juuceman

they deliver on Wednesday.. learned this a few years ago, although I've picked up on the UES for the past few years on Wednesday afternoon, and other than the women picking up complete dinners, there was less than a 10 minute line every time..

We are still headed to Oaxaca for the holidays. We'll spend the first 8-10 days on the Pacific coast beaches (Puerto Excondido, Mazunte, San Agustinillo, etc.) and get an idea of what the situation is like before likely heading up to Oaxaca City. Huatulco, the best place on the coast to fly into, is also where the nearest military base is located, and is about 6 hours from Oaxaca City. It's a hair raising ride up but worth doing once.

Oaxaca City has had an undercurrent of unrest for a number of years. Tourists are not targeted there by the current situation, don't go into the fray, keep your wits about you, and it should be fine. take a small plane to Puerto Escondido -~30 minute flight, (about $100 US each way) or take a van, which is a six/seven hour ride on a narrow road that switches back and forth throughout the entire ride for ~$24. Huatulco is almost as touristy as Cancun. It's a gringo resort town and not worth spending the money in. Puerto Escondido is much better, stay at the Sante Fe Hotel, at the end of the road, their restaurant is all fish and vegetarian and is probably the best in town, but the remainder of the restaurants along the beach are great as well, all specialize in freshly caught and grilled fish and dinner is ~$10 p/p.

there's a place in the East Village, just south of Thompkins Square Park, on Avenue B, West Side of the Street, that caters more to restaurants and caterers but does retail as well, that usually has a good supply of mushrooms, as well as other high quality gourmet items.

Walk into a Japanese grocery store like JASMart and notice the rather large bags of MSG they sell (often from Ajinomoto, who invented the modern manufacturing process). Please repeat with Chinese and Korean grocery stores, you'll also see rather large bags of MSG. Please repeat with your standard US grocery store, say Food Emporium for those of us in NYC. See any big bags of pure MSG for sale? I don't think so. Only a little bottle of Accent. Asian cuisine as made at home or in a restaurant often has pure MSG added by the cook, that's not something regulary done in any "western" cuisine that I know of, in "western" cusine if pure MSG is added, it's done in a factory setting. ← check out any number of seasoning salts, dry rubs, and/or diping sauces offered by any number of manufacturers and in restaurants and you'll be suprised by the amount of MSG used, especially in chain joints offering bbq.. additionally, taco bell used to use it pretty extensively, although their website indicates that it isn't present in any of their current menu items..

check your source.. November 2005 Food and Wine Article Chang indicates that he uses Kewpie mayonaise, and praises it as the best because it contains MSG.. he doesn't indicate anywhere in the article that he uses MSG anywhere else in the restaurant, as your comment insuinuates (at least to me).. while I'm not condoning the use of MSG, Chang neither douses his food with it, not does it cause the effects many people complain of when used in responsible quantities.. that said, Momofuku relies on animal fats for a large amount of flavoring and I appreciate the vegetables and the pork buns while skipping the noodles, which don't do it for me..

if i remember correctly, they offer a mole option, on the fly, topping either enchiladas or flautas or something of the sort. i don't recall if it was offered as a special or on the menu, but i've had it there. i'm not a huge mole poblano fan, even in Oaxaca it doesn't quite do it for me. if you're into cooking on your own, Kitchen Market, on 8th ave, has mole paste and just about any mexican cooking ingredient you could want or need..

i believe they're using pork shoulder at Ssam.

did the organizers provide the meat again this year?

Are they alive or dead? ← they're previously frozen.

call the various whole foods branches in manhattan, i've definitely bought what they call 'colossal' shrimp, that were 3 - 4 to a pound from them.. incredible on the grill..

I don't understand some things in the above paragraph. It's a popular event and has been so since Day 1. While the crowds have increased each year, so has the number of pitmasters and the physical space has increased from a single crosstown block, to a number of blocks. There were tension barriers up to keep the lines in check. They oversold the Bubba FastPasses. So they broke their agreement with the public that they would only sell 2000 of them. This resulted in an excess of people in the FastPass area, and slowed down everyone's access to the pits. A lot of people had gamed the system and were ordering as many as 30 sandwiches.. How is this gaming the system anymore than those who were selling off the remaining value on their cards to friends or strangers? It wasn't prohibited by the regulations nor were there signs anywhere prohibiting it. If the machines had been up and running in the first place- they weren't on Saturday morning, much in the same way that they weren't working last year on Saturday morning, or had they trained people in their use before firing them up, it wouldn't have been such an issue. Likewise, had the software been designed to allow for the purchase of multiple items (again, it's not like there weren't people buying multiple items last year) it would have eased this concern. As much as I enjoy this event, and am in awe of Meyer's ability to bring in the level of talent that he does, and tip my hat to him for pulling it off four years in a row, there are still enough issues with it to disappoint me. That said, this year was better managed than last, and today was a lot smoother.

Fair enough ... agree to disagree ... I've just finished my second year of law school, though, and I can tell you that what you describe would never fly as an assault in New York state. Even 3rd degree misdemeanor assault requires physical injury. Further, business owners have broad protection from both criminal prosecution and civil tort actions when they're acting in the interests of their business and property. It's why Macy's has a jail on their premises and if they suspect you of stealing they can physically detain you. And if it turns out they were wrong and you weren't stealing, you don't really have a criminal or civil remedy, even if they put handcuffs on you and locked you up in a cell. [For the record, I'm not a lawyer, and this isn't legal advice ...] ← that's not quite true.

if going without a pass, arrive one hour before the event, scout out what line you want to hit, and plant yourself there.. if you're not alone, and want more than one type of barbecue, put each person on a different line and arrange a place to meet up.. the lines are absolutely ridiculous, they'll easily be one hour plus if the last few years are any indication.. in years past all the food (except snouts??) were provided on-site for the vendors to cook.. has this changed?? i can't remember whether you needed the wristbands last year to get into the fast pass area.. they definitely mailed out the cards but had you pickup the accompanying swag at a tent in the morning, including the bracelets.. i seem to recall having three people behind the lines last year..

Ground transportation is extremely difficult out of Oaxaca City, 8+ hours to Puerto Escondido and the southern coastal areas; add another 8+ hours to get to Zihuatanejo. Fly. It's under an hour flight over the mountains and around $100. The Yucatan has the ruins, the Oaxaca coast is glorious unspoiled beaches, except for the buildup at Huatulco, and to a slightly lesser degree, that at Zihuatanejo. They're both definitely big resort stlyle towns though, without much local flair.

I've never gone with a reservation, walk-in is the way to go for me. We eat late, usually after 9 PM. I prefer Lupa to Babbo, I'm not big on the maitre d' nor some of the attending snobbery and theatrics that he brings to the restaurant.

the only two places i've found within walking distance of the stadium are the Feeding Tree and Press Cafe.. feeding tree is detailed below, Press Cafe is found by walking north under the Elevated train tracks, make the first left you can (basically equal with the north side of the stadium) and you'll see a Guiness sign half a block in, on the North Side of the street.. CitySearch or something like that can probably tell you the exact address.. Open's a few hours before every home game, closes at some point during or after the game.. good beer selection, nice panini selection, salads, sometimes seasonal plates, good guacamole you can bring into the game with you if you're into it..

there's a link above to their website which indicates that the chicken is Free-range; $6.99 for 2 pieces of chicken, without any sides. That's expensive in my book.

← that's disappointing, i was getting excited for breakfast as soon as passover ends, the breakfast shack was world better than the shack burger, imho..

You tip the deli meat slicer? giving the guy a buck at Katz's used to get you a sandwich that was twice as big.. nowadays everyone slips the dude a buck beforehand, so you have to give him two dollars to get the sandwich that's twice as big.. I'd forgotten about the Vegas tip to the redcap.. it's some of the best money ever spent, especially when the line is 30 minutes and it's 110 out.. greasing works because everyone doesn't do it, because the information isn't out there.. if everyone did it, it'd lose its effectiveness rather quickly.. the joe's stone crab example is a great one.. everyone tries to grease at Joe's.. the problem is they're trying to grease the wrong guy - the dude at the podium has little say in what names to call.. additionally, there's 50 people who've been waiting 90 minutes watching him like a hawk, ready to complain if they see him take anything to expedite things for someone else.. throw him something on the way out and you just might see a change the next time to go..

yeah.. i went back and read the article that's referenced in the initial post, as well as the Gourmet Magazine article that prompted it (http://tinyurl.com/mdf73 will get you the text).. i've tried to grease at Bathazar before and been told its not necessary and been seated pretty quickly, even with a scrum of people waiting.. sleazy place might be a bit of a stretch, but it's helped in a bunch of random spots..

i grease pretty regularly.. i'm 28, my dad showed me how when i was 16.. my girlfriend loves trendy restaurants and clubs, my schedule is too hectic to make a reservation.. if i'm dropping $200-300 for dinner, the extra $20 doesn't make much difference to me up front.. it does cut down on the wait, in even the most crowded of restaurants, to one cocktail at the most.. much better than the 90 minutes that most people are waiting, even those with reservations.. there's a certain type of restaurant that holds tables for walk-ins/regulars/friends and yet still overbooks.. that's the type of place that's going to take the grease.. I've never even tried to grease at a palce like Lupa, it doesn't feel like the right type of place to do so.. that steak place in brooklyn or midtown?? yeah, it's happening there too.. a club is open market for greasing.. that's what they're there for.. i disagree with the dude wlaking up to the bouncers and giving them each a hundred in front of everyone, but i prefer to be discreet with things like this.. in vegas the maitre d' at the restaurant in the hotel that also houses the club can always make it happen with the bouncers.. vegas is built on a culture of tipping like no place else in this world.. the law doesn't allow you to hail a cab on the strip and its expected that you tip a buck to the doorman who whistles and opens the door for you, but nowhere else in the world would people willingly do this in the masses that they do. be discreet with it, do it with confidence, and it can allow you to live with a lot less planning..

go to Newark. try and take a cab from outside, but not one of the authorized ones who pay the airport a concession fee, rather one of the normal guys who's just dropped someone off.. see how the security responds.. call it a bribe or call it a licensing fee, you're just buying into the institutionalization if it..

without including the red sauce pasta mills in Little Italy there are any number of places one can make this happen.. Peppe Rosso and the related joints offers salads and pastas all within your price point.. i rpefer the rigatoni with vodka sauce, but even the grilled chicken dishes are sub $13.. not much ambience, but they've got a few of them south of 14th street and i've never had a meal that was less than adequate.. lamarca on 22nd and 3rd, is only open mon - fri from noon to 10, and offers a few apps for $6 each and a nice selection of pastas for $10 at lunch, $12 at dinner, and some specials each day (chicken parm, shrimp sauce, etc.) for $12/$14.. Le Zie, on 7th Avenue in Chelsea, has a great menu of Venetian tapas, plus salads, apps and pastas that are all in your stated range.. great food and some of the more unique findings in this price point.. I eat pasta at Lupa as a main all the time, having been frustrated with the mains on too many occasions.. the girlfriend and i frequently split a salad, each have a pasta, and throw in a vegetable side or antipasti and are rather happy for ~$60 with a shared quartino of wine that's not the standard merlot/chianti/pinot noir choice offered for $7 a glass at most similar places.. Otto belongs on this listing, salads are served in portions for two at around $9 each, pizza and pastas close to the range indicated, much higher quality than many red sauce joints.. Max (not Max's) in the East Village is fine, the spread for the bread they include is nice, but the food has never made up for the attitude dished out by the staff.. I've not been to John's of 12th Street, and am too lazy to pull up the menupages link right now, but i'd supposed one could dine there for about the costs elicited above.. Lil Frankie's is a much better option than Max or Il Bagatto.. choice of pizzas or a few types of spaghetti.. Supper, also in the East Village, has a nice menu and meets the pricing criteria..

Daniel is sort of near Bloomie's - only six blocks (five blocks north, one block west)... As for the 23rd Street location...yes, I think you're right - that area is now riddled with big chain stores, so these are the restaurants to match. Isn't Outback also in that neighborhood? ← Olive Garden, Outback, Cosi, a smoothie shop, and Best Buy are all within the same building, Home Depot is just down the block.