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Malik

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  1. Malik

    Bordeaux 2000s

    I agree on the 89's drinking well right now, as are the 85's. I recently had an 89 Gruaud Larose that was delicious, nice example of a mature Bordeaux.
  2. Malik

    wd-50

    Google asks "Did you mean ganja?" I suspect you already know ganja and that it's not on the menu at WD-50. Gianduja, on the other hand, is chocolate and ground nuts, usually hazelnuts. Thanks for the correction. We were having an argument about the geographical origins of gianduja at dinner, my dining companions were trying to convince me that it was from Switzerland rather than Italy.
  3. Malik

    wd-50

    I had dinner at WD50 a couple of weeks ago, and was not overly impressed with the food. The appetizers we tried (scallops, octopus and corned duck) were all interesting in their mix of flavors, but none of them tasted really great. The main courses were better, especially the beef served sliced on top of bok choy and with bone marrow toasts on the side. The sea bass and the skate were both also quite good. I really enjoyed the desserts, especially the parsnip cake and the guangja parfait (we also had the pana cotta). I have to agree with Grimes' review, I thought the food was very inventive and creative, but the individual dishes are not always successful. I would say that two stars seems like a reasonable rating for the restaurant based on what I experienced. I have not been to enough restaurants in New York City to figure out the calibration of the NY Times, but by way of comparison, I had dinner at another NYT two star restaurant, DB Bistro Moderne, and probably enjoyed my meal at DB BM a bit more than at WD50. WD50 is a much better value than DB BM though.
  4. I think it's fairly safe for a reasonable person to conclude that second hand smoke does nothing good for you and almost certainly does some harm. What is much harder to figure out is exactly how bad it is. The various studies cited seem to indicate that second hand smoke most likely does increase one's chance of contracting lung cancer, though it does not seem to have a very strong effect. I have seen people claim that spending a day's work in a bar is equivalent to smoking two packs of cigarettes. I do not believe that's true, though I can believe that it's equivalent to smoking at least one cigarette. My reasoning on this is annecdotal: I very rarely smoke, but when I have I've noticed that cigarettes have a very pronounced effect on me. Just one ultra light cigarette is enough for the nicotine to immediately make me dizzy, and the effect persists for quite a while (over an hour for sure). Yet when I go into a bar, even if the air is very smoky, I do not feel that effect from the second hand smoke. Of course, it could just be that the nicotine content in second hand smoke is much lower than in a cigarette, but it's definitely the case that a couple of hours in a smoky bar has much less effect on me than smoking just one ultra light cigarette. As to what to do about legislating smoking in restaurants and bars, the argument that the free market as is will take care of it all does not work. After all, as a non-smoker I've always preferred smoke-free environments, but I've never seen non-smoking restaurants or bars without legislation. Moreover, I believe it is the duty of government to protect employees in the workplace, and if there are no (or just very few) non-smoking restaurants and bars, employees in that line of work certainly do not have a reasonable option to work in a smoke free environment. On the other hand, government must also respect individuals' right to conduct in behavior that's hazardous to themselves, provided they don't at the same time endanger others around them that do not consent to that hazard. I believe that the right answer is that there should be some more creative laws on the subject of smoking in restaurants and bars than the current black or white approach, which is either to let all bars allow smoking or none (just about). And I think the smokers' lobby should concentrate on coming up with such creative solutions. The reality is that non-smokers are a majority of voters everywhere, and they prefer a non-smoking environment that the free market has not been able to provide