raji

nono Don't quote me on these, but from recollection... Japan Cost of Pet Bottle of Pocari Sweat, 1996, ¥120 Cost of Pet Bottle of Pocari Sweat, 2006, ¥120 US Cost of Coke 2liter 1996, $.99 Cost of Coke 2liter 2006, $1.99 Todd36's gonna swoop in and debate me, but Japan may be the world's only example of a truly successfuly socialist, controlled economy. The prices, on the whole, don't change!

I was gonna recommend Zaiya too... it's the best of Japan in one little spot, and so cheap too!!! You can get curried filled pastries for $1.50, or a big wedge of a sandwich for $1.75. I hope they never realize how cheap they are selling things at. It's just the Japanese price control infection... Anyway, those are actually sold by Parisienne but it's all in the same place Beard Papa is great too

Yeah I'm confused. That's $64 for 2 people for Breakfast and Lunch? What are you going to do for dinner? Or, is that $64 for one person for all 3 meals? I'm confused! ← That's $64 for the day -- all food. I'm accompanying my husband, who is on a business trip. We'd like to feed both of us for the per diem amount, but obviously may have to go over that figure. ← OK now I've got you - Well I think that means a bagel in the morning, a lunch special, and then dinner, or going to a nicer restaurant for lunch, and a cheap dinner... And no booze... I'd go to: Japanese - Katsuhama Aburiya Kinnosuke (teishoku lunch is cheap) Saburi Indian - Madras Mahal, Udipi Palace, take your pick K-town - Gah Mee Ohk Woo Chon GCT breakfast/lunch - Many good options in the dining concourse, unlike Penn Station Deli - Eisenberg's OK that should start you off...

Yeah I'm confused. That's $64 for 2 people for Breakfast and Lunch? What are you going to do for dinner? Or, is that $64 for one person for all 3 meals? I'm confused!

You know, I live in Midtown West, work in Midtown East, and think Midtown's got a bad rap on here. Per city block there are just as many great, secret, cheap, gourmet, and any other positive factor that you would find in other great dining 'hoods like Tribeca, but there's just tons of bullshit mixed in because you have huge throngs of tourists, workers, and human traffic from Penn, MSG, GCT, etc. It's too late, you can find every place I mention on newyork.citysearch.com or on Google. But I'm not gonna even get into it until you tell me what your budget is, and then your radius. I WILL tell you you will find some of the best, and cheap, korean, japanese, indian food in the metro area within your immediate area, so I hope you like food from the Asian continent.

Chicago does have a large enclave, and I've heard stories of Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods. Still, maybe you aren't going to the right places in the NY metro area ← I don't dispute that NY has south Indian vegetarian. what I disputed was your proposition that it didn't exist elsewhere. ← It's extremely difficult to find, but where you can find a large population of South Indians, doable, not very outside of the US. My worst experience was, there wasn't 1 place in a country of 130 million, Japan, even with a decent number of Indians there. Not a single dosai. Anywhere.

Chicago does have a large enclave, and I've heard stories of Chicago's ethnic neighborhoods. Still, maybe you aren't going to the right places in the NY metro area

The whole "real pizza is what we call focaccia thing", right? The euros are just bitter they didn't think of it first. Took some American ingenuity!

pizza bagels hamburgers Jewish deli Italian deli Hell, Korea by way of Mexico deli. Where else are there 4 huge deli slicers within every square 100 feet All Japanese food except compared to Japan Cheapass Cantonese and now Sichuan food The 99cent hotdog/pizza poverty budget South Indian Vegetarian food - try finding that ANYWHERE Real Thai, Malyasian, Viet, Indonesian food New American and bistro-style eating

Get out of this forum. Right now!

