Azerbaijan in a Parking Lot.
It's the end of the A's!
Prior to researching Azerbaijani restaurants + cuisine, I was pretty sure that I’d have to recreate a dish at home for this country. The country that was formally a part of the USSR didn’t seem to me to have such a huge population in New York that someone would have opened a restaurant dedicated to traditional Azerbaijani foods. I’m so happy that I was wrong! New York proved to me once again that it will make a rose grow out of concrete or in this case have a restaurant thrive out of a random parking lot.
It's quite fitting that for my last “A” restaurant I drove nearly an hour to the depths of Brooklyn to get a taste of Village Cafe. Upon our arrival to the neighborhood that the restaurant is situated in we were taken aback by how diverse the area was. There’s a large Hasidic, Muslim, and Russian population all co-mingling in this area not too far from Coney Island, which if anyone knows me makes my heart skip a beat. Diverse neighborhoods with exceptional diverse food options? Swoon.
The restaurant is nestled in the back of a parking lot and is a legit sit-down restaurant with indoor + outdoor seating. We were greeted by super friendly waiters and asked if we needed any help in picking things to eat which I greatly appreciated because I really didn’t know what I was in the mood for that day. Luckily, all the things we ate were varied and not too heavy on the tummy.
We started off with the usual two appetizers to share. We ordered two different kutaby, which are thin flour tortilla-like filled doughs. We got the kutaby with lamb and the kutaby with greens. The one filled with well-seasoned ground lamb tasted lemony probably from the sumac that was sprinkled on top and was a bit greasier from the lamb juices seeping through the dough. The kutaby with greens was filled with parsley and spinach. Both come folded in half + are a perfect handheld snack.
We also ordered a basket of Turkish bread that was super hot + crusty...you know the way that bread should always be. I’ve had this bread before when I traveled to Turkey years ago and this was one was pretty spot on. Flecked with sesame seeds (which I honestly find to be so underrated on bread) the bread was a great accompaniment to the multiple main meals we ordered.
We started with two very large soups one called dushbara and the other called kyufta bozbash. We had to order the dushbara because lo + behold it had dumplings which we should now all know is one of my fave foods. The dushbara is made up of a very light broth with a sprinkle of cilantro greens on top. It is filled with teeny tiny baby meat-filled dumplings that remind me of lil’ wontons. The lightness of the broth really allows the dumplings to shine on their own without the heaviness of a thicker or saltier broth.
Our second big bowl of soup was the kyufta bozbash which was a big meatball soup. The meatball was the size of a baseball, I kid you not, and was deliciously seasoned with all kinds of spices. It featured a flavorful thin broth filled with chickpeas, potatoes, and lots of parsley + cilantro. We dunked chunks of Turkish bread in both soups, which may or may not have been a good idea because we were getting quite full on the bread expanding in our bellies and had one more plate to eat. Eek!
We waited about 20 minutes after we ate our soups to order one more dish, which was our saving grace because they made the dish from scratch which took some time and gave us the ability to digest. We ordered guru hingal, which is grilled minced lamb meat with tail fat and onions served with handmade super delicate ultra-thin flat noodles. Think of this dish as a bolognese without the tomato sauce. It’s served with a thin yogurty herb sauce, which cleverly breaks through the fattiness of the meat in the dish and adds some sauciness to the noodles.
The Village Cafe was a perfect place to try Azerbaijani food for the first time. The menu is meat-heavy, but it didn’t really feel like it to us in the dishes we chose. Traveling to super deep parts of Brooklyn is usually not on my itinerary because of the time it takes to get there, but this sweet spot really made it worth it for our bellies. If I hadn’t, I might have missed out on stumbling into a parking lot with lots of expensive foreign cars and having a delicious meal.
Next month we’re kicking off subscriptions! Here’s the breakdown:
Paid Subbies ($5/a month or $35/a year)
What paid subscriptions will include:
Every Eating A-Z in NYC newsletter [Every single cuisine + restaurant!]
New updates on my cookbook [Things are coming together!]
Think pieces on food systems + our food landscape
More recipes [I cook A LOT + have so many to share!]
Exclusive giveaways [Monthly giveaways of food goodies!]
Meet + Eat [If you live in NYC lets all Meet + Eat! A fun way to meet new folks + eat good food]
My new Burnt Podcast [A lil’ podcast where food folks + the like discuss their epic failures + mishaps in the kitchen. Let’s normalize non-perfection in the kitchen!]
Free Subbies ($0, Zilch, Nada)
What free subscriptions will include:
Every other Eating A-Z in NYC newsletter
Occasional recipes and think pieces on food systems + our food landscape
Paid subscriptions will kick off Monday, November 1st + will be a part of a week-long celebration of Food For Thought turning One.
Cook. Eat. Repeat.
Natalie
new york's food scene is unlike anything in the world! you can find anything you'd ask from every corner of the world
OMG, that meatball soup looks amazing! (And reminded me of the running joke in Ted Lasso where he has shredded wheat for breakfast and it’s just one giant square tumbling out of the box.)