Introducing the ‘Naanini’

On Instagram and TikTok, anything worth eating comes with a line. Whether social-media fame is sparked by an influencer or is the result of a concerted marketing effort to engineer a food’s digital moment, timeline domination does not always correlate to actual quality. With this in mind, our “Underground Gourmet” columnist queues up each month to try some of the city’s most-shared, most-liked foods to determine what phone bait is actually worth the wait. 

Line 1: Chicken Tikka Naanini
Fonty’s Deli and Dukaan, 193 Bleecker St., nr. MacDougal St.
Naanini — a portmanteau of naan and panini — is my new favorite word. A new Indian deli in the West Village offers a few versions on its menu; a version with saucy chicken tikka oozing out of both aluminum-swaddled halves went rightfully went viral on TikTok. I waited about ten minutes in the tight shop packed with modern jarred sambals and spicy snacks for my order to be taken. It took another 15 before the burrito-heavy unit was in my possession. It evoked Taco Bell in its gourmandise, a grilled gordita-esque exterior stuffed with saucy cheesy chicken, but with a brisk heat and warm spiciness to the secret sauce, as well as properly large and juicy chunks of chicken.
Worth the wait? Yes, and the time it takes to get one ensures you’re hungry enough to finish it.

Line 2: Bed–Stuy Banana Pudding
Doc’s Cake Shop, 214 Bainbridge St., nr. Malcolm X Blvd., Bed–Stuy
When I told the counterperson I had come to this generational family bakery thanks to a recent TikTok, he wasn’t surprised, telling me this was their second brush with virality in the past few months. But Doc’s reputation was built long ago, as evidenced by a customer who told me she stops in every time she visits from South Carolina. I’d come for a plastic pint of banana pudding from the fridge behind the counter. When I got home and tried it, I was in a heaven of fluffy, creamy clouds and softened Nilla wafers. The banana flavor was discernible and fully integrated into both the mousse and sponge.
Worth the wait? I’m getting it every time I’m in the area.

Line 3: Soup Dumplings Meet Soda Pop
Din Soup Dumplings, 162 Montague St Fl 2, nr. Clinton St., Brooklyn Heights
This place was packed at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night. I specified that I wanted soup dumplings to come on top of a Diet Coke, just like I’d seen in the video, while an increasingly long line gathered behind me. I was warily quoted a 20- or 25-minute wait, which I accepted as a chance to have a glass of wine at Chama Mama across the street. When I came back, my order was sitting there, unbaggable: a transparent plastic cup, its brimming lid doubling as a bowl for more than a dozen miniature soup dumplings, the entire thing speared by a black straw like Excalibur. The dumplings themselves were well executed — bite-size and pan-fried so they didn’t stick to one another. It was surprisingly comfortable to hold, like a bouquet, but the attention I was required to maintain as I walked down the sidewalk and rode the train was a bit much.
Worth the wait? If I lived in the neighborhood I would tuck an order into the cupholder on my $1,000 stroller.

Line 4: Chicken-Wing Combo
Baji Baji, 145 First Ave., nr. E. 9th St.
Joe Cash waited 20 minutes for a mix of blistered chicken wings over fried rice; I was quoted the standard ten-minute wait for mine during the Sunday-night rush, though it did take another ten minutes for someone to help me while they handed out delivery orders and restocked the fridge with deep-green tropical punch. When I returned, after taking a lap around the block, the entry was packed from heavily scribbled wall to wall and my food was ready. It’s pretty basic as far as Chinese takeout goes. To their credit, the chicken wings were fried to a hard crisp, and I couldn’t stop shoveling forkfuls of the dark fried rice underneath. Still, I think most people come here because it’s convenient.
Worth the wait? Only if I were stumbling in from a nearby bar.

Line 5: The Strawberry Fantasia
Bar Primi, 349 W. 33rd St., nr. Ninth Ave.
I ordered this pretty pink dessert — only available at the Penn district location of Andrew Carmellini’s pasta chainlet — at the tail end of lunch service, so I ate it as a main course in the serene afternoon light of a mostly empty bar. But this place is a scene when it opens for dinner. What exactly is a Fantasia? My server said the decorative swirl piped into the cocktail glass before me was a mix of vanilla gelato and strawberry sorbet on top of vanilla pound cake surrounded by whipped cream and strawberries. It is, in reality, a $17 ice-cream cake experience that is unassailable as a dessert.
Worth the wait? So good. I want to go back on my birthday to get one with a candle.