patrickamory

It's actually fun! Just be sure you have plenty of coconuts (some may turn out not to be fresh), plenty of space, and plenty of time. Oh, and a Cuisinart.

A further note - I've never had much luck cracking Chaokoh coconut milk, even though it's everyone's recommended brand (Kasma, Su-mei Yu). However I noticed the other day in the store that Aroy D coconut milk lists ingredients as only "coconut extract, water." I.e. no stabilizers. So I bought a can to give it a try. The cream wasn't super-clearly separated from the milk, but that could have been because it had been in my shopping bag while I was walking around - or who knows how long it had to sit on the shelf and rest at the store. I was able to crack the cream however by frying it at moderately high heat. It took 8-10 minutes, but it definitely separated. I've worked at separating Chaokoh for 20-25 minutes before giving up in frustration! So maybe it's the stabilizer issue. Give Aroy D a try - and it would be great to hear if others have success.

The original, in St. John St. near Smithfield Market.

Right now I'm drinking a 2008 Gevrey-Chambertin Home Alone. My more usual drinks would be a beer, a George Dickel Old No. 8 on the rocks, or (most commonly) a glass of dry sherry - probably Savory & James fino. If yr looking for mixed drinks, that doesn't happen around here unless we have guests.

I'd categorize Minetta Tavern as not a classic steakhouse, so not in the running. True, the thread title asks what's the best steak in Manhattan, but the first post poses it in the context of Peter Luger, so I'm presuming we're talking: - grainfed, dry-aged Midwestern beef - porterhouse, T-bone, strip steak or sirloin - older male waiters - the offer not to look at a menu - starters of shrimp cocktail and sliced tomato & onion with blue cheese - sides of hash browns and creamed spinach - a clubby, masculine ambience - and probably a location in midtown If you add other kinds of steak & restaurant into the equation, the possibilities are endless (and less interesting, in my mind).

My favorite place to dine for atmosphere is the Pool Room at the Four Seasons. So that gives you an idea of how I feel about noisy restaurants. Modern designers could actually take a tip from it -it is hushed, but with a pleasant burr of distant background sound (water lapping against the pool, the metal beads gently rasping against the windows, and hushed conversation) that together give you the sensation of being in an exciting public place but with complete privacy for your table, no matter how crowded it is. I loathe the new restaurants with hard surfaces, high ceilings and people pushed up against one another. They of course force you to drink huge amounts to make it bearable, pushing bar tabs up and making the tables profitable. Whether they encourage return custom is another matter. (I find Adam Tihany's designs are visually ugly as well as unpleasant auditorily, btw.)

Great, great reports. Boy do I miss that English bacon (and the baked beans). Keep them coming!

I've been eating at all the NYC steakhouses for decades and here is my current roundup. In my experience no steakhouse is 100% consistent, but if you dine at one several times in a year, you get the general trend. YMMV and all that. - Peter Luger - Steak is of course the porterhouse for as many people as necessary, generally ordered medium rare, sometimes rare for contrast. Absolutely my #1 for years and years, but I can no longer stick up for it. Wildly inconsistent the last several times I've been - chewy and flavorless. Against this, I had quite a decent steak at the Great Neck location in May. - Mark Joseph - Porterhouse again. The first of the Luger spinoffs in Manhattan (I believe it predated Ben & Jack's, and definitely Wolfgang's). Excellent the last time I went there for steak , which was a few years ago. But I had a burger at the bar last week and it was superb - a good sign. - Wolfgang's - Porterhouse. Pretty good. The Murray Hill location is better than the Tribeca one, but it might be the loudest restaurant in the United States. So keep that in mind. - The Palm - double strip, medium rare. Two notes: make sure you go to the original location (the wait is never that bad, and the cooking is definitely superior to all the others), and have them cut the steak at the table, not in the kitchen. I've had my share of not-great steaks at the Palm, but if you follow the above two rules, you'll dine quite well. And the atmosphere can't be beat. - Gallagher's - kingloin. Completely downhill in the past 5 years - avoid. - Smith & Wollensky - porterhouse. I've never had a great meal at S&W, and haven't had a decent steak there since 1999 or so. Dry, overcooked, tough, tasteless & served amidst the biggest crowd of yahoos in East Midtown (a difficult prize to win). Avoid. - Keen's - mutton chop. I'd avoid the steaks in general. The rooms are fantastic if you sit downstairs - upstairs is a tourist-laden hell. Tip: try sitting in the "cafe" room next to the bar. Much more low-key. And there are some deals on bar dishes like hamburger. - Nebraska - porterhouse. Steep downhill alert. I would have concurred with Mr. Cutlet before 9/11 - ate there frequently, and it was an incredibly weird & good mobster / stripper / strip steak scene. I went there last summer and everything had changed completely. The steak was just OK. - Bobby Van's - porterhouse. The 46th St. location (in the eastern gallery of the New York Central building) serves superb steak. On many nights, the best in the city. You'll have to put up with an annoying fratboy type crowd, but if you have the right table on the right night, it's not too bad. Really a sleeper - try it out. (The Wall Street location is not as good.) - Spark's - strip. To my mind, it hasn't been good since they added on the massive expansion. That does mean you can now get seated without bribing the host, but that's the only advantage. And I can't get behind wet-aging. I had okay steaks here years ago, but it would finish a distant last for me now. Haven't tried in a few years: The Post House, Ben Benson's, Ben & Jack's (but the latter had one of the most depressing rooms I've ever dined in, even though the steak was pretty tasty). Not gonna comment on non-classic style places - to me it's a completely different cuisine (Strip House, Craft et. al.) Btw I can't ride for the bacon craze that's taken off in NYC steakhouses. The bacon itself is delicious, but the flavor is so strong that it obliterates your tastebuds, ruining the subtlety of fine dry-aged grain-fed steak in the next course. Now maybe if they served it for dessert...

