Posted by Adam Kuban, July 10, 2008 at 6:30 PM
7-Eleven is giving out free Slurpees tomorrow in honor of it being "7-11 Day"—July 11. (Find a location near you, but call ahead, as not all are participating.)
People outside New York can stop reading this post now. You all are not Slurpee-challenged. You see, one thing I've noticed is that New Yorkers don't know how to pull a proper Slurpee.
I'm a child of the Kansas City suburbs, where 7-Elevens are at every intersection, so this stuff is second nature to me. But as I went to the 7-Eleven today to make a training video for my clueless New York friends out there, I watched as the guy ahead of me did everything wrong. First, he didn't cap his cup prepour. Then he pulled the dispenser lever slowly, guaranteeing an anemic dribble of syrup instead of a full-on rush of ice-cold Slurpness. No, no, no. I'm sure this comes from the lack of 7-Elevens in the area, but this is no excuse. After the jump, I'll teach you all how to pull a Slurpee, in pictures and video. With a (small) list of participating 7-Elevens in New York.
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Posted by Sarah Wolf, June 19, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Tempted by last month's post about merguez frites, the Moroccan-inspired French street food, my dad and I decided to celebrate Father's Day by trying the authentic item. We followed a glowing review from the New York Times to Little Morocco, a café in Astoria, Queens, where we shared a sandwich merguez au harissa.
This was a Casablanca-style sandwich, as opposed to the french-fry laden version apparently sold in Paris. The soft, crusty petit pain (aka Italian roll) was spread with garlicky harissa and stuffed with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, and a few pieces of sausages. It completely lived up to our expectations—though I'm curious to compare it to merguez frites when I'm in Paris next month.
Little Morocco
2439 Steinway Street, Astoria, NY 11103; (map)
(718) 204-8118
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 5, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Whenever I visit friends near Ditmars Boulevard in Astoria, I make sure to take a side trip to Lupita Grocery, an otherwise nondescript little bodega on 21st Avenue. For less than $4, you can grab a small midday snack or a light lunch in the form of a taco or tamale and a bottle of Mexican Coke.
Lupita offers chicken or pork tacos and chicken, cheese, and pork tamales. The pork here is often a little too fatty for me, but I know that for many of you out there, there's no such thing as pork too fatty, so they might be right up your alley. I generally opt for a chicken taco, which comes loaded with hunks of moist white and (mostly) dark meat and a generous helping of pico de gallo. The taco may look small, but it's a filling snack. Double your order and you'd have a satisfying lunch.
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Posted by Adam Kuban, April 29, 2008 at 6:00 PM
Or, 'Where to Eat in Liberty City'
After much anticipation from millions of gamers, Grand Theft Auto 4 debuted worldwide today. This being Serious Eats, we did some digging around on the game's website for any food- or restaurant-related material inside the game, which takes place in "Liberty City," a metropolis loosely modeled on New York City. Here's what we found.
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Posted by Ed Levine, July 25, 2007 at 9:15 AM
Conspicuously absent from Peter Meehan's perceptive, thoughtful review of the Kabab Cafe was any mention of one of the original chowhounds, Jim Leff, who championed the restaurant's cause to anyone who would listen even before Chowhound existed.
Many years ago, when I was reviewing restaurants for the New York Daily News and Leff was writing for Newsday, I got a call from Jim, who implored me to review Kabab Cafe ASAP because he was worried about its survival. So he and I ended up eating a decent, not great, meal there while he explained to me in great detail why each dish succeeded or failed.
I did end up reviewing the restaurant. Alas, I can't find the clip of my review, and I don't think you can find it online. Reading Meehan's review, all I could think about was this: Does Jim Leff think it's gone downhill? Because it sounds to me that the Kabab Cafe is the same bastion of inconsistency and idiosyncracy it's always been. And in spite of all that, after reading some, not all, of the 400-plus messages on Chowhound about the Kabab Cafe, I have to conclude the restaurant remains a Chowhound favorite to this day.
Kabab Cafe
Address: 25-12 Steinway Street, Astoria NY 11103
Phone: 718-728-9858
Photograph by flooznyc
