Farid Halal Cart (formerly Al-Shamy)

(UPDATE 7/22/13: Something is up with this place, and it's not good. I had tried to go three times in the last couple of weeks, at times when they normally should have been there... they weren't at their spot. I finally called this evening - the response was just short of rude, but I was told they were at their spot. When I got there, people were tense and weird. Ahmed was not around, and I dared not ask why. The formerly-wonderful thick, deep-red hot sauce had been replaced by a vinegary/watery abomination, the sort of thing one gets with Peruvian roast chickens. The meat was okay, but my request to leave it a bit less done went unheeded or unheard. The seasoned rice had substantially less flavor than before. And I never got an answer to my question as to why they've been AWOL lately. In the end, a most depressing experience. I suppose I should use at as a Buddhist exercise in non-attachment. Go at your own risk.)

During a stroll up Steinway St. a while back, the Farid Halal Cart caught my eye. But of course, how could it not, with large skewers of varied meats sizzling over real smoldering charcoal...one doesn't encounter that on the streets of New York every day.

Since then, I've managed a few visits, and I think I can safely these guys serve some of the city's finest street cart fare.

Apart from the ingredients, it's the guys that work the cart that really make it something special. Ahmed is the public liaison - he'll take your order, chat you up, and really make you feel attended to. He positively radiates good spirit. Quietly tending the skewers with careful attention is equally good-spirited Ishem (I hope I got his name right). Both of these guys prepare their food with real care and pride - watching them cook and assemble dishes is a thing of real beauty. They prepare all the excellent ingredients by hand, and the difference is palpable.

 There's a bucket of skewers on the sidewalk waiting to be loaded up...

 
...and that's exactly what happens when a customer's order is placed - nothing is sitting around waiting to be slapped on the grill.

The offerings seem to vary slightly from day to day, but they almost always have half-chickens (spatchcocked, seasoned, and grilled to order, of course)...

...beef kebabs, chicken kebabs (cubes of white meat marinated in yogurt and spices), kofta (ground lamb kebabs), homemade beef sausages, and lamb chops.  (Ed. to add: I just found out the grilled half chickens are fantastic - the best thing I've had here yet. Moist, but with just enough charred bits to keep things interesting... even the wings, which I normally skip altogether, are juicy and delicious.)

My first visit, I had a really lovely chicken kebab...

...wrapped with some greens in a pita: a large, thin - delicate, even - pita, not the thick, chewy abominations most Middle Eastern joints in NYC serve.  (I learned later that the pitas are broken out only when they run out of the crusty baguettes they normally make their sandwiches with.)

More recently, I decided I wanted to try beef and kofta. So, chunks of good-quality beef were loaded onto one skewer, and ground lamb mixture was expertly formed on another.

(From left to right: three kofta kebabs, two beef, one chicken kebab and one half chicken.) I was even asked how well-done I liked my meat...and even better, it came out that way! They have two kinds of rice to choose from: a terrific, fragrant brown (the color of the dish, not the grain - Ahmed said it's cooked with a bit of tomato and green pepper, but there are definitely other spices working their magic in there) and a delicately-perfumed yellow rice.

I naturally couldn't decide, so opted for half and half, over which Ahmed beautifully arranged the freshly-grilled chunks of meat.

They have a bunch of sauces to choose from: tahini and their hot sauce seem to be the stars, but there is also white sauce, "French sauce" (essentially an excellent French dressing to put on greens), and a complex, slightly sweet brown sauce I forgot to inquire about.

The finished product:

Prices, like their offerings, apparently vary a bit, but sandwiches seem to run $5-7, rice platters $8-12, and half chickens are $10 (the only posted menu is in Arabic, which I can't read, and I haven't yet inquired about the price of their lamb chops). They get there sometime in the late afternoon (except Wednesdays, their day off) and stay open until 4 a.m. - MY kind of cart! And if you happen to live near enough, they will deliver telephone orders.

If you go, tell Ahmed that Eric the musician sent you.

Farid Halal Cart
Steinway St., east side, between 25th and 28th Aves., Astoria NY 11105
718-200-7618
(M or R train to Steinway St., then 5 blocks north)

BZ Grill

I had been reading about BZ Grill for a while and finally decided I needed to try it. Happily, the hype is correct - they do make the best gyros in town!

