A visit to Guatemala

In August I spent almost a week in Antigua, Guatemala, where I aimed, among other things, to get to know about Guatemalan food. Antigua was an ideal destination in many ways. It's an historic city - one of Unesco's World Heritage Sites - and although you'll see fast food restaurants there, there's a deliberate (and, in fact, mandated) effort to preserve architectural integrity and the essential culture of the city. I really loved exploring the many ruins as well as the markets. ("Antigua" means ancient).

On my first day, I stumbled, somewhat by accident, on the Antigua Cooking School, which I should have already noted, because it was in my guidebook, but I'd missed it in my prerations. Fortunately, however, I was able to register on the spot for a class the next day. Combining that cooking experience with many hours wandering through the local market as well as the local supermarket gave me a good handle - at least an introduction - the Guatemalan food. Obviously, a week is barely enough to get a sense of a place, but at least I got the sense!

The class is taught by Militza De Leon, whose Seattle-based aunt founded the school about three years ago. Each class is four hours long and the fee is US$65 - cash only, please! (I paid $50, but just checked the Web site, and apparently the costs have gone up!) When you sign up, you can choose by the menus available on the days it's offered. I went on a Thursday, when the main dishes being taught were chiles rellenos and a Guatemalan dessert called Mole, which involves cooking sweet plantains in a sauce that includes chocolate, spices and tomatoes. We also made a simple salad, a rice dish and learned how to form and cook tortillas correctly. (Could I replicate this on my own? I'm not sure!) We were given utterly thorough instructions, well-written in English. It was definitely worthwhile. The Web site, www.antiguacookingschool.com, mentions a cooking class in Queretero, Mexico, and I'm definitely tempted to look into it!

I also spent hours in the local market, wandering through its seemingly endless aisles and paths of local produce.



The market was a constant temptation, combining food and dry goods and some surprises: a huge kiosk with bras amidst all the food, and, as in other urban markets that I've seen in Central and South America and, in particular, one in Ghana, it seemed just endless. I'm sure there was an order to it, but it eluded me.

Although I had access to a kitchen at Dos Loros Inn, where I was staying, I would have needed more time to actually tackle some of the dishes I'd learned to make, and I would have loved to try using some of the new ingredients I saw - the variations of peppers and a green called loroco, which I've tasted in pupusas in Salvadoran restaurants here in NYC. I finally had a chance to see loroco (see photo below), and I bought a half-pound of it, thinking I could sneak it back to the US, but thought better of it, and tossed it before boarding the plane. I did take a couple of loroco shoots (visually it resembles tiny scallion bulbs, but the aroma is totally different).
Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of or at Bodegadon, the lone large supermarket in Antigua. It was fascinating to see Guatemalan versions of global products (I was able to get Diet Coke and Diet Pepsi; here, the Coke was cheaper than Pepsi.) I bought a box of frozen pupusas, which I'd never seen before, and saved the box to see if I could find this product in NYC. I'm pretty sure I'd find them in Washington, DC, or California, where the Salvadoran communities are much larger, but I'm going to snoop around in Jamaica, Queens, next time I'm there to see if I can find them.
On that note, I should mention that I had pupusas two times in Guatemala, at a restaurant, where each pupusa was 15 quetzales (about $2.25) and were served with a bland sauce and guacamole, and at a street stand near the market, where they were 6 quetzales and were served with the hot sauces and spicy slaw (curtido) that I'm most used to getting. I think the first pupusa targeted the ignorant gringo consumer; the market pupusas were so much better! (The second picture isn't very good - I later realized that instead of photographing the pupusas and the woman who made them, I mostly took pictures of the little boys hanging around there - her son and his friends.)

August 2008 - Staten Island

First of all, my big news: Noshwalks was featured in am-NY on Tuesday, July 29th, in a nice article on page 13. I'll try to post it later today!

I'm in the process of finishing Issue #21 of Noshnews and am pretty excited about after many months.

In this post, I'm going to share some photos and previews of the issue.

"Little Sri Lanka" - Many foodies know that there's quite a bit of Sri Lankan food to be found in Staten Island, especiallly in Tompkinsville, not far from the ferry terminal in St. George. But this past week, a new restaurant opened, and three weeks earlier, a rather tattered Sri Lankan place re-opened with a new owner and much different approach to dining in this neighborhood, i.e., both new restaurants have a lot more seating and are decorated to attract a more upscale clientele. Lak Bojun at 324 Victory Boulevard and Dosa Garden, across the street at 327 Victory Boulevard, each will offer a much nicer ambiance for eating than has existed to date.
Sanjeewa Wickremaratne opened Lak Bojun (324 Victory Boulevard) in early July.


