Mini Picanteria El Guayaquileño

While welcoming on the outside, opening up the door of this Elmhurst restaurant is much like opening up the door of an auto repair garage. Metal wainscot decorates the walls, an odd choice of design in a room full of reflective surfaces and bright lights.

A lot people know this name from the truck that permanently parks itself on Roosevelt Avenue a bit to the north, serving up fine Ecuadorian specialties all night long. During the winter though, it makes sense to come down here for a nice warm seat in the restaurant, which also has quite a few more options.

On a cold day like the one I visited, order the morocho ($3), a hot milk and corn drink that is spiced with cinnamon. It is sticky, sweet, and delicious.

Humitas ($3, below) are also made of corn and arrive looking almost exactly like a Mexican tamal, wrapped up in a corn husk. They are much different though with a touch of sweetness, heavy on the corn, with a small dose of cheese as well.

A real must try here is the bolon de chicharron ($3.50, below), a ball of mashed plantain with crispy bits of pork skin. The ball is much more than it appears at first, weighing almost as much as a baseball. It makes for a good excuse to use the little red hot sauce they provide, which packs a serious punch.

An unbelievable deal every day is the sopa del dia ($4, below), which on my visit was the caldo de gallina. It is definitely hard to beat chicken noodle soup no matter what language you are speaking. The chicken in this is super dry, but given in ample portion and wet enough from the broth.

This block of Corona Avenue in Elmhurst is possibly one of the city's best, with strong Argentinean and Peruvian food as well. El Guayaquileño is setting the bar high for its neighbors.

94-54 Corona Avenue, Elmhurst NY

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Cheng Du 23

After driving around for the two days prior to New Years Day, it was only natural that my first meal of 2012 took place in New Jersey on the way home. Lunch on January 1st was hopefully supposed to be special, and a little spicy.

Located in an ugly strip mall in Wayne lives Cheng Du 23, a Chinese restaurant that serves a wide variety of dishes and specializes in the spicy foods of Sichuan province, of which Chengdu is the capital. Three pleasant looking red peppers adorn the exterior next to the sign, a promise of foods within.

While ordering a couple dishes from the specialties menu, we also wanted a simple plate of something green and ordered the mustard greens (below) from the dim sum menu. Crunchy and fresh, they are the perfect complement to the more intense flavors you will face from other dishes.

It was slightly chilly outside and we were both in the mood for some noodle soup, and went for the shredded pork and pickled cabbage soup ($8, below). The noodles here are really great, soft and doughy, and the perfect winter remedy even in a warmer than usual period. It could have stood a bit less salt, but we did not leave any noodles in the bowl, proof that we were not too put off by this.

It is always hard for me to resist ma po tofu ($10, below), which makes for a delicious serving with rice. The version here is great and plentiful, well-spiced, and full of character while not being overly oily as the dish sometimes tends to be.

The restaurant has quite a bit of coverage, and adorns the room with this love they have received, especially an oversized poster of the best 100 Chinese restaurants. I'm not sure who decides on these things, but our fellow diners were many Chinese who must live nearby, so they are definitely doing something right. While this might not be worth a trip from New York City since we have good Sichuan as well, anyone within striking distance that owns a car should make this a regular haunt.

6 Willowbrook Boulevard, Wayne, NJ

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Mie Jakarta

On a recent Thursday afternoon, I went back to Mie Jakarta to find it alive like a weekend. All the tables were full, although right when we walked in someone left and freed up a table for us. The rest of the restaurant was full of Indonesian women in headscarves eating in groups or with their children. The lone server was completely overwhelmed but doing her best.

They were out of the tempting bakso ikan goreng ($5), so we started our table with the always satisfying sate ayam ($6.50, below). The skewers of chicken are swimming in their delicious peanut sauce, while the tender chunks of meat are crispy in spots to create a well-rounded texture palate.

We were in the mood for something of a soup or stew on this chilly day, and agreed immediately on the soto betawi ($8, below), which comes with a plate of items you are free to add. The sharp curry is obviously great to soak up with rice, but the perkedel was probably the favorite from this extra plate. It is a round potato and meat cake, and we could have stood to order another plate of them to enjoy with the curry.

And as often happens in Indonesian restaurants, I could not resist the gado gado ($6.50, below), one of my favorite dishes of any cuisine. This is a good version, with a higher content of potatoes than most, and the same peanut sauce as the sate. Maybe for a better variety of tastes, I would not recommend them together, unless this sauce is the reason for coming in the first place, which would be perfectly understandable!

Along with Java Village a few blocks south of here, you get a better feeling from the Indonesian restaurants of Elmhurst than those of Chinatown. If you don't live in Queens, it's about time you made this trip to see what the cuisine can do for you, it's a guarantee of satisfaction.

86-20 Whitney Avenue, Elmhurst NY

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Geo Si Gi Restaurant

If I suddenly disappear one day, I think it would be wise to look for me in Korea. I have been spending quite a bit of time in the far reaches of Flushing these past couple months, and have not found a bad restaurant yet. I am really loving these specialty places that have a featured casserole dish that is the focus.

The focus here at Geo Si Gi is the gamja tang, described simply on the menu as a "pork loin casserole w/ vegetables," but so much more. The spine of the pig is in pieces in the bowl with delicious tender chunks of meat clinging to it, and the spicy broth contains some greenery, onions, peppers, and ground sesame.

The ladies working here will take care of the whole thing for you, bringing it to boil and then serving it into smaller dishes. The casserole above is technically for two people ($29.95), but could easily serve three as you get as much rice as you want and of course the small dishes of ban chan beforehand.

A piece of the meaty spine.

As you remove the meat from the bones, pile your evidence in the metal bowl provided for discard. As you continue your meal and everyone keeps adding, it becomes a good record and could be really impressive with a large table full of diners.

Just when we were already overwhelmed by the amount of food in front of us, they brought us a free steamed egg, something of a normality in Korean restaurants. It is always fluffy and enjoyable though, and was well received (and eaten).

Gamja tang can come in many varieties here, plain, with dried cabbage, pickled nappa cabbage, curry, and seafood. There is also a full list of add-ons on the wall written only in Korean, which we tried to get described to us, somewhat unfruitfully.

It all goes down well with plenty of bottles of OB Korean beer, as spicy food tends to do, so keep those coming as you gnaw on that spine.

152-28 Northern Boulevard, Flushing NY

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Bari Pork Store

There are not many greater experiences in the food world than walking into an old-fashioned salumeria. While Bensonhurst is a neighborhood that has been rapidly changing, Bari Pork Store has obviously made no concessions to any new residents and remains exactly as it must have been two or three decades ago.

The self-anointed "King of the Sausage" is even missing the letter I from its sign, something that I would wager happened in the 1970's. If the door is open you can smell the fresh meats outside, but walking in reveals a world where every square inch is taken by product of some form. It's really an amazing overload of your senses, with hanging meats, hot prepared foods, dry goods, and every other imported product a good Italian-American might need.

If you half know what you want, the guys here will treat you nicely and with professionalism, but do be warned that they are not the type of people that have time for the inquisitive wanderers. That being said, you can take a self-guided tour of the tiny shop easily enough.

I selected a small container of olives from a tray of six or so. All varieties are $5.99/lb, and the small container runs $3, rounded off for your convenience. I also could not resist the tray of arancini (75 cents, below), which I was warned were vegetarian. No matter, I took four and asked for them heated up.

While I do prefer the arancini with ground beef and tomato sauce, these were good, a creamy mix of rice and cheese on the inside. The outer layer is thin and delicate, fried to perfection.

They also make a range of deli sandwiches which are probably great, as they almost always are in a salumeria. The meats and cheeses have no choice but to be fresh, and the guys know exactly what they are doing with oil and vinegar proportions.

6319 18th Avenue, Brooklyn NY

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158 Avenue U, Brooklyn NY

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