them, so arguments that smokers should have the right to smoke anywhere and that second hand smoke is not harmful will just never win out. My personal solution would be as follows. By default, restaurants and bars must be non-smoking only. However, there should be an exception for a limited number of establishments (say 10%) that are strongly regulated: they must install proper ventilation devices, they must provide a higher minimum wage as well as perhaps contribute for health insurance for their employees, etc. As to how to choose which establishments would be allowed to allow smoking, I would let the free market work here. The first thought would be simply auction off the limited licenses to any establishment that meets the conditions above. Of course, that may result in only high end places would allow smoking as they would outbid everyone else. So I would save some licenses for establishments that would pay a percentage of their revenues for the licenses instead of a fixed amount. This would level the playing field for lower end places that may still want to offer smoking, but cannot afford the flat fee. Anyways, that's just my (long) two cents on the matter. In the end, the smoking ban in NYC (and NY state for that matter) is probably here to stay, and unless smokers experiment with a different approach in other places that do not have a ban yet, I suspect that slowly all places will convert to banning smoking in bars and restaurants. After all, even the Irish are moving in that direction!
  5. 1) a real California burrito place (in the Mission, preferably) Most of the burrito places in the Mission are pretty good, hard to go really wrong. I personally like El Toro, which has been mentioned a couple of times already, but it mostly comes down to individual preferences. 2) a fantastic and interesting dinner place (nothing stuffy or traditional French please) in the $100/per person range I really liked Gary Danko (where a three course meal is $55 before tax/tip/wine), but it is very French influenced, so I'm not sure if it would qualify for your request of no "traditional French". I haven't been to Fifth Floor but it's at the top of my list of high end restaurants to try. I would not recommend Fleur de Lys personally. Nothing wrong with it, I just think there's better places for the money (including GD). Keep in mind that GD and FF will run you over $100/person if you have wine. A few very good Nuevo Latino restaurants have opened in San Francisco recently. They'd be my top pick for an interesting meal that's quite unique to the area, and they'll all be comfortably under $100/person. My favorites (all in the Mission) in order of preference are Alma (pan-Latin American), Limon (Peruvian) and Platanos (Central American). The ceviches are wonderful at all three restaurants, definitely a must-order item. I've also heard good things about Destino in the Castro but I haven't been yet. We also have very good high end Vietnamese restaurants, the most notable being Slanted Door near Embarcadero and Ana Mandara in Ghirardelli Square. They'll run you around $100/person with wine. Slanted Door would probably have the edge in food, but Ana Mandara has one of the most beautiful spaces of San Francisco restaurants. 3) a good Italian joint I second the Delfina recommendation. It's a modern Italian restaurant in the Mission with Californian influences, I've always enjoyed my meals there. In the more traditional Italian style, I had an excellent meal at Bacco in Noe Valley a couple of weeks ago, highly recommended. Olivetto in Oakland gets very good reviews, I did like it the one time I ate there but was not overly impressed. A couple more trattorias that I like are Pazzia (Tuscan restaurant near Moscone Centre) and Pane e Vino (in Cow Hollow). 4) the best place for Dim Sum. I usually have Dim Sum in the Peninsula, so I don't have any recommendations in San Francisco proper. 5) And if anyone knows a great bakery for breakfast and coffee, we wouldn't mind the suggestion. The Pascal Rigo bakeries (Bay Bread on Fillmore, Boulangerie de Cole in Cole Valley, Boulangerie de Polk in Russian Hill and Marinette in the Marina) are very good, as is Tartine in the Mission. If you go to Tartine, make sure to order the hot chocolate, I think it's the best in the city, and is best accompanied by a plain croissant.
  6. Malik

