Shan Xi Snack

CHINA 🇨🇳
(SHAANXI)

COVID-19 UPDATE: Both locations are currently takeout only. Online orders can be placed directly through the restaurant's website. Please note that many of the “special snack cold dish” items (cucumber, black fungus, etc) may not be available.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Written by Joseph Gessert, photographed by Liv Dillon.

Shanxi and Shaanxi are neighboring provinces in northeast China. Despite its name, Shan Xi Snack features menu items more commonly associated with Shaanxi, whose capital Xi’an has inspired the Chinese regional cooking chain Xi’An Famous Foods as well as dozens of other NYC stalls and restaurants offering variations on the cumin lamb burger.

 

A bit past the southernmost end of Sunset Park’s Chinatown, Shan Xi Snack’s cumin lamb crispy burger ($5.75, below) is genuinely different. Their version has a crispier, lighter bread, dollop of sweet mayonnaise, and a scattering of fresh vegetables dressing the chunks of cumin lamb. It marries the Xi’an burger with American fast food sensibilities, and is joined on the menu by a black pepper beef, a more traditional pork, and a handful of other burger variations including a vegetarian option.

 

 

A menu section is dedicated to various incarnations of tri-color cold skin noodles. Liang pi with spicy house special sauce ($6.75, below) is served room temperature, as is common with these noodles, mixed with cucumber, bean sprouts and chunks of gluten.

 

Stir-fried liang pi with beef ($7.75) is warm, with the vibrant colors lost a little in the stir-fry but the noodles’ texture holding up admirably. Judging by that texture, Shan Xi’s liang pi are likely wheat-based, rather than rice.

 

Hidden in the appetizer section of the menu, a very respectable hot and sour rice noodle soup (below) will set you back only $6.95. This is not the Chinese American soup of that name, but a tangier corn starch-free, altogether different dish that is commonly found in China.

 

It is often listed on English menus as spicy and sour. The noodles taste more like yam or potato starch than rice, and are delicious regardless of starchy origin. They are topped with baby bok choy, peanuts, strips of seaweed, and much more.

 

The surprise hit of two meals was crispy burger in lamb soup ($9.95, below), with chopped up flatbread, glass noodles, and chunks of lamb meat dunked in a rich and spicy lamb broth. The dish is a beautiful showing of Muslim influences in Chinese cooking. A mysterious plastic container of black garlic was added to the hearty soup and provided a perfect note of funk and acid.

Pumpkin pancakes ($2.95) are mild but very beautiful, with the pumpkin flavor subtle in a puck of glutinous rice. Plum juice is a bargain at $2, with the smoked preserved plums flavoring an increasingly-common favorite at modern NYC Chinese restaurants. And though Belgian biscuit milk tea ($5.75) comes out looking like black sugar milk tea, it’s actually full of crumbled cocoa cookies, in addition to boba, and the black sugar is chocolate syrup. The chocolate and crunchy cookie bits are yet another twist in a menu full of surprising textures and flavors.

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DYKER HEIGHTS Brooklyn

7002 Fort Hamilton Parkway

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Santorini Restaurant & Café

EGYPT 🇪🇬

[COVID-19 UPDATE: With outdoor dining now legal, Santorini has set up quite a few tables. In addition, takeout and delivery are available as always.]

While the website of Santorini proclaims they have been "making delicious Mediterranean food since 1990" and is directly followed by some Lorem Ipsum text, it was only sometime after the summer of 2019 that they took over the space from a nondescript bakery named Mon Gateau. Hardly any work took place outside besides swapping out the name, and a new casual Egyptian café was born.

The casual passerby might be led to believe this is a new Greek restaurant given its reference to one of the most famous islands on the planet, but a closer look reveals an Egyptian fascination with that island rather than the island itself. In Egypt you can actually find a beach on the coast west of Alexandria named "Santorini Greek Beach," outfitted with blue umbrellas to simulate the tops of houses.

Regardless of any confusions that delayed trying the food here for over a year, it is nice to have a place in Bay Ridge specializing in feteer since the closing of King Tut back in early 2018. As with Hemo's Spot Juice Bar a bit further north on 5th Avenue, they also add different kinds of coffee, western breakfasts, and fast foods to cater to a younger generation of kids that have mostly grown up here and want the mixture.

Middle Eastern and North African couples will be seen here ordering the feteer, often times getting one of the massive pies per person. This phyllo dough layered Egyptian pastry is enjoyed in both savory and sweet versions, the medium version of which comes out around 12 inches in diameter.

The sujuk feteer ($13, above) is stuffed with stringy melted mozzarella, onions, green peppers, olives, and tomatoes. While the skill is not quite that of what King Tut possessed, you can never go wrong with this type of dish. They can also make different types of feteer with a variety of cheeses, different meats, tuna, and shrimp, or a mix of most everything.

Santorini is set up like a fast casual restaurant, and you can walk to the counter and order, but if you plan to dine in, take a seat and the friendly staff will come to you with menus and everything you need.

Another great order here is the mix mahashi ($18, above), an assortment of vegetables and grape leaves stuffed with rice and spices. The chef must have thought meat was fine given the feteer order, and threw on some mombar as well, the red "links" at the bottom of the plate. These have the same stuffing, but use the thin lining of sheep intestine to contain everything.

The combination of these, stuffed peppers and grape leaves is a wonderful plate to share between a group.

As the younger employee and older manager fight between upbeat pop music and more traditional sounds, respectively, other diners are moving on to satisfy their sweet tooth with either one of many crêpes or an order of feteer meshaltet, the same phyllo crust drizzled with honey.

A next visit might also try the loukoumades, deep fried dough balls soaked in honey and the Greek flag-bearer of the menu. These are of course also enjoyed throughout the Arabic-speaking world, but just another fun quirk of the menu that they go by their Greek name instead.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn
8101 5th Avenue

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Yemen Unity Restaurant

YEMEN 🇾🇪

Sometime shortly after a 2016 article, the owners of what used to be Yemen Cuisine in Cobble Hill decided to pack up the business and start fresh in Bay Ridge. As Atlantic Avenue seemed to be less and less conducive to operating a restaurant, 5th Avenue in their new neighborhood apparently has no limits for more and more Yemeni and other Middle Eastern-owned businesses.

This address has went through a few changes since the move, first keeping the name Yemen Cuisine in English, then changing to a sign only in Arabic that said Yemen Wahdah. Wahdah means "unity" in English, and it is this name that they seemed to have stuck with, offering both languages now on their sharp new sign.

Despite being old and frayed, the old laminated menus from Cobble Hill, still with the address from Court Street, have survived and prove the kitchen is still making everything the same way. Stickers have been placed over prices to offer new (higher) ones, but otherwise the feelings of their friendly hospitality are just as they always were.

You can still expect a warming bowl of maraq (not shown) to arrive before all the orders, along with a salad. While the greens are just greens, the soup is delicious; a cloudy broth full of lamb stock. Squeeze just a bit of lemon in to cut it, and your taste buds will jump into action.

As before, some orders offer the chance of attaching what they call "cultural platters" to an entree. The salta (above) is $10 on its own and comes with their freshly baked bread, but was added to our broiled fish (below) for a total of $18 for the pairing.

Possibly the most iconic dish in Yemeni cooking, salta is a mixture of vegetables and spices heavy with fenugreek. It comes in a clay bowl still boiling, so be careful while scooping it up with the bread.

Listed as a breakfast but available anytime of day or night, lahm baltamat (above) is a sauteed dish of lamb with tomatoes and onions. For $2 extra (and a total of $14), it can be served over a bed of hummus, which seems like a no-brainer.

The lamb saleg platter ($21, below, served with a cultural platter) is a meaty hunk of lamb that has been spiced and boiled. The bones slide right out of the tender non-fatty meat. On this occasion the table paired it with the fatta (below), bread which has been soaked in a lamb gravy. As it did four years ago, the dish brought up Thanksgiving reminiscing.

The last order of the evening was a chance to sample something completely new, chicken gelaph ($12, below). This was cooked not dissimilar to the lahm baltamat, with a reliance on tomatoes and spices for sauce.

It is tasty but does not quite have the impact as most of the rest of the meal, especially since the meat used is just tasteless white cuts. For your chicken needs, stick to the lovely roasts and kebabs they offer and prepare very well.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn

6726 5th Avenue

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Chobana Grill Café

TURKEY 🇹🇷

It was not so long ago that this big flashy corner spot on 86th and 3rd was veteran Bay Ridge Italian favorite Leo's Casa de Calamari, which shuttered a couple years ago. Fans of the spot were thankful it was just a downsizing, for they moved a block north to 85th Street into a much smaller space. What quickly replaced them and opened over the summer was Chobana Grill Café, with two sheep flanking its name but otherwise adhering to the red theme that has lived on the corner for a long time.

As you can see from the picture above, the "Now Open" sign still hangs from the awning, but Chobana seems to be in full stride and making fans in the neighborhood. On a recent visit as the first customer just after noon on a Thursday, the proprietor was busy baking bread for the day and mentioned some baked items like pide would not be available until a bit later.

The chicken shawarma spit had been prepared for a while and was looking rather handsome, with just the right amount of charred bits. It seemed a good time to order the $9.99 lunch special which offers that meat with a patty of lamb kofte, rice and salad, and a fresh disc of bread. The amount of quality food that arrives with two sauces is actually quite astonishing, it is quite a good deal.

The first cut from the shawarma spit was indeed luxurious, the meat underneath that outside layer juicy and delicious. A plate of this with the lightly spiced Turkish-style rice and white sauce would be enough to please most anyone, but start using that great bread and life keeps getting better.

To get even more mileage from the bread, order a side like the sauteed eggplant ($6.75, above) for dipping. This is smoky and garlicky and is great alone or paired with bites of the kofte.

The only worry for this obviously talented chef is that this large corner space might be too big. Assuming the rent is as high as it seems, can enough people come here to fill the seats over on 3rd Avenue? Hopefully the lofty aspirations take hold, for Chobana is a great addition to the avenue.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn

8602 3rd Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Iraqi House Restaurant

IRAQ 🇮🇶

Hints of a new Iraqi restaurant at this location started showing up way back in April as plans began to be posted. The main blue and yellow sign above was up by the end of May, but the gate remained stubbornly closed until just last week when all the paperwork was in order and the city finally came through with their visits. New York City now gets to enjoy the cuisine of Iraq, the latest nation to have its own exclusive restaurant.

The owner Mohammed is currently in charge of the entire operation, getting some help from family in the kitchen while he searches for a chef. He admits that the cuisine is very difficult to cook so finding the right fit will be hard, although he does not seem to mind doing the extra work himself for now.

Buraq ($4.99 for 3): an Iraqi-style spring roll.

The sign also makes the bold claim of "A Taste You Love," not speaking of the future when your mind will be changed but confident that the love already exists.

A trip to Paterson, NJ and the home of the area's only other Iraqi restaurant last year is plenty to convince you that love is imminent either way.

Kubba ($4.99 for 3): ground meat and onions within a fried rice crust.

Mohammed plans to expand the menu over time as the kitchen settles into a rhythm, but for now grab a group so that you can order a full complement of starters and appetizers. The two crispy nibbles above and two dips below were all great to start whetting the appetite and cure the hunger pangs.

For now the dips arrived with simple pitas, but the restaurant does plan on bringing in Iraqi bread as soon as possible.

Hummus ($5.99): spiked with a bit of paprika.

Jajick ($5.99): Yogurt dip with cucumber, garlic, and mint.

On weekends, Iraqi House Restaurant serves dolma ($13.99, below) which should not be skipped. Ground lamb, spiced rice, and garlic are halfway stuffed into large grape vine leaves.

Bamia ($13.99): Okra stew cooked with tomatoes and lamb.

Mohammed is obviously inspired by the fast food culture of the country he was born in as well, and has added a couple interesting items to the menu including an Iraqi burger, which was not yet sampled and the Iraqi wings ($9.50 for 5, below) which come served with a side of fries and soda.

The wings are described as being covered with their signature sauce, which is reminiscent of a spicy sweet and sour coating you might find on wok-fried chicken from a Chinese takeout. Now they just need a TV to show the big game.

As the main entrees start rolling out, the beautiful basmati rice used here becomes the focus. A touch of turmeric is used and creates the slight yellow color, while the rice is infused by bay leaves and cardamom. It made for a very nice base in each case.

Qoozi (more often Quzi) is a dish found in Iraq and its Arab neighbors around the Persian Gulf by different names, cooked in a few different styles that all require long preparation times and result in extremely tender meats. The qoozi lamb ($18.99, below) will probably be the focal point of many group meals here, and highest on the list of recommendations from the chef. In addition to lamb that practically melts away in your mouth, the fragrant rice is covered with small chopped noodles, yellow raisins, peas, and nuts, which all combine to create a slightly sweet blanket to wrap the savory dish.

The dishes are as if your grandmother made them, somehow the tastes feel like home.

For a little variety in an otherwise lamb-heavy meal, the qoozi chicken ($14.99, below) is presented in a similar manner. The leg and thigh have a delicious rub and the skin is slightly crispy by what appears to be a pan fry. Again the sweetness of the raisins and nuts creates wonderful warming tastes.

It would be a shame to have a meal without makhlama ($11.99, below), usually an Iraqi breakfast specialty, but opening hours here in Bay Ridge prohibit that. This does not necessarily need to be served with meat, but the version here cooks the requisite eggs together with lamb, the resulting concoction served over another bed of the basmati rice.

Versions of this can vary from extremely saucy pans that are drowned in tomato sauce or can be dry like this one, with the sauces and spices cooked down into the blend.

As with many Middle Eastern menus, there are also kababs available, but this group of six had reached its limit for one dinner. Follow up your meal with a cup of strong Iraqi tea ($2.50, not shown), meant for after the feast to help things settle.

If the menu does expand as promised, return visits to try the new items (and the burger) will be highly anticipated and of course updated here when they happen. Pay a visit to Chef Mohammed in the meantime and experience something very special.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn
7215 3rd Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Hemo's Spot Juice Bar

YEMEN 🇾🇪

Despite the fact that patrons inside Hemo's are usually families and pairs of men chatting while eating burgers and fries, the "juice bar" aspect becomes apparent when you check out the extensive list of some 150 juice options. Just about any combination of fruits and vegetables can be done here, and the blender is constantly humming as people come and go. This is one of two locations of the young franchise now open in Bay Ridge, with another in the Van Nest section of the Bronx.

The dining room is a hodgepodge of regular tables and chairs, parts of booths that definitely lived somewhere else in a former life, and an area near the windows with a coffee shop feel to it, with chairs and low tables perfect for talking with a friend.

Posters of the shop's favorites line the windows and give the feel of a fast food joint, with burgers, chicken sandwiches, and Philly cheesesteaks. As spoken of before, customers maintaining a halal diet have seen a growing number of options available in recent years to cater to their desires to eat "traditional" foods of the United States. The Yemeni proprietors of Hemo's Spot seem very tuned into this demand and have quite a bit to offer.

The Hemo's Combo ($11.49, above) includes a cheeseburger, side of fries, and an araisy, a fruit and nut cocktail that is definitely the star of the show here. With its cousin named fakfakhina, a similar concoction with ice cream added, the two are on the front of the menu and should be considered essential orders of any visit. Sandwiched between layers of nuts, dried fruit, and berry syrup lives a cold mango yogurt and a combination of delicious sweetnesses.

A small araisy (above) will set you back $5 when ordered on its own, while the upgrade to the fakfakhina with ice cream is another $2. These "cocktails" are refreshing and wildly popular on the Arabian peninsula and in Egypt, each proprietor will have a different recipe. If you have heard this name before but not seen the cocktail, this may be because it is so popular that hookah lounges often have this flavor in their menu of tobaccos.

There is no need to ration those nuts and berries, as another ample layer is found at the bottom.

Hemo's also has a list of more classic dishes you might expect from Yemeni proprietors, but plates like this yemeni kebab ($6, above) are better at other locations that focus on traditional Middle Eastern foods. While the sandwich has a nice tabbouleh within the wrap, the meat is fairly dry and could benefit from some type of sauce.

All in all, it just makes the "American" classics that they focus on that much more appealing. With an array of teas and coffees in addition to so many juices, the cafe will keep its charm in other ways. And since there is so much good food in Bay Ridge, you do not have to feel guilty using your stomach for a good burger.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn
6929 5th Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Al-Aqsa Bakery & Restaurant

PALESTINE 🇵🇸

There seems to be quite a lot of turnover in Bay Ridge over the last two or three years. One of the closings that hit hardest was Alexandrina Seafood Restaurant, source of some the freshest and tastiest fish in town. Over the winter of 2017-2018, it abruptly shut down and was replaced by the very unappealing chain Gyro Mania. With all the better options around, this establishment did not last long and from those ashes has emerged the wonderful Al-Aqsa Bakery & Restaurant.

By far not the first place to use this name, it is an immediate suggestion of the proprietors' homes in Jerusalem. The namesake is the third holiest site in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located in the old town. It is crucial to Muslim life in the city and all of Palestine though, the destination of Muhammed and his night journey (al-Isra) spoken of in the Quran.

To see this name on the brand new awning at the same address of Alexandrina makes it hurt a little less, as did walking inside to the smells, activities, and hospitality. If you come in seeking only takeout orders, as many do, please do not miss the opportunity to walk towards the back and check out the baking go on.

