New York Restaurants by Area – Page 32 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Spicy & Tasty

39-07 Prince Street, Flushing, Queens
718/359.1601
â™¥ â™¥ â™¥

The pain didn’t take effect until five minutes into our meal. When I say pain, I’m talking about our tongues going numb, beads of sweat starting to dot our foreheads, a ringing sensation behind our ears and ooze starting to form in our small noses. All were good pain, mind you, and even as they got worse, we kept eating. If you like your Sichuan Chinese food, you know what I’m talking about and if you venture to Flushing, Queens, then you know that spicy and tasty are enough adjectives to describe the Spicy & Tasty buffet.

We were in Queens to check out the panorama of the City of New York in the Queens Museum. We hardly take the number 7 train so when we found ourselves in the city’s largest borough, the most ethnically diverse county in the entire United States, we decided to continue on to Flushing and look for a late afternoon meal. We’re not familiar with the neighborhood at all so we stopped by Duane Reade to steal a glance inside one of the city magazines. Unfortunately, there was always one restaurant listed under Queens, but luckily, Spicy & Tasty was the one selected by The New Yorker. The restaurant was only an avenue away from the subway so we took the quick hike, feeling very determined to eat spicy Chinese food.

The Dr. grew up in Los Angeles and if he misses a cuisine more than Korean, it would be Sichuan Chinese. We have several Shanghainese Chinese restaurants in New York, but only a few good Sichuan places. He would recall to me trips to Monterey Park eating spicy dish after spicy dish flavored by fagara peppercorns. In fact, the last time I went to Los Angeles without him, I went to his favorite Sichuan restaurant and finally understood why a good sweat is sometimes appeciated and even necessary. To my delight, his eyes lit up as soon as we walked in Spicy & Tasty. He wanted to order everything behind the glass. We pointed and picked three dishes and added a soup and a bowl of dan dan noodles to our bill from our table.

The culprits were the spicy root vegetable, the crispy tendon salad and the dan dan noodles. We took turns picking the pieces with our chopsticks, blowing through our tongues and stuffing our mouths with the smoked tofu and celery to ease away the numbness. When the pork and squash soup was served, it was like water to two quenched survivors. I found myself playing with the Filipino upo in my mouth to dilute the spicy and garlicky combination of the dan dan noodle sauce. There was laughter, imagining how we looked like that moment, and then the laughter turned into quiet, happy tears.

Provence

38 MacDougal Street off Prince
212/475.7500
$80 for two, with 3 drinks, without tip
â™¥ â™¥

Updated, 2008: Provence will reopen in May as Hundred Acres.

I was delighted when I walked by Provence several months ago and saw that it was reopening with help from the owners of Five Points and Cookshop. I’ve eaten at Five Points twice without reservations and both times I left impressed and satisfied. I’ve only stopped by Cookshop for a drink, but one of their bartenders made them so beautifully, I stayed for two more. I visited Provence during opening week and felt completely at home as soon as I sat at the bar. The interior is a great mix of femininity and masculinity without the frills. Victor Hugo has never looked so good in a bathroom! Who knew homey furniture could be so sexy? I can’t wait to return when the windows are open and the flower boxes are filled in the summer.

We started with the endive salad with treviso, arugula and parmesan, a salad that would have been boring if not for its spiky lemon-anchovy dressing. I love bitter greens flavored by a little tart but kept at bay by aged, hard cheese. The sardines were lightly coated in breadcrumbs and served with lemon and chili oil–the right combination of tanginess and spiciness. The ravioli was rich but daintily stuffed with finely chopped snails, wild nettles and walnuts. A garlic-parsley sauce brought its decadence down a notch.

The Australian bartender was so charming, he immediately made me forget that I was there with someone. The Provence team has wisely chosen a small selection of French wines and Belgian beers. The Delirium Nocturnum, a dark ale, was of a maroon-brown color which tasted sweet and cinnamony while the Chateau de Roquefort clairette light and plummy. Provence was already loved by the neighborhood before it closed, but this reincarnation surely puts it on the MacDougal map.

Dani Restaurant

333 Hudson Street corner of Charlton
212/633.9333
$300 for fifteen without drinks, with tip
â™¥

Update, 2008: Dani is now closed and only available for special events.

