Jackson Heights Life

Hi EastsideJH,

In other words, I'm not supposed to say what I think about the state of restaurants in Jackson Heights.

Because unless I'm prepared to be a cheerleader for all of them, or keep my mouth shut, I will lose your business.

I guess I'm going to lose your business.

EastsideJH, a question,

When Jackson Heights residents go out for dinner, lots of them go to Manhattan, Brooklyn, Astoria, Long Island City, etc.

Doing so costs time and, if they take a taxi (even one way), quite a lot of money. Why do you think they do that?

Stew

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Hi EastsideJH,

In other words, I'm not supposed to say what I think about the state of restaurants in Jackson Heights.

Because unless I'm prepared to be a cheerleader for all of them, or keep my mouth shut, I will lose your business.

I guess I'm going to lose your business.

Come to Bayside. We can always appreciate a good resturant here.

Hi EastsideJH,

In other words, I'm not supposed to say what I think about the state of restaurants in Jackson Heights.

Because unless I'm prepared to be a cheerleader for all of them, or keep my mouth shut, I will lose your business.

I guess I'm going to lose your business.

You can do what you want, but clearly its not a smart move to be doing so on a public forum where you are known to be a proprietor of a new restaurant and publicizing it at the same time.

I'm sure here are many people who read this board who aren't registered or don't post that are thinking similarly. Maybe owners of restaurants in this neighborhood who you trashed? Family members of these owners or others who work there?

Your posts are a great case study of what NOT to do when using a message board to discuss the opening of your restaurant.

Hi Sonngodd,

I have no doubt that Jackson Heights East Indian restaurants offer food that is "home style" and that Latin restaurants, including the one owned by your friend's family, are "authentic".

That is the problem.

These restaurants are being run by people who are not trained as chefs and whose food is at least 20 years out of date. There are exciting things going on in East Indian and South American cuisine, none of which is reflected in East Indian and South Anerican restaurants in Jackson Heights.

For example, there is an extremely important Peruvian chef (apart from Nobu) who is having a major influence in Latin Anerica and Europe, but whose influence in Jackson Heights is to this minute non-existent. Latin food in Jackson Heights continues to be starch, cheap meat and/or cheap frozen seafood from Thailand caught by people living in what amount to slavery conditions. But hey, if you want cheap food, that's what it takes.

Cheers

.

The friends restaurant was in bogota, no longer exists, no family members left there to run it
It appears that your take on food is more less like a designer or an artist. However you can have raw talent as a cook and make traditional foods that have been passed from one generation to the next.  It may not be 21st century or artistally exciting, but tasty and nourishing, and an enjoyable experience. 
Or the approach can be a combination.
 I also don't go for food because it's cheap unless it's good and not overly unhealthy

As per your thoughts about sweatshop food, it's very difficult to purchase anything anymore made by slave labor as much as we try to avoid it

This was a double post and should be deleted.

Quote from: Stew on December 22, 2015, 11:13:38 PM

Hi EastsideJH,

On the contrary, you and your friends have just given me an opportunity to say something important about the seafood that is sold by the restaurants in Jackson Heights.

The seafood does not come from the U.S. or Canada. It mostly comes, frozen, from Thailand, and it is well documented that the fishermen who catch it are living in slavery conditions. The principal companies involved in this trade have admitted that there is a "problem" and have undertaken to stop sourcing their seafood from slavery operations.

I think that it is important for all of us to know that the main reason that seafood dishes in Jackson Heighrs are cheap is that the seafood comes from Asia (instead of the island on the ocean where we live) caught by 14 year old boys who are being exploited.

Think about that next time you order your favorite Asian seafood from your favorite Jackson Heights restaurant.

However this practice is probably going on all over, not just jh and even in upscale places

I'm quite sure that not a single high end restaurant in New York is using this product, and I can assure you we won't be. As for Jackson Heights, the restauranteurs don't care, because it's cheap, and their clients don't know.

Tomorrow, I will post a couple of links on what this trade is about.

I will say that of all the restaurants in Jackson Heights, Saw Shack has told me categorically that its seafood is local and that it will not use Thai product.

Here's what I actually said...

Saw Shack is selling good, healthy food. And it caters to both meat eaters and vegetarians.

Arepa Lady, for all the media hype, is selling junk food. It is almost certainly less healthy than McDonalds. It also tastes greasy. Cool if that's what you want.

Every Latin restaurant in Jackson Heights is serving food that is years behind the nationality's modern cuisine.

As far as I know, despite the size of the East Indian population, there isn't a single serious East Indian restaurant in the neighborhood.

Well Stew I have to applaud you for doubling down on your position and including East Indian restaurants in your attack. The problem is there is something about this neighborhood and its restaurants that it seems like you just don't get. I think it bothers you that restaurants here serve traditional dishes and home style cooking. I have no doubt that there is haute-bourgeois cuisine in Bogota or in Lima, that there is a "new Peruvian" cuisine that mirrors "new American". Some of that will be good I expect and some of it will be over-priced and overwrought, if New American is anything to go by. But I doubt that a middle class neighborhood in either city is the place for such restaurants.

Here's what I think happened. You were bothered by a thread in which people named their favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. A thread that was staying positive. Rather than criticize others favorites everyone added their own. I think the thread interfered with your vision of yourself as bringing culinary civilization to a barren wasteland. Some of us don't think we live in a wasteland. If you would position your restaurant as filling a niche, as meeting an unmet need, you would attract many more people than pursuing the path of scorched earth snobbery.