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I don't know what to say. It's supposed to be!!!

Whoa! That has ginger snaps in it! I thought that was my grandma's special trick! Her recipe was similar to yours, except that in addition to raisins, it also included prunes and fresh carrots, it was made with brown sugar instead of white sugar plus corn syrup, and no-one used sour cream with it (no doubt a residual influence of kashrut). Pam, the raisins aren't a terrible idea, nor are the prunes, but it's best to use good quality stuff with no preservatives, of course. But then, to each his/her own. I used to love my grandma's stuffed cabbage, but somehow, when my mother or I have made it, it's never been as good as I remember from my childhood. I think that the love of a grandma was an essential ingredient.

I love this dish! I get it sometimes at Congee Village, here in New York. Well, something like your dish: It also has rice in it, which makes it less watery (because the rice soaks up much of the sauce). It also has ginger and scallions in it. They use salty lily buds, so the dish ends up a little salty. Oh, and they also use dried red dates. So is the dish I'm describing different enough to be a totally different dish, or is it just a variation with rice?

Well, Hank, that was kind of cryptic. The above-linked review, after raving about Jour et Nuit, criticized the place for not keeping the floors and bathroom clean enough. That wouldn't keep me away, but I do agree that it's a whole lot nicer when restaurants do keep floors and bathrooms clean and dry. I wouldn't assume that the condition of the public areas necessarily corresponds to the condition of the kitchen, but others disagree. We had a thread about that topic somewhere, but I can't find the thread.

Poots, I really enjoyed your post! Apicio, gulai aka kari in Malaysia is typically made with a rempah, which is a paste rather than an Indian-style dry masala, and Malay curries always (or virtually always, but to me this is definitional) contain coconut milk, never (same disclaimer) yogurt like north Indian curries (or whatever) do. To me, they are indeed curries, not stews, and I've never heard anyone distinguish between gulai and kari, but maybe I should run this past some people who live on the West Coast of the Malay Peninsula (I spent most of my time on the East Coast).

Well you can always post a link that people can click at their own risk, having been warned. Interesting stuff, Brooks. I hope I never have to eat MREs but feel somewhat reassured that they are decent.

I have to check out Emily's place. Is that a cellphone number? I'm trying to picture the setup; does she have a storefront?

That's very surprising. You've never been a teacher, right? Teachers get fired for much less than that, and I have no doubt that if I ever slapped someone, I'd be fired. I gather the corporate world is a little different from academia? You mean no-one doing office work would get fired for slapping someone? Really? Granted that kitchens may be different, but you made a pretty broad statement there.

The Malaysian language probably adopted the English word for soup just as most Filipino languages adopted sopas from Spanish but only for a particular kind of soup. If you look hard enough you will, in all likelyhood, find an indigenous Malaysian word for the generic idea of soup. The manner of serving soup alone and separate at the start of the meal is alien to typical Southeast Asian meals. Instead, the liquid in which the main meal of vegetables and/or fish and meat has been cooked serves as our soup and is eaten along with the rest of the meal. This generic liquid is called sabaw in Filipino. A clear example is the Thai Tom Yoong Gung which they serve here (in America) as a soup although in Thailand it is actually a one-bowl accompaniment to rice that happen to have prawns, and vegetable in it. Even the Vietnamese Pho might just be a bowl of soup to you but to a Vietnamese it is a complete meal.[...] ← I do consider pho a soup, but it's definitely a complete meal; the bowl is very big! The Malay equivalent of sabaw is kuah. I know of no catchall Malay word for "soup" other than "sup," and for whatever it's worth, this online English-Malay dictionary shows only "sup" as the translation for the food-related English meaning of the word. However, some Malaysian specialties that some non-Malaysians might consider to be soups are simply known by their names: laksa (various varieties), for example. And probably sayur, a watery dish of boiled vegetables and such (may include squashes, root vegetables, amaranth, etc.) with fresh bird's eye chilis and little dried shrimp in cononut milk, which really functions as a side dish to the curry or whatever (i.e., the lauk), and not a soup. It's eaten with rice, along with the main dish. And the Indonesians have soto, which is translated by this Indonesian-English dictionary as "bean-thread soup" in English, though the Indonesian-language definition is different: "Nama sejenis masakan seperti sup yang bisa dikombinasikan dengan bermacam-macam bahan." "The name of a type of cooked food [which is] like soup that can be combined with various types of things." Oddly enough, a search of "sup" turned up nothing in the Indonesian-English dictionary, which proves nothing other than its incompleteness.

