From Europe to the Caribbean

As should be evident from my post below, I'm back from my time spent farming in Europe. It was great fun and I ate a lot of great food and hopefully, someday soon when I'm more organized, I'll share some photos and descriptions of a few of the things I ate abroad. For now, though, let's focus on the more recent past. Though I did indeed dine well during my stays in Spain and France, there were a few flavors that I started to miss, like all kinds of Asian food, and, especially, spicy food. So just a few days after my return, I met my friend Malcolm at one of my very favorite takeout joints, Errol's Caribbean Bakery.


Located on the corner of Flatbush Avenue and Hawthorne Street in the area of Brooklyn traditionally known as Flatbush but newly minted by real estate agents as Lefferts Gardens, Errol's is a true neighborhood spot. The first time I visited, it was late one summer night, close to midnight, and Errol's was one of the few spots on Flatbush Avenue that was open. A few friends and I walked in, expecting to find the place mostly empty. Yet while we waited for our food, a steady stream of people came and left, chatting familiarly with the amiable folks behind the counter. Before I even tasted a morsel, I had a good feeling about Errol's: it was warm, friendly, and homey. And, possibly more importantly, it was bursting with many kinds of delicious-looking baked goods:


That's because in addition to offering a wide array of hot, savory dishes, Errol's stays true to its name by serving up a variety of freshly made breads, rolls, cakes and other kinds of sweets. Every one I've tried has been great: from soft, sliced whole wheat loaves to more Caribbean-specific delicacies like currant rolls, soft yeasted rolls studded with currants, and both regular and whole wheat versions of bread pudding, which are huge, thick squares of dense, not-too-sweet custard. I can't remember the exact prices of these items, but I do know that they are very cheap, somewhere in the neighborhood of a dollar for individual servings, and are served in generous portions. But let's get to the hot part of the menu, shall we? You can choose from the following options:


There's a lot of good stuff there, to be sure, but if you're anything like me, you'll go for an order of the stew chicken: for a small ($5), you'll get two large pieces of tender, juicy bone-in chicken cooked down in a dark, rich sauce, served with rice and peas, cabbage and two soft, sweet plantains. Now that's a recession special I can really get behind. I can personally attest, also, to the outstanding quality of the curry goat, the curry chicken, and the jerk chicken--they're all fresh-tasting and delicious--but the star of the show, for me, is the stew chicken:


So if you find yourself in Brooklyn craving some cheap, flavorful and filling Caribbean delights, check out Errol's in Lefferts Gardens. I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.

Lucky Eight Restaurant

A few weeks ago, a bunch of us headed down to Sunset Park, Brooklyn to a restaurant called Lucky Eight to celebrate Gideon's birthday. Sunset Park has a sizable Chinese population, and 8th Avenue, where many of the Chinese restaurants and shops are concentrated, is sometimes referred to as Brooklyn Chinatown. I've been eating out in this area for years, thanks entirely to my friend James, who is Chinese and lives in the neighborhood. Starting in high school, James would periodically lead a group of intrepid eaters to some fabulous restaurant for dim sum. We would almost never consult a menu; rather, James would just ask our server (in Chinese, of course!) what was good that day, and a parade of sumptuous (and, for most of us, exotic) dishes would soon crowd our table.

Now that I live one neighborhood above Sunset Park, I've been shopping and eating there much more often. The grocery stores, vegetable stands and fish stalls are incredibly bustling and lively, with vendors shouting out offers and attempting to lure customers to their wares, making for an engaging shopping (and people-watching) experience. Recently, James, our friend Sam and I ate dinner in a fantastic restaurant called Lucky Eight that James (of course) picked out. The dishes we ate were unlike any Chinese food I had ever had before--much, much cleaner and lighter than the greasy takeout a lot of us are accustomed to, and with smooth, nuanced and balanced flavors. The restaurant also happens to be especially welcoming to non-Chinese diners: all the servers speak English (often not the case in other restaurants in the area), and the menu features large, full-color photos of all its specialty dishes, making it a lot easier to order. Lucky Eight made such an impression on me that when Gideon asked for a restaurant recommendation for his birthday it was the first place that came to mind.

