raji

Chinese is very good in Toronto, but it's not like it's a revelation like VC... VC is HK east, damn well better be that good. I find it more remarkable, or unique to NY, that you can find so many provinces represented so well in NYC when it is literally half a world away.

I was about to ask you how much, and there you go... $85? That's kind of insane, for what you get, and it's right in midtown; he's using the business crowd to subsidize the dining bar/chef's table.. puts a face on the restaurant and chef, doesn't it? Very smart... a ton of restaurants could learn a thing or two... I'm very impressed that he's serving Kobe beef ishiyaki (hot stone)-style, that's really the way to do it. That, plus all the seafood, also reminds me of the wagyu kaiseki that is offered at Sugiyama, which is around the same price, without a single drop of booze.

No, that wasn't what I was implying. Saigon Grill's menu is less than adventurous nor is their spicing. Their Bo Luc Lac is delicious, and perhaps authentic.

I'd hardly call it a wash.... ... NY simply will always be the pre-eminent destination for international dining. I've eaten some of the best Chinese food in those cities, and yes, what they all have to their advantage is a more recent and vibrant immigrant population, and such a large ratio that it helps create a stage for high-end gourmet Chinese food which is for the most part non-existent in NY. This also makes your average takeout loads better. NY suffers from a seemingly endless stream of horrible cookie-cutter takeout joints staffed by recent Fujianese workers who aren't exactly the best example of Chinese culinary tradition. So the vast majority are throaways like these. BUT, if you look hard enough, you can find places almost as good or just as good as the cities you mention. So I say the GOOD Chinese food in NYC is a lot harder to find, rather than a blanket statement like "Chinese food in NY sucks", which just isn't true. If you take the Chinatowns in Flushing and the LES, you'll find fine examples of cooking from all of the provinces, Taiwan and other SE Asian countries, including yes, awfully great Cantonese cooking. And there are gourmet places as good as your cities - Ping's comes to mind.

I believe Stage is 24 hour. It's decent in terms of a Jewish-style delicatessan, compared to Katz's or Carnegie, but much better than your average 24-hour NYC deli, but much pricier too

I hadn't noticed until today, but what do you guys think of the Eater Index? It is the same mechanism as the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes, which works remarkably well. However, it is a much smaller sampling of critics so can't possibly work as well.

Well you can't go and compare anywhere outside to anywhere inside China... Boy, I could post some pictures of Guangzhou, the feasts I had there....

That's International Grocery. That place is simply amazing. Rather than several varieties of any one thing, they have the single best occurrence of that very thing, no matter where it is from. In a small space there quite an amazing array of stuff. And their homemade yogurt, taramousalata, babaganoush, etc., are delicious and cheap, as are their olives, pickles, cheeses, and meats.

No problem - inasmuch they "do the right thing" when it comes to running an authentic sushiya with none of the nonsense, we should all be very supportive over the next several months as the DoH did everything they could to put them out of business... Well, he pretty much told me the same thing as the eater reports. Is it me or is 109 points off the charts? Who cares about NON-food contact areas? These sound like technicalities. Maybe they were missing a trash can? They were traditional yukatas. Hideo-san is Bic'ed bald, and the rest wear traditional bandanas. Can you imagine shower caps at a sushi bar? Again, who cares about the non-food areas. The kitchen and dining room itself were spotless. And these would be true of most any sushi bar. Hiroyuki, to answer your question, I imagine he'll solve enough that he can remain open while perpetually violating #9. What bothers me is that the DoH should really be talking with Japanese business and trade organizations, which are all headquartered in NYC anyway, about their issues with the practice of serving raw fish and other traditional Japanese food, rather than executing a vendetta 4 blocks away from the rat-infested Taco Bell that began their intifada anyways.

tag hell

You can still get very good and VERY cheap produce, and deals on dried nuts, fruits, and spices, at the farmer's markets on 9th Avenue below 42nd, and at International Grocery at 40th, a place I absolutely love and I hope never ever bows to developers - Here's a great map of the area - http://nymag.com/realestate/map/19143/

I think your sister is wrong about Chinese food... Vietnamese, there just isn't a Vietnamese enclave or much of an immigrant population to speak of. Saigon Grill is great, if you like your Vietnamese "dumbed down" a bit, but their bo luc lac is a guilty pleasure of many. Nha Trang is also great, if I recall, a lot of people miss out because they don't ask for the red menu. There's a weird green menu/red menu thing going on there, and you have to ask for the more authentic, hardcore menu. But all of those pale in comparison to Vietnamese I've had in LA and in particular Little Saigon, Garden Grove and other parts of Orange County, where much of the refugee population settled. And if you're from Australia, you'll also find better Vietnamese there, thanks to it's large southeast Asian immigrant population.

