Pan

This is beautiful, and also a partial answer to the question of what the Dutch do with all those spices their ancestors were so eager to get their hands on in the East Indies (now Indonesia).

Do you deny that the agricultural lobby is one of the most influential and effective lobbies in Washington? How effective was the Jewish lobby in Nazi Germany? And how badly have corn farmers been victimized by the oppression of getting money from the government in the form of subsidies that consumers are funding? I'll defer to your knowledge, but within my lifetime, there was a period when lots of small farmers lost their farms, and in many cases their houses, etc. Point well taken. One could well say that they were too efficient this year. So why didn't that help the small farmers whose farms were foreclosed because of the sudden depression (recession, whatever) during the Reagan years? It seems to me that big businesses can absorb losses to a fair degree, and that it makes more sense to provide payments based on individual need than to have a system that encourages overproduction and waste.

I am lucky enough not to have any memories of living through a war on my home soil, but I would like to point out that, as I understand, canning was invented in order to effectively feed Napoleon's armies.

It does at the St. Marks location, and it always did at the 24 St. location when I used to go there. It doesn't at the 50th St. location? Their Sichuan Cold Noodles include Sichuan pepper as well as hot oil, and also are more vinegary than Cantonese-style Cold Noodles with Sesame typically are.

Ironic that one of the hosts here mentions this fact--- I have complained that the exact same geographic issues are right here on Egullet. 99% of the discussions are about Manhattan. There is a lot of territory outside Manhattan, of particular interest to me is Westchester. At least Zagat has a NY State book, outside Manhattan, that includes Westchester. Egullet does not have a separate forum at all for outside Manhattan!! ← No, we have one forum for the entire state of New York. What people choose to post about on a website is hardly comparable to geographical bias in a guidebook. If you want more coverage of Westchester, please post things about Westchester.

Things could have changed in three years, though. I don't know whether they have in this case, but nevertheless.

No dispute with anyone else's answers. I think I'd go to either Malaysia or Italy. Throw in La Provence. And perhaps India would be the very best possible eating vacation, considering both taste and value, but I wouldn't know which region of India would be best.

Have a look at the rest of this New York Times article. Can anyone explain how this makes any sense, other than for a small number of American farmers, one of whom is quoted as saying that many would like to see the price of corn go to zero in order to receive increased subsidy payments? It's so wasteful. ← What were the specific forms of waste that you were speaking of, Michael? Great topic. ← Yeah, it's generating a lot of discussion, isn't it? The waste is that there are mountains of corn liable to rot in the fields, and also that farmers are being paid to grow corn to incredible excess. jsolomon, was there a group of well-connected Jews in Berlin lobbying the Reichstag to maintain funding for the death trains? I appreciate the rest of your points, though, even if I see things differently, given my vantage point. Farmers in danger of foreclosure arguably should have been bailed out around the same time that Chrysler was, but being paid to be inefficient and create mountains of corn, as described in the article, to me is a form of legalized corruption. And no, I'm not an expert on agriculture; I'm a subsidizer.

menton1, if the worst thing that could be said about Zagat is that they list (merely list, don't recommend) Starbucks, their book would be a lot better than it is. oakapple, have you recently checked how many restaurants in the "Outer Boroughs" are listed in Zagat? I haven't checked since I decided not to participate in their survey anymore (and, thereby, not get a free copy of the resulting publication), but I used to note a truly amazing level of omissions on geographic bases.

I'm glad you can make it up. I want this thread to be of practical use to anyone who's going, so please tell us what you are most excited about.

I agree with everyone's remarks about the content and navigation of restaurant websites, but on the point about the phone book, allow me to point you to the Online Yellow Pages. Let your mouse do the walking (scurrying?).

I had a very good dinner yesterday in a Korean restaurant that has an 8-page menu. It did take us a while to decide what to order, though.

What effect do those herbs have on blood pressure?

Keep up the good work, guys!

Pedro, how many of those tapas bars are widely considered to serve the very best of a particular prized thing that people expressly come to get during trips from the other side of the world? Yes, I thought Katz's would be mentioned, and if it isn't, why is Luger not only mentioned but with a star?

Have a look at the rest of this New York Times article. Can anyone explain how this makes any sense, other than for a small number of American farmers, one of whom is quoted as saying that many would like to see the price of corn go to zero in order to receive increased subsidy payments? It's so wasteful.

Hmmm....no razor sharp leaves from the lemongrass growing where we were. The grass was a little rough in feel, but that was about it. I guess that's the difference between a little lemongrass as a weed and a big plant. And after all, we used up about 5 blades of that grass in a few weeks' time.

We used a pair of scissors. Are your plants too big for that? Then maybe wire cutters?

One of the things I really liked about tonight's dinner is that pieces of vegetable pa-jun were one of the banchan items. You usually have to pay for pa-jun. And these had plenty of vinegar in the batter (and maybe something fermented), so they were unusually tasty. Welcome to eGullet and the New York forum, cchen.

I ate with a friend tonight at Seoul Garden, and it struck me that you can eat pretty damn well at a Korean restaurant for well under $100/person, including drinks (soju, beer, what have you). That might not be the first thought that comes to the minds of many of you, but I daresay it's not a bad thought, at that.

No, it was lemongrass. As Chris said, you don't use the hard stuff near the bulb; you use the softer grassy part. And yes, fresh lemongrass is very edible after being boiled in soup, and not necessarily for 4 hours. I know, because lemongrass grew as a weed in the side yard of the house I used to live in in Malaysia. To be fair, it was not so tall as to get a fibrous base, but I've also eaten good lemongrass in soup, etc., in American Thai restaurants repeatedly.

mascarpone and I had dinner at Seoul Garden tonight. It was my first time there. I don't remember the exact names of the things we had, and we shared a bottle of soju, so I'm feeling kind of mellow, but the food was very good. We shared a bunch of barbecued stuff - galbi, pork, chicken, a big onion, mushroom slices, and accompaniments; a bunch of stuff for banchan; a pleasant cold beef broth soup with sort of gelatinous-textured thin noodles and slices of cucumber, nashi, and daikon; and a jigae with tofu, beef, and a fairly powerful chili bite. I really liked the meal and look forward to coming repeatedly and exploring different menu items. The total cost before tip was $66, which for that amount of food was quite a fair value.

Such a cute picture, K! So, now that you realize you can cook well, are you going to be fighting Sam for the stove?

Thank you for volunteering, Barbara!

I'm thinking that you should consider places closer to Madison Park. Is that too far for your crowd to walk?