Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Ethnic Eating Adventures: Sunset Park Edition
Last week, my intrepid band of adventuresome eaters journeyed to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, for an afternoon of cross-cultural snacking. Sunset Park is the perfect microcosm of the multi-ethnic diversity that makes NYC as a whole such an exciting place to eat. Since the 1970s, SP has been home to a large number of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Dominican immigrants--in fact, by 1990s, 50% of the nabe's population was of Hispanic descent. * And since the 1980s, the west side of the park has been home to many East Asian immigrants, who've spread out along 8th Ave. and turned this part of the hood into Brooklyn's large and thriving Chinatown.
But enough of all this demographic background--I'm just trying to get across that an afternoon walking and eating in SP can result in a stomach full of tacos, tortas, bahn mi, dumplings, noodles and more, all within blocks of each other. And that, simply put, is awesome.
Here's a look at our afternoon of face-cramming-- it was cheap (we hit five places and I don't think anyone spent more than $8 at any one place), more than filling, and crazy delicious. I tried to get at least one unflattering action shot of everyone who came, but a select few escaped the the lens. Lucky bastards. Anyhow, some highlights and notes from our trip, below:
Ari slurping dumpling soup from Yunnan Flavor Snack. The soup ($4) was a red-hot, oily, smelly mess of chili oil, pork broth, and thinly wrapped, brain-looking dumplings. YFS is, as far as I can tell, the only Chinese restaurant in NYC serving Yunnan (a southwestern Chinese province)-style cuisine, which is characteristically spicy, herbal, and noodle-heavy. YFS looks like a dump from the outside, but don't be fooled. Get the pork noodle soup (more on this below) or the aforementioned dumplings.
Portrait of a pork noodle soup.
Rizzo, really psyched about some Asian soft drink.
Bertie with the (literally)-finger-licking good pambazo ($6) (see glamour shot below) from Tacos Xochimilco. Pambazos are a cousin to tortas, except that the bread of the sandwich is dipped in a red guajillo pepper sauce and seared on the outside, meaning your figers will be seared in sauce, too. But that's okay, when the filling--potatos, chorizo, avocado, refried beans, queso freco and shredded lettuce-- is this good, a little guajillo pepper stain is worth it in the long run. I've never seen pambazos on a menu before, and I'd like to give credit to the incredible NYC Food Guy for introducing them to me.
The pambazo, bisected.
Tony preparing to inhale a taco supreme at Tacos Matmoros.
A sampling of tacos from Matamoros ($1.25 each)-- chorizo, tripe, tongue, chicken, carne asada, and carnitas. What makes Matamoros stand out from the rest of the many tacos joints lining 5th Ave. is their attention to detail--griddling the tortillas before filling them, providing multiple salsas and sauces, and the overall quality of the meats. The standouts here were the chorizo (which is hard to screw up anyway), the carne asada, and the tripe. I'm not a huge tripe fan due to my aversion to rubbery, smooth textures, but this tripe was thinly sliced, heavily seasoned, and sauteed until it was deeply smoky and crsip--almost like bacon. I was pleasantly surprised and seriously impressed. Skip the tongue (too watery) and chicken (bland, though maybe that's to be expected).
Justin graphically devouring a pastry from Las Conchitas.
Las Conchitas is a fairly typical Mexican bakery, and while none of the offerings here were truly outstanding, they were fresh and dirt-cheap (I spent $10 on 10 pastries and 2 drinks). There was one bun, filled with a crumbly cinnamon-sugar core, that was particularly tasty. The Mexican cheesecake was also good--dense and tangy.
Yours truly, with bahn mi all over my face. Ba Xuyen is a longstanding Chowhound favorite for bahn mi in the city. The baguette was still warm, crispy on the outside, and I liked that they divvied up full-sized loafs for the sandwiches, meaning you could get lucky and end up with a middle piece that didn't taper down at one end. However, I was disappointed with the lack of spiciness on my #1 ($3.50), and I found the meatballs on the #4 borderline-gelatinous in texture. Points given for an even distribution of cilantro and pickled veggies, though, which is a pet peeve of mine at some Vietnamese sandwich places.
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Thursday, July 17, 2008
This Week's Diet
Some things I have eaten recently:
Cotton candy at Brighton Beach. I forgot what a strange and lovely sensation it is to have pure sugar disintegrate in your mouth.
Additionally, Brighton Beach is one of my favorite places in the world. I'm not entirely sure why. It's gaudy and tacky and utterly delightful. I always come home smelling of poppy-seed pastries and smoked fish and sunscreen.
Deep-fried tortillas at home, as part of D's authentic Mexican tostadas. 
Sautéed dandelion greens from Philoxenia, in Astoria, Queens. Bitter and pungent, not altogether that pleasant. This was my first trek to Astoria in search of Greek food. Sadly, entering Queens is not the same as entering the Greek Isles. I was hoping for more of an overwhelming cultural explosion, the way I feel when I venture to Chinatown or even the aforementioned Brighton Beach. Clearly, not all ethnic enclaves share (or want to share) the same aesthetic character. 
Tiny and perfect marinated taro at Soba-Ya in the East Village. I have a disproportionately high tendency to crave Japanese food, perhaps because the intricate attention to detail appeals to the OCD-infected side of me. This was a precursor to my bowl of hot duck-and-scallion soba noodles, 85-degree heat totally irrelevant.
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