"The menu posted outside Kabab Café, in Astoria’s Little Egypt, is out of date by roughly a quarter century. Ali El Sayed, the proprietor, chef, and sole employee, put it up shortly after opening the restaurant, in 1989, and then willfully forgot about it. He refuses to be confined to a menu and believes that all true cooking necessitates flamboyant improvisation. “You have a map of flavors,” he says. “And then you dance.”" - David Kortava