A Culinary Fusion of Flavor - New Thriving Restaurant of Guyana, Richmond HIll Queens

I first learned about culinary fusions with Chinese cuisine a few months after I moved to New York City in 2009. One November day an old friend of mine from Memphis (Jessica) and I went to see the Daily Show with John Stewart on the West side of Manhattan. We were famished after the taping and it was freezing outside so we opted to hop in a cab and play it by ear. When we got in the cab we just told the cabbie to head towards the East side, at which point Jessica began chatting on her phone leaving me (a "chatty cathy") with no one else to talk to but the cab driver who was an East-Indian man. Somehow in our coversation we got on the topic of Indian restaurants in Jackson Heights, which lead him to ask us if we had ever eaten what he called "Indian-Chinese Food". We said "What's that?" and he replied by saying "Imagine that you are in India and you go out to eat at a Chinese restaurant...it has that Indian flavor." As soon as he explained the food we asked him to take us to the closest Chinese-Indian restaurant that he knew of... luckily it wasn't too far. That night we ate at a restaurant called Chinese Mirch which is really good. It tasted just like the cab driver said: like Chinese food with an Indian twist. 

The next day at work I began telling some of my co-workers about this incredible tasting Chinese food I ate the night before. After I explained the flavor to them, one of them asked me if I had ever had "Guyanese-Chinese" food...I told her "No, but is it anything like Indian-Chinese food?".  She then informed me that there is a large Indian population in Guyana and that the Chinese restaurants there have a good amount of culinary influence from the Indians. Then she told me about this Guyanese-Chinese restaurant in Richmond Hill Queens called New Thriving of Guyana....so of course I had to take a trip out there to see what was up.

It isn't really all that exciting...but damn their food is tasty.

I searched "New Thriving Queens" on Google and the results showed that I have to take the A train a few stops shy from the last stop in Ozone Park. I called the number listed with the business to make sure the joint was still open and then made way for a culinary field-trip. What I ate at New Thriving ended up being so good that I chose to eat there during Mardi Gras as I was about to forfeit alcohol and meat for Lent. These pictures were taken at some point over Mardi Gras weekend (2011).

I thought Banks was strictly a Barbadian beer...it 

turns out Banks DIH is a Guyanese and Barbadian company,

however their exports are brewed in Barbados.

Fried Shark. You can't get this at Chinese Mirch, but

you can totally order it at New Thriving...it is a

FLAVOR EXPLOSION!!!

Plaintain fries. Nothing special...but still yummy.

Big bowl of fresh soup. I'm not sure exactly what kind of soup this was, but it was 

certainly fresh, good and did not have a corn-syrup base like most take-out soup.

This is my default meal whenever I go here. It's called "Mixed Fried Rice".

It consists of a heaping mound of well flavored, sliced pork next to a large portion of 

chicken (bone-in) which is placed on top of a large bed of incredibly seasoned fried rice.

It is truly unlike any "American-Chinese" food I have ever eaten. The quality is epic.

This is basically the same as what is pictured above 

except for the fact that this is roasted duck.

Crispy AND soft. So good.

After a few too many Banks and some coaxing from the happy dancing man, 

it seemed reasonable to join him and dance to the Soca music.

If curiosity strikes you and you feel like makin' the trek, then I say "Go for it!" Just take the Ozone Park bound A train to the 104th Street stop in Queens,  New Thriving of Guyana is only a few blocks up. It is certain that you can eat and drink well there....and not to mention cheap. A Banks beer is never more than $3 and the Mixed-Fried rice meal is less than $5 during their lunch special (except on weekends).  Enjoy!

-Boatner

A New York Necessity - Katz's Deli, Lower East Side Manhattan

I had heard a think or two about Jewish delis in New York growing up in Memphis. Whatever I had heard or learned was more than likely via a late night TV news source. I think I remember seeing something on 60 Minutes (or something like that) about a deli serving massively proportioned smoked pastrami sandwiches on lightly toasted rye bread lathered in mustard....served with an ice cold cel-ray soda which I think is a soft drink you can only purchase in New York City. 

Given all that....at some point after I had moved to New York I was talking with my good friend (and attorney for that matter) Patrick Munson over the phone. Patrick has known me for the last ten years and knows I love good food. He asked me if I had been to Katz's yet and I responded by saying "No, where's that?" He sounded shocked and and gave me a brief description of it saying it's "It's a an amazing Jewish deli that serves the best pastrami and corned beef sandwiches on the Lower East Side..." he then quoted his best friend from law school (Joey Solomon) as saying that the sandwiches at Katz's are "made with transcending meat." That means their sandwiches bring you closer to God....which I actually think they do.

At any rate, I ended up making my way there shortly after our conversation as I learned it is no more than a 15-20 minute train ride from my neighborhood in Brooklyn. The trip to Katz's was as my good friend Clifton would say "a real dining experience." And I accentuate the term 'experience'. At Katz's you don't just go in, order and eat...there's a lot more to it than that.
 

During my Fall 2010 semester in graduate school at Hunter College School of Social Work I befriended a good guy named Bobby Anfang. Bobby and I took a class with a really great professor (who we are actually going to take to Katz's at the end of the semester) and became good buddies towards the middle of the semester. Bobby's father was a NYPD in the Lower East Side and at some point he mentioned that and something about Katz's Deli. I expressed my feelings about the establishment and he did as well....we had to go together at this point.

About two weeks ago, we decided to go during out 5 hour break from class (which is in the Upper East Side).

Bobby is stoked about this. 

Now here's the deal. When you walk in to Katz's, you meet a ticket man and a security guard. You walk up to the ticket man and receive...

 A ticket. 

So you get your ticket...now you have to figure out what to do...

At this point there are roughly 4 lines from right to left...none of which are clearly defined and all could be described as a "cluster $#&*". 

We ended up choosing about the third line in....

When we got up to the counter this is what we saw. Ever since my first visit to Katz's I have always been attracted to this pickle box. Maybe it's the green, maybe I was hugry, or maybe it just looks good.

Once you get to the front of the line at the counter, you present the deli attendant with your ticket at tell him what food you would like to order; you order drinks at the next counter down.

This is our counter attendant David with a nicely smoked portion of pastrami...

Meat ready to be sliced.

Thank you David for slicing the pastrami very nicely. 

That's my sammie on top of the counter. Sooooooo good y'all. 

This is on the right as you pass your way down to the drink order area. 

This is how our setup looked. We both had pastrami on rye with mustard, I had cel-ray on the right, Bobby had Dr. Brown's Root Beer on the left, and we split a Knish in the middle. 

Simple.

 

They're just dills....but so crisp and fresh and good. Perfect side for the sammie on rye.

 

Bobby insisted on it...and I'm glad he did. Honest to God this was my first knish. Delicious...and with the puddle of ketchup and mustard that Bobby made for dipping! It was most excellent. 

Not on this occasion, but the first time I arrived at Katz's I recalled one of those late night news shows on TV that I saw when I was a kid and remembered the cel-ray accompaniment. So I got one and my opinion on the drink is the following: it is good, crisp, clean and refreshing. I would not purchase one normally, but it should be a mandatory side item with a pastrami samie as it is the perfect compliment.

All in all, Katz's is an ABSOLUTE MUST if you come to visit, live, or work in New York City. It can be a trek from the Outer Boroughs...but it's totally worth it. I REALLY enjoy this joint. So check it out if you want. The address is 205 East Houston Street and is situated near the F train (2nd Ave Stop) and the J, M, Z trains (Essex Street). 

Enjoy.

- Boatner

Fit for a King in the Borough of Queens- Haewoondae Korean Restaurant, Elmhurst/Jackson Heights

Most folks who know me, and especially those who have asked me if I'd ever eaten Korean food have usually been surprised that I haven't. That is until this last Sunday when my good friend and fellow foodie-companion Noah and his girlfriend Momoko popped my Korean-cuisine cherry. Noah was visiting New York from Memphis and was excited to show me a Korean spot that he found a while ago when he was living in Queens. He admitted that there might be better Korean spots in the city, however the location, setting, and modest prices of this place help to keep him a loyal customer. Those said factors also have me hooked, line and sinker.

                 Haewoondae Korean Restaurant. Sounds like a hybrid of Hyundai and Daewoo.

Both are Korean manufacturers. 

I just really like the place-mat set-up (and the leather bound menu), not to mention the wax-paper sheathed spoon.

Here's the initial spread. It's a bunch of side dishes that you kind of do whatever you want with. These items were described to me by the waiter in English, so I don't have transliterational words for them (except for kim-chee). Starting at the far left and going clockwise from the top: Seaweed in a dressing, seasoned black beans, bean curd (tofu) with seasoning, flavored egg-plant, smoked mackerel, sliced cucumber, pasta salad with fruit and beans, and kim chee. Then a big salad closest to the bottom. 

