Curry

Central Synagogue

652 Lexington Avenue, Midtown

Brick Lane Curry House Too

235 East 53rd Street, Midtown

By the middle of December, we were becoming seasoned veterans in these escapades. Last week, I asked everyone if they wanted to try a curry house, and got all sorts of responses about not liking spicy, blah blah blah. So that is why we went with the Upper West Side, Bnai Jeshurun, and El Malecon II. Mostly one person was the obstacle for not liking Indian food so since he could not make it this week I thought it prime to try the Brick Lane Curry House. Fortunately, I hit upon one of the restaurants that Alisa has been to and loved so we finally had a guide at our reach. The restaurant is so named because Brick Lane in London is well known for its variety of Indian and Pakistani eateries, existing because of significant immigration after the years of British colonial rule in the region of South Asia. The world-famous Chicken Tikka Masala has recently been called a national dish in the UK, and is such a part of British identity due in part to the fact that despite many believing it is part of Indian cuisine when in fact the dish is supposed to have been invented in Britain.  And such a sort of sub-style of Indian cuisine was born that is unique and much a part of British culture. So Brick Lane Curry House, with a few different locations around the New York area is where we decided to descend upon. The temple I chose this week is the Central Synagogue in Midtown. It has the notoriety of being the oldest congregation in the city continuously using the same building. The Moorish Revival structure on Lexington and 55th was built in 1872. So whereas Temple Emanuel is just a big, dark cave, the Central Synagogue, with its membership wait list of over 300 families, is much  more inviting. I told Meryl I would meet her in the service and made it just as they were about to start Kabbalat Shabbat. I raced down Lexington out of the subway saw the entrance people still going inside, and this time no security check. A long middle aisle up to the bima, looking around for Meryl where is she sitting I have no idea and I look like  a crazy person spinning around in circles. Just as I ascended the stairs, some usher put up a velvet rope blocking off the entrance, much like the lines in a bank. Finally located her and the service began. We were seated right in the center not too far back, and the place which has almost 3000 seats had a good-sized crowd, by no means demanding the use of the balconies. While a Reform temple, it seemed more familiar as not as stuffy as Emanuel just 10 blocks north. I believe the siddurim used are produced by the synagogue itself, it is quite an institution after all. After the service, I remember thinking to myself, if I had to belong to a Reform synagogue, this is where I'd go. The 7th night night of Hannukkah 5773! Our next stop would be at Brick Lane Curry House Too on 53rd between 3rd and 2nd Avenues. We would be meeting Alisa and her friend Emily there. Now although Meryl had originally concurred with Neal about not liking the Indian food in general and of course I was on thin ice especially for my choice of the Lao place a few weeks back that was crazy spicy, she conceded to go to Brick Lane. And Alisa was very excited to go because she had been before and loved it. I had made a reservation for the 4 of us just to be sure. When we got there, I could not believe how tiny the place was. It may as well be someone's duplex living room, perhaps 6 tables in all. There is no place to stand inside and there was no one inside when we arrived. When she got there, Alisa said she didn't know about this one because she had been to the larger location in the East Village. In any case, it's still the same restaurant. What makes this place significantly well-known is that it was featured on Man Vs. Food for its Phaal curry challenge. Thought to be the hottest (spiciest) food available in Indian restaurants, originating of course in British Indian restaurants, I found this review on grubstreet from a customer: "The Phaal is essentially a slightly curried meat of your choice with an assload of chili peppers to the magnitude of...12? Burns. Hurts. Kills tastebuds. Brings on gastrointestinal hyperactivity - I would think even for the most accustomed/stalwart." What do you get for taking on this curry? A lousy free beer. No thank you. Instead, I opted for a delicious Jalfrezi curry with tofu. I thought since everyone always says that tofu just tastes like what you cook it with, I'd give it a shot, and it was quite good. The Jalfrezi had just the right amount of kick, probably medium. Unfortunately, Emily was not too pleased by her meal choice because of how spicy it was; I think Meryl took a stance of "I could take or leave it" and Alisa has been a sold customer. To each their own, yes? In any case, I found it good, it is definitely different than the Indian restaurants in Queens, since the curry is such a staple of the special British take on the cuisine. I would come again, and maybe next time venture downtown to East 6th Street in order to have a meal in more spacious accommodations.

