Matthew Yglesias: Bukhara in Queens

Bukhara in Queens

I never understood quite why there were a whole bunch of restaurants in Queens run by Jewish immigrants from Central Asia, but when you live in New York you just get used to inexplicable stuff like that. Today, about seven years after I first wondered about this and three years after I totally forgot that neighborhood existed, the Times explains all. Central Asian food is tasty, whereas Russian food is disgusting. The saving grace of Nizhny Novgorod cuisine was the few establishments run by the Central Asian community. And McDonald's.

January 18, 2006 | Permalink

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Comments

"I never understood quite why there were a whole bunch of restaurants in Queens run by Jewish immigrants from Central Asia"

Rego Park has been the new Lower East Side for a very long time now.

Posted by: Petey | Jan 18, 2006 5:40:26 PM

"Russian food is disgusting"

Yeh, sure, there's the fatty sausage, those disgusting little fish in aspic, the stale, tasteless bread, the desserts all with that weird aftertaste, the absence of spices, etc., ad nauseum. But on the other hand that cottage cheese, tabarok or something like that, is pretty good. The caviar can be tasty. Borscht, when prepared properly, is in the same ballpark as delicious. The vodka, if you buy the right brands, is excellent. And then there's .... I'll have to get back to you.

Posted by: ostap | Jan 18, 2006 5:54:31 PM

Matthew,

You are a loon, or have never eaten real Russian food. I'll take blini with black caviar over anything in Central Asia. There is no bread in the US as good as real Russian black bread. I lived in Nizhny in 1993 and even then you could get passable Russian food, it must have gotten better since then. The Russian restaurants in Boston and New York are actually pretty decent.

Moreover there is no "Central Asian" cuisine. There is nomad cuisine and city cuisine. Nomad cuisine (in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) is pretty offputting to most Westerners (chunks of boiled mutton, smoked horse meat, kazy - that is basically a horse rectum, fermented mares milk, etc.). Uzbek food is generally good. Georgian cuisine is by far the best but there don't seem to be any Georgian restaurants in the US, just token Georgian dishes at most Russian restaurants.

Posted by: Vanya | Jan 18, 2006 5:54:57 PM

Russian food is great. I'll admit I have trouble with some of the savory infused vodkas, but the salads, borscht, black bread...come on.

Posted by: tps12 | Jan 18, 2006 8:45:40 PM

Couldn’t agree more Matt. 7 years in Moscow and I still never found a decent Russian meal. Great stuff from the Caucasus though. Georgian, Azerbaijani, etc etc.

Posted by: Tim Worstall | Jan 19, 2006 6:32:04 AM

Russian black bread is great. There's no bread in the world that beats it. Also, Borscht is great, provided there is a dollop of sour cream on top. The rest is no good at all (boiled potatoes and cabbage - yeck.) Of course, I was in Russia in 1986, so my memory of other food is a bit vague (although, since I'm half Polish, I was brought up eating borscht, so I know that quite well).

Central asian food, on the other hand, can be quite interesting. I'm a big fan of the lamb kebab, and ate them quite often when I travelled in the 'Stans. I know Matthew likes goat (as do I, provided it is fresh), but lamb is much better.

I'll have to find this mysterious "Rego Park". Are they sure it's in NYC?

Posted by: Al | Jan 19, 2006 11:56:49 AM

Rego Park is in Queens. Try Queens Blvd and intersection with the LIE.

Posted by: Pan | Jan 19, 2006 2:50:17 PM

Rego Park IS New York, a good personification of what New York IS. If you don't know of it, it's pretty likely you don't really know New York, rather, you know midtown Manhattan and think that is "New York".

And believe me, that was hard for a Bronxite to say, but it's true. I only got places like Arthur Avenue, the local Punk Vietnamese Tex Mex place, and new Dominican diner to brag about. (It's still a little rough around here.)

I've still got quite a few Russians in my "Van Cortlandt Village" hood of the last 5 years, and there's a biggish food mart owned by a Russian, that sells a lot of Russian stuff, but the real action is still up in the 250's where I used to live, where there is still the high rise Russian Diplomatic residence compound. That's really where they sell each other their own food. Used to go in the main Deli. The stuff is not that exciting, but compared to the back of the store at the big Korean foods store, it's not that gross. You want aisles of gross dried and preserved food that looks like it came from an archeological dig, go there, the back of the Korean food store.

I still haven't visited the Halal butcher that opened up down the block, so I'll leave the Arabs out for now.

Hint for the really clueless: New Yorkers don't really pay $7 for a glass of orange juice and $13.95 for their cheeseburgers. Even on the upper east side.

Hey, back to topic--couldn't one say similar about your basic American kosher nosh? Cmon, I'm of Polish Catholic heritage, and I'll admit it, it's all the same cabbage and vinegar.

