jogoode

$70 at Mandarin Court buys you more than 125 steamed buns ← And 350 dumplings at Dumpling House!

Thanks, Emma. As summer approaches, I'm getting more and more nostalgic. Thank heaven for Big Apple Block Party!

Hi, New Yorker here. I scored a "table" in the elegant dining room this summer. I have a picture of me next to the "elegant dining room" sign and one of me in the dining room. I always show friends the pictures in that order. They love it. While I was there, I had great Italian beef, great dogs, of course, and fine hot links. Long live Chicago!

Ah, it is news. I just got the press release. Here are some of the dishes offered on this pre-fixe menu:

I went to Gari once for a press dinner and was surprised that the quality of the fish and rice was as high as it was. That said, this is not my kind of sushi, though some of the sauce-fish combinations worked well. (Some did not--like an atrocious salmon with tomato and onion! Bruni praised this in his review.) I found myself wanting to knock the little bits of flavor from my sushi and eat it plain.

I had awesome thiebou diene (cheb-oo-JEHN) today at La Marmite (2264 Fredrick Douglass, at 121st Street). For those who've never had it, it's a Senegalese dish of fish, root vegetables, rice, red with palm oil, that tastes a lot better than it sounds. Washed it down with strong ginger punch. La Marmite is more accessible than the other Senegalese places I've been to, because the menu breaks down which dishes the restaurant serves and lunch and which they serve at dinner. Usually, I just start listing dishes from the menu until the waitress stops says, "Sorry, we don't have that today."

I'm not sure whether this is news, but I walked by Onera today and noticed that they're offering a $20 three-course lunch that gives you four or fives choices for each course. Sounds like a bargain. Has anyone gone for lunch?

The Yasuda combination offers nothing other than the fish Yasuda serves on the menu--that is to say, the "best". To say that this is not "his best" because it's not exotic is silly. Eating sushi is not a contest for exoticism. And if you need something exotic you can use the $15 difference in price to choose something that fits that bill. (Yasuda offers off-menu items, like organs and other odd parts of fish; I once had abalone liver.) I'm not certain, but I don't think "prepared" eel indicates that the stuff is purchased pre-packaged. I've downed a procession of different eel preparations there and every piece was superior, and Yasuda claims not to use pre-packaged stuff at all. Your claim that Ushi Wakamaru offers "more expensive" stuff in its combination is hard to accept because prices of fish are relative to the price each sushi-ya pays. I think you'd agree that Masa pays more for akami (lean tuna) than Ushi pays for baby sea eel. Arguing about sushi is so much fun! I don't have my Japanese dictionaries right now, but I've also seen the Romanization of the Japanese for mantis shrimp spelled "shako", in case anyone sees it and wants to order it. I like mantis shrimp; the texture is strange, almost granular. I hear what you're saying about Japanese names of fish. When I order I sometimes try to use Japanese names, all of which I get from reading my sushi dictionaries, including one that I picked up online after noting the title of the book that the chef at a well-regarded Tokyo sushi-ya took out when trying to explain what fish he was serving to me. Sometimes the chef thinks it's funny that I know the Japanese for some obscure fish but can't say anything else in Japanese; other times he laughs at me for using some general term that doesn't apply to what he's serving.

Yeah, Todd, thank you very much for the report. The fish sounds very interesting and I look forward to giving the place a shot. Was the mackerel pickled? I asked because you compare it to matjes herring and I've only had that pickled. I've never seen Spanish mackerel served pickled. It's one of my favorites at Yasuda. For the sake of price comparison, it's worth adding that Sushi Yasuda offers a set of 12 pieces of sushi for $34, according to menupages.com (details below). (I rarely look at the menu at Yasuda, but will next time I got to make sure this is still offered.) This set includes pieces, like sea urchin, that often don't make it into combinations because they're too expensive.

Ah, of course. Thanks, Joe. Rice was a nam prik of peppercorns, wild onion, fermented fish or bean paste, and perhaps a little water was likely one of the earliest Thai meals. I was at Sripraphai today. I didn't try anything new, as usual, but what I had was excellent. The crispy pork with chili and basil was better this time than when I last had it. I took home beef tendon soup (dark); it was not as good as the duck soup I usually take home--the intensity of the broth makes it almost cloying--but the tendon, which floats around in chunks that look like scallops, is awesome.

Well, for one, they have about five different kinds of nam prik (relish). I've tried a few--essentially pastes based on chiles meant for dipping things like raw vegetables and fried pork skin--and they're awesome. My favorite is the brownish-red one that has catfish in it and an incendiary green one whose contents I can't name offhand. I've never tried any of the other stuff. I'm always tempted, but tend instead to do what Steven recommended long ago: order to go dishes that hold up well. My most frequent to go dish is the stewed duck noodle soup; in fact, I've never eaten it at the restaurant.

Has anyone eaten at Kom Tang, on 32nd Street? I got a recommendation from a food-minded Korean friend but have yet to follow up.

Thanks for your report, markymark! I hope you'll try the restaurant again, as my meals there have ranged from disappointing (but only disappointing when compared to itself) to excellent. Choo chee is, as far as I know, a mild curry. As for the crispiness of the duck, I wonder whether anyone here can tell me whether it's supposed to be crispy. I've have the duck salad before, albeit a while ago, and unless I'm remembering incorrectly, almost none of the duck in it was crispy at all or showed any signs of the restaurant's attempting to crisp it, which indicates to me that crispiness was not the intention. On one hand, Thais like fatty meat and crisping removes a lot of the fat's rich flavor. (Oh man, am I in the mood for Sripraphai's stewed duck soup!) On the other hand, I've been disappointed with Sripraphai's crispy pork with chili and basil because it rarely in my experience comes out as crispy as the delicious version I had at Sapp Coffee Shop in LA. So I suppose it's possible that the kitchen just doesn't do these dishes well or consistently. (In case you were counting, I used the word crisp or a variation of it eight times. Sorry.)

