beetiger

I've ended up doing some interesting casual eating in NYC in the last few days, at places I didn't know about until the day (or minute) I was trying to go to them, and thought I'd share.

1)Empanadas Cafe, 56-27 Van Doren St., Corona Park. Crowded little lunch counter with a mixed Hispanic and police and emergency worker crowd, serving 28 kinds of empanadas in 3 styles: corn, whole grain, and white, at about $1.25 each. All made to order, so there were tons of people waiting around crammed in to the space, but we snagged a little table in the corner, one of 2 in the store. It took about 10 minutes to get the food, and it was fresh out of the fryer, very flavorful, and each kind I tried was very different from the others, not generic. They also had little dixie cups of homemade ice cream frozen on to popsicle sticks. I had a lovely, icy, tamarind. Apparently very famous, though I had not heard of it until I started poking around Chowhound trying to find a cheap but interesting place to eat near the Museum.

2)Soy, 102 Suffolk Street. I got to the Complaints Choir rehearsal a bit early last night, found a parking spot right across from the rehearsal space, and after nearly failing my dinner roll and going to a Burger King up the block, saw this across the street. Japanese "mama-style" home-cooking, mostly based in soy, though she had a beef curry and a spicy tuna bowl on the menu too. Tiny place again, counter plus about four tables. There were homemade bookmarks for giveaway, little toys to play with on the counter, and a sketchbook in which patrons were encouraged to draw, full of little art and poems about how people loved the place. While I was there, it was empty save for two take-out customers. The lady at the counter was slow and quiet, but the "Treasure Pockets" I had were triple soy-licious: fried inari pockets stuffed with a pressed mix of seasoned tofu, studded with whole soybeans, served with rice and some pickles and cabbage. When I walked by later in the evening, it looked busy.

3) Sugar Sweet Sunshine, 126 Rivington St. Even after being told it was there by some members of the choir who were squeeing about it being right nearby, I walked by this place by mistake the first time. It's okay --my detour took my the extra block to Babeland, which was fun, and the fine ladies there pointed me back to the cupcakes. At ten p.m. on a Tuesday, there was a line of people nearly out the door, trying to buy designer, yet homey, cupcakes from pierced and tattooed young people. The cupcakes had names like "Oooey Gooey", "Sassy Red Velvet", and "Bob", who was vanilla with chocolate almond butter cream. The guy ahead of me in line bought 25 cupcakes, ate one while waiting, and told me that he was taking them all home to eat in his pajamas, even though he didn't really like cupcakes very much. I got mine to go and brought them home to share with

bard_bloom. Damned good cupcakes, with buttercream that was rich but neither heavy nor overly sweet. Never going to do a trip to Babeland or DeMask without stopping there also again.