What follows are some photos of the food we ate that night. I have to say that I don't remember the individual prices of each dish, but what I do remember is that we ordered 6 dishes and a bunch of beers and we paid $18 each, including tax and tip. For the quality of the food and the hospitality of the service I'd say that's a pretty remarkable deal. So go! You won't be sorry.

We started with some duck's feet. Yes, the idea of eating feet might be unsavory, and the gelatinous, chewy-crunchy texture of the dish is likely off putting for those of us not used to consuming such things. But I have to say that this dish is truly delicious. I first ate it with James and Sam, and made sure to order it again. The feet are served cold, deboned, and, along with some sweet, lightly pickled shreds of carrot and daikon radish (and a few slivers of red chiles for a touch of heat), tossed in a vinaigrette-type mixture of sesame oil and rice wine vinegar. It's a very refreshing dish and a gentle introduction to the nose-to-tail type eating that is so common in all regions of China:

















Next up was a stir-fry of impossibly tender and juicy jumbo shrimp with sweet, crunchy candied walnuts and large pieces of warm, ripe pineapple. The vegetables included crisp green beans and chunks of onion. A scattering of toasted sesame seeds tied everything together:

















For a vegetable dish we chose eggplant with abalone, a species of giant sea snail (!). I had never eaten abalone before and I was a little intimidated by the thought of it--I figured that it would be plain-tasting and very chewy. I was totally wrong; it had a mild, but tasty, flavor and a smooth, soft texture that matched beautifully with the creamy Japanese eggplants. The mix was coated in a sweet soy-based sauce and crowned with a few slices of scallion:

















For a meat dish we chose a lamb hotpot. Again, I had eaten this previously with James and Sam and couldn't get it out of my head. The stew is brought to the table over a little gas flame and continues to bubble away as you eat, wafting its succulent aroma over the whole table. The dish included tender, falling-apart pieces of lamb, some chewy, delicious slices of bean curd skin (one of my favorite ingredients in Chinese cooking), slices of lotus root and thick leaves of Chinese cabbage. The broth surrounding all of those tasty ingredients was thick, meaty and rich:

















And lastly we ate a simple, straightforward dish of baby bok choy with garlic and ginger. The glistening little globes reminded me of emeralds:

















Oh yeah, I told you we ordered six dishes, right? Some of those among us with less adventurous palates ordered a type of rice noodle dish, but I didn't like it--it was heavy on curry seasoning but also somewhat bland at the same time. So I'm not including it here. Artistic license, doncha know?


Lucky Eight Restaurant
5204 8th Ave. (between 52nd St and 53rd St)
(718) 851-8862

Japanese grazing on a budget

Last week when discussing where to meet for dinner near her apartment in the East Village, my friend Jess and I settled on Caracas Arepa Bar, a delicious and reasonable Venezuelan spot that I've been to several times. The day happened to be Wednesday, though, which of course meant that I was reading the New York Times Dining section before heading out to meet Jess. Browsing the "$25 and Under" column, always most applicable to my dining tastes and sadly appearing in the paper on a less frequent basis than in the past, I happened to spot a very favorable review of Village Yokocho, a Japanese yakitori spot also right near Jess's place. It sounded so appealing--and so cheap--that I asked Jess if she'd be willing to forego the arepas this time around. A big fan of Japanese food, she instantly agreed, as I knew she would.

We arrived at the restaurant at about 9 PM and it was packed. We found some seats on a little bar right in front of the open kitchen and drank in the bright, cheery atmosphere along with our ice-cold beers:






















When we saw that most of the dishes on the menu ranged from $2-9, we proceeded to order a multitude of them. We started with some yakitori skewers, as those are, of course, the restaurant's speciality (yakitori means grilled skewers). From left to right, we had: duck with scallion, squid legs (really just pieces of squid), and chicken meatballs, which cost $2 or $3 per skewer:

















These were all rather tasty--well-seasoned and smoky from the grill--but the duck made a particularly strong impression: having ordered so many dishes, I sort of forgot what to expect, and when I took a bite of the duck it was tender, juicy, gamey and unmistakable.