    Who is drinking Burgundy?

    I'm not sure if the problem is with Burgundy only. I almost never order Bordeaux restaurants, because most wine lists only tend to carry top bottles of Bordeaux at astronomical prices. I think the question could be rephrased as how come there's so little mid-priced Burgundy and Bordeaux on wine lists nowadays. Nowadays, I'm more likely to find a good and reasonably priced Rhone wine than a Burgundy or a Bordeaux on most wine lists. I love Burgundy, not only for how good the wines can taste, but also for how food friendly they tend to be. On the other hand, as people above have posted already, Burgundy can really be hit and miss, and I've had enough bad mid-priced Burgundy in restaurants to make me reluctant at times to order it. However, if I trust a restaurant to pick good wines for their list, and the waiter or sommelier seems to know what he's talking about, then I'm happy to order a mid-priced Burgundy. I've had good luck here in San Francisco at Zuni Cafe and A Cote with some very good burgundies under $50. I also agree with Carema about seeking out value AOC's, as they can be a great source of good mid-priced Burgundies (I've had a couple of good experiences with red Mercurey 1er Crus for example). When I buy Burgundy in retail stores, I focus more on producers, but it's harder to do that in restaurants as there's not always a wide range of producers to choose from.
  7. So how do you like them? I was thinking about ordering them a while back but never got around to it.
  8. I assume you mean the Union Square area when you say downtown, here's a couple of good places for your parents: - Grand Cafe A French brasserie in downtown, at the corner of Geary and Taylor, two blocks from Union Square. Very classical decor (modeled after La Coupole in Paris), simple but good menu, not too noisy, moderately priced. - Anjou Classical French bistro a block from Union Square, the food is quite good and not too expensive. The place is on the small side so it could get a bit noisy.
  9. Malik

    Diwan

    Yes, I agree that the traditional tandoori dishes under Hemant are a success. The prawns were perfect, the venison chops were excellent, and the lamb chops were very good. What's lacking is the breadth, as the other dishes seemed just OK, as well as the inventiveness shown by some of the new up and coming Indian restaurants worldwide.
  10. Malik

    Diwan

    Also, in the non food aspects, which are much less important to me, Diwan was not that impressive. In particular, I found the service was not quite adequate. I think it is due to lack of training rather than lack of effort. The manager is very good, but he was streched in trying to cover the whole restaurant, and the waiters were not up to the task to fill in. I think Diwan should hire a host/hostess at the very least, that should smooth out some of the rough edges in the service. When we walked, we were told the manager is the one that knew about reservations, and were asked to wait at the bar (where nobody asked if we wanted to order a drink). We were celebrating a special occasion, and since the wine list is not very strong, I decided to bring in a bottle of wine (a 1985 Cos d'Estournel, which is drinking beautifully right now). I handed the bottle to the person behind the bar, who told me that it would be best if I kept the bottle with me and brought it to my table. When we finally saw the manager, he did volunteer to take care of the bottle for us. At the beginning of the meal, we tried ordering a bottle of champagne or sparkling wine. After a couple of confused looks and some running around by the waiter, he eventually came back to tell us that our selection, while available, was not chilled, so if we wanted something right away, we should order something else. I tried to order another bottle from the list, and was told it was also not chilled. Finally, I was told that they did have a bottle of Mumm's Cordon Rouge (which is not on their list) that was chilled, and in fact was the only chilled sparkling wine they had at his point. Through the rest of the meal, the service was adequate, but never quite excellent. Again, I think it was not due to the waiters not trying hard enough, as they clearly wanted to please us. I think that part of the problem was that multiple different people were taking our orders, which seemed to create some confusion at times. They were very nice though to bring us a complementary dessert and a round of cognac at the end of the meal for the special occasion that we were celebrating. As for the decor, I liked the front room better than the back room where we were sitting, though an advantage of the back room is that one can see into the kitchen. I think the decor at Tamarind is nicer by comparison.
  11. Malik

