Posted by Joe DiStefano, February 20, 2009 at 12:00 PM
The last time I saw this big a crowd at a fast-food joint on Roosevelt Avenue was back when Pollo Campero opened in Corona. So many people have been lining up outside the new Jollibee in Woodside that I'm convinced the boxes of Chickenjoy come with stimulus checks. Either that or Filipinos have a deep-seated love for the fast-food of their youth.
I went to Jollibee the other night in the rain and it was closed by 7:30 p.m., so I wound up eating Korean fried chicken at Unidentified Flying Chickens. The next afternoon I returned to Jollibee. It would be quite a long wait, so I fortified myself with a Dominican empanada on the walk over. As I rounded the corner the aroma of fried chicken hung in the air. At 3:15 p.m. I joined the line that snaked down 63rd Street. After about 45 minutes of waiting I had decided what to order and changed my mind three times. The mostly Filipino crowd took the wait in stride except for a kid in front of me who said, "This is the first and last time I go to Jollibee."
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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 Robyn Lee, September 18, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Bak-kut teh from Malaysian restaurant Sanur.
Major Asian countries like China, India, and Japan are well represented in New York City, but what about the ones without large immigrant populations? Their food is available too; it's just a little harder to find.
The New York Times started their new online policy by posting this guide to less prominent Asian cuisines (like Malaysian, Filipino, and Indonesian) a full 3 days before it is set to appear in the paper. They recommend trying the asam laksa at New Malaysia in Chinatown, tysilog at Grill 21 in Gramercy Park, or gado gado from the Indonesian Cultural Center in Elmhurst, Queens.
Out of their recommended restaurants, I've been to Sanur (I particularly like their bak-kut teh,, herbal soup with pork), New Malaysia Restaurant, and Minangasli, all of which I'd go back to. Now I have to make my way to Grill 21 for Filipino comfort food.
Related
Fatty Filipino Pork Chunks at Pistahan
Off the Beaten Path: Filipino Sausage from Renee's Kitchenette
Posted by Robyn Lee, July 22, 2008 at 12:00 PM
While at Filipino restaurant Pistahan in the East Village, my friend and I split an order of lechon kawali, pork belly that's boiled then deep fried, but we couldn't finish it. I blamed it partly on just having devoured an order of halo-halo (eating dessert before the main course is acceptable in my world), and partly on the lechon kawali being composed of 99% pork fat.
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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
