PULL MY NOODLES

MARCI
In honor of Chinese New Year, Jeremy and I thought it was fitting to head to Chinatown.  We decided to do something a little different this time around.  We did a Lanzhou hand-pulled noodle soup crawl.  Four restaurants, four bowls of soup, four types of dumplings.

Although hand-pulled noodles are a specialty of Lanzhou, most of the restaurants and noodle pullers are from the Fujian province.   Who would have thought?  To help with the geography, that's sort of like saying someone from Maine specializes in Cajun cuisine.

Our first stop was the Lam Zhou Hand Made Noodle and Dumpling shop on East Broadway.

JEREMY
The first restaurant was a bit of a dive.  There were only a few tables and a counter.  Near the kitchen, a waitress was making dumplings.  We were the only ones in the restaurant.  We heard that the beef brisket soup noodle was good so we ordered that plus a serving of fried dumplings.

The cook came out, took a slab of dough and started stretching the dough.  He kept stretching and beating the dough on a marble counter.  Somehow he stretched them into fine noodles.  A couple of minutes later, our soup arrived.

The soup was really good.  The meat was okay but the broth and noodles were very tasty.  Shortly after, the pan-fried dumplings arrived.  The dumplings were the best I ever had.  They had a nice crisp outershell with a juicy meat inside.  The dumpling sauce was really good.  Lam Zhou Noodle Shop was my favorite of all the restaurants we ate at.

MARCI
I would agree this noodle shop was my favorite.  What it lacked in atmosphere (as in none), it made up for in flavorful soup, delicious dumplings and bargain prices.  Our total bill for a big bowl of soup and dumplings came to $7.50.

Lam Zhou Handmade Noodle
144 East Broadway
212 566 6933
NYC

a thumbs up from Jeremy is 4 out of 5 stars


JEREMY
Since we had three other restaurants to visit, we took our noodles and dumplings to go and headed to the next place, Super Taste.  This was my second favorite place.  This time we ordered the hand-pulled  noodles in a hot and spicy soup.  The soup was good but the noodles and beef were not as good as the first place.  The steamed dumplings were good but I prefer them fried.

MARCI

I actually preferred the broth at Super Taste because of its spice.  Noodles were made in the kitchen so there wan't as much as a show.  The meat was pretty tough.   Dumplings were good.   Everything was served in plastic -- convenient because we only ate a little and took the rest to go.   Ever so slightly nicer in atmosphere, I definitely would recommend this place.

Super Taste Restaurant

26 N. Eldridge Street

212 625-1198

a diagonal thumbs up from Jeremy is  3 out of 5 stars

The third place we visited was the least known of the bunch.  It seems each place we visited was a little more upscale than the next.  This one was called Kuai Le.

JEREMY

The waiter here was the friendliest of all.  We decided to try a different soup: the House Special Hand Pull Noodle which consisted of noodles, broth, duck, tripe, beef with a fried egg of top.  The soup wasn't that great but it was the first time I ever had tripe (beef stomach lining).  Tripe tasted like a new bicycle tire.  My mom wouldn't try it.  The fried egg on top was tasty.  Then we ordered the steamed little juice buns which we thought were going to taste like soup dumplings but it was just little doughy buns.

MARCI

No way would I try the tripe! And even though I am sure the soup was simply beef broth, somehow the knowledge that there was tripe in the soup made me think otherwise.  The little juice buns were not what we thought they would be but there were tasty.  

Kuai Le

28 Forsyth Street

212 941 7678

a sideways thumb by Jeremy is 2 out of 5 stars

By the time we got to our final restaurant, Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodle, we were a little full and a little tired of eating noodles but, itinerant bloggers that we are, we persevered.  Tasty is probably the best known and most written about of all the noodle places we visited.

JEREMY

I really didn't like Tasty.  The place was very crowded and they put us at a table next to the bathroom.  We ordered something different here too, which was probably a mistake. But we wanted to try the seafood noodle soup.   It was filled with shrimp, fish ball, squid and mussels.  The soup arrived with a big stick of fake crab and two fish balls.  It tasted weird.  The steamed chicken and vegetables dumplings weren't that good either.  I couldn't wait to leave.

MARCI

The biggest of all the restaurants we visited, Tasty had the most extensive menu.  Perhaps we should have stuck to the beef soup; the seafood soup was very okay.  The dumplings were actually quite tasty.  It also was the most expensive of the restaurants we ate at, although still an affordable $12.00 for lunch.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodle

One Doyers Street

212 791 1817

a sideways thumb by Jeremy is two out of five stars.

