On ne sait jamais

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Uygur Delight: hearty without the farty

Cafe Kashkar, and sister Cafe Adolat, of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, NYC

Billed as an Uygur (Uighur) restaurant, it is a blend of Asian-Russian meets Chinese. In fact, it is said to be the only Uygur restaurant in the state, or the country. Though I'm not going fact-checking any time soon, I do believe it to be a very interesting blend of tasty Russian staples in a healthy (a not-so-Russian ideal) delicate manner.
The best times to go is lunch or early dinner, as it tends to be booked by the local Russians in the evenings. Also, you can bring your own alcohol, as you will find the stereotypical Russian does.
The Lagman soup is a lamb stew with homemade noodles. In it, you will find an array of spices, chunks of lamb, ginger and cardammon. It is hard to describe this soup without saying that it is extremly well-spiced. This is one of my favorite qualities in good, inexpensive, ethnic food. The Langsai salad is a clear noodle salad with so much garlic that you will taste it on your mouth for days to come. Needless to say, it is incredible. Finish off your meal with chak-chak(basically angel cake fried in little pieces, then mixed with honey and walnuts) and green tea.

This is a very special place with food you can't get anywhere else.

Café Kashkar
1141 Brighton Beach Avenue, Brooklyn; (718) 743-3832

Café Adolat
3087 Brighton 4th St, Brooklyn, NY 11235; Phone: (718) 743-2077

Pak Nasheman: best Paki for your buck

It is in a predominantly russian neighborhood but still. One of my favorite places ever.

This is a really great neighborhood Pakistani place. On the outskirts of a predominantly Russian neighborhood, this place caters to the local scattered Pakistani population, and that is who you will find dining here at all hours (it is amazing how strangely inviting this place gets after-hours).
We eat here almost every week. After experimenting in a bunch of places in the city, we always come back to this one. The vegetable dishes are amazing. You can get a mixed vegetable plate over rice for $6-$8. You can get a mix of peas and potatoes, lentils, chickpeas, okra. Everything tastes very strong and spicy and you can wash it all down with a mango lassi. The curry chicken has bits of cardamon and ginger in it as well. They have a large selection of desserts. I always get
the milk balls or rice pudding.

Friday, January 25, 2008

CHOCOLATE in NYC

This is one of my favorite chocolate places in nyc.It feels like you are in a hidden dessert heaven. The hot chocolates are the purest and best quality I have ever tasted. If you need a nice place to go on Valentines day this is it.They also have really cool pin-up girls chocolate bars that make for really great gifts. I had the Panela hot chocolate which has the highest cocoa out of all the choices.(75%).I had the european style which is with water not milk.I recommend this one because this way you can really taste the cocoa.