Authentic ethnic food

BY JOAN REMINICK
Newsday Dining Critic

Here are just some of the restaurants offering authentic ethnic cuisine on Long Island. Keep in mind that most, but not all, items on each menu represent the food of that ethnicity or region.

EUROPEAN / MIDDLE EASTERN / MEDITERRANEAN

Ali Baba 2: 17-19 Broadway, Hicksville, 516-931-7111, (Afghani) Both the food and the service are warm and welcoming in this Afghani restaurant.

Azer Baijan: 1610 Old Country Rd., Westbury, 516-228-0001 (Persian, Turkish, Arbaijani) The food of Azer Baijan, rife with Turkish, Persian and Mediterranean influences, is as reassuring as it is invigorating, especially the fluffy tabbouleh with cherry syrup and bits of pomegranate.

Fax-Chix: 868 Horseblock Rd., Farmingville, 631-736-4600 (Portuguese chicken and Mexican dishes)

Kabul: 1153 E. Jericho Tpke., Huntington, 631-549-5506 (Afghani) Kabul's cozy, folkloric dining room is the perfect venue for the expertly-prepared cuisine of Afghanistan.

Kabul Grill Kebab & Tea Room: 129 N. Broadway, Hicksville, 516- 933-8999 (Afghani) This hospitable Afghani restaurant combines the familiar with the exotic. Especially recommended is the zereshk palau, hacked pieces of Cornish hen marinated, skewered and grilled and served atop basmati rice mixed with cooked berries.

Kebab House: 255-05 Northern Blvd., Little Neck, 718-225-5318 (Turkish) At this small and gracious Turkish restaurant, people usually end up satisfied. The kebabs are generously portioned and delicious.

Lareira: 66 Jericho Tpke., Mineola, 516-248-2004 (Portuguese)

Pita House: 680 Rte. 112, Patchogue, 631-289-2262 (Turkish) This popular Turkish restaurant is a local hot spot for a reason. Go for lunch and try the excellent turkey gyro-doner kebab sandwich.

Ravagh Persian Grill: 210 Mineola Ave., Roslyn Heights, 516-484- 7100 (Persian) The service is friendly and the food warm and appealing at this Persian family restaurant. The baghali polo with mahicheh, stewed lamb shank with green rice, is an unalloyed delight.

ASIAN

Dosa Diner: 128 Broadway, Hicksville, 516-681-5151, (South Indian) The dosas, South Indian crepes that give the restaurant its name, are large, lacy and slightly crunchy, made from a fermented lentil and rice flour batter and stuffed with a potato-based filling. Here they are more than impressive.

Fortune Wheel: 3601 Hempstead Tpke., Levittown, 516-579-4700 (Chinese) For those seeking genuine Chinese cuisine, not the Americanized buffet-table substitute, Fortune Wheel is a destination dining spot worth seeking out.

Kiran Palace: 67-75 E. Old Country Rd., Hicksville, 516-932-0918 (North Indian) This North Indian restaurant serves food that is nothing short of regal, delighting both spice-lovers and those who prefer to walk on the mild side.

The Orient: 623 Hicksville Rd., Bethpage, 516-822-1010 (Chinese) It's an ongoing banquet for food-savvy Asian-Americans and others, who converge for weekend dim sum and authentic Cantonese, Sichuan and Hunan dishes.

Royal Tangra Masala: 2207 Hillside Ave., New Hyde Park, 516-746- 4898, (Indian/Chinese) Lollipop chicken is one of the Indian-Chinese surprises at a restaurant that doesn't stint on spice.

Shang Hai Pavilion: 46 Main St., Port Washington, 516-883-3368 (Shanghai Chinese) The lion's head casserole, huge, soft pork meatballs served with baby bok choy, is delicious, one of a number of excellent Shanghai offerings.

Siam Lotus: 1664 Union Blvd., Bay Shore, 631-968-8196 (Thai) Siam Lotus consistently ranks among the top Thai restaurants on Long Island. This little charmer prepares fine food, full of flavor.

Sil La Joung: 1087 Jericho Tpke., Commack, 631-543-6790 (Korean) This authentic Korean restaurant brings just what Long Island was missing.

Thai Angel: 1812 Veterans Hwy., Islandia, 631-348-2555, (Thai) Hidden in an Islandia shopping center is this authentic Thai restaurant serving such dishes as aromatic orange duck with roasted orange peel, ginger and cashews.

