did it up Queens style. There's something incredible about walking the pan-Latin stretch of Roosevelt Avenue, from Jackson Heights into Corona, and seeing all the costumed little kids trick-or-treating with their parents. Plus, I get to eat at food streets carts like Delicias Isabel, a Mexican operation that stands outside of the truly creepy botanica, El Indio Amazonico.
Lately I've been giving Mexican food short shrift, so I was particularly glad to have run across this cart and especially intrigued by the sign reading "picaditas." The gal behind the counter refused to let me takes pictures, but she assured me that a picadita was far better than a mere taco. "Es como un huarache?" I asked, wondering if it was like the sandal-shaped Mexican snack. After receiving an enthusiastic nod in response I ordered a picadita de lengua ($5).
Picadita means "little pinch," and I watched eagerly as she formed masa into a circle and then pinched the edges upwards creating a shallow bowl of sorts. To this she added a shmear of refried beans. While it continued to cook, she crisped up chunks of steamed beef tongue on the plancha. These were then added to the saucer of cooked masa and finally topped off with shredded lettuce, crema, and crumbled cotija cheese. The end result was a tad messy to eat without utensils but nonetheless delicious.
Continue reading »
Posted by Carey Jones, August 28, 2009 at 2:15 PM
[Bionic Bites]
Our contributor Tia Kim heads out to Jackson Heights for a Nepalese/Tibetan meal at Thakali Kitchen: momos, bitter fried karela melons, and stir-fried goat—plus jalebis at Maharaja for dessert. Check out her gorgeous pics over at Bionic Bites.
Posted by Joe DiStefano, June 12, 2009 at 10:10 AM
Photographs by Dan Kim
You’d think a joint named Himalayan Yak would serve the meat of long-haired bovines that roam the mountainous rooftop of the world. However, until Tuesday night the restaurant substituted beef in many dishes traditionally made with yak. The owners of the Jackson Heights restaurant were unable to source yak outside of Nepal.
Chayley, or yak tongue, isn’t quite as rich as beef tongue, but it's still tasty.
Leave it to The Gastronauts, or "the club for adventurous eaters," to solve this problem by bringing their own. They purchased some 40 pounds of yak meat online from Desert End Ltd. Yaks, a Colorado ranch that raises grass-fed yak, and brought it to the restaurant.
Continue reading »
Posted by Erin Zimmer, March 25, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Our Joe DiStefano will eat just about anything plus he isn't afraid of the end of Subway lines—yeah, the perfect trademarks of a Serious Eater. He was just the right guy to be on VendrTV with host Dan Delaney, cart-hopping through Jackson Heights. They stayed near the intersection of 82nd and Roosevelt Avenue and never paid over $2 for any one goodie.
They started with the corn-based snacks esquitas and elotes, then hit up a lady selling tamales from a shopping cart, then a squash blossom and pork skin quesadila (the tortillas were made fresh on the spot), oh, and sure, why not a pork ear taco from Tacos Guicho. Finally, a sugary, fatty churro.
Joe has kept us plenty informed on what's up in Queens, and other ethnic hideaways in his Off the Beaten Path coverage, but it's fun to see and hear him crunch on screen. The video, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Posted by Barbara Hanson, January 8, 2009 at 2:00 PM
My 2009 Resolutions:
1. Refrain from, when in an unfamiliar neighborhood outside Manhattan, calling husband and saying, "We could live here. Totally. I love it!"
2. To consider not only my own health but that of Serious Eaters, and thus seek out foods that are not only delicious but healthy and low in fat. I’m not feeling terribly optimistic about any of this, however.
Resolution #1 fell by the wayside as soon as I stepped off the F train at Roosevelt Avenue and into the swirl of worlds that is Jackson Heights. I was surrounded by Bollywood stores, women in varying degrees of traditional Indian dress, and an astonishing number of jewelry and sari stores. The very streets seemed to shine with gold, turquoise, and pink.
My plan was to head straight to Patel Brothers, which I could see from the subway station. However, it took me well over an hour to get there. The first obstacle in my path appeared around the corner: the huge and imposing Pacific Supermarket. Like every food market in Jackson Heights I visited, the aisles were full not only of shoppers but the endless process of unloading produce and restocking shelves. Also standard were narrow aisles and extremely high ceilings. I searched the aisles for the increasingly elusive pizza-flavored Pretz without success, grabbed some canned rambutan and Malaysian date cookies, then headed through the crowded, colorful streets toward Patel Brothers.
Continue reading »
Posted by Joe DiStefano, December 30, 2008 at 12:00 PM
Photograph from ext212 on Flickr
I’ve been known to eat tacos standing up at one of the numerous trucks and carts that line Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, but my go-to spot for Mexican food in Queens is Taqueria Coatzingo. For one thing they have beer and the jukebox is usually blaring at top volume. Years of painstaking research indicate that these two criteria are usually good indicators of a quality taqueria. And the tacos at Coatzingo are so good—particularly the chivo, or goat, and al pastor, the gyro style roast pork—that I’ve only recently begun to explore the rest of the menu. Lately I’ve been dipping into the soups. And if the recent cold snap is any indication of the way this winter’s going, I’ll be having more of them.
In my ongoing efforts to expand my offal eating, I recently tried Coatzingo’s pancita de res, or beef tripe soup. A friend had been raving about it to me for months. I’m glad I took his advice. The bowl of fiery red broth comes to the table brimming with tons of tripe. The aroma was just a tad funky, so I doctored the soup up with a generous squeeze of lime, a handful of chopped onions and some cilantro. It was some of the meatiest and tastiest tripe I’ve had. I’m no expert on bovine anatomy, but I’m pretty sure there was more than one type of beef tripe in that bowl. Don’t be put off by the color of this soup; it is by no means as spicy as it looks. All in all, not a bad deal for $5.95, and it goes a long way toward staving off the chill of winter.
Taqueria Coatzingo
76-05 Roosevelt Avenue, Jackson Heights NY 11372 (map)
718-424-1977
Posted by Joe DiStefano, December 5, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Queens has so many ethnic eateries that it’s hard to keep track of new prospects. Sometimes I return to a restaurant only to find that it’s disappeared, as if I’d imagined the whole thing. Such was the case with Himalayan Fast Food in Jackson Heights—I was on the right block, yet there was no sign of the place. A quick visit to a neighboring halal butcher provided a reality check and the opportunity to gawk at some expert goat butchering. Turns out HFF was closed for a few days. Since the nabe has become quite the Little Nepal, it took no time to find an alternative. Shangri-La Kabab & BBQ Palace lies just a few storefronts to the left. The awning touts fare from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as well as a cuisine more in line with its legendary namesake: Nepali.