As for the Russian rye thingie, well, I'll all remind you of one of the most memorable parts of the Heidi story. When Heidi is in the big city, she steals the fine white bread on the table, so fine and soft, like cake, and hides it to take to take back to her grandmother with no teeth.

There's a similar thing you'll find going in a lot of the oral history from Ellis Island, with the Eastern European disapora. Many mention being impressed with being fed at logn tables with pitchers of milk and fine white soft bread.

It's all "taste."

:-)

Posted by: artappraiser | Jan 19, 2006 4:48:12 PM

Petey:

Rego Park has been the new Lower East Side for a very long time now.

I remember visiting shady Russian "art" dealers there already in the early 80's.

While I'm on the topic, I'll mention that the "White Russians," the ones with titles, AND the Russianintelligentsia, have a little 'hood' in Manhattan, the Carnegie Hall area, since at least the 70's, mostly around 58th and 59th streets. That's why Petrossian and similar are there, not the other way around. It happened like it does anywhere else in New York...one got an apartment there (probably a famous musician or two, after asking for exile status) and the next one recommended to so and so to get one too...the interesting thing about it is that there's a mix of the royals with the anti-Soviet persecuted artsies and also upper class Jewish Russian exiles from the pre-Gorby era.

I've also always found it interesting that Petrossian is regularly panned by foodies as one of the worst restaurants in New York. I never heard any of the Russians I met that lived in the area mention it. Like an embarassment.

Posted by: artappraiser | Jan 19, 2006 5:06:24 PM

On third thought...might as well hog the whole thread, what the hell, I'm inspired.

Isn't there really this thing going on where what you call "Russian food" is basically the same as "Yiddish food" and also, Polish food to some extent. It's all poor peasant food using the local "produce." When it's cold half the year, that's cabbage for vitamin C or you'd all be scurvied idiots, and horseradish and other roots to spice up the boring dried meat, and vinegar in everything to keep it from spoiling.

Since Peter the Great at least, the tsars and friends ate French cuisine...pheasant....oranges and lemons from the greenhouse.

Posted by: artappraiser | Jan 19, 2006 5:15:37 PM

Well, I know OF Rego Park. After all, the late, great Doris was from there (anyone who has listened to hundreds of Mets games on the radio, as I have, knows about her).

But come on, there is really a New York outside of Manhattan, or even above 23rd Street? (I know, some people think the cutoff is 14th Street; it's not.) Sure, there is Yankee Stadium and Arthur Avenue. And Williamsburg is part of the East Village. But when I go to my sister's apartment in Greenpoint, that's surely not New York City, is it? And those areas you pass over in the Seven Train on the way to Shea, where is that?

Hint for the really clueless: New Yorkers don't really pay $7 for a glass of orange juice and $13.95 for their cheeseburgers.

$13.95, where can you get burgers that cheaply? The place around the corner from me sells them for $40+...

(Sorry. Apparently I should have put [/tongue-in-cheek] after my Rego Park comment... I found all of your comments quite thoughtful, artappraiser.)

Posted by: Al | Jan 19, 2006 6:15:32 PM

Al
oooh I just only learned about Doris about a year ago. I guess you are savvier than me. I'm a sports dummie and a NY newbie, only 22 years.

Posted by: artappraiser | Jan 19, 2006 6:29:06 PM

"But come on, there is really a New York outside of Manhattan, or even above 23rd Street? (I know, some people think the cutoff is 14th Street; it's not.)"

What on Earth is there between 14th & 23rd? It's just Midtown South. NYC is indeed bounded by 14th to the North.

"And Williamsburg is part of the East Village."

Yup. The L corridor is a geographical oddity.

"And those areas you pass over in the Seven Train on the way to Shea, where is that?"

It's called Long Island. It's the same piece of geography that contains Rego Park, as well as the rest of Queens and Brooklyn. The area is world renowned for its iced tea.

---

Now, I'm not a snob. There's nothing wrong with Rego Park, or with the Bronx, or with Kansas, or even with the UWS. Some of my best friends live in Astoria. But calling those places NYC makes a mockery of the English language.

Posted by: Petey | Jan 19, 2006 9:38:47 PM

What on Earth is there between 14th & 23rd?

You're killing me, Petey!

Posted by: Al | Jan 20, 2006 1:22:06 PM

Petey,

As someone who lives in Jackson Heights (which is about five stops on the 7 from Shea) if I didn't see your tongue planted firmly in cheek, i would be offended.

As for Jackson Heights, the dining is most diverse: Afghani, Argentinean, Bangladeshi, Bolivian, Colombian, Indian, Italian, mexican, Pakistani, Peruvian, Spanish and a few steps away in Woodside where you have great Filipino food, one of the best Thai restaurants in New York as well as the city's best burger place.

For those of you defending Russian food, I'm surprised no one mentioned beef stroganoff. It's so good that it has also been a mainstay in Brazil, although they serve it over rice.

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