India: Lunch at Mehfil via Jackson Heights, Queens

Mehfil Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queen  

Subway: Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue stop   

Location: 76-05 37 Avenue, Jackson Heights, NY 11372 (718) 429-3297

Short and Bald LOVE Indian food!

SHORT: L-o-v-e   I-n-d-i-a-n   f-o-o-d!

BALD: I-n-d-i-a-n   f-o-o-d.   L-o-v-e it!

Like many, however, we’ve had our share of hits and misses with this cuisine –

BALD: And the misses can be…

SHORT: Unforgettable! Especially when you’re still two blocks from home...

In Manhattan, there’s a concentration of eccentrically lit Indian and Bangladeshi restaurants on the lower east side, (we’ll go there in a future blog), some great Pakistani and Indian restaurants around Gramercy Park, and then there’s “Little Pakistan” itself, which is found in Coney Island, Brooklyn. To find, “Little India”, however, you gotta go to Queens, which is where we’re off to today!

Queens is the biggest New York borough in area, and the second largest in population, after Brooklyn. It is also considered the most ethnically diverse of all New York’s boroughs, which no doubt makes it one of the most multicultural neighborhoods on the planet. There are major populations of Chinese, Korean, Indian, Greek, Italian, Polish, Hispanic, Croatian, Jewish, Filipino, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Arabic and Romanian immigrants, so if you’re in New York and want to internationalize your taste-buds – Queens is your borough!

Jackson Heights Station was recently renovated. It’s a major transport hub with six subway lines and a whole bunch of buses, and it’s also partly solar powered – yay! This is the place to get off for Little India.

Most of New York’s subway system runs underground, but there are some long stretches of track in Queens, Brooklyn and upper Manhattan, which run on overhead tracks. Life beneath the track might appear a bit dingy from this photo, but it does provide welcome shade in summer and a bit of a buffer from the snow and rain in winter.

BALD: It also feels like a big, long roof, which creates a sense of intimacy and concentrated energy on street level. Not exactly pretty, but not ALL bad, either.

A lot of streets across New York are renamed to honor people of significance who have a connection to the neighborhood.

SHORT: We took this photo to show the Indian influence in Jackson Heights, without knowing who Kalpana Chalwah was. Thanks to a Google search, we now know she was an Indian-American scientist and NASA astronaut who was killed, with 7 others, in the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.

BALD: Every sign has a story, eh?

After asking around the neighborhood for the best Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, we finally chose Mehfil Indian Cuisine.

BALD: We had originally been directed to place called “Jackson Diner”, but who goes to a place called “Jackson Diner” looking for great Indian food…? Turns out, it’s supposed to offer some of the best food around.

SHORT: Next time!

Mehfil means, “gathering” and the owner of Mehil in Queens told us his restaurant was once a big deal in Manhattan , but they moved recently to Queens. The food must be good – while we were eating, the owner welcomed a couple of old customers who had come all the way from Manhattan to wish the owner luck at his new location.

BALD: The restaurant is a little bit of a walk from Jackson Height’s Station, but as you’ll see later on, there’s a lot to distract you along the way.

SHORT: And if you get tired, you can always get your Bald to carry you.

As you can see, the dining area is one, long room, with booth and table seating. They have an excellent lunch buffet for $8.50 with a good selection of dishes right at the front near the street.

We opted to choose dishes from the menu, as we arrived in mid-afternoon and the buffet was about to close. First up, our friendly Nepalese server brought us a basket of very spicy papadum with the customary three sauces, tamarind (dark, mildly spicy and sweet), sweet tomato (red, very sweet and very delicious!), and hot mint (green, quite runny and not too hot).

You’ll get served papadums with condiments (often with a variety of mango chutney) in most Indian restaurants as a free appetizer. Papadams are wafer thin and crispy like a big cracker and made from rice, chickpea or lentil flour. They can be deep-fried, toasted over a flame, sun dried, or even micro-waved and it’s usually the black pepper which makes them so hot and spicy.

Mehfil offer 7 appetizers, and Short ordered their Vegetables Pakora ($3.95). They’re described as “seasoned vegetable fritters” –

SHORT: – and that’s exactly what they are! Deep fried, moist, not too oily, mildly spiced vegetable fritters. Yum! But you have to eat them quickly, as they do dry out.

BALD: That’s your excuse, anyway. But they are VERY delicious!

For his appetizer, Bald ordered Fish Pakora ($11.95), which is fish marinated with yoghurt and lemon juice, then lightly battered and quickly fried.

BALD: This dish sounds and looks beautiful…but there was something a bit missing in the flavor department. There could have been more character to the batter, so the taste matched the beautiful, bright color. It was cooked well, the batter wasn’t too thick, and it was moist, just a bit lacking in “personality”.

BALD: It looks so lush, and moist and fresh, and it was – just not as tasty as it seems…

SHORT: Look at that steam! You can almost smell the spices, can’t you?

For her entree, Short ordered Chicken Tikka ($9.95) from the Tandoori Specialties menu. Here’s how it’s described: “Boneless chicken marinated in yoghurt and mild spices and cooked in tandoor”.

A tandoor, or tandoori oven, is basically a huge, clay pot, with sides that slope in at the top to make an exhaust hole. Traditionally, charcoal coals are used in the bottom of the oven to achieve very high, very dry heat (sometimes as high as 900F) which cooks food crispy on the outside, but moist on the inside.

To keep the temperate high, tandoori ovens are usually kept burning for many hours. The famous reddish appearance of many tandoori dishes, (usually beef, chicken and fish), comes from the dry spice rub, but you can also cook bread in a tandoor oven. The “must have” naan bread is baked by slapping the uncooked dough onto the inside of the oven, and then peeling it off a few minutes later. Timing is everything, and it takes a lot of patience and expertise to cook naan bread in a tandoor. 