After they drop off the first 9 dishes, they bring out the main meat dishes that were initially ordered with the server. There are something like four main sections of the menu. There is a barbecued meat section, a noodle section, a random item section, and a couple of others. We opted to pick two items from the barbecue section so that we could have our meat cooked at the table.

  This was called "Cha Dol Baki Gui". It is described in the  menu as "thin sliced corned beef in sesame oil and salt side dip." It made for a delicious meal, that's for sure.

Thank you for cooking my Cha Dol Baki Gui right in front of me.

It started to sizzle and cook kind of like a salty beef bacon. 

Noah picked this bad boy...and I'm really glad he did. It was the first item on the barbecue section and is called "Kalbi Gui". It is described in the menu as "chunks of moist tender boneless part of beef short ribs marinated with house special BBQ sauce at table."

 

 They don't do the whole cheesy Benihana style of fun, but it's classier and local- that's for sure.

 So here's the deal. After they cook up the freshly seared meats, they just start putting portions of it on your plate. You then take a leaf of lettuce from a basket and put the meat and whatever else you want inside of it. In this leaf, I placed the thin beef and some black beans. Wrap it up and eat. Goodness.

I neglected to mention the peanut and sesame oil side dish each person gets with the meal. On the bottom right you will see a dish that has a peanut based paste on the left and a sesame oil sauce on the right. Here I lathered the lettuce in the two sauces, placed the Kalbi Gui on top of that, and then on top of that I placed some of the marinated cucumber and kim-chee. This was my favorite combo for sure. I also placed a big chunk of mackerel on top of my rice. Salty salty good.

Noah attacks the smoked fishes. They were really, really tasty.

 

I felt that the kim-chee merited it's own picture. 

This was succulently flavored cabbage: hot and spice and everything nice. 

 

After I disclosed the fact that I am writing a food blog to the waitress, an expediter brought out two complimentary soups that are featured in the picture. They are in the black bowls in the center.

 

 This is the soybean curd soup. It was awesome and had lots of onions and spicy green peppers in it.

 The waiter called this "steamed egg soup". To me it tasted like what real egg-drop soup should taste like. It didn't have that corn-syrup base that most Chinese restaurants use in their egg-drops. This soup had a good stock base and a large amount of steamed egg that had a custard consistency. They topped it with chives and it really made an excellent addition to the beefy meal.

Well I thoroughly enjoyed my first Korean experience. The quality of everything was excellent, without question. Momoko, who comes from a Japanese family, was so taken with the fresh and authentic, Asian quality of everything that she had to pause for a moment to take it all in. To top it all off, the jaw-dropping cost of everything in the end was really incredible....I don't think the bill was more than $40. With that said, I believe that Haewoondae Korean Restaurant in Elmhurst Queens is totally worth the trek. It can be found at 7532 Broadway in Elmhurst/Jackson Heights Queens via the 7/E/F/M and R lines. And if you're up to it when you're done, you can visit one of the local Asian or Indian supermarkets in the area; there are all sorts of goodies to be found in those places.


- Boatner

Hog Heaven with a Hint of Zen. - Fatty Cue, Williamsburg Brooklyn

I think that it is safe to say that most Memphians can be overly opinionated when it comes to their own personal definitions of what barbecue is and how it is to be done. And since I'm on a Barbecue team that competes in the World Championship of Barbecue every year in Memphis, I feel that I certainly have the credibility to determine what good swine should taste like. I should also point out for those who aren't familiar with Memphis barbecue that when we (Memphians) say "barbecue" or "bbq" that we are pretty much always referring to pork, whether it be slow smoked shoulder or ribs.

After I moved to the area I was fairly skeptical of the few barbecue joints I had been reading about in my neighborhood. I would say to my self "Barbecue in New York City? Screw that man, I'll stick to my own smoked meats..." Well like my Jamaican friend at work says "Never say never man."

Fatty Cue is a restaurant that serves a unique fusion of Deep Southern and Asian cuisine. Based on my friends' word, this place has been written up in publications such as the New York Times, New York Magazine, and Time Out New York. And there is good reason for that.

