At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. At first glance Casa Rivera in Jackson Heights seems like a catch-all South American grocery. A closer look reveals that it’s a purveyor of mostly Peruvian products with everything from bottles of the wonderful purple corn punch known as chicha morada to the ingredients needed to make aji de gallina, a chicken dish that comes with......

While many folks were busy guzzling green beer, two food-obsessed Queens residents checked out a new restaurant in Jackson Heights for lunch yesterday. Since the joint is called Green Plantains, token points for St. Patrick’s day spirit should be awarded, even if there was no corned beef and cabbage to be had. Green Plantains bills itself as a “Nuevo Chino Latino Dining Experience.” Edward Ng, who helped craft the menu for acclaimed Bronx Chino-Latino eatery......

A 6-7 month old baby girl, strapped in a car seat, was left in the backseat of a livery cab this morning. Tel-A-Car driver Klever Sailema picked up a man and the baby around 9:45AM this morning at 106th Street and Northern Boulevard in Queens. When the cab got to 83rd and Northern, the man said he needed to make a call and left the car. Only he crossed "the street to a pay phone......

Tonight is the last chance until December 2010 to witness a total lunar eclipse. This is the third such eclipse in the past year. With any luck the weather will cooperate. It looks like there will be breaks in the clouds over the city, which should make for dramatic views. Break out the tripods and cameras! A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth wedges itself between the sun and moon, casting its shadow on the......

Yet another culinary transfer point has been added to the many ethnic eateries radiating outwards from the 74 Street/Broadway subway stop in Jackson Heights: Shangrila Express. Yesterday when Gothamist learned that the city's first and only Tibetan food cart had opened near the renowned Sammy’s Halal we couldn’t wait to try it. We approached the cart next to Sammy’s and ordered some momos only to be told they only serve chicken over rice. Upon......

Gastronauts seeking Indian fare have rocketed along the 7 line to 74 St./Roosevelt Ave. for a decade or more. Sadly many Jackson Heights stars, including the Jackson Diner, have long faded. Even when one finds tasty grub it still seems like eating from a vast steam table. Nevertheless, we hold out hope and were glad to happen upon Malgudi. The tiny spot's red awning announced “South & North Indian Restaurant.” Even before a menu hit......

If you're applying for a mortgage, you're willing to give up your personal details. Unfortunately, for some first-time applicants, their mortgage manager stole their identities - and $1 million. Jacob Milton and his sister Nira Niru were arrested for identity theft, grand larceny and scheming to defraud after investigators at the 115th Precinct received many complaints of ID theft. The police found one common thread: They had all applied for mortgage at Griffin Mortgage's Jackson......

Omesh Hiraman, the 22-year-old St. John's University student who caused panic when he brought a .50 cailber rifle on campus, will be arraigned today in his hospital room at Bellevue. Queens DA Richard Brown said that Hiraman was being "held on two counts of fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon (with intent to use said weapon unlawfully against another and possession of a rifle in a building or grounds used for educational purposes) and several......

Gotham Gazette has an excellent look at the effects of "a housing bust" by Queens College demographer Andrew Beveridge. This map shows how much income goes towards mortgages; Beveridge notes:The median income of those paying less than 30 percent of their income on housing is $120,900. For those paying between 30 and 50 percent of their income, though, the median is $74,390, and for those paying over 50 percent the median income is $39,900.......

Lately we've had tacos on the brain, particularly those that involve organ meats and creepy crawlies some folks consider to be Fear Factor fare. Given our taste for the bizarre, it may be hard believe that there are times when we crave nothing more than a simple pork or beef tongue taco. Last night at about 1:30 a.m., we found ourselves in such a mood. As luck would have it we also found ourselves......

Recently, we learned that the Oaxacan delicacy of chapulines, or dried grasshoppers, hits the shelves in NYC at the end of this month. This news came to us from a diminutive friend who's been bestowed the nickname Chapuline by his fellow line cooks at a Chelsea restaurant. Ever optimistic in our quest for weird foods we hit Mexican groceries in both the Bronx and Queens armed with the question, "Se vende chapulines," only to......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A special delivery (as in a birth) on Hillside Avenue in Manhattan, a jumper down on Flatbush in Brooklyn, and a pursuit with injured officers at 106th St & Rockaway Blvd. in Queens. A Gambino crime family associate's son was working the elevator the day of the Deutsche Bank fire and helped save a woman right before the firefighters arrived. What will someone pay for signatures from people like......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: Is there a bank robber hitting up multiple banks on the Upper West Side? There were robberies at 2438 Broadway and 59 West 86th St; there were also two separate police vehicle MVAs in The Bronx and Brooklyn; and a fatality under a train in Jackson Heights (it says A, but we'll assume it's the E). If any Wall Street types you know were depressed yesterday after the Dow......

A reader sent us this horrible but all-too-familiar story: I was on the 7 train riding from Flushing Main Street when a man sat across from me (a few stops before 82nd street Jackson Heights he got on) with a newspaper on his lap pretending to be sleeping. I glanced over and to my horror all his goods were in plain view. I did not react and I pulled out my cell phone and took......

Maybe it’s the weather, but lately Gothamist has been craving Indian food. Rather than go to one of the numerous steam-table joints in Jackson Heights, we decided to give Hyderabadi, a new restaurant in Woodside down the street from the much-acclaimed Spicy Mina’s a try. The scuttlebutt on Chowhound was that this spot serves cuisine from the South Indian city of Hyderabad, renowned for its myriad biryanis and the mysterious Chicken 65, among other things.......

As the name implies, Terraza Cafe Art is a rather Bohemian hang complete with an eclectic decor we like to call Colombian folkloric hippie. Handmade baskets line the top of the bar; a Buddhist icon adorns one wall; and numerous Christian religious statues are scattered about. Add a soundtrack with everything from the Doors and Joe Cocker to Kid Rock, The Cure and Colombian music and a video projector that plays everything from Droopy Dawg......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an aircraft emergency at Laguardia Airport in Queens, a carjacking on 7th Ave. and 115th St. in Manhattan, and a pedestrian fatally struck on Nostrand Ave. in Brooklyn. The director of the Public Theater's production of A Midsummers Night's Dream suffered four broken ribs and a collapsed lung after falling through a trap door at Central Park's Delacorte Theater during a rehearsal this week. Do not adjust the controls......

When we checked the MTA's Service Alerts for NYC Transit early this morning, there was only a note was flooding causing issues with F service between Jamaica-179th Street Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station. Now there's a laundry list of subway issues:Due to a water condition at the Parsons Boulevard Station, there is no F train service between the Jamaica-179th Street Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station. - Stations being bypassed are:169th Street,......

Like many New Yorkers we're huge fans of the cornucopia of Central American and Mexican fare available at the Red Hook ballfields. But we're do you go when you don't feel like trekking to Red Hook? For us Elmhurst and Jackson Heights often fit the bill, particularly because of the specials at the nabe's taquerias. Gothamist is always psyched to see barbacoa de chivo on the specials board. This sumptuous slow-cooked goat meat is typically......

This week in the Times, Bruni dines at Mercat, awards the restaurant one star. He likes the food; doesn't like the noise level. "Some wonderful food, some clangorous acoustics: these are the defining traits of Mercat," he says. Prices at the Spanish restaurant are quite reasonable, and with it come some tradeofffs: the food is sometimes uneven (particularly the seafood), service a bit off, noise level too high, desserts less than spectacular. In Dining Briefs,......

Coming slowly but surely to a grocery store near you is 5 Boroughs Ice Cream. What started with little more than a couple’s wedding present followed by some kitchen experimentation has become a quest to endow every New York City neighborhood with its own signature ice cream flavor. 5 Boroughs owners Scott and Kim Myles are the Big Apple’s Ben and Jerry, sans Birkenstocks. With 8 themed flavors, such as the Jackson Heights Mangodesh......

- Jim Leff has built a Google mash-up of his favorite “obscure street food in Easter Jackson Heights.” In related news, The Arepa Lady is on MySpace? Fake or real, you decide. - We have always loved Alex Garcia's food, from back in the day by Douglas Rodriguez's side opening Patria to his excellent nook of a spot at Erizo Latino in SoHo where he pioneered the Turkey T-Bone. That being said, we were happy......

Book-ending 85th street in Jackson Heights, Mama’s Empanadas and Papa’s Empanadas caught Gothamist’s attention on a recent food-finding mission to the borough. Separated by mere yards and boasting suspiciously similar storefronts, our minds—driven as they are by block lettered tabloids—turned instantly to scandal. Oh, the delicious rivalry we conjured! Wars fought over family recipes, secret ingredients leaked to sources undeserving, bitter enmities born of pockets of dough! An angry pair of merchants courting Jackson......

You know that beating of a rookie cop in Queens from yesterday? It turns out that suspect Danny Fernandez was staking out cops so he could steal a gun. Fernandez had been waiting three hours until decided to attack Officer Joseph Cho with a baseball bat in Jackson Heights at 1AM. Luckily, fellow rookie cop Patrick Lynch saw the attack and chased Fernandez - who ended up running into a third rookie, Christine Schmidt. Lynch......

Early Sunday morning, an off-duty police officer tried to intervene in an altercation in Jackson Heights, Queens. Apparently, the off-duty lieutenant, Jose Jacome, a 16 year NYPD veteran who had picked up his girlfriend from her shift working at a bar, saw a man being beaten by two other men. The NYPD says Jacome identified himself as a cop in both English and Spanish and then approached the scene. One of the attackers, 17 year......

One year ago, Gothamist boarded a ferry bound for Uruguay to spend the day exploring Colonia del Sacramento. We dreamt of renting a Vespa and speeding along the Rio de la Plata, racing through the Portugese Barrio Historico at speeds of 10, even 15 miles per hour. We rented that Vespa, more of a ramshackle Ninja actually, and speed we did—through the crumbling Plaza de Toros, the abandoned port, the sleepy artisan markets and the......

The story about the Bronx woman who claimed at first that her baby had been kidnapped as gunpoint but later revealed the baby died in her care was charged with murder yesterday as police learned more details. Lucia Rojas confessed to suffocating and dumping her 2 week old son - because she had gotten pregnant when she was raped in Mexico. The baby was born prematurely on December 17; on December 31, Rojas took him......

If you've followed The Innocence Project, the non-profit started by Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld (pictured, Neufeld on the left, Scheck on the right) which uses DNA evidence to free the wrongfully convicted, you'll find this interesting. Last year, Lee Long sued Scheck and Neufeld, as well as another lawyer and their law firm, for mishandling his wrongful imprisonment claim. Long was found guilty of raping a woman in Jackson Heights and served six years......

A Halloween addendum: Mayor Bloomberg marched in the Jackson Heights Halloween Parade Tuesday night (it's hard to tell who looks more uncomfortable in this picture - the Mayor or the baby.) We like the Mayor's orange sash and we understand he wore a suit to still look mayorly. But an easy costume could have been a "Mike in 2008" pin on the label for "Bloomberg the Presidential Candidate." Or maybe he could have gone......

Earlier this week, the police were looking for a former guest who attacked a mother and son in Queens. David Higgins and his parents let Emmanuel Polanco live with them, until they realized Polanco was stealing from them. Two weeks after kicking him out, Higgins found Polanco back in the home, stealing other items. Polanco stabbed Higgins and beat his mother with a baseball bat. Before dying of his injuries, Higgins was able to tell......