Find your reward at Spicy & Tasty

If you have to go through the ordeal of driving someone to John F. Kennedy International Airport --  incredibly congested roads, bumper-to-bumper traffic, aggressive truck drivers -- you can reward yourself on the way home with a visit to Spicy & Tasty, a Szechuan restaurant in the Flushing section of Queens.

That's what I did today after dropping my wife at the airport, which seemed to be slumbering, at least from my curbside view in front of the terminal. But I arrived a half-hour before the restaurant's noon opening, and had to visit an ATM machine in the hotel around the corner (Spicy & Tasty doesn't take credit card).


When you arrive in Flushing, you're immediately transported to Hong Kong -- another great place to eat -- by the Chinese lettering on the buildings, the bustling streets and the many Asians on foot and in cars.

I was there for takeout, something for lunch and dinner at home. I ordered one of the cold appetizers displayed in a glass case at the front of the restaurant: shredded bamboo in chili oil ($6.50). My entrees were bean curd with spicy minced pork ($7.95) and fish fillet in fresh hot pepper ($14.95), which is made with cabbage, and I also asked for broccoli with fresh garlic (also $7.95) after I was told the kitchen didn't have Chinese watercress.

The drive home was trouble-free, and I put some of the still-warm white rice in a bowl and topped it with the hot, cubed tofu, which was swimming in a reddish sauce. This is one restaurant that heeds your request for "very spicy." I ate the bean curd and rice with a spoon and found it comforting. It made my lips tingle.

Spicy & Tasty, 39-07 Prince Street (1H), Flushing, New York; 
718-359-1601; open seven days, cash only.
Municipal parking lot is at Prince and 39th streets.

A healthy, filling seafood meal

In one visit to H Mart in Little Ferry yesterday, I picked up fresh red snapper and blue crabs and two prepared fish dishes to make a bountiful meal for my family.

The seafood meal helped us to avoid beef  for another day. Both my wife and son say they want to eat less meat, including goat, oxtail and pork.

I had the fishmonger clean and cut up the wild-caught red snapper into small steaks, with the head and tail, and cooked them in a soup of cheap sake, soy and fish sauces, rice wine and vinegar. I poured the excess sauce over Hong Kong-style spinach noodles I boiled. The crabs, which snapped at my tongs in the store, were boiled separately in seasoned water with hot pepper. I also blanched and sauteed fresh collard greens left over from Thanksgiving.

Our appetizers were prepared whiting two ways: Korean-style pancakes and chunks of the small fish stewed with hot and sweet peppers. It was a great meal.

H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike, Little Ferry; 201-814-0400;
open seven days.