Mill Basin Kosher Deli 5823 Avenue T. Brooklyn NY 11234 718.241.4910 Kosher deli’s are almost an endangered species, basically because they have gotten a bad rap--- All that salt and fat…oy While still a carnivores delight the Mill Basin Kosher Deli has gone to the next step. Yes, you can still get a great Pastrami sandwich or a stuffed derma. Now there are salads, soups and other healthier items. Me, I am a traditionalist, for lunch I had the split pea soup, in a bowl almost big enough to do laps in, and half of Pastrami on rye for $ 8.99. There was Cole slaw, health salad, macaroni salad, half and full dill pickles, dark bread and of course, seltzer on the table gratis. While kosher delis are no longer cheap, who can put a price on reliving a memmory. For more see www.ditmasestates.com
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Prima Pasta 5821 Avenue T Brooklyn, NY 11234 718 209 1030 A local Brooklyn standby earns its reputation the hard way, day after day with inexpensive, but good Italian food. Upon coming to your table a large never ending basket of piazza bread arrives. At these prices you expect grub, but the food is better than that, and while plain, is often quite good and the portions are large. Try the Cacciatore Chicken, boneless chicken simmered with tomato and mushroom, with bread crumbs over spinach. Every Monday and Tuesday there is an all you can eat Italian buffet for $ 10.95. Just the thing to feed a hungry family on a budget for more see www.ditmasestates.com
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Bunny Chow 74 Orchard Street New York, NY 212 260-5317 We may not think of it as such, but South Africa is a melting pot. There are English, Dutch, Native Africans and Indians. Remember, Ghandi got his start here and a Bunny Chow draws from all these influences. Bunny Chow is a very narrow, dark small place with an immense flat screen TV. The service is friendly; indeed they really care about whether you enjoyed your dinning experience. A bad South African joke: Rabbit and Elephant stew (one Rabbit and one Elephant) is no longer popular, why? Nobody likes Hare in their stew…yuk, yuk. A Bunny Chow is a very thick slice of bread with the center scooped out and a curried meat or shrimp stew added, while very tasty there is some heat, and I recommend a cold beer on the side. Try the Kaasori, an Ostrich sausage, served with a garnish of salad and a lovely chutney. The chips flats were more mundane and topped with feta cheese. Warning Peri-Peri sauce is not for the faint of heart!!! The food and service is good, the ambiance forgettable and the prices are very inexpensive. Dinner for four is about $ 120 USD.
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Joya, Thai Restaurant and Bar 215 Court Street Brooklyn, NY 718 222 3484 We almost walked past Joya with its discreet frontage, but inside we found a large, clean, noisy and very hip dinning room with an open kitchen and an occasional DJ. There is also a much quieter delightful garden aea in the back. Joya is very inexpensive, the highest price entrée is $ 8.95, but the food is first rate. We ordered the Mango salad, a Glass noodle dish and a Beef Curry. The portions were very large. The Mango salad was topped with perfectly ripe Mango and the greens were flavored with fish sauce, lime and cilantro…yum. The Glass noodle dish was very large and filled with goodies. The Beef Curry was very flavorful and a little spicy, but with in normal limits and almost too big to finish. With a Thai beer a feast for $ 24! There is no website for Joya, no reservations, no credit cards, and no air conditioning although the space was cool on a hot day. The drink list is a handwritten addendum to the menu and there seems to be no desserts, very strange. With first rate food and an inexpensive price list Joya is indeed a find. for more see www.ditmasestates.com
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restuarants
Saint Germain 8303 3rd Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11209 718 745 8899 Brooklyn needs a good French bistro, but Saint Germain is not it. The look of Saint Germain is really inviting and the single waiter available was helpful and friendly. The problem with Saint Germain is the food, the portions are large and the items pricey, but there are some basic skills missing. I love Ratatouille, the flavors of the distinct individual summer vegetables is a true bounty. Saint Germans’ Ratatouille was a mash of indistinct vegetables and insipidly flavored. If I want that I would have ordered a “V-8” drink. The ravioli had so much sauce on it; it came out as a soup. The same is true for the flank steak. BTW medium to well does not mean a blood red center. Oh well, and I really love French bistros, but not this one Dinner for four without wine was $ 190 for more see www.ditmasestates.com
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restuarants
Jin 252 Broome Street New York, NY 212 979 0989 Jin is located around the corner from a supplier to Sushi restaurants and as expected had some of the freshest Sushi and Sashimi I have tasted. Jin is also located on the site of an old bar, the type of place most people would call a “Dive”. The most universally accepted feature of a Dive is dark lighting and its unseemliness. The windows of Jin need a cleaning. I almost walked out when I was given a greasy, dirty, almost unreadable menu. The focus of Jin is on its Sushi bar and it is delightful. The chef is fast, efficient and knowledgeable. I am sorry to say that is not the case for the wait staff, who’s English is minimal. I ordered smokes eel in my dinner sized bento box ($ 18.95) and I received a single beautiful large piece of eel, but no knife to cut it. I asked for a knife, but none came. Japanese food traditional comes with green tea, but ours was missing. We both asked for tea, but the waiter delivered only one. The fish is great, but there are other Japanese restaurants
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Category:
restuarants
Bamboo Garden Restaurant 6409 8 Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11220 718 238 1122 Dim Sum (Chinese hors oeuvres) is one of my favorite meals. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible for a small or medium restaurant to produce the quantity and variety to make this meal truly enjoyable. Bamboo is a very large restaurant, but somehow there always a delicious smelling cart of Dim Sum coming your way. Bamboo Gardens also has some interesting variations of traditional Dim Sum fare. I.e. stuffed eggplant is served cold with a mayonnaise sauce on the side. Instead of boiled small spare ribs the ribs are broiled with taro and sauced. Each dish costs about three dollars and five can stuff themselves for sixty dollars. The restaurant is newly decorated and clean, but there is a draw back parking is very tough for more see www.ditmasestates.com
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If you in the mood for a Mexican Restaurant, but want more than a workers luncheonette, Piramide is the place. Bright and clean, there a wide variety of dishes, even fish dishes. You know you are in a special place when you order guacamole and the waiter will prepare it to taste in front of you. (bland or omg hot). The avocados are specially flown in from Mexico for that authentic taste. Dinner is surprisingly inexpensive practically all the entrees are less than $ 20 and drinks are often on sale. There is a Sunday brunch for $ 9.95 that is a special treat.
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New Yeah Shanghai Deluxe 65 Bayard Street New York, NY 10013 212 566 4884 Luckily their cooking is a lot better than there spelling. New Yeah has the run of now ordinary Chinese food, but its specials are really special. Shanghai is famous for its soup dumplings. These are steamed dumplings the have soup sealed in them, an experience in eating itself. Chrysanthemum Fish, $ 16, a chef ‘s special, a filet of fish scored then deep fried, the white flesh blooms and the skin shrinks producing an entree, that looks very much like a flower. Another specialty is a whole pork shoulder, $14, in honey sauce, which is the classic Chinese answer to BBQ pulled pork in a sweet sauce, definitely worth trying. What your parents never told you to eat you Seaweed? Seasoned seaweed steamed and tossed with sesame oil and seasonings, is much better than Popeye’s spinach and probably more nutritious. Can’t make it to Shanghai, try New Yeah, forget the spelling eat the food. for more see www.ditmasestates.com
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DJERDAN BOREK 2283 65 StreetBrooklyn, NY 11204 (718) 484-3180 This Albanian dinner (Yes, I said Albanian) looks a luncheonette. It is almost as hard to find as the country, itself being on a side street and an incorrect address on the menu. There are no hamburgers here. Instead plan to have Boreks, (similar to middle eastern Borekas ), that is a pastry that is stuffed with spinach or meat or cheese. The pastry is light and close to a waffle batter. That’s it! Boreks make up almost the entire menu except for some wonderful desserts. A typical dessert is Baklava swimming in honey and/or Karo sauce or cake or pastry that flavored in the same way. Boreks cost about $4 each and two Boreks are more that you can eat
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Noodletown 28 Bowery New York, NY 10013 212) 349-0923 After midnight and after a show or movie, when most if not all of the food places in Chinatown, NYC have closed down, there is Noodletown on the Corner of Bowery and Bayard Streets The atmosphere at noodletown is Chinese luncheonette when it was new and it is not new now. There is no maitre d’, cooked ducks and pigs hang in the window. Soup is scooped out unceremoniously in front everyone. The waiters are constantly busy and either do not have the time or the English to greet you and certainly not to hold your chair. What noodletown does have is good home-style Chinese food. They go through great quantities of duck and the duck comes cut up with crispy skin and most of the fat gone. The Chinese broccoli is very fresh and steaming hot and actually cut so that even a Westerner can eat it with chop sticks. All the other dishes seem to have the same attention to detail that makes a meal very welcomed. Like I said don’t take a date to Noodletown unless you want to impress them with your ability to find good simple Chinese food.
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Joe’s of Avenue U 287 Avenue U Brooklyn, NY 718 449 9285 I was 13 years old when I first went to Joe’s of Avenue U. Even after fifty years, Joe’s a Focacceria Palermitana has not lost its Sicilian roots. Initially Joes\’s was only open for lunch. When lunch or the mid day meal was the main meal as it was back in Sicily. Gradually even Joe’s has adapted but its menu harks back to an even ancient era. A time when tomato was unknown in Italy (pre Columbus) and fish or fish sauce was the main flavoring... You can still get Pasta cchi Sardi (pasta with sardine sauce). Please note the dialect difference between Sicilian and standard Italian. Slowly, very slowly times have changed even for Joe’s. It is now open for dinner, but credit cards are verboten. Joe’s still has the steam trays for take out for the harried Italian housewife. I can still remember the sharp yet loving ear slap I got for misbehaving I had the Tunnina all’Agro e Dulci, (sweet & sour Tuna) my favorite of decades, and it is still wonderful. It makes you wonder why anyone would put Tuna in a can. The Vrocculi ri Rapi (broccoli rabe) and the Capunata di Milinciani ( Eggplant garnish ) are in a class by itself. The food is still terrific, plentiful and inexpensive. A full dinner for two with house wine and dessert is about forty dollars. for more www.ditmasestates.com
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