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03/31/22 11:22pm

Tacos Yancui: Astounding Mexican Street Food in Front of an Elmhurst Apartment Building

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The menu, the blazing brasero, and four chalupas.

I haven’t been this excited about a Mexican street food vendor since I stumbled upon Juguitacos stand in Mexico City’s Colonia Roma three years ago. The source of my excitement is a little stand called Tacos Yancui tucked into the side of an Elmhurst apartment building around the corner from my house. Apart from its location far from Roosevelt Avenue’s teeming Mexican street food scene what drew me to it was a cooking device known as a brasero filled with blazing hardwood charcoal. I chatted for a bit with the owner, Livorio Flores and his wife, Jacinta. I’d already eaten, but I made a mental note to return.

When I finally made it back there on a frigid early spring evening Livorio suggested I try the quesadilla, but I decided on some chalupas two with meat—one cecina, salted beef, and one carnitas, or pork confit—and two without. While I munched away Livorio told me he worked for years as a chef in restaurants in Forest Hills and opened the little stand with his wife in October 2021.

Yancui’s memela bandeja mimics the colors of the Mexican flag.

“I do all the prep, she does all the cooking,” my new friend told me as he placed a memela before me. The oblong masa treats filled with beans are a rarity in Queens and even rarer in front of Elmhurst apartment buildings. I opted for a memela bandeja, so named because it is slathered with salsa roja and salsa verde, and then topped with white queso cotija mimicking the colors of the Mexican flag. Everything I tried that night had a wonderfully toasty flavor thanks to the blazing hot fire.

Livorio told me his little stand is named for his hometown, Yancuitlalpan, which lies south of Mexico City. He also said the next day’s special would be consomme de chivo. “If you have consomme de chivo I’m coming back,” I said of the young goat soup. Shortly before writing this I polished off a bowl brimming with meat and topped with jalapeños and onions. Best of all it came with two large homemade tortillas.

Tacos Yancui is open daily from around 7 p.m. to around midnight except Mondays. In case you’re wondering Friday’s special is the Lenten specialty tortas de camaron, fritters made from dried shrimp served in a spicy chipotle sauce.
Tacos Yancui, 80th Street at 45th Avenue, Elmhurst

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Dish O' The Day
03/12/22 9:18pm

Park Sanbal Babs, A Korean Specialist Among Specialists

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Park Sanbal Bab’s sole dish, long simmered beef and cabbage soup.

Spring’s just about a week away, but winter’s not quite done with New York City. The blustery weather provided a perfect reason to hit up Park Sanbal Babs, a homey Korean restaurant specializing in just one dish—a beef and cabbage soup called gukbap—with my pal Jonathan Forgash. He’s a chef by trade turned community activist and restaurant advocate, and a big fan of steaming bowls of comforting stews and such, so I knew he’d be down for a mission to Murray Hill in deep Flushing.

I’d heard about it this highly specialized restaurant from some Facebook food nerds a few weeks ago. “There’s only one choice to make, spicy or not,” one of them said. I treated myself to an Uber and and was cheered to see Google indicated Park Sanbal Babs was “less busy than usual.” As soon as I saw it I recognized it from years of exploring the vast K-tropolis that starts on Union Street and Northern Boulevard and runs practically all the way to Great Neck. I poked my head inside. Every table was occupied and there were about four people waiting in the small space by the door. “I wonder what Google thinks really busy looks like?” I mused to myself as I walked outside to explore the neighborhood.

Banchan is limited so as not to distract from the main event.

“This smells almost like my grandmother’s house,” Jonathan said while we waited. “How many? You want spicy or non spicy?” a Korean lady asked us. “Spicy,” we both responded. Moments after Jonathan said “This doesn’t seem like the type of place that encourages lollygagging,” we were seated. “I’ve passed this place hundreds of times, and I’ve always been curious,” I said as the waitress placed our bubbling minicauldrons on the table.

Two bowls of rice, sliced omelette, a stack of dried seaweed, hot green peppers with miso, and some excellent radish kimchi accompanied our soups. It’s almost as if the banchan selection was limited so as not to take away from the main event, a dish that cooks for four hours.I’d expected the soup to be incendiary, but was surprised when it wasn’t. It was, however, perfect for a cold day. A few spoonfuls in, we noticed the endearing soundtrack of Parksanbal Babs. It consists of the two Spanish speaking waitresses constantly calling out “Excuse me,” as they hustle in and out of the kitchen bearing boiling bowls of soup.

On the wall next to us was a sign in Korean that I was sure said something about the food. Turns out I was wrong, it’s more about Parksanbal’s hospitality. A friend of mine translated it thus: “First time guest is welcome because it’s the first time. Second time guest is welcome because it’s a known face. Third time guest is welcome because they are a regular. Fourth time guest is welcome because they are a family.”

I’ve long held the theory that since so many Koreans live and eat in Northeastern Queens often the restaurants there don’t have encyclopedic menus but are rather specialists. Parksanbal though is a specialist among specialists. If this weather keeps up I’ll be back sooner rather than later for another dose of its $15.99 medicine.

Park Sanbal Babs, 41-10 162nd St., Murray Hill, (718) 840-8467

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Featured
03/02/22 11:54am

Rincon Criollo’s Old School Cubano Rocks

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In my twenties, I had a thing for Cuban sandwiches. A lifetime or so later, I still do. The combination of garlicky fatty roast pork, salty ham, and Swiss cheese with pickles compressed into a slim crispy package is gloriously simple, but is not always easily achieved.

I still remember the first Cuban sandwich I had in Queens. It was in 1999 at a place in Woodside called Gilberto’s. The counterman placed a cinderblock wrapped in foil atop the sandwich press to aid in compressing the Cuban bread and its ingredients. In all likelihood memory has magnified the weight’s size, but not the sandwich’s taste. The result of the pressing was, to use the words of a certain TikTok famous sandwich maker, “OMG.” Crunchy burnished bread encased the ingredients and made Gilberto’s my neighborhood go-to for Cubanos.

A couple of years later Gilberto’s closed and I went in search of a replacement. To be sure Margon, the ancient and storied Cuban lunch counter near my job at Rockefeller Center, was always spot on, but great Cubanos were harder to find closer to home in Queens. El Sitio’s was pretty good, but didn’t approach the level of Gilberto’s. Like Gilberto’s, El Sitio closed, and so I turned to Rincon Criollo, a restaurant that has been around since 1976. I probably tried their Cubano about 10 years ago and was not impressed because it lacked the signature crunch.

On every subsequent visit to Rincon Criollo I’ve skipped the Cubano in favor of their excellent chicharron de pollo, but this past Sunday afternoon for some reason—maybe spring in the air maybe the gorgeous photo of a Cuban sandwich the size of my torso in the window—I gave it another try. Taking in the vibe—vintage salsa, red-checked tablecloths, and lacquered wooden plaques shaped like every Latin and Central American country emblazoned with their respective flags—I asked the waiter for a classic Dominican orange and condensed milk shake. “You have that drink? You know die dreaming,” I asked to a quizzical look. “Oh, morir sonando,” the hostess walking by chimed in.
Sipping on the cool, creamy and sweet morir sonando I smiled as I looked up to see what appeared to be a brick wrapped in duct tape atop the press.

Soon a Cuban sandwich scarcely thicker than a deck of cards accompanied by fried plantain chips appeared. It was crunchy, porky, and cheesy—everything that a good Cubano should be. It was a little lacking the garlic department, but that was easily fixed by adding some garlic. A dash of Dominican Pisqueya hot sauce kicked things up a bit, and made me grateful for the cool shake.

All in all—save for the latte art atop my cafe con leche—it was a decidedly old school experience that I can’t wait to repeat again. I’m glad that 23 years later, I finally have a go-to place in Queens for Cubanos!

Rincon Criollo, 40-09 Junction Blvd., Corona, (718) 458-0236

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Featured
02/19/22 11:56pm

Woodside’s Basantapur Chowk Serves Up Stellar Newari Momo

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Lord Bhairav as seen on Basantapur Chowk, Woodside’s only momo cart, and above the bar at Thamel, along with amazing fried chicken momo and a plate of steamed beef momo.

Queens boasts at least half a dozen momo vendors—ranging in size from carts barely big enough to house a cook to food trucks with full kitchens—specializing in the juicy dumplings popular throughout the Himalayas and India. The lion’s share are located in Jackson Heights, many are excellent, some are merely passable, but there is none quite as good as Basantapur Chowk.

The cart as seen through the window of Thamel NYC.

The cart, which opened about a month ago, is located in Woodside outside Thamel NYC, New York City’s only Nepali nightclub, named for a popular hippie destination in Kathmandu. With a gigantic head of Lord Bhairav, the destroyer avatar of Shiva revered by Nepal’s Newari people, towering over the bar and Nepali rock bands nightly, there’s no place quite like it. And really, there are no momo quite like Basantapur’s.

The crescent-shaped momos subtle wrappers enfold beef spiced with a Newari style masala. “Dude is that jhol?” I asked Yogendra Limbu, one of Thamel’s partners. “Yes,” he responded, advising me to pour it over the dumplings. These were not my first jhol momo by a long shot, but they were definitely the first ones I have ever had from a street cart. I’m fairly certain they’re the only jhol momo being served from a cart in Queens. Fried momo, little golden orbs filled with chicken were also excellent. The crunchy little dumplings went well with the jhol too. Both types of momo were also came with a little cup of Nepali hot sauce and another of crushed fried chilies.

In true New York City street food fashion the cart, which is named for Kathmandu’s Basantapur Darbur—a magnificent nine-story pagoda style palace built in 1779—also offers hot dogs. Sadly they were out of the wieners, which come topped with a Nepali style cole slaw spiked with green chilies. The neighborhood surrounding the Basantapur Darbur, it should be noted, is known for Nepali street food, and now Woodside is too.

Basantapur Chowk, outside Thamel NYC, 63-14 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, open 8 p.m.-2 a.m.

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News
02/01/22 11:38am

Francis Maling’s BBQ is Bad for Business and Good for Woodside

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BBQ for the people as grilled and served by Francis Maling in Woodside, Queens.

The first time I ever savored the smoky sweet porcine marvel that is Filipino BBQ was at Ihawan in Woodside, in the shadow of the 7 train in the neighborhood known as Little Manila.

Last week I ventured out in the bitter cold to try some pinoy style grilling that’s as good as and perhaps even better than Ihawan’s. It was grilled on the street by Bad for Business Popups, brainchild of journeyman Chef Francis Maling. The street in question none other than Roosevelt Avenue hard by the 61st Woodside subway stop on the mighty International Express, aka the 7 train.

I’ve been meaning to try Francis’ BBQ for quite some time and I’m glad I finally made it. His pork BBQ is decidedly cheffed up, benefiting from a marinade in soy sauce, banana ketchup, and vinegar followed by a three-step process: an initial grilling, a quick steam in banana leaves, and a final kiss of the flames as he brushes on his homemade sauce. I didn’t try the chicken, but I’m sure it’s excellent. I did however grab a duo of ruddy hued hot dogs capped off with marshmallows, which Maling says is a nod to Filipino birthday parties for kids. The day’s special was his twist on Peruvian anticuchos, grilled beef heart in a bulgogi marinade.

Maling has been operating his fly by the seat of the pants popup since January of 2021. Much as I like to joke that his promotional strategy of announcing each popup a day or so beforehand via Instagram is the reason behind the name “Bad for Business Popups,” Maling said there is a deeper meaning coupled with a mission to build awareness for street vendors who can’t get licenses.“I came up with the name cos when it comes to business a lot of people look for profits before people [but] I’m trying to think about the community,” he said. “I’m trying to think about the safety of the workers, people’s livelihoods not just the money aspect of it.”

As I am writing this I received a notification on my phone that Maling’s little BBQ stand will be open today Feb. 1 from 1 p.m. until he runs out and Thursday from 1 p.m. This week’s special is a burger from Burger Machine, BBQ on Foccacia by @nextlevelpizza.

“It’s barbecue for the community,” Maling said. “This is essentially barbecue for Woodside, I grew up here.” Oh, and in case you are wondering Maling’s favorite Filipino BBQ is the O.G. Ihawan.

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Dish O' The Day
01/06/22 4:23pm

Yun Cafe’s Lemon Salad is a Burmese Flavor Bomb

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Shaut thee thoke, or Burmese lemon salad, is a powerhouse of flavor.

In 2013 I had the pleasure of exploring Jackson Heights with Suketu Mehta a journalism professor at New York University who grew up in the neighborhood. Back in his day, many local businesses were Gujarati, including an appliance shop that Mehta said was run by two gents named “Raj.” “Indian immigrants coming to New York would visit two places, the Statue of Liberty and Raj and Raj.”

Mehta will be pleased to learn that visitors to Jackson Heights still visit the Statue of Liberty, but some like the young couple I met as I was emerging from COVID quarantine, visit Yun Cafe first.

“This tastes just like back home, the young man,” said of the homestyle Burmese cuisine made by Tin Ko Naing and Thidar Kyaw and the restaurant’s namesake, their daughter, Yun. (Sadly I was not able to tell them if the Statue of Liberty was open and instead recommended a Staten Island Ferry ride and a Sri Lankan food outing.)

My new friends were having some chicken soup and a mixture of laphet thoke—the classic tea leaf salad—and gin thoke, which features fermented ginger. Last I checked there were more than a dozen of thoke on the menu of the restaurant in the Jackson Heights subway station, including kaut swe thoke (a melange of noodles, potatoes, and curried chicken) pin le sar thoke, a seafood salad.

I’m slowly working my way through the thoke roster, but that day I wanted to try the shaut thee thoke or lemon salad, since I’d been hearing great things about it.

Lemon features prominently in shaut thee thoke, but like many Burmese salads, it’s a cavalcade of flavors, crunchy dried shrimp, sweet fried onions, insistently spicy green chili, raw garlic and pungent shrimp paste.

“It’s my family’s favorite,” Yun said when I told her how much I loved the dish. It’s also the epitome of the Burmese culinary concept “chin ngan sat,” or “sour salty spicy.”

I suppose it’s also a good way to test one’s sense of taste and smell after a bout with COVID. I wonder what other delicious secrets lurk among many other thoke I have yet to try.

Yun Café & Asian Mart, 73-05 37th Rd., Store #2, 646-920-7551

Dish O' The Day
01/05/22 4:33pm

Minnan Xiaochi’s Fujianese Oyster Omelet Rocks

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“We don’t eat pork or drink alcohol,” some guests on a Flushing Chinatown food adventure told me when asked about dietary restrictions for their upcoming tour. “Perfect time to check out that oyster omelet at the Fujianese joint in the New York Food Court that Dave wrote about,” I thought to myself, for you see, I don’t like to put anything on my tours that I haven’t vetted myself.

Oyster omelets are a hawker food eaten throughout Southeast Asia, but most famously at Taiwanese night markets. The first time I ate a Taiwanese one I had a raging hangover and couldn’t really stomach the gloppy consistency from the sweet potato starch. I wasn’t sure to what to expect of Minnan Xiaochi’s Fujianese version.

Unlike its Taiwanese cousin, the Fujianese version was almost paper thin and super crunchy from the egg itself as well as the plenty of green onions that were fried until crispy. What starch there was wasn’t gloppy so much as a binding agent. Hai li jian as it’s known in Southern Fujian made for a fine meal with a bowl of rice and an especially novel stop on a food tour.

