West + East Harlem – Page 3 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Oklahoma Smoke BBQ

231 West 145th Street between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Avenues
212/862.5335
about $31 for four people, with two sodas, without tip
â™¥

The day Oklahoma Smoke opened in west Harlem, they ran out of meat. I stopped by to check their menu and they told me they just didn’t anticipate how many people were going to show up. Really? You knew it was your opening day, right? The next day, I stopped by at 2pm. They were open, but the guys in the front had to ask the kitchen what time they think they’ll be ready. 5pm, someone said. Two days after that, I called to order dinner for pick-up. It was loud in the background but I managed to order a rack and a half of their pork jerky ribs. The guy on the phone said two side dishes come with my order, so I picked collard greens and rice and beans. He also reminded me that I can have a can of Coke with it.

Half an hour later, I walked in to pick up my order. There were a few of us standing around and waiting for our orders. Once in a while, someone would announce a number. They finally stopped when they realized their customers don’t know what the numbers mean. (Them: Who ordered number 23? Us: What the hell is number 23?) They packed up my order while I waited, but then realized someone had done it already. When I looked at that bag, the wrong sides were included. So I waited some more. When I received the sauce-stained paper with my food items checked off, the young girl at the counter didn’t know what buttons to press to register my order. One of the older men had to help her. At this point, I’m not quite sure who’s working for the restaurant. When I was finally handed my order, they told me they ran out of Cokes. I picked an orange soda instead. They gave me two.

Back at home, I served the ribs to three others. I had to use my hands because the meat easily fell off the bones. I wasn’t quite sure why they were called jerky; they tasted more like they were boiled before they were slow-cooked. Without the orange-colored sauce, the meat barely tasted like barbeque. Curiously, I texted Aaron, a friend who grew up in Oklahoma, and asked him what makes barbeque an Oklahoman barbeque? All I got in response was, We use a hillbillie recipe.

Harlem is going through a lot of changes. Business owners need more practice in running a restaurant to please more than just their neighbors. At Oklahoma Smoke BBQ, they’re trying really hard–at least they do their collard greens right.

Society Cafe

2104 Frederick Douglass Boulevard at 114th Street
212/222.3323
about $30 for two egg meals with iced coffee, with tip
â™¥

I’m always trying to support my neighborhood, so when the bus drove by Society after one of my bootcamp sessions in Central Park, I took note to visit. There were diners eating outside under large umbrellas marked with a certain beer brand. There were young black and white people hanging out. Some people may hate that condo buildings are sprouting up so fast in the neighborhood, pushing the original settlers out, but at least there are more options for places to eat.

Society reminds me of a small cafe-restaurant somewhere in Brooklyn. The white-tiled open kitchen makes the place inviting. The two large wooden tables in the center are meant to be shared, while smaller tables, some with leather sofas, are perfect for couples. There is free wi-fi except on weekends when the brunch crowd comes in. Even though I first saw Society at night, it looked to me like a comfortable space for brunch. When I visited, it was so bright and cozy inside that I couldn’t wait to get my iced coffee and my scrambled eggs.

So I waited. And then I waited. We waited for a while before we got our iced coffees. We also waited for a long time before our eggs were served. The place was busy enough on a Sunday early afternoon, but the kitchen was swamped even with three servers on the floor.

When my conquistador eggs came–what I would call their version of huevos rancheros–I was greatly disappointed. Scrambled eggs are scrambled eggs, but mine was missing oomph. The turkey sausages I ordered were the size of two pinkie fingers and looked like they came from the supermarket freezer. I opted for a salad and the greens were so limp, I set them aside. The house potatoes fared a little better, although they could have used some more spice.

The cafe encourages diners to enjoy “life in sips”. The staff is really friendly and they give off the right vibe. The crowd seems to be enjoying their time, too, but I wondered what they thought about their food. Society needs to take a look at egg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and learn what a civilized brunch needs. The neighborhood is definitely changing, but the question that still remains is how good Harlem restaurants should be in order for them to stay in business.

Devin’s Fish and Chips

747 Saint Nicholas Avenue between 146th and 147th Streets
212/491.5518
$12 for two fish and chips, take-away
♥

Harlem is far away from England, but Devin’s fish and chips come close to a good snack on a lazy and gloomy weekend afternoon. For $6, you can eat or take away three pieces of lightly breaded fish, red snapper or whiting, with a handful of fries. They don’t have malt vinegar but there’s tartar and Tabasco sauce. We bought two and sat down on the stools in the narrow space inside while people stood in line to wait for their turn to order. The other customers were ordering everything from broiled whole fish to calamari to crab claws. While we waited, we discovered that the store across the street had some of the best beer selections in West Harlem. We bought two bottles of Smithwick’s and drank them wrapped in paper while we ate our fish and chips. Sometimes, the neighborhood pulls through.

Harlem Tamales

Corner of 145th Street and Edgecombe Avenue
no phone number
$1 for each tamale
♥

The Dr. texted me at 7am, an ungodly hour, to let me know that the tamales lady was there. It took me another 30 minutes to get out of bed and put on my jeans over my pajamas. I schlepped over to 145th Street, half awake, to finally buy the tamales the Dr. has been curious about since he started his commute to the hospital earlier this year. I was going to be his test case: try the tamales and let him know how they taste so he can buy them on his own. Man, I don’t even wake up at 7:30 to go to work, but I’ve also been curious ever since he told me about the lady in the corner selling tamales from her cooler every morning. I go the other way for my own commute so I never see her, but if I didn’t do it today, I’d certainly won’t do it when it’s the dead of winter.

I crossed the street and held out my hand with the peace sign. Dos. She asked, Verde? With Mexican food, if there is green, there must be red, so I said, Verde y rojo, por favor. She opened her cooler and revealed a whole trove of steaming corn husks, grabbed two tamales and wrapped them in aluminum foil and handed them over to me in exchange for $2. I walked back home, sat at the kitchen counter and started eating breakfast. I don’t have tabasco sauce but I have some piri-piri, a Portuguese chili, to dot them and add a little kick. In Mexico, we ate a few tamales from the ZÃ³calo. I’m more than 2,000 miles from the ciudad today but these tamales were comparable, if not better. The corn meal was so fine it melted in my mouth. There was even more chicken meat in this Harlem version, and thankfully, they were boneless. (Some vendors get lazy and put chicken wings in there!) Overall, a pretty good breakfast before 8am.

Food

1569 Lexington Avenue off 100th Street
212/348.0200
$25 for two, without drinks, without tip
♥

For brunch one Sunday, we took the bus to the east side of Harlem and sat at the bar of Food. We watched ice skating on one TV and that weird game of stone and broom called curling on the other. Jewel also happened to be playing from their satellite radio. Food is a restaurant that seems out of place in the El Barrio area of the upper east side but it’s also one of the sure signs that the neighborhood is really changing. Space and rent prices are two of the reasons why businesses are opening uptown. They are also trying to reach those customers who have moved up for the same reasons. No one could have imagined two Asian people being served by a French man in Harlem just a few years ago.

Whether these changes are accepted or not, what we ordered were enough to start our day right: turkey burger with fries and huevos rancheros with bacon and beans. They were good, not exceptional, but the ritual of brunch is always better than the meal itself. I’m just glad Food makes it easier for us uptowners to partake in it.