Native Dish

05/06/2022

Native Dish: Russian/Ukrainian Borscht Soup - NYC Immigrant Cuisine: Valentina Kvasova

n 1999, folk singer and choreographer Valentina Kvasova, came to New York City with her dance troupe to perform as part of a 3-month tour. She always had dreams of stardom, basking in the bright lights of Broadway, thanks to the musical influences of her father and mother (who led the Don Cossack Ensemble as Artistic and Choir Directors). At the end of her tour, she decided to settle in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and learn English.

In the more than two decades that followed as a U.S. Citizen, Valentina formed her own folk singing club, The Russian Social Singing Club, is a member of the Ukrainian Village Voices Choir, has released several folk song albums (based on the collection of folk songs left from her father and mother) and offers dance performances across the United States.

As a way of remembering her home city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, her Cossack, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish heritage, and in honoring her late father, she cooks his secret recipe for Borscht, a hearty vegetable soup made from boiled red beets, cabbage, yellow carrots, onions parsnips, celery, beans and other familiar herbs and seasonings like dill and parsley. A dollop of smetana (sour cream) completes the five sensations of flavors in one bowl: spiciness, saltiness, tartness, tanginess and sweetness. Together with boiled Vareniky (Ukrainian pierogis), it's a healthy meal Valentina used to prepare with her dad while listening to Chopin, a nod to her Polish heritage.

05/03/2022

Native Dish: Russian/Ukrainian Borscht Soup - NYC Immigrant Cuisine: Valentina Kvasova

In 1999, folk singer and choreographer Valentina Kvasova, came to New York City with her dance troupe to perform as part of a 3-month tour. She always had dreams of stardom, basking in the bright lights of Broadway, thanks to the musical influences of her father and mother (who led the Don Cossack Ensemble as Artistic and Choir Directors). At the end of her tour, she decided to settle in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and learn English.

In the more than two decades that followed as a U.S. Citizen, Valentina formed her own folk singing club, The Russian Social Singing Club, is a member of the Ukrainian Village Voices Choir, has released several folk song albums (based on the collection of folk songs left from her father and mother) and offers dance performances across the United States.

As a way of remembering her home city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia, her Cossack, Russian, Ukrainian and Polish heritage, and in honoring her late father, she cooks his secret recipe for Borscht, a hearty vegetable soup made from boiled red beets, cabbage, yellow carrots, onions parsnips, celery, beans and other familiar herbs and seasonings like dill and parsley. A dollop of smetana (sour cream) completes the five sensations of flavors in one bowl: spiciness, saltiness, tartness, tanginess and sweetness. Together with boiled Vareniky (Ukrainian pierogis), it's a healthy meal Valentina used to prepare with her dad while listening to Chopin, a nod to her Polish heritage.

04/01/2022

Got Borscht? The Native Dish team hard at work capturing Valentina’s secret recipe for the next episode, coming soon!

03/18/2022

Native Dish: Nigerian Moin-Moin Pudding - NYC Immigrant Cuisine: Adebisi Olaloko

In 2004, while Nigerian Princess Adebisi Olaloko was living comfortably in Abeokuta, in the Ogun State province of Nigeria, she was granted an opportunity, winning the American Green Card Lottery. She took a chance, knowing there could be greater prosperity in the United States.

Her uncle, living on the North Shore of Staten Island— a community of many African immigrants—took her in while pursuing a career in Healthcare. While living there, and grocery shopping, she eventually found that there were a lack of African goods available. She then switched careers and decided to open a pan-African goods store in her community,. Her business, Legacy Africana Market, helped create more demand for imported African products. Years later, Adebisi expanded her business to include select African housewares and beauty supplies, and opened a second branch that carried these items.

Adebisi began sharing recipes with customers, using ingredients readily found on her store shelves. In this Native Dish, she shares with us her mom's recipe for Moin Moin, a spicy pudding cake made of Nigerian Oloyin brown beans (Olo-2), scotch bonnet peppers, brined mackerel and corned beef. Her version of Moin Moin is a crowd-pleaser both at parties and at her dinner table, with her children asking for seconds and thirds.

02/18/2022

Native Dish: Albanian Kabuni Rice Dessert RECIPE OPERA - NYC Immigrant Cuisine

Native Albanian A***n Krliu came to the United States in the 1970s. Back then, he was a singing waiter at NYC restaurants and found himself in Miami Beach, where by accident, he met a singer, started performing music in hotels and eventually landed a record deal as a funk, pop and disco artist. Several years later while visiting his hometown of Dibra, Macedonia, he met his future wife Deshira, a Soprano with the Macedonian State Opera, who would go on to perform in the world's renowned performance venues including the MET and Carnegie Hall. Deshira eventually turned A***n on to other kinds of music other than funk and pop: the art of classical music, and the two have been performing concerts across New York City ever since. They eventually joined other fellow Dibra and Albanian natives in the Staten Island community of Grasmere.

Both are avid home chefs and preserve their culture through traditional recipes from Dibra, including a sweet, spicy and gooey dessert rice baked with golden raisins, walnuts, cloves, cinnamon and sugar...oh, and shoulder beef brisket, too. Beef brisket in a dessert? While it may be unheard of to many, it adds a chewy texture that you don't taste but feel (umami).

Combining their passions for food and opera, the Krlius present a Native Dish first: a recipe opera based on their famed dessert called Kabuni. Enjoy this special presentation, and call "encore" for seconds and thirds of this decadent delight!

01/04/2022

A family in Downtown Brooklyn makes a refreshing Vietnamese tapioca dessert made popular by street vendors in Ho Chi Minh City.

08/12/2021

Native Dish: Peruvian Arroz Chaufa de Cecina Fried Rice - Warique Restaurant

In the Amazonian rainforests of Pucallpa, Peru, Jimmy Lozano and his cousins once ran a "Warique" -- Quechua for a hidden, informal restaurant -- from their home. His grandmother taught them many of the family's time-honored staples, many of which involved barbecuing, which was popular in their region. In search of better job prospects in the food industry, Jimmy made the decision to move to America in 1994 and happened upon Jackson Heights, Queens, where fellow South Americans lived.

In 2004, while working for a Kosher catering company in Brooklyn, he met his future wife, Maria Rodriguez, a native of the coffee lands of Manizales, Colombia. On a honeymoon trip to Peru, Jimmy exposed her to his home country's culinary diversity, often influenced by many other cultures that immigrated there. It opened them to the idea of opening a restaurant together 7 years later.

Warique Restaurtant first opened its doors on the Upper West Side in 2011 to rave reviews, moved to Astoria a few years later and relaunched in Jackson Heights in 2019. The special feature dish on the menu from Jimmy's family, Arroz Chaufa de Cecina, has become the restaurant's claim to fame. It combines smoking of thin pork strips with the Chaufa (Chinese-influence) style of fried rice wok stir-frying. Topping it with Jimmy's zesty Peruvian Aji Verde green sauce adds a kick to the dish's smoky character, and pairs perfectly with a purple corn Chica Morada drink.

07/16/2021

Native Dish: Filipino Ube Cheese Pandesal Bread, Nora, Jeanette and Kahty

Seeing many Filipino restaurants in their beloved neighborhood of Elmhurst, Queens and a lack of Filipino bake shops, three friends and Philippines natives opened "Kape't Torta" on Queens Blvd in 2019 (literally translated as "Coffee and Pastries."), helping homesick Filipino-Americans enjoy a slice of home.

Many Filipinos enjoy are the familiar taste of Pandesal bread (bread with salt; pan-de-sal), a simple round breakfast roll often covered with breadcrumbs that's dunked in Barako (strong Filipino) coffee. They also enjoy the sweet taste of Ube Purple Yam (known as Halaya or Jalea). Following trends back home, Kape't Torta offers a unique take on the Pandesal that combines Ube yam in its dough and filling and cheddar cheese, called Ube Cheese Pandesal, combining sweet, salty and savory flavors together worthy of being dunked in a morning cup of Barako.

04/05/2021

Two East Village restaurateurs from Thailand offer a spicy stir-fried chicken recipe typically served in their hometown’s street markets.

04/05/2021

Native Dish: Thai Kua Kling Chicken, Aung and P**n, Terra Thai Restaurant

A couple decades back, Thai natives Karuna Wiwattanakantang and Norawat Margsiri (Aung and P**n) came to the United States to study business and economics. To put their studies into practice, they opened a restaurant in Boulder, Colorado in 2013 that would mirror the many dishes served in their home town's street food stalls, which was uncommon in Thai cuisine at the time. It was an inopportune time, as the Colorado floods occurred shortly after opening, but their business thrived. Seeking more diverse pastures, they came to NYC in 2019, and signed the lease to an East Village storefront the next year, only to open during the start of the pandemic.

Through adjusting their business model to takeout and delivery, and with the support of devoted East Village neighbors and patrons, they continue to thrive in featuring reasonably-priced Thai-style street dishes, including one from Aung's Southern Thai hometown of Trang, stir-fried Kua Kling curry, which can be made of pork, beef, shrimp or chicken. Aung and P**n like the taste of chicken best, and infuse it with a savory fry paste made from turmeric, shallots, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and shrimp paste that offers a spicy sensation for the palette.

12/20/2020

Eating With My Five Senses

We’d like to thank Jenny Lam-Chowdhury of the blog Eating With My Five Senses for offering Spanish closed captioning on all of our episodes of Native Dish! As an educational service, she provides Spanish captions for many videos that promote cultural understanding through food. Please visit her website at eatingwithmyfivesenses.blogspot.com. For Native Dish episodes with Spanish captions, visit https://eatingwithmyfivesenses.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html?m=1

A curated collection of culinary videos with subtitles. / Una colección curada de videos culinarios con subtítulos.

12/19/2020

Native Dish: Georgian Khachapuri Bread - NYC Immigrant Cuisine: Filmmaker Katie Orjonikizde-Casey

Nearly 20 years ago, filmmaker, journalist and native of the Georgian capital of Tbilisi, Katie Orjonikizde-Casey, came to Brooklyn's Brighton Beach to continue her reporting career and inform Americans about the happenings in her native country. While here, she learned English, earned a film degree from Brooklyn College and produced several award-winning films that pay homage to the traditions and experiences of Georgian-Americans. Her latest drama short, "Georgian Bread" chronicles a conflicted Georgian bakery owner from Brighton Beach struggling with the decision of holding onto his roots or opening a more lucrative Sushi restaurant instead.

Filmmaker friends who worked with Katie on "Georgian Bread" only had more questions about the star of the movie, Khachapuri, a buttery cheese bread she grew up eating. To entertain them, she began to bake this beloved staple during her house and wrap parties. Katie takes us to a café in Bay Ridge that faithfully continues this culinary tradition in the form of Acharuli Khachapuri--a boat-shaped cheese bread that allows the eater to mix raw eggs with hot cheese and butter inside the face of the bread. cuisine

06/09/2020

The Editor Of Bon Appétit Is Resigning After A Photo Of Him In Brownface Resurfaced — BuzzFeed News

The Editor Of Bon Appétit Is Resigning After A Photo Of Him In Brownface Resurfaced — BuzzFeed News

"I am stepping down as editor in chief of Bon Appétit to reflect on the work that I need to do as a human being and to allow Bon Appétit to get to a better place."

04/20/2020

The Search for International Grocery Items Is Getting Harder in NYC

The Search for International Grocery Items Is Getting Harder in NYC

Locals accustomed to ingredients like atta flour or Napa cabbage — which can be difficult to find in typical grocery stores — are struggling to find the food they need

02/26/2020

We're pleased to announce that our episode, “Senegalese Poisson Yassa" was nominated this year for a New York Emmy Award!! Congratulations to our profiled subject, Chef Cissé of Harlem’s Ponty Bistro restaurant for showing us his favorite family dish, and to our hard-working team, including Ivan Peña, Patrick Ulysse, Tony Austin and Max Shuppert! Fingers crossed...

06/12/2019

Native Dish: Upi Yuliastuti’s Beef Rendang

Check out the newest article from our friends at Culinary Backstreets, featuring the force behind Upi Jaya, Elmhurst's longtime Indonesian restaurant, Upi Yuliastuti and her daughter Tika. Whenever Native Dish features an immigrant profile of a Queens resident (or business), Culinary Backstreets will accompany it with an expanded article told from the subjects' point of view. The CB folks take a peek at Upi's very unique take on a signature Indonesian brisket, spicy Padang Rendang (Beef Rendang).

Upi Yuliastuti, the chef at Upi Jaya Indonesian restaurant in Elmhurst, Queens, is dedicated to her kitchen, wants to share Indonesian food with NY and has her own unique spin on beef redang.

05/25/2019

Thank you Luis Enrique Moncada Torrez for being the 1,000th follower! Sorry, no prize! 😄But thank you for all of your help!!!!

05/24/2019

As of today, we have 999 followers. While we think that number looks kind of cool and can symbolize many things including love, let's get it to over one-thousand! Will you be our new follower today?

05/22/2019

Native Dish: Jimmy Gurung’s Yak Momos

Check out the newest article from our friends at Culinary Backstreets, featuring Jimmy Gurung and Raksha Thapa of Jackson Heights' Himilayan Yak Restaurant. Whenever Native Dish features an immigrant profile of a Queens resident (or business), Culinary Backstreets will accompany it with an expanded article told from the subjects' point of view. The CB folks delve deeper into Jimmy and Raksha's journey to America, and the ways they bring their taste of home to the masses here in NYC. https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/queens/2019/native-dish-5/

Jamyang “Jimmy” Gurung, manager of the Himalayan Yak, and waitress Raksha Thapa delve into their connection to Nepal, love of sharing food and Yak momo.

05/09/2019

Native Dish: Senegalese Poisson Yassa - NYC Immigrant Cuisine: Chef Ejhadji Cissé

One day in 1995, Dakar, Senegalese-native Ejhadji Cissé woke up from a dream of living in New York City. He took this as a sign, and with his cousin Cheihk, immediately headed West to pursue a career in the culinary arts. Upon arriving and getting his bearings in Harlem's "Little Senegal" community, Cissé quickly entered the restaurant business, serving as sous chef for star chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Bouloud. As his talents started getting noticed, he found his way to the finals on the Food Network series "Chopped." He had dreams of opening his own Harlem restaurant, combining French-trained culinary excellence with authentic Senegalese recipes he grew up eating. Voila Ponty Bistro: a restaurant offering locals a taste of West Africa with a French twist. In this episode, Chef Cissé fries up Poisson Yassa, a favorite Sunday dish--one that families greet loved ones with: sea bass flavored with a familiar Yassa onion sauce of lemon, garlic, peppers, dijon mustard and olives.

05/09/2019

Native Dish updated their address.

Native Dish updated their address.

04/16/2019

Native Dish: Isha Sumner’s Garifuna Tortillas

Check out the newest article from our friends at Culinary Backstreets, featuring Gariganu Woodside, Queens residents Isha Sumner. Whenever Native Dish features an immigrant profile of a Queens resident, Culinary Backstreets will accompany it with an expanded article told from the subjects' point of view, now complete with a recipe readers can make from home (in this month's article, Coconut Durudia Tortillas). https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/queens/2019/native-dish-4/

Isha Sumner, an immigrant from Honduras with a large Garifuna family, shares her recipe for durudias, or coconut milk tortillas, with "Native Dish."

03/19/2019

Native Dish: Jeannie Ongkeo’s Tam Mak Hoong

Check out the newest article from our friends at Culinary Backstreets, featuring Jeannie Ongkeo (as profiled in our series) Elmhurst, Queens resident, Lao refugee and retired chef of Tribeca's "Mangez Avec Moi" restaurant. Whenever Native Dish features an immigrant profile of a Queens resident, Culinary Backstreets will accompany it with an expanded article told from the subjects' point of view, now complete with a recipe readers can make from home (in this case, it's Jeannie's recipe for Lao Papaya Salad). https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/queens/2019/native-dish-3/

Jeannie Ongkeo, a refugee from Laos who has lived in Queens for over 40 years, shares her recipe for Tam Mak Hoong, or papaya salad, with "Native Dish."

02/21/2019

We're pleased to announce that two of our episodes, "Fujianese Nian Gao Lunar New Year Cake" and "Mongolian Byaslag Cheese" were nominated this year for two New York Emmy Awards!! Congratulations to our profiled subjects Byambaakhuu Darinchuluun and An Chen, and to our hard-working team, including Stephanie Lui, Sue Handman and Max Shuppert! Fingers crossed...

02/19/2019

Native Dish: Manashe Khaimov and His Family’s Bakhsh

Check out the newest article from our friends at Culinary Backstreets, featuring Queensite and Bukharian community organizer Manashe Khaimov (as profiled in our series), and his family's recipe for traditional Bakhsh green rice. Whenever Native Dish features an immigrant profile of a Queens resident, Culinary Backstreets will accompany it with an expanded article told from the subjects' point of view. https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/queens/2019/native-dish-2/

Manashe Khaimov, who belongs to the Bukharian Jewish community in Queens, share his family’s recipe for bakhsh, or green rice, in this episode of Native Dish.

01/25/2019

Native Dish: Esneider Arevalo’s Arepas

We are very pleased to announce that Culinary Backstreets--the global guide to local eats and cultural food tours, will expand on our Native Dish subjects as part of their Queens, NYC coverage. Whenever Native Dish features an immigrant profile of a Queens resident, Culinary Backstreets will accompany it with an article that delves deeper into the subjects' story, told in their own words. We are excited about joining forces and can't be thankful enough for their help in promoting NYC's immigrant cuisine! https://culinarybackstreets.com/cities-category/queens/2019/native-dish/

In an episode of "Native Dish," CB walk leader Esneider Arevalo shares his family recipe for golden arepas as well as his experience in Colombia and Queens.