maftoul

We enjoyed our server very much. He was very professional and polished in a relaxed, unforced way. When we went the first time Pizza Bella had only been open 2 weeks. Having been on opening crews of several restaurants, I would hope that people do give them several months to work out any kinks. I agree with Big Country. I work in the food world, too, and was excited to see they are open Sunday evenings. Does anyone know how often the menu changes?

I guess we just lucked out. The brussel's sprouts were indeed crispy. None of our antipasti had showers of romano. The brussel's sprouts and hazelnuts didn't have any cheese on it at all. That does make me wonder if it is all a work in progress. I've talked to numerous people who ordered the same things we did and all had different descriptions of the food. Not having had pizza in Italy, I must say that we liked the pizza and crust we've had thus far. The prices were far less than anything comparable we've had in Minneapolis, Chicago, St. Louis or Seattle. We've paid $8-9 dollars for similar food in potiions about the same size or smaller (112 Eatery comes to mind in MSP). Seems like Pizza Bella may want to work on some consistency.

Here us is an earlier thread for Pizza Bella. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=108381 We like it quite a bit. The brussel's sprouts with hazelnuts, and cauliflower gratin antipasti were both wonderful. Love our pizzas, as well.

We had the aged and young pickle assortment. It was a great plate of crunchy pickley vegetables. The assortment included kimchee, daikon, burdock, cucumber, carrot, radish and mint, green beans with walnuts, and eggplant. It included a portion of hijiki salad on the plate as well. It cost a whopping $4.25! It was enjoyable with both noodle choices. I could eat that stuff for breakfast with rice and be very happy until my next meal of noodles.

Their hours are indeed short. 11am to 1:30 pm. 2:30 would be so much better. Noodles is what they serve. That's why it's called the Noodle Shop! No sushi, no wraps, no rice bowls. They are what they are. We like the fact that you could get several kinds of noodles with several kinds of broth. You can order from their menu or make your own noodle bowl. It was the kind of place I've been to in San Francisco. The pickles were wonderful.

justhoward, you mean "pink salts?" Anywhere else in KC that sells it? ← Yes. Aka "curing salt", "pink salt" and "TCM" (tinted curing mix). It's something like 94% salt (sodium chloride) and 6% nitrite. They add the pink color to make it easy to distinguish from other cures and thus safer to keep around. There are also other curing mixes that are pink salt plus nitrates but they are more dangerous and harder to come by - used in commercial sausage making for hard cured sausage for example. For regular pink salt, Bychelmeyer is the only place I've found it here, but it seems like Mcgonigles would have it too??? ← What's the name brand on that salt Howard? Is it packaged or bulk? ←

We had lunch at the Noodle Shop today. It's at 59th and Holmes in the Morningside Plaza. It's been mentioned in a previous Sushi thread, but because this isn't sushi I've started a new topic. We thought it was a wonderful place. We had the pickle assortment, which was terrific. Each pickle had its own special qualities and flavor. It has fresh pickle and aged pickle. There were at least 7 different vegetable pickles, all delicious. Our noodle choices were udon #1 and a special somen noodle with bang bang sauce and chicken. Both were delightful. The udon was as good as any we've had on the west coast in Japanese places. It had pork, chicken, a raw egg, fresh greens, (mizuna?) and fish cake. It was extremely flavorful, made more so by a little ponzu and togarashi. The pork was especially good. The Bang Bang Chicken had just the right amount of heat and the chicken was succulent. We had iced tea that had a yuza or other citrus flavor that was kept refilled at all times. Our server was very good. It's the kind of place we could go to again and again. We hope people support The Noodle Shop. What an enjoyable place!

Thai Food by David Thompson is one of my top five, too. The chapter on rice, not recipes, but a history of the culture of rice in Southeast Asian cuisine, should win an award on its own.

We went for a late afternoon pizza today. Very, very enjoyable. The menu looked so good we decided to order brussels sprouts with a hazelnut vinaigrette and cauliflower gratin. Loved them both. Just the right size to share both. The flavors were quite intense and nicely balanced. We followed with a margherita pizza and a leek pizza with pancetta and goat cheese. The crust was wonderful as were the toppings. We brought half of each home. I love some char on the pizza crust and it was there. All of the ingredients tasted high quality and nothing was overly (or "underly" ) salty. Just right! Our service was good. We were there quite early, before 5pm, there was only one other table, but the staff was working on a sizable to go order of over twenty pizzas. The design of the restaurant is casual, but very nicely laid out with great lighting and comfortable chairs and benches. Just a really cool place.

Jeff Bremser, of Bernstein Rein Advertising is opening a place with his son in Cafe Maison's spot. Someone told me Simmer Down is a catering operation.

Because I live a few short blocks from Friends we've been there several times. I have to say, while we enjoy it, it is VERY low key. Everything taste quite subtle. The service is great, menu is nice, but the sushi is not exactly knock your socks off, if that's what you're looking for. It's serviceable, affordable and fresh. Exceptional, maybe not, but I'm very glad that Friends is in my neighborhood. Domo is very nice. We've gone there numerous times. We are really sad they no longer have the 3 -6 happy hour. The sushi has been very fresh and inventive. We love the appetizer menu as well. Service can be odd. It can be very difficult to order more items if sitting at a table because the server may not come back for a long while unless flagged down. We try to just order most everything we want at the beginning and ask them to course it. That can be challenging, but it seems to work.

I've purchased veal bones from McGonigle's. One way to acquire duck fat is to ask a restaurant who serves duck and duck confit if they would sell you some. Many places keep the fat and often have more than they need. Le Fou Frog and Starker's Reserve come to mind. Hey, Big Country, can you spare some duck fat?

We've had wonderful food and service at Cremant and Lark. They are totally different experiences, you could eat at one place one night and the other the next and not feel redundant at all.

With the caveat that we're speaking in terms of Kansas City, I can vouch for that. ← I thought we were always speaking in terms of Kansas City Having recently visited Seattle, I can attest that we are indeed speaking in terms of the best we have available in Kansas City. The biggest downside to most of the ethnic markets here is the produce. The best Asian produce is at the Hmong tables on the weekends at the City Market. Beyond that, it's hit or miss. Zeemanb's experience is pretty typical.

I agree with Dennis. It's a great store. The Oriental Supermarket is right off Marty at 103rd. They have the best selection of Japanese and Korean cookware that I've seen outside of Seattle. We bought our daughter who is a very good cook of Japanese food a takoyaki pan, different kinds of omelet pans and an interesting pan with fish shaped indentations for some kind of pancake. We usually make the drive out there from midtown if we want Japanese or Korean ingredients. They have expanded into the old kosher deli spot and carry even more great things. AND it's right around the corner from India Emporium!

A great place to check out is the newly expanded Hueng Vong Market at 4th and Grand. They have very cool produce walk-ins, sort of loosely arranged by hard vegetables, greens and herbs, and fruit type things. There are three, maybe four produce walk-ins. And great meat and seafood counters. I've been going to Hueng Vong for years at 5th and Walnut, but their new location is just wonderful.

Wow, I thought Lark was one of the most romantic places we've been to in Seattle. It must have been the sharing aspect of Lark, but it was a quite romantic evening and there were four of us!

If you like ethnic food, St. Louis is a culinary gold mine. We really like Cafe Natasha on South Grand. http://www.cafenatasha.com/ We had a very nice lunch at 1111 Mississippi, but go very early or be prepared to wait. http://www.1111-m.com/eleven-eleven/main.html We didn't consider it too expensive. For a great South St. Louis experience I would highly recommend Iron Barley. The food is first rate and it is simply unlike anywhere else. http://www.ironbarley.com/ As far as KC, where I live, I haven't found a breakfast place as good as Jerry's Woodsweather Cafe on 9th street in the West Bottoms.

Large white broadbeans seem to be readily availabe in Indian, Middle Eastern and Arabic markets. The last time I bought them, which was this past Spring, I purchased them at Al Habashi in the City Market. They were very good. What are you thinking a making? I'd love some new ideas for stewy things with different beans.

This isn't really the time for fresh fava beans. At this point I wouldn't even attempt to peel them. Some Asian or Middle Eastern markets sell frozen broadbeans, which are a type of fava, but who knows how long they've been frozen. I haven't had very favorable results with frozen favas or broadbeans. They seem to be dry and gritty. Dried favas are readily available in Indian and Middle Eastern markets. The come in several varieties. I like the split kind. Not even a substitute for the fresh kind, but great for stews and pureed mezze dips.

Sorry Holly, I just noticed your inquiry said no ethnic this time, so that cancels out 3 of my suggestions! Therefore, I am going to recommend Jerry's Woodswether Cafe on 9th Street in the West Bottoms, for breakfast or lunch.

For ethnic you might try El Pulgracita at on Merriam one block south of Johnson Drive in Merriam, Ks. 15 minutes or so from downtown. It's a great Salvadorean place that has little or no atmosphere, but the food is wonderful. The people who run the place are very, very nice. I really like El Taco Nazo for Mexican food. It's on Kansas Ave, 4 blocks east of 7th Street Trafficway in Kansas City, Kansas. Another really good Mexican place is Carnaceria Mi Rancho, meat market/cafe at Summit and Southwest Boulevard. Real nice folks there, as well. (I may have spelled the name incorrectly, but it's the meat market one store front from the Northwest corner at the boulevard and Summit, right across the street from Royal Liquor!) LC's on Eastwood Trafficway would be a great choice for BBQ if you still want more after ABs. I would find myself at Town Topic, the one on Baltimore at 19th Street, before I'd go to Winstead's. The Winstead's of my childhood is, alas, no more. Have a great convention, try to stay cool! It's beastly hot here this week.

My daughter and I both own Arabesque. I enjoy it, it's a nice book to cook from, but I was a chef in at a tapas/mezze restaurant so I really pump up the flavors. I love the way it's organized by region and starters to desserts in each region. Just a very enjoyable book.

Scrambled eggs with feta and tomatoes, sprinkled with za'atar, served with labna and pita, from Zaki's, a convenience store a block and a half from my house. It's served fast!

The last time we were at Aixois, our server and the hostess entered into a very heated "discussion" in the middle of the dining room. It took for ever to get our food, which fortunately was fine, but what a weird thing to witness. Interestingly enough, something similar happened to us at Le Fou Frog, the food was very good, but odd to be eating such good food after witnessing a near altercation! Keeps things lively, that's for sure