Minnan Xiaochi, No. 13, New York Food Court, 133-35 Roosevelt Ave., Flushing

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Featured
12/10/21 6:43pm

Mandalay Club’s Excellent Burmese Comes With a Side of Technological Frustration

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Lamb neck and pig face from Mandalay Club whose kitchen is ensconced somewhere in the odd looking Sunnyside Eats.

“After five or 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to order a guy my age will give up and go around the corner and get a slice of pizza,” I quipped to my new friend Calvin. “And not come back,” I thought to myself.

Thankfully my urge to try the Burmese food from Myo Moe’s newly opened Mandalay Club outweighed my frustration with technology and the disconnect I experienced at Sunnyside Eats, a ghost kitchen/food hall that as best as I can tell opened earlier this fall. Part of the disconnect was due to the use of the word “Food Hall” on the outdoor signage. I’d expected to walk around a food hall. Instead I found myself in a room that looked somewhat like a cross between a taxi dispatch office and the set of Squid Game.

“Is Mandalay Club open today?” I didn’t see them on the tablet. “Oh yeah, they’re new. You have to order from Uber Eats,” the guy behind the dispatch window told me.

After installing Uber Eats and fiddling around with it for another five minutes only to realize that Mandalay Club was not on the platform Calvin came over. By this time I’d figured out Mandalay Club was on DoorDash. “It should be about 20 minutes,” Calvin informed me after checking on my order. That order consisted of wettar thoke ($14)—a cold melange of various parts of pig face, cucumbers chilies and veggies that I hadn’t enjoyed since Crazy Crab in Flushing shut down a few years ago—and anya lamb curry seit thar natt ($18), an intriguing sounding lamb neck dish.

While I waited, I amused myself by seeing how many photos I could take in the lobby despite the fact a sign expressly forbids any photography and video. (For the record it was two.) And then I remembered that my friend Kazuko Nagao of Oconomi had opened at Sunnyside Eats, so she came downstairs and helped me pass the time as I waited for my meal.

The meal itself was quite excellent. The pig head dish was a wonderful balance of crunchy bits of ear, squidgy nose, and creamy cheek meat with cucumber, green chili, red onion and other veggies. The lamb neck was amazing too. Moe told me she sources it from D’Artagnan and then cooks it for an hour and a half in a gingery masala along with yellow split peas.

All in all it made for a fine meal on a chilly evening. In fact I’m looking forward to part two tonight. That said, I’ll stick to frequenting real food courts instead of ghost ones, which leave me hungering for human interaction. Guess this very very late adopter will be ordering Oconomi as well as the rest of Moe’s menu via DoorDash.

Mandalay Club, 40-05 Skillman Ave., Long Island City

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Featured
11/29/21 7:48pm

Nepali Bhanchha Ghar Wins Fourth Momo Crawl in a Row

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Assemblywoman Jessica González-Rojas with Chef Bimla and the belt, this year’s map, and a bowl of buffalo johl momo.

“I can get momo any time. It’s just too much of a scene for me,” is usually what I say when asked about the Momo Crawl. “I prefer to pay my respects to the winner afterwards.”

“You could say it’s the SantaCon of momos but I prefer to say it’s the WrestleMania,” tweeted Jeff Orlick founder of the annual event, which brings hundreds of fans hungry for Himalayan dumplings, to the neighborhoods of Jackson Heights and Woodside, in a reference to the coveted Momo Crawl trophy, which is modeled after a championship wrestling belt.

For the past four years that trophy has graced the wall of Nepali Bhanchha Ghar, thanks to Chef Bimla Hamal Shreshtha’s piping hot momos, served in a fiery jhol broth humming with ginger, chili and other spices.
This year though not only did I pay my respects to the winner, I attended the crawl itself, and I’m glad I did. I ran into many dear friends old and new and frankly felt a sense of liberation despite my general distaste for crowds.