Armed with eight take out containers of soup and dumplings, we decided to make one last stop.

JEREMY

We weren't very hungry for dessert so we decided to take things to go from the New Golden Fung Wong Bakery.  We ordered a traditional Chinese New Year bean paste dough ball with sesame seeds, a Chinese version of a rice krispie treat, a sesame cookie, some sort of chocolate walnut cookie and an almond cookie.  We got home and sampled each.  The dough ball was kind of gross.  My favorite was the sesame cookie but the almond cookie and chocolate walnut cookies were pretty good too.

MARCI

Definitely the sesame cookie was the winner but the almond cookie reminded me of Sunday nights at China Jade where I grew up.

New Gold Fung Wong Bakery

41 Mott Street

212 267-4037

a sideways thumbs up by Jeremy is 2 out of 5 stars

Would we do another food crawl?  I say yes, Jeremy says no.  He prefers to sit at one restaurant and sample lots of different things.  Regardless, it was a fun-filled afternoon and we had plenty of left overs to serve Jon and guest blogger, Max.

HUNGRY FOR HUNGARIAN

What better on a cold winter night than a hot, hearty dinner! With that in mind, one frosty night in January after Jeremy's touch football game, we decided to sample the culinary treasures of his ancestors and head for Hungarian food.   Years ago, there would have been dozens of restaurants to choose from however today there are just a handful of true Hungarian restaurants in the NYC area.  According to my good Hungarian friend, Katalin, the best of them all is Andre's Cafe.

Jeremy is 1/4 Hungarian  His grandfather's family all came over from Hungary at the turn of the century.  So needless to say, we felt a certain affinity for the cuisine and the restaurant.  Decorated simply with a few seats the restaurant lacks charm but makes up for it in flavor.  

We took the advise from Katalin on what to order:  cabbage strudel, layered potatoes, stuffed cabbage and of course, sweet strudels for dessert.

JEREMY
The restaurant looked like the Motherland -- it had a lot of Hungarian souvenirs on the wall.  The place was definitely rustic but the food was good.  We started with a cabbage strudel.  It was a savory strudel but a little sweet.  The dough was very flaky.  After the strudel, we ordered three main courses.  The Layered Potatoes, Rakott Krumpli, filled with potatoes, eggs and sausage tasted more like a hot potato salad.   It was a little bland.  I personally didn't like the Stuffed Cabbage but we also ordered Chicken Paparikash which came with nokedli (spaetzle).  I really liked this dish.  It had a good sauce and went well with the nokedli.  Even though we ordered a ton of food, we left half of it over so we could have room for dessert.

MARCI

The Cabbage Strudel was indeed a highlight of the meal and tasted even better with sour cream. The Layered Potatoes tasted like the inside of an omelette -- it needed salt.  I'm not a fan of pork but the Stuffed Cabbage was very tasty -- not too tomatoey and not too heavy.  The Chicken Paprikash was a little dry to me but as you can see from above Jeremy seemed to really like it.  We needed to digest our food a little bit before dessert so we picked out some tasty treats from the bakery and headed home.

JEREMY

We brought home Apple, Poppy and Cheese Strudels plus a slice of Dobos Torte, a chocolate layer cake with caramel.  The apple was the best of the strudels but my favorite dessert was the Dobos Torte.  It was a delicious chocolate cake with a hard crust of caramel on top.

I definitely would go back to Andre's Cafe, mostly because it's near my school. 

MARCI

The Apple Strudel was definitely a winner.  The dough was very flaky, the apples were not too soft or too sweet.  The Cheese and Poppy Strudels were also tasty but you could really only have a spoonful at a time.  The Dobos Torte was a little too sweet for me.  Hungarian food is a little too heavy for me but I wouldn't mind heading to Andre's Cafe for a slice of strudel and coffee after a PTA meeting!

ANDRE'S CAFE
1631 Second Avenue
New York, NY  10028
www.andrescafeny.com

a diagonal thumbs up, according to Jeremy, is a 2.75 out of 4

A FAN OF AFGHAN

Saying he wanted to taste the local food our troops may be eating, Jeremy and I ventured to New York's "Little Afghanistan," located in  Flushing.  In tow with us was Jeremy's buddy and guest blogger, Max.

A little restaurant winning rave reviews is Kabul Kebab House on Main Street.   We had hoped there would be low tables and rugs but this place was spartan and spotless.  The only nod to Afghanistan were little squares of rug under glass tabletops and several arched doorways.  The focus of the restaurant is its glassed in kebab kitchen which is on view from the street.  Given Afghanistan's geographic location, I thought the food would be similar to Indian cuisine.  But, what we ate, was closer to Middle Eastern in flavor.

Jeremy
The restaurant was much nicer than I expected.  My mom ordered a combination platter than included three appetizers:  Kashk Badengan (eggplant dip), Badenjan Buranee (fried eggplant) and Sambosa  (a meat dumpling).   I really liked  the Sambosas; they sort of tasted like tacos.  The eggplant dip was amazing.  It was the first time I ever liked anything made of eggplant.  We also had the Salad Shirazi filled with cucumbers, tomatoes, mint, onion and feta cheese.  It was tasty.  We then ordered a special drink from Afghanistan called Dhoog, a salty yoghurt soda with mint.  It tasted like baking soda with milk and ground Mentos.

Max
I liked everything except for the fried eggplant.  I really hated the Dhoogh.  It tasted like carbonated yogurt.

Marci
The eggplant dip was indeed excellent --kind of a Baba Ganoosh with tomatoes.  The Sambosas had a delicate pastry dough--  much lighter than an Indian Samosa. As for Doogh, it is definitely an acquired taste.  It reminded me of me Total yoghurt with a spritz and some mint. -- not bad, but is it anything you'd ever think to make?

Jeremy
For entrees we ordered three kebabs:  Cornish Hen (Jojeh Kebab), Lamb, (Tikka Kebab) and Ground Beef (Kabab Kobideh).    It was served on an enormous platter with brown and white basmati rice, raw onions and grilled tomatoes.   The kebabs were really good.   I even liked the rice which I normally don't like.

Max
I also liked the lamb kebabs.  I really didn't like the ground beef.  It tasted a little weird.  I liked to mix the lamb with the raw onions and rice.

Marci
My favorite was the cornish hen kebab: very moist and absolutely delicious.

Jeremy
For dessert we had Bakhlava and also home made rosewater ice cream with pistachio nuts.  The bakhlava was okay; the ice cream didn't taste like much.  I would definitely go back to Kabul Kebab.  The food was really tasty.  I would try Afghani food again.

Max
I liked the ice cream because it was icey.  It was the first time I had bakhlava.  It was good but very sweet.  I really like kebabs so I would definitely go back to Kabul Kebab.

Marci
Me too.  The food was fresh, delicious and well-priced.  We definitely will eat Afghani food again.  Let's see if the next one we try will be as good as Kabul Kebab!

KABUL KEBAB HOUSE
42-51 Main Street
Flushing, NY
(718) 461-1919

a thumbs up, according to Jeremy, is 3.5 out of 4 stars

WE HAVE RETURNED

Call it middle school transition., call it plain old laziness.  Whatever it was, Jeremy and I are back blogging after a four month hiatus.

Not that we haven't been eating out.  We actually visited two restaurants in August and September and planned to blog about them but then school started and all the extra work of sixth grade and life, in general, seemed to preoccupy us.  In addition, to our local spots, we're also happy to report (well, at least, I am) that Eataly has opened in our neighborhood. While we haven't been able to eat at its restaurants, it's amazing roasted chicken -- among the best I've ever eaten -- has become part of our regular dinner repetoire.

MUCHO BUENO,  TORTILLERIA NIXTAMAL

MARCI
Jeremy is a huge a huge taco fan.  So, for his birthday in August, the whole family journeyed to Corona, Queens to Tortilleria Nixtamal, a small family run business where they make their own tortillas from actual corn.  Sounded interesting.  Their website also says they use natural corn oil instead of lard and buy local produce, meat from the local butcher and even fish from Whole Foods.

Tortilleria Nixtamal has only about a half dozen tables.  It reminded us of many of the local spots we ate at while on vacation in Mexico last spring -- only much cleaner.  A friendly waitress came by and we proceeded to order almost everything on the small menu.

JEREMY
I don't remember much about the restaurant except that I ate a lot of food and enjoyed it.  What I liked best was the pork tamales.   The guacamole was also pretty good and the tacos were good but the meat was a little fatty.    The food was very authentic.  It didn't taste like my favorite, Chipolte, but then again, that's more Tex-Mex than real Mexican.  Would I go back to Tortilleria Nixtamal?  I would if it was within a 20 block radius of my house.  Since it's not, I probably won't.

MARCI
The tamales were tasty.  My favorite was the Rajas tamale which had tomatoes, chile and cheese.  We tasted plenty of homemade corn products from the posole in the soup to the tamales to the chips for the guacamole and the tacos.  While everything was very fresh, I honestly don't know that I could tell the difference between the tortillas here or at some of our other favorite Mexican restaurants.

As Jeremy stated, the food is definitely authentic.  The good news is the Tortilleria is starting to supply other taco shops and Mexican restaurants in the city. I'll have to take Jeremy to the taco shop just south of Union Square which is now using their products.

Tortilleria Nixtamal
104-05 47th Avenue (between 104th and 108th Streets)
Corona, NY

http://www.tortillerianixtamal.com

a diagonal thumbs up, according to Jeremy, is 3 out of 4 stars


FINGER LICKIN' GOOD

MARCI
We were very excited to hear that Hill Country, the Texas BBQ place near our house, was opening up a restaurant devoted only to fried chicken.  We never got to go to Piece of Chicken, the Hells Kitchen chicken ship which closed late summer.   So on its opening weekend, Jeremy and I made an early visit to Hill Country Kitchen.

The restaurant looks like an old fashioned kitchen with vintage wallpaper, chrome tables and chairs.  It's cafeteria-style so you line up to pick your chicken.  As usual, Jeremy and I ordered far more than we could eat...

JEREMY

There are two choices for fried chicken:  Hill Country Classic (with skin) and Mama El's, a skinless fried chicken.  I liked the Mama El's chicken because it had extra crunchies.  The chicken tenders were also really good.  My favorite side were the cole slaw and the french fries.  I didn't like the carrot and raisin slaw; it was nasty.  The restaurant also serves mini pies small enough for one person to eat.  We tried a bunch:  double cherry, cowboy and banana cream.  My favorite was the cowboy pie.  It had caramel, chocolate chips and some sort of cookie crunch.  They also serve a pie shake which sounds really interesting but we didn't order.   I definitely would go back to Hill Country.  It's near my house and the chicken is really good.

MARCI
I'm with Jeremy:  great skinless fried chicken and chicken tenders, terrific cole slaw.   Not only is it close to our house, it's close to my office and sometimes after a particularly crazy morning, we need comfort and cholesterol.  We're happy it's in the neighborhood but it's one of those foods you can't really eat on a regular basis.

Hill Country Kitchen
1123 Broadway (25th Street)
http://www.hillcountrychicken.com

a thumbs up, according to Jeremy is 3.5 out of 4 stars

GOOD MEAL, MATE

MARCI

Jeremy and I have already eaten at restaurants representing different cuisines from five of the seven continents.  So, it was time for us to sample the culinary skills Down Under:   we headed to a cute little spot in Nolita called Eight Mile Creek.  

There are about 13 restaurants in the city that serve Australian-style food however Eight Mile Creek seemed to have the most versatile menu -- offering both savory traditional dishes and modern fare.  I called in advance to see if they were serving kangaroo but apparently it is not a politically correct dish these days.  No marsupials on the menu!   That being said emu carpaccio was, so we booked a reservation.  Guess no one cares about a big bird.

Greeted by some of the friendliest staff we've come across, Jeremy and I felt at home the minute we heard the words, "Good Evening, Mates."

JEREMY

I thought Australian food was going to be a lot like English food because the English sent their prisoners to settle in Australia back during colonial times.  But in reality it's more like American food.  In fact, this was my favorite restaurant that my mom and I have eaten at.

My mom ordered Cooper's Sparkling Ale.  I had a little sip and it was good.  Me, I ordered a Coke.  For appetizers, we ordered emu carpaccio with rocket (arugula), black truffle oil vinaigrette and edamame.  I never had emu before or carpaccio.  But I figured if emu was a favorite food of the Aborigines, I might like it too.  I couldn't figure out the taste but then I realized it reminded me of roast beef.  I would eat it again if it was served to me but probably wouldn't order it again.

We tried the "Mini Me" Pastry Plate, a savory dish of mini meat pies, sausage rolls and veggie pasties.  Meat pies and sausage rolls are fast food items in Australia but they're far from junk food.  The meat pie was a flaky pastry dough with ground beef and the perfect amount of gravy.  The sausage roll was better than a pig in a blanket and the veggie pasty, well, not as good.  This was my favorite dish. Next time, I want to order the full size meat pie: no minis for me.  My mom told me there's a place on St. Marks Place called Tuck Shop that serves Australian Pies.  I definitely want to go there.

Then I had an Australian Lamb Rack -- three small lamb chops served with mashed potatoes.  It tasted like  any good lamb chop from America to me.  My mom ordered Barramundi, an Australian cod.  She said it was delicious.  I didn't like it much but then again, I don't like most fish.

For dessert we had Triple Chocolate Cake and a famous Australian dessert called a Lamington.  Lamington is yellow cake dipped in chocolate and coconut with jam in between the layers.  Both desserts were pretty good.

Would I go back to Eight Mile Creek?  Definitely.  Next time, I want to take my dad.

MARCI

I hadn't really given much thought as to what authentic Australian food would taste like.  Somehow I pictured a lot of grilling on the barbie.  Like Jeremy I was pleasantly surprised to have such a nice meal.  I must agree that the meat pie was really outstanding.  It was the perfect balance of meat to pastry to gravy.  The lamington desert was also quite tasty. For sure, I'd recommend Eight Mile Creek:  a fun little spot with good food and friendly people.

EIGHT MILE CREEK
240 Mulberry Street
New York, NY  10012
www.eightmilecreek.com

a thumbs up, according to Jeremy is 3.5 out of 4 stars

BBQ IN KOREATOWN

MARCI
Last Saturday, Jeremy and I started smelling something good outside our window.  Indeed, a strange occurrence in Manhattan but it was the aroma from portable barbecue pits preparing for the annual Big Apple Barbecue Block Party.

We talked briefly about partaking in the weekend long event at Madison Square Park -- where 18 pitmasters from around the country served their savory bbq -- but we had a new continent to visit:  Asia.  Maybe it was the smell of smoking meats  that made Jeremy think of Korean barbecue.  Whatever the reason, we headed to the northern end of Koreatown for dinner at MADANGSUI.

JEREMY
We decided to have an early dinner and when we got to the restaurant at 5pm, there was practically no one there.  In the middle of the table, there was a grill and above us was a vent to suck out any smoke.

They first served us banchan, little side dishes that included kimchi which is smelly pickled cabbage, pickled radish, plain radish, seaweed, some potato salad like dish, some sauces and a bean paste.

To start, we ordered hae-mool-pa-jun which was like a scallion pancake with seafood.  There was too much seafood in it but it was tasty.  We also had a salad with ginger dressing which was good.   My mom ordered some sort of kimchi-tofu soup which looked nasty.  It was so hot that the waitress cracked an egg in the bowl and it cooked itself.  Even though I didn't want to taste it, I did.  But it wasn't for me.  My mom really liked it because it had tofu.

We also had bimibop which is rice with zucchini and ground beef in a spicy sauce.  This was pretty good but we left a lot over to make room for the barbecue.

  

Then the waitress came back and she turned on the grill.  After it warmed up, they brought out the raw marinated bul-go-gi and cooked it.  With the meat came large pieces of lettuce.  You take the meat, put it on the lettuce and then put on some of the banchan,  wrap it up and eat it.  It tasted sweet and tangy.   I asked my mom if there was any other barbecue dish that were popular.  She said galbi which is boneless shortribs. So we decided to order this, too.  I think the waitress thought it was weird that we were ordering so much food because she was talking to another waitress and pointing to our table.  But she brought it anyway.  After the ribs were cooked she cut them with a scissor.  The ribs tasted like the bul-go-gi but fattier.  We had a couple of bites and then took it home for my dad.

We were too full to eat at the restaurant so decided to have dessert somewhere else in Koreatown.

MARCI
We went to the restaurant early because they say it gets pretty crowded and we hadn't made a reservation.  As Jeremy mentioned, the restaurant was empty.  He was very curious about the grill in the middle of our table and thought we'd be doing our own cooking but quickly learned that that's the wait staff's job.

The seafood pancake was a bit greasy, but enormous and tasty.  The kimchi tofu soup reminded me of a more flavorful version of egg drop soup.  The bimipop was really tasty but I've had it before where the clay pot makes the rice crusty giving the dish a more interesting texture.  Then came the bul-go-gi.  The marinated meat was delicious especially after adding some of the banchan and eating it with the lettuce wrap.  As Jeremy pointed out, we decided to go for one more dish and ordered the boneless short ribs, a Korean specialty.  The meat was a little fatty but it was very tasty.  We left the restaurant with half of everything to bring home.  We then walked to 32nd Street, the heart of Koreatown.

JEREMY

We went to two places for dessert.  First was some Korean cafe where we ordered gombo and a tapioca ball.  Both were pretty nasty.  So we went to KORYODONG, the big pastry shop and I ordered a red bean paste ball and a melon ice pop.  They were also pretty gross.

MARCI
I can't disagree.  Dessert was not a highlight.

JEREMY
I really liked the meat at Madangsui but that was about it.  Would I go back for Korean bbq.  Probably, but it wouldn't be my first choice.  And definitely no dessert!

MADANGSUI
35 West 35th Street New York, NY 10001
www.madangsui.com

a sideways thumb, according to Jeremy, is 2:4 stars

VAMOS A LA PEQUENA COLOMBIA

MARCI

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Jeremy, guest blogger Max (Jeremy's buddy) and I headed to Jackson Heights, Queens to taste the savory cuisine of Colombia.

We got off the subway at 74th and Roosevelt, the heart of Little Colombia. Most of the signs were in Spanish -- taco stands dotted the street as well as other restaurants from South American countries like Ecuador and Peru.  On one side street, a festive fair was underway.

It was fun to watch the boys out of their environment.  They were a little unnerved at first because of all the stories they heard about Colombia.  But they quickly realized that the drug lords were far from Queens.  We arrived at La Pequena Colombia, the oldest Colombian restaurant in Jackson Heights.  I was expecting it to look more like a coffee shop but it was almost fancy.  The waitress helped guide us through the menu to make some selections of famous Colombian dishes.

JEREMY

The restaurant was really big.  We were the only non-Colombians there.  We ordered a bunch of appetizers and Colombian sodas.  First came the drinks:   Manzana and Colombiana.  The Colombiana tasted like cream soda and Manzana, an apple soda, tasted like cotton candy.  Then the appetizers came:   Chicarron, the fried pork rind was pretty good.  It was crunchy and tough at the same time.  Then came the Arepa Con Queso.  It looked like a pizza but was made with cornmeal topped with cheese.  It also tasted like pizza, so it was good.  We also has Tostones, fried green plantains that tasted like banana chips.

MAX
I expected the restaurant to be less nice than it was. It was actually nice on the inside.  I liked the Manzana soda; it tasted like candy apples.  I thought the Arepa was good because it tasted like pita bread with cheese on top.  I disliked the sausage because it looked and tasted weird.  I liked the Plantains because they were slightly sweet and they came with an onion salsa.

JEREMY
The first main course to arrive was the Plato Motanero de Carne Asada, a large platter with rice beans, eggs, chorizo, sweet plantains, skirt steak and avocado.  The dish was so big, they had to put it on two plates.  I liked the eggs, the rice and the steak.  We also ordered Pork Tamal.  The tamale was also really big but it did not taste good.  My mom ordered Sancocho de Gallina. It was a bowl of chicken soup with a plate of rice, beans and a chicken leg.  The soup tasted like taco sauce.  The Fried Cassava, a side dish, tasted like french fries.  The food wasn't really that spicy, which is too bad because I like spicy food.


MAX


I liked everything on the Mountain Plate except for the beans and the sausage.  The steak was really think and tasty.  The tamale smelled pretty badly because it was wrapped in banana leaves and steamed.  I tasted it but didn't like it.  I liked Marci's soup because it tasted like tacos.  The fried cassava tasted like sweet french fries and were yummy.


MARCI


The portions at La Pequena were anything but pequena.  In fact, we brought home enough to feed a small family.   The only thing that was small at the restaurant was the check, a rare occurrence in NYC.   I agree with the boys:  my favorite appetizer was the Arepa.  The Sancocho, a typical Colombian meal, was actually quite delicious.  It was a bowl of a hearty chicken soup filled with cassava and green plaintains.  Once again too full to have a dessert, we decided to talk a walk and sample some of the baked goodies in Little Colombia.


JEREMY
First, we stopped by a little bakery and my mom ordered us a Bunelo.  It was a fried dough ball about the size of a size of a baseball.  It wasn't greasy at all and it wasn't as a sweet as a doughnut.


MAX
I thought the Bunelo was really good and big.  It tasted really yummy.


JEREMY
We went to a second bakery and bought more arepas.  One was sweet corn and we also bought some arepas con queso for later in the week.  The sweet corn arepa tasted like corn bread.


MAX
I agree.


JEREMY
Going to Pequena Colombia was a good experience with nice food.  If the restaurant was closer, I would definitely go back.


MAX
Going to Queens made me feel like I was in Mexico.  I wouldn't go back because I didn't like the food.

LA PEQUENA COLOMBIA
83-27 Roosevelt Avenue
Jackson Heights, NY 11372
(718) 478-8700
www.pequenacolombia.com

a thumbs up according to Jeremy is 4:5 stars