Baskets full of different types of breads, pre-packaged containers of cookies, and all kinds of pastries sold by weight are all made here by the skilled bakers, as are stacks of breads available for purchase. A gigantic oven sits at the back, and if you are too shy to peek around the corner just ask to use the restroom and you will have to walk by. The oven fills the restaurant with intense heat, and the man rolling and tossing dough for flatbread sheets called laffa (or taboon) looks just like a pizzaiolo.

The cooking surface of the oven rotates and allows multiple items on at once. Not wanting to stand out like tourists, a Palestinian woman customer finally confirmed the special qualities of the oven and process when she started a Facebook live as laffa was being thrown in the air and onto the oven. It is worth sweating a little bit at the tables near the back of the restaurant just to be around the bakery for enough time to see everything that goes on here.

For each event that took place, two more questions came to mind, but the people that worked here were all very receptive to these and made sure to explain everything, happy to have a chance for their foods to shine.

A selection of cookies for $3.24, sold by weight.

One of these questions turned into an enjoyable addition to the meal, a full loaf of ka'ak (below), which the man here referred to as "Jerusalem bread" and recommended wholeheartedly. Other customers were coming in and grabbing multiple loaves, bagged separately and ready for purchase as we were eating.

"This bread is straight from Jerusalem!" was stated at least five times during our stay and it could be felt how significant this was to him. Even in Palestine the bread is unique to the city, travelers from other parts buy many loaves to bring as gifts to their friends and family. The crust is soft and covered in sesame seeds, the bread inside even softer and so light. Despite being almost a meter long before cutting, it is not heavy and feels like it might float away.

No matter what, the ka'ak is a great addition to the meal and should be an automatic order to replace the simple pita when ordering some of their dips.

But let's back up to the beginning now that you know what lies ahead at the end. To get to the rear you must first traverse the main preparation station and a healthy spit of chicken shawarma, which most customers seem to be ordering. You can have the sandwich on simple pita, upgrade to laffa, or go the route of what they call a hero, a hearty loaf of bread also covered with sesame seeds (see photo at end of article).

Add fries ($2 when added to sandwich) to eat it in true Arabic style. The chicken shawarma on laffa ($6.99, below) can be customized up front, also a tradition worth watching so you can replicate the other customers. A table of choices for sandwich additions can satisfy the tastes of any customer, with fresh vegetables and pickles ready to be added.

Served to the specifications of the house, the sandwich is full of onions and a mustardy sauce, quite different than the standard garlic sauce and pickles found on most, but thoroughly enjoyable. If you threw in some citrus and spice, the sauce could almost replicate those found on West African meat dishes, but this remains comfortable on shawarma despite its surprise.

As mentioned above, the ka'ak deserves to be dipped, and the perfect plate for this is their musabaha ($6.99, below), a hummus upgrade that uses whole chickpeas and is topped with chopped garlic and sumac. Full of lemon juice, the dish is sharp to the tongue, while the spices and oils round out the flavors as you start chewing. Wonderful.

When the falafel ($2.99 for 6) arrived, the simple tahini seemed disposable and dips kept returning to the musabaha.

As with any respectable falafel maker, these vegetarian balls of goodness are formed and fried to order. Turn around at your seat and you might catch them quickly being created on the special tool before getting plopped in the hot oil. The end result are perfect, light and airy, and reminiscent of another Palestinian chef in the neighborhood that is now long gone.

Despite your oncoming food coma, make sure to grab a selection of some of their cookies and pastries before leaving. When that feeling of needing something sweet comes to you later in the day, these delicious selections will bring it all full circle. Each cookie has a different quality, but all are handsome and made with care and craft.

Al-Aqsa is a wonderful addition to the neighborhood, and worth coming to even for those living far away. Keep your groups at four as space is a bit limited, but you will want some friends with you so you can sample as much as possible.

[UPDATE 05 OCTOBER 2019: A quick return for something different]: Having gravitated straight back to the tried and true favorites on a couple return visits, it took another recent trip to try the mix platter ($12.99, above), a combination of three meats, salad, and rice.

As you already know the chicken shawarma is excellent, but the chicken kebab and kofta both were just as tasty. Served with various pickles and over a bed of onions, the plate is quite a good deal.

Loaves for "heros" and hard-boiled eggs.

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BAY RIDGE Brooklyn
6917 5th Avenue

Map of Eat the World NYC: