Elza Fancy Foods

• Cuisine(s): Korean, Russian, Uzbekistan
  Hours: Mon-Thu: 10am-9pm; Fri-Sun: 10am-11pm
  Price: $$
• Payment Types: MasterCard, Visa
  Features: Takeout
  Serving: Dinner, Lunch
• Alcohol: BYOB
  Reservations: Not Accepted
  Parking: Street

Description

This Brighton Beach miracle isn't much to look at, but it offers a fascinating and entirely obscure cuisine at bargain prices: the cooking of Korean expatriates to Central Asia, who have been arriving, first in a trickle, later in droves since the first decade of the 20th century. On your plate you'll find standard Uzbek dishes like manti dumplings and lagman soup, but Korean-inspired potages are more unusual, including one called yug-gyadya, which you basically construct via a series of little bowls as it sits steaming in front of you. Another favorite is mash hurdy, which is a minute steak wrapped in a mayo-smeared omelet. Gut-bomb time! Georgian standard chicken tabaka is also particularly dope.