A Different North Africa

Over the winter, we went to a handful of trivia nights around Manhattan, in the Upper East Side, the Lower East Side, and once in Greenwich Village around NYU. This particular night a group of us were to meet up at Amity Hall where we had even reserved a table. As a Wednesday night, when Julia/Meryl/Alisa were traditionally getting dinner, so I viewed this is as a great opportunity to continue my culinary conquests. Having taken people to places which were not so well-received by others, there is a certain hesitation when I suggest a place to eat now. So sometimes this limits my ability to suggest based on who is the company. Unfortunately, the East Village has a significant concentration of restaurants which would be deemed no-no by the boring palate police, namely Indian and Sri Lankan. There is a Lebanese place on 1st Ave we've been up to that was just sub-par, a  couple quick places that are not suitable for a sit-down dinner, Japanese (but our group eats sushi too often), and the infamous alterna-Thai: Zabb Elee which was a low point for everyone because of the spicy surprises. There is also a Ukrainian place as well as a Serbian place all the way over on Avenue C but no one wanted to go there because of a combination of being far away and having a menu heavy on pork. Thankfully (I thought at the time) I was able to convince people to go to Nomad, the "North African" place on 2nd Avenue since I wanted something a bit exotic (telling people it was like Moroccan was good enough justification). Nomad is not related to the NoMad hotel nor the synonymous neighborhood "NOrth of MADison square park". What I was going here for was its Algerian identity or at least that of its owners. Nomad is one of those restaurants in this city that hides behind a shroud of being referred to a regional: "Mediterrarean" or "North African". While it is most recognizably related to Moroccan, it is the first result in Google when you type in "Algerian food NYC". I'll tell you here I really wanted to like this place and when we ate the food was very good, perhaps even a bit heavier than Moroccan food I've had elsewhere (the chef is apparently Moroccan-born). So we got there with our reservation that turned out to be unnecessary on a Wednesday evening and started off with an appetizer of Nomad Trio Dip: crispy pita served with a choice of 3 dips: "hummus, cucumber yogurt, dry fava bean, muhamara, zaalouk, and babaghanoush and artichoke" from which we chose the hummus, cucumber yogurt, and muhamara, which is a dip made out of red peppers, so yes spicy. The pita was warm and soft and the dips thick and fresh as would be expected. For my main course, I was drawn to the lamb tajine ("braised lamb with prunes, caramelized onions and almonds, served with side of couscous") but obviously that wasn't enough, I had to go with the Couscous Royal (a big conglomeration: "lamb, chicken, merguez, and vegetables in a meat broth"). The tang that was with this broth and then soaked up by the couscous was excellent. And with the chickpeas and the lamb merguez was interesting, obviously a lot different than the veal sausages they make uptown at Heidelberg. Like I said, I wanted to like this place, especially since the inside is beautifully decorated, I was seriously contemplating it as a possible date spot in the future, quiet, intimate, not too crowded. But my opinion of Nomad would regrettably later be tarnished when I woke up the next day feeling worse than I could possibly ever remember. I'll spare most of the details, but I was affected for the entire day, with chills, vertigo, among other things, I napped during the day, and even tried to go to sleep earlier than usual to escape the dreadful day. By the middle of the next morning I was mostly fine again. I'm still not sure exactly what was the cause. I had no problems while out the rest of the night at the bar for trivia and none of the girls experienced any issues after their meals. All I know is that I am steering far clear of Nomad for the duration of my life. Out of 225 reviews on Yelp, only 1 makes mention of feeling sick afterwards. Not recommended, but if you desire Algerian food, do so at your own risk! Also, there is apparently another Algerian place in Astoria called Harissa Cafe though it seems like it is either closed or in the process of moving.

 Nomad at night

Nomad in day

Nomad inside, all the time

 Nomad Trio Dip appetizer

Couscous Royal with lamb, chicken, and merguez (which is also lamb)

The girls' Merguez Sandwiches "on baguette with chakchuka salad and harissa, served with French fries"

