i’m brand new here, but i’m an old chowhound (if anyone remembers what chowhound was)…i recently returned to chowhound seeking info about a neighborhood culinary shooting star from back in the day…unfortunately, times change, and that old forum is now only a shadow of its former self…so, i’m hoping hungry onion is what i’m looking for…I’ve pasted my original post below…if anyone’s got any intel or just wants to relive mina’s glory days, please join in!!!
hey, all… i’ve been away from chowhound for a while… quite a while… since back in the day when the arepa lady, the octopus man and spicy mina were all the rage on the outer boroughs board…i see things have changed a lot around here… but, i thought i’d come back to see if any old-timers might know whatever became of our beloved mina…
i followed her from her start in sunnyside… then to when she went on to angon on 6th… and i celebrated her return to queens in her own “spicy mina’s”… but, even after extensive googling, i can’t find any leads as to where she may be or who she might be feeding… anyone???
Welcome, @valentino_d! I used to live in Sunnyside and I remember Spicy Mina’s well, but unfortunately I have no idea whatever became of the chef. Hopefully someone will have an answer because I would surely love to revisit her cooking!
thank you, @biondanonima! …i followed mina around as she moved from spot to spot…and, each time that she left an establishment, the owner/manager would lie and say she went back to bangladesh…couldn’t fool a chowhound, tho!..unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a resource like that anymore to help us stay on top of things…hard to believe that such a vacuum was allowed to have been created, and even harder to believe that it hasn’t been filled, as yet
I miss the old Chowhound too especially for its coverage of the Outer Boroughs.
Mina’s food was great and I followed her to all 3 restaurants. But the service at her restaurants was haphazard at best and by the end none of my friends would join me. Not even my wife! It would be great if she could return cooking in a professional restaurant.
ha ha…maybe you were the guy eating alone at spicy mina’s/woodside cafe, the last time i remember visiting!..yeah, i remember the horror stories about the service, but i never had a single bad experience, myself…i mostly did takeout, though…and, when i did eat there, it was always on off-hours…
the outer boroughs board was so simple and searchable and perfect…hard to understand why such a resource doesn’t exist anymore…it seems like hungry onion has workable infrastructure…if a few of us made a concerted effort to breathe the old chowhound spirit into the place, maybe we could build up something…i’ll see if can come up with a post or two over this weekend
Welcome, Valentino! I was on Chowhound starting around 1998 or so and no longer go there. Truth be told, I haven’t been here for a while, either. I’ve found it emotionally hard to come back during the pandemic, and also, my attention is so divided now between day-to-day survival, politics, etc. But I’m glad this board is here. Some former Chowhounds also went to Food Talk Central, so you can check there, too.
I don’t know what happened to Mina, but I remember when Angon was delicious for a minute, so I will definitely follow this thread.
I was around during the Mina era too, but I have no idea what became of her–sorry. It’s a very different experience, but you can get good Bengali food in the heart of Jackson Heights at a cafeteria/grocery called Haat Bazaar.
thanks, pan!..how interesting…it was pretty much for all the reasons that you listed that i got nostalgic for kinder, gentler, simpler and more delicious days and i sought out mina and whatever other vestiges of old chowhounding times that i could find…
i’ll definitely check out food talk central…i’ll hang around here for a bit, too…but it’s not looking too lively
