Forest Hills evidently has a large number of Jewish immigrants from Uzbekistan, since there are at least three Uzbek restaurants, and at least one or two Uzbek grocery stores here. I've only eaten at one of the restaurants, Beautiful Bhukura on 108th St. Since then, I've heard of a few more, one of which is Cheburechnaya.
Recently, the Village Voice gave Cheburechnaya an award for "Most Audacious Kebab", which is a lamb fat kebab made from the lamb fat from the tail of the lamb. Supposedly, that's where the best lamb fat comes from. This jives with what my friend Farhang told me about the lambs in Iran, which have huge fat tails, and are prized for the wonderful fat.
Today I went to try it, and it really was great. The place is Kosher, and I noticed that many of the patrons were Sephardic Jews. I had a lamb fat kebab, a lamb rib kebab, a tomato kebab, and an onion kebab. Also, I had the chebureki, which were a large delicate packet filled with one of a few things; I had mushrooms. The packet itself almost reminded me of the Indian chaat dish with a fried bread and garbanzo beans (I can't remember the name of it). The chebureki was sort of refined and greasy at the same time. As you can imagine, it was delicious.
The lamb fat kebab really was awesome. It truly was nothing but lamb fat - no actual meat on it. But the fat was soft, salty, and tasty. Even if eating a whole blob of grilled lamb fat seems objectionable, one taste and you'll be craving it. Everything else was very good.
The only problem here was the service, which was poor. The server never came by, forgot to bring me bread, and never gave me any water! It doesn't matter too much to me, though. The food is the important part.
The New York Times has an interesting article about the movie Dr. Strangelove, and how it is more factual than most people would guess. When you think about facts that have since come out, like the fact that the "secret unlock code" was "00000000", it seems that there was more stupidity around nuclear weapons than even Dr. Strangelove could satirize. The movie, by the way, is enjoying a release of a brand new 35mm print and will be in New York all next week.
An interesting thread on a half-remembered Star Wars scene that has either been cut, or never was there. It's a fascinating combination of Star Wars trivia, possible False Memory Syndrome, detective work using betamax, and, as expected, anger towards Lucas. Also, who knew that there was a Star Wars comic released before the movie, as well as a Star Wars radio series? Well, probably lots of people. But not me.
My experience has always been that the closest place to the office should always be avoided. It always tends to be drab overpriced food for office workers. And it always annoyed me that people insisted on going to these places, day after day, even when much better and cheaper food was readily available at a greater distance. Somehow, convenience usually trumps everything.
Now, though, the closest place to where I work is Maffei's.
It's a great pizza, pasta and sub joint on the corner of 22nd St. and 6th Ave. The pizza is not among the city's best, but a nicely made greasy slice. I love the grease. I almost always get the pizza, even though about one out of every five slices I get is unbearably chewy (I mean this in a bad way). I don't know why this is.
I hate to compulsively go to the same place, but for some reason I ate there every day this week. Let's review:
Monday, I just wanted pizza. So I went to Maffei's, which is where I usually go if I'm by myself and want pizza.
Tuesday, we had lunch in the office. The lunch was fairly poor, it was a choice of chicken drowned in a white sauce, overcooked tuna in a tasty sweet sauce, or huge slabs of pork in a unknown sauce. I had the tuna. But there was no bread in sight! I had to have something else to tide me over, so I went down to Maffei's and got a grandma slice, which has plenty of nice tasty carbs.
Wednesday, I went to the farmer's market at Union Square. I wanted to go somewhere different for lunch, so I picked l'Annan, a Vietnamese place near there. I ordered the Pho, of which I didn't have high expectations. Places that only have one menu option for Pho generally don't have good Pho. The more menu options, the better it usually is. Anyway, it comes out, and it is completely, completely tasteless. I do not exaggerate. It had no taste at all, it was like water. I'm not sure what happened. But I hate to complain at restaurants, so I dumped some salt in it to make it taste better and ate the meat and noodles. On second thought, I should have complained. After the meal I was dejected, so after buying some tomatoes and strawberries at the market, I went over to Maffei's for a good old dependable slice. Thankfully, it was good. If I had gotten a too-chewy slice, I would have probably broken down in tears.
Today, Thursday, errands this morning took way too long, and I had no time to spare at work. Down to Maffei's it was. This time, I had a nice pasta.
It's a good place. But I'll be damned if I'm going back tomorrow.
This morning I saw an notice for a new fitness class at Gold's Gym. It's called "Strip Aerobics". And, lest you think this is something that is slyly named, but not actually stripping, the flyer said it combines both aerobic exercise with the art of seduction.
If I happen to see any stripping going on there, I'll post about it on this blog.