Un Petit Voyage En France

I have got to say this place would have a lot more reviews on Yelp if it were located somewhere like the Lower East Side or Williamsburg (<100 reviews as of Memorial Day 2013). Probably one of the best secrets of Queens and probably the best secret of my under the radar neighborhood of Woodside. Another place visited with the precedential guidance of Alisa. It's always there 2 blocks away, near the Stop Inn, the Duane Reade, the supermarket, and Subway as well as sitting below the actual subway 7 train. It's one of the few hipster-looking places around with a bright lavender paint job with fun little lettering that says "fresca la crepe since 2010". And I've always wanted to go. So why not save it for a special occasion. Dan was in town from California the weekend before Passover and that Saturday night we all went to Manhattan to someone's birthday at a new beer bar. The next day after everyone crashed on our floor we started off with brunch at Saints & Sinners. This is one of a number of similar Irish bars in the once Irish-centric neighborhood and like most in the area offers a Sunday brunch consisting of various egg and pork-based meat dishes. My favorite in the area is undoubtedly Donovans which offers great soda bread with its brunch dishes. And the catch in the area is that it's usually just about $10.00. Anyway, unfortunately while Saints & Sinners is a pretty good bar with pretty good bar food it just doesn't cut it for breakfast/brunch. The place doesn't have hash browns or home fries. I ordered an omelette and they gave me French fries!  In fact, everyone got French fries, from the chicken sandwich ordered to the "Irish breakfast" with bacon and sausage ordered. Now maybe this was a hint of what would come later on in the day but I just don't associate French fries with my morning meal. Afterwards, 4 of us decided to walk all the way to Astoria to check out the Museum Of The Moving Image, at Dan's suggestion. I was glad everyone was down to walk there because it was nice out, one of those few days in early Spring that is somewhat warm, about 1.5 miles each way. So after the museum we were trying to figure out what to do and I suggested we try the crepe place so we called Alisa and she found out they close at 4:00 on Sundays. The museum was great and I particularly enjoyed the retro video games they had on exhibit, including my beloved Sega Genesis. So we left the museum around 3:00 and made it to the crepe place around 3:30, and glad we did so. It ended up on my international cuisines destination map for France because French restaurants can be so hit-or-miss and how is a crepe not a staple of Paris street food, if excessively consumed by tourists. Fresca La Crepe has no website and its NYMag.com restaurant listing page lists out-of-date hours, but it seems strong as ever. The place is very tiny with a takeout window that I think acts more like a ventilation since the crepes are cooked in the front by the window. If someone is ordering at the counter, it is hard to get by them in or out of the door. In the back you'd expect there to be seats and there are a few but they are not set up in a way which is conducive to eating with a group and it somewhat appears to be an extension of the kitchen itself so you know off the bat it's a takeaway place. The menu is also very small and simple, but one of the best parts is that there is a sort of secret menu, a handful of specialty crepes while always available are unlisted. After sifting through some reviews on my phone while my friends ordered theirs off the menu (either Sweet or Savory) Nutella Banana, S'mores, I went ahead and ordered "The Bomb": Nutella, white chocolate, bananas, strawberries, toasted almonds, and mascarpone. We brought these back home and nom nom nom. I woofed mine down and like others have probably said in the past it was THE BOMB.  The story goes that the chef, who I believe is Chinese, was inspired during a trip to Paris some years ago and upon returning to New York City, decided to open up a crepe shop in Woodside in Queens and if you believe the awning outside, it's been there now for 3 years and the one-woman operation looks to be doing well. This is the kind of place that is just waiting to be discovered, lauded, and perhaps expanded. Examples in the area I can think of include Zabb Elee, down Roosevelt a bit near 72nd Street which opened up an East Village location within the last year and Sri Pra Phai a Thai powerhouse that has gained celebrity status after being featured in the NY Times a couple years ago.

Fresca La Crepe! 61st Street snug between Roosevelt Ave and Woodside Ave in Woodside, Queens

the whole menu (of course there are more unlisted items)

the tiny inside

 Chef Chu at work

almost done...

Truly The Bomb: the masterpiece

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Scrumptious Scandinavia

At this point, it's out of order, but it doesn't really matter because I am not trying to accomplish anything with restriction. If it's on this blog, then I've been there and that's what counts. Living in NY having grown up 2 rivers away (or 3 considering the crossing of the Rahway River is necessary), I have the good fortune of being able to see my family on short notice. So on this particular occasion, my mom was headed to Manhattan for a doctor appointment so I suggested trying an international cuisine destinations for dinner. There is not a lot in Midtown in terms of rare-ish quality food (the last time we did something like this it was my sister as well so we went to Ravagh the Persian restaurant written about a few posts back due to its proximity to Penn Station). Looking around on my map ( http://goo.gl/maps/TzHl0 ), actually I should correct and say not a whole lot in the Penn Station vicinity: within a 10-block radius, there are less than a dozen worthy: Ravagh on W 30th of course, The Australian (38th and 5th) which is primarily a bar, Trestle on Tenth (Swiss) all the way over on 10th Ave, BXL Zoute (22nd and 6th) and BXL Cafe (43rd and 6th), Lahori Kebab (Pakistani on 3rd and 28th) but is more a takeout place than anything, all the way to the Estonian House on 34th between 2nd and 3rd which I still haven't been able to figure out how to get into because it is like a social club but has a kitchen and it isn't clear whether the kitchen is open to the public or need to be invited. Anyway, that left one. On the border of Murray Hill, on a ritzy stretch of Park Ave about 5 blocks south of Grand Central, there is a cultural and multimedia center known as the Scandinavia House. Much less exclusive than the similarly named Estonian House, it is also happens to house in its lobby one of the 3 Manhattan locations of Smorgas Chef which like its name depicting a wide selection or variety is a unique mash-up of the cuisines of Scandinavian countries, though Sweden tends to shine the most out of the mix. Other Smorgas Chef locations include the West Village and the Financial District. My mom and I went on a Tuesday night in late February. Thankfully unlike many places in this daytime part of Manhattan which has a business hour population several times greater than its full-time population, Smorgas Chef does not close after lunch. It is a bit unclear at first when you walk in, searching for the restaurant only to find it is basically the lobby area set up with a bunch of tables and chairs sectioned off by a quarter wall fence. The Scandinavia House itself (described as the Nordic Center in America and home to the ASF: American-Scandinavian Foundation) is quite modern and sleek and regularly has movies, exhibitions, and learning seminars (read on Yelp of someone taking Icelandic!). So once inside it appears more like a cafe and the kitchen is all the way in the far back. The menu is definitely more upscale than Ikea's (who wants to eat horse meatballs anyway??) but the furniture is definitely indicative of a 20's-ish UES apartment setup. One of the more popular dishes on the menu seems to be a Swedish/Scandinavian sampler platter aptly named the Smorgasbord, consisting of "gravlaks (basically lox, which is actually the same word for salmon in Yiddish, Swedish, Norwegian, and a couple other languages), Jansson's potato, [the famous] Swedish meatballs, herring, and traditional accompaniments (like lefse)." This was absolutely delicious. As a fan of Eastern European cuisine which routinely features pickled fishes like tuna and whitefish particularly in my beloved Ashkenazi palate, having different kinds of herring with different sauces like dill mustard was amazing, and it is much lighter and seems like more cleaned up than Eastern European food. If food from Poland and Russia  is homestyle in its usually heaping portions and heavy sauces and potato accompaniments, then Scandinavian food is perfect for restaurants: aesthetically pleasing, diverse and delicious in taste, and still hearty enough, if not perhaps a bit oily. Along these same lines, we also ordered the Herring Quartet appetizer, which was "4 flavors of herring with lefse wraps and potato salad". This was also very good and the lefse was great to be able to capture the herring to eat like a little sandwich. The goat cheese fritters and beets, the latter perhaps a shout out to the proximity of Eastern Europe, included "spicy walnuts, greens, and caraway vinaigrette" reminded me of a typical appetizer at some downtown cafe that tries to be fancy. Nonetheless, goat cheese is always good. The Classic Smorgasbord was actually what I ordered for my meal. The goat cheese and herring quartet were appetizers. My mom had a salmon dish with cucumbers, greens, and potatoes. And instead of going for an alcoholic drink, I went with lingonberry juice (which yes does sound like "Lincoln-berry") which is not too different than cranberry juice. To top it all off, and this point all eating was being done by me as my mom resigned herself to any more food, I ordered a dessert of rice pudding with almonds and a cherry sauce. In my experience, I've always likened rice pudding to old people. Growing up, my parents would usually go out on Saturday nights and my Grandma and Grandpa would look after my sister and I and usually this included a trip to "the diner" in town for dinner where I would have the chance to order such amazing dishes as the "Batman hamburger and fries". Here at this diner, my Grandma would normally without fail order a rice pudding for dessert so for the better part of my life I have associated Grandma and rice pudding together. The rice pudding at Smorgas Chef is not a diner's rice pudding. It was an excellent way to end a varied and mature meal full of fish, cheese, berries, and bread. Oh yes and the Swedish bread was some of the best I've ever had served at restaurants, even better than most Italian restaurants!

Scandinavia House on Park Ave

Ikea tables and chairs in Smorgas Chef eating space/lobby

There is a large birch tree in the center of the area

 Amazing bread

Herring Quartet appetizer with lefse wraps

Lingonberry Juice

Smorgasbord sampler platter view 1

Smorgasbord sampler platter view 2

Salmon with greens and other things?

Delicious rice pudding dessert