Dominican Flavor, Inc.: get the mofongo, leave the rest. — Photos by Scarlett Lindeman
Generally speaking, when a restaurant smells like cat piss, it’s time to back-pedal out of the door. Dominican Flavor, Inc., is not a place to sniff at. The boxy steam table establishment at the corner of Knickerbocker and Dekalb Avenues is more bar than restaurant.
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Mirrored walls reflect what little light peeps in through the drawn blinds, while dudes sip Negra Modelos underneath the lowered rims of their baseball caps. The waitresses look as though they have spent hours penciling in eyebrows that can stand up to the steam of arroz con habichuelas, goat stew, and thumping music. It could be the dark rouge on their lips or the way they delicately dress each iceberg salad with vinegar and oil, salt and pepper, but these girls work hard for their one-dollar bills.
The kitchen serves basic Latin American fare like hearty plates of braised ox-tail, a dry-roasted chicken, and ho-hum rice and beans. The mofongo, however, is a dome-shaped Dominican pleasure. If you have never tried the dish, imagine the force of mashed potatoes and meatloaf smashed together — the dish, popular throughout the Caribbean, combines green plantains and roasted pork into garlicky starchy mash that looks like cat food but tastes as rich as pork belly.
A sauce of amplified pan drippings is served on the side to moisten the mess, a solid foundation for a rowdy night. By noon on a Monday, a couple of rounds have already circled. Beers are just $3.
bushwickitywack April 2nd, 2010 at 4:35 pm
please don’t ever use mofongo and cat piss in the same sentence ever again. thanks.
rico April 2nd, 2010 at 5:19 pm
monfongo is not a dominican dish FYI
Captain Sensible April 2nd, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Puerto Ricans invented MOFONGO! But it does have roots in African cuisine… Regardless, I think it’s pretty pan-Caribbean.
Jeremy Sapienza April 3rd, 2010 at 4:46 pm
Mofongo may be originally Puerto Rican, but I have found the best in the neighborhood is made in Dominican spots. But then, most places here seem to be so maybe that’s not a fair contest.
BrooklynJTrain April 3rd, 2010 at 10:55 pm
Were you serious about the cat piss?
Brandon April 5th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Is this a review? What are you talking about? Cat piss?
Professional Alternative April 5th, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Seems obvious to me it’s a review of a place that smells like cat piss. What’s the difficulty here? Thanks anyhow Scarlett, I’ll be checking out some other spots.
Sharon Kessinger April 5th, 2010 at 3:05 pm
Why DOES it smell like cat piss?
bushwickdominican April 8th, 2010 at 11:29 am
as a dominican that grew up in bushwick, i am quite offended by how you make these woman sound like strippers and low-lives. You should not write about how “hard they work for a dollar” but instead talk about the struggle that these woman go through throughout their lives.
furthermore, I have to reiterate some previous points. Mofongo is originally puerto rican, and perhaps you only find good dominican food because thats what majority of restaurants are. I can assure you that Puerto Rican Mofongo is AS good as Dominican mofongo.
if you are going to write about something you should really do more research and not try to mix in unrelated things in order to make a story (i.e. cat piss, eyebrows, dollar, etc.)
Jeremy Sapienza April 8th, 2010 at 5:09 pm
Oh come on, this is a 250-word blurb on a local restaurant. It stinks, people drink there on Monday at noon, the food is not so good except for the mofongo, which is. It’s not a human interest story, or a report on the history of mofongo — they have it at this place, and it’s good. No further “research” is required.
daniel April 20th, 2010 at 7:33 pm
i agree with bushwickdominican. the review reads like a nasty hipster diss of a food she doesn’t know anything about. look, the food there may or may not be that good, but the reviewer just sounds snotty and mean-spirited, so i can’t take her opinion seriously.