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Author Topic: JH Not Place for Indian Food?  (Read 1862 times)

Offline BennyB

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JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« on: February 22, 2017, 06:51:01 PM »
NY Times reviewed a Manhattan Indian restaurant and started it with this:

"Anybody who tries to tell you that the place to go for Indian food is Jackson Heights, Queens, hasn’t been there in a long time. Beyond question, Jackson Heights is the first stop for anyone seeking an education in the Tibetan syllabus: momos filled with brothy beef under their bellybutton pleats; laphing, noodles neatly rolled and sliced like strudel and set loose in a puddle of chile oil; steaming, salty, bracing cups of yak butter tea. Most of the neighborhood’s places for samosas and naan, though, either are gone or have faded into insignificance.

You less often meet somebody who sends you to Curry Hill for the cooking of India. But it’s the correct answer."

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/21/dining/sahib-review-indian-restaurant-nyc.html
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Offline cultartist

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #1 on: February 22, 2017, 09:10:04 PM »
Kinda crazy--why IS the Indian food here so subpar?  Who knows?  But I actually did take Pete Wells (the writer of this article) out for a triple play of Lhasa Fast Food, Phayul and Himalayan Yak one night last year.  Six hours of local Himalayan food.  He hadn't been to any of them before and had a great time--six hours of eating pretty full meals at 3 places--and loved the food.  Nice to see that show up in this piece. 
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Offline jeanette

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2017, 02:01:09 AM »
Quote from: cultartist on February 22, 2017, 09:10:04 PM
--six hours of eating pretty full meals at 3 places--

ugkh
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Offline MrPlaza

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2017, 09:18:10 AM »
Interesante. Surely there is still good Indian food to be had, though, right!?
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Offline mgrave22

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #4 on: February 23, 2017, 09:27:37 AM »
Everything I've eaten from Samudra has been delicious.
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Offline Dodger

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #5 on: February 23, 2017, 12:50:49 PM »
Quote from: cultartist on February 22, 2017, 09:10:04 PM
Kinda crazy--why IS the Indian food here so subpar?  Who knows?  But I actually did take Pete Wells (the writer of this article) out for a triple play of Lhasa Fast Food, Phayul and Himalayan Yak one night last year.  Six hours of local Himalayan food.  He hadn't been to any of them before and had a great time--six hours of eating pretty full meals at 3 places--and loved the food.  Nice to see that show up in this piece.

Cultartist--how awesome that you could take Pete Wells on a food tour of our neighborhood. I think his writing is great (though sometimes he is a little too enamored with bougie trends). Hope he'll pay more attention to Queens!
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Offline BennyB

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #6 on: February 23, 2017, 01:55:19 PM »
I think for for the most part the restaurants that do not serve northern-Indian food are pretty good. Southern Indian like Samudra, Pakistani like Kabab King, etc... Restaurant wise, 74th Street is kind of the Indian equivalent of Little Italy except maybe not as over priced. Al Naimat is pretty good also. Not sure if it is Pakistani, Indian or what...

Here's a question: Does Jackson Heights have the most Indian restaurants concentrated in one area in NYC? More than Curry Hill? If you include Pakistani restaurants, there has got to be at least 20 right? He said they are "gone or have faded into insignificance." They may be insignificant but they are not gone  ;D
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Offline JA

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Re: JH Not Place for Indian Food?
« Reply #7 on: February 23, 2017, 06:09:40 PM »
Most of the original Indian population left a long time ago. A few weeks ago I had a Lyft driver, gujarati guy who lived on 73th since 1977. He said that even then, very few Punjabis/Gujaratis actually lived where they worked. Nowadays it appears to be mostly Bangladeshi or South Indians in the area.

Samudra has a special place in my heart as does Raja Fast Food. Both places are great but not necessarily exquisite. Indian Taj is par but gives generous portions for take-out and is still better than 90% of what you'll find across the country. The best Indian restaurants in NYC in my opinion are in Curry Hill and in Eastern Queens (Dosa Hutt and Punjabi Express in Jamaica come to mind).

Still great to have Patel Bros in the neighborhood and the Apna Bazaar. I feel no reason to complain, especially given the recent boom in Thai/Malay restaurants. New, equally exciting flavors have replaced the old.
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