    Diwan

    I finally made it to Diwan on Monday night for the first time. While our party of six had a good meal, we were all disappointed, especially given the high praise given to the restaurant on this board. All six diners of us were first time diners at Diwan, but are all very familiar with Indian cuisine. Hemant Mathur could be seen manning the tandoor oven in the kitchen. We had three appetizers (Tandoori deluxe mixed grill, Beggar's purse and Papri chaat). The standouts among the appetizers were the tandoori prawns and the lamb chops. I am not usually fond of tandoori prawns, but these ones had an excellent marinade, and were cooked just right (a lot of Indian restaurants tend to overcook prawns). This was one of my two favorite items of the night overall. The lamb chops were also very good, though not quite the best I've ever had. The rest of the mixed grill varied from good (one of the chicken versions) to just average (seekh kabab). The beggar's purse was rather dry and bland, though we did like Suvir's tomato sauce that accompanied it. The papri chaat was a faithful rendition of a traditional dish, I found it good but not exceptional. Among the entrees, the highlight was the tandoori venison chops. The chops were obviously marinated for a long time, and were then cooked medium well. The process resulted in a very tender and moist meat. My only complaint is that the marinade took a bit away from the character of venison, there was no gameyness left. The tandoori halibut was also a fairly popular dish at the table. I found it to be a nice piece of grilled fish, but not much more than that. Less successful but still good were the karahi ghost (lamb curry) and the shrimp biryani. We also had tandoori chicken dish served with lemon rice. I didn't try the chicken, but the diner that ordered it was underwhelmed. Finally, we had bengan bartha (mashed eggplant), which was the least favorite entree of the night. This dish had some sweet peas thrown in which we did not care for, and was quite bland overall. I would say i was one of the weaker renditions of the dish that I've had. The entrees were served with a mix of breads, most of which were pretty good, including the roomali roti, the plain naan and the whole wheat naan (tandoori roti?). For dessert, we had Suvir's chai pot de creme, which was quite a hit at the table (it had a tad too much ginger for my taste, but nobody else seemed to mind), a citrus sorbet served in a frosted orange, which I liked quite a bit, and the rasmalai, which was just ordinary. All six of us had gone to Tamarind in New York at least once before, and everyone but me preferred Tamarind. I've only been to each restaurant once (Tamarind was in September), and would need a few more visits to separate them (a bit hard given I live in San Francisco), so I'd rank them about equal on food at this point. I do think that the cuisine is more modern and inventive at Tamarind though, so if I'll probably go back there first. I'm pretty sure from my visit though that I would not put up Diwan as a world class Indian restaurant. It's certainly in the same class as the best modern Indian restaurants I've been to (Vij's in Vancouver and Zaika in London would be the best of that bunch), and even when compared to more classical Indian restaurants, it's not quite up to the task. I liked Tamarind in London better in the latter category for example.
  12. San Francisco Bay Area Not a great place for Indian food, surprising given the Indian population in the Bay Area. My top three: 1) Shalimar: Hole in the wall, order at the counter, no tablecloth type of place. Original is in the Tenderloin (on Jones between Geary and O'Farrell), they have two more outlets in SF and one in Fremont now. The food is very good if simple Pakistani/North Indian style. Everything from the tandoor is great, and the lamb and goat curries are also very good. No biryanis, vegetarian dishes are uneven. 2) Vik's Chaat House: I miss the early days when it was just a small little counter at the back of the grocery store, it's not quite as good since the expansion. They only serve chaat, no full meals, and close very early (7pm). If you're willing to brave the crowds and fight for a table, go on the weekend as they have some non-vegetarian items, like Chicken Kati Kabab. Zero atmosphere: it's in a big warehouse, you order at the counter, the food is served on paper plates, and they call your name when it's ready. 3) Chaat Cafe: Original is in Fremont, and they've since opened outlets in Berkeley and San Francisco (the latter is just one week old). Order at the counter place also, but nicer decor/atmosphere than the above two. The chaat dishes are good, as are a lot of the curries (fish curry being my favorite). They also have some Indian style wraps, I find them bland but they have quite a few fans. We have a bunch of traditional "tandoori mixed grill & chicken tikka masala" type of restaurants, not very different or inventive, but they serve decent fares. A couple worth mentioning would be Indian Oven in San Francisco and Amber India in Mountain View. On the other hand, thumbs down to Breads of India in Berkeley, it gets mentioned a lot, but I find the food incredibly bland and boring, as do many of my friends. We also have a few South Indian restaurants, mostly in the South Bay, but I haven't been to any so I can't comment. Finally, I should mention Turmerik in Sunnyvale, which Suvir posted on above, our only venue for high end Indian cuisine. I was disappointed the one time I ate there, but it was only one visit, I need to give it a second chance.
  13. Vancouver Vij's 1480 West 11th Avenue Vancouver, BC (604) 736 6664 I'm surprised nobody's mentioned this restaurant yet. Vij's was the site of my other top Indian meal outside of India. Wonderful host, great food, modern but unmistakenly Indian, not fusion. Favorite dish was the Lamb Popsicles. This thread talks about Vij's in some detail.
  14. I second that recommendation. I had a meal in Zaika in December 2001 (I know, it's been a little while) which was one of the top two Indian meals I've had outside of India. Our favorites of the night were the "NARIYAL JHINGA / Coconut Prawn Masala" and the "MACHLI BIRYANI / Crusted Fish Biryani" (that night's special entree), along with the chocolate samosas dessert. Also went to Tamarind on that trip, good restaurant, but much more classical in style and less inventive.
  15. I'm such a sucker for this type of stuff I wonder if they ship to Canada. They do ship to Canada, but you have to call them to order: click on "Customer Service" and then "International Orders".
  16. I think that Vacuvin probably does more harm than good. It lowers the pressure in the bottle, which will cause more evaporation than if it wasn't used. And it does not remove enough oxygen to significantly reduce oxidation. I think that the best way for home users to preserve wine without buying it in half bottles is as follows: when you open your wine bottle, immediately pour half of the wine into a clean empty half bottle of wine, and recork the half bottle (using either one of those synthetic cork, or the cork you just removed from the full bottle). You can then keep the half bottle for days or even weeks until you're ready to finish it (refrigeration is not necessary but can help). I've been using that method for quite a while without any problems. If you want to do this more elegantly than just reusing old half bottles, there are specially made decanter sets for this purpose:Wine For Later Decanter Set
  17. I didn't participate in Bordeaux futures in 1995, but from what I can tell, first growths were selling for about $100 each, which is about $120 in today's dollars. So I wouldn't say that prices are a lot more expensive than 1995. Scroll down to the bottom of this article to see the 1995 futures prices for the first growths. All in all, I think 2002 seems to be priced quite fairly, as early reports seem to indicate it's going to be a pretty good vintage.
  18. Malik

    Casual Wine Storage

    There are places around in the Bay Area where you can store your wine in a temperature and humidity controlled environment. I use La Cave in Millbrae, they have lockers of various sizes starting at 9 cases, and charge around $1.50 per case per month. So if you fill your locker (and once you get one you'll be amazed how fast you can do so), it works out to about $1.50 per bottle per year for storage. You can also buy those wine cooler units, Costco had a 32-bottle one for $300 bucks last year. The simplest solution would be to find some underground spot to keep them in (a friend's basement maybe?). Passive underground storage in the Bay Area is usually sufficient for medium term aging. The glass from the wine bottle acts as an insulator for short term temperature fluctuations (by that I mean day vs night), and combined with the relatively high specific heat of the liquid, means that the actual wine itself shouldn't fluctuate much in temperature over the course of a day. I know a few wine enthusiasts that store their wine this way. Bruce Cass told me that he stores his wine in a cupboard in his appartment in San Francisco, and he actually has a test bottle with a minimax thermometer immersed in the wine, and has found that the temperature fluctuates at most a couple of degrees over a month. I also asked Kermit Lynch himself about storage once, he keeps his wine in the basement of his house in Berkeley, and he lets it age there for decades. I found it interesting that these two guys who know a lot more about wine that I probably ever will were so casual about storage. There are plenty of people that will tell you the opposite though, I think Robert Parker for example is much more concerned about storage. The main reason I went the route of the locker and a small fridge at home is that in my old appartment, it would get to over 100F in the daytime during the summer heat waves, and would not cool to much below 80 by morning. I definitely had some bottles that were spoiled in that environment.
  19. In Spain this was true, at least it was five years ago. Everyone smoked everywhere - it was so pervasive and guilt free that even though I had quit, I smoked on the trip just because we could. There is a town near us, Friendship Heights, MD, that has considered making it illegal to smoke outdoors, not just in public buildings. when smoking is illegal outdoors, i will take everyone to Ducasse~ Cool, when can are we going? Outdoor smoking law passes.
  20. The Texas law (and a lot of similar laws) may not last much longer. A lot of these laws are on the books but not enforced, and thus do not get challenged in courts. But there was an arrest made in Houston a few years ago on this sodomy law: police mistakenly burst in to an appartment, found two guys having sex, and arrested them for violating the sodomy law. The case has since been challenged through the legal system, and was recently heard in the Supreme Court. According a recent article in the Economist: Back to the original topic of gay restaurants, there are some restaurants in the Castro here in San Francisco that have a majority gay crowd. One that comes to mind is Mecca, which has pretty good if a bit overpriced California cuisine. There's a large bar at the center of the restaurant where the crowd seems mostly gay (at least on the couple of occasions I went), but the dinner tables around it are pretty mixed.
  21. My two cents. I agree that taste is for the most part independent of presentation. A "good" taster should be able to ignore the presentation and determine the "objective" taste quality of a dish. There are of course some presentation decisions that do change the taste of a dish, such as putting the fish on top of the puree rather than next to it. But one could make the argument that for that dish, the plating is really part of the preparation process. I think we would all agree that a given dish would taste the same to us regardless of presentation if we were blindfolded while trying it (putting aside the variations due to plating that I mention above). However, once we can see the dish and its presentation, would that still hold? I can give a personal example of a case where it wasn't true for me. I like to drink Gatorade when I play sports. I always get the orange one, since that's the one that tastes best to me. Now I know that the orange in the drink is just artificial food coloring, which is probably bad for me anyway. Gatorade recently came out with a "clear" version of their drinks that do not have any food coloring (they look just like water). Now, while I don't have access to the actual formulas for the drinks, I'm almost sure that the regular and clear orange ones have the exact same "objective" taste. But when I had the clear orange drink, I just did not like it, even though I knew it was almost surely my mind playing a trick on me and that I would probably not find any difference if I was blindfolded. This might just mean that I'm a poor taster (or just plain old stupid). But I like to think of myself as an objective taster, and I believe that in almost all cases when having food, I can distinguish the taste characteristic of a dish from its presentation. I certainly have had lots of cases where I've had wonderful food that was poorly presented and vice versa. Ultimately though, I think that presentation does have an effect on how food tastes to me, no matter how hard I try to be objective. It's not a very big effect, and if I had to put a percentage on it as in the initial post, I'd say that for my perception of taste, 90% is how the food actually tastes, 9% is temperature, and 1% is presentation. Of course, for my actual enjoyment of the overall dining experience, presentation plays a much bigger role that 1%. Note that the same debate exists in the wine world. I remember reading an interview or a quote of Robert Parker, and he said that a good wine critic does not really need to taste blind. He should be able to separate the objective qualities of the wine and ignore any other biases (towards the producer, the vintage, etc.) The Wine Spectator guys on the other hand are adamant that all tasters are biased, and the only way to be truly objective is to taste blind. They recently had an editorial on the subject, and are always boasting on how all their tasting is done blind (though I think it's only single blind). So my conclusion is that if there is such a thing as a perfect taster, taste would be independent of presentation for that person, but for most of us mere mortals, no matter how objective we try to be, presentation can have an effect on taste.