Thai Gourmet: 4747-24 Nesconset Hwy., Port Jefferson Station, 631- 474-0663 (Thai) The vibrant flavors of Thailand are served by a hospitable staff at this tiny strip mall eatery.

LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN

Cardiolo's Pupuseria: 1760 New York Ave., Huntington Station, 631- 351-0219 (El Salvadoran)

Cuyah: 831 Long Island Ave., Deer Park, 631-242-4352, (Jamaican) Cuyah dishes out large helpings of Island hospitality, along with sensational food. You'll want to have the oxtail soup every night.

Dominican Restaurant: 10-19 Front St., Uniondale, 516-292-5700 (Dominican)

Fonda Coyoacan: 1026 New York Ave., Huntington, 631-547-7259 (Mexican) This is the Mexican food of the Mexican people, served at a few tables in the rear of a grocery store. Chef co-owner Elvia Cardenas makes a sensational quesadilla filled with tinga (chicken stew), among other specialties.

La Brasa: 426 Hawkins Ave., Ronkonkoma, 631-467-3278, (Colombian)

Little Caboose: 66 Larkfield Rd., East Northport, 631-262-9704 (El Salvadoran) At this diminutive and friendly spot, Dina Ribas serves a roster of supremely satisfying El Salvadoran dishes, with a smattering of Mexican offerings. Pupusas and roast chicken tamales are standouts.

Machu Picchu: 72 School St., Glen Cove, 516-656-0007, (Peruvian) This tiny restaurant's rotisserie chicken, its most popular item, is terrific - crisp-skinned, herbal and juicy.

Mi Tierrita: 769 Suffolk Ave., Brentwood, 631-231-1916, (Colombian) The restaurant is justly renowned for its marvelous chile-rubbed rotisserie chicken.

Oaxaca: 385 New York Ave., Huntington, 631-547-1232, (Mexican) Alex and Maria Gonzalez serve authentic homestyle Mexican food, a rarity in this part of the world. Have the posole (pork and corn soup-stew) and the chicken with green sauce.

Pine Aire Fish & Deli: 140 Pine Aire Dr., Brentwood, 631-231- 4467 (El Salvadoran) . The seafood of El Salvador gets star treatment at this bright, friendly restaurant attached to a fish market. Eat your way through a menu that includes tender grilled calamari and sensational Salvadoran-style shrimp scampi.

Pollos el Paisa: 989 Old Country Rd., Westbury, 516-338-5858 (Colombian) Juicy burnished rotisserie chicken isn't the only draw at this informal Colombian restaurant with a menu worth navigating.

The ethnic restaurants dilemma: Keep it real or tone it down?

Order the lamb stew at The Orient in Bethpage and what you get may depend upon whether or not you hail from China.

"Americans have a lot of issues with skin, fat and bones," owner Tommy Tan said. "'How come the lamb is fatty and there's not too much meat?' they ask. So I do sliced lamb with the same flavor for them," he said. "It's 80 percent authentic, 20 percent changed. Otherwise, they don't touch it, and it's a waste of money."

The fact that one of the most genuine Chinese restaurants on Long Island, with a clientele that's largely Asian, alters food to suit Western sensibility points up what many see - for better or worse - as a dilution of ethnic cuisines in the suburbs.

"Restaurateurs are in the business of feeding people, not educating them," said food pundit Arthur Schwartz, author of "Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food: An Opinionated History" and former host of WOR radio's "Food Talk." Schwartz finds nothing wrong with a few judicious adjustments, so long as the food is fresh and well prepared. "It doesn't mean you have to give up the standards of any cuisine anywhere in the world."

More than one palate

Jim Leff, founder of the Web site Chowhound.com and author of "The Chowhound's Guide to the New York Tristate Area," sees two sides to the issue. "If you've got an American palate, I guess that's a good thing," Leff said. "But there are people with defiantly un-American palates. ... There's a difference between diluting and pandering, which is when a restaurateur decides that the local people wouldn't appreciate the undiluted real thing and tries to give them what he thinks they want."

At Fonda Coyoacan, a small Mexican restaurant in Huntington Station, co-owner Elvia Cardenas changes nothing to suit a growing non-Latino clientele. Cardenas cooks the fare of her mother and grandmother, the food she grew up eating in Mexico, augmented by recipes acquired while traveling throughout her native country. Her huarache (thick tortilla) topped with huitlacoche - a fragrant corn fungus - is a rebuttal of all the deep-fried chimichangas commonly passed off as Mexican at commercial chains.

"When we started, people came and asked for burritos," said Cardenas. "I said, 'No, that's Tex-Mex.' I'm not going to be one more in the group to change the authentic Mexican food."

Subtle changes for U.S.

Even in the most bona fide of ethnic restaurants, however, the menu is limited and subtly changed from what it would have been on native soil. Korean-born artist and art gallery owner Hansoon Murdock, who frequents Sil La Joung in Commack, said that however genuine its food may be, she still misses certain dishes unavailable in the United States. "One of my favorite foods is a very fatty pork, which I can't get here," she said wistfully.

Sometimes, in America, new ingredients come into play. According to Nakul Keattikul, chef-owner of Thai Angel in Islandia, the food at his restaurant accurately represents the cuisine of his native land. Still, not everything is the way it was in Southeast Asia. The walnut chicken on his menu is an original invention: "We don't have walnuts in Thailand," he said.

What they do have in Thailand - as well as here - are chiles. Since some customers are averse to their heat, Keattakul adjusts accordingly. "We can increase the chile to a level as hot and spicy as in Thailand," he said, adding that in that tropical climate, people enjoy much of their food - but not all of it - hot.

At Dosa Diner, a South Indian restaurant in Hicksville, owner Ashok Nataraj will ask a non-Indian customer how spicy he or she wants a dish and then offer a small sample to see if they mean what they say. His "better safe than sorry" approach underlies a common sentiment among restaurateurs - that diners may think they want it one way when they really prefer it another.

Getting the Chinese food eaten by native Chinese people at Long Island restaurants is an ongoing challenge for Jacqueline Newman of Smithtown, a retired professor of food science at Queens College. Newman, who grew up at the table of Chinese family friends, is both a collector of Chinese cookbooks and a connoisseur of the classic cuisine. Although she eschews suburban buffets and takeout places, she finds that, at some restaurants, you can get the real deal - if you can convince your server you are serious.

"They think they know what Westerners want, but if you order an appetizer like jellyfish, it puts them in their place a little bit," she said. "If you order a dish spicy, tell them you will send it back to the kitchen if they put in hot oil. Say you want it cooked properly because you know the difference."

Adds Jim Leff: "Say you want it spicy not once but three times, and make eye contact."

The trick, according to food writer Norman Kolpas, author of "The Fearless Gourmet," is to "walk in with a base of knowledge, a sense of adventure and a fearless spirit." What you want is to win your waiter over as a co-conspirator, Kolpas said. He cites an experience he had at restaurant in Artesia, a largely Indian community near Anaheim, Calif. "I smiled at the waiter and said, 'What is the most exciting thing on this menu?' He directed me to a number of different dishes, and I had a fabulous lunch." After watching him happily dipping and devouring a plate of idly (savory steamed buns), Kolpas reports, the staff beamed.

Tan, of The Orient, truly relishes the role of guide. Some customers, he says, are more adventuresome than others. For one couple, Tan said, he made snake soup. "It's very good in the wintertime - warms up the body." While the wife wasn't willing to give it a try, requesting a bowl of hot and sour soup instead, her spouse plunged right in. "The husband always enjoys whatever I bring out," Tan said.

Nelson Hernandez, co-owner of Pine Aire Fish & Deli, a Salvadoran seafood restaurant in Bay Shore, also gets a kick out of helping non- Latino customers navigate his menu. "I have customers who go down the list and say, 'This is my fifth time here. What different dish can I try today?' They love it. They really do."

With or without a guide, for the most authentic ethnic experience, Schwartz advises: "Go to the neighborhood where these people eat the food themselves."

When neither staff nor clientele speak much English, the chance of getting the real thing increases. At Cardiolo's Pupuseria in Huntington Station, the food of El Salvador is served from a steam- table behind the counter; one simply points at what looks intriguing. The savory chicharon (pork cracklings) and sweet empanada de platano (plantain turnover) on an Anglo's plate will be identical to that on the plate of someone born in El Salvador.

As a last resort, the Chowhound Web site offers, for $5, a tongue- in-cheek "passport" that, in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Thai, Arabic and Filipino, delivers the following message: "Please bring me the serious, authentic food ... not the tourist stuff."

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