larrylee

Use Neat Image. But that's getting slightly off topic.

Strangely enough, this might be one area in which Zagat ratings are useful. A place might rate in the high 20's for food but in the low teens for decor. That says more to me than the Times' fuzzy explanation (below). If only Zagat had something useful to say, but I digress.

johnder: Thanks for the writeup and photo essay! So I'm guessing you weren't banned for taking photographs, as GR was threatening to do before the place opened?

One sure-fire way to get good sushi is to go straight to Tsukiji, say around 7 AM, and find the restaurants that are busy at that time. This worked quite well for us, and I never did find the name of the place we went to. However... Two places I wanted to go to but could not, and appear to be regularly held in high regard, are: Daiwa Sushi Building 6 Chuo-ichiba 5-2-1 Tsukiji Chuo-ku Tokyo Tel: + 81 (03) 3547-6807 Tsukiji station (Hibiya line) http://www.economist.com/cities/displayobj...m?obj_id=490392 Kyubei 8-7-6 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo Tel: + 81 (03) 3571-6523 Shimbashi station (Ginza & Hibiya lines) http://www.economist.com/cities/displayobj...0317&city_id=TK

Some more information: http://www.american.edu/TED/urchine.htm The uni season in Japan appears to be during the summer, but it's year-round in California, whose supply of red uni appears to be highly regarded. Maine appears to be an extensive provider of uni, as well. It would be interesting to know the origin of uni in Singapore, shipped from Japan.

Just for the record, CNET took over chowhound. News Corp bought Myspace.

Ah, of course. Some of the press material I read didn't mention anything about the actual meat, so I became curious (hence the calls).

All that means is they're matching what the other top steakhouses do. ← And that's a problem?

The pork shoulder looks great, though it occurs to me that it's the first whole roast pork shoulder I've ever seen from a Korean-ish restaurant. Momofuku's roast pork "buns" are practically the same thing as tong-po pork from New Yeah Shanghai, so it wouldn't surprise me if it's really more of a Chinese-style preparation. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

Regarding the method of killing the tuna, I don't know anything about the "sticking the spike in the soft spot to stop it from thrashing" but inserting a monofilament in the spinal cord was standard operating procedure, considered humane, for pithing frogs for physiology experiments. The heads are most likely used for making stocks. The heads, regardless, continue to move reflexively. I spent a few long seconds looking at some (you can't stand in one spot in Tsukiji for much longer without getting in someone's way) and was surprised when I saw heads continuing to move, as if gasping for air.

Gilbert, My wife and I were in Tokyo this spring and I could recommend a few areas and/or restaurants for you to try. I realize this isn't quite the information you're looking for, so let me know if you're interested and I can post them to the topic.

FYI to first-time callers - the number posted in the first message of this thread is for the hotel itself. Ask for L'atelier and you'll be transferred. You can request a table or the bar ("counter" as they call it) but they won't commit to that selection. So you might request the counter and end up sitting at a table.

Maybe JG was booked and Nougatine had an opening?

That's a very interesting point. Thanks for sharing! The more I think about the situation at Kasadela, the more it seems to me the logical explanation is that they must serve some draft beers, and the draft sake, or nihonshu, is namazake. The idea of sake coming out of a tap doesn't seem to compute.

Sheena, Vinegar is used in making Korean gyuh ja. I guess there's no harm in a little experimentation with your karashi powder, right?

Raji, for some reason I have this image of you literally under the tap, drinking Homer Simpson-style.

Better to conserve now than to lose all bluefin forever, no?

AzianBrewer - sigh... I can't recall. I do recall literally seeing it come out of a beer tap. I know, it doesn't make ia lot of sense. I guess I'll have to go back down there and see again. :-P

I thought you normally mix karashi with water. There are references to using combinations of mirin, sake, and vinegar on this page: http://www.sushisecrets.com/recipes.html It could just be that the formulation you purchased is not particularly pungent. (To state the obvious)

I've been to Kasadela on numerous occasions, though not recently. I really enjoyed every meal there. It's got a more refined atmosphere than the places on St Mark's. I believe there are one or two draft sakes available as well.

My wife and I ate here on Friday night, no Mandarin speaker present. Some thoughts and observations: What is the name of the pork with baby bok choy dish on Shanghai Cafe's menu? Our waitress didn't seem to have any idea what we were talking about. It could be the language barrier, but there was nothing that sounded like it on the menu. I just looked at the take-out menu again to no avail. Then again, on a menu with somewhere near 170 items, I'm sure I could have missed it. :-P Xiao long bao - we followed up with visits tonight to Moon House Restaurant and New Yeah Shanghai for comparison. - Shanghai Cafe's was the saltiest of the three and had a deep pork flavor. Not too fatty/oily. The wrapper did seem a bit thick. - Moon House's was the least salty and had the least amount of broth, was very light in color and had (to us) the most soothing pork broth flavor. The wrapper... well, had a tendency to stick to my teeth. Very strange. Maybe it's my teeth. :-\ - New Yeah's saltiness was in between the other two and was very fatty/oily. The pickled ginger was extremely strong (though not unpleasant). The wrapper here was probably the thinnest of the three. Shanghai Cafe did not have the eel dish, assuming it is "Stir Fried Eel Ninplo Style," on our visit. We had Tong-Po pork (pork with baby bok choy) at New Yeah - delicious! The meat was tender, sweet, and aromatically spiced without overpowering the underlying taste of pork. The thin layer of fat/rind is absolutely essential to the enjoyment of this dish. Given the tenderness of the entire cut, most of the fat had to have been rendered out into the sauce. There were two other pork dishes on the menu that looked potentially interesting: pork shoulder with honey sauce and salty pork belly with bean curd sheet). Service among all three: We haven't noticed significant differences in service between male and female servers. Female servers at Shanghai Cafe. Male at both Moon House and New Yeah. We never felt rushed, never had the check pushed on us. Fish head casseroles were being ordered by the Chinese patrons in all three restaurants. I think we'll go back to try those.

A second vote for Charles Southern Style Kitchen.

My DVR didn't record anything at all this weekend, very strange and disappointing. WNET 13's listings (New York City) don't show any repeats, either. To echo Nina's post, did anyone catch the first episode?

Sichuan peppercorns are not the same thing as hot peppers. If you are lucky, you will see the peppercorns themselves. They look, well, much like "regular" peppercorns, like tellicherry. The real difference is when you have the food in your mouth. To elaborate on my earlier post (#9), your mouth and tongue literally feel like it is vibrating. Completely different from eating, say, a jalepeno. If you're in a Sichuan restaurant, try ordering the dan dan noodles or the beef tendon appetizer.

The reservationist says all steaks are prime cut and are dry aged for 28 days. Now, we all know prime isn't prime isn't prime, and that prime isn't what prime used to be, but I think it's still promising.