BALD: A lot of what?

SHORT: Patience.

BALD: What?

SHORT: Patience.

BALD: What?! Oh, bugger this. I’m going outside to shout at some old people crossing the street.

Tandoor ovens are found in India, Pakistan and Iran, though variations on the clay oven cooking method are found in Turkey, Greece, Mexico and central America.

SHORT: I enjoyed this. I could really taste the smoke from the oven and the meat was dense and full of spices. The only down side was that it did get pretty dry the longer it was at the table.

BALD: I know, I know. “Which is why you had to eat it quickly!” I must remember that excuse when my dessert comes.

SHORT: Beautiful presentation, though. The deep green cilantro and peppers looks great against the dark red meat. And the hot, metal plate keeps it warm for quite a while.

Garlic naan! This naan was a bit more like a pizza than the naan we’ve had before. It was thinner, crustier and less moist, but we really enjoyed it. It was v-e-r-y garlicky!

SHORT: Give us a kiss, love!

For an entree, Bald decided to be bold and ordered Kathari Goat ($12.95), which turned out to be a combination of goat and lamb marinated in some wonderful spices.

BALD: I’ve never eaten goat before, and I was a bit nervous, but I have to say, it was delicious. Less oily than the lamb in the dish, the goat was denser in texture, and a bit stringier, without being dry. The flesh just fell off the bone.

BALD: I really liked this dish. The flavors were rich and deep, and the goat and lamb were quite distinct from each other. I enjoyed honing down on some of the strong flavors which occasionally appeared in my mouth, like the cloves, the cumin seeds in their pods, and the methi leaves, which taste a lot like bay leaves. The rice was light and fluffy.

SHORT: Like your hair.

BALD: Very funny! At least I can see above the table.

Before we could even ask for the dessert menu, our sweet server brought us a complimentary rice pudding! Which we both love.

BALD: L-o-v-e rice pudding.

SHORT: Rice pudding? L-o-v-e it.

We even learned to say, “Dhanybhad”, which is thank you in Nepalese!

Our Overall Opinion of Mehfil:

1. The food is very authentic and delicious.

2. The menu is extensive with a good selection of tandoori meat dishes and breads.

3. They have a fantastic buffet lunch every day from 11am till 4.00pm, with a great variety of dishes, and at $8.50, it’s one of the best deals in the city!

4. There’s a good selection of vegetarian dishes if you’re not into meat, but if you’re a meat-eater, take the goat for a spin.

5. Portion sizes are generous, the appetizers are especially large, meaning you’ll certainly leave feeling well-fed.

6. The restaurant is new, with booth and table seating. It’s not as atmospheric as some Indian restaurants we’ve been to, but it will probably develop character as it ages.

7. It’s a bit of a walk from Jackson Height’s station, but the area is interesting and there’s a lot to see on the way (see below).

8. Good prices – great value!

Little India in Jackson Heights is centered around 74^th Street between Roosevelt Avenue and 37^th Avenue. There are some blocks where you really feel like you’ve left New York city behind.

SHORT: Looks like us!

As is the case with many immigrant populations, barriers from old countries usually disappear once everyone mixes in their new country. Maybe one day, all countries will be truly multicultural and there’ll be no more border disputes, no more “ethnic cleansing”, no more war… And maybe, one day, you’ll be able to catch a subway to anywhere in the world for $2.50. 

We discovered that as well as coming here for the great food, Indians, Bangladeshi’s and Pakistani’s flock to Jackson Heights to do their clothing, jewelry and music shopping.

74^th Street is chock-a-block with Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi clothing stores. It’s mainly formal wear for special occasions, especially weddings.

BALD: I read recently that the popularity of Indian films like “Monsoon Wedding” and “Slumdog Millionaire”, has led a lot of western women to get married in traditional Indian clothing. It sure does look like the wedding business is thriving in Jackson Heights!

We spoke to this beautiful bride-to-be as she tried on several wedding saris. We were surprised to learn her family had come all the way from the West Indies to buy her outfit. There’s now a huge Indian population in the West Indies – which sort of makes up for Christopher Columbus’s mistaken assumption that he’d landed in India when he’d really landed in the Caribbean islands south of Florida way back when. How the world turns!

Apart from traditional clothing, there are plenty of jewelry stores in Jackson Heights. Gold is especially popular, and we passed window after window of elaborate looking necklaces, rings and bangles.

SHORT: “Passed” being the operative word, here. “Passed” means we didn’t stop. Or go in. Bald didn’t buy me one gold necklace. Not even one!

BALD: There isn’t a necklace here that can match the immense, price-less-ness of the love I feel for you.

SHORT: Cheapskate!

Lots of pinks and yellows and bright colors. We realized how uniform our color palette is in the west, and how dazzling the colors are in India, both in their clothing and shop fronts!

We occasionally came across some vegetables we’d never seen before.

BALD: This is not a vegetable. These are really alien, legless, deep-sea moles from a galaxy far, far away. Delicious with a dry, chardonnay.

We think this image captures something wonderful about New York. This traditionally dressed gentleman, manning a street stall, might not look out of place in India or Pakistan, were it not for his bright orange, dyed hair and beard. He looks much more at home in front of a short, yellow bus, on the sidewalk of one of the most ethnically diverse cities in the world.

BALD: Vive le difference!

SHORT: I didn’t know you knew Hindi.

BALD: Cute!

Got your metrocard-passport in your bum-bag? Great! We got another fantastic adventure ready to go!