emsny

Thanks for the pretzel-sign tip.

Many thanks, Jakob; yes, a kilometer certainly counts as nearby - we are New Yorkers and, hence, walkers. One more question (for now): where does one find the best wienerbrod? So far, the best I've ever eaten was in Tokyo (!) - in a cafe at the Royal Copenhagen china department in one of the big Tokyo department stores.

Does anybody know when the Angela Hartnett/Gordon Ramsay restaurant is opening - at the Boca Raton Resort?

Thank you SO much for that update/history, Jakob. I had read about the hiring of Kofoed, which piqued my interest, but not about his having left! I hate to trouble you, but what are some of the other options near the hotel? I was thinking of our first night, when we may want to get back to our bed quickly after dinner. We're interested both in simple and fancy - but somewhere focusing on Danish dishes would be most welcome.

Any thoughts on the restaurant(s) in the Hotel d'Angleterre? In so many cities, hotel restaurants are now far better than they used to be - ten years ago I wouldn't even have asked the question!

I did notice that lunch was under discussion. None the less, it seemed worthwhile to indicate that, while the restaurant may be underpopulated at lunch, it is doing just fine in the evening.

Don't sell the farmers' markets short for protein. True, there usedn't to be any decent meat/fish/poultry at the Greenmarkets, but this has changed. I buy impeccably fresh fish from Pura Vida (because they come to my little local Greenmarket on Wednesdays). The selection is limited to what the guy catches, which I can't say I view as a limitation at all. The best chickens I've had in NY are the belle rouge variety from Violet Hill Farm. Pork from Flying Pigs; lamb from Three Corner Field. Yes, beef is a problem. I agree that, say, Borough Market in London has impressive beef raised both honestly and professionally, and I wish we did too.

I've never been there for lunch, but last Wednesday it was entirely full at dinner time.

Glad to hear that Chiang Mai is still good - we've eaten there twice, but not for a while, and I recently heard that it had changed hands. Yes, Quod is a bit, well, generic.

Anything new on this subject? We're going to be in Oxford in January and need to take some friends out to dinner. We'd very much prefer to stay in town. What's Fisher's like? How's Brasserie Blanc now that it is owned by the Loch Fyne chain - i.e., has it improved under new ownership? Has anything of note opened? The menu at the funny Malmaison hotel in the ex-prison seems, at least, coherent - has anybody been? Thanks.

Yes on the bar at The Modern, not that you'll be sitting at a bar. I had a meal there last week, for the first time in a while, and was both impressed and delighted (not the same thing, as we all know). You can even book a table on Open Table.

One geographical note: Katz's is about a 90-second walk from WD-50. Do you plan to spend the whole afternoon until dinner on the lower east side? If not, it might make more sense, from the tourism standpoint, to do those two on separate days. You could, of course, do Katz's on your first evening. Not relaxing, but not intellectually challenging either. Apart from Jean Georges, I don't think you have anything on the upper west side. Consider Telepan.

Note, Robyn, that the first listing on the a la carte menu is indeed pigeon, quite a lot of which appears on US fancy-restaurant menus.

See if Cafe Sabarsky (run by the Walsee group) can do it. Or Ceci-Cela (their mini version is okay). Thirty years ago there wouldn't have been any problem. Sigh.

Getting back to the theme of this thread for a moment, note that the Ramsay menu is now to be viewed on menupages.com.

When I was a kid, New York bakeries (especially Jewish ones, I think) commonly sold something called nut cake. It used lots of cake crumbs to form the layers, along with some sort of batter to hold them together as well as ground nuts - maybe nut paste as well. Between the layers was jam. I don't have a recipe, but I'm sure Googling would get you one in short order. A delicious thing. I ran across some about ten years ago and still loved it, so my impression of its deliciousness is not just nostalgia.

I understand that the bar/informal restaurant in the Gordon Ramsay place in the ex-Rihga hotel on West 54th (betw 6th and 7th?) will serve afternoon tea.

Toraya, right? ← Toraya closed a while ago. There's one on Madison called Kai, not that I've ever set foot in the place. It is a restaurant but I'm pretty sure it serves tea as well.

Actually, Jean Georges and Nougatine have separate kitchens.

Does anybody have a sense of what sort of impact the NYC Michelin guide is having? Do local diners use it? Do US visitors to NYC consult it? European visitors? This was discussed last year, I think, but I wonder whether its influence has risen, fallen or stayed about the same.

Had I but known. We were two blocks from there this afternoon.

Where's Billy's?

We're very fond of Yura and Company. Two locations: one (where they do the baking) at Third Ave and 93rd, the other on Madison at 92nd or 93rd. Regular American stuff, but good recipes and good ingredients.

Thanks, Poots and Jakob. When I've digested your comments, I may get back to you with more questions.

Well, we have now booked our air tickets and will be in Copenhagen from 3 through 7 January, leaving for London on the 8th. Noma does indeed sound like someplace we must not miss and we shall certainly try to get a table there, but I'm looking for a few other things as well. Specifically, places that serve unreconstructed, traditional Danish dishes - it is okay if they specialize in one particular thing (herring, for instance), though a broader menu would be more useful for a short visit like this. Also, pastry shops/bakeries/cafes that serve high-quality Danish pastry; my only acquaintence with this school of pastry is through G. Wennberg's book, which I think dates back to the 1950s or 60s, and I look forward to trying it in its home town, so to speak. Finally, are there decent/interesting places open late? We are hoping to go to the Royal Danish Opera (if we can arrange tickets), and it would be nice to be able to find something good to eat after the show(s). Thanks, all.