  22. I went to Koi Palace once, probably 3 or 4 years ago for a dim sum lunch. It was with some Chinese co-workers who felt it was one of the best places for dim sum around. I liked it, but it didn't stand out in my mind as better than some of the other dim sum places I had been to (such as Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae). Lately, my favorite dim sum restaurant is Fook Yuen in Millbrae, it's been really good every time I've been. I've never had dinner there though. A bit of a drive if you're coming from the city, it's very close to the airport. Fook Yuen Seafood Restaurant 195 El Camino Real, Millbrae CA 650-692-8600
  23. Honestly, any of the ones you listed will probably be fine. Note that Bacco is in Noe Valley, and as such is nowhere near North Beach. Of the places mentioned, Steps of Rome is the only one I've been to. Not bad, but not worth a trip either. I've had better luck with places outside North Beach, but that's a different thread...
  24. That place is indeed called Picaro, and they do serve Spanish tapas. It's run by the same people as Esperpento at 22nd & Valencia. For authentic Spanish Tapas, then I'd say the best place I've been to in the city is Zarzuela, on the corner of Union and Hyde in Russian Hill. Really good stuff there, it's really feels like a little trip to Spain. Next on my list would be Ramblas on Valencia between 16th and 17th, though it's not quite in the same league as Zarzuela. Then would come Picaro/Esperpento, and finally Timo's, which I didn't care for too much. Interesting to note that 4 of these 5 restaurants are in the Mission. For the more generic small plates category, my favorite place is still Chez Nous (Fillmore at Bush), which does French inspired small plates. It's owned by Pascal Rigo, who also owns the Bay Bread boulangerie mini chain (Bay Bread, Boulangerie de Cole, Boulangerie on Polk and Marinette), as well as a few other restaurants (La Table/La Table du Chef, Le Petit Robert and Marinette). Their lamb chops are fabulous, and I also really like their mediterranean spreads (tarama and tzatziki, used to also include baba ganoush) and their french fries (comes with an harissa mayonaise). The main drawback is that they don't take reservations. I also really like A Cote in Oakland (same people who run Citron next door), another really good place, but the wait can be quite long on weekend nights. I've been to Isa once, and was not too impressed: I think Chez Nous and A Cote do a better job in the French small plates segment. Chez Papa on Potrero Hill is also very good, but it's sort of a mix between a small plates restaurant and a bistrot, it's a bit hard to categorize it. Piperade, which I also like quite a bit, has a lot of small plates on its menu, so it may also qualify to some extent. On the broader international small plates restaurants, I like Andalu (which has gotten some poor reviews on this site), and I also enjoyed bacar (more for the wine list than the food). I'd like to try Destino and Platanos, as well as Grashopper in Oakland. Terra Brazilis in Hayes Valley (Hayes & Laguna, across from Suppenkuche) has quite a few small plates on its menu, and is probably the best Brazilian restaurant in the city. Their pao de quejo (Brazilian cheese bread that comes with the meal) is very good, the best example I've had in the Bay Area.
  25. Except for the part about the Jews in NY, what the bleepity bleep does that mean? As far as the Jews go, you're implying that the presence of Jews contributes to better Chinese food? Well, from my observation, the majority of Chinese restaurants in NY, and certainly the ones that I visited growing up in the suburbs, were Hunan/Sichuan -- thinner, spicier sauces (generalized observation), than the Cantonese, Mandarin that predominate in San Francisco. I find that people who are used the first style do not enjoy the second as much. I used to like the spicier Chinese cuisines (especially Sichuan) better, but I have grown to really like Cantonese food. The best Cantonese food I had was at a restaurant in Vancouver where I was invited to a 10 course Cantonese wedding banquet. The food was really amazing, and a lot of the dishes had wonderful, subtle flavors that I would not have associated with Chinese food before. Almost every single course was a dish that I had never tried before, quite an eye opening experience. If you're willing to venture outside the city, I've been to some really good Chinese restaurant in the Peninsula. I really like Joy, a small little Taiwanese restaurant in Foster City, but I've always been there with friends that knew how to order from the Chinese menu, which unfortunately is not translated to English. They have some very spicy dishes there that remind me of Sichuan/Hunan cuisine. I also like Little Sichuan in San Mateo, and they seem to have translated their entire menu to English, so I can order on my own.
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