Working 12+ hours/day is not condusive to eating out. I asked for recommendations, not a sermon. ← In Japan takeout sushi is not unheard of... it's just a different experience than sitting at a sushi bar. But sometimes you're just in the mood. When I worked late in Japan I could get delivery or takeout form the kaitenzushi places and it was great

It's too bad, there was a place SESUMI that just closed a year ago which would ahve fit the bill - So in that case, try taking out from Sushi Seki: From the Sushi Bar Sushi reg 18.00 dlx 23.00 Sashimi reg 20.00 dlx 25.00 Sushi & Sashimi Combination 26.00 Chirashi Sushi 21.00 Tekka Don 19.00 Futo Maki 14.00 Three Golden Flowers Special Combination Three Roll Entree veg 20.00 reg 28.00 Seki's Choice/ Omakase Seki's Original Special Recipe Sushi Platter For One $35; For Two $68; For Three $100 Omakase

Sapporo's cheap - but a bit of a relic nowadays - try out Donburi-ya or Aburiya's teishoku lunch, or even Riki. On Friday''s Chikubu serves ramen which is supposedly better than anywhere else. And if you're going for anything katsu, just go to Katsuhama - everywee I'm mentioning is in the east 40s I haven't been to Sapporo in years, is it really that good?

Grand Sichuan Midtown and St Marks use them, not sure about the others. Wu Liang Ye on 48th also uses them. ← And Chelsea too, right? I consider all 3 the same owner, menu, etc.

Well, free yakiniku appetizers, desserts AND drinks.... I'll eat standing up for that - That sucks though, being your birthday and all... I'm wary of stuff like that going down on Friday nights, with the huge B&T influx a lot of places take a shit... Gyu-kaku attracts a young clientele and a young staff too, so that probably didn't help. About the scallops, I didn't mention any seafood, did I! Gyu-kaku has fish and shellfish on their menu, I think they feel obliged to because people expect that at a Japanese joint, but usually yakiniku sticks to meat only. And Daniel, next time switch to Ichiko!!

Does Grand Sichuan use them? or is it Grand Szechuan?

I'm trying to edge out Todd36 as resident Japanese food snob... I don't have his funds tho definitely get- gyu-tan rosu kalbi and kalbi, harami, all tare of course ribeye I love grilling the vegetables too - aspara, garlic butter mushrooms, enoki, shishito, etc. and of course reimen (cold noodles in beef broth) to end, but it's not all that great there

I'll DJ for steak, if anyone knows them let them know! 2 Hours = porterhouse

I went there for my birthday 2 years ago. Not because it's great Yakiniku but because it's one of the only Yakiniku in NYC. I'm pretty sure I wrote about it elsewhere... lemme find it. Living in Japan i'd eat yakiniku every 2 weeks... ok here I found it http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...4entry1243074 I'd say what's good there is the cheap draft beer, and their special marinades for kalbi and harami. Harami. You've got to get lots of harami. Sometimes they go really chincy on the cuts tho....

I get Phylo Dough here: http://nymag.com/listings/stores/internati...cery/index.html

I equate trans fats with cheap/fast foods... maybe the real chefs on the board can chime in, but is this a required ingredient in anything people on this board would be into?

I don't even know what a teishoku menu is. I'll look forward to your report. ← Teishoku is set menu. Usually it's served in honor of the practice of sankaku tabe meaning it's served with equal portions of rice and miso soup. One of the few benefits of working at an office in Japan is that most every restaurant swings their doors open and offers teishoku lunches which are like 1200 yen - $10USD I'll post in the Aburiya thread after lunch - !

But Kaiseki is exactly what you ask for - multi-course tasting menu of creative and delicious fare, and perfectly fresh, in the case of Kaiseki, seasonal ingredients... It's just Japanese. For all we know, they invented the idea! I'd say Yasuda is straying because a sushi omakase is predominately sushi & sashimi, whereas at Sugiyama you'll go from sashimi to sushi to soups, agemono, wagyu beef you sear on a stone by yourself, etc. Masa the same. Megu is probably 3rd on that list. I've gone to Sugiyama for an occasion, and it was great, we ate and drank in front of Sugiyama-san at the bar, but we could have also gotten our own table

I still have NOT made it to Devi, so perhaps I should STFU, but I think I passed by and it's your usual white cloth Indian decor? While Tabla's space and mood is very swank and seductive... I guess that should be a consideration for a birthday dinner - being that it's special, I'd go for Tabla as the more "festive" place, not to mention the food and wine list is simply spectacular

I didn't take it as Mr. Cutlets trying to offer an informative service... what I took from it was that he's using that as a metric of how a restaurant is doing vs. their hype. Also, way back when, as many times as i've been told to reserve Nobu a month in advance, I've been able to walk in perhaps on a slightly off day or time. The whole reservation line and secret # thing for the hot restaurants can be intimidating... so, I think it also makes some places more approachable for normal human beings