Looking for a quick lunch in Queens?  Try the quesadilla cart located just one block from the 82nd Street/Jackson Heights stop from the 7 train.  These crisp tortillas, folded in half and stuffed with a variety of fillings, make a fresh and quick lunch on the go.

This food cart is parked near the corner of 82nd Street and Baxter Street with a simple menu – quesadillas just $2.00 a pop.

The tortillas start as dough and are pressed between two pieces of saran wrap with a wooden tortilla maker.  The uncooked disc of dough is filled with the chosen filling, folded in half and placed on the grill.  Choices for fillings include chicken and cheese, zucchini with pork, mushroom and cheese and mushroom and corn.  Customers can add an additional topping for an extra $1.00.  Once the tortilla is crisp with brown spots visual all over the surface they are plated and topped with a choice of lettuce, sour cream, salsa and/or cheese.

I had the opportunity to sample a spicy chicken quesadilla, topped with lettuce, sour cream and cheese.  One makes the perfect snack/light lunch, but I noticed that most people purchased the delicious half circles in pairs.  I was drawn to this neighborhood in search for a market that sells Peruvian foods and was delighted to find this cart as well as several inexpensive Peruvian chicken restaurants.

If the busy storefront windows at Sahadi’s, on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, don’t appeal to your minimalist leanings, just get over it. You’re going to love this place, even if it takes you years to try all the products. The narrow aisles form a sort of labyrinth through the cramped space, where at every turn you’ll discover bins and jars of dried fruits and nuts or refrigerator cases full of cheeses. This is the place to buy anything you could ever want to eat from the Middle East, along with a healthy dose of European specialty goods.

When I asked the man in charge of the olive bar how many varieties he sold, he did some quick mental math and came up with an estimate.

“Thirty-four?” he said as he scooped a heap of shriveled, oily, black, Moroccan olives into a plastic container. more…