On the Japanese tip, well, obviously any "omakase" meal at a sushi bar will be an off-the-menu experience, even though the vast majority of what is present will be on their a-la-carte and specials menu - However, Tsukushi is probably as daring as you can get, there is no menu there and the course changes daily. There's also a lot of great eats in Chinatown where all you can do is point-and-pray, unless you can read Chinese that is...

Great news folks. I've made it a habit to pass by Ushiwakamaru if I'm downtown, as I didn't have a way to get in touch with Hideo-san, and yesterday I was finally rewarded. I was passing by yesterday and bumped into Hideo-san outside, with a full team of workmen cleaning out the space. He informed me that they'll re-open sometime in November with a brand-new renovation of the space... the room will finally be on-par with the level of sushi he is serving, which is easily the best downtown. I asked him, and he let me know that he's not using this as an opportunity to raise the prices. Viva Ushiwakamaru!

That prawn tandoor is one of my favorite dishes there, and with the level of execution and consistency they maintain, Devi is still my top Indian for NYC! I bet the food will be even better now that the 2 master chefs officially own the place

Kushiyaki, for all intents and purposes, is synonymous with yakitori... kushiyaki 'kushi' = skewer 'yaki' = grill, skewer grill, yakitori 'yaki' grill 'tori' chicken/bird, grill bird. You're liable to find non-chicken stuff at Yakitori places and plenty of chicken parts at kushiyaki places, but the focus at Yakitori is on the many chicken parts, and at kushiyaki places, offering a wide variety of skewered specialities of all kinds. Anyway, a new kushiyaki joint opened on the LES, priced like Yakitori Taisho but probably/hopefully using a higher level of ingredients, wondering if anybody has/will try it out - http://www.yozakuranyc.com/

Ja, I read this from 10/18, meaning it would have reopened 2 days ago. Didn't verify personally... http://eater.com/archives/2007/10/the_dish_back_f.php 2) Devi: Suvir Saran and Hemant Mathur's much loved Flatiron Indian will be born anew this Monday, as was mentioned a few weeks back. You may recall that the talented duo had purchased the restaurant from owner Rakesh Aggarwal after he closed it in August. They're taking rezzies now. 8 E 18th St between Fifth Ave and Broadway; (212) 691-1300 PS They published my tip! "CLINTON—From the inbox: "I just saw Dave “I’m not your bitch, bitch” Martin his cellphone outside of the ground floor restaurant of my building at 42nd between 11th and 12th before going inside. It’s opened and closed a few times most recently as Terra Vento. It’s a tough location but maybe he’s going to try to make it happen?" [EaterWire Inbox]"

So my dinner at Chola this past weekend was simply great. I wasn't able to order as exotically as I usually would I was one out of 5 family members there... To start out - we got the lamb patties and a bunch of bhaji, vegetable fritters. Everything was spiced and fried really well. While the breads out of the tandoor, like roti and paratha, weren't anything to shout about... Devi and Tabla probably have better, they were awfully good, and the pooris we got were probably the best I've ever had. Completely light and oil-free, and really fried to perfection. We shared a few mains, the shrimp kabobs (nowhere as good as Devi's, but still very good), dal makhni (great), and the one order I was able to slip in was the Chicken Chettinad. Surprisingly the other diners didn't want to get too many dishes marked "spicy" on the menu but I urged to get this one, and as I suspected, it was not as spicy as much as it was bursting with plethora of flavor profiles. This dish was really the standout. While Devi has reoponed I think Chola is very much in the same class of menu, ingredients, and execution, if not as "nouveau" as Devi.

Be careful what you wish for, if the bowl is really piping hot, you spend half the time blowing on it when you should be eating it, which is not desirable. I saw Menchanko-Tei open as of a month or 2 ago, so I'm pretty sure it had reopened - Seems like Setagya is worth a try for you.. not sure when Ippudo is opening...

You're probably best off calling one of the bigger liquor stores like Astor or Landmark... I've never seen that one, but would Killepitsch do? That's a better version of Jager...

I didn't know Tsukushi even served ramen! Chikubu had the best and is now closed, but I don't think it's unfair to compare to dedicated ramen-only restaurants. Saburi's is great, and Rockmeisha's is even better. Many Japanese restaurants around the city have one if not several ramens on their menus. Does anyone know of any other restaurants who serve partricularly good bowls of ramen? It's been awhile, but I recall that the midtown Sapporo restaurant had a very good sesame ramen, while the other kinds they offer are not as good.

