herbacidal

Asian snack foods also have all kinds of chicken, beef, etc. flavored chips, thins, etc. I have a chicken flavored something or other around the corner, but I'm a little bit lazy to check it right now.

Do they punch holes in the top of the container? That should help, although it depends on the particular food how much it will help.

Really, I haven't noticed that. Or at least not in Philly, yet. It is definitely in the NYC board though, although perhaps not as pronounced as some other biases. You recognized that as Yeats and Chaucer? Better than moi.

You'd have to travel to North Philly and Tierra Colombiana for that. Best Cubanos I've had north of Miami. ← My impression of NYC and cubanos (probably somewhat faulty, I'm now realizing, because it's based on my 1 experience with cubanos in NYC) is that they're as ubiqutious in Manhattan as sneaker shops are in Center City Philly. This is based (as mentioned above) on my 1 experience having it as takeout from a corner diner-type place on Houston in LES. It was quite good, and I miss having various kinds of cheap food just randomly available on my way to the subway (ie, wherever I was going.)

I'll agree with all of that, and throw in cubanos.

Dude, I'd be happy to eat like either one of you. Hell, I'd be happy to have A QUARTER of the culinary schedule that either of you has!

I'm also looking at it from the restaurants' POV, and it's probably bad for the customer. I'll agree with the likelihood of requiring credit card numbers for certain reservations, along with those credit card numbers, phone numbers, reservation names, etc. being flagged and tracked a little more closely, especially for peak tables. I wouldn't be suprised to see a policy where a reservation during peak period requires a minimum charge, regardless of whether people show up or not. That would do away with a lot of the reservation selling. I consider it a good thing for the smart restauranteur: cuts down on the various fake reservations that are made during the course of a given week slightly more revenue to go towards many of the fixed costs

Hmm, I made my last NYC trip an Offal Tour. Could we do an Offal Tour here?

Hmm, I don't remember being on Route 202 north of Route 1 that trip, but I guess I was, since the pictures of Jimmy John's match what I recall.

I'm pretty sure that's not really true anymore. Just got back from Guangzhou. I think at least half the meals we had, for 3-5 people, were well over $200 RMB. At most, probably around $700 RMB. But we weren't paying for anything, so I can't recall specifics. Also wish I could recall more about the specific locations of the restaurants. You'll want to carry tissues everywhere. Most places don't have towels/napkins in the restrooms for instance. But they are easily purchased on the street, or at one of the stores you'll see.

Possibly, but I don't think so, if for no other reason than I would remember that name, since there's also a Ruby's Diner in Ardmore and the Ruby Tuesday chain. Or at least, that's how my brain memory works. I remember it being on the right side as I was on 322 going west (although on the map, it's really north). Counter service, large model train set/something similarly entertaining in the middle of the dining room. Can't remember anything else distinctive, other than reading a history of the place, and it was there for at least 20 years. Also not sure of when I will be taking that road again, so no luck that way.

There's a good one on 322 between 95 and 202 also. Can't remember the name, but it was like an old-style burger joint, or at least like what I think an old-style burger joint should look like.

Yea, as a hometown boy, I agree wholeheartedly. Folks need to stop worrying about what Philly has compared to other cities. Just work on building Philly up and making it great, period. Not that me saying it will make it stop.

It may be uber shady, but the trucks that sell produce at 10th and Vine, 42nd (??) and Sansom, and 10th and Dickinson seem to be at least fairly busy. As I understand it, they buy the seconds, leftovers, etc. daily at the distribution center and resell them on the street. True, consumers in general aren't as discerning as would be ideal, and I actually have no idea what the quality level actually is. But for the consumer who is intending to cook the vegetables that night/the next day, it's probably more than acceptable quality. It's really that bad? Asks the one who never buys fish there.

I don't profess to know David Ansill at all (Shacke and Katie, and perhaps a few others probably can contribute more) but based on previous readings & semi-educated speculation, I understood the reasoning behind choosing to be sell Pif is: slightly easier to sell than Ansill b/c smaller, cheaper w/o liquor license, longer history Ansill open for a shorter time period, so must give it more time to grow David Ansill too busy to operate both for the next few years (and perhaps David Kane doesn't want to run either for an extended period?) Please correct if wrong.

This will happen right after the state sales tax is eliminated. Unlike the very expensive to operate roads, the liquor monopoly is a cash cow bundled with several thousand jobs. It's here to stay. ← The monopoly can be fine for consumers if managed well, like it was in the last few years, and getting better. There's advantages and disadvantages both to privatization and state-owned, both to the state and consumers, not to mention everyone else.

I've never been to a Chinese buffet at off times, and haven't been to one in years. Keep an eye out for the food runners bringing the crabs/lobsters. Sit facing the buffet/kitchen door.

This has long been my explanation and commentary about NYCers being more into food than the average American. But I'm not sure how it applies to the critical mass of high end restaurants and both their existence and failures. I would bet that one difference between Tokyo, Hong Kong, and other cities in Asia and NYC is that the other cities have a greater percentage of their households being couples with children (if not grandparents/aunts and uncles as well) than NYC. NYC has to have more households with single people/roommates/couples without children than the other cities. I'd say the latter are more likely to dine out more often. I doubt this applies to high-end restaurants though. NYC does have more of a "showman" mentality than any city in the world I know or know of, with people doing certain things just to show off, and some of the financiers backing restaurants have that as their reasoning, and I suspect that's even more true at the high end, especially with the huge bonuses, salaries, etc. being thrown around.

I agree with a few different details mentioned as far as B&T goes, but it is well past time to move back to discussing the critical mass in high-end restaurants. Yes, the changing nature of the NYC metro population is a factor, but real estate prices (among other things) have increased many of a restaurant's costs so much that I'd guess the room for error financially is significantly slimmer than a decade or two ago. This is especially true at the high end, because higher end restaurants have higher costs but lower profit margins because of purchasing and upkeep of high end things like candleabras, silverware, etc.

Actually no, they should be. That money's coming from somewhere. Plus upkeep, transportation to/from PAFA, etc. Belt-tightening all around!! I'm sure delivery service for food in Philly is coming along before long. Anytime in Williamsburg, NYC is basically a diner delivery service. Quality and type of food delivered is another issue entirely.

Yap. Bad omen. Especially for Chinese fishermen who work and live on a boat. Typically we consume the top side of the fish, then use chopsticks or a spoon to separate the spinal cord and all the rib bones from the bottom half of the fish, move the bones aside. Then continue to consume the bottom half without ever flipping the fish. This is an unwritten etiquette in Chinese banquets. ← Never really heard the superstition and story, but I know that we normally do try to avoid it. I always filed it under the "bad luck" rule. There's a lot of those.

Mrbigjas is taking over tcompiling and summarizing the media digest for Pennsylvania. I look forward to his digests from now into the future.

Uh, scratch that last comment on the other thread. Nice going!

So how was everything?

Isn't that already there? Aren't the big bottle displays of Stoli, Bacardi??, and other liquors cheaper than what's available in neighboring states?