Next we received a dish we had ordered from the specials menu: a broth with ground beef, pieces of pumpkin, and whole shrimp; I think this cost $5, and it was warming and sweet from the pumpkin:

















Up next were two items from the "kushiage," or breaded and fried bites, section of the menu. These were a variety of meats, seafood and vegetables that were coated in panko, or Japanese breadcrumbs, and fried ($2-3 apiece). We got a piece of pumpkin (I happen to love pumpkin and all similar squashes) and a whole fried shrimp, with its head and all; both were delicious (when is fried food not?):

















We were still hungry at this point so we ordered two more dishes. First up was another broth, this one with bits of pork, chunks of root vegetables and scallions; I think it cost $4 or $5. Our favorite dish of the evening, this soup was simple, down-home and comforting:

















And finally we got some sort of noodle stir-fry with cabbage, beef and shrimp ($6). I liked this dish, but it was showered with bonito flakes, which are little pieces of dried, smoked fish. They're definitely an acquired taste, and I have to say that I enjoyed the noodles more once we got past the layer of bonito:

















Because we ordered so much food (we probably could have gone without the last dish), Jess and I each ended up paying about $20. But for all that food and a beer apiece that's quite a steal; grazing is also probably my favorite way to eat, since you get to taste so many different items. It was a great night that ended at Jess's kitchen counter with a pint of Ben and Jerry's and two spoons; I can't think of a more fitting close to an evening spent with a friend of 18 years.

Village Yokocho
8 Stuyvesant St. (between 3rd Ave. and E. 9th St.)
(212) 598-3041

At the crossroads of Southeast Asia

I wish that I could say that I was blogging from abroad, but the subject of this post is actually just a choice phrase selected from the paragraph on the front of the takeout menu of Jaya, a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown where I dined, along with my friend Gideon, on Friday night. Malaysia, the restaurant's owner Selamat Makan writes, "has been a melting pot of rich and exciting cross-cultural cuisine of traditional Malay, Indian, Indonesian, Thai and Chinese influences," adding that "this exciting, delicious, fiery, mild, tantalizing cooking is what we at Jaya present to you for your enjoyment." Cuisine that tastes of five different Asian countries and manages to be both fiery and mild at the same time? Count me in!

All jokes aside, the food at Jaya is some seriously good stuff, with layered flavors like chiles, coconut milk, cilantro and soy permeating each dish. Friday night was my first time eating there; it was Gideon's pick for dinner. When we arrived at about 7 p.m. the place was already bustling--always a good sign--with a healthy mix of white people, some of them likely tourists, but also a fair number of Asian families. Everything on the menu sounded so good to me that I didn't even know where to begin and was forced to make a last-minute decision when the waitress came by. I chose the dish on the menu that sounded least familiar to me, Yang Tao Foo Noodle, described as "bean curd and vegetable stuffed with fish paste in curry broth or clear soup with egg noodle." I opted for the curry broth. I wasn't quite sure what would be brought to the table, but I wasn't dissapointed when it looked like this:

















And it smelled even better, with the sharp herbal scent of lemongrass cutting through the vapors of rich coconut milk and spicy chile paste rising from the steaming bowl. This was basically a big bowl of thick and intensely flavored curry filled with chewy egg noodles and topped with a few very interesting items: that cracker-looking thing at the top of the bowl was a thin, salty, deep-fried piece of fish skin that was actually very tasty, especially dipped into the broth; the chunk of tofu that you see was, in fact, stuffed with a hunk of creamy fish paste and some minced vegetables; the eggplant was tender and soaked in curry goodness; and the whole of the dish was showered with chopped scallions as well as a few bits of crunchy fried onion bits. I was full halfway through eating this and gave the rest to Gideon, so at $6.75 dinner was truly a bargain. Most of the other items on the menu--which were all unusual and intriguing--are under $9, and the most expensive dish offered costs $14.95. I know I'll definitely be returning soon.

