Day 2 Oasis, Nyonya

Lunch was at Oasis, a small middle eastern place in Williamsburg right by the Bedford stop. I'd been there last time I was in New York with my friend Erin Melina Stamos. We went at three a.m. and I remember I kept asking her on the way over "are you sure they'll be open?". I'd been away from New York too long.

Erin's raves on our cab ride over that night a few months ago were mostly about Oasis' amazing pickles which were one of the highlights of the Shish Kabob plate I ordered. The cabbage salad, babaganoush and hot sauce were pretty memorable as well. There grilled lamb was as good as grilled lamb can be, which is pretty good. My one complaint would be that, since I'm gluten intolerant, I had to order the plate instead of the pita which was twice the price at $10.

We had dinner with the aforementioned Erin at Nyonya, a Malaysian place in Chinatown. Erin had been raving about it to me over the phone. I'd been pretty excited about Indonesian food recently and been looking for an opportunity to explore their neighboring country's cuisine. When we arrived, the countless reviews on the wall and the constant (but short) wait for a table seemed to back up Erin's claims.

We ordered four dishes to share between us. A roti bread thing with dipping sauce, a plate of traditional pickles, a whole fish with mango and "shrimps with lady fingers (okra)". The roti I couldn't eat because it had wheat but the dipping sauce with chicken chunks had a nice creamy curry texture I was familiar with from Indonesian cuisine. The pickles too were similar to the turmeric-infused ones I'd fallen in love with at my favorite Indonesian place back home. However these were a little sweeter and thicker with sesame seeds and cabbage added to the traditional carrots and persian cucumbers.

The fish was a delightful crispy fried creation topped with spiced apple and mango. You would not believe how well we did extracting the meat and crispy skin from that thing. The last dish, the "lady fingers" was too overwhelmed with shrimp paste for me to eat all that much of it (although Erin Says it's usually much milder). The taste of fermented seafood is something I've found a little too pungent for my western palate to take in large doses.

To add to this, the dishes I saw pass us on there way to other tables were of such a large variety I could easily see myself returning here countless times and never ordering the same thing. I will be back.