today we're in New York City and we're here to eat this New York City series
is all about sharing with you some of the best eats in the Big Apple
New York
City's food culture is complex diverse and if you love to eat the options are
endless this is our first video from New York and we're hunting down the tastiest
food at Queens Night Market watch out for lip smacking jerk chicken, a
Japanese street food classic and one of the city's most popular street food
vendors in this three part series we're hunting down some of New York City's
best eats from street food in Queens to old-school local favourites in Harlem you
don't want to miss this series get ready for some mouth-watering food
I'm Thomas
and I'm Sheena and we're Chasing a Plate we hope you're hungry, let's eat
this video is in Queens which is a borough of New York that we have been
desperate to visit it's an incredibly diverse area it's got so many different
cultures living in it which means there is so much different food here so this
video is going to be set at the Queen's Night Market now because Queens the
borough is one of the most ethnically diverse urban areas in the world
it means that at this night market you can basically travel around the world
through its food there is so much to eat here we're here right on opening the
crowds have started pouring in you can see people walking with such a purpose
in their step heading for their favourite stalls so we're going to be eating our
way around the market tonight
there is one corner of the market which is totally pulling me in and that's the
stall for the jerk chicken so jerk chicken is from Jamaica jerk refers to both
the cooking method which is like prodding and sticking holes into the meat so that
flavour can get into the meat as well as the marinade and the smell coming from this
stall is so intense and delicious so we're gonna get in line and grab some
jerk chicken
Disrespectful it is
so you got three choices of sauce barbecue, sweet or Disrespectful we had to go for
Disrespectful with a name like that how could you not now I reckon I might be in
for a whole world of pain with this sauce because it is bound to have scotch
bonnet chilies in it so jerk marinade ooooo I got a tiny bit on my finger and that
is just like fire on my tongue so scotch bonnet chilies are an integral ingredient in
jerk chicken marinade and I reckon they're in the sauce as well scotch bonnet
chilies are 40 times hotter than jalapenos so let's see okay so I'm going to get a
bit with a lot of that sauce over the top and then the chicken itself looks so
juicy
that is amazing the chicken is very very moist and tender it's got a beautiful smoky flavour
so they're cooking that chicken over charcoal and traditionally in addition
to charcoal they also use pimento wood and you can really taste that smokiness in the meat
I've gotta go for some more
okay, let's get this drumstick
the flavour is beautiful it's actually not that spicy well not for me anyway it
hits your mouth flares up there's this residual burn
but it's not painful it's definitely tolerable, go Disrespectful if you eat this
what's great about the Queen's Night Market is that the prices are capped so everything
is capped at $6 so nothing is more than $6 and it's a great
atmosphere really relaxed, family friendly, people have brought their dogs and
it's really saying to heat up there are a ton of people here now
the great thing about being here at the Queen's Night Market is there is a ton of
variety so stalls from all over the world so we can show you a lot of things
that we've never shown on the channel like the next stall so we're going to
Burmese Bites so food from Myanmar this stall we've heard about for a long
time because last year they won a People's Choice Award in a really big
street food awards here in New York so awards for street cats and
things like that so we've been desperate to try this one for a very long time
Myo who owns Burmese Bites has just been telling us about his top seller which is
the keema palata now keema palata is very similar to things that we eaten in other
countries before so murtabak in Malaysia, paratha in Singapore and what
it is is a really thin wheat dough which is slapped onto this stainless steel surface until
it's really really thin, paper-thin it's put onto the hot plate and then a chicken mixture
is put inside it and the chicken mixture's got all sorts of things so
chicken, egg a spice mix which is very very secret and then a bit of onion as
well and then it's just cooked it looks amazing and it smells really good
so Burmese Bites is a really popular stall there's a massive line and the
chicken keema palata looks very very good so it's just come simply
just cut up and we've got a little sort of yogurt dip that's packed with cucumber so
a simple little yogurt dip and look at that really finely diced chicken in
there so nice simple and you can see from the colour of it and how coated in
that spice mixture it is so the masala let's get that nice middle
bit so we get right into it and I'm gonna go no dip on the first one
spice mixture is really really good so not as strong as I was expecting so it's got
a vivid colour that orange colour from the spice mixture but it's actually a
beautiful subtle flavour and you can still really taste the chicken under it
which is really nice so you've got all the spice and the chicken
and the bread itself is beautiful little bit crispy but a little bit soft
at the same time and you can see all the colour on it and if I flip it over you
can see it's a bit drier on this bottom side where the oil hasn't soaked into
it as much and it's very simply cooked with a tiny bit of oil so it's not
stodgy from oil let's try some of this dip we'll just get a whole lot of that
cucumber up onto there
that is great cucumber gives such a freshness and that really does so it
really gives a burst of fresh flavour ohhhh and there's a bit of chilli in there so a
good little bit of spice as well that is good this is a really nice dish
that was great having some Burmese food so Burmese food is incredibly rare to
