patrickamory

vivin - no, I haven't been to Pure Thai! So please discount any absolutism in my post. It looks to me like Pure Thai is more about Thai street food - fast-cooked wok fare, correct? Wondee Siam I is more restaurant style - salads, curries. I really had an awful meal at Wondee Siam II - so mediocre it makes me worry that changes have happened at the original since I was last there (about 6 months ago). They seem to be opening up other branches across the city, never a good sign.

I have read that thread - all 29 pages of it - three times through! And learned so much.

Man, that cabbage soup looks good. Below is one of my favorite Julie Sahni recipes... fragrant yogurt-braised chicken (dahi murghi). It's tough to photograph well but man is it delicious. It gains complexity from the freshly roasted and ground spices in the garam masala - impossible to replicate in a photo, but "fragrant" describes it well. Served with Persian style rice (with tahdig crust) and a selection of pickles and chutneys.

Funny, I just mentioned this in another post. I think all the Hell's Kitchen Thai places are inconsistent, but the original, smaller Wondee Siam is the best - by far. No reservations, and BYOB, so may not suit your party. Order off the small Thai special table menu. We had some spectacular dishes on one visit - insist that you want the unusual stuff, Thai spicy, etc. This place was originally recommended to me by friends from Thailand. Their sister restaurant is nothing special - bog-standard Thai cuisine you could find in any mall unfortunately If only we had a Jitlada or a Renu Nakorn in NYC! (And no, Lotus of Siam NYC ain't it.)

I guess I've become a regular at Locanda Vini e Olii. I've always loved this place, but our meal last Friday was absolutely killer. Greeted with a handshake, given a free plate of goat testa that was delicious. Standouts besides the usual (charcuterie platter, sardines in saor and cheeses) included a perfect tagliatelle ragu of pork and beef with orange zest, the guitar strings in saffron with sardines, and an excellent salad... but then the rare bistecca fiorentina and the long-cooked berkshire pork were off the hook. Great wine suggestions too (bringing us down on price on one).

Now that sounds like breakfast to me. Did you make the jungle curry and prik nam pla? Yup! David Thompson on the jungle curry... a little improvisation was needed because I didn't have grachai, otherwise it was straightforward. Yard beans, yellow squash and chicken. It's the recipe with the two pastes (you fry a separate jungle curry paste and a garlic-chile paste).

Has anyone posted about waiters regularly filling and overfilling your wine glass in a transparent attempt to empty the bottle and get you to buy another one?

Leftover jungle curry with a steamed egg on top, prik nam pla on the side.

The various Turkish, Lebanese, Indian and Greek yogurts available at ethnic groceries are so much better than what you find at the supermarket. Kalustyan's in NYC has a huge selection.

Like santo_grace, I'm looking for a 30" gas range on the cheaper side - no more than $1500. Any opinions on the Kenmore Elite gas? The two ovens look useful... how are the burners? Gets Consumer Reports' vote, for what that's worth

This comment opens a big can of worms. There are plenty of people who when dining alone, like to dine at the bar. The bar is for drinking, I agree, but when it's in a restaurant, it's for eating too. A fairly recent development though, wouldn't you agree? For solo diners, I guess I see the point. Filling up the whole bar with eaters, as if it were an extension of the restaurant, really kills the vibe in most instances. A truly great restaurant would make a solo diner at a two-top feel at home. In France, it's never been a problem... and frequently been the rule.

Peeves with both the restaurant staff and my fellow diners: 1. I want - no, need - to order a drink as soon as I am seated. ESPECIALLY if the rest of the party is not there yet. 2. Like Mike, I want time to drink that cocktail before ordering food. 3. I'd like to have the wine list from the get-go. 4. I'd like the wine to arrive before the appetizer - it's a disaster when you've just finished your apps and the wine arrives only then. 5. I'm not interested in learning the waiter's name. 6. I can't stand it when someone at my table asks the waiter, "Would you recommend this, or this?" How on earth is the waiter going to know what a total stranger will enjoy? also, hasn't everyone read Anthony Bourdain? haven't they heard of "merchandising"? 7. Endless wait for the check... followed by endless wait for the check to be picked up with credit card. Man this makes me come off like a total misanthrope. (edit): P.S. Restaurants that allow - and in fact encourage - patrons to eat dinner at the bar. The bar is for drinking, and ideally for having a drink while you're waiting to be seated. It's often not appetizing to be having a cocktail while two people are chowing down next to you, and it seems to force the bartenders to play dual roles that don't go well together.