I'm going to Chola for an early dinner Saturday, followed by Ravi Shankar concert. I'm pretty excited; I severely mourned the loss of Devi but I am well prepared for Chola to be my stellar Indian standout for Manhattan (especially so I can tell all my British friends that yes you CAN get good Indian food in NYC). I had not idea until my brother told me, but apparently I had been to Chola's sister restaurant in MA which is where his rehearsal dinner was. The food there was really great - you wouldn't have expected to have found this in rural Mass. Does anyone have recommendations about the best dishes, best way to order etc.?

When I'm in Japan, I utilize the oversized renge to pre-game my dose of ramen, as a lot of times it can be too hot and needs to be blown on as well. Otherwise, I usually end up slurping and burning the roof of my mouth, which I don't notice until the next day, depending on how much I have been drinking. Where can I see those anti-slurping articles? You won't find TOO many women slurping, slurping is very much the territory of the Japanese salaryman, but it really does cut across demographics. I mean, when you are starving for a ramen, you WILL slurp those noodles down whole... and the whole slurping thing is more about going at your bowl of ramen with gusto. My Japanese friends consistently outpace me, I simply cannot consume that much food so quickly, but it's certainly done with within 10 minutes. I was taught to slurp my ramen down in 5-10 minutes lest the noodles fatten up from the soup...

The state of ramen affairs in NYC, up until last summer at least, was discussed in this THE BEST thread... Thanks for the info Hiroyuki - and you can definitely see how idiosyncratic ramen-eaters are. I happen to love rayu.. it's one of many ways you can enhance the taste of your broth by the time you've finished off all the noodles - it's almost like a 2nd bowl of soup - Which does make it tough to objectively rank the ramenya, as it's a very personal preference. I happen to not be a fan of the seafood base of Setagaya's ramen, the styles I like most are tonkotsu/kyuushu-style also known as hakata-men, which means I like a pork-stock based broth and skinnier noodles. Also like spicy miso, and hiyashichuuka. I certainly LIKE a tokyo-style shoyu or shioramen, but not Setagaya's. I still maintain, with all objectivity, that the best ramen in the tri-state area is to be found at Santouka located at the giant Japanese supermarket Mitsuwa across the Hudson @ Edgewater. It's really easy to get to, but I'm there occasionally because I regularly cook Japanese food and need staples 595　River Road,Edgewater,NJ 07020 MITSUWA MARKET PLACE ニュージャージー店フードコート内 # 201-941-1004 # 11:00〜20:00(ラストオーダー 19:30) I am DESPERATELY awaiting Hakata Ippudo's opening. After Santouka, this was probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite ramenya regularly available around Tokyo and I think will blow anyone else in Manhattan outside of the water. Occasionally I'll have a ramen at SABURI, on Lexington between 30th and 31st. While not a dedicated ramenya, the chef IS ethnically Chinese and ramen is a Chinese import at the end of the day, and theirs is quite good. Also, as Chikubu proved, the best ramen in the city could be served by a restaurant that is not a dedicated ramen shop. They had ramen on Friday's only for lunch and were easily the best in the city. After that it's a matter of convenience, and to be honest, it's a bit of a game of whackamole among MENKUITEI, MENCHANKOTEI, ROCKMEISHA, RAI RAI KEN, MINCA (I've ranked in order of my preference, although n.b. the midtown Menkuitei is a lot better than downtown).. All of them really have their good days and their bad. They are normally staffed with a single ojisan (older staffer carrying the torch) mentoring young Japanese who are here as English students, so staff turnover can be high and therefore relative skills at ramen-making inconsistent. And supply and demand is very inconsistent, so the quality of the ramen you get may very well depend on how many bowls were served that day and when they last saw their vegetable and meat suppliers. It also depends on what you order where. Menchankotei's signature dish is actually quite good, if that's your sort of thing. Menkuitei might have a special ramen on their menu, a seasonal one, that outpaces their others. After years of grilling dozens upon dozens of Japanese nationals in NY, young and old, from Sapporo to Tokyo to Hiroshima, experienced, lifelong ramen-slurpers, it's clear that this inconsistency is a big problem, especially to the downtown Ramenya. Setagaya brings a consistent formula, but I will bet you guys dollars to donuts that Ippudo will blow them away if they make ramen half as good as they do over in Japan.

Well, he asked for African nations. Didn't know about LA, but Ethiopians definitely own DC. I still think Queen of Sheba is pretty good, I think the reviews on here are mostly positive, but, given it's similarity to South Indian and Sri Lankan food, I would opt for the latter 2 if I only had a week here. I think depending on what you're in the mood for, you can do well on an a la carte basis in and around 32nd street - for instance, bbq and casseroles are great at Woo Chon, jigae at Kun Jip, solungtang at Gah Mee Ohk, etc....