Thank you for that report, twhalliii! This sounds like a place worth trying. Tell me, do you need a reservation? Also, how big were the pieces of sushi at Taro compared with those at Blue Ribbon? How many spaces are available at the bar?

Bay Ridge also has La Maison du Couscous, which I'm dying to try. 484 77th Street 718-921-2400 For Brooklyn, I'd go to this place or to Di Fara. In Mahattan, it would be Katz's, then to Dumpling House, then to Il Laboritorio (just because they're are so close to one another). Queens: Sripraphai. Can't miss Sripraphai. Then maybe Harlem before the Bronx, so Senegalese or soul food. In the Bronx, I'd hit Mike's Deli on Arthur Avenue or Jamaican at Jerk Center. What a great project.

The bone-in-the-eel mistake is unfortunate, but I suppose it is a risk of preparing eel at the restaurant instead of buying it preprepared. And I can't imagine that you wouldn't be able to tell kanpachi from hamachi, as they have completely different textures. I think the yellowtail is superb at Sushi Yasuda, but the experience of eating it is markedly different from eating a large piece somewhere else: in the latter case, because of this size, you taste more of the fish's fat and oil, which is pleasant to some, cloying to others. You can't criticize Yasuda's sushi on the grounds that it has thinly cut fish; this is, as Steven said above, ideal way to cut it, according to the chef. His sushi clearly features rice, with the fish as condiment. It's hard for me to accept what you've written above, because I love this restaurant and it has served me nearly flawless sushi every time I've been. But I have to. I can only urge you to give it another chance. And I'll report back if I try Seki.

Panned by Adam Platt. Platt mainly criticized the restaurant's concept, but the review comes way too early. Perhaps this was a reaction to the Times review's coming out a week before.

I love the texture of the dried and fresh pasta I've had at Celeste; the latter is almost rough. Plus, they have almost always cooked it until ideally al dente. My favorite dry pasta dish they serve is the paccheri with tomato sauce and ricotta; the best fresh pasta dish is tagliatelle with pecorino, shrimp, and cabbage. Besides from the accompaniments, which are delicious, the pasta is exceptional in both cases.

Welcome back, Justin. Man, the menu at Jean Georges hasn't changed in a very long time. Or was this some sort of signature menu?

Did your friend mean that in a complimentary way or as derogatory? I say that because a Japanese friend told me that another place in NY served fish pieces that were too large and too thick. ← Bad way. She thinks its a tad bit overpriced for what you get and that she was still hungry. It's true that most of the better sushi places in town serve smallish pieces, but these were smaller and thinner than usual, even compared she thought to Tokyo. ← During my trip to Japan this summer, I ate at Miyako Zushi, a modest, traditional sushi-ya regarded as one of the best in Tokyo. The pieces I had there were, and I was surprised at this, quite large. I'll try to post a few pictures later. To me, though I valued the experience, the size was not at all ideal. It's clearly a matter of preference; I find the pieces at Kuruma too large for my taste and am happy Yasuda has chosen to innovate as he has. The price argument doesn't make the cut with me. If someone wants to be stuffed for very little money, there are countless places other than Sushi Yasuda he can go. If you're anxious to compare this sushi to that in Tokyo, you'll find that at many of the top places, you'll pay a minimum of $200 for dinner. At Yasuda, you can pay this much if you'd like or less than half as much for a similar experience in terms of quality, if not luxury. Further, his a la carte prices are clearly scaled down, either to account for the smaller size of his pieces or out of blessed generosity. Many of his pieces are under $4--that's a bargain. Plus you can get a set of 12 pieces and half a roll for $34. Your complaint about variety surprises me too, not only because I'd be thrilled to eat just eel, tuna, and uni all night, but also because Yasuda offers more variety than I've seen on any other sushi menu in town. The only potentially valid argument, to my mind, is your comment on the quality of fish. I have only once eaten a piece of fish there that I felt was not top-notch. The uni, which I order whenever it's available, is particularly outstanding; I've eaten there often enough to be sure that this is the rule. Todd, perhaps I should try Sushi Seki to see where you're coming from, assuming that it is your standard for sushi in New York. Beautifully said.

I sincerely hope for the latter. By buying from supermarkets, we are already so estranged from the food we eat that I refuse to take another step away. I've never ordered from Fresh Direct, but would like to hear what everyone who has ordered from them thinks about their produce. I wonder whether their business increases substantially during the winter, when lugging groceries home is such a chore that even I have considered engaging in mail-order shopping.

Thanks for the report, donbert. And welcome to the eGullet Society, if you haven't already been welcomed! I'll have to try the chorizo tacos at Tehuitzingo. I was tempted to try something other than tacos, but judging from reports here, I'll wait until I've tried all the tacos first.

I didn't feel that way at all. This review had more food and ambience information than many of Bruni's past review. The from-fish-to-land-back-to-fish context, complete with sea metaphors, was inevitable, if a little tired. And I'm especially surprised that you think that "most" of the review "has no real bearing on any part of a restaurant's quality". Have you read the review? Of the 1,076-word article, Bruni uses about 300 for general comments, context (most of it necessary), and aquatic word play. The rest of the article is food, ambience, food, food, food.

The BLT Fish thread has its first report on Jan 18, so I think it must have been open for longer than you think, at least 3 months it would appear. ← No, I'm talking about the formal second floor, which is what Bruni reviewed, not the casual first floor. He gave three stars to the former.

Note that most of the reports on this thread consider the casual first floor. Bruni: