Forget Plaxico -- Corona Has Poblanos

Food tastings, cool Corona, the chance to snag one of Helen Marshall's favorite recipes -- and all for a great cause (The Heart of Corona Initiative).

What's not to love about The Healthy Taste of Corona Cookbook Launch Event?

Bonus: The event doubles as a good excuse to escape the hellish Sunday tradition that is American football (**Note: I realize this is a wildly unpopular opinion..and, yes, this makes me sad).

Event: The Healthy Taste of Corona Cookbook Launch Event
Date: Sunday, Dec. 14
Time: 3-6 p.m.
Place: New York City Building, Flushing Meadows Corona Park. Tel: (718) 592-9700

Great Queens Soup Search: Kane's Diner

Kane's Diner
4415 College Point Blvd.
Flushing
(718) 463-5787
Soup: Chicken Noodle

The Good News: Long threads of spaghetti replace soggy noodles. Celery, carrots, gloriously big chunks of chicken and -- ooh -- just enough of a garlicky punch to leave an interesting taste on the tongue.

The Extra-Special Good News: A Christmas tree! Poinsettias! Signed photographs of Brian Williams galore! Love the homey decor at Kane's -- the vintage maple syrup dispensers at each table and the menus -- oh the menus -- reminiscent of a teenage girl's scrapbook.

The Sort-of Bad News: The menus are a bit difficult to decipher. The impatient diner will have trouble locating a list of soups obscured within cut-out glossy photos of food items and headshots of Billy Joel, Shirley Temple and Princess Diana.

The Verdict: I love Kane's Diner and would return any time for a garlic kick and the chance to break bread with Brian Williams.

Great Queens Soup Search: Death by Lentil Soup Part III

The Blue Bay Diner
58-50 Francis Lewis Blvd.
Oakland Gardens
(718) 225-6333
Soup: Lentil Soup

If you've ever eaten a meal or a snack and realized, only after the table has cleared, that you've eaten anything at all, you will understand the uninspired experience of eating most lentil soups (I would throw rice cakes, celery and Subway sandwich bread into the same consuming pit of fire, if given a chance).

To be fair, Queens residents don't frequent Blue Bay for its soups. If you're a teenager, you go for their cheese fries. If you are an adult, you go for their three-egg omelettes and hot open sandwiches. With that in mind...

The Good News: Well-cooked lentils.

The Really Good News: This. Any diner willing to devote an entire web page to their soup schedule is alright by me.

The Bad News: Broth is on the watery side. Lacked salt, pepper and cumin. Miniscule splinters of onion, carrot and celery say a lot about the sous chef's ability to wield a Santoko knife but add little to the soup's flavor.

Verdict: Consider me a slave to Blue Bay's soup schedule. I shall return to taste Greek Egg Lemon soup.

Great Queens Soup Search: Death by Lentil Soup Part II

Brothers Pizzeria & Restaurant
185-04 Horace Harding Expwy.
Fresh Meadows
(718) 445-7888
Soup: Lentil Soup

The Good News: I was cold, craving soup and not expecting anything glorious. So, of course, what do I find at this old-fashioned pizzeria? An utterly delightful, thick brown brew of lentil goodness, chockful of adorably-stubby mini Rigatoni pasta. I couldn't get over the volume of this soup -- tasty -- and incredibly affordable ($3.50 for a hearty bowl).

The Bad News: What can I pick at..what can I pick at..well, they didn't serve the soup with crackers, which I guess would be a problem if you prefer crackers to perfectly-cooked Rigatoni pasta.

The Verdict: A great, inexpensive find. You won't find a lot of variety here, but the soup is outstanding.

Great Queens Soup Search: Death by Lentil Soup

Here's a little trivia: in 2007, the world produced 3.9 million tonnes of lentils. I wouldn't be shocked to discover that Queens absorbed the bulk of this bounty, because it seems lentil soup is on the menu EVERYWHERE I go.

Here's my rundown on the first of not one, not two -- but three lentil soups in three days.

Quantum Leap Restaurant
6564 Fresh Meadow Lane
Fresh Meadows
(718) 461-1307
Soup: Tomato Lentil

The Good News: I'm not a big fan of vegetarian restaurants, though I admit my reasons have more to do with the existence of words like "un-turkey" and "un-beef" than my dislike of tofu products. Quantum Leap is slightly shabby, yes. But it's comfortable, warm and attached to a health food store that goes by the same name -- so it was worth a shot.

I'll give the soup a thumbs-up for its massive zucchini, carrots, celery, onions, broccoli and turnip chunks. The veggie medley was fresh and tasty. Very nice.

The Bad News: Though the vegetables were lovely, the main attraction -- the lentils -- were overcooked. And why was my soup dripping down the side of the cup before it reached the table?

Verdict: The potential for a really great, interesting vegetarian soup is there. But, come on. Soup is a first course -- not an afterthought. Get those lentils out of the pot a few minutes earlier and I'll happily deal with the messy presentation.

Ya...It’s Good

An assortment of specials courtesy of Sushi Ya in New Hyde Park.


Hirami Mono | Spicy tuna wrapped in fresh fluke and laid over a grid of the chef's special sauce.


Grand Mariner Shrimp | Lightly battered fried shrimp served in a Grand Mariner sauce.


Sushi Ya Special Grilled Short Rib | Tender beef rib marinated in a tangy Japanese pear sauce and grilled to perfection.


Iron Tuna | Spicy tuna wrapped in a thin cut of seared tuna and served over an oily red sauce.

Photos by Michael Lanza

Great Queens Soup Search -- Cherry Valley

If you went to St. Francis Prep, you knew better than to cut class.

Unless the risk involved a trip to Cherry Valley.

The Whitestone deli boasts a much nicer awning than it did a few years ago, but its selection of sandwiches and snacks lives on as an artery-clogging manifesto to every tempting food known to man (onion rings on my bacon and cheddar sandwich? Why yes, please).

For now, here's the soup scoop:

Cherry Valley Deli & Grill
12-29 150th St.
Whitestone
(718) 767-1937
Soup: Grilled Chicken Corn Chowder

The good news: Where do I begin? With its profusion of red peppers, zucchini, corn and white potatoes, the chowder had volume and enough of a spicy kick to make it really interesting. Fine strips of grilled white chicken are a satisfactory substitute for bacon bits, which many corn chowder recipes call for -- they add a nice, smoky punch without the fat.

The not-so-good news: Pointing out a flaw in this soup is like chastising a supermodel for being born with an outtie belly button -- does it really matter?

But I'll play devil's advocate.

Cherry Valley -- please add more delicious chicken chunks to your already glorious corn chowder soup.

There.

Overall Verdict: Yes, please.

The Great Queens Soup Search

For the past few days, two of the most e-mailed articles on the New York Times Web site have been about sex and soup. Sure, this could just be our way of reverting back to the simpler things in life, given the economy – but I like to think it’s something else. Sex has always received its due reward in our society – but soup – not so much.

Think about it. Soup has powers of permutation unlike any other food shy of potatoes or tomatoes. You can eat it cold, hot, from a shot glass or a colossal bowl, thick and chunky or pureed, diluted or buttery and lush. And what other food grants you permission to recklessly combine potatoes, cheese and bacon? Enough said.

As a Queens native and now Brooklyn resident, I have had many, many good soups in my new borough..not so many in my original borough. But I’m determined to change that. Without further ado, here is my first attempt at trying every great soup in Queens. I welcome any and all suggestions or comments.

Tuesday, Nov. 25
Donovan’s of Bayside
214-16 41st Ave.
Bayside
(718) 423-5353
Soup: Lentil

Brian, my foodie co-worker, has been raving about Donovan’s Split Pea Soup. It was my first trip to the popular restaurant and bar and, based solely on the décor (which resembles the townhouse Great Room of my pretentious dreams), I fell instantly in love. I had high hopes, but since it was raining, windy and downright glacial, it shouldn’t have come as a surprise to find that Donovan’s did the sensible thing and replaced its fragile Split Pea with a hearty, reliable and –sorry – humdrum Lentil Soup option.

The good news: Everyone is spot on about the fresh food at Donovan’s. The lentils were cooked very well and had a creamy, slightly crisp texture. Generous chunks of firm, sweet carrots were a delightful compliment.

The not-so-good news: Eh. I couldn’t put my finger on what my soup was lacking. I knew it wasn’t something major, but it was something. Then, I committed a dining sin and sprinkled just a dash of salt and pepper into my soup – which, sadly, made a big difference.

Overall verdict: I will definitely return to Donovan’s and try other soups. As for the Lentil – it needed red pepper, salt, pepper, celery, cumin, coriander – something – added to the mix to help animate its fresh flavors.