wagyuboy

Bianca's on Bleecker and 2nd is good and so is Max's. I go to the Max's uptown on 123rd and Amsterdam, not the out on Avenue C, but they're both good. Pasta dishes are about 10 or so. Entrees a little more. Max's gets crowded. Have the parsley appetizer at Bianca's.

My girlfriend asked me to make pineapple vodka (she used some goofy rhyming name involving Stoli, but it's just pineapple vodka), where you cut fresh pineapple into a couple mason jars, fill it up with vodka, and let sit at room temperature for about a week. Has anybody heard of this? Is it any good? Should I use canned with syrup in order to give it that sugary kick that cute girls at a new year's eve party crave? Should I use decent vodka or would that be a waste 'cause it's going to be sitting in pineapples for a week? If anyone has advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Me and my girlfriend showed up around 12:30--the pig snout was disappointing. I was hoping for something really tender--I mean, face meat is usually tender, right? It was extra hard pork rinds with cold bad barbecue sauce. Seriously, like KC Masterpiece or whatever your local grocery sells. Blue Smoke fared much better; their ribs were fatty and great, even if you only got two. The desserts were just so-so--my $4 root beer float was flat and her rhubarb cobbler was pretty good if small. The logistics of providing food for that many people must be crazy though, so it's impressive that they manage to do it above the standard outdoor booth level. Do all the booths have to be right next to each other? The lines were pretty crazy, except the one for pig snout. Did Mr. Steingarten say anything interesting on Saturday?

Whole Earth is a very good health/organic grocery; they can supplement the few things Wegman's doesn't have. Mediterra and Blue Point Grill are the best restaurants (the others are either overpriced or just not good or both) actually, that Thai place down by the Whole Foods is pretty good too, and Tiger Noodles too. Can anyone explain the PJ's Pancakes thing to me? Why has it been allowed to become an institution? Pennington has Edo Sushi, but that's about it.

White pepper has that perfume-y taste that would be awful with a burger. Nobody's mentioned these 'cause they're cheap and not in the same league as City Hall or Peter Luger's at lunch, but Blue 9 on 3rd Ave has burgers that remind me of In-n-Out, which is comforting for anyone who ever lived in California. Just don't order the fries.

I guess it was pretty good peanut butter, but it's stupid expensive comfort food for NYU kids as far as I can tell...the bread was like Wonder bread, the jelly was okay, the Nutella was overpriced...why? sorta like that new pierogi place on Bleecker, which is very disappointing.

Kim WB, you don't like the new bakery next to the Record Exchange? I never see anyone in there, but the two times i went, their pastries were good.

Just a question as an ignorant boy--what's the point of that awful "That-Time-of-the-Month" Woman tea that everybody has a box of lurking in their nether cupboards? I've drank it out of curiosity once or twice and it was worse than those teas that are made from tree bark. My mom and girlfriend never touch the stuff, as they hew closer to the salty/sweet side of the spectrum, so what's this stuff for?

Taqueria y Fonda on Amsterdam between 107th and 108th has great mole poblano, as does Mexico Dos up on 145th and Amsterdam. Mexico Dos has this great mole rojo and verde as well. Mexican food seems like one of those cuisines where the expensive, haute cuisine versions are just kinda silly. Someone took me to Bobby Flay's place recently, and it was cool...but what's the point? Speaking of authenticity, Mexico Dos is supposed to be authentic Oaxacan, not just Mexican food.

Good article. I know it's not at all the same thing, but that goofy commercial with Mario Batali pretending to be clumsy to shill some kind of plastic wrap product needs to stop.

Coldstone's a franchise, but it's alright...their big thing is mixing your choice of toppings into the ice cream right in front of you. There's a bunch of Coldstone's out on the West Coast, and I know there's one in Times Square, but I didn't know there were any in Jersey. There's a similar franchise down South called Marble Slab--it's not bad, if you're a big fan of toppings.

There's a Halo Pub on Hulfish down by the parking garage and the Gap just off Palmer Square. There's also a few in Hamilton, and Halo Farm itself is in Trenton next to the Farmer's Market.

I vote Halo, both in their Pub incarnation and the Farm version (how do they still afford to sell their amazing ice cream at $1.69 a pint? how do they make money?). Thomas Sweet is Princeton-expensive and, except for their tasty Small World brewed coffee ice cream, just not as good. Are there any other good ice cream places in the area?

The Healthy Pleasures stores still exist, but under new management and with a new name. However, there had been some bad (though unproven) rumors about that place (repackaging non-organic foodstuffs as organic, writeups from the department of health); perhaps under the new management these problems have been fixed. If you do end up in Jersey, you really ought to go to Whole Earth, which, as Mr. Yarvin says, is a wonderful independent health food store that in recent years has had to deal with competition from chains like Wild Oats and Wegman's, which have their place but are ultimately inferior to the selection and service of Whole Earth.

What about Unexplained Snacks of Japan...Pocky? Those squishy jelly things? Seafood-flavored chips?

Cinnamon raisin are acceptable, but the Panera-style, sugar-caked donut/bagel is not. Sweetened cream cheese is also not cool.

My favorite part of the little instruction manual/advertising campaign is the part about "leave room." There are ads all over NYC exhorting possible Starbucks customers to say to the barista, "Not only do I want to pay $1.55 for your 12-oz., burnt-tasting coffee, but I actually want you to put less of it in the cup, as well."

I remember reading an article recently about a bar here in NYC that serves bubble tea martinis, which sounds interesting.

Every time I go out to my girlfriend's, it's only there at night (not sure why at all). There's a post on here somewhere about the best post-drinking meal different people have had, and this is definitely one of mine.

Yakiniku, in the east village, is very good.

If going to an indie movie house (like the Angelika, which actually has pretty good food), I'll get the popcorn or whatever. But AMC? Loews? I'm bringing food in, especially because I have yet to find the movie theatre that has good ice cream (though sneaking a cold pint of Haagen-Dazs in your pants is difficult).

I read somewhere that James Beard loved McDonald's fries (back when they fried them in beef tallow). Is that documented anywhere?

At an Italian restaurant in the East Village, I've had a drink called a martini rosso--my rather undiscerning palate couldn't really tell what was in it, let alone what proportions, but I assume it was some kind of Italian red vermouth and gin (the drink actually looked red). It had a lot of vermouth in it, though. Have you heard of such a thing, and if so, how would you go about making one?

Small World Coffee in Princeton is great, though the movie theatre is Princeton is less so. They roast their own coffee; their grumpy monkey blend is strong and tasty. They have decent pastries too, though the new french place next to the record exchange has amazing coffee eclairs.

Are tapas-style menus also much more profitable for the restaurant? I remember reading some sort of post implying that this is so. As far as I can tell, most of the places (such as Bar Jamon, the cramped Casa Mono offshoot) that have tapas style menus offer each dish at slightly less than the average entree, but slightly more than the average appetizer. Each dish is really about the size of an appetizer, though, so you have to eat three or four (or five or six) in order to be satisfied or anything closing in on full.