Kombit Haitian Food

Crown Heights, Brooklyn

I love Haiti.  I love Haitian food.  I found this gem of a restaurant back in 2006 while on summer project.  Ever since then every summer we've spent in NYC with a group of college students we take them there.

Kombit- Haitian Kreyol for community.  You will certainly get a taste for more than just the food.  The artwork, music, and Haitian brothers and sisters who own this place, make you feel as if you're in Haiti.

Me and Pascal (one of the owners)

We always order family style and Pascal and I preorder the food.  For appetizers we get accra (root vegetable grown in Haiti), sweet potato (not like ours in America...so much better), and fried plantains (they're double fried- you haven't had the best til you've had these).  If you like spicy then you have to try the picklease on the table.  It's like a Haitian slaw but hot.  It's awesome on the accra and sweet potato.

Summer with Haitian sweet potato, akra, and plantain

For our main course we get griot (fried pork), diri ak pwa (rice and beans), chicken in sauce, and legume (yummy vegetable stew).

Yummy Haitian food

To drink you have to order the ju citron.  It's basically Haitian limeade and it's my favorite drink ever.  OF ALL TIME.  They also let us try the cola champagne (sweet orange Haitian cola).  Pascal brings out sugarcane for our students to try at the end of the meal.  It's amazing!

Expect to have a true brush with Haitian culture and experience the laid back atmosphere (i.e. if you're with a big group, you will wait on your food).  If you're not Haitian ask the owners about their culture, the music, the artwork, the food...they love their country and love to talk about it.

Also, if you visit in the winter months, ask if they have SoupJouMou.  It's an amazing squash vegetable soup, but it's only available when the squash is.

Sugarcane

Crown Heights, Brooklyn

Caribbean food at its finest.  Students of ours from Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn wanted us to try authentic Trinidadian and Tobagon cuisine.  So, we all went to Sugarcane in Crown Heights/North Park Slope and boy was it yummy.  I tried shrimp dishes, oxtail, jerk chicken wings, macaroni pie, and plantains.  Yummy.  It's not far from The Chocolate Room if you wanna walk and get dessert or coffee. afterwards.

Junior's Cheesecake

My favorite cheesecake is New York style cheesecake.  My favorite NY cheesecake is Junior's.

My favorite Junior's cheesecake is the Chocolate Mousse.  It's perfect because the tartness of the layer of regular cheesecake balances out the sweetness of the chocolate mousse cheesecake.  And then of course the side is loaded with mini chocolate chips...how could you go wrong!?!

My hubby once threw me a surprise birthday party at Junior's after seeing Jersey Boys on Broadway. Friends of mine who were on summer project with us in NYC met us there for cheesecake.

My surprise birthday party in 2007

My 26th birthday

One time after seeing Rent on Broadway we went to Junior's for dessert afterwards and saw the lead in Rent eating with his friends- how fun!

My friend Charlotte and I with our Junior's

The original location is on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, across from Long Island University-Brooklyn, one of the schools we worked at when we lived in NYC.  It's near the Brooklyn Promenade, NY Transit Museum and Brooklyn Bridge.  There's a ton of Brooklyn memorabilia at this location.  

Brooklyn location corner of Flatbush and Dekalb

There's also a Times Square location and one located in the Grand Central Dining Concourse.  Oh and while you're there...you have to try a famous Brooklyn Egg Cream.  That deserves a blogpost all of its own.  

*If you're looking for something cool to take home as a souvenir that's not a touristy item they have awesome coffee mugs and saucers and cookbooks.

*If you get home and you just can't live without this amazing cheesecake, you can order them online and have them shipped to you at home.  

Hill Country Chicken

Madison Square Park

One day during a lunch break for a conference we all were craving Shake Shack.  We got there and didn't have time to stand in the line before some of us had to leave.  So friends of ours suggested walking a block to 25th and Broadway and eating at Hill Country Chicken.

Yummy, yummy, yummy.

The fried chicken was moist and tender on the inside and perfectly crunchy and crispy on the outside.  I got a fried chicken breast and easily could have split it with my hubby.

They have amazing homemade pies.  You can purchase by the slice or a 3 inch pie cup.  I've tried the lemon meringue and the cowboy pie and both were great.

Happy eating.

*Hint: if you're with one other person I suggest getting tap water, one fried chicken breast and a 3 inch pie and splitting it- you'd be able to eat for $10!

Little Italy

Little Italy in Manhattan used to be where the Italians lived in NYC, now the "real" Little Italy is on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx.  This blogpost is about the Little Italy in Manhattan: the one most visitors want to see.  Although some restaurants are still run by Italians here, a lot of it is touristy.  But, I still love taking visitors here.

Little Italy is located on Mulberry Street right off of Canal Street (Chinatown).

After you turn onto Mulberry from Canal, Positano's is a little restaurant 1/2 a block up.  They have yummy pasta dishes and reasonably priced as well.

Positano's my 1st visit in 2005

Keep going down Mulberry Street and you'll hit cute and quaint Cafe Polermo on the right, home of the "World's best Cannoli."  Trust me, it's amazing and deserves the title.  They also have great pineapple sorbet here.

Samantha and Rebecca eating the world famous cannoli

Go up to Hester Street (on the left you'll see the Italian-American museum- opened in the last few years and tells the story of the neighborhood) and take a right.  You'll see the general store which has been open since 1910.  My favorite thing I found there was old photography postcards for sale.

E. Rossi & Co. Since 1910

Next door to the general store is Ferrara's, established in 1892!

Ferrara's established in 1892

 Look at this dessert case and I won't have to explain.

The gelato is good to the last drop

Amy Ruth's

Harlem

I love Amy Ruth's.

They have great soul food.  The owner grew up in a southern kitchen learning to cook from his grandmother.  This comfort food is fabulous.  What they're famous for is their chicken and waffles.  Y-U-M-M-Y!

Tom with chicken and waffles smothered in gravy

Abby and Mark with their soul food

Chicken and waffles was first served as early as the 1930s in Harlem at three different restaurants/clubs. You must go to Harlem to eat chicken and waffles.

Summer Project 2005

Their honey fried chicken is amazing as well as the sides of baked mac n' cheese and veggies.  To top it off they have a Kool-Aid flavor of the day.

Honey friend chicken, mac n' cheese and fried okra

Subway tile art at 116th Street stop in Harlem

Corn Dogs and Orangeade

Coney Island, Brooklyn

Some other time I'll do a blogpost on the many things to do and experience while in Coney Island, but today I'm going to just blog about Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs.

1916 Polish immigrant, Nathan Handwerker opened his first hot dog stand in Coney Island, manufactured with a recipe from his wife, Ida.  Nathan's is mostly known to people outside of NYC for their annual hot dog eating contest on July 4th.  This actually has a history that goes back to the year of Nathan's beginning.  Four European immigrants were arguing over who was more patriotic and the winner was the one who ate the most of Nathan's hot dogs.

Summer Project 2009 celebrating my birthday 

My favorite thing to get there is a corn dog (which I dip in mustard), crinkle cut french fries with cheese on top and my absolute favorite (I could drink a gallon of it).

Me on my 27th birthday

On the boardwalk at Coney Island