matt: i forgot that you were once a Bklyn Hts kid.
bkeats: yes I know the Hts Casino well, although I have never been a member. Lots of squash (& some tennis) there over the past 40 years.
I took Karate lessons there!
Back to the open today means back to Our Backyard bakery, decided to try a pandebono from their warmer, wow, it was wonderful, with the sweetness from the masa playing counterpoint with the cheese, they have a talented baker and as one can see from the crumb, he knocked it out of the park.
I’d call this is a must try if you’re in corona and have $2.50 to spare.
Best,
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looks delicious!!!
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We were at the Open today as well. Didn’t see you. We had a lovely banana muffin and iced coffee from Lavazza that didn’t quite eat up our USTA member $15 food credit. FYI, the iced coffee is now served in a plastic cup maybe ⅔ the size of previous years.
I got to watch it on the TV while munching on street tacos at my desk. Not quite the same experience.
Anyone know anything about Dunya Kebab House on Coney Is. Ave in Bklyn? Apparently, Wells gave it a good review a couple of years ago (as did others) but I must’ve missed it. Passed by a couple of days ago and am interested - looks good.
I must have missed that review (and not on CIA as much as in the past) definitely need to check it out
Ate here once with a couple of friends:
https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=61177627%40N00&sort=date-taken-desc&text=dunya&view_all=1
Very good Afghani food, very genial service. As at Laghman Express, a table of six could cover much of the menu before becoming repetitive.
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Wondering, Dave, have you been to the Ukbek place, Urgut Osh Markazi, across the street?
Jen, I think I mentioned that Toni and I ate at Urgut Osh Markazi back in July. We were almost completely unable to communicate with our waiter, whose English was only marginally better than our Uzbek. This is, of course, a good sign for a restaurant. However, as a result, I can only identify what we had as “the combo.”
I’m pretty sure it was some variety of plov, heavy on the sheep tail fat. It was very good, but I ate a good bit more of the tail fat than Toni did.
Coincidentally, I am writing this from Dubai, trying to get some sleep before we head off to Tashkent tomorrow (with a brutal 2:30 am arrival time). So I’ll soon be able to compare Uzbekistan Uzbek food to Kensington Uzbek food. And maybe next year we can travel out to Queens to compare Rego Park Uzbek food.
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Sheep tail fat good.
Doug, do you and Toni expect to be eating halal Uzbek food, kosher Uzbek food, or, your schedule permitting, some of each?
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I dont recall this as ever explicit in any of the cities we visited - one assumes the meat was halal in Tashkent and Khiva which were not historically Jewish centers ditto in The two ethnically Tajik cities Bukhara and Samarkand which had substantial Tajik-speaking Jewish populations but where there are only a tiny number of jews remaining… i think i remember some sort of place in Bukhara with kosher arrangements for tourists but thats about it. There is more info on the history and availability of kosher food and religious services on the websites which cater to kosher travelers but they dont give much joy on the food side.
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Bottom line Dave, would get more feel for any differences in the cuisines in NY than in Uzbekistan at this point, since both groups are represented here in good numbers.
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Perhaps, Doug, you’ll also come across Koryo-saram restaurants, run by ethnic Koreans of the former Soviet Union. The two (that I know offhand) in Brooklyn serve Uzbek, Russian, and their own Korean-descended cuisine.
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Dave, from what I’ve read, there are now very few Jews remaining in Uzbekistan, which is sad. The large Jewish community in Bukhara has almost entirely disappeared, with many of them now in Regó Park.
Thanks, Jen. I’m reading this on my phone, which is a little awkward, so I didn’t see your message before I responded to Dave. Your experience confirms what I’ve read.
Yes, we will definitely be looking for the Korean-Uzbek places. I think Korean cuisine might have influenced Uzbek food more generally. After Toni and I ate at Urgut Osh Markaz, we stopped by Fortune Supermarket, a neighborhood Central Asian store. There were quite a few different types of kimchi and other Korean foodss there, as well the big kazans (cast iron pots) used to cook plov.
I’ve been reprimanded before for talking about non-New York food in this forum, but I’ll risk a quick comment about our Uzbekistan plans.
We’ve decided to spend most of our time in Tashkent, which most tourists skip as a soulless modern city, in part so we can focus on how different types of cuisines from Asia and elsewhere are being incorporated into Tashkent restaurants. This will in part be due to self-preservation since a monochrome diet of sheep tail fat, as tasty as it is, might get pretty monotonous.
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We love hearing about your adventures even when they are not in New York, but it’s always nice when there’s a dedicated thread for a new trip, even in planning stages, so I hope you start one for Uzbekistan soon if you haven’t already!
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I think there would be pretty limited interest in that, unfortunately.
But I certainly don’t plan to keep posting about it here. I think I’ve about exhausted my NY-Uzbek links.
If anyone is actually interested in someone else’s vacation, I’d be happy to add you as a friend on Facebook where I’m posting about our trip.
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