Pete Wells Visits Sri Lanka by Way of Shaolin

[dave sanders for the ny times]If there's good food abuzz, Pete Wells will find it. He ended 2012 with a review of Thirty Acres in Jersey City. He's already been to Brooklyn this year, and now he files on Lakruwana on Staten island.

Eric Asimov wrote about Lakruwana in 1995, explaining, "the restaurant, at the time the only Sri Lankan restaurant I knew of in New York, was unlicensed. To get to Lakruwana you had to climb six floors above a pornographic theater near Times Square. You entered a suite and walked to a back room past shelves of exotic canned foods like jackfruit and shark curry. In the back was a wooden picnic table with benches and, unaccountably, an umbrella. That was the "restaurant."" Fortunately, the restaurant operates legally now.

"Lakruwana relocated to Staten Island," Wells explains, "where an estimated 5,000 Sri Lankans have settled over the past few decades." It'll take some extra time to get to, but go to Lakruwana on a Sunday, when the restaurant serves an all-day buffet, the food for which is kept hot in clay pots that sit over open flames. On what's inside, Wells writes, "Lifting the lids, I found deviled chicken in a chile sauce with a balance of sweetness and spice that grew more captivating the more I ate; sticks of pineapple in a lightly hot curry paste soured with tamarind; chopped kale mixed with coconut and stir fried just until the greens begin to relax, a wonderful thing to do to kale; fat yellow lentils stewed in coconut milk with the warming flavors of mustard seeds, curry leaves and cinnamon sticks." Wells awards one star.

In a seperate article Wells penned for Diner's Journal, Wells explains how he came to discover Lakruwana, writing that, after Hurricane Sandy, "Staten Island was one of the places very much on my mind, and soon I began driving across the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to scout for prospects." Wells goes on to mention a handful of dining options and praise the oft forgotten borough. [NYTimes] [Diner'sJournal]

Wing Week: Part III

Jamar White and Ronald Lee are the owners of Buffalo Boss on Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn. Their store is a quick-serve wing joint proudly serving organic, hormone free wings that have become "The official wings of the Brooklyn Nets." Jay-Z is Jamar White's cousin, and the H to the Izzo has a (fistful of dollars) hand in the operation. White explains, "Jay-Z's involvement in the business is excellent. I'm his first cousin and we grew up together. He's like my older brother and so he supports me in everything that I do. When I told him about the wing concept, the location we had, and the vision for it, he's a good business man, so he was like, 'Let's do it.'"

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Wing Week: Part II

We launched Wing Week yesterday out of our devotion to the Buffalo Wing. It was introduced in the '60s by way of Buffalo, New York, and credit usually goes to Teressa Bellissimo, who founded Buffalo's Anchor Bar with her husband Frank in 1935 (the restaurant's been at its current Main Street address since 1937). Regardless of whether or not you support the Bellissimo history, or favor Duff's over Anchor Bar, you're celebrating a region-specific food that is enjoyed far beyond its Western New York origin. Next up on Wing Week? Wogie's in the West Village.

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Wing Week: Part I

The National Chicken Council (real thing) predicts Americans will eat more than 1.25 billion chicken wings this weekend. So, each day in the week leading up to the Super Bowl, we'll show you one of our favorite spots that does Buffalo Chicken Wings right. They aren't broiled or roasted. They're not grilled or smoked, and they're definitely never, ever breaded. Buffalo Wings are deep fried and tossed in a simple, vinegar-based hot sauce/butter combo. Some places go the extra mile and brine their wings and/or give them a a double fry, but at their root, Buffalo Wings are a simple food. We love the barbecue renditions found about town at the likes of Dinosaur BBQ (Wango Tango) and The Smoke Joint, but this week, we're sticking to the classics. There aren't any Duff's in New York City, but that doesn't mean there are no good wings. First up? The Wing Bar.

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Eat the Week; Jan 21st - 25th

Andrew Carmellini and chef de cuisine of soon-to-open Lafayette preview dishes at The Dutch | Paul Liebrandt sets his sets on Williamsburg, where he'll be opening The Elm in the King & Grove Hotel this spring | Pete Wells awards two stars to Elizabeth Falkner's Krescendo on Atlantic Avenue | Calexico announces they're shooting for a March opening for their Park Slope location | The food at Xi'an Famous Foods will warm you up | Donde Dinner? - 415 Tompkins Avenue

Donde Dinner? - 415 Tompkins Ave

Donde Dinner? wants to make your next dining experience an adventure. So, every Friday, we pick a restaurant and post its address for you. The catch is, that's all the information you get. No name, no type of cuisine, and no Googling. Here's last week's address:

358 Third Ave = Bamiyan

This week's restaurant follows typical Donde Dinner? fashion. Price, quality, and accessibility have all been taken into account. You won't be waiting at the bar for two hours with $15 cocktails and you never have to worry about a dress code. Just hop on the train, or your feet, or your bike, and head to:

415 Tompkins Avenue in Brooklyn (Where the heck is that?)

Warm Up at Xi'an Famous Foods

The 3,000-year-old city of Xi'an in China lies on the same 34 degree North longitude as Los Angeles. Xi'an isn't a city as familiar with the biting cold winters that we face in New York, but the region-specific menu Jason Wang and his dad David Shi offer at Xi'an Famous Foods couldn't be more appropriate for the bone-chilling winter weather.

There are three Xi'an storefronts: 67 Bayard Street, 81 St. Marks Place, and the original; 41-28 Main Street in Flushing, Queens. We dig the 67 location for its "ample" table space. Noodle dishes and soups make up most of the menus at the three locations - order either spicy and your frozen bones will thaw in minutes. In case you show up and you're too cold to think, follow this easy step-by-step:

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Calexislope Part II

Blue Ribbon Sushi merged with neighrboring Blue Ribbon Brasserie in Park Slope last March. Shortly after, we caught wind that Calexico would be taking over the 278 Fifth Ave space. Little has been heard of since, but Here's Park Slope shares news that the Park Slope location with be opening in March.

The Vendley brothers and Peter Oleyer, owners of Calexico, have been busy readying to open their Lower East Side location. They took over the lease at 153 Rivington Street, where seaside surf shack Bondi Road closed at the end of September after opening in 2006. The LES location will be the first Manhattan satellite when it opens in the upcoming weeks, and the Park Slope outpost will mark the fourth brick-and-mortar for the company that started selling California-inspired tacos from a truck in SoHo six years ago. [HPS]