Bukharian Restaurants in Queens
For those of you who don’t read the New York Times Dining & Wine section regularly, here is article on Central Asian restaurants in Queens that appeared last week. The reporter describes kosher Bukharian restaurants in glowing terms:
A spirit of abundance pervades Bukharian restaurants. Kebabs of pure lamb fat, crisp and smoky, perfume every dining room. Platters of plov are enormous. And warm chewy bread called lepeshka, like a huge bialy, keeps coming until you say stop. A few doors down at Fortuna restaurant, the owner, Isak Babayev, mourns the barberries, the sweet yellow carrots, the pomegranates and the fresh walnuts of his native Uzbekistan. “Everything was organic, although we didn’t know that word,” he said in Russian. “There were the most wonderful red- and yellow-fleshed melons, and green grapes as long and thin as a woman’s fingers.”
A list of the best Central Asian restuarants in New York includes three kosher establishments. There is also a recipe for shurpa lagman, an elaborate lamb and vegetable stew served over noodles.
FWIW, my barber is Bukharan and before the article, he said that CHEBURECHNAYA was the best. Also, I wouldn’t describe lepeshka as like a bialy, though it’s damn good.
That’s funny, my husband’s barber says the same thing - I wonder if you two have the same barber - Boris?
No, mine’s name is Greg. He told me there’s a great tradition of Bukharan barbers, though, so I’m sure those aren’t the only two!
Do you know who gives those restaurants their Hechsher? I called one for more information - but the person who answered the phone didn’t speak english particularly well.
I called the Chabad House of Rego Park and was told that the only Bukharian restaurant with a good Hechsher was Gan Eden on Queens Boulevard. That was their opinion, but if someone knows who gives the certification, I’d like to ask my Rav.
alas! cherbechenaya went nonkosher last month. My SO and i chapped a rein and had a lovley dinner there before they changed over and it was an experience to be remembered. I made a plov-inspired cholent last week in memoriam of that place….