Robert Sietsema

New York

Writer at Robert Sietsema's New York

Writer at Freelance

34 years of writing about food in New York City, especially food that you can afford.

Articles

The Signature Dish of Senegal Has Become a Harlem Favorite

1 week ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

Thiebou djenn, the national dish of SenegalThiebou djenne (“pronounced cheb-oo-dzen,” and spelled many different ways) is agreed to be the national dish of Senegal. But let’s call it cheb for short, the name used by most of its adherents. Senegal lies at Africa’s westernmost point, where it sticks its broad chin out into the Atlantic. Coastal areas and …
5 Can't-Miss Hot Dog Destinations

1 week ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

Our collection of places specializing in franks in the five boroughs has become rather slender. Most represent the city’s classic hot dog form — I’m talking Gray’s Papaya and its distinguished ilk: thin, griddled, all-beef franks in a natural casing, smeared with mustard and heaped with sauerkraut or sweet stewed onions. But Jersey is a different hot dog land, parsed into territories depending on how the sausages are cooked and dressed.
The Best Duck in Chinatown

1 week ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

Everyone who visits Chinatown is regaled by the beautiful bronzed ducks hanging in the windows in casual and fancier establishments, often over rice with a sauce of drippings and soy. But look closely, and you’ll see the ducks are not always the same. Some have skins that gleam crisply, others are a paler or darker shade of brown, and still others appear more flattened. Here is a primer on the three kinds of ducks found in Chinatown and where to get them.
Raw Crab Grabs the Spotlight at the New Fish Cheeks

2 weeks ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

Even for those with jaded palates, every once in a blue moon a dish comes along so good it makes them jump up and shout. A friend and I encountered one of those the other night at the new Fish Cheeks, located in Williamsburg at 661 Driggs Avenue, at the corner of Metropolitan Avenue.
10 Great Cheap Eats Destinations in NYC, Volume 3

2 weeks ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

This bimonthly column features cheap eats worth a trip from any corner of the city. Note that seating may be rudimentary or almost non-existent. Check out the first and second editions of this column. Shu Jiao Fu Zhou295 Grand Street, ChinatownThis cluttered storefront has rapidly become the neighborhood’s favorite cheap eats destination, beloved of visitors and denizens alike. Study the menu on the wall and order soups, noodle soups, or dumplings, some involving offal, but most not.
Where To Eat in Hudson, New York

2 weeks ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

In the seventh season of Seinfeld, George asks Jerry, “What exactly is mutton?” Jerry answers, without hesitation, “I don’t know!” Now, 30 years later, you might find out at Café Mutton, located at 757 Columbia Street in the southeastern corner of Hudson, NY. Hudson, of course, is the economic miracle city of Columbia County, on the east bank of the Hudson River southeast of Albany.
A Diner’s Wish List for Restaurants

3 weeks ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

Some restaurants have been running into trouble lately, due to spiraling rents, rising labor and utility costs, scarcity of trained staff, and ballooning ingredient expenses, all intensified by the pandemic. These pressures caused some restaurants to change the way they operate, curtailing amenities, reducing comfort level, installing reservations systems that make it difficult to actually get one, and sometimes treating customers in rude ways.
A Great New Pastrami Taco Arrives From Mexico City

3 weeks ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

For decades, our comrades in Los Angeles have been turning out untraditional dishes utilizing pastrami — big smoky hunks of it, principally in burritos, but also in things like burgers, shakshuka, tacos, and quesadillas. In the meantime, most Big Apple restaurants and delis stick to sandwiches, with the pink cured meat appearing occasionally in other creative contexts — such as the gargantuan pastrami rib at Tatiana, and, sprinkled with pickled mustard seeds in a taco at Empellon Taqueria.
10 low-budget restaurants that are worth a detour to St. Mark’s Place

3 weeks ago | gothamist.com | Robert Sietsema

Perhaps no street has its fingers on the pulse of Downtown New York better than St. Mark's Place. For decades, it has been the point of entrance not only to the East Village but to a youthful lifestyle where fads are on display more readily than anywhere else. Entire generations have washed down the street like a flash flood: Beats, jazz cats, hippies, punks, Japanese expats, rappers, street kids, sidewalk preachers and people with extensive tattoos. Every group has left its mark.
Charcoal Grilled Meats Are Still a Bargain in Sunnyside

4 weeks ago | robertsietsema.substack.com | Robert Sietsema

Twenty years ago, there were a half dozen Romanian restaurants in Sunnyside, including vampire-themed disco Transilvania, and a lively corner bar with a soundtrack of romantic Italian American ballads called Harmony — both now closed. In fact, only a pair of places remain, Romanian Garden (basically, a Romanian steakhouse) and Danubius. On a recently weekday evening, two friends and I visited Danubius, located in a backwater south of Queens Boulevard at 47-57 41st Street.