Jaya
90 Baxter St. (at White St.)
(212) 219-3331

Vietnamese soul food

On my way to a concert on the Lower East Side the other night I decided to walk through Chinatown and see if I couldn't scrounge up something delicious to eat. I was strolling more or less aimlessly when I suddenly realized exactly what I wanted: pho from Nha Trang. Now for a New Yorker I have a laughably bad sense of direction, but my stomach managed to lead me true, and my efforts were rewarded with a deep, steaming bowl of comfort food.

If you haven't had pho before, trying it should be at the top of your to-do list. Pho is noodle soup: it's usually comprised of a rich beef broth loaded with thin rice noodles and served with different cuts of meat, such as thin-sliced beef, meatballs, or fish balls. The best thing about pho is the do-it-yourself style in which you eat it: the soup comes with a plate of flavorful garnishes--usually bean sprouts, fresh Thai basil leaves and a lime wedge--that you add at your discretion along with soy sauce, hoisin sauce and sriracha. Each bowl of pho is different, and that's what's so fun about it. It's also the perfect meal for the budget-conscious: at $5.75, the type of pho I ordered the other night (#1, with beef brisket, eyeround, tendon and tripe) was the most expensive on the menu. That's still a bargain in my book:

Nha Trang
87 Baxter St. (between Canal and Bayard)
(212) 233-5948

Nha Trang Centre (alternate location)
148 Centre St. (at Walker St.)
(212) 941-9292

Spicy snacks under the summer sun

I've been meaning to write about the food sold at the Red Hook, Brooklyn soccer fields for a long time now. Not only because what's available is so delicious and varied and cheap, but also because visiting the fields is a quintessential summer experience. The Mexican and South American vendors at the park attract a mix of families and hipsters, local Brooklynites and reverse bridge-and-tunnelers, the very old and the very young and everyone in between. The summer sun beats down upon those playing soccer, and either before or after your meal there's nothing better than a refreshing dip in Red Hook's large, cool and clean public pool, located right across the street from the ballfields. It's a good time all around.

I'm not the first person to write about the food at the ballfields: the New York Times hit upon the trend back in 2006, and the vendors at the park also attracted a lot of attention during 2007, when the city cracked down on the more or less ramshackle operation, demanding that the food purveyors update and standardize their facilities, a move that cost invidual vendors up to $35,000. The future of the vendors was uncertain, but, thankfully, they returned in full force this summer.

All the news surrounding the ballfields has brought in a massive wave of customers. When I arrived at a little past 3 P.M. today--far past peak lunch hour--the crowds were almost unbelievable. Lines ran about 20 or 30 people deep for the more popular trucks; other trucks had lines with a minimum of 10 people. Luckily, everything moves fast. Each truck has about 4-5 people assembling meals inside, which are then passed through little windows to the hungry--and eager--customer. Here's a picture of the general scene just to give you an idea of what it looks like:

I quickly got in line at the drinks/grilled corn truck. Freshly-squeezed/brewed watermelon, cantaloupe, jamaica (hibiscus flower), lime, lemon, tamarind, mango and cucumber juices and infusions were all for sale, as well as the Mexican rice-and-cinnamon drink horchata, as this happy little sign advertised:

I'm normally a tamarind kind of girl, but today I couldn't resist the watermelon juice, which I saw being blended up into a frothy, irresistable pink libation. Here's a shot of the action inside the truck, pouring juices and handing over grilled chile-dusted ears of corn:

Once hydrated, I surveyed the food options, which include standard, easily recognizable options like tacos and quesadillas as well as less well-known choices like huaraches and pupusas. I decided to get in line at one of the less popular trucks, which today was offering goat (barbacoa) tacos. Goat? Enough said. It happens to be one of my favorite meats, and one I don't get to eat very often; I don't know why more people weren't going for it. Here's the menu advertising the options:

And the meal I ended up with: one goat taco ($3) with onions, cilantro and pico de gallo (fresh tomato salsa), and one tostada (fried corn tortilla) ($3) layered with mashed black beans, crema (Mexican sour cream), queso fresco (mild, firm Mexican cheese), and shredded lettuce. The goat was superb: meaty, gamey and tender, and the sliced jalapeños hidden inside the tostada provided a piquant counterpoint to the meat's richness. I topped both with a pickled radish salsa/slaw that was available on the truck's little window counter. And lest I forget, I also got an order of chicharonnes (fried pork skins) ($1) to complement my meal. It's not really like me to eat deep-fried animal skin, but I figured for the sake of the blog I should:

Can't forget the drink ($2.25), either:

Can you really beat an authentic, flavorful meal eaten under the sun in Brooklyn for $9.25? I don't think so--and judging from the number of people at the park today, I'm not alone.

Red Hook Ballfields Vendors
Red Hook Soccer Field, corner of Clinton St. and Bay St.

(no phone)

Cheap Eats Hall of Fame: Punjabi

It isn't all that easy to find truly cheap eats in New York. Sure, you might be able to grab a quick snack for a few bucks, but it's rare to happen upon a place where you can get an entire meal for that price. And in this economy? Well, as we New Yorkers (supposedly) like to say, Fuhgeddaboutit! I mean, even the famously dirt-cheap square meal at Gray's Papaya, the Recession Special--currently priced at $3.50--is about to jump in cost for the second time since 2006.

So imagine my delight when my friend Willy recently introduced me to one of his favorite bargain dining spots, Punjabi. Punjabi is an unassuming--even scruffy--little storefront located right off of East Houston Street in the East Village. It's an Indian/Pakistani takeout joint that NYC cabbies frequent: when I was there last week the line of taxis out front extended down the block. Well, take it from the cabbies, because not only is the food here crazy inexpensive, but it's delicious and satisfying, too. Here it is, Punjabi in all its dingy glory:

And there's not much more to the inside, either: just a narrow counter running alongside the right side of the restaurant, where, if you're lucky, there might be a few stools for you to sit on, and, on the left, the glass case that displays the day's offerings. Punjabi has a rotating menu of six vegetarian dishes labeled only with a number; to order you say, for example, "A small with rice and #3 and #6." A generous portion of rice then gets scooped into a small styrofoam bowl, topped with your selections, and nuked in one of the four microwaves that perch atop the display case. How much? $3 for a small--which, for me, is plenty of food, and I have a big appetite--or you could cough up two more dollars for a large, which allows you three vegetable offerings. Here's what I got when I was in recently: a small with spinach and a stew of peas, carrots and cauliflower:

I probably should have thought, before selecting that spinach, that it would photograph like something that comes out of a baby's diaper. But you know what? There was really no other choice. I've gotten that dish each time I've been to Punjabi, and it's excellent: meltingly creamy, with soft, sweet onions cooked into the mix, and a bracing seasoning of turmeric, fresh garlic, and lots of fresh ginger. Yum. My other selection tasted great, too. I can never resist anything with cauliflower in it, and Indian food makes particularly tasty use of it. The vegetables in the stew were well-cooked but still had some bite to them, and came bathed in a fragrant sauce that complemented the perfumed basmati rice. So the next time you find yourself with an empty stomach and $3 burning a hole in your pocket, I suggest you follow the taxicabs and head on over to Punjabi.

Punjabi
114 East 1st Street (between 1st Ave. and Ave. A)
(212) 533-9048

Who called it?!

I have to gloat a little bit. Back in early June I devoted my first "cheap eats" post to Szechuan Gourmet, one of my favorite Chinese restaurants in the city. It's a nondescript little place on West 39th Street that you'd easily pass right by if you were ignorant to the culinary delights served up within. So imagine my surprise when, opening up the Dining section of the New York Times earlier today (my favorite Wednesday morning ritual), I discovered that eminent Times restaurant critic Frank Bruni not only reviewed the restaurant but awarded it two stars! I was surprised, as Bruni usually reviews much more expensive--for me, less accessible--spots. Had I not already known about Szechuan Gourmet, this would have been the first Bruni critique that I could actually follow up on by eating at the restaurant.