Dosa Garden was set to open on Saturday, July 31. I was leading a Noshwalk in Sunset Park that day so I didn't have a chance to go to opening day. But owner Mogan Chinniah has carved out a beautiful and fairly spacious eating area for customers. By the way, the restaurant canopy and menu describe it as an Indian place, but when I visited them as they were putting the finishing touches on the place two days before opening, Chinniah told me that it's both Indian and Sir Lankan. The menu looks great, with about 15 different types of doas and utthappam (crepes and pancakes), biryanis and other mouthwatering treats.

Meanwhile, I had an amazing lunch at Lak Bojun, with chicken curry, carrots cooked in cocoanut milk, eggplant and a chewy dried fish in a savory rice. It reminded me of the Indonesian dish nasi goreng, which combines textures and flavors. I hope both restaurants are hugely successful!

I can imagine, now that there are four Sri Lankan eateries within a block that foodies will "discover it" and flock there in big numbers, if they can convince themselves that Staten Island isn't a faraway country. (The other two places are New Asha, next door to Lak Bojun at 322 Victory Boulevard, and Colombo Cafe at 12 Cebra Ave., around the corner. New Asha has been around for a pretty long time and is known to NY Noshers. Colombo Cafe was known as Lakshmi's until about a month ago. I think the new name is better, and the food is great, but the space needs improvement.)

Besides the Sri Lankan places, this neighborhood also has several Albanian shops. The three food venues include Chuck's Pizza (which, like many NYC pizzerias is owned by Albanians), Rey's pizza (next door to Dosa Garden) and Emil's Halal Meat Market and Groceries. Chuck's and Emil's are owned by the Dedovic family (340 and 342 Victory Boulevard). Chuck's -which opened earlier this year, in a really beautiful space - also serves bureks, the delicious fillo pies filled with cheese, potato, meat, spinach and, sometimes, combinations of these. Check out the menu, because admidst all the typical Italian dishes are a number of Balkan specialties.



Elez and Emil (Chuck) Dedavic pose together with a pan of fresh-baked burek! They're at Chuck's Pizzeria at 340 Victory Boulevard not far from the ferry. You can get there on the S61 or S62 bus, which takes 5 to 8 minutes to zip up Victory Boulevard to Cebra Avenue.


There are tons of Mexican places on Victory Boulevard, but my favorite by a long shot is Tulci-Mex Cafe at 104 Victory Boulevard. Owner Marcelo Farciert (whose surname is French, but he's 100% Poblano from the city of Tulcingo)was doing so well serving up Mexican dishes in the back of his market two storefronts up at 108 Victory Boulevard that he took over an old 99-cent store and made a successful restaurant. He offers four different types of tamales. Everything I've had there has been delicious.


Marcelo Farciert has operated his market on Victory Boulevard for about 15 years, but opened the cafe within the last couple of years.

I have LOTS more to say about Staten Island, but you'll have to get Noshnews #21 to read it. It will be done later this month. Check www.noshnews.com for more details!

Catching up after almost ONE YEAR of not blogging!

It has been close to one year since my last blog entry! I want today's to represent a new beginning. For the first time, I've added photos, but you'll soon see photos on the older posts as I go back and add images. Thanks to my long-delayed implementation of a high-speed connection I can now make changes more effectively and quickly! So - enjoy - AND please comment!



These are the first pictures I've put into my blog. The top pictures a studetn and teacher from a high school in the east Bronx (Throgs Neck) who were part of a large group exploring the Lower East Side. They're eating matzoh and lox. Interestingly, many of these students had never been to the Lower East Side and couldn't identify the Williamsburg Bridge!

The second group is of students I took on a Noshwalk + history tour of Harlem last year. They're studying English as a second language at CUNY and have to take 4 semesters before they can matriculate into one of the CUNY colleges. I love leading student groups, especially with kids who really want to learn about New York City and are experiencing things for the first time. The first group was at First Park at First Street and Houston Street; the second is sitting on the steps of the Langston Hughes House on West 127th Street.

Anyway, I'm amazed that the last time I formally blogged was in August nearly 11 months ago! How did this happen, when I'm always seeing and doing so much that I should be blogging about?

Anyway, I'm writing this in the early evening after leading a custom tour today for another group of ESL students. I met this group in downtown Flushing, but we then took a bus to an area of Flushing also known as Kew Gardens Hills. (It's one of those confusing things, where some maps call it Flushing, but the post office is Kew Gardens). The students were great! They came from China, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Haiti, Ecuador, Mexico and Peru. Some have been here as little as six months, other for a number of years. In consultation with their teacher, I decided that it would be fun to take them to this kosher stretch of Main Street where they would see sights and taste foods quite new to them.

