Best of New York 2012 • Eating

• Junoon

  27 W. 24th St., nr. Broadway; 212-490-2100

  These are the salad days in the big city for connoisseurs of goat. Thanks to the great barnyard revolution, the once lowly farm animal has found a place on fancy dinner menus all over town (the roast “capretto” at Scarpetta comes to mind). For our money, however, the best way to enjoy a proper goat dinner is in a good, spicy curry, and there’s none better these days than the patiala shahi goat curry at the grand Indian Flatiron restaurant Junoon. Its classic recipe comes from the northern Punjab region, where goats are bred with the kind of love and care that prize cattle get in the U.S. Junoon’s chef, Vikas Khanna, browns the meat in a dense mix of cumin, ginger, and garlic, then moistens it with yogurt and a tomato purée. The resulting spicy, densely aromatic stew goes beautifully with the excellent selection of house breads, and is a dish even non–goat lovers can love.

From the 2012 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine