Eating Astoria: Arepas Cafe & Sweet Afton again

Since moving (back) to New York, I've been introduced to the delicious wonder that is the arepa. This South American specialty is a thick patty made from cornmeal or flour and can be stuffed with meats, beans, cheeses, and veggies. So you can imagine my excitement when I was told there was a tasty arepas place close to where I live. Arepas Cafe on 36th Ave. serves a damn good Venezuelan arepa.

This arepa had shredded beef, black beans, fried sweet plantains, and white cheese. I don't remember what was in the red and green sauces that they had on the table but I couldn't stop putting them all over everything.

Black beans and rice. I can never figure out how to make my rice and beans taste this good at home.

Also because I forgot to include these in my post about Sweet Afton a few days ago, here are two more photos from there. 

Portobella burger and fried pickles. The burger was good, the breading on the pickles was weird and puffy but I can't say no to fried anything usually.

Sorry about the quality of these photos, they were taken with my phone. I'm going to start bringing my actual camera around with me again, hopefully.

Houston

I was in Houston over the Thanksgiving holiday this past year, and my boyfriend drove down from Austin on Black Friday to meet me and hang out in the city. He used to live in Houston so he wanted to take me to all the places he used to like to eat.

Morning eats:

Egg and chorizo breakfast taco from Chilosos, jalapeno sausage and cheese kolaches from Christy's Donuts, the inside of Christy's Donuts, B at Inversion Coffee laughing at me.

Afternoon eats:

Spring rolls, Vietnamese coffee, bahn mi - all from Les Givrals, fancy cocktails from Anvil.

Evening eats:

B took me to Yum Yum Cha in Rice Village for dim sum but I was too enthusiastic about the veggie dumplings and sesame balls that I forgot to take pictures of everything.

And of course, no trip to Houston is complete without Tex Mex from a 24-hour restaurant following a night of drinking. So much cheese. So much.

Eating (and Drinking) Astoria

In an effort to catch up, I'm lumping together three places I've been to in Astoria in the past year or so. Good food, good drink, good timezzzz.

The Sparrow Tavern
A cute little pub across the street from the Bohemian Hall Beer Garden.

Steak sandwich and fries.

Pumpkin crème brûlée!

Obviously, we ate it all.

MexiBBQ

Despite the goofy name, my roommate and I decided to try out this place for brunch this past summer. Kind of hard to go wrong with unlimited mimosas in glasses the size of your head. Food wasn't bad either.

M-m-mimosas

Breakfast quesadilla. It was just okay.

Cap'n Crunch French toast.

Brunch is my favorite meal of the day.

Sweet Afton

Probably my favorite bar in Astoria so far, because it's super cute inside, is close to where I live, and has good food and beer.

A pint and fries

Mac and cheeeeeeeeeese

That's all I've got for now. Off to enjoy the rest of my day off!  (aka climb into bed for another four hours).

I'm back!

After a very long and extended hiatus, Jo-Anne Doing Things is back.

Since my last entry, there have been a few holidays, a couple trips back to Texas, a hurricane, a lot of eating, and a new year has come around. 2012 for me was about a lot of new beginnings: new job, new relationship, new apartment in a different borough. And I started this blog. While things didn't always go so smoothly, I think for the most part this past year was a very, very good one.

2013 will hopefully be a great year for doing things, I'm very excited about it.

There are a few Eating Astoria posts I never got around to from last year that I'll be putting up in the next couple days, and a few Texas ones as well. For now though, please enjoy this photo of Franklin Barbecue from Austin, Texas. Pork ribs that fell right off the bone, moist brisket, delicious sausage, and potato salad and coleslaw. Food on another level, you guys. On. Another. Level.

Texas.

Somehow all my posts became about food, but I didn't mean for this to become a food blog. I haven't really written anything about my personal life in a while, so I figured now would be a good time. Although this post does feature food, too. Oh well.

I went back home to Texas two weeks ago and had a really great time seeing family and friends, and of course, stuffing my face. If you follow me on Instagram you have already seen most of these photos, but I don't care what you think deal with it.

I ate a lot. My parents made so much awesome food while I was home in Houston, including this Filipino dish, pancit palabok.

More food at home (clockwise): Vietnamese sandwich, a fresh coconut for drinking, and a lot of Filipino desserts: bibingka (a type of rice cake), puto (the colored rice cakes), kutsinta (orange sticky rice cake), pichi-pichi (sweet gelatinous dessert made from grated cassava), and kamote (a type of sweet potato I think)  

I also looked through a bunch of old photo albums one day when I was bored.

Then I drove to Austin with my brother.

Did some cool things with cool people.

And ate a lot of great food. Clockwise: Mexican martini, sno cone from Casey's New Orleans Sno Balls, BBQ from Stiles Switch BBQ, chicken enchiladas from Polvos

I already can't wait to go back again, but it probably won't be until Thanksgiving :(

Other things:

• It's starting to get cooler in New York and I'm still not used to real seasons so I find it odd that it's cooling down so early in September. I like it, but then again I don't because I feel like summer wasn't long enough. I need more time to wear cut offs and sundresses, goddammit.
• I enjoy my job and the people I work with. I'm starting to work on different projects and clients, so that has been really interesting and cool. Yay for being a functioning adult in the real world.
• I went to Meatopia last weekend which is a meat food festival here in New York, and it was AWESOME. Separate entry about that coming very soon.
• :) :) :)

Eating Astoria: Fatty's Cafe

I'm so behind on blogging! This is the first of three Eating Astoria posts I've had planned for awhile, hopefully I'll get them all posted. I'm back home in Texas for the week so I have a little extra time to spare. Also, look out for some Texas themed posts, because damn I missed food from home. Anyway, back to Fatty's.

I wanted to try Fatty's on Ditmars originally because they had mofongo, which I've always wanted to try. Unfortunately they only served it at brunch and we went for dinner. They serve Latin American food here, and everything was really delicious and filling.

Hard to mess up guac and chips. And if they do, just leave the restaurant immediately because that means they can't get anything right.

Kind of pricey mojitos, but damn they were strong.

I love empanadas. I think we got cheese, beef, and chorizo.

My entree: Steak frite, with shallots and parsley butter. I substituted frites for tostones, fried plantains. I ate the whole thing.

My friend got this giant burrito, I think it's wrapped in a black bean tortilla or something?

 

And my other friend got the grilled skirt steak and a side of asparagus. Real meat-heavy meals if you can't tell.

We were completely stuffed when we left. I definitely want to come back for brunch and finally try mofongo, plus I've read they have a lovely outside patio in the daytime. Also I could use another one of those mojitos.

Eating Astoria: Queens Comfort

I decided to try out Queens Comfort after reading through their eclectic and mouth-watering menu (Cap'n Crunch chicken fingers, PB&J burger, chicken and waffles, Mexican-style grilled corn, to name a few). It's located on 30th Ave and as we walked down the street on an early Saturday night, it was bustling and busy and dotted with a ton of crowded restaurants and bars that we made note to try out in the future. 30th Ave is totally happenin' and it's a 15 minute walk from my apartment so we're definitely planning on going out there one of these nights. Anyway, Queens Comfort is totally cute and everything we got was SO DELICIOUS OH MY GOD SERIOUSLY.

Their version of elote, which is Mexican-style grilled corn, similar to the corn you get in front of the H-E-B or Fiesta in Texas. This was smothered in mayo and Parmesan cheese and Sriracha sauce and tasted like home.

CAP'N CRUNCH CHICKEN FINGERS. No, your eyes do nay deceive you, that is powdered up Cap'n Crunch Cereal. Food on a whole other level. This is real life you guys.

For my entree I couldn't decide between the meatloaf sandwich or the beer braised chicken flautas, but after chomping down on two appetizers I thought the chicken flautas would be the lighter option of the two. It probably was, but not by much, because I got 3 gigantic flautas on a huge bed of corn salsa/salad stuff. It was really tasty, plus I always appreciate any dish that comes with a fried egg on top.

My roommate ordered the fried chicken and waffles, which were also, of course crazy good.

Another awesome plus is that the restaurant is BYOB, so we walked into a Duane Reade and picked up a six-pack to enjoy with our ridiculous meal.

We probably went a bit overboard on the food, because I was uncomfortably full after all of that, plus drinking two beers. Somehow, I dragged myself all the way home, collapsed on the couch and refused to move for the rest of the night. But it was so worth it. NO. REGRETS.