Day 9 Raj Mahal & Kabab Cafe!

Me and Kirstin both had lists of all the things we wanted to do on this trip. Most of mine involved eating. We did two of those things this day.

For lunch we headed to 6th St.. between 1st and second to eat at one of the many Indian restaurants that line that block. This area is famous for there meal specials for just $6 at lunch and $7 for dinner you can get an entree an appetizer some muligawany soup, nan, Papadam, rice and a desert. I ate here often when I lived in the city.

All the different restaurants ran together in my mind so we just picked one at random. The place that had the most enthusiastic guy outside, a little place called Raj Mahal.

We sat outside, I got the Tandoori chicken and Kirstin got the Sag Paneer. The food was all pretty average. Not the most exiting Indian food in the world but with the aid of the small price, the large amount of nostalgia and the large amount of food I wasn't about to complain.

Dinner was at a place that held another very special place in my heart. The Kabab Cafe!

Located just one block from where I used to live in Queens, this legendary restaurant has only five tables. It also only has two employees or really one employee (a prep chef) and an owner.

The owner Ali, a large gregarious Egyptian man comes to your table and tells you what he has that day. Once you order he goes over to the tiny kitchen in the corner and cooks it for you then brings it back and often scrapes it directly from his pan onto your plate.

We ordered a beet salad (something I'd eaten here before and tried unsuccessfully to recreate ever since) and some sardines to start. The beets I've already expressed my excitement over but the sardines where just as good, in truth better. Oily and just fishy enough. We ate them and left little skeletons on the plate reminiscent of the cartoon Heathcliff.

For entrees me and James got meat. I got grilled baby lamb chops and james got half a duck. I tried James' but really I couldn't tear myself away from mine. Such a simple dish. I hinted in my first post that grilled lamb can only get so good. That comment was truly put to shame this day. These where the best lamb chops I've ever had and I eat at least one lamb chop a week.

Food!

We started the day walking along 6th street where all the Indian restaurants are. I decided on Raj Mahal because this one had a table on the porch in front of the recessed doorway. It was a good deal, something like 5.95 for soup, samosas, pita, dahl, and an entree. It was good. I especially liked the soup, which apparently is one of those kinds of dishes that everyone has their own special recipe for. I approve of this restaurant's recipe.

I finally found the Van Leeuwen ice cream truck after we descended from Highline Park, right next to a film shoot with Chris Kattan. I had a heaping coneful of hazelnut ice cream. The ice cream was delicious, as was the cone (I don't think people usually notice the cone, but this one was definitely noticeably yummy).

We met James for dinner in Astoria at the Kabab Cafe. No wait, make that the Kabab Cafe! Because that's what the sign outside the restaurant says, and everything is clearly better when you add an exclamation point to the end of it. It's just one guy making all the food and only a few tables. We sat for three hours, which was fine since we ordered a few courses, including sardines and beet salad. I had hawashi for my entree, and it was super good - a mix of ground up mushrooms between thin pita with homemade yogurt, veggies, a fresh piece of fruit, and fried greens. The greens were fried to a crispy crunch, which I love. Homemade yogurt! Beet salad! Kabab Cafe!

View from our table at Raj Mahal:


Samosa:


My table at the Kabab Cafe was looking at me:


Beet salad:


Hawashi (for those not ordering large plates of meat):