It’s been brought to my attention that I have a problem with overusing superlatives: Santa Fe is the best city I’ve ever been to, that’s the coolest pair of shoes I’ve ever seen, that’s the funniest thing you’ve ever said. I’m the boy who cried “best.”
So you’re within your rights to question my raves — except when it comes to chicken and rice. Then I really, really mean it.
Chicken and rice, chicken and rice, how I love thee. You are my two favorite foods, separately and, more important, together. The fact that nearly every culture has a version of chicken and rice is a testament to its nature: lovable, exalted, unrivaled. Dare I say, the best. Here are three versions that make my heart whir.
Chicken over rice rarely does me wrong
There are so many halal carts in Midtown that have done me right over the years. Before the pandemic, mind you, there was a time when I spent five days a week in Times Square. Royal Grill Halal Food isn’t the closest to The Times’s newsroom, but, on a Reddit suggestion, I trotted out in the rain for a white plastic container of exactly what the two people ahead of me ordered: chicken over rice with white sauce, green sauce and hot sauce. My preferred amount of sauce is the amount that, at first glance, makes this a soup. (…slop?) But unearth the tender yellow rice and burnished, fiery (like, actually spicy!) chicken buried underneath and the ratio works itself out just fine.
Congee that can heal what ails you
Does it feel like everyone is getting sick right now? What you need when you feel it coming — besides rest, multivitamins, oil of oregano and electrolytes — is a bowl of chicken congee from Maya Congee Cafe. Both locations of the counter-service, daytime-only cafe, in Clinton Hill and Bed-Stuy, couldn’t be cuter. The rich-but-nothing-crazy braised chicken porridge is made punchier with a dollop of golden sambal, and becomes astonishingly filling with the addition of an egg (chicken, duck or cured century duck egg).
563 Gates Avenue (Tompkins Avenue)
1013 Fulton Street (Grand Avenue)
Can’t miss this cutlet
When Davelle first opened in the Lower East Side, it felt impossible to snag a table. (Fair enough, as the place is tiny, the hours are short, and the checkerboard toasts cry out to be Instagrammed.) Now, somehow, it’s been six years, and, while the passage of time is tripping me out, the upside is that I can more reliably walk into Davelle, sit by the big windows and eat a perfect chicken katsu don. The breaded, fried chicken thigh is cooked in a savory egg-onion-soy-mirin-dashi combination, all served over, you guessed it, rice.
102 Suffolk Street (Delancey Street)
One Reader Question
Salads/salad bars in Manhattan that are better than Chop’t or Sweetgreen, just looking for a better salad! — Harold
Finally, finally. This is my moment to write about my hyperfixation spot: ThisBowl. This is a (bear with me) Australian fast-casual bowl place, and my sustained love for it is the best thing to come out of my TikTok restaurant story. There’s one location in NoHo, and one that just opened in NoMad (I’ll be going by soon to make sure it’s up to par). The menu is overwhelming, but the easy move is the miso salmon bowl: miso-glazed salmon, massaged cabbage, scallions, cilantro, avocado, dressed with tamari ponzu and sprinkled with tamari almonds. Mark my words, when I (mysteriously) become a billionaire, I’ll be eating this $17 salad for lunch every single day.
65 Bleecker Street (Crosby Street)
Read past editions of the newsletter here.
If you’re enjoying what you’re reading, please consider recommending it to others. They can sign up here.
Have New York City restaurant questions? Send us a note at here.
Follow NYT Food on TikTok and NYT Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest.
The post Chicken and Rice Forever appeared first on New York Times.
