I always order dosa at the canteen, where do you go for southern indian food in manhattan? I’ve just been to pongal and Saravanaa Bhavan, seems like I should try the cart in washington square park…
Which temple is this?
We were dining on the patio at an Egyptian seafood place, the name of which would be a random guess, the table next to us was an Indian couple. They like the temple but prefer Dosa Hut. We have been to neither.
There are other options in Manhattan, but Adyar Anand Bhavan is where I go when I’m being deliberate.
Saravanaa UWS is the closest option if I’m being lazy, but I really don’t like their sambhar / lentils which is a problem if you’re going specifically to eat idli or dosa as it’s a key accompaniment. Too spicy and sour.
(I’ve been boycotting Pongal for years after they misbehaved with a friend.)
Saw this gosh naan (ie naan stuffed with meat) on insta today and wondered how we missed it @DaveCook et al!
Gotta go back — for those tasty diced noodles too!
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I hadn’t been to New World Mall in over three years, but have now been twice in five days. It’s been a mixed bag:
Visit 1:
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Dapanji (big plate chicken) from my long time usual, stall #28 at the far right corner as you come down the escalator. This had been my favorite rendition in years past, but it was a big let down this time. There was an agreeable bite, and an even more agreeable Sichuan peppercorn tingle, but none of the aromatic complexity (star anise and so forth) I’d come to expect. Worst of all, the potatoes were tough. How do you achieve that? The pricing was interesting. In the past there was just one version. For $12 you got essentially a whole chopped chicken. Now there are sizes. I picked the “small” which gave me roughly half the chicken for $11.50.
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Skewers from stall #8(?). That’s the stall with all kinds of refrigerated skewers on display, but few were good. The lamb was terrific, the chicken and chicken gizzards decent, the pork tough, the squid chewy, and the beef unconscionably gristly. I’ve eaten their food in the past and it was a lot better than this.
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An excellent samsa from stall #5, Tarim Uyghur Food. That was the best bite of that visit.
Visit 2:
Inspired by my first visit, and by the reports above, I went back to NWM today and focused almost exclusively on Tarim:
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The lamb skewers were really, really good – perfectly grilled and tender. They asked if I wanted them spicy. I said yes, and so should you.
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The samsa was great again. (They told me the filling is the same as in the “gosh naan”.)
Things went south after this:
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The big plate/tray chicken had even less complexity than the one at stall #28 (or other competitors), less tingle (although there was an occasional green Sichuan peppercorn here and there).
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The big tray lamb was even blander, and the lamb chewy.
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The biggest letdown was the chopped noodle dish, much praised above. It was undersalted, underflavored and underwhelming. To add to these problems there were large flakes of tasteless dried red pepper that my teeth were unequal to. I grimly chewed and chewed, and eventually spat. I had to do a similar chewathon with the small, dry chunks of lamb that flecked the dish. I recognize others might have gotten better, but this is what I got.
While I waited for my order from Tarim, I wandered around, navigated the always semifunctional, mostly semiclean, always inadequate bathrooms at NWM – ye who food crawl so extensively, have ye no bladders? – and got a container of peanuts from stall# 29.
Now, stalls come and go at NWM, but I think Laoma Malatang aka(#16-17) has been there for a while. I’ve had many a happy hotpot from them in the past (dry), but also fantastically wonderful, wonderfully tingly Sichuan peanuts. The ones at #29 were not even close.
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If you haven’t been in more than three years, then stall 28 has changed hands since your last visit. This had been Zhengzhou Noodles (or Zhengzhou Nourishing Noodles), whose first and most famous location was on the ground floor of the Golden Shopping Mall, all the way at the back and up a few stairs. The English name of the current stall might be Xi’an Cuisines [sic], although Xi’an Small Eats would be a more literal translation of the characters.
Thanks.
The pretty Uyghur gosh naan tasted pretty good too
Shoutout for the Dim Sum Garden takeaway place in the mini food court of formerly followsoshi.
I took a friend on a mini crawl a few weeks ago, and we ended there to pick up frozen dumplings and bbq meats before heading home.
Well, I got home sans the Char Siu pork and ribs I was so excited about, and figured I left them in her car (good eats for someone, at least). But no —she thought they got left at the store, because they sent me further in to put at the cash counter, while the parcel stayed at the meat counter.
A week later, I happened to be back in queens and thought I’d see if they remembered that the food I had paid for got left behind. YUP! With barely a prompt (I left the…) the lady said yes yes! Had the guy cut up exactly what I had paid for, and I left with the forgotten meats (and some more).
Very nice experience.
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That would make me a loyal customer.
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Wow, this is the first time I saw this thread! Id love to do a repeat later in the summer if folks are up to it!
@saregama, are you back in NYC?
I’ll be back a bit later in the summer. I’m always up for a visit - still have to hit the skewer place I missed, and plenty more!
I know right? (I mean I am already, but still)
count me in!
I would go, if the date works (someone oughta change the thread title, to avoid confusion).
Will start a new thread with potential dates when I’m back. Let’s aim for August sometime.
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Okay. Hopefully I’ll be around!
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I had a short Flushing visit before we met in Jackson Heights.
Peking duck sandwich stall — Half peking duck, expertly cut, and artfully arranged in the takeout container (I had planned to get a sandwich to tide me over, but I saw the lady slicing duck and couldn’t resist)
Dim sum garden express — Char siu spare ribs (psa that the takeout dim sum section has moved across the street)
Pho Hoang — Cha gio (ate a couple on the train because I was starving by then, rest for the freezer — why is it so hard to find good cha gio?)
Bakery on Main with the strong coffee and good cake and nice people (Maxin?) — sponge cake (stopped myself from getting coffee because we were meeting at a coffee shop next…)
Meant to hit the bbq cart on 41 and Tarim inside the mall, but I got late getting out there and ran out of time. Next visit.
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