 Brick Lane, East London

Chicken Tikka Masala

 Central Synagogue

Brick Lane Curry House Too

"Free cracker thing with three types of dip"

Menu description of Phaal

 Adam Richman of Man Vs. Food watching Phaal being made at Brick Lane Curry House

 Adam Richman eating Phaal

Phaal

boriqua (HA!) morena (HA!) DOMINICANO (HA!) colombiano (HA!) boriqua (HA!) morena (HA!) cubano (HA!) mexicano (HA!)

Congregation B'nai Jeshurun

257 West 88th Street, Upper West Side

El Malecon II

764 Amsterdam Avenue, Upper West Side

In episode number 4 of our somewhat-weekly excursions, we venture to the Upper West Side for a service with supposedly more flare and some good Caribbean cooking from the DR. Congregation Bnai Jeshurun, like most in the UWS, is one of the larger ones in the city. It is not affiliated with any movement, but appears to follow Conservative traditions mostly. Dominican stronghold in NYC is mostly known to be in Washington Heights, one notable example being slugger Manny Ramirez. But I digress, upon trying to locate excellent Dominican food, I came upon a restaurant known as El Malecon. While there are synagogues up in Wash Heights, mostly because Yeshiva University is in the neighborhood, we did not want to schlep all the way up to the 170s. Fortunately, they decided to open a sister restaurant in the more accessible UWS at Amsterdam and 97th, duly named El Malecon II. So with our destinations in mind, we made our way over to BJ. Meryl had read on their website before we went that the two last rows of seats in the room are meant to be reserved for young professionals, which sounded good to us as trying to find a Friday night service with a younger crowd than the places we had gone in previous weeks. Upon entering, it was packed, and we were lucky to snag a couple seats in the center at the very back. It seemed to be a sort of convertible room, as there were no pews or traditional rows but actually folding chairs positions in a large crescent. It was the first time I could ever remember being at a Shabbat evening service with a full house. That was when I knew we had to be in the right place. It turned out that BJ is a much more informal place than I ever would have suspected. I could hardly remember seeing anyone dressed in shirts and ties, let alone suits. I'd say the vast majority were in a little bit more cleaned up than street clothes, what you might wear to a summer Friday night service outside, untucked shirts and jeans, a number of sweaters. We also have a strange sort of prejudice or inclination about the formality of different denominations' services and environments in places of worship. And I will admit that I am partially guilty of this as well, for example as I wore jeans to the Temple Emanuel in November, but as you previously read, that's more like a performance and not a community event, with all the tourists and such. I will also a quote a certain unnamed member of our praying posse who, in one week of having last-minute debates about what type of service to go to, claimed she wanted to know for certain because she based her clothing on it, if we were going to go to the Reform service instead of Conservative, she'd change from a skirt to pants. So yes, a long and circuitous way of saying it's a very inviting and relatively informal setting at Bnai Jeshurun. And as I mentioned before, although not a member of USCJ, they use Siddur Sim Shalom just like we used growing up at TBEMC. So it's always nice to have something familiar. And beginning with Yedid Nefesh but unfortunately not singing all verses out loud. Here, they had a small acoustic accompaniment as well, that was not overpowering and a nice complement to the praying. I don't recall if there was a choir, in fact the congregation