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My favorite avocado preparation at a restaurant is an avocado curry at nyc's WONDEE SIAM. My favorite personal preparation is anya von bremzen's miraculous "catalonan guac" from THE NEW SPANISH TABLE. it has anchovies in it too, and parsley instead of cilantro. it is tremendous. catalan guacamole

i am heartened that i apparently am not that far off the mark. 1. heavy nonstick wok, not electric 2. yes, very hot 3. already use a combo of peanut oil, garlic, mirin, salt and sugar, plus a pinch of red pepper flakes. However, I read a while ago to put the garlic in at the end, not the beginning - trying to create a sauce, not flavor the cooking oil. Maybe i need to revisit that. 4. good note about the soy sauce - certainly when i eat this dish in restaurants, there's none in there, so i don't know why i insisted on adding it during cooking. Chris - do you put the stems and leaves in at the same time?

i LOVE "chinese broccoli" especially, but my heart belongs to all the chinese-style greens dishes i enjoy in nyc. when i try to cook them myself, i try to get my wok REALLY hot, and i usually put in the"stem" pieces several minutes before the "leaf" pieces (in general, i do not blanch first.) but the results inevitably disappoint. i am interested in pointers on technique as well as flavoring. strident garlic flavor strongly preferred.

you don't have to convince me - i supplied three recommendations myself. if i believed there were no options, i wouldn't have said anything. Dan - we'd sure love to hear what your sister wound up eating!

I have never had food-cart kebabs, kofta, "halal" food, etc that i thought was worth eating. to me, the directions to go are chinese/vietnamese (as already noted) and latin american (which is usually called spanish food in nyc.) it's also a truism that the great cheap eats in new york are clustered in the outer boroughs. i'm leaving those recommendations out on an assumption that, unlike myself, your sister is not planning her entire trip around food. also, re; Bouchon - I was just there last weekend, it is NOT a budget experience in any sense of the word. Eight dollars will not satisfy you. my picks are: peruvian rotisserie chicken, such as the half chicken at Pio Pio, for $6. http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/pio-pio-2/ classic diner sandwiches and more at Eisenberg's near the Flatiron building, 5th Ave (22/23) http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/eisenbergs-sandwich-shop/men if the palate is less adventurous, really honestly good soup, six or seven kinds every day including weekends, at Fifth Avenue Epicure, also Flatiron area: http://www.menupages.com/restaurants/fifth-avenue-epicure/?restaurantid=4351&page=2#reviews

I wanted to report back on my visit to Amada. First of all, for a New Yorker, the luxury of space in such a place as Amada is experienced as incredibly relaxing. I loved the rustic/airy design, low lighting, and trim, attentive waitstaff. The volume of the place, compared to the tapas joints in New York, was manageable and soothing. We had, to start: -the grilled scallops - the grilled octopus - the parmesan artichokes The artichokes were unusual and great - struck me as a bit more Italian than Spanish, and nobody does artichokes like the Italians. So that's not a bad thing. Scallops were perfectly cooked, simple, succulent. The octopus, one of my most favorite dishes in the world, was salty to the point of inedible. We mentioned this to our server, who acknowledged that "tapas is salty." I haven't experienced tapas so salty I couldn't finish it in New York, but I accepted this explanation. We wanted to order more, but asked for guidance so we could avoid a saline overdose. Final dishes: Piquillo peppers stuffed with crab. I am obsessed with piquillos - I buy them at considerable expense for cooking my own tapas, and consume them imported in tin cans (like sardines) stuffed with Spanish tuna and drowning in tomato sauce as a perfect, if expensive, instant cold lunch. The crab stuffing was tremendous, and they were broiled in a glazed clay dish with a bit of cheese and slivers of Marcona almond. I will definitely be replicating this dish at home! "Coco," Spanish flatbread with various toppings. We chose a version with the distinctly un-Spanish topping, it seemed to me, of short ribs. I have eaten repeatedly at most of the important tapas joints in New York, but have never bothered with the 'cocos.' It's like, FLATBREAD? Really? Enough already. But my companion was interested, so I acquiesced. Tremendously good, the hit of the night. The shredded short rib meat was perfectly cooked and seasoned, topped with a suggestion of cheese and a bit of some kind of sprout for garnish. It was sophisticated and delicious, a great mix of real, detail-obsessed cooking skill and mass appeal. I wish I had tried more of the vegetable dishes. I adore the Spanish vegetable treatments.... perhaps next time. Desserts: A brown butter cake with various hovering accoutrements. A solid B-. Three ice creams, none remarkable. Later, after my companion had left, I ill-advisedly tried a peach napoleon, despite the fact that it was March and peaches are certainly in short supply. I ate a few bites and called it a night. --------------- Overall, very enjoyable....I would go back, honestly. Thank you very much for the suggestion.

I haven't been to RTM in many years, but as a native of York, every time I do go, I get an almost overwhelming rush of nostalgia, both for RTM itself and for the great old covered markets in downtown York. Somehow they smelled so incredibly similar. I'll be spending two days in Philadelphia this week and definitely plan to stop at the Market... I know everything fresh is out of season, but would still love to enjoy some favorite prepared foods from my childhood. That means Pa Dutch favorites like red-beet eggs, Lebanon bologna (can't believe I'm saying that, but it's true!) etc. For dessert: I can get all kinds of fancy pastry here in NYC, so what I really hope to find in Philly is the opposite - whoopie pies, that sort of thing. No fancy cupcakes, I don't care how good they are. Any places I should be sure to hit?

I happen to be a tapas *whore* so I think I'm leaning towards Amada....

hello. i'm a new yorker looking for restaurant recommendations for Philadelphia for this Wednesday night. several years ago, as a nascent foodie, i had the meal of my life at morimoto, so i guess i should try somewhere new. i did scan the PA topic, but couldn't produce a strong list of front-runners. my criteria: - not gastropub or red-saucy "Italian-American" - centrally located (not suburbs) - I'm from Eastern Pennsylvania with lots of exposure to the regional cuisine; not averse to it at all -will also be passing through Terminal Market -will be dining with one other person, work colleague - price not really an issue. Would appreciate any suggestions!

seconding parsley oil. i also have made an infused oil with spanish paprika - delish. i learned both these oils in a single recipe in Anya von Bremzen's Spanish tapas cookbook; both were included as finishers for a garbanzo bean soup.

Unless you are baking, it's just not important enough to merit the cost, imho. Where budget is an issue, there are a dozen things I'd put on the list ahead of scales.

i just don't agree that weighing ingredients is that tremendously key to good beginning cooking. baking, yes. cooking, no. teach people what a cup of flour is. that way they can cook when they don't have a scale.

I am a very serious home cook and I didn't have scales or thermometer for a very long time, and neither did any of the people I grew up watching cook. To me, these are advanced nice-to-haves (one exception: if our newbie wants to spend his weekends snuggled up with Rose Levy Beranbaum. Which I doubt.) I too would replace the blender with a stick blender. I haven't dragged out a regular blender in over five years. Cookbook I give to friends who are beginners: Bittman, How to Cook Everything. Runner-up: something from the Cook's Illustrated series, suppers or dinners or whatever theme applies to the recipient's taste/style. Equipment addendum: one cookie sheet. Not just for cookies, but for roasting many things, putting under other things in the oven that might boil over, using as a surface for refrigerating things, etc.

a friend with an excellent and worldly palate mentioned a few months ago that she'd just had "one of the best things she'd ever eaten in her life" at a dinner party - and it was (she lowered her voice to a whisper here) "a crock pot recipe!!!!" not only that, it was a CHILI recipe. deeply curious, i finally made it. it is a triple-pork home run: ground pork, boneless pork shoulder and a smoked ham hock. it is extremely good - i am not sure it's one of the best things i've ever eaten, but it's a gold-star recipe that i immediately saved to my archive, served at multiple dinner parties, and cooked for my brother as his Christmas present. may i present Smoky Slow Cooker Chili, as published by (sotto voce) Cooking Light magazine. Smoky Slow Cooker Chili

i never thought any cookies would trump the ones i grew up with, but the molasses spice cookies drive me absolutely crazy. they are perfect.

Great episode.

the first roast chicken of the new year.

the Momofuku cookbook a huge, beautiful oval Le Creuset dutch oven in gorgeous red (i was cooking in it within 5 hours of unwrapping it!) a butcher block for all my knives a set of garnishing tools (!) "Baking with Julia" DVD

Seconding von Bremzen - I like it a lot.

1. yeasted cinnamon buns - no recipe yet, but i have to learn so i can stop the yearly plague of Pillsbury on Christmas morning. 2. madeleines 3. Pierre Herme's lemon tart, via Dorie Greenspan: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/04/lemon-lemon-lemon-cream-recipe.html 4. moujadara - that Middle Eastern rice/lentil topped with caramelized onions dish - I adore it. It seems simple, but I lack context in the regional culinary vernacular. Attempts thus far have not satisfied. http://www.herbivoracious.com/2007/10/recipe-mujadara.html 5. Gramercy Tavern's tremendous strawberry pie. Strawberries are my favorite fruit, and this pie, which I tasted last June, overwhelmed me. There were both preserved and fresh strawberries in it, for maximum berry punch: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/veq1Bl1DW3UWMekZJUsG1Q?select=TXIAACLEBGecBvfj5gZP1Q

soup. i grew up never having eaten homemade soup - Campbell's it was. i vividly remember making my first tomato soup from an early Cook's Illustrated recipe that called for roasting canned Italian plum tomatoes to caramelize them, then processing them with other ingredients. revelation. i rarely make tomato soup anymore, but all other kinds are in constant development in my kitchen. there are some convenience foods that tempt me, but canned soup is not one of them.

I spent the year chasing and eating octopus in various Spanish and Greek restaurants in NYC, as well as in Italy during my first trip there. This year, I want to cook it myself. Also, this is my first post here. Hello.