wagyuboy

If you live off the 7 train in Queens and are going home late one night and want to try an amazingly tasty taco stand, get off at the 52 St./Lincoln stop, and the van is at the bootom of the stairs. The chicharrones and bistec tacos are the best, served with lime, onions, cilantro, and guacamole, for only two bucks.

My little brother insists on making himself this drink when he wants to feel like a kid: 3 parts chocolate milk 1 part Kahlua 1 part Frangelico Somebody posted something similar earlier but with Everclear, which kinda destroys the creepyness of drinking something that tastes like it's for nine year olds. (at least i assume...never actually had everclear. isn't it illegal?)

Durian tastes like the ass garlic that has been sitting in the crisper in your older brother's dorm fridge since freshman year. But for some reason, durian ice cream is really good. I had it like everyday in China, but I can't find the same kind here. I'm sure it's artificially flavored, but it's still quite tasty.

The Itoen store on 69th might be cool, but I've heard it's very expensive.

A "Frank's Papaya" recently opened up on 125th and Lex. For those who don't think Gray's Papaya is ghetto enough... (Don't get me wrong, Gray's is great)

You have a good point...I'm not really qualified to talk about Indian food, 'cause well...I don't like it. I don't think I'm completely prejudiced against it, 'cause I like it when my Indian friends make me food, and the one time I went to India I liked the food a lot in fact, but I don't like Indian food at most American restaurants. I only single out Panna 'cause that's the one I went to, and my friends with me enjoyed themselves. They didn't mess up my naan or samosas, but then, it's pretty hard to completely mess samosas up. I didn't mention that Madras Cafe is vegetarian, which is a pretty big thing to not mention, but it's still enjoyable (On a side note, where are the good vegetarian, macrobiotic places to eat? I myself usually subscribe to the Bourdain theory that "Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit", but some of them, including my girlfriend, are kinda cute, so it would make me happy if we could find a restaurant we both like. Do me a favor and don't mention Zen Palate or Veg City Diner or any place else that tries to make you think tofu is meat. I like tofu as tofu, not when it's masquerading as meat). So I suppose that I am as ignorant as twodogs when it comes to Indian food. Where is a good Indian restaurant in New York? (Also, why doesn't the proximity of the 6th St. restaurants lead to greater competition, instead of lack of incentive?)

Indian food--go down to 5th and 6th Sts. in the East Village. Madras Cafe on 2nd Ave just south of 5th is good. Panna on 6th is supposed to be good as well. If you wanna go out to Queens, take the 7 to 74th and get off in There's really about 50 or 60 Indian restaurants in that area. Also, just north and to the west is what Jeffrey Steingarten calls "Little Osaka" on 9th Street and Stuyvesant --Japanese sakebars, sushi bars, noodle shops like Rai Rai Ken, and this great shabu shabu place called Yakiniku. Oh, and Panya on Stuyvesant has great green tea tiramisu with sweet redbean paste and green tea au lait. Two good sushi places in the area are Friend House up on 3rd and 12th, and Typhoon on St. Marks. Koreatown is just east of Penn Station on 32nd and 33rd St. If you're in that area and like Persian food, go to Ravagh on 30th between Madison and 5th (Persepolis up in the UES (74 St.) has good but more pricey Persian food). Chinese food is obvious--go down to Canal St and Chinatown. I like Dumpling House on Eldridge, Congee Village on Allen, and 69 on Bayard. Laifood on Prince St. and 38th St. in Flushing has great Taiwanese food. Somebody else will have to help you on the Greek food, I'm not a big fan...I remember there being a place in the 40s over on 8th Avenue, but it wasn't very good...on the other hand, I don't like Greek food.

Cicciolino is on E. 4th between 1st and 2nd. I've read people calling it a ripoff of Frank over on 2nd Ave, but I posit that it's much better because 1) The 7 or 8 times I've been there, it hasn't even been half full, 2)The service and ambiance is great (and they play good music too usually, not the faceless bland "hip" lounge-house most places play nor annoyingly loud music that would distract from the experience--this is obviously not as important as the food or service, but it matters to me) and most importantly, 3) The food is really good, though not unexpected. It's an Italian place, so of course the menu has spaghetti bolognese and the like, but they have other not-so-ubiquitous traits, like a yen for grilled or braised fennel, which shows up in a few dishes, and reliably tasty soups (and not your typical pasta fagioli or something, but things like a thick, butternut puree served with creme fraiche). For instance, while they have the standard fried calamari (which if, you have no problem with another plate of fried calamari, is at least prepared well and is light and not greasy), they also have a grilled calamari salad with haricots blanc. They have well-executed standard dishes, but then they also offer different, not-your-typical-Italian-spaghetti-joint dishes. And those Martini Rossos are really good, made with some kind of Italian vermouth that I have a hard time finding anywhere else. I also heard that the Cicciolino owners are the same people responisble for Esperanto over on Ave. C, which I remember being good the one time I went.

M&G on 125th and Morningside is good and greasy soul food. There's a good, if a little upscale (soul food is supposed to be cheap and greasy, IMO, and this place caters a bit too much to the Columbia crowd, but it's not bad) place on 110th between Columbus and Manhattan. I wanna go out to Brooklyn, 'cause I heard they got some good collard greens out there. The only info I have on the place is that it's just down the street from Sean Combs's mom's soul food place (which is supposed to be overpriced and bland) out in Fort Greene.

According to the Times, the police are going after those hookah places 'cause people are smoking cigarettes there too, and the hookah bar owners haven't applied for the smoking permit. This spells bad news for places like Sahara East (perennial NYU freshman hangout) and Cafe Cairo that need to stick around. In my experience, nobody smokes cigarettes at any of the hookah places in the East Village except for Sahara East which is outside anyway.

The new season of a cook's tour is amazing. bourdain is the man, but you all already knew that (and if you don't, you should. if you have a sense of humor and aren't all prim, go read any of his books. if you are all prim and proper, then go read Typhoid Mary, his urban historical that's actually really good and tones down the fucking gratuitous expletives) I just wanted to vote for my least favorite food network people--dweezil and lisa. why does their show exist? who came up with this? the idea alone is so bad that i thought the actual show might be unintentionally hilarious, but it's just boring. sorta like lisa's one whiny hit song, or dweezil's half-hearted hanging off of the coattails of his father.

Oh yeah, and Cicciolino in the East Village is really cheap ($8 to $14 entrees), tasty, and usually inexplicably (to me, anyway) empty for an Italian bistro in the East Village. (The empty is actually a big plus for me--places like Spice and Republic should be on the cheap eats list 'cause they're good and cheap, but also sooo crowded--this one's not.) Cheaper and better than, say, Via Della Pace or East Post, which are all right near it. They have great Martini Rossos as well.

This is for the really cheap end, and I'm doing you guys a favor letting you know about these! If people don't know about Dumpling House on Eldridge, you ought to. 5 large delicious pork and scallion dumplings for a dollar. Sesame Pancake with Sliced Beef for a buck and a half. For anybody who goes up to Harlem, El Flor de Broadway at 138th St. has unbelieveable Cuban sandwiches and delicious cafe con leche for $2.50 and 80 cents, respectively. Make sure to ask for the pickles and garlic butter. The weird thing is that this sandwich is better than more expensive ones (like at El Malecon, which is otherwise delicious, up in Washington Heights)...crispy, fatty from the chicharrones and swiss cheese (some places try and give you American, which is unacceptable) and great. Mario's, the last Italian deli in East Harlem, had a great pastrami sandwich for less than 5 (even if you get things like sundried tomatoes), but they've been shuttered the past couple weeks.

Mastoris is hilarious. It's the place my parents would take us on the way to the beach, when me and my brothers when were kids. We'd fill up on the bread and not eat the lousy food we ordered. The bread was and is the only good thing about the place...they had three different kinds. The sweet cinnamon bread was my favorite, while my brother prefers the cheese bread. I remember people making a big deal about the bakery, which you can just come in and buy from without ordering. Crystal's in Lawrenceville is my favorite diner in Jersey (partly, now that I live in New York, for a newfound appreciation for its smoking section), but it's certainly not worth going out of your way for. Just across the river in Newtown is Goodnoe's, which (I think) makes their own ice cream; in any event, their ice cream is great (though not as good as Halo Farm in Trenton, who makes the best ice cream ever).

Abel Bagels in Hamilton used to be delicious, but I think they've been closing down due to competition from Einstein's and the like. There used to be a few, with one on Rt. 33...there's still one in the beleaguered Mercer Mall though.

those are tasty sandwiches in New Brunswick. along the same lines and a little bit south is the Heartstopper (if i remember right, there's bacon, ham, pastrami, egg, and two cheeses) at Hoagie Haven in Princeton on Nassau St. Hoagie Haven and its nextdoor neighbor and competitor George's Roasters are, after Halo Pub, the best culinary reason to visit Princeton. (and, like Halo Pub but unlike the rest of Princeton, are mind-bogglingly cheap! I often wonder how they stay in business)

When I lived in Changsha in the Hunan Province, I often ate lotus root, prepared in many different forms, but usually just sliced and sauteed with a little ginger and garlic. Is lotus root available in the US? I can't find it on any menu or in any Chinese grocery store, even the Taiwanese ones out in Jackson Heights. It's starchy and tasty and I miss it, can anyone help?

Mandler's is awful (and much more expensive than either Papaya--6 or 7 for a sausage)...bland, dry and they have something called a seafood sausage that is just so wrong. (it sounded so cool, but no) Seriously, if you're down in that Union Square area and need a juicy sausage, just go over to the Gray's on 8th Street, or even the street guy in front of Virgin. Somebody said something about barbecue here, and I would just like to take this time to point out that the Pearson's out in Jackson Heights is way better than the one on the Upper East Side.