altogether seemed quite on key. And not until after the fact did I realize that the cantor is actually the guy at the electric keyboard coming in with the piano parts, the rabbis at the podium. It's also a very interesting interior because the upstairs balcony has old-style wooden pews and the ceiling is illuminated in a deep, dark blue which is reminiscent of a planetarium and also has an industrial-style look to it that somewhat resembles a K'nex project as well. All in all, the service was pleasant, and probably the highlight of it was the dancing that goes along with L'kha Dodi. For the first few verses, it's a more reserved tune, and this one lady is really passionate, looking like she's shuckling and flailing her arms towards the ceiling, and then once we turn the page in the siddur, the tune switches up and a good amount of people get up out of their seats and start running through the aisles hand-in-hand, which lends a great element to the atmosphere, but of course with such a packed house and not much free space, the dancing lines became clogged quite quickly so the dance turned into more of a retarded march of sorts. After the service ended, there was no communal kiddush because they do motzi on the bima, so we all shuffled out back onto 88th Street. As we walked back out towards Broadway and eventually over to Amsterdam, we remarked to each other about how much we enjoyed the service after going to 3 others, it was the first service that we branded the coveted "we'd-go-back". On our way to El Malecon II, Neal looked up the synagogue on his phone and realized that it was the subject of some scathing news articles in the recent weeks, and its clergy had received a lot of attention over their viewpoints about Palestine's recent admission to the UN as a non-member observer state, which was right in time with the Gaza conflict going on at the time. Basically, the rabbis had sent a letter to the congregation which was perceived  by some as being too supportive towards the Palestinans. You can read all about the drama with the NY Times here . Getting to the restaurant, it was very non-pretentious and with plenty of available tables. Most of the clientele was Latino but we did not feel out of place. We walked in and were soon gestured to pick any table. So we sit towards the wall and our server came to give us menus. I knew that the rotisserie chickens were definitely the highlight of the cuisine, so I was definitely going to order one. Neal decided he would have the chicken too (how is it not fitting to be eating chicken on a Friday night after going to Shabbat services!). First we were going to order each a half-chicken, which were very fairly priced at $8 each but then we got smart and chose to order 1 whole chicken to split for only $12, as the menu noted: Pollo Entero "estilo malecon", or a whole chicken "Malecon style". Although I had heard good things also about the Asopado, or soupy rice, it would have to wait until another time. Still, since plantains are a large part of several Latin American cuisines, I needed to order a side of them, and we also ordered sides of the yellow rice to eat with the chicken. We had no idea how huge the portions would be, we could definitely have settled to share 1 rice side among the 3 of us. Meryl ordered mofongo, the famous Puerto Rican dish based on mashed plantains stuffed with meat, not too surprising to find at a Dominican restaurant, considering the islands are not much more than 100 miles apart in the Caribbean. With platanos maduros, arroz amarillo, and pollo muy bueno, we were more than satisfied with El Malecon II. And a good rebound it finally was to have some delicious and accessible food after some questionable experiences in recent weeks with German and Lao food.

B'nai Jeshurun

Manny Ramirez, product of Washington Heights

 El Malecon II

 Massive "side" of arroz amarillo

 Mofongo

 Pollo Estilo Malecon (licks fingertips)

We sat at that table on the left by the wall

Laos, by way of Thailand

Brotherhood Synagogue

28 Gramercy Park South, Gramercy

Zabb Elee

75 2nd Avenue, East Village

After taking a week off during Thanksgiving weekend, we resumed our adventures on the last day of November. This time we looked for a synagogue outside of the Upper East Side, and being that we all come from Conservative backgrounds, we picked the Brotherhood Synagogue in Gramercy as our destination, aside from its neat name and the fact that it was within walking distance of  Neal’s apartment which we could use as a meeting place before going. For this outing, we were joined by Alisa, who would be a new addition for the week making our group go up to 4 in just 3 weeks! The temple was nice, not as old as some of the others in the city. So the synagogue was nice across the street from Gramercy Park, when we were inside listening to the president tell about upcoming events, she mentioned that they host the Gramercy Park menorah lighting ceremony for Hanukkah. After we joined the congregation in the basement function room for an oneg  after the service that someone from the board of the synagogue came up to us and introduced herself and gave a brief overview of the place. It was nice that she had come up because no one did any such thing at institutions like Emanuel and Park Avenue. This is partly because it is a smaller congregation, and as a result we felt it to be the most comfortable/homey/familiar of the first 3 we attended. Although not officially a member of USCJ, the traditions here are very much similar to that of any other Conservative/unaffiliated/traditional/non-Orthodox shul. But unfortunately again we did not find the young crowd we were looking for. It was a pleasant service, and I would go back though not unless I was nearby. Afterwards, I had made reservations for us at Zabb Elee, an alternative Thai restaurant on 2^nd Avenue. Since there is no official Lao restaurant in NYC and the blog had visited a “pan-Asian” restaurant owned by Lao people who cooked their food especially for that one occasion, I wanted to try to find a place that at least served something similar to Lao food. Zabb Elee (pronounced “sahb ee-lee”)  is a Thai restaurant in Jackson Heights in Queens that also has a new branch in the East Village. It is not the type of Thai restaurant like most and does not even serve Pad Thai. Instead they serve a style of food from the northern reaches of Thailand, near the border of Laos, an area known as Isan. Because there is a large Laotian population there, a lot of the food can be similar. So this restaurant was our best bet without a special occasion. The most well-known dish out of Laos is Larb or Laab which is basically a minced meat salad that has some resemblances to ceviche in its generous use of cilantro and lime juice. Since I like ceviche, I thought I’d like this dish. You can get it with beef, duck, chicken, or fish. A couple of us got it with duck which was recommended to be the best, I got mine with beef but unfortunately this restaurant has a reputation of having very spicy dishes, wherein “medium” can be still considered scorching hot. And these dishes were no exception, they had generous inclusions of chili powder. And since these are salads, the meat is not hot per se and this additionally unfortunately did not sit well with the group who basically likened it to eating a mush salad. Meryl reported that hers was so spicy she could not even tell the separate taste of the meat. Not until afterwards did I realize that I actually had had it before, at none other than seminal Thai restaurant Sri Pra Phai. As an appetizer one time eating with Mom and Grandma, I ordered it because the description sounded good (“W. fresh mint, dry chili and lime juice”), little did I know how lethal the dry chili really is. It was too spicy for them and I tried to get down as much as I could. So Larb was most definitely not a hit and after the lukewarm reception the German restaurant  got the week before followed by this disaster (they still talk about it and hold me responsible), I was on the hook for the next week. I would go back to Zabb Elee especially as one location is right down the street here in Queens, but I would remember how spicy everything was and make sure not to order Larb. Sorry Laos!

The Brotherhood Synagogue

Zabb Elee East Village

The corner table where we sat (those people are not us)

The view from our table towards the front door

Larb

Sticky rice

 What makes Larb so damn hot and spicy

More Larb (Duck?)

Larb at Sripraphai (look for those hidden little specs of chili)

Deutschland

Park Avenue Synagogue

50 East 87th Street, Upper East Side

Heidelberg Restaurant

1648 2nd Avenue, Yorkville

Ah, ja ja, here we ah. No this isn't Boston. Continuing the new tradition of a synagogue and a supper, we stay on the Upper East Side this week to see what a Friday night service is like at arguably the most prominent Conservative temple in the United States, the esteemed Park Avenue Synagogue, funny enough not located on Park Avenue with an address on East 87th Street and an entrance on Madison. For this adventure, Meryl and I recruited Neal, another one of our group who is interested in Jewish things similarly to us and would also be willing to try new cuisine. My first idea in tackling this project was to pick the synagogues and then try to find restaurants nearby knocking down the most notable synagogues in the city first, and also since going to the Burmese place last week was a secondary thought while looking for a dinner option. So not more than a few blocks away than the Park Avenue Synagogue on Madison Avenue I found the Heidelberg Restaurant, a holdover from Yorkville's days as a German neighborhood after the poor immigrants begot more well-to-do children who moved uptown from the defunct Little Germany (Kleindeutschland) in the Lower East Side. Being Jews from Ashkenazic families, we tend to be somewhat familiar with Germanic, Central and Eastern European foods, after all Ashkenaz is the biblical name of Germany, so it makes sense we have a bunch of salted meats, and cabbages, and slaws, and herrings and whitefishes in our menus. However, pork is also a very big part of the German diet, and specifically sausages which we don’t normally see on a Rosh Hashanah or Shabbat dinner table. Let’s not also forget potato pancakes and dumplings and the amazing schnitzel which is more or less the national dish of Israel after falafel which of course was brought to the Middle East by Jewish immigrants from Germanic areas in Europe. While in Israel schnitzel is most often made from chicken, in German-speaking countries, such as in Austria where it is the wienerschnitzel, it is often made from beef, in particular veal. So first we met at Meryl’s apartment and walked the few blocks over to the synagogue, and actually went through a security checkpoint and through a metal detector at the airport, though the security guard did not make us remove anything from our pockets and I’m not sure it was even on because of Shabbat about to start. We went in and I noticed it was not at all as cavernous as Emanuel and was brighter. The seats were interestingly elevated from the walking aisles and the whole sanctuary was not all that large. They were either wooden wicker style or had cushions of some sort, not typical pews in houses of worship. It was also interesting that the rabbi and cantors, hard to tell when you first get in, were all seated at the front of the room but off the bima on stools as if in a coffeehouse setting, perhaps to make for a more informal environment. The service was not too packed but had enough people, probably 50 or 60. At one point in the service, the rabbi went around the room and asked people who were there for the first time. I volunteered to introduce the 3 of us so I said our names that we’re from New Jersey but live in different parts of the city. For the second week in a row, I was put off by the fact that I couldn’t sing along with the prayers with the rest of the congregation. This was due to the fact that the cantors actually performed the prayers for us, harmonizing and taking turns, complete with music stands. They used elaborate melodies which were most certainly not allowing for participation by people who attended the service. Not to mention I looked up the female cantor after the service and it turns out she is actually a musical actress who performs regularly throughout the city. And Neal brought up the fact that the rabbi during his sermon failed to tie in that week’s parashah. It was during the time Israel and Palestine were having the back and forth conflicts in the Gaza. So, again a service that was more a show than an experience, which is to be expected in New York City so we are still in search of a meaningful service. On to the food now. So we get to the restaurant and it is pretty busy hidden behind scaffolding from the construction projects for the 2^nd Avenue subway East Side Access project. The hostess and waitresses were all dressed in themed outfits like an a bierhaus since it was rather late by the time we were eating she said it would be about 20 minutes until a table freed up. And of course I hadn’t thought to make a reservation (have since learned from that). There was very little waiting area so we could either go outside where it was cold or go to the bar area. I had seen on their sign outside that they were serving Gluhwein which I know also as Vin Chaud or hot wine in French which is very popular around Paris during cold months, and I remember the taste of it with its spices so I was excited to get a glass of it. And good it was. Finally we got seated and checked out the menu and found indeed it was very pork-heavy. I had also read on the United Nations of Food blog that the Schweinebraten dish was recommended but obviously as inferring from the “Schweine-“ part of the word it involves pork. Wanting to have sausage, I went for the Weisswurst, or the white sausage (veal-based) which included  potato salad and slaw (sauerkraut). I was also considering the sauerbraten dish described as marinated beef, sweet/sour, potato Dumpling & red cabbage. As an appetizer, Neal and I chose to a split a beef tongue dish, which grossed out Meryl. As was to be expected, everything was a bit salty, and like the blog put it, the food was “well-behaved” nothing special but still good, at least in my opinion. German food like our beloved Ashkenazic food tends to be on the heavy side and with the salads and dishes full of vinegar and sourness and marinated meats, it was a filling meal. No tastes stood out in particular, while Meryl and Neal both decided they’d rather not to return to the restaurant. Northern European food is good, but just not as pleasing to the cosmopolitan palette, especially after having a cuisine a week prior as rare to the west as Burmese.

 Park Avenue Synagogue old entrance at 50 E 87th St

Entrance we used at Madison & E 87th

 Google Streetview image from 2011 showing 2nd Avenue subway construction in front of Heidelberg

 Yummy, spicy Gluhwein

Heidelberg bar

 Greasy, sour beef tongue

 Wurst plate with sauerkraut

Yes, they have boots, but we did not get one