19-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Three Restaurants Where Grandma Is (Almost) Always Cooking
My grandmothers were all wonderful women who I adored, but none of them cooks. While I'm slightly relieved to have escaped the trope of the food writer who learned to cook at her grandmother's elbow, I've never been at a restaurant and said, wistfully, 'this tastes like my grandmother's ____.'
So, here's yet another reason to love New York: You can borrow someone else's grandma! At least, for the duration of a meal.
La Morada in Mott Haven is a lot of things: a family business, a center for political activism and a downright perfect place to eat mole under the watchful eye of someone else's grandmother. Natalia Mendez and her husband, Antonio Saavedra, opened the restaurant in 2009, and the moles are swoon-worthy. The three I tried: mole negro, deeply savory with warmth from pasilla, a perfect hot tub for braised chicken drumsticks; brick-red mole Oaxaqueño with enough bits of pepper to sink your teeth into; and mole blanco, a rich, pale blanket of pine nut- and cashew-based sauce. A few grandma-core touches complete the experience — terracotta share plates are delivered warm, and a colorful container of motley markers and paper wait in the corner of the restaurant.
308 Willis Avenue (East 140th Street)
The two women folding and frying dumplings to order at Fried Dumpling in Chinatown move so deftly, I'm confident they could handle a 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. shift in their sleep. At the small shop on the one-block-long Mosco Street, they're all business, chatting to each other while churning out magnificent, savory pork-and-chive dumplings that need nothing, maybe save for a squirt of chile oil from a bottle on the room's singular table. For $5 (cash only!), you can walk into Columbus Park with 13 of these dumplings and, for another dollar, a pint container of warm, fresh soy milk.
106 Mosco Street (Mulberry Street)
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