kokimotonyc

I work downtown in the World Financial Center in NY and am looking forward to having a reasonable facsimile of a plate lunch from L&L. I am curious as to what the menu will consist of (is it the same as what you typically get from your typical L&L?). I am skeptical that this concept is viable in NYC. I know first hand how low the margins are on a plate lunch. Hope it does succeed, though.

On the topic of perishable items, what I typically bring back from Hawaii is a duffel bag full of fresh saimin from Sun Noodle (you can go to the factory in Kalihi and get close to the wholesale price) and Portuguese sausage. Last month when I was there I forgot all of what I bought in my sister's refrigerator. Saimin is a local flour-based noodle soup that is similar, but entirely different from ramen, BTW. You can send the bag through checked baggage, which allows you to take advantage of the low temperature of the baggage hold. Do not freeze as it affects the texture of the noodles when you refreeze when you get home. Incidentally, each package comes with dried soup base, so it is easy to make a satisfying saimin meal on the cold winter days on the mainland. You can also get saimin from Zippys.com, but it's rather expensive, and the noodles you get are not as good as Sun.

mmm. Mochiko chicken. Would love to get together, sk. Don't know what my schedule will be like, though. Maybe Tuesday for lunch? The venue could be anywhere; my only concern with Imari is lack of seating, if I recall correctly. Would love to eat the food from there, though.

I recently read through these awards online in the Advertiser and was absolutely disappointed in some of the choices. Chains such as Cheesecake Factory should be automatically removed from consideration. Am impressed at the staying power of the Ryan's scene. I remember back in the late 80s this place was the place and it sounds as if it is still one of the places to be.

Imari is an excellent place to pick up some great bento! In one of my oh-too-rare visits to my hometown I stopped by here purely by accident and was pleasantly surprised. I am looking forward to going there again when I visit over Thanksgiving weekend to see my beloved Northwestern Wildcats battle my almost-as-beloved UH RAINBOW Warriors. Love your taxonomy of bento/okazuya/plate lunch, SK. Agree with it completely.

Thanks for this information, PPC. I will have to tell my friend. This friend ate so much General Tso's chicken when he lived in St. Louis that he I believe he is solely responsible for getting Col. Tso elevated to a higher rank. This other dish with the pork also sounds like something you would get at the Szechuan restaurants here in NYC. Sou ma mein sounds good too. Must try it! SK - thanks for the thread on the General as well.

On my last trip to Honolulu I went to this place. My wife, who happens to be Korean, loves Korean Chinese food, which is easy to get when we go to Seoul, but is not so easy to find elsewhere. As a consequence, she often craves jjajja-myun and a sweet-sour pork dish, and is unable to find it other than in very unfulfilling packaged varieties. Fortunately, my high school classmate discovered this place, and kindly took my wife and me to get her fix. I have found similar places here in New York City, but none so far has been as satisfying as Andong Restaurant on King Street. SK has provided a virtual compendium of what to order at this fine establishment, which offers a great niche product that is very difficult to find. Please visit it! We will, of course, visit it when we come back to Honolulu over Thanksgiving and Christmas. On the topic of hard to find food, the friend who introduced me to Andong has searched high and low throughout Honolulu in vain to find a dish that is rather ubiquitous here on the East Coast and also in the Midwest. The dish is a Chinese dish called General Tso's Chicken. I am utterly amazed that my friend, who happens to be Chinese, cannot find this dish in Honolulu. It consists of fried pieces of boneless chicken, with dried chilies and broccoli. It's spicy and very good, although I assume it is not very authentic Chinese. Does anyone know where one can find it in Honolulu?

Won Jo is 23 W. 32nd St. and I have found it to be consistently good. Both my Korean and non-Korean friends have always enjoyed it. And they do take reservations for larger groups. The other places my (Korean) wife and I like are Han Bat and Cho Dang Gol on 35th and on 32nd, Gam Mee Ok. Gam Mee Ok is known for its So Long Tang, a white beef broth soup, and their Bi Bim Bap. Also, it is generally known as the best place for kim chee. Once in our last three visits, it tasted a bit too fresh, but I attribute that to how busy the place is more than anything else. Even my mother in law likes it!