New Orleans

Domilise’s: Po’boy Royalty

New Orleans is full of surprises, but the beauty of Domilise’s is that it’s exactly what you’d expect from a po’boy joint. Located uptown on Annunciation Street, the yellow house on the corner has been serving up food for the neighborhood along the Mississippi Riverbend for over a hundred years. We watch as customers line up below the hand-painted wood sign to get a taste of straightforward sustenance. There are no shortcuts here: tasty “debris” – the tender bits of meat that fall off a roast beef – are cooked for hours into gravy before Mary Lou and her team generously ladle it atop crisp loaves of Leidenheimer (a local brand of French bread that’s been around even longer than Domilise’s).

Queens

Merit Kabab: South Asian Steam Table

As the 7 train clanks from the tracks above, the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights buzzes, serving as a commercial and cultural center for South Asian immigrants. Mobile stores and gold shops line 74th street amid kiosks that offer up passport photos and paan, an after-dinner betel leaf treat common in Southeast Asia. At the heart of it all, Merit Kabab and Dumpling Palace encapsulates the chaos in delicious culinary form. Employees from Bangladesh and Nepal walk by singing, as customers lean over the counter to snack on fist-sized samosas and sip on sweet chai. Feroz Ahmed, originally from Dhaka, sits in the corner fielding phone calls, armored in a fleece and snug cap. He has managed the restaurant for upwards of ten years. “They say the city of New York never sleeps. That it is open twenty-four hours. Ha!” he said. “But only here [in Jackson Heights] does it never sleep.”

Queens

Old Captain’s Dumpling: Fish Tales

Amid the frenetic rush hour on Roosevelt Avenue in Flushing, we dodge old ladies wielding shopping bags, politely refuse offers for massages and phone repairs, navigating the dark and busy winter streets until we reach Old Captain’s Dumpling, a small beacon of calm and warmth. Inside the matchbox-sized restaurant, a sweeping photo of Taiwan covers the back wall, left by the previous tenants. Beneath it, two ladies in blue gingham smocks serenely knead dough and mix fillings, placing plump egg-sized dumplings to the side.

Queens

Hug Esan: Northeast Thai Feast

In the United States, there is often a tendency to flatten cuisines to single dishes. For many years, in many parts of the country, Chinese food meant lo mein, and Thai cooking equaled just pad Thai. But in Little Thailand, Queens, diners have more and more opportunities to embrace this country’s regional culinary diversity. Hug Esan, run by a triumvirate of Esan women from Thailand’s northeast region (also spelled Isan), are on a quest to introduce New Yorkers to specialties from their home.

New Orleans

Casamento’s: Oyster Oasis

Casamento’s does not accept reservations, credit cards, or checks. Simply walk under the restaurant’s green neon sign and through the white door and you instantly know you’ve entered a special place, somewhere between Italy and Louisiana; the interior a cross between a shotgun house and the bottom of a public pool. The narrow series of rooms, lined from floor to ceiling in imported tiles, leads in a straight line from the front door to the bathroom in the back of the kitchen. The seafood joint makes for a physical, communal experience, an offer of what was and what remains in New Orleans. Don’t worry, you are in good hands.

Queens

Tashkent Supermarket: International Inventory

It’s a weekend afternoon in the packed Tashkent Supermarket in Forest Hills, Queens and amid the din three teenage cashiers speak wistfully about hometowns in Uzbekistan. They also tell us of the need to speak Uzbek, Tajik, Russian, and English to help customers navigate the cavern of delights on offer. In case the polyglot teens working here don’t make clear the diversity on offer, television screens hanging above the aisles do, flashing photos of specials including samsa, Central Asian savory pastries, and branzino filets – a favorite of several Mediterranean cuisines. An express lane exists “only for shawarma and plov.”