Maloya

[Sneakeater]

As a rule, I'm not writing up any of the many places I've eaten in around my new neighborhood.  Nobody would care but @backyardchef.  But this place is an interesting example of how you can stumble into a lot of press without any PR.

Last month The New Yorker ran a piece about a guy who's determined to eat in a restaurant representing every country in the world within the borders of New York City.  He's down to his last several countries.  So he was delighted to discover that a place had opened up in Bushwick (really it's East Williamsburg) serving the food of Réunion.   The writer tagged along.  (Every article about this place has assumed the reader wouldn't know where Réunion -- an island south of Mauritius --  is, but anyone who reads the Aubrey/Maturin novels knows.  I'm pretty sure I knew even before that.)

So this New Yorker piece talked about the restaurant, Maloya, only because that's where the guy who was the article's subject happened to be going that week.  But it made Maloya sound interesting.

Suddenly the food press took it up.  Tammie Teclemariam wrote it up.  Nikita Richardson included it in one of her inane compendia.  Just a few days ago Sietsema did it.  All, I'm assuming, because of that mention in the New Yorker piece.

Maloya is very good.  You might expect a Mom-and-Pop hole-in-the-wall, but this is very much a Bushwick/Williamsburg restaurant.  The Pop came to the U.S. from Réunion to be a tech guy, but eventually decided he'd have more fun running a bar and restaurant.  The Mom was and is an opera singer.

Réunion was uninhabited until the Portuguese claimed it, with the French then taking it from the Portuguese.  So there's no indigenous population or native cuisine; the population are people the Portguese and then the French brought over as slaves or indentured laborers.  So it's sort of split between people from India and people from Africa, and the food shows that -- with a French overlay.

Maloya has a good beverage program.  The cocktail list reflects Réunionese tropicality and French influences (the French started a Rhum industry there, I'm guessing as a follow-up to Haiti); some stuff seems too tropical (certainly for Winter) (which I suppose ends today), but there are definitely things that are good to drink.  Of course the wine list trends Natural.

So the food, as I said, is a mixture of Indian and African with French inflections.  It certainly isn't stuff you've had before.  I enjoyed what I had very much -- and it's just a nice place to be in.  ("Maloya" is the popular music form of Réunion, benefiting from an African influence -- and of course that's what dominates the playlist.)  I'm happy I went.  And all because I read that New Yorker piece.

Edited March 20, 2024 by Sneakeater

[Sneakeater]

I just saw that Tammie correctly flagged this restaurant as being in East Williamsburg.  She's the best!

[voyager]

reReunion, the ex-husband (a professional) and adult daughter & family of our extraordinarily charming and accomplished hostess in Languedoc have lived in Reunion for over 20 years so I assume that there is a quite sophisticated French expat community.

[Sneakeater]

It occurs to me that if it were 200 years ago, the menu would have included dodo.

[Steve R.]

I really liked the piece in The New Yorker and, of course, I went to his website afterwards & took a look, noting some interesting places I want to try (including this one).  I especially got a kick out of him starting his quest after eating at Mombar.  I took a group there just last year, after not going for several years.  Mustafa is still cooking up a storm (I also went to Ali's Kebab Cafe that month).  At any rate, although Maloya might seem out of the way (& it is, for most of us), folks should note that its only blocks from Roberta's and that the B57 bus goes right there (well, so does my car).  Thanks for the reminder.  Soon.

[backyardchef]

On 3/19/2024 at 4:48 PM, Sneakeater said:

So the food, as I said, is a mixture of Indian and African with French inflections.  It certainly isn't stuff you've had before.  I enjoyed what I had very much -- and it's just a nice place to be in.  ("Maloya" is the popular music form of Réunion, benefiting from an African influence -- and of course that's what dominates the playlist.)  I'm happy I went.  And all because I read that New Yorker piece.

Are you actually saying that you are the butterfly who's wings really got the press ball rolling? 🤣

[backyardchef]

December 2023 - 

https://www.bkmag.com/2023/12/18/maloya-in-bushwick-serves-the-food-of-reunion-a-tiny-volcanic-island-on-the-indian-ocean/

 

January 2024

https://www.theinfatuation.com/new-york/reviews/maloya

 

Looks like a great place....

Edited March 21, 2024 by backyardchef

[Sneakeater]

Hmmmm.  So people were picking it up before that incidental New Yorker mention.   I guess the guy in the New Yorker article had to hear about it from somewhere.

(I must have seen The Infatuation piece, since I mentioned to the owner how odd it was that they had been said to play Zouk instead of Maloyas on their playlist, and he replied, "no the night she was here we were playing Zouk!")

Edited March 21, 2024 by Sneakeater

[backyardchef]

15 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Hmmmm.  So people were picking it up before that incidental New Yorker mention.   I guess the guy in the New Yorker article had to hear about it from somewhere.

(I must have seen The Infatuation piece, since I mentioned to the owner how odd it was that they had been said to play Zouk instead of Maloyas on their playlist, and he replied, "no the night she was here we were playing Zouk!")

I actually love when the you can watch a restaurant get up on it's feet and begin to really hit their stride in every way. I wish them all the best. This is the kind of place we need more of.