Grilled pork tonsoku (pig’s feet) with spicy garlic sauce, a delicacy of Hakata, Japan, at Hakata Tonton in the West Village. Photo by Arpita Aneja.
Sometimes the best meals are those you’d never think to try. With countless unique restaurants to choose from, why not take your taste buds on an adventure? Check out these unusual dishes found in restaurants across New York City.
Kangaroo
roasted kangaroo loin ($30); grilled kangaroo skewers ($12)
Eight Mile Creek
240 Mulberry St., SoHo
Diners salivating for different types of exotic game can sample some from the Land Down Under right here in New York. Australian restaurant Eight Mile Creek serves kangaroo, which manager and owner Andrew Jordan says tastes just like a very lean filet mignon.
The main course, roasted kangaroo loin, is paired with grains, sweet potatoes and a shiitake mushroom–reduction sauce. The restaurant also offers an appetizer with kangaroo meat grilled on skewers and served with spicy mountain-berry ketchup.
Banana Flower
banana blossom and mango salad ($8)
Lotus Blue Restaurant Bar
110 Reade St., Tribeca
Banana blossom and mango salad at Lotus Blue Restaurant Bar in Tribeca. Photo by Kian Lam Kho and courtesy of Jeremy Lim.
Don’t think vegetarians can try unusual foods? The banana blossom and mango salad is made from the banana flower, a teardrop-shaped beauty that grows directly beneath a bunch of the fruit.
Asian fusion restaurant Lotus Blue makes this salad by taking out the stamen, leaving the textured, tangy leaves. They top the flower with sweet and sour plum dressing, basil, chili and ground peanuts. The dish is also paired with sweet mango julienne, cilantro and mint.
Semi-Live Octopus
sannakji ($25)
Sik Gaek
40-01 149th Pl., Flushing, Queens
At this Korean restaurant, culinary thrill seekers can get their food so fresh it’s still wriggling—literally. While the octopus has been chopped up before it reaches the table, its limbs will still move for several minutes. The Sannakji dish is seasoned with sesame and jalapeño garlic and served with sesame oil sauce and Korean spicy red pepper sauce.
Pig’s Feet
grilled pork tonsoku with spicy garlic sauce ($7); Hakata Tonton hot pot ($13/person, two-order minimum)
Hakata Tonton
61 Grove St., West Village
Hakata Tonton hot pot, a delicacy of Hakata, Japan, at Hakata Tonton in the West Village. Photo by Arpita Aneja.
The porcelain pig on the windowsill and the cartoon pig on the lantern outside give away the theme of this porcine-centered restaurant. But what makes the eatery unique is its focus on tonsoku, or pig’s feet, a delicacy of Hakata, Japan.
The feet are boiled for five hours in a special broth to make the meat more tender. Then they’re either grilled or served in a hot pot. The Hakata Tonton hot pot, a featured dish, boils the feet in a broth spiked with bits of tofu, chives, dumplings and pork belly.
Raw Beef
special kitfo ($16)
Awash Ethiopian Restaurant
947 Amsterdam Ave., West Harlem; 338 E. 6th St., East Village; 242 Court St., Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
Raw fish might not be anything new, but kitfo, an Ethiopian raw beef dish, is still considerably less common than sushi in New York. The dish is made from very lean ground beef and seasoned with cardamom and a special Ethiopian spice called mitmita. It’s then served in pre-seasoned clarified butter.
If eating raw beef worries you, ask them to cook the kitfo so it’s not completely raw.