We started at an Afghan market, where we taste freshly baked Afghan bread. For the rest of the tour we focused on kosher foods and discussed what we saw. This is the fourth tour I've done for this program, and I loved seeing the reactions of these students, who know downtown Flushing well but, similar to a tour I led for another group last year, are clueless about the existence of kosher food. These types of cultural crossovers are precisely what I love to highlight in my tours, even to the point of showing them mezuzahs. At one market, the owner came out and briefly discussed what they mean.

Since last August a lot has happened. I created a new tour of Ridgewood, where I found a great Bulgarian market on Myrtle Avenue (Parrot Market, near 58th Street), an Italian bakery that has the very best gelati I've tried (Monreale, near 59th St., available in warm weather only) and rediscovered an Balkan kebob place (Bosna Express) where the chef is Mexican (Forest Ave. near Palmetto Street).

Some other "finds:"

Two Surinamese restaurants on Liberty Avenue in Guyanese Richmond Hill, both relatively new. (Only one, Surinam Garden, is truly appealing, and the owner is wonderful!); Chocolate Castle (not that new), a great confectionary place on Division Ave. in kosher Williamsburg; Grill Point, a popular better-than-felafel place on Main Street in Kew Gardens Hills; a Venezuelan arepas place on 36th Avenue in Astoria; a terrific Ghanaian restaurant in the Bronx where, a block away, I found ginger beer that was so strong I had to water it down - and I've enver done that before. I bought it at a Guinean place called Halal Coffee Shop on McClellan Street near Sheridan Avenue.

What I love are the constant discoveries as well as the rediscoveries of places I've already been where I see things with a fresh eye. So often I miss things the first time around...

More to come, including pictures!

Kvetching about Markets

Most foodies talk about restaurants and cafes; most NY food guides focus on eateries, not markets. But Noshnews and Noshwalks - and my book, Nosh New York, puts emphasis on both. If anything, I prefer the markets because I get a close up look at many more ingredients than I can taste in one place... (and I can't tell you how much odd stuff clogs my shelves at home). The pictures shows Ariana Afghan market on Main Street in Flushing. Those dour merchants don't own it anymore, but I think they're photogenic in a kind of ironic way and I love this picture!

Anyway, just a few thoughts : Truly the best food markets are in the boroughs or far from central Manhattan. Yes, of course, Zabar's and Fairway and Whole Foods are great, and, yes, I go to all of them. But when I REALLY want interesting food, I'd rather go to Sunnyside or Elmhurst or Astoria or Flushing or Richmond Hill or Brighton Beach... and Belmont for great bread, cheese and pasta. I even like to go to El Pais on St. Nicholas and 184th Street for certain things, but it's a MESS inside.

Harlem has NO good markets. (Young Spring on West 125th Street just east of Malcolm X Boulevard is OK, and the Sea & Sea My favorite African market closed a few years ago (the best are in the Bronx), although you can find ingredients for African cuisine in the neighborhood. (But I noticed huge jars of Skippy peanut butter in one place, presumably used for the mafe - peanut butter stew).

Forgive me - a few exceptions: International Market on 9th Ave, & 40th St.; Pars Persian market on West 30th just east of 7th Avenue (north side of the street), Kalustyan on Lex between 29th and 30th... and I'm a big fan of West Side Supermarket, but especially enjoy its lower-cost Bronx counterpart known as Garden Gourmet, on Broadway and 234th Street.

Do I sound like I'm kvetching? Maybe it's just that in its vast and rapid gentrification, Harlem is welcoming too many generic places, and I far this will happen in other neighborhoods.

Comments?

Short takes

Yesterday - August 5 - I concluded my summer Noshwalk season with a tour of Ridgewood, Queens. It's one of those neighborhoods that neither artists nor hipsters have discovered, and the reason, probably, is that it's physically intact. There are no sprawling industrial blocks of former factories waiting to be rehabilitated. There isn't a poor community in pre-war housing stock waiting for newcomers to "upgrade" them. (I'm thinking of the Grand Concourse here.) Instead, there are blocks and blocks of brownstone-type homes and later constructions, most no higher than three stories, and many in pristine condition. The residents seem to represent a wide cross-section of immigrants from Central and South America and the Caribbean; Eastern Europe (especially Poland); some Chinese; and older residents with German, Romanian, Slavic and Italian roots.

