Prix Fixe - Our weekly Queens food blog roundup

Image Source: Lauren’s Latest

It’s time for our weekly Queens food blog roundup, where we show you what the local food press has in store. For this meal, we have selected a pair of international dishes, a home-grown favorite, and a simple, unique dessert. Please have a seat and your server will be right with you.

Course 1: Salad
This week Chopsticks and Marrow introduces us to som tum, a Thai papaya salad, at Jackson Heights’ Zabb Elee. This mix of beans, fish, papaya and eggplant is a spicy, crunch blast from the Far East. They serve several distinct varieties of this Thai dish so bring some friends to order them all and share. It’s the perfect start to their extensive menu.

Course 2: Entree
This week’s entree is not an actual dish, but an announcement that will certainly make you hungry. We Heart Astoria has the scoop that casual Greek restaurant MP Taverna finally opens today! This will be the third MP Taverna restaurant opened by celebrity chef Michael Psilakis, the two others being in Long Island and Westchester. If the food at the Queens location is anything like its sister sites, this will be an excellent addition to the neighborhood.

Course 3: Main
Today’s main course is a reminder of the terrific hamburgers that can be had at Donovan’s Pub in Woodside. Eater NY posted a great short history of one of this neighborhood’s last remnants of its Irish past. Opened in 1966, Donovan’s became an immediate local fixture but almost disappeared last year when founder Joe Donovan decided to retire. Fortunately a longtime employee bought it and decided to preserve its original charm, so we are all able to enjoy one of Queen’s most celebrated burger joints.

Course 4: Dessert
We decided to go with something a little less traditional for dessert. Fooditka waxes poetic about the summery nature of a strawberry, avocado, and spinach salad recipe they found. They adapted their recipe from Lauren’s Latest, replacing the original kale and the lemon-poppy seed dressing with with spinach and a mix of vinegar and tzatziki. The simplicity of this recipe means you can make it as sweet or as savory as you like. Just save us a bite.

That’s it for this week. Join us next week for another look at the best in Queens food blogs.