We got there for an early afternoon brunch after a long night of partying at my oldest friend's (Joe) good bye party. We maybe had 5 hours of sleep and I personally had a very foggy state of mind. Joe had been talking about going here for the last few days and we decided it would be a good place to enjoy a nice meal together before he moves off to Portland. The host took us to the back of the restaurant where we sat at a table that was pretty close to this windowed door that opened to a patio where I saw a large smoker and a gentleman moving around large shoulders and briskets of meat. For those who don't know me very well, I am a very sociable person who loves making small talk with randoms. I became very curious and approached the door, knocked and told the guy manning the meat my name, the spiel on this blog, and a brief snip-it about my barbecue team membership. With a smile he invited me back to the patio.

His name is Robbie and he is the Pit-Master at Fatty Cue. Here is his rotating smoker full of shoulders, briskets, and legs of lamb.

 

Tasty legs of lamb.

 

 Pit-Master Robbie showing off a brilliantly flavored leg of lamb. He said he mainly competes in the Kansas City Barbecue Circuit but that he competes in the World Championship of Barbecue in Memphis as well. I didn't get the name of his team, but we are going to meet up for sure come May.

He just tore off a piece and handed it to me. We were both very interested in eachother's smoking endeavors however Robbie could offer me samples of his feats first hand. He's going to have to wait until May before I can share with him the flavors of Memphis and Pig Diamonds (the barbecue team).

 Robbie takes great pride in the excellent quality of his meats. As he pointed out to me, the marbling on this shoulder is truly unbelievable.

 "You want meat? Yeah we got meat. Here's a ham."

 "You like bacon? Here's some bacon. We cure it right here." That is honestly the largest portion of pork belly I have ever seen in my entire life. 

 After Robbie showed me his meat lockers and all there was to show about his prized meats that people from all over New York come to indulge themselves in, I went back in as we had ordered our food before I began this crazy exploratory adventure. I was hungry and wanted to eat our Southern/Asian fused brunch goodies.

 

First things first. Had they not been out of orange juice, I wouldn't have taken a picture of my brunch-time screwdriver.  I asked them if they could substitute OJ with pineapple juice and they did. Not only did they make the substitute, they added a nice hunk of smoked pineapple on a cocktail spear to it. It really was one of the most refreshing hair-of-the-dog, brunch-time drinks I've ever had.

 Dude. These are the curried black-eyed peas covered in eggs cooked the way you want them (I got em' scramby) with a large halved slice of homemade Texas toast. Un-real.

 This dish is called "the Whole Pig". It consists of a mound of smoked pork covered in two eggs any style with three "bao". Bao are similar to the "char siu bao" at dim-sum however they aren't stuffed with meat. They still have that good fluffy texture and you can load em' with whatever you have.

Here's a side of bacon. Thick sliced and cooked to perfection. Not crispy, but hefty and juicy. Epic.

My buddy Aaron went for the pancakes and bacon. They were some of the best pancakes I've ever pout in my mouth, without question. Pancakes aren't usually that impressive to me, but Fatty Cue's are.

 "Heritage Pork Ribs" that are basted in "smoked palm syrup and Indonesian pepper." Fell apart and left a clean bone. The texture and flavor where on-point for sure.

 I stuffed this bao with some of the rib meat. Sooooo good.

 This was called the noodle bowl. It was a basic Asian flavored noodle bowl with a side of siracha sauce. It was good to add pieces of pork and some of the other dishes with it.

I can honestly say that today I experienced my first "courtesy-of-the-chef" moment. So mid-way through the meal, Robbie comes out with this plate. On it are a few slices of truly succulent pork belly and some extra bao for stuffing. As my old neighbor Dewey used to say: "You can't chew something that melts in your mouth."

This picture doesn't really do it justice, but this was another gift from the Pit Master. It's a Cauliflower-Au Gratin smothered in a mound of pulled pork shoulder and then given the final topping of a white-wine vinegar based sauce that gave it this amazing sweet and sour flavor. I mixed this with some of the noodles from the noodle bowl making it the most flavor popping item on the table.  I think this was my favorite item out of everything. One of the expediters had never seen it before and asked how we got it. I guess it pays off to be sociable and curious.

 Here's our spread. While everyone ordered their own thing, it turned into this huge sharing festival where everyone tried everything. I guess they take encourage the "sharing is caring" concept at Fatty Cue. Doing this allows for everyone to try and combine different things. I can honestly say that this was one of the most pleasurable brunch experiences I've had to date.

For those of you who live in New York and haven't made it to Fatty Cue yet, I would say it's about time that you made the trek on over there. And for those of you who don't live in New York and might make your way at some point then you should definitely make this a "Must-Go-To" when you do come and visit. The food here is sure to soothe the soul.

- Boatner