Think about a restaurant that can be described by the following: it services people from all different backgrounds, including cab drivers. It’s cheap enough that pretty much anyone can afford it. It’s completely free of any pretentions and food trends. And the food is delicious. Doesn’t all of that sound great? The other day while eating lunch at Punjabi Deli I had an epiphany — the tiny little vegetarian Indian “restaurant” is my favorite eating experience in NYC.

If you’ve never heard of it, Punjabi Deli is a small grocery store on Houston that serves great Indian food. You can eat in, standing hunched over the narrow counter, shoulder-to-shoulder with a random collection of New Yorkers. Sure, they use a microwave to heat up the food, but when you taste it you won’t mind. In the bowl in the foreground is a samosa — in this case, cut open and topped with yogurt, chickpeas, raw onions, and a variety of chutneys and sauces. It’s one of my very favorite things in the city — a mix of hot and cold, salty and sweet, crunchy and smooth.

As a food blogger I get asked a lot about my favorite restaurants in the city, and for some reason Punjabi Deli never occurs to me. That changed, as of that lunch a few weeks ago. It’s the new place I want to take out-of town guests to. Plus, il laboratorio del gelato is right across the street so you can get a little dessert to cool your mouth down from the spices.

Punjabi Deli — 114 E 1st St #3, Manhattan

After returning from Taiwan (see here and here) I was kind of craving some Taiwanese food here in NYC. My friend Sophia, who has family in Taiwan and was in the country the same time I was, recommended that we meet up at TKettle, a Taiwanese snack joint on St. Marks in the East Village. TKettle is her go-to place for Taiwanese snack food in the city (Gu Shine in Flushing is her recommendation for a full Taiwanese meal). Above you see the appetizer plate, a great introduction to some traditional Taiwanese dishes. Top left you see preserved eggs, with a concentrated eggy flavor. Top right is cold pressed tofu, with a slightly sweet flavor. And at the bottom is the cold cucumber salad, which is amazing — loaded with spicy garlic, these crunchy cucumber chunks are at once shocking and refreshing.

Click to continue…

For a few months last year I was working on the UWS, and after so many years of working here in Brooklyn the biggest challenge was finding new places to eat lunch. There are a lot of mediocre restaurants around, and very few cheap ones. I had eaten a couple of meals at Hummus Kitchen, a mini-chain which was pretty good but more upscale than I usually like my falafel places. On one of my last days working in the neighborhood I came across a place named Ali Baba, and as soon as I walked in I knew I was going to like the place. Ali Baba is an Israeli-run falafel joint, with only one table (with about eight chairs) and a bunch of freshly made salads lining the counter. I got the falafel platter, which included some of the best falafel I’ve eaten outside of Israel itself — full of herbs and spices, not merely fried chickpeas. The salads were fantastic, and tasted homemade. There was a spicy cooked onion and tomato salad, slices of fried eggplant, sweet and sour cooked carrots, a salad of raw tomatoes and cucumbers, hummus, and pickles. Pickles are my favorite falafel topping, by the way, and one that is often overlooked. Over the next week or so that I worked in the area, I would pass by and see the restaurant closed at odd hours; not just during Shabbat, but at random times as well, so if you’re in the neighborhood and hungry, it’s worth passing by to see if they are open — but make sure you have a backup plan, just in case.

Ali Baba — 515 Amsterdam Ave, NYC,

If you’ve been a regular at Smorgasburg then I’m sure you know about Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque and the crazy long line of people waiting for their delicious meat. I got lucky once and went early enough with only a handful of people in line. Their meat is definitely good but oh hey they have a spot now in the East Village that will make getting their tasty bbq a whole lot easier.

Many have told me that their brisket was only okay so I decided to get the pulled pork. For about $8, you get a massive amount of pork, topped with bbq sauce and comes with cole slaw and one veg side (I opted for the pickled onions). This was one serious sandwich. Tender juicy pork overflowing out of the bun (is it okay to have wanted two thick slices of Texas toast instead?) and wash everything down with a root beer. Oh yeah.

Mighty Quinn’s Barbeque 103 2nd Ave at 6th St, East Village NYC

Last night a bunch of us attended City Grit: Brunch Village dinner. Yes! Brunch food for dinner, my kind of dinner. It was Sarah’s homage to the show Portlandia. I’ve only seen the pilot but judging from the awesome tasty food Sarah cooked up last night, I may have to at least watch the episode “Brunch Village”.

The dinner started off with Collin’s chicken and waffle. Hello bite sized goodness. I ate 4 and totally forgot to snap a photo. Next up (picture above) was “Craig’s crazy guac tacos” with pulled brisket, guac, queso, and scrambled eggs.

Click to see what else was on the menu last night

At the moment I have 83 places saved on my To Eat list. Everyone has one. The problem for me though is that a good half of those places are way out of my budget so therefore I will probably never gonna go. But a good handful, I’m sure I will..someday. Like just few days ago, I was able to cross off 2 from the list. Cheeky Sandwiches (which I’ll post about later) and Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine. Funny thing, I have walked by Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine so many times but never once did I think to go in. It took someone else to write about it, then I read it and then found myself looking for it after eating at Cheeky Sandwiches.

They’re known for their fish balls, heck “fish ball” is part of the name but since I already ate, I decided to get a plate of their rice noodles with peanut butter sauce. For $2, you get a plate of warm slightly chewy rice noodles with peanut sauce on the bottom and a bowl of soup. The peanut sauce was really nice and definitely loved the chewiness of the rice noodles. I never had this dish, warm, it is always cold or at room temperature but it was delicious.

Shu Jiao Fu Zhou Cuisine 118 Eldridge St, Chinatown

The new West Village Big Gay Ice Cream spot has been opened for few weeks and the guys have been making new flavor ice cream almost every week. The space is bigger with benches and tables for people to sit down while they enjoy their ice cream. Though the biggest advantage of having a bigger space is the room to experiment. Doug and Bryan have been making ice cream flavors like coconut and hazelnut brownie. Yesterday Doug even tried making sundaes (vanilla ice cream, hazelnut brownie ice cream, awesomesauce, whipped cream and caramelized bananas).

Check out their new space and the banana sundae after the jump…
Read the rest of this entry…