I tried only four of the 29 places on the crawl and couldn’t make sense of Momo Crawl mastermind Jeff Orlick’s map. “It’s a real Jeff Orlick special,” my pal Drew said with a chuckle. Later we sampled the winning momos from Nepali Bhanchha Ghar, which proved to be the hottest and freshest of the ones I tried, with lots of variety. I went for a trifecta of beef, buffalo, and goat with plenty of broth. The broth proved too spicy for my sweetheart Hannah’s daughter Vera, but that didn’t deter her appetite for more of the dumplings. In fact if she had her way I think she’d have done at least a half dozen more stops.

“They try very hard to win, and that makes a huge difference,” Orlick said of this year’s winner. “People seemed very happy to be there. Being outside also gave people some relief from being so concerned about coronavirus.”

This afternoon I took a long walk through the Heights to work up an appetite for a bowl of Chef Bimla’s momo. I opted for the buffalo. With a nip in the air and the second snow of the season falling it seemed like a perfect choice. Congrats again to Chef Bimla and Nepali Bhanchha Ghar, but most of all to Jeff Orlick for showing this sometimes jaded culinary king the joy of community in action.

Nepali Bhanchha Ghar, 74-15 Roosevelt Ave., (917) 745-0533

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Featured
11/22/21 11:37am

Burmese Bites Comes to Queens Center Mall

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The chef recommended I try the No. 12 at the newly opened Burmese bites, shown here unmixed.

Myo Lin Thway and his family who run Burmese Bites at the Queens Night Market, a specialist in palata—airy stuffed roti like bread made by Myo himself—and other goodies like ohno kaukswe, a wonderful coconut chicken noodle soup, have long been one of my favorite stands. I almost always get their noodles or palata on every visit to the market. There’s only one problem; I wish there were more options as well as the ability to get their Burmese cuisine year round. Well, thanks to the crew’s new location, which opened about a week ago in the Queens Center Mall Food Court, a venue better known for Panda Express than Burmese delicacies, both of these problems have been solved.

“What do you have that’s not at the Night Market?” I asked, looking at the roster of more than a dozen dishes. “You should get the Number 12, the shan kaukswe,” he said. “I know you’ll like these noodles because you appreciate Burmese food.”

In addition to the noodles I ordered tea leaf salad, or laphet thoke, a riotous blend of textures and flavors that along with the fish soup mohinga is considered by many to be the national dish of Burma. Just as Myo handed me my food who should I spy taking photos but none other than my dear friend Dave Cook of Eating in Translation. (We have been running into each other in my various Queens stamping grounds for years now and Dave joked that we need to develop a bat signal so we can know when an impromptu eatup is about to occur.)



Each dish came in a cardboard takeout box, the components waiting to be mixed. The shan kaukswe container simply labeled “Shan” held rice noodles topped with ground chicken and peanuts surrounded by pea shoots, scallions, pickled mustard greens, cilantro, and a little cup of dried chili. I started to mix the lot with fork and spoon, but quickly realized that closing and vigorously shaking the box—albeit carefully—would be more effective. This newly created Shan shake didn’t work so well for the tea leaf salad, which I tossed with utensils.

I’m glad I took Myo’s recommendation. The combination of the noodles along with the salty pickled vegetables, chili, garlic, and other components was utterly transporting. Dave ordered the shrimp curry and mango salad and subbed in tea life rice for white rice. All in all it was a great first meal at Myo’s new digs.

For a long time I’ve groused that the mall’s food court, known as the World’s Fare Café, was hardly deserving of the moniker since it didn’t reflect the delicious diversity of Queens. Now thanks to Burmese Bites along with its newly opened neighbor C Bao, a purveyor of Chinese pork and duck buns, it’s on its way to becoming a food court worthy of the World’s Borough.

Burmese Bites, Queens Center Mall, 90-15 Queens Blvd., Elmhurst

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