Queens Food Crawl: Jackson Diner

Last stop on the food crawl was Jackson Diner, the famed Indian restaurant in Jackson-Heights. We had slowly been making our way towards it ever since we left flushing, but a taco truck, chaat-stand, and a freezer full of desserts had sent us on some happy detours.

Despite the multiple stops, all the walking had stimulated my appetite enough to enthusiastically dig into the basket of papadam. I love papadam. As much as I love butter popcorn, I really wish I could veg out watching a movie with a huge bowl of papadam in my lap and tamarind sauce and onion chutney on the side. That would be a crunchy, messy, and fantastic video night.

Mango lassi to cool the impending heat. Check.

Big heaping plate of Bhel Puri. Awesome! Makes one wish she were sitting at home at the kitchen table, with no one looking, and just shoveling the stuff in her maw with greasy fingertips.

Sweet lord I'm a pig. Obvious aside, this bowl of curry is Paneer Pasanda, described in the Jackson Diner menu as homemade cheese stuffed with spices, simmered in curry, and finished in cream. The cheese is soft, yielding, and addicting.

I know I've been one unmitigated sentence of adoration after another in this series of posts on the food crawl. Don't think I'm an undiscriminating food tourist. It's actually a bit difficult to have food that causes involuntary grins these days; I've spent so much of my life on the prowl searching for something just that much tastier. Despite diligent explorations, Queens remains largely a mystery to me, and it was beyond fun to taste so much that was good and true-to-itself, yet so different from most of what is available amongst the familiar streets of Manhattan. I strongly, strongly encourage that you strike your own excursion into the belly of Queens as soon as you can.