Queens International Night Market

One year ago today was the opening night of the Queens International Night Market. We were really excited about this - cuisines from all over the world, affordable dishes around $5 each, lots of stuff we had never tried before, and a beautiful spring day - and apparently so were hundreds of our fellow New Yorkers. We got there before they opened and the line circled around and around on each side. It was absolutely packed, so crowded that later in the night the nearby train platform got seriously treacherous as there were so many people on the platform that nobody could move or get off the trains when they pulled in. We were glad we went early, but early was still bad.

Once the market actually opened for business, people streamed in from both sides. We were some of the first people in, as we had found the shorter line on the park side, and immediately started trying to figure out where to go. Lots of places already had lines, and decisions had to be made quickly. We ended up choosing a couple of spots on our side of the lot (never made it to the other side the entire night), splitting up, and waiting in line to get stuff, as we watched the aisles fill up, the lines get so long that they were crossing over each other, and the lot get so congested that there were many places where you literally could not move or got carried slowly by the moving crowd around you.

A waited on line for Burmese Bites, which didn't have a terrible line (yet) because we had gotten there so early, and which we really wanted to try after following them on Facebook for a bit. Burmese food isn't that easy to find in NYC outside of the occasional food fairs, so we were really happy to see them here. They had two options on their menu signs: keema palata and chicken curry palata (the one we got). Palata is a flaky flatbread that is similar to paratha or roti, and this one was topped with a really flavorful chicken curry and accompanied by a little cup of slaw on the side that packed some heat if we remember correctly. The portion size wasn't big enough for a meal, but that was good since the whole point of night markets like this is to roam and try lots of things. We were really happy with this and would have considered getting more if not for the lines.

From the Burmese food line, we could see a stall for Eve and Johnny's Caribbean style shark sandwiches, so M went over there. The line didn't look too bad at the time, and M was probably about 10th in line, so we thought the wait wouldn't be too, too bad. As she waited, she saw the lines around her getting longer and longer by the second, so she was glad that she had gotten in line early. However, since it was the first night of the market, it seemed like they hadn't gotten their prep done in time to open, and while M waited in line, A showed up with the palata, and we finished it, and then we waited some more. Under normal circumstances, A would have left M in line and gotten something else to share while waiting, but these lines were not normal.

The Caribbean style shark sandwich was basically Trinidadian bake and shark, fried flatbread with seasoned fried pieces of shark and toppings. We'd had bake and shark on our WorldEats to-try list for some time, but had just never made it out to spots in Brooklyn, so this was convenient. These sandwiches were topped with lettuce, tomato, cucumber, cole slaw mix (cabbage and carrots), cilantro and onions, pineapple, and three sauces: tamarind, chaden beni (a green culantro sauce), and a creamy garlic sauce. All together, it was so good. From the first bite, the mingling of all the flavors was good.

The sandwich was stuffed full of shark which was a really nice surprise. Often we've found "special" sandwiches to skimp on the protein portion, but this was definitely not the case. The shark itself was tougher than we were expecting, but it had a nice fish taste to it that didn't seem very foreign. It was more fishy than a typical white fish but far less fishy than an oilier fish like mackerel. The combination of all of the slaws and toppings combined to make a sweet and savory that was completely balanced and perfectly complemented the shark. We would have definitely gotten two of these if we had known they were so good and thought ahead about how bad the lines were around us.

After eating the shark sandwich, we thought about trying something else, but after getting stuck in the crowd for a few yards, it was unbearable and quite claustrophobic and we decided to leave. We couldn't make sense of what line was ending where, and it was nearly impossible to walk. On our way out though, we did see a stall without much of a line. It was for Haitian food from Belmere, which worked for us, since when we were doing WorldEats in geographical order, Haitian was where our journey stalled.

We ordered something small there (considering that the prices of most things were the same there, this was probably the least food for the price), and then took our to-go box into the park to eat. It felt so good to get out of the mess that was the night market, and we kept watching more and more people streaming in. As far as the food, we got a piece of stewed chicken which was pretty tasty and topped with some giant onion slices. There was also a little slaw on the side that was spicy, primarily pickled cabbage with a few carrot and cucumber pieces mixed in.

The Queens International Night Market is a great idea, but we were so uncomfortable during our visit there that we couldn't wait to leave. (We ended up finishing our dinner at a taqueria which was delicious but not the plan for the night.) There were serious crowd control issues, which to their credit, they have been trying to remedy this year by selling admission tickets for the first two weekends. We do want to go back, as having that many vendors representing cuisines around the world is totally our thing, but we'll probably wait a little longer into the summer to go.

Week 25 - Caribbean

For the Caribbean challenge, I wanted to try something new. The Caribbean has so many different countries with diverse cuisines, and I decided to focus on Trinidad. It didn't take me long to find a recipe that inspired me - this recipe for curried meatballs - so it was pretty easy to figure out what to do for this challenge.

I adapted the ingredient list a little bit for what we had/could find, and also for what Google told me were the things in the recipe I wasn't that familiar with. For example, I had heard of chadon beni before, but didn't know it was what I'd seen in the store as culantro. Hopefully I actually used what was intended, but even if I didn't, it turned out fine. The ingredients I used were:

for the meatballs:
- 1 lb ground turkey
- 1/2 onion, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 bell pepper, finely chopped
- about 2 tbsp culantro, minced
- 1/2 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 1 egg, beaten
- about 2 tsp dried chives
- 1 tbsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- a few sprinkles of salt and freshly ground black pepper

for the spice paste:
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp amchar masala
- 1/4 cup coconut milk

for the curry sauce:
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 bell pepper, chopped
- 1 tbsp culantro, minced
- 2 cans of coconut milk (whatever is left after the 1/4 cup for the spice paste was taken out)
- salt and pepper

(I'm not sure what the grand total was for this cooking project. I intended to figure it out, but originally wrote this post weeks ago and never got around to looking up the prices. It was the only thing that was really holding up posting this. But now, at this point, I don't even remember when I bought everything, so no pricing on this one. Sorry. )

Making dinner took me way longer than it should have, a little over 2 hours. I don't think it was because we were watching Amazing Race or because I was tired after going to the gym. For some reason, I think I was just prepping very slowly (even though I thought I was going faster) and working with ground meat has just been taking me a long time (just like another challenge meal that I'll be posting about soon). It didn't help that I got a late start because I forgot to stick the turkey in the sink to defrost when we went to the gym and had to do it afterwards. Anyway, the steps for making the Trinidad-style curried meatballs were:

1. Prep vegetables - chop onion, mince garlic, chop bell peppers, mince culantro. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Combine all meatball ingredients together into a large bowl and mix by hand.

3. Make meatballs and place on baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. (I tried making smaller meatballs, but I found it hard to make round meatballs at all. The meat mixture was just very wet and sticky, probably because there weren't any bread crumbs in it or anything like that. I ended up making very large meatballs, and even after 5 rows of those on the baking sheet, there was still more turkey left over so I formed it into a turkey burger and we each ate half of that as an appetizer since it was so late.)

[At this point, I also started some brown rice in our rice cooker, but timing on that would depend on what grain was being used.]

4. Bake meatballs in oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. (I probably left them in there a few minutes more than that because I was doing other things, and that was fine.)

5. While meatballs are baking, combine spice paste ingredients in a small bowl (dry ingredients first, then add coconut milk).

6. While meatballs are baking, also begin the sauce. Heat oil in a pot, and then add onions and cook until softer.

7. Add garlic and cook for a minute, and then the bell pepper and culantro, and cook for a few minutes.

8. Add spice paste to the vegetables, and stir until the vegetables are all well-coated in the spice mixture.

9. Add the remaining coconut milk to the pot, and stir well. Bring to boil.

10. Once boiling, add meatballs into the sauce, and make sure all meatballs are covered. Season with salt and pepper. Cook meatballs in sauce for about 10 minutes.

11. Spoon out meatballs and curry over rice.

The flavors here were so good. I loved how our entire apartment smelled like curry powder, how all the spices came through in the meatballs, that the coconut milk didn't dull or mute the spices at all, how the creamy sauce soaked into the rice, how well the curry sauce went with the meatballs. Overall, it was just a really flavorful, delicious dish. What I didn't love was how long it took me to make it. In a way, it was like making 2 separate meals by making meatballs and then making curry. I think in the future, besides starting earlier, maybe I'll try out making this curry with other proteins, maybe some that aren't as labor intensive as meatballs. Or maybe I'll make it on the weekend when I have more time since I'm so slow. But the recipe itself was really good. Very happy with the results.

Biryani Revisited

So, I'm leaving my job in two weeks (surprise!). I'm not going to talk about work or the reasons, but I mention that solely to introduce my new project - what to eat for lunch in Midtown before I go. 

Coming up with a list was more challenging than I thought it would be. I wanted to skip anywhere that I could easily visit on weekends or elsewhere in the city (so that eliminates chains I commonly visit like Hale & Hearty, Just Salad, Chop't, Maoz and Potbelly, and even smaller or independent places like Margon and Xi'an). Some of my favorites have closed recently (Karam, Indus, etc). Even the food trucks that set up in Midtown during lunch are often roaming the streets on the weekends or at night. I didn't come up with a full list until last night, and I think even now that's in flux.

But yesterday for lunch when the idea for the project surfaced, one place popped into my head as the first place I must go - the Trini-Paki Boys cart at 43rd and 6th.

Packed container of biryani and extras

A wrote a post a few years ago about their biryani and how much we love it. We could have sworn that we've written about their chicken and rice, doubles, samosas, and more... but since I can't find it, I'm guessing that we planned to but never got around to it.

This cart was one of the first places I visited when I first came to Midtown many, many years ago, prior to all the food blogs that introduced me to new and exciting places, and it has remained my favorite street meat cart. For awhile I was just getting the chicken over rice, but once the biryani arrived, I started getting that instead. I just love all the spices. I wish I could cook like this!

White and hot sauces mixed together over the food

The biryani is topped with curried vegetables, curried chickpeas and a fresh salad, along with white sauce and hot sauce. Yesterday she also added some extra chicken to the top. The chicken was a little more well done than usual but that could be because I was having a very late lunch and it had been on the heat longer. I still recommend the biryani and am considering a second trip during my "revisiting" period to get the chicken over rice as well. And a samosa. Maybe doubles if A has time to come with me.

Underneath the salad and vegetables - biryani!

This family-owned cart is truly one of Midtown's treasures. The line has been longer during the past few years than I remember from when I first started going, and while that makes my wait time longer, I love that they seem to be doing good business. But since they are only out for lunch on the weekdays, I needed to make sure I went there before I go. Love this place!