Dani looked promising as soon as we walked in. Its space on Hudson is so airy and spacious, it made me wonder why other restaurants just don’t move to the West Village. I booked a table during lunch for a big group. They told me over the phone that our tables will be separated in two groups but assured me that they will be next to each other. When we were all seated, we occupied an L-shaped corner but with an empty table in between the two groups. We asked the maitre’d to move the place settings one table over so that we can be together but she never returned to fulfill our request. So there we ate, two groups side by side, separated by a small table in between, standing to pass plates of appetizers from one table to the next.

The lunch menu is very simple with a good selection of sandwiches and salads. There are also some hearty fares like my super al dente orecchiette with lamb or my co-worker’s pasta al forno with smoked mozarella and sausage. A tuna special was deemed mediocre by another co-worker which was curious because I’ve only seen him eat fried chicken during lunch times. Their prix fixe was a good deal with a small bowl of soup, salad and a panini, but those who ordered the paninis alone all disliked the pasta dough chips served on the side. Dani provides a nice space for big parties, but its staff needs to loosen up to accommodate even those who do not order booze during the day and work a little harder for the 20% tip they automatically add to group checks.

Blue Ribbon Bar

34 Downing Street off Bedford
212/691.0404
$86 for two with four beers and a glass of wine, with tip
â™¥ â™¥ â™¥

So there’s Blue Ribbon Sushi and Blue Ribbon Brasserie on Sullivan; the Blue Ribbon Bakery on Bedford and Blue Ribbon Market around the corner. Of course, there’s the other brasserie in Brooklyn. I wasn’t surprised when I heard the Bromberg brothers have opened Blue Ribbon Bar on Downing Street because they have been in the business even before the Lambs started taking over the East Village and way before David Chang started attracting other chefs at his restaurant during its after-hours. What I like about any of the Blue Ribbons is that they go past the food trends. People who still wait in line are most likely customers who have been following the empire for the last ten years. I know that when I go, I will get more than just a decent, civilized meal; that I’ll get a tried dish that only a select few will appreciate.

It’s their dependable reputation that made me order the pickled tongue, the wild mushrooms with sweetbreads and the steak tartare with capers. I like that a restaurant, even a tight bar space, will be adventurous enough to offer those items. I like it even better when they can do them right. The pickled tongue, which reminded me of wd-50, was so tender that it made me happy to be eating it even as it discombobulated after a bite. The steak tartare was classically Blue Ribbon and put in mind one of my favorites from their roster, roasted bone marrow with oxtail marmalade. The mushrooms were so fragrant that my companion didn’t mind the sweetbreads even after I told him what they really were. They have a great wine list and less expensive flights for their sparkling wines, Pinots and Reislings. It’s also the same reputation that makes their employees less obnoxious–I was going to use an eight-letter word starting with an “a”–than other waitstaff in the city. Our bartender was very accommodating even after more people squeezed in and he never forgot us sitting in the corner, refilling our water glasses and serving us a complementary flight of wine after already several drinks.

Ed’s Lobster Bar

222 Lafayette Street between Spring and Broome Streets
212/343.3236
$90 for three with Birch beer and two glasses of sparkling wine, without tip
â™¥ â™¥

Ed McFarland, another Pearl Oyster Bar graduate, has opened up his own seafood restaurant and rawbar. (Ex Pearl partner, Mary, left to open Mary’s Fish Camp.) The location is great because it’s quite hard to find a decent place to eat in SoHo without straying away from Broadway. Ed’s Lobster Bar is narrow in front and opens up in the back. There is wainscoting on the walls and bricks are painted white. The space and the menu reminded me of the many seafood places I’ve tried during drives around New England. Three of us were seated in the back during its opening weekend where it was busy and pretty tight. We were next to the bathroom and the kitchen but the collective buzz contributed to a happier ambiance than not.

Press writeups laud the lobster rolls and everyone around us ordered them, but I just couldn’t get into all that mayo even after picking the fresh lobster pieces in it. The fries were a bit soggy and I ended up pushing the boring greens that came with it. The best thing on the plate were the homemade pickles. They were perfectly salty and briny. I know I’ll be back for a jar of them and skip the $19 roll altogether. All those years visiting New England never taught me what proper clam chowder is. I liked Ed’s version because it was runnier, but my companion told me she would have prefered it chunkier, Brooklyn style. We also ordered three oysters from Blue Point and three from Pine Islands. They were fresh, sweet and salty just like the ocean. We would have appreciated the scallops better if we weren’t painfully full because they tasted like they were seared in glorious bacon fat. We had visited two other places beforehand, so we called it an early night as if we were actually in New England.