At least, the best I've tried... I have great difficulty imagining that there is better in NYC. No cylinders of processed mystery meat here - there is a rotating spit of layered sliced pork right up front, alongside its fraternal twin of sliced chicken. Although good, the chicken meats tends to get just a tad dry.  The pork gyro, on the other hand is fantastic... moist, perfectly seasoned, and just enough crunchy bits to keep the texture interesting. The sandwich is great (excellent tzatziki sauce):
 

The platter - even better:

Plenty of meat, along with rice, some non-iceberg lettuce, chopped and scrupulously fresh, tomato slices, thinly-sliced red onion, a good dollop of tzatziki sauce and one of kopanisti (feta cheese spread), and toasted pita bread - well worth the 13 bucks they charge for it.

They have a good selection of souvlaki, kebabs, and other simple Greek specialties, but there are other places one can get most of those things, although quality here is assured to be good.  There is NO place else one can get gyro like this.  Open until 11 p.m. daily.

BZ Grill 
27-02 Astoria Blvd., Astoria 11102 
718-932-7858
website

Uncle George's Greek Taverna (CLOSED)

I really should make an effort to get to Astoria more. Most of the time, though, I head that direction and...keep going to Flushing. Uncle George's Greek Taverna is the first restaurant that inspired me, years ago, to periodically make the trek to Queens for dinner - the one that started it all! But I hadn't been in a while (too much regional Chinese food to explore), and then I read somewhere on the internet that it had closed. That bummed me out, but it somehow never occurred to me to doubt the information. Then someone told me that it had not, in fact, closed, and I finally remembered to have a look for myself when I was I in the neighborhood this evening. Just goes to show - don't believe everything you read on the internet!

I'll be damned if I can figure out why there seems to be so much misinformation out there about Uncle George's. I have read more bad notices of this place than any restaurant that I love that I can think of. And I have never had a bad meal here. Keep it simple and traditional, and you'll be fine. And be sure that at least one meat from the rotisserie is part of your meal. Tonight proved that their kontosouvli (pork) - my single favorite menu item here - is still as great as ever. Fourteen bucks gets you a huge portion of 12-15 chunks of beautifully seasoned spit-roasted pork, plus a side dish (their lemon potatoes are excellent).

 I brought a friend from Portugal here a few years ago who, like most Portuguese, takes good food very seriously. He took one bite of the pork and said "It was worth coming all the way from Portugal just to taste this." The arni souvlas (lamb) is almost as good.

Also not to be missed are the dolmadakia, grape leaves stuffed with rice and meat, served hot covered in an egg-lemon sauce. My favorite grape leaves anywhere. Start with some traditional cold dips for an appetizer--the traditional trio of skordalia (mashed potato and garlic), taramosalata (fish roe spread), and tzatziki (yogurt, cucumber, and garlic) is uniformly great. Not that I'm an expert, but the texture of each one seems just right (unlike those of Taverna Kyclades), and the flavors are clear and strong.

The oven-roasted leg of lamb here is also very good, and I still remember a delicious orzo cooked in the roasting juices that came with it (this was years ago) - I'm not sure if that's something they have regularly, but it's worth asking. Although I've never ordered fish here, carnivore that I am, I'm told their whole grilled fish are good and I believe it. I also hear that this is not the place to get things like gyro and souvlaki, but I can't imagine why you would with so many other stellar options on the menu.

Oh, and it's open 24 hours.  But try to go during more or less normal eating times - at off times, things can rather obviously have been sitting around and warmed up.

Uncle George's Greek Taverna
33-19 Broadway, Astoria 11106
718-626-0593
(N or Q train to Broadway, then 2 blocks east)

Taverna Kyclades

Yet another excellent meal at Taverna Kyclades this evening. Although this place is hardly a secret, at least not to the Astoria locals, somehow not all that many people seem to know about it. For Mediterranean seafood preparation it has few peers in any borough, at any price. Scrupulously fresh seafood, simply prepared is the reason to come here. Scallops are especially good--get them fried rather than broiled--as are the grilled calamari. Here, if it sounds good it probably is, although on a past visit the sole fillet stuffed with crabmeat was rather dry (I wonder if one can ask them not to broil it quite so long...). Stellar lemon potatoes. The only slight disappointment this evening was the cold antipasto, which is the usual trio of Greek dips: skordalia, taramosalata, and tzatziki. They all seemed a bit over-processed and bordered on gumminess (the dips at Uncle George's--the Astoria Greek restaurant internet foodies love to hate, though I have never had a bad meal there--have been superior on every occasion).

Still, overall the best Astoria Greek restaurant I know, and the quality/price ratio is excellent.

Taverna Kyclades
33-07 Ditmars Blvd., Astoria 11105
(718) 545-8666
http://www.tavernakyclades.com/
(N or W train to Ditmars, then a block and a half east)