True story: I'm an idiot.
Earlier this month, Caroline Shin updated her invaluable Queens Heatmap at Eater, and included a new steam-table restaurant in Elmhurst. It sounded like an obvious winner to me—and probably is!—but schedule-wise, I kept hitting snags. But while looking into that spot, I noticed another steam-table spot, Sajhoma #3, laying in wait under the Myrtle Avenue elevated, literally around the corner from my home.
Close watchers of this $20 Dinner space may already know that some of my most frequent cravings are for Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban food. Think a mountain of porky pernil or chicharron, set atop another mountain of yellow rice and saucy beans, the whole thing drenched in as much vinegary hot sauce as my body can handle. Spectacular stuff. Reminds me of my youth, reminds me of my marriage, reminds me of last week in my apartment.
You may also know that I love a good, friendly, steam-table spot more than just about anything, the sort of restaurant that exists to serve its community high-quality, homestyle food for an actually affordable price. There are so many unhyped places like this hanging in there, in neighborhoods all over the city, and nothing reignites my crush on this town more intensely than spending an hour or so relaxing and eating among regular New Yorkers going about their day.
So, for some reason, I finally noticed the Dominican flags in the sign, for the first time in more than four years of walking by at least twice a day. Huh. I peeked inside and there was a long, long steam table filled with pernil and mondongo, pollo guisado and bacalao, and oh my God, I can't believe I've spent all this time not eating here.