On Fresh Pond Road we went to Catania Bakery and on the way passed the new Pharaoh Cafe, an Egyptian place. Are Egyptians among the newer-comers to Ridgewood?

An old diner on Myrtle Avenue has been converted to the very animated Monta's Restaurant (54-55 Myrtle), evidently the property oif a baseball-obsessed owner. Parrot Market at 58-22 Myrtle has food from all over the place; its owners are Bulgarian, and they have delicious fresh bureks and spinach pies as well as packaged goods. We got a wonderful Romanian sheep cheese there. Monreale Italian bakery had gelato for just $1.25 for one scoop and $2.25 for two. In Manhattan you'd pay at least twice that, and I don't know if they'd be as good.

Our last stop, by the way,was Bosna Express, one of two Bosnian eateries. We got a delicious lamb kebab. The chef was Mexican. The photos shows a few Noshwalks loving their kebabs!

***
In Astoria a couple of weeks ago, we stopped at a San Antonio #2, a Chilean bakery at 36-20 Astoria Boulevard. (#1 is in Valley Stream.) I've included it on my Astoria tour for years, but usually by the time we get there, towards the end, we've eaten so much that there's little space for anything else. I was happily surprised to see that the owners had renovated the exterior to make it much more attractive to visitors, creating a showcase of the empanadas and dulce de leche filled pastries that they make. But their specialty is actually a Chilean hotdog, with a topping combining guacamole and other flavors. At $3.50 it seems pricey, but it's very rich and we cut a couple of them into pieces to share tastes. The owners were very friendly and it's worth a visit!

***

Seen in Harlem: A Taste of Seafood on the southeast corner of Madison Avenue and 125th Street (50 E. 125th St.) continues to draw lines of customers in search of its fried fish dishes. About two or three months ago I saw that they're getting ready to move across the street to 59 E. 125th - a new facade and, I think, 2 floors. Interesting food-related developments have taken place on this stretch: Wimp's Bakery also moved into spiffy quarters with an extra floor (and a hot buffet in addition to their traditional baked goods); Manna's, which already has a soul food buffet place on the northeast corner of Madison and 125th, opened an outpost nearby on the south side closer to Malcolm X Boulevard. Charles' Southern Fried Chicken, whose main place is on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near 150th Street, has rented a portion of A Slice of Harlem, on Malcolm X BOulevard just north of 125th Street. Mo'Bay, an upscale seafood place, has been around for a while.

Gee - is it just a coincidence that Bill Clinton's NYC office is in the midst of all this, in the Carver Bank Building at 75 W. 125th St.? (And I wonder if his foundation, of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone, have anything to do with all this.)

***

Borough Park always surprises me. Going in the summer usually means it's a lot slower - so many people are away. But the Zion Market, which has moved to a new, larger location on 13th Avenue between 38th and 39th Streets, is always busy. To my knowledge, it's the only Jewish Yemeni market in NYC. The space is about twice as large as the old one, and it felt oddly airy. I suspect that whatever law of physics it is (can't remember the name!) that says you'lol fioll out whatever space you have, or something like that, will apply in the case of this market: it will once again be very crowded. Best purchases there are their breads: a roti-like grilled bread and the "lachloof" (my spelling), which it the name of their injera-like Yemeni bread. The eggplant dip has a delicious smoky taste. I always love shopping there, and in this market, unlike most other in the neighborhood, people are very chatty with recommendations and encouragement. I was with a small family group on a tour, and we had a spontaneous "picnic" with our "finds" there in front of the store, where there was a flat surface that we turned into a table. Various customers - some clearly quite religious - either wished us a good meal or suggested something else that we may have missed.

Later in the day, when my clients had left, I wandered around on my own. Found a Salvadoran restaurant on 14th Avenue around 40th Street and a Hungarian eatery on 13th Avenue at 55th or 56th Street. It's more like a small diner that also has Hungarian dishes (not kosher), but since most Hungarian places I'm aware of have closed, this was a surprising find. I didn't have time to linger, but it's one of those places I mean to get back to. There are quite a few Polish markets and some Polish restaurants on the outskirts of the Jewish hub of Borough Park. I believe that many employees of the local markets are Polish.

