Spicy lamb lasagne with homemade pasta

​"Kaz An Nou" means "our house" in the Creole language spoken in Guadeloupe, and the name is apt. A group of us trooped over to this new French-Caribbean restaurant in Prospect Heights on Friday night, and the small spot felt homey and warm, staffed by one waiter and a husband-and-wife team in the tiny open kitchen behind a counter.

​ Behind these unassuming doors, does greatness lie?

Wednesday was a benchmark moment for this city. In the great tradition of going to ridiculous lengths for pretty pedestrian things -- like waiting an hour just to score a $5 burger, or the blood sport of making reservations for a $30 burger -- the $4.25 cup of iced coffee arrived with the opening of the San Francisco-bred Blue Bottle Coffee in Williamsburg. We got an early taste.

​Satay Junction is a sliver of an Indonesian street food spot, no more than six feet across, squeezed in next to Lafayette Pastry on Greenwich Avenue. It's barely a week old, but we thought we'd stop by for the early word on their marquee satays.

Maewoon haemul jampong, spicy noodle soup with seafood

​Newly opened Hirai Mong bills itself as a Korean-Chinese restaurant, a distinct cuisine developed in areas like Incheon, South Korea, which once had a very large ethnic Chinese population.

Popular Korean-Chinese dishes include jajangmyeon, steamed noodles with black bean paste, and jampong, wheat noodles in a spicy, onion-heavy broth, both of which Hirai Mong serves. The latter ($8.95) is above, the tasty broth and noodles augmented with octopus, small shrimp and mussels.

We didn't have very high hopes for Hirai Mong, if only because the space, a cavernous restaurant on the craziest block of St. Marks, seems a bit cursed. It was formerly home to the mediocre and short-lived Korean restaurant Gemma. But Hirai Mong is better than it has to be--which is to say, not great, but enjoyable enough.

Terri's meatball "sub"

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Terri Vegan Cafe is one of a growing number of vegan fast-casual spots popping up across town, and certainly the first of its kind in the Flatiron District. The shop was opened three weeks ago by a former employee of Blossom, the Chelsea vegan restaurant that recently expanded its holdings to include a truffle and wine bar. Like Blossom, there's nothing remotely crunchy about Terri -- its decor has more in common with an upscale chocolate shop than, say, Angelica Kitchen. Located next door to a New York Health & Racquet Club on West 23rd Street, it's an airy place with high ceilings, slickly minimal decor, and a long, wide counter staffed by friendly people wearing purple T-shirts.

Boquerones and deviled eggs

​Bar Henry opened about four months ago in a dark, subterranean space on Houston. The wine bar and restaurant is from the same owners as Cafe Henri; the establishments share a mascot, a drunken Maltese dog. With its red brick walls, copper bar, checked tile floor, and low ceilings, Bar Henry feels antique and guileless. And although the main dishes are rather expensive, the extensive wine list offers some good values, and the bar snacks are just what you want with a glass.

El Cubano

​ Carteles is a sunny spot, decorated in bright yellow and blue with perky wicker stools and tile mosaics. The Cuban sandwich and coffee bar opened almost a month ago, the first outpost in what will be Cienfuegos, a three-part enterprise offering a rum bar upstairs, a proper Cuban restaurant downstairs, and Carteles tucked to one side. Today, the whine of a power saw upstairs could be heard, and the counter guy said that the bar will be open in the next few weeks, the sit-down restaurant in a month or so. The eating-and-drinking complex is the creation of partners from the Bourgeois Pig, Desnuda and Mayahuel, who are creating a nice little East Village empire for themselves.

The marquee Cubano is judiciously constructed--thin layers of roast pork, ham, provolone, pickles and garlicky yellow mustard, pressed into crisp submission. You get a bit of each component in every mouthful, including the tart pickles. Maybe the roast pork isn't the most luscious lechon you've ever had, but it does the trick. The sandwich costs $8.50 -- not a deal, but about the going rate for the neighborhood -- and comes with plantain chips.

​Which of these represents the true future of pizza? The fastidious cone ($5.90) or the sloppy slice ($2.50)? You decide...

Just this afternoon I found myself standing in a long line that snaked out the door of a new pizza parlor opposite the Empire State Building. When I say new, I mean really new--the joint had only been open for a few hours. Have I gone insane? I thought as my wait went from 15 minutes to 30 minutes to three-quarters of an hour.

A completely shite photo of the vanilla strawberry, peanut butter chocolate, and red velvet cupcakes from Tully's.

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Back in January, we spoke with Tully Lewis about Tully's, the gluten-free bakery she was planning to open on East 11th Street. The bakery opened its doors on Monday, and earlier today, Fork in the Road trudged through the snow to sample a few of the treats on display.

Chicken breast with barley and jus

​ About two weeks ago, we ran a candid interview with The Wright executive chef Rodolfo Contreras, in which he talked about the fact that he doesn't go out to eat because he can't find a restaurant to his standards, and what it was like to be Mexican in a French kitchen 10 years ago.

We were intrigued by Contreras, and went (anonymously, as always) to check out his cooking at The Wright, the Guggenheim's new fine dining restaurant.