Went to the superb Purple Yam in Ditmas Park for the first time last night... it's been years, but Romy remembered me from Cendrillon, which was certainly my favorite restaurant in Soho. Ditmas Park is a trek but the food was wonderful... goat roti with rice pancakes and mango chutney, excellent roast pork buns (featuring nice charred bits unlike Momofuku's - which I also love), chicken adobo, a lamb curry with okra, cherry sambal and pickled radish that was off the hook, nice whole fish & more. It's a trek but definitely worth it.

The pure pleasure in eating and his wonderfully evocative prose style... both have had an impact on my appreciation of food. Also who could resist some of his phrasemaking? "Nothing better than saddle of bear!!" from the Outdoor Cooking book.

For a long time I was a regular at Gino Italian Cuisine on Lexington. Ithaka on Barrow St. Also Joe Jr.'s on 6th Ave. Sadly they are all no more There aren't so many places I'm recognized these days. They would include: - Gene's on 11th St. (by the bartender at any rate) - El Parador on 34th St. (Alex is a true gentleman) - The Palm (the original on the West side of Second Ave.) - Tommaso's in Bensonhurst (not as often now that I don't make the trek out there so often) - Kanoyama on Second Ave., at the sushi bar (the chef's name is Nobu, no relation) - Taro Sushi on Dean St. in Park Slope (the chef's name is Yugi, formerly of Ise next to the Twin Towers, one of the sweetest & best sushi chefs in the city) - Giorgione on Spring St. (right next to my office - so it's a regular place for lunch) - Le Veau d'Or on 60th St. (love Robert) No matter how many times I dine at the Four Seasons, they never seem to remember me. I guess once a year isn't enough!

A good selection of interesting sherries - manzanillas, finos, old olorosos, palo cortados and not just the ones from the huge makers, sitting there gathering dust among the creams and pedro ximenez. It's embarrassing what a tiny selection of sherries is available in this country compared to Europe.

Superdawg isn't TERRIBLY far. And well worth a visit.

Wow, I wasn't aware of him. But I definitely support Essex Market and have signed the petition to stop the city from moving it. I intend to stop by Jeffrey's tomorrow.

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned Sam's Grill. Classic old-school San Francisco, extremely fresh simply prepared local fish, great martinis and old waiters. Crab louie and sand dabs. Be aware that it closes early.

I get Costa Rica La Minita at Oren's in NYC. When I started buying it I think it was $11.49 a pound... now it's up to about $14.99. Expensive, but over the course of 10 years, that's really not that much of an increase. Maybe I'll have sticker shock the next time I go to refill...

Yes!!! It's incredible. I've cooked on a classic Vermont cast-iron stove - mainly roasting. Took forever to get hot and very complicated to modulate temperature... but boy it turned out an incredible leg of lamb.

Florence and Ottomanelli (on Bleecker St. - no relation to the uptown branches) are both excellent. Superb in fact. I find myself at Ottomanelli more frequently - they're bigger and the guys are just about the sweetest, most knowledgeable butchers in the city. I only went to Lobel's once and got a very unremarkable ribeye for about three times the price of the downtown butchers. I'd have no problem paying that much if it were even twice as good - but it had little marbling, mustiness or character - a completely ordinary piece of meat. Ottomanelli for the win!

One thing worth noting: McDonald's hamburgers in New York don't come with mustard on them, only ketchup, because, according to a McDonald's spokesperson, "New Yorkers don't like mustard on their burgers." Many local branches don't even have packets of mustard so that you can add it on yourself. This detracts immensely from the depth & flavor balance of the hamburger.

Ah, air-drying in the fridge. I've done this with ducks, using the instructions in the Four Seasons Cookbook (Paul Kovi and Tom Margittai - the late '70s one), with good results.

To clarify: I absolutely agree that there are more ingredients available now than ever, and way way way more availability of ethnic ingredients across the country. But I bet if you could travel back in time you'd find that the average supermarket apple, orange, plum or peach tasted far better than what you'd get in a supermarket today. And as a child visiting Maine in the summers, the quantity, variety and quality of fresh fish was stupendous. As you are probably all aware, groundfish stocks in the Gulf of Maine have been decimated. You can get lobster, clams and mussels now - the occasional piece of haddock. That's IT. Everything else is flown in, and there isn't very much of it. The walk-in at the general store carried sides of prime beef - the butcher cut your steaks to order. That store is now a community center, and the new store carries the same bland, fatless chops wrapped in cellophane that you get at the Shaw's on the mainland. Can you get pre-bottled Curry Simple brand Thai food sauces at the new chain-like store? Sure, you probably can - but is this really an improvement? Ersatz variety over true local and seasonal quality that everyone took for granted because it was part of the natural cycle? I think the variety of ingredients available today is the result of more open minds, better transportation networks and logistics, and advances in breeding and freezing. Whether this has led to an improvement in the TASTE of foods is another matter entirely.