I've been making way more pastes since I got my Ultra Pride wet grinder. I've been home with no voice for the past couple of days so have been using up what I have in the fridge. Last night I made a dry red curry of chicken with green beans. This is in David Thompson as "dry red curry of lobster," but I've found it to be an incredibly versatile paste. He deep-fries the lobster meat and reserves 5 tbs of the oil to fry the curry paste. This works equally well with chicken. Don't quite cook the chicken all the way through in the deep-frying process - save that for simmering at the very end in the seasoned curry paste and stock. He doesn't add a vegetable, but I find that the dish likes it. I accompanied that with a Su-mei Yu salad - incredibly easy. Sliced granny smith apple soaked in cold water with lemon juice and rinds, served with deep-fried dried shrimp. She uses smoked salmon instead of the shrimp, but I went by King Chulalongkhorn's original recipe, created on tour in Europe in the 1890s when he was homesick for Thai food. Both are bathed in a simple dressing of palm sugar, white sugar, fish sauce, salt, lime juice and minced green chiles. I have some green curry paste left over in the fridge, so tonight I'm going to try a beef green curry - assuming that my coconut turns out not to be rotten - with another Su-mei yu salad, this one of apricot, shrimp and pork. Wish me luck.

You will have no problem getting decent spice levels at the Manhattan location. This is from someone who makes crying tiger with 30 bird chiles. edit: great photos!

I went to the NYC Lotus of Siam about a week after the owners departed in high dudgeon. It was decidedly unimpressive.

Great report and photos! Glad you enjoyed the Wolseley.

So Jenni - you're going to own a wetgrinder, a Bamix AND a mixie? I have to say I'm feeling jealous.

weinoo: whoops, I just saw you posted that upthread! Apologies. It's on my list now.

Has anyone eaten at Ayada in Queens? New York magazine calls it "the city's best Thai restaurant." How about Ploy Thai, also in Elmhurst? This article has lots of potential revelations in it. http://nymag.com/restaurants/cheapeats/2011/queens/top-twenty/index1.html

The fries are basically terrible. Do not go to Five Guys for the fries. It's about the burgers, and specifically the toppings, for me. I usually get lettuce, tomato, raw onion, relish, ketchup, mustard, mayo, and pickles on the double cheeseburger. It's the closest thing to a California-style burger you can easily get in New York (Shake Shack is the closest, but it's not easy), and it's pretty good. The main shortcoming is the bun, which has a tendency to disintegrate while you're eating. I need to try the single burger to see if it works better with regard to proportion, texture and eatability.

Do you know what they get for it? Kinda hard to navigate their web site. Not sure of the exact amount, but it's definitely expensive. I've never actually been handed a menu there - the meal is negotiated verbally with the waiter, and I usually put myself in his hands and say, "please make sure we get the Peking duck."

LPShanet: Mr. Chow's peking duck is superb. I'd say it's a step above PDH (which is fine in its own right) - probably the best I've had in Manhattan.

I'd say it was a good choice.

Also, she's an excellent writer with a sharp eye and a keen ear. Her memoir about learning to cook in China is un-putdownable. It contains recipes as well. It's called "Shark Fin and Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China," and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Big fan of Congee Village here. You certainly can't go wrong if you order the namesake dish. I was once there with a group of 10 and we ordered one of the banquet dinners at the front of the menu. Every dish was superb, and it was really well-balanced. Congee, crab, whole braised fish, a delicious dish of little lamb chops, and much more.

robirdstx, I've bookmarked your photo of the chili dog with the fries. Unbelievably tasty looking. (Did you make the crinkle-cut fries from scratch??)

Agreed on those two Szechuan places over Spicy & Tasty! How are the branches of Xi'an Famous Foods in Manhattan? I've been meaning to check out the Bayard Street place to see how it compares to the original in Golden Mall.

I actually think Manhattan's Chinatown is better than a few years ago - but possibly not so much for sit-down dining. It's more about takeout, hole in the wall, counter style places.

Zabb Elee in the East Village for Isan food is excellent. On the upscale / Americanized tip, I really enjoyed my meal at Kin Shop two weeks ago.