The extensive Nepali Kitchen menu hangs above a standard-issue Indian steam table. I’m used to seeing two types of momo at such joints. Shangri-La offers four, including c-momo, or fried goat dumplings with chilis. The latter sound quite tempting, but in the spirit of adventure I chose two Nepali dishes that I’d never had from the 31-item roster.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, November 19, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Merit Farms might just be one of the strangest eateries in Jackson Heights. Despite the name it’s not a farm-to-table type place, though I’ll bet it was once an old-school greengrocer. For years I passed by the storefront display of greasy fried chicken and other scary looking food products always wondering who would eat in such a place. As you can see from the bizarre mishmash of signage, these days the answer to that question is lots of Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Indian, Tibetan, Nepali and Bhutanese people. Think of it as a smaller, South Asian version of Flushing's regional Chinese food courts.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, October 9, 2008 at 1:00 PM
Ask most well-rounded ethnic eaters about Tibetan food and the one item that usually comes up is momo, the beef dumplings that are the country's national dish. It's almost impossible to imagine entering a Tibetan restaurant and not ordering a plate of them, but that's exactly what I did the other night at the Himalayan Yak, a joint that serves Tibetan, Nepali, and Indian cuisine. The restaurant had its grand opening just a week ago, though grand reopening might be more accurate. The Yak, which is the oldest restaurant of its kind in the area, had been closed for renovations since late 2007. It's a safe bet that I'll never climb Mount Everest, but finding the Yak open for business after such a long absence filled my heart and taste buds with a sense of impending discovery.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, September 19, 2008 at 3:15 PM
Even though I don’t shop there often Phil-Am Food Market fascinates me. Maybe it’s because I feel there’s much more to learn about Filipino cuisine. Then again, maybe it’s because I’ve been trying to work up the nerve and intestinal fortitude to purchase their balut, the infamous partially developed chicken fetus. Yesterday I browsed the aisles of this cozy store located on the stretch of Roosevelt Avenue known as Little Manila. I didn’t see any balut, but I wasn’t looking that hard either. I did, however, spy something almost as strange lurking amongst the frozen desserts: Selecta Quezo Real Mellorine.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, August 29, 2008 at 12:30 PM
During the summer, the stretch of Roosevelt Avenue running through Jackson Heights is lined with vendors selling slices of mango and papaya. Tropical fruits spiked with hot sauce and salt help me cool off, but when it gets real hot I crave something much colder: a paleta. These Mexican popsicles come in much the same flavors as the fruit sold on the street: tamarind, mango, pineapple, cherry, guava, watermelon, etc. In my hood I most often find the Sley brand, which are made in Brooklyn. Until recently my faves were mango and chili, tamarind and chili, and, you guessed it, pineapple and chili. There’s nothing quite like sucking on a pepper-spiked popsicle on a sweltering summer day. I didn’t think it could get any more delicious or weird until yesterday.
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Posted by Robyn Lee, August 18, 2008 at 2:00 PM
Seth Grundberg of the New York Post and his wife roam Jackson Heights with $15 each, eating at four tasty spots in the process. Hop on the 7 train to feast on tacos, kebabs, corn cakes, and more, all within a few blocks of each other.
Posted by Joe DiStefano, August 6, 2008 at 2:30 PM
While strolling through Jackson Heights about a month ago I noticed that the original location of Kababish, a ramshackle kebab joint, was getting a decidedly upscale redo. With curiosity and appetite piqued, I checked back every so often to see this spot’s next incarnation. Yesterday I passed by and saw the final product: Delhi Heights. A slick-looking restaurant with a menu that goes well beyond vindaloo and korma, the new restaurant offers hundreds of items ranging from such South Indian vegetarian victuals like dosaand uthappam to fiery Indian Chinese specialties.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, July 16, 2008 at 2:00 PM
When I encountered Kababish on a sultry night around 1 a.m. I already had a bellyful of tacos. Yet there was no way I could resist this place. Dozens of South Asian specialties were advertised on handwritten orange signs plastered in the front window. Although it offers several curries and other fare, this Jackson Heights spot is aptly named; the specialty of the house is kebabs. The skewers are cooked over lump charcoal inside a tandoor, making the restaurant so hot you feel like you're in the oven alongside the meat. But I hardly noticed; too busy checking out the menu of seemingly endless choices.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, July 14, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Whether you spell it ceviche, cebiche, or seviche, one thing is certain: the Peruvian specialty of fish “cooked" via marination in lime juice is one of the best things to eat during the dog days of summer. Unfortunately there are very few places in Manhattan to get good ceviche. Given my love for this refreshing dish, I was devastated when La Pollada de Laura, an excellent Peruvian restaurant closed a few years ago. It had been my go-to spot in Queens for ceviche. Recently I was tipped off to a new destination for this refreshing dish: El Anzuelo Fino in Jackson Heights.
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Posted by Zach Brooks, July 7, 2008 at 4:00 PM
Stepping out of the Roosevelt Avenue subway stop in Jackson Heights for the first time is similar to what I imagine those kids must have felt like stepping into the giant candy room of Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Walk in one direction and the street is packed with Indian food and grocery stores, another direction and you'll be surrounded by Latin food, yet another there is Korean and Chinese food, and of course, there are great looking street carts everywhere you look. On a recent trip, we headed west on Roosevelt into Woodside to hit up Renee's Kitchenette, a Filipino restaurant recommended by a friend for its Filipino style BBQ.
Renee's BBQ chicken was good, as were some of the other dishes we had, like the char grilled pork belly, or the Lumpiang Sariwa, two large crepes filled with veggies and meat, then smothered in peanut sauce. But my favorite dish was hands down the Filipino sausage. While some are sour or heavy on the garlic depending on the region they come from, the version at Renee's were sweet-- a characteristic of the sausages from Pampanga. Similar to chinese sausage, but in a thicker chorizo-like form, the homemade longanisa, as they're known in the Phillipines, were cheap, incredibly tasty, and easily stole the show from the BBQ chicken that brought us out there. If this is what Filipino home cooking tastes like, I may need to find a family in the Phillipines to adopt me.
Renee's Kitchenette
6914 Roosevelt Ave, Woodside NY 11377 (nr. 69th Street; map)
718-476-9002
Posted by Joe DiStefano, June 12, 2008 at 12:00 PM
The area radiating outward from the 74 Street/Broadway subway station teems with carts offering all kinds of fare ranging from tacos and tortas to the chicken and rice from Sammy’s Halal of Vendy award fame. The most interesting cart in the nabe, however, is Shangrila Express. As far as I know, it’s the only street food vendor of its kind in New York City because proprietor Woeser Dorjee specializes in Tibetan food.
The crescent-shaped beef dumplings known as momos, are the most famous Tibetan specialty and Shangrila’s juicy specimens are excellent, as evidenced by the Tibetan and Nepalese folks who line up at all hours of the day for them. Be sure to ask for some spicy sepen sauce. But recently Shangrila has upped the ante by adding even more items to their already popular cart.
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, May 23, 2008 at 1:30 PM
Editor's note: Nobody knows the outer boroughs like our man Joe DiStefano, who takes great joy in walking the gustatory road less traveled. Last week it was guinea pig in Jackson Heights, this week it's cemitas in, well- Jackson Heights (what can we say, there is a lot of good eating in Queens). —Zach
I have frequented the taquerias along the stretch of Roosevelt Avenue that runs from Woodside in the high sixties all the way the to the low hundreds just shy of Shea for years, but I'm ashamed to admit I have a dirty little secret. I have yet to find something that I don't like nestled between two corn tortillas, but until very recently I had never tried a cemita. I'm not proud of it, but based on looking at the pictures on the menu at Taqueria Coatzingo in Jackson Heights, I've always regarded them as little more than tortas served on a slightly different looking roll. And seeing as how a torta is like a taco on steroids (thanks to a a schmear of refried beans, sliced avocado, lettuce, tomato, queso blanco and pickled jalapenos), how could one possibly improve upon such a creation?
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Posted by Joe DiStefano, May 14, 2008 at 3:30 PM
Is there a better Mother's Day treat?
Everyone and their mother packed El Pequeño Coffee Shop in Jackson Heights, Queens, this past Sunday afternoon. I was there on a mission that my dear departed mother would have found shocking: to eat cuy asado, or roast Ecuadorean guinea pig. Mom would have put a positive spin on it, though, and voiced pride in my eclectic palate and cast-iron stomach.
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Posted by Ed Levine, February 21, 2008 at 4:51 PM
Joshua M. Bernstein spends ten bucks for ten different foodstuffs on Roosevelt Avenue, and lives to tell the hilarious tale. Warning: Bernstein's story won't make your mouth water. In fact, his descriptions might make you laugh and sick simultaneously.