But what's important here is that Mr. Bruni's well-educated, no doubt highly sensitive palate registered many of the same pleasures that my perhaps greener, less professional palate did. Though some people find the numbing effects of Szechuan peppercorns off-putting, Bruni--like me--revels in their heat. He names the crispy lamb fillets with cumin as his favorite dish on the menu; it's mine, too. He also recommends the pork dumplings with roasted chili soy, which, for me, are certainly among the must-order items. Now I'm eager to go back to Szechuan Gourmet and try some of the dishes I had previously ignored, like the fish fillets with Napa cabbage, or the curiously intriguing stir-fried shredded potatoes.

The only problem? The restaurant will now be so overrun by loyal Times readers seeking a bargain that I'll never be able to get in again.

Dinner al fresco

It's the 4th of July, and my plans to swim and cavort on the beach all day have been foiled by the tempermental weather, which has been threatening to thunderstorm all day. Being stuck in my house, I thought I'd revisit two recent outdoor dinners--my favorite kind of dinners, really. The first was procured from Pedro's Spanish American Restaurant in DUMBO a couple of weeks ago when my friend Gideon and I were waiting for a production of Macbeth to start. With only about an hour to spare but empty stomachs that demanded nourishment, we happened upon Pedro's, which I had passed many times and had been meaning to try. Pedro's is an absolute dive, with little in the way of ambience but much in the way of charm, with its brightly colored murals and little tables and chairs spilling out onto the street corner it's located on. In my book, a dive is usually a very good thing, so I was glad I finally got to sample some of Pedro's fare. I didn't really see anything Spanish at Pedro's--it's mostly vaguely Mexican or South American food sitting in glass cases--you point to the meat you want (most likely some sort of roast or stew) and then specify what kind of rice (white or yellow) and beans (black or red) you'd like, and then sit down at one of the restaurant's indoor picnic tables, or, better yet, get your food to go and take it to one of DUMBO's many lovely outdoor spots.

The food at Pedro's is cheap and filling, and you get a huge portion, but it's really nothing special. The beef dish that I got was well-seasoned and tender, and the rice and beans were satisfying, but there wasn't anything particularly outstanding about it. But that's OK: Pedro's isn't a destination restaurant but rather a dependable, and economical, neighborhood place. And I like those sorts of places. Here's the beef that I got (some sort of flank steak, I believe), along with some yellow rice and black beans, of course:

I got two dinners out of that plate of food, and it cost me $8. Not bad, right? The best thing about this meal, though, was undoubtedly the setting under the Manhattan Bridge where we ate it:

And onto the next. Another highly enjoyable, and more notably delicious, outdoor meal that I had recently was a heaping takeout container full of Peppa's Jerk Chicken that my friends and I took to Prospect Park to eat. My friend Malcolm recently moved to Leffert's Gardens in Brooklyn, a primarily West Indian and Caribbean neighborhood located along the southeast side of the park. Its main drag, Flatbush Avenue, is heavily dotted with tiny jerk chicken restaurants. So how to choose one, particuarly if you're new to the area? Your best bet is to look for the most crowded spot: locals always know what's up. So as we strolled to the park last Thursday evening, Malcolm, Becca, Sarah, Shannon and I kept our eyes peeled for such a place. And we found it at Peppa's, which at around 7 PM was already forming a line out the door. We each got the $8 medium plate, consisting of a mountain of moist rice and peas flavored with coconut milk, some fried sweet plantains, a little bit of salad tossed with sesame oil, and a heap of tender, spicy but not too hot jerk chicken that tasted of allspice and scotch bonnet peppers (incidentally, the New York Times recently ran a great article on jerk chicken featuring a recipe that I'm dying to try). Because the chicken's not too spicy, you'll want to be sure to add some of the vinegary hot sauce that Peppa's offers. Here's my plate:

Eaten in yet another unbeatable Brooklyn setting:

Ah, summer.

Pedro's Spanish American Restaurant
73 Jay Street (between Front St and Water St)
(718) 625-0031

Peppa's Jerk Chicken
738 Flatbush Avenue (between Parkside Ave and Woodruff Ave)
(347) 406-2515

Szechuan Gourmet

Think that midtown Manhattan is a culinary wasteland? Well, for the most part, you're right. But the exception to the rule awaits you at 21 West 39th Street. Its name is Szechuan Gourmet, and it's a temple devoted to the exaltation of humble ingredients--garlic, chile, green onions--to divine status. The flavors are bold and incredibly spicy, but also nuanced thanks to prodigious use of Szechuan peppercorns, which taste floral and--this is the only way I can describe it--"purpley." Think of the way opium (or, uh, incense) smells--that's kind of how Szechuan peppercorns taste. They also have a slightly numbing effect on the tongue and mouth which is rather pleasant.

Apparently Szechuan cuisine was really en vogue in the 60s and 70s--when I was telling my parents about how exotic-tasting I find the food at Szechuan Gourmet to be, they said that they used to eat Szechuan food all the time back in the day. The style seems to have fallen somewhat out of favor, but I can't really imagine why. Szechuan Gourmet is definitely one of my favorite restaurants in the city. Aside from the complex flavor profiles I described above, the restaurant also serves up some really interesting types of meat and fish that I never knew were used in China, such as rabbit, ox tongue, lamb, and razor clams. But let's move on to what Malcolm, Shannon and I ate when we visited on Thursday evening. To start off, we shared an order of "Szechuan Pork Dumplings with Roasted Chili Soy" ($3.95). Like most good dumplings, these are incredibly addictive--I could have eaten twenty of them. Plump, moist and porky with thin, tender skins, the dumplings are served with a rich, thick and spicy sauce:

















Next up we had one of my favorite dishes on the menu, "Crispy Lamb Filets with Chili Cumin" ($14.95). The pieces of lamb are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside, coated heavily with smoky cumin, and showered with crunchy bits of garlic, red chiles and green onions. Such a perfect mix of flavors:

















Providing a nice textural contrast to the lamb was "Baby Eggplant with Spicy Garlic Sauce"--a classic Chinese dish ($6.25). I'm not a big fan of Italian eggplants, at least the way they sell them in the U.S.--they're big and full of moisture and seeds and often taste bland or bitter or, somehow, both. Asian cuisines use Japanese eggplants, which are smaller, slimmer and lighter in color than their cousins. The vegetable's flesh is soft and unctuously creamy--very delicious. Slick the eggplants with a sauce shimmering with chili oil and flecked with bits of garlic and you can't go wrong:

Three generous portions of food, served with rice and green tea, set each of us back $14, including, as always, tax and tip. Cheap eats at its best.

Szechuan Gourmet
21 West 39th Street (between 5th and 6th)
(212) 921-0233

Café con Leche

As promised, here's my first installment of New York City cheap eats. On Tuesday night I met Becca and Emily for dinner at Café con Leche, a Puerto Rican place on Amsterdam and 80th. The restaurant has a bright and cheery interior and huge portions of food that taste a lot better than you'd expect them to for the price. We started off by sharing the mixed appetizer plate, which was piled high with warm and crispy fried delights: working clockwise from the back we have a vegetable empanada; a (barely visible) yucca patty, something I had never had before; it was sweet and deeply flavored with anise seeds; next, a huge pile of soft ripe plaintains (my personal favorite); and, lastly, some patacones, which are slices of unripe plaintains which are smashed, fried and salted (so excellent dipped in hot sauce). Not bad for $7.95:

















Next Emily and I shared gambas al ajillo, shrimp in a garlicky, lemony sauce which was delicious spooned over the yellow rice and black beans the dish ($12.95) came with:


































Of course we had to finish off the meal with the restaurant's namesake ($1.75):






















Each of us paid $15, including tax and tip, and left stuffed. Pretty good for a midweek meal, no?

Café con Leche
424 Amsterdam Avenue (between 80th and 81st)
(212) 595-7000

Note: the restaurant has another location on Amsterdam between 95th and 96th.