Lately I’ve found myself in Bushwick … a lot. The last time I was in the neighborhood this much I was a 22-year-old sharing a railroad apartment on Bushwick Avenue — I may or may not have gotten the idea from “Girls” — and hosting bar trivia at Pine Box Rock Shop once a month.
Bushwick has both changed a ton and not at all. You can still get some of the city’s best tacos in the neighborhood (Taqueria El Fogon and Nene’s Deli Taqueria forever). It’s still dominated by industrial buildings, warehouses-turned-lofts and the aboveground M train line. And Pine Box just celebrated its 13th year in business.
What has changed (aside from the rent) is the types of restaurants you can find there: People used to be drawn to the area by the soft glow of hype-worthy dining in an unexpected corner of the city — read: Roberta’s, Ops, a short-lived second location of Mission Chinese, the late, great Faro. But these days I’m far more interested in the restaurant offerings that are worth visiting on their own merits.
Skip the flight to the Indian Ocean
Did you know that you can enjoy the cuisine of Réunion, a tiny French island just off the coast of Madagascar, in Bushwick? It’s the specialty at Maloya, open since December on a busy stretch of Flushing Avenue.
You may ask yourself: What goes into “réunionnais” cuisine? For one, vanilla. (I mean, Madagascar, the world’s top producer of the spice, is right there.) At Maloya, it appears in a shallow bowl of poached shrimp aswim in crème fraîche that does a fantastic job of showing off vanilla’s savory side.
Two other entrees make heavy use of massalé, a fragrant spice blend similar to garam masala. It was absolutely lovely in the cabri massalé, chunks of braised lamb in a rich, tamarind-tinged sauce, served with a side of rice and beans. And, of course, there’s the influence of French cuisine, which makes itself known in the tropical gateau ti’son with passion fruit-mango coulis and ginger ice cream, and in the tiny pockets of samoussas filled with creamy potatoes aligot.
Thai pork curry for shoulder season
Less than a minute’s walk away, on the opposite side of Flushing Avenue, you’ll find Chiangmai Diner, open since last summer. This Northern Thai restaurant, from the same team behind Lan Larb Chiangmai in SoHo, is not really diner-size at all. The restaurant’s tiny exterior opens onto a small dining room at the front that leads to another cavernous dining room with tables that can accommodate large parties. (When I stopped by, it was with a party of seven.) I also think it would make an awesome venue for a wedding party.
But if there’s no ring on it, just drop by for specialties like the gaeng hung lay, a rich pork curry that will get you through these final cat days of winter. Or go for the sai oua and nam prik oag, a dish of spicy Thai pork sausage with tomato-y pork relish and sticky rice. There are also classic dishes like pad Thai, crab fried rice and panang curry for those who just want to hear the hits.
An epic poem of a restaurant
Or you can head east down Flushing Avenue to Tabaré, the second location of the Williamsburg restaurant of the same name. Tabaré’s name (and bistro-like exterior) seem vaguely French, but the word actually comes from the language of the Indigenous Tupi people of South America. It’s also inspired by an epic poem that is considered the national poem of Uruguay, which is all a very circuitous and historically accurate way of getting at the fact that Tabaré serves Uruguayan food.
Here’s your road map: Start with the beef empanadas with green olives. Share the chorizo adobado, a grilled, split sausage topped with roasted onions, red peppers and adobo sauce. And to really put the meat sweats into hyper drive, consider the aptly named chivito completo, a thin strip of filet mignon sandwiched between crispy bread and topped with a fried egg, Black Forest ham, provolone, onions, bacon and more and served with fries and aioli to dip them in. There’s also a vegetarian version of the sandwich if you’re abstaining from meat — just don’t abstain from the absolute pleasure of dining at Tabaré.
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