find I think I mean we don't really see that anywhere around the world and we've
been speaking to some locals here at the market and even in New York it's an
incredibly rare food to find so that was a really good one to have
We are at our next stop we are here at the Cambodian cuisine stall and it's
been so long since I've eaten Cambodian I have got my eye on the amok which is a
steamed fish curry
we're behind the scenes at the Cambodian stall and we're waiting for the fish
amok to do a little bit of steaming and just cook away and the staff have just
handed us some of their beef skewers these smell incredible and they're heavily brushed
with their marinade
holy moly that beef is so tender
it literally just melts-in-your-mouth I can really taste a hit of lemongrass
in there the marinade is quite sweet oh so good
I think it's been about seven years since we last ate fish amok in Cambodia
so I'm really excited to eat this so they use tilapia so it's thinly
sliced tilapia in a curry sauce really that's been steamed I can see onions
there's some red capsicum on the top they finished it off with a drizzle of
coconut milk and then also some lime leaf so this is going to be really
fragrant I reckon it's sitting on a little sliver of banana leaf so I'm
going to grab a bit of that fish and then a spoonful of that rice alright
it's so delicate the fish is really flaky it's a really mild tasting fish
and the creamy creamy coconut curry is beautiful it's really gentle you can really
taste the onion there's really no heat virtually
it's not spicy at all that is so good
I love this you get a real zinginess from that lime leaf it's a beautiful flavour and
it's just really really delicious
things are really picking up here now so the crowd is piling in the vendors are
really going for it so you can see the air is full of smoke behind me so there
is a lot going on it's a really neat environment
we're standing in line waiting for our next snack at Karl's Balls so he's
selling takoyaki, Osaka style so takoyaki is a
Japanese street food and it's made up of a wheat batter cooked in these special
griddle pans and it's got octopus and spring onions inside the
batter they are looking really good there's a ton of action up there
I love takoyaki and these look like really really good ones so you can see
the all the toppings go on so you've got the octopus ball underneath but on top
they put some Kewpie mayo there's some little sprinklings of dried seaweed in
there and then these bonito flakes are smoked and dried fish and it sits on top
and it sort of swims and moves around as the heat comes up from the from the
takoyaki it looks quite neat on top so let's dive right on in now you've got to be
careful with these because they're always incredibly hot inside but we've let them
cool right down
these are really really good they're super creamy inside so in Osaka they
make these really loose in the middle so the batter is just cooked inside it's
actually it's quite neat watching them cook them because they're in a half dome
shape little vessel to cook so they have to spin them at the perfect time to
keep the outside crisp and to get them round so they don't end up flat on the
top and just round on the bottom so you see them spinning them in the little pan
this is being done perfectly really nice and golden and crisp on the outside and the
octopus inside super super tender I think I forgot to say about the takoyaki
sauce actually so you can see in there with that mayo takoyaki sauce so that's
with Worcestershire sauce and some sugar maybe some sake the stall makes it themselves
Karl the owner makes it himself so this is a secret recipe and it's really
good nice and sweet a little bit tangy, let's grab one more look at all
those bonito flakes
really well-rounded the batter itself beautiful the bonito flakes give a nice
smokey hit and a little bit of crunch the mayo is super nice and creamy
octopus really good these are very very good takoyaki
night has fallen and the atmosphere is still raging
so the Queens Night Market goes from five o'clock until midnight
so you have a really good chunk of time in which to eat your way around this place
I've got my eye on another snack and that's Indonesian kue so it's a sweet
let's go and line up
all right so I've got my kue pancong in my hot little hand
ohhhh the smell of the coconut is insane
there's probably about 50 food
stalls here at the Queens Night Market and we've spoken to lots of locals and a
lot of our friends who eat at this night market often and
we've sort of shown you what we think or they think are the best eats at this
night market so they definitely said that this was one of them so this is kue
pancong so kue in Indonesia are snacks so sweet snacks often and there are countless
varieties but what this stall has done Moon Man, they've sort of modernised them
or tried to make them a little bit more contemporary
although the flavours remain the same so this is a coconut pancake so the batter
is made of rice flour, coconut milk and then what he does is he sprinkles
sugar over the top and blow torches it which means that it gets all crispy
and golden and then he puts on some shaved coconut and then also a drizzle
of gula Java which is coconut palm sugar this thing
oh smells so fragrant that coconut aroma is
amazing
whoa if you are a coconut fan you are going to love this it's got a really intense coconut flavour
it's not overly sweet which I really love you can really taste that smoky
caramel sort of flavour from the sugar that's been crystallised over the
top or caramelised over the top
and then that fresh coconut is really really
this kue is amazing I love how they've taken the traditional and sort of souped
it up a little bit still retain authentic flavours but it's sort of
modern it's delicious this has been such a great experience I
really love the vibe here it's just really chilled out and relaxed and friendly
everyone's just happy and having a really good time
the Queens Night Market is a must visit if you're here in New York City