I also noticed a large restaurant on 13th Ave. called Uzbekistan, near 42nd Street on the east side of 13th Ave.. Chances are it's been there for a long time, but the sign looked brand new. There has been a presence of Bukharan Jews in Borough Park for a while, including a run-down market and an unappealing kosher gyro place called Samarkand, on the west side of 13th Ave.. I take folks to the Tandoor Bakery on 48th Street between 13th and 14th Aves. One fellow in my group spoke Russian and convinced the owner to let him (and us) go to the back of the bakery to see the fresh bread being baked. A treat! Later the owner told me that the Bukharan synagogue in Borough Park is on 41st Street just east of 13th Avenue. It's really two attached houses serving as the synagogue, but I will be interested in seeing if they build a completely new structure at some point.

My point? That Borough Park, both in terms of its Jewish community and non-Jews, is more diverse than many people think.

***

More to come...

Whither Harlem? (Observations on West African food)

Mor Thiane owns Keur Mamma Diallo, a wonderful, humble Senegalese restaurant (listed below) on Frederick Douglass Boulevard. It's one of those gentle gems, not showy but welcoming and delicious - that, I fear, is being obscured by some of the newer, more upscale places making their way into Harlem.

In some ways, Harlem is simply changing too fast. A few of my thoughts about Harlem follow below...

One of my two favorite restuarants in Harlem, Sokobolie, at 2523 Frederick Douglass Boulevard just north of 135th Street, is in the throes of change. Guinean owner Lariou Diallo, who opened his first place about 14 years ago (I'm not sure it was at this location then) has created a very popular venue with his West African buffet - the only one I know of in Manhattan. There I've had amazing oatters of peanut stew, okra stew, cassava leaf stew, with various combinatons of goat, lamb and beef. There are different types of rice and some couscous - long grained and short grained rices all prepared in different, delicious ways. I usually get a home-made, sinus-clearing ginger beer with my meals and have taken several tour groups there. It's the type of place I used to pass by many times - the exterior is entirely uninviting - until one day, a few years ago, I just decided to look inside and found a warm welcome.

Well, I've also been worrying about Sokobolie, because it's in a two-story building in an area of Harlem where new condos and fancy, upmarket rehabs are becoming the norm. Lo and behold, a few months back I noticed a new canopy across the street announcing the imminent arrival of "Baraka," featuring an African buffet. New competition, I wondered? But I hadn't noticed the small print: "The old Sokobolee" - yes, with a different spelling.

Then, in early June, Dario Diallo, Lario's sister, told em that the grand opening would be taking place on a Sunday evening when the prime minister from Guinea was in town. So I headed over for the event. Although I'd been told the ribbon-cutting would take place some time "after 7 PM," I wasn't expecting it to be at 9:45 PM, but so it was. By then, men and women - the women in gorgeous African gowns and headscarves - were packing the front of the restaurant and spilling into the street, which had been closed off for this event. (Fortunately, it was a comfortable summer evening.) The prime minister, Lansana Kouyate, wore a white tunic and a white fez-like hat. He cut the ribbon and an elite group of people crowded into the new restaurant, which was full of food. Being an "onlooker" and non-invitee, I went to the local deli, bought a vanilla "Coke Zero" and headed home.

Aliou had mentioned that he hired a Dominican chef to add Caribbean dishes to the new place, so that, effectively, this would be New YOrk City's first African-Dominican restaurant. It was larger than the original, and gorgeous. I couldn't wait to take folks there.

Two weeks later, I was leading a custom tour through the neighborhood, planning on ending at the new Sokobolie/Baraka. Alas, it was closed, but the old one was still open. Dariou was there, looking sad. "We still need to pass some inspections," she said, and couldn't give me an opening date.

Oh well.

I had a great meal recently at Keur Mamma Diarra at 2491 FDB (128th St). It's a 7-year-old Senegalese place that Mor Thiane has run for about 2 years. I had a peanut butter stew with lamb and basmati rice, so delicious I practically drank it. I also like to buy the thiakry there - it's either a breakfast or dessert, made with couscous, sour cream, and fruit. I presume a critical amount of sugar is added because it's quite sweet, and I'm not sure the sweetness comes only from the fruit! A nice feature of this place is the free coffee, and it is STRONG - just what I needed last time I visited. Thiane is a wonderful, welcoming man, who is pleased that more "white people," as he bluntly put it, are interested in his food. He already apparently is doing well, but is happy to benefit from increased Harlem tourism!

Kosher crossovers?

To what extent are bagels and challah becoming universal foods? Just another, well, food for thought here...

A Dominican bakery on Broadway near 228th Street in Marble Hill has "rogalitos" - rugelach.

A Colombian bakery on 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights sells "pan de challah."

A Mexican market on Roosevelt Avenue has, in neon, the words "tamales, tacos, bagels."

A trend?

Next time I'll get pictures!