BIG APPETITES ON CAMPUS
Cure your cravings at tasty trio of Fordham Hts. spots
Fordham Road is one of the busiest streets in the Bronx, clogged with shoppers, commuters and college students from the many nearby campuses. The smart ones seek out these three spots when they’re hungry near the B train station at Fordham Road/Grand Concourse in the neighborhood of Fordham Heights.
HOT DOGS AND CRAZY JUICE
If you’re a newbie to Fresh Frutii, you might need a minute to figure out the system at this three-year-old Dominican snack shop. For starters, there are always two lines, one on either side of the long counter. Go left for the good-for-you stuff, aka fruit juices, salads and smoothies like the “Crazy,” made with tropical sapote fruit, strawberries and papaya, which is sweetened with as much sugar syrup, vanilla, or condensed milk as you like. (A large is $5, plus you usually get a little shooter on the side.) Get in the line to the right, on the other hand, and you’re on your way to more savory snacking. There are hot Latin-American sandwiches like the yoyo (above, inset), made on pressed rounds of ripe plantains. It’s loaded with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, pink sauce and your choice of beef, chicken or ham and cheese ($6.50). Hot dogs are another option: You can have them as salchipapas ($4), or blistered with French fries; wrapped in empanada skins in the “cannoli” dog ($2); or Dominican-style, served in a bun and slathered in countless sauces and toppings for $2.75.
Fresh Frutii: 2449 Creston Ave., near E. 188th St., Bronx; (347) 271-8932
FRIED, STEAMED, BAKED OR BROILED
Fordham Seafood
& Chicken is surprisingly cozy for a fried fish-and-chicken spot squeezed in near one of Grand Concourse’s busiest corners. It’s wrapped in wood paneling that makes the place feel like a 1970s rec room, and decorated with dozens of handwritten menu signs that hang like grade school art on the fridge.
To many, this joint is part of the family. Opened by On Choe and her husband Mark in 1989, it’s been a neighborhood hangout for decades for quick, madeto-order, affordable, filling, and even healthy food, if you choose options like broiled tilapia and shrimp ($10.50) or baked flounder. The latter is $7.75 with steamed red potato, green beans, broccoli and carrots, best blasted with a hit of house butter sauce.
Still, the crowd favorites here are usually fried. One is the whiting (inset, right) or chicken cutlet sandwich on sliced white or wheat ($3.67). Another is the fried shrimp or chicken thighs over a hefty bed of the Choes’ light version of vegetable fried rice, flavorful but never greasy.
(P.S.: Mark’s brother runs the equally old-school Fordham Fried Chicken & Seafood a block away on E. 188th St.; locals tend to pick a fave.)
Fordham Seafood & Chicken: 2468 Grand Concourse, near E. 188th St., Bronx; (718) 933-9854