How are you planning on getting to the airport? Via the shuttle bus from 41 St. and Park? Or will you take taxi(s)? Because what time you have to leave would tell us something about when and how fast you have to eat. I think that you'll have to be seated, ready to order around 8 o'clock and get out of there around 8:45 if you want to make sure to be at the airport at least an hour in advance of your flight. A lot of places aren't open yet at 8 on a Saturday morning, but I think that's what we need to look for, if you can handle that. As for me, I'd get stuff at Katz's the night before, refrigerate it overnight, wake up a little later (or wake up early in order to be cheap and take public transportation) and then eat no breakfast and have a pastrami on rye, sour pickles, and cole slaw on the plane instead of whatever slop they were serving. But then I live a 10-minute walk from Katz's.

Why? If you tell us why, we'll be better able to tell you whether the place will satisfy you (not I, as I've never been interested in going and haven't). I don't think a vegetarian would be very happy at Katz's, by the way, though they do have very good cole slaw. Why don't you go to someplace that has a real vegetarian menu, like Devi or, as a cheaper and less luxe option, Madras Cafe? Both probably more than 15 minutes away by cab, but who's counting? In terms of the jazz club, are you most interested in the music, the acoustics, the food, or the drinks? The Village Vanguard is a excellent room and has a great lineup of musicians, but you're not there for the drinks (I don't remember having food there). Birdland, on the other hand, which is another of the justly famous clubs in Manhattan, has decent acoustics and so forth but also very good desserts, perhaps on the level of a 2-star or so fine dining restaurant, and the drinks are better than at the Vanguard (I haven't yet had dinner there but have a feeling it would be good). In both cases, you are paying for the music and the classy ambiance above all. We had a recent thread in which the topic of jazz clubs came up, so you might want to look around this forum a little for previous threads, as I had more to say and put some links in that thread. Oh, I must be thinking of this one. (Scroll down as necessary.) Here's a thread about jazz and blues clubs downtown I also looked through the search results of a search for topics in the New York forum with the word "jazz" anyplace in the thread, and found this thread on "Blue Hill and Blue Note," in which I also suggested the following: I went to the Iridium's website and can confirm that Les Paul is still playing sets every Monday at 8 and 10. People who have been there within the past couple of years tell me that he doesn't play too many fast notes nowadays because his arthritis has worsened, but he is such a great musician that it's an unforgettable experience to hear him. He's a really funny comedian, too! The Iridium, again, is not about the food. Here's another thread that's mostly about jazz clubs in Manhattan.

It seems like the Malay word lauk is equivalent. Soup in Malay is sup! That linked story on the Manilamen in Louisiana was really interesting. Thank you.

Susan, I know from your many photos on the Dinner thread that you and your husband often have your meals on the porch, an experience that is pretty foreign to a terraceless urban apartment-dweller like me. Perhaps you'd like to say a little about what makes that experience special for you. And what are those beautiful flowers in this picture? I join everyone else in sending you and Russ good wishes for a special day. Enjoy blogging again! I know I'll enjoy reading.

Fun pics as usual from you! But what is quark?

Further to that point, if you're in the mood to make kimchi, watercress kimchi is very good.

My father has been using stevia instead of sugar in cooking for years, and I find its taste just fine. Since it's sweeter than sugar, he uses half the amount recipes call for if sugar were used.

What are the ingredients in the prawn rolls?

I haven't checked lately, but Hong Kong Supermarket (Pike St. between East Broadway and Madison St.) is my Manhattan standby for all that kind of stuff. In Flushing, go to A&C (Kissena Blvd. just across from the Flushing branch of the Queens Public Library).

Hi, everyone. I think it's appropriate for me to give a link here to a thread I just started in Food Media & News on the largest mooncake, a 9.76-meter-long replica of the ship on which Admiral Cheng Ho (aka Zheng He) sailed to Malacