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'Fraid not.

For all you codgers out there, here are the restaurants listed in the 1977 edition of “The All New Underground Gourmet.” An archeologist reading it might conclude that those were days of simple appetite and unpretentious prose. Rating factors included air conditioning and hygiene. Quote of the day: “Thai food is not found very easily around town.” While it disguises the distribution of restaurants by cuisine, and particularly the number of Chinese places whose names began with “Szechuan,” I’ve chosen a sort by location as best able to jog failing memories. First installment EAST SIDE BELOW 14TH STREET B&H Baltyk East-West Restaurant Foccaceria Galishoff’s Dairy and Vegetarian Restaurant The Grand Dairy Restaurant Hisae’s Seasonal Kitchen Katz’s Leshko’s Little Kitchen Odessa Rajmahal Second Avenue Kosher Delicatessen Restaurant Yonah Schimmel’s EAST SIDE 14TH-34TH STREET Amy’s Belmore Cafeteria Bosphorus East Brownie’s East Bay Restaurant Francesca’s Gourmet on the Run Hammer’s Dairy Restaurant The Honey Tree Hye Middle Eastern India House East Jack’s Nest Josephine Merhaba Mexico Lindo Mimosa Olé Philippine Garden Ralph’s El Ranch Argentino Shalimar Suehiro Trinacria Yamashiro Z Further installments will follow in response to popular demand. Edit: A few typos fixed in the names.

Quoting from an MSNBC article that I came across about a year ago, there may be health reasons to avoid coffee machines that do not employ paper filters: "There are chemicals in coffee — cafestol and kahweol — that can raise cholesterol levels, but a paper filter in the coffee-making process removes those chemicals. So the way you brew your coffee is important. Be warned: these compounds cannot be filtered out in French press, Greek and Turkish coffee, also in boiled and Scandinavian coffee." A Google search on “cafestol and kahweol” turns up a load of similar articles, e.g., this one from Science News. At the risk of being labeled a primitive and banned for life (no, that’s some other board), I’ll throw in my own coffee preferences: I grind in an old Krups burr mill, brew in an old Krups four-cup electric drip with Melitta brown filters, and use about three tablespoons of finely ground Garden of Eden house-blend decaf, measured as beans, to 10 ounces of water. I’ve tried most of the decafs that I’ve come across in the city — Dean and Deluca, La Colombe, La Semeuse, Oren’s, Peet’s, Porto Rico, Whole Foods, Zabar’s, that place on Broadway at about 112th, and innumerable others — but GoE remains my favorite, and a relative bargain to boot. The vaunted Peet’s, recently available at Gourmet Garage, came as a particular disappointment. The beans are beautiful — fresh, dark, and oily — but I’m unmoved by the brew. The body is fine, but the taste consists solely of slight char, like a muted Starbuck’s, with little else in the way of flavor or acidity.

Click here for a cellar-buying tutorial from the Wine Lovers' Page.

Ron- They said they wanted 50!

Some friends are looking to buy a refrigerated wine storage unit. They’re not yet certain about such details as appearance (furniture-looking vs. hidden), but will probably want 100- to 200-bottle capacity. As a matter of principle, getting the best price is important. Where should they be looking besides IWA and The Wine Enthusiast? Travel to NYC would be OK. International Wine Accessories The Wine Enthusiast

I'd absolutely sworn off all Internet browsing until I got my tax papers in order, but I couldn't resist popping in for a minute to post a question. Having eaten those memorable lamb shanks, I was excited to see the sample recipe posted at Fat-Guy.com. For my purposes, however, six shanks will be too many. So, finally to my question: When scaling such a recipe by half, are all ingredients reduced proportionately, or must different adjustments be made? Thanks and best wishes.

Oh no, Mr. Moderator, please don't delete my post. The one time that I visited Kurowycky, the older gentleman behind the counter flirted with a lady customer who had already paid while I smiled, cleared my throat, and almost flailed my arms for ten minutes before leaving, porkless. I know that everybody loves the place, so it must just be me. Is that the wild boar guy at the Greenmarket? If not, then name and/or day(s) and/or approximate coordinates, please? Thanks again.

Another question, one that looks backwards rather than forwards: Can you recommend a local purveyor of worthwhile preservative-free bacon? I've got a spot in my freezer reserved for it.

Yvonne, hold the congrats 'til you're at the table, staring at the meat. Steve P., Friday works for me as well as Wednesday. Or shall we poll for the week following? (Sound of lunch, slip-sliding away...) So nu, where's that new thread?

Rereading Fat Guy's review of Sripraphai, I see that: - "Thai spicy" ordered by a Caucasian = "perspiration and some discomfort" - "Thai medium-spicy" ordered by a Thai = "a blur of pain and suffering" Would the proper order for a diner not so fortunate as to be a member of that particular lost tribe therefore be "Caucasian 'Thai medium spicy'," or perhaps "Thai 'Thai slightly spicy'?"

Prime rib is available weekdays, until it runs out. Sorry, SS, but BYOB (bring your own bacon) is not permitted. Let’s be bold. I propose… next Wednesday, March 20, at noon.

I once ordered a chunk of prime rib for the table in addition to our steak for however many we were. It was at an early dinner about twenty years ago, and I remember only two things: it was very closely trimmed, and it was the best prime rib that I had ever eaten. The dinnertimes I've asked about it since, it hasn't been available. How about Luger's for the first eGullet NYC get-together? At lunch? Tomorrow?

Didn't you know that the Thai were one of the Ten Lost Tribes?

Thanks, Fat Guy. I'm not going for a few weeks, but I wanted to post before you hit the road. A soup, an app, a noodle, three mains, a rice; sounds about right. Questions: - Would it be correct to conclude that, other than the catfish waffle, seafood is not their strength (for the optional dishes)? - I'll probably do a late lunch. Does that change anything at Sripraphai? When are the late-afternoon crullers fresh? - Can you help calibrate how "hot" I should order? Thanks for the BYOB note. If you hadn't, though, I'm sure Steve P. would've mentioned it. Speaking of desserts, I'm fond of Pongsri's (2nd Ave, not C-town) coconut-pumpkin custard. It's not like the traditional recipes I've seen: it's a square cut from a tray like Sicilian pizza, pumpkin shreds baked into the top, slightly heavy, grainy and wet, with a sweet, sort of flanny aspect to the coconut taste.

I’m considering venturing out of deepest Brooklyn into deepest Queens to visit the venerated Sripraphai. What I’m seeking is not an itemization of everyone's favorite dishes, but suggestions for a well-balanced dinner for two people who might not make the schlep again soon. (No matter how wonderful the food, I break my diet relatively infrequently these days, and, Fat Guy’s advocacy of regularity notwithstanding, generally try new places on such occasions.) Anticipating some preference questions: - We’d be one glutton (myself) and one female of normal appetite but adventurous disposition. - Our most recent Thai meal, at Pongsri (there’s that “sri” again) on Second Avenue, consisted of two soups (tom yum koong), deep-fried tofu, steak salad, red curry with shrimp, duck with snow peas, basil, and chili sauce, and pumpkin custard. (Low-carbers please note: this is Atkins-compatible, save for the custard and any rice.) - We exhort the staff at Pongsri -- a friendly, homey place (pardon the adjectives) where we’re sort of semi-regulars, with food, on a good day, as tasty as I’ve had Thai in Manhattan or Brooklyn -- to make our meal “very spicy.” Though this may well be mild in Sripraphai terms, I have also eaten Indian food that a Subcontinental friend pronounced inedibly hot. The point, I guess, is that while not explicitly masochistic, we wouldn't necessarily rule out any dish because of its heat level. So, what would be a suitable Sripraphai dinner for two, soup to sweets? Dietary constraints need not be considered.

Would you say that the food at Ryland (or Bernards) approaches the quality of, say, the Gramercy Tavern? Would the setting and service be appropriate for a couple that inquired about the Four Seasons but were wary of Lutece? Thanks again.

Having just read on the India board that Bukhara Grill is related to, or at least inherited staff from, the original Bukhara in New Delhi, I'm now curious: Is this their first attempt at U.S. penetration? I remember a Bukhara Grill from about ten years ago, also in the East 40's, with excellent breads and grilled meats (except for one leg of lamb from which raw alcohol had been insufficiently evaporated), eaten with one's hands while wearing a terrycloth apron amidst formidable decor of much wood and stamped metal.

Then you must not be a quarter-roller. And hey, it applies to dinner as well. The point, of course, was to note the restaurant opening. I very much enjoyed my lunch at the original on 48th Street.

A discount coupon ("Get 15% off lunch or dinner") for the new Bukhara Grill at 230 East 58th Street may be found on page 38 of this week's New York Press. The ad doesn't say so explicitly, but I'm going to assume that this applies as well to the $13.95 AYCE lunch buffet. That block is turning into quite an uptown, upscale Sixth Street.

Two old friends who abandoned the city a number of years ago recently solicited recommendations for a blow-out 25th-anniversary dinner for just the two of them. Their initial guidance was that it might follow a Broadway matinee, and should be fairly big-deal ("The Four Seasons?") but not formal, high-end French ("Not Lutece"). I suggested a handful of NYC places both grand and intimate, which they are considering, but they also inquired about the Ryland Inn should they decide to avoid the city. Any observations? Thanks in advance.

They may be his daughters. Does the gentleman in question know where you live? Speaking of things, um, Sopranish, does Nebraska serve decent spinach sautéed with garlic? That, appetizer salads, and large, serious steaks could make for a good downscale low-carb binge lunch.

Don't forget the water chestnuts! Or was that a local (Brooklyn) aberration?

Per Bourdain, does this preclude a fish course? At the risk of confirming my worst fears by actually meeting some of you, I’d consider attending both an economical BYOB at Sripraphai and a cost-little-object at Bid. I hold against Sripraphai neither its outer-borough location nor its initial “discovery” by another web site, and would enjoy sampling the variety of dishes made possible by a large group. I’m eager to try Bid, especially with Fat Guy manning the stoves; anyway, Bid sounds like it can use, and deserves, our business. As for the wine controversy, why not a glass preselected from the restaurant's cellar to match each course? If we’re planning a fixed tasting dinner, then why not a complementary (no “complimentary” joke, please) wine card, which we may each choose to purchase or not? Just two prices, one with wine and one without, service compris, also makes for civilized checkout. Because of my diet, however, I’d prefer to do both restaurants in the same day.

King Wu, indeed, run by Madame Wu. Sizzling-rice soup, moo shu pork, Day-Glo sweet 'n' sour shrimp, shredded beef with carrots and black pepper (here it starts to get hazy)... Oh, sweet, innocent days of youth.