Burmese Bites

MYANMAR 🇲🇲

Photo by Sasha Maslov for The Queens Tribune.

This article originally appeared in the 25 October 2018 edition of The Queens Tribune:

When I first met Myo Lin Thway and his now famous palata, I had to summit a steep hill in the Briarwood section of Queens just north of Hillside Avenue. This hike eventually led to a small church that held the yearly Myanmar Baptist Church Fun Fair on its grounds. Raffle tickets were sold and there may have been balloons for children, but the “fun” consisted of having a good chunk of the Burmese community in New York City gather to eat each other’s home-cooked foods. This was about 12 years ago, but at that time Thway had already been 12 years into this yearly rhythm.

Sometime in 2013, he tipped me off to the summer street fairs to which he was going to expand on weekends the next year, while still holding down his job with an Italian jeweler in Midtown during the week. These were great, but his real success and food-world stardom took off at the Queens International Night Market, where he is finishing his fourth full year. If you ever arrive at the gates before opening time, a crush of people forms in what feels like Black Friday at Walmart. But instead of seeking flat-screen TVs, everyone rushes to get to Burmese Bites because the line will snake through the entire grounds for the rest of the night.

Photo by Sasha Maslov for The Queens Tribune.

These stepping stones are all on the path to one day opening a storefront restaurant. Until then, the latest more economical step in this dream came one year ago, when Thway unveiled the lime-green Burmese Bites cart in front of the Long Island City Courthouse and across the street from the famous green Citibank tower. This neighborhood is constantly expanding upwards with offices and new residences. It seemed like a perfect spot to test a daily business, as well as an excuse to leave the jewelry industry. During the lunch rush it is no different from the market, with lines full of hungry patrons happy to wait outside for a lunch that is astronomically better than others in and around Court Square.

Photo by Sasha Maslov for The Queens Tribune.

Palata is again the star of the show, the Burmese variety of Indian paratha, a layered but unleavened bread that might be the most popular Indian-influenced dish still eaten in the country. With its roots in pre-partition times when Indians were coming to Burma in droves, it is usually served plain with some type of curry on the side, but can also be stuffed with ingredients. At Burmese Bites, both options are available. The stuffed keema palata ($6, below) is full of masala-laced chicken and ready to eat by hand, while potato and chicken curries are also available on the side for dipping the chewy yet crisp palata if that is your desire.

Thway’s history with palata goes back to the age of 13, when he went to his dad’s fish pond farm near the Irrawaddy River in the country’s Ayeyarwady Delta region. There he cooked for 20 employees and got his first lessons in what would become his claim to fame in New York City. Even before that, he always made himself available to help with his father’s snacks business.

Photo by Sasha Maslov for The Queens Tribune.

Back in Long Island City, the daily menu also includes ohno kaukswe ($6, below), a coconut-milk–based soup of thick noodles and curried chicken. Usually eaten for breakfast in Myanmar, this warming bowl is good any time of day, topped with crispy bean fritters and onions. You may have access to a condiment bar of sorts when eating back home that allows you to spoon in cilantro and chilies and squeeze in lime. For preferences of sour and spice here in Queens, just ask when placing the order.

Photo by Sasha Maslov for The Queens Tribune.

The menu always includes a monthly special as well. Recently this was Shan tofu salad ($7, below) made with the distinct yellow chickpea flour tofu originally from Shan State. The dark dressing is light to the tongue with tamarind and ginger, while the smooth tofu itself is full of turmeric and heartier than its soybean cousins. It is a must order at any Burmese festival during the year, and if you see it here please do not miss out.

Photo by Sasha Maslov for The Queens Tribune.

The new cart’s location makes it easy for much of the Burmese community to go for lunch on the 7 train from Woodside, Elmhurst and Jackson Heights, where the majority live. The savvy customers in the area who have found their way to Court Square Park have made for a fairly thriving business that now extends to dinner four days a week. Orders are now even accepted by text message, and round trips from Midtown are feasible for office workers near the 7, E and M trains.

Our original article from 2014 is available here.

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LONG ISLAND CITY Queens

Court Square Park

Map of Eat the World NYC:

Rio Grande Churrascaria

BRASIL

[UPDATE: Please see comments section for updates on times and availability of restaurant]

Back in June when I went to Astoria's Beija Flor for a Brazilian Copa America game, I walked by the Holiday Inn Hotel and noticed signs for a Brazilian steakhouse inside. Already a bit late for kickoff, I mentally noted the sports bar and continued over to watch a normally wonderful team play like crap. The Brazilians gathered there were noticeably irritable, but circling back to check out the hotel after the game made my night a positive on the whole.

The sports bar advertises happy hour and all types of events, I would definitely have included it for Copa if only I would have known. They play all the Brazilian league games and must be real fun for that, when club rivalries coalesce on their many screens. The bar menu is limited but does have coxinha and some Brazilian snacks as well as all the US favorites.

For people that are not fans of the beautiful game, the real fun is downstairs where an economical Brazilian rodizio exists, miles beyond your normal hotel restaurant. On weekdays, the full all-you-can-eat experience is $20, more than $40 cheaper than its upscale competitors in Manhattan. Now for this price, one must be realistic about the quality of food, but for the price, it's really a steal. On weekends, the price rises to $23.99.

For those new to rodizio, the concept is simple. Large skewers of meat are grilled by the chefs and brought out by knife-wielding staff. You are given a way to proclaim "yes" and "no" to all of them, here shown above with a painted block of wood. Green up means you are hungry, keep it coming. You can easily find yourself under a mountain of fresh meat, so turning the block to red will stop the onslaught. It is very difficult to say no to any of them, so letting them pass is sometimes easier.

Come near 5:30 opening when the salad bar is freshest, but don't despair, they refill it well. While I did eat some vegetables from the bar, I went back for seconds of the delicious black beans and white rice. The bowl to the right side below is farofa, completing the mixture to perfection.

With so many options, and unlimited ones at that, it is hard to stay away from the colorful salad bar, but the trick is balance. Too much meat and I tend to fill up too quickly. Too much beans and rice, and I have not gotten a good representation of all the different cuts of meat. It must take years to master the art of successful rodizio strategy. I tried to learn from friends in Rio, but even then, everything happens so fast.

When the meats do start coming, if you are not too hungry, one way to approach the evening is to grab a few vegetables, put your red block side up, and watch everything that comes out. Otherwise you find yourself saying yes to everything and plates of meat start piling up very quickly.

The other great part of only paying $20 for rodizio is that you can get stuffed on the wrong things and not feel like you did something wrong. It is all a learning experience for next time, when you will be much more patient and critical. I dined here alone, but it might be better with a group as you can always cut the meats in half if you take too much.

The mix of people finding their way downstairs to the basement is also fun, some Brazilians from the area as well as a lot of Asian tourists that are guests at the hotel. Astoria is probably the neighborhood that something along these lines would naturally exist. The picanha might be better at a swanky rodizio in Manhattan, but the basement of the Holiday Inn in Astoria is not so bad.

LONG ISLAND CITY Queens

39-05 29th Street

Burmese Bites

MYANMAR 🇲🇲

[UPDATE JANUARY 2020: The LIC cart has closed while Myo searches for the next step. You can still find them at the Queens International Night Market.]

[UPDATE OCTOBER 2018: Please check out the 25 October 2018 edition of The Queens Tribune for a new article. The online version is available here.]

[UPDATE OCTOBER 2017: Burmese Bites is now serving their foods from a food cart in front of the Queens County Courthouse in Long Island City. See those photos near the bottom from a March 2018 visit.]

One of the most popular vendors at various Burmese festivals in the city has recently set up a roaming booth to attack the city's unwieldy street festival scene. These eyesores are full of bad arepas, Italian sausage, and plenty of music turned up too loud.

For this reason, it seemed that many curious folks were directing their glances, and wallets towards Burmese Bites in the short time I was around. It was definitely a little unicorn at the Broadway festival I found it at one summer Saturday. I am happy to see the main proprietor expanding his business and passion to more than just the Burmese community and the small amount of others that trickle through those events in Queens.

The most popular item is the tornado potato and is only $1. Basically it is homemade potato chips cut as a spiral on a stick, a fun way to present and eat such a treat. The booth also sells cheap snacks like spring rolls ($1) and vegetable fritters ($3), so two people can easily get one of each item and sample the range of offerings.

The cities of Myanmar have such a heavy Indian influence from the past when British colonialism deemed it part of "British India," and many migrants came here in search of better opportunities. Naturally some cooking methods were adapted, and the main course cooked here is just that, and dish so common on the streets of Yangon and further afield. Available for vegetarians, the pea paratha ($4) is served with their curry and potatoes, as well as the namesakes. The owner of the stand was always the most noticeable at the Burmese festivals because you could see him preparing the dough for the paratha by twirling it up in the air and smacking it down on the table. This process still happens and all of the bread is deliciously fresh under the helpings of curry.

I ordered the meat-lover's version, the chicken paratha ($5, above) and was very satisfied with the complex flavors I always enjoy most about Burmese cuisine. The spice levels are not as high as its neighbors to the east and west, but there is so much going on here.

[UPDATE 02 APRIL 2018: Now you can have Burmese Bites for lunch every weekday in Long Island City!]

The new bright green cart is easy to find, and has already become very popular in the courthouse area, somewhat of a good food desert. Our sampling to compare to the street festival days was the chicken curry palata ($6, below), a bowl of delicious Burmese curry and a freshly made paratha cut into squares for easy eating on the go. The thin bread is still made fresh to order, and the entire product is just as good or better than it has always been.

Court Square makes a decent place to eat lunch on a nice day

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LONG ISLAND CITY Queens
Court Square Park
Various Manhattan/Queens Street Festivals

[CLOSED] M. Wells

CANADA

[UPDATE: CLOSED, try their steakhouse and dinette now for similar ideas and creations]

For anyone who reads this blog to seek out cheap, authentic foods in New York City and has already rolled their eyes when seeing that I actually wrote a post on M.Wells, I apologize with the simple excuse that I could not resist.

Once in a while something is so unique that it deserves a visit despite high prices and modern cuisine. M. Wells is doing very interesting things, so I present simply a slideshow of some of the dishes I was able to sample on a night out with some good people from Serious Eats, World to Table, and The Spatula Queen, presented in the order it was presented to us.

Blue cheese salad ($9, beauty greens, apples, walnuts)

Jerky salad ($12, shaved brussels sprouts, dry venison)

Veal brains ($15, sauce Grenobloise)

Escargot & bone marrow ($9, shallots, red wine purée)

BibiM Wells ($30, razor clams, scallops, oysters)

Tomato soup ($28, foie gras grilled cheese)

Green salad ($6, herbs, buttermilk dressing)

Caesar salad ($7, smoked herring dressing)

Porterhouse of pork ($17, famous M. Wells Lugar sauce)

Butter chicken ($16, spicy yogurt, English muffin)

Hamburger ($42, beef & lamb, onion rings, Jersey ketchup)

Maple pie ($6)

Party mix cheesecake ($8)

Paris-Brest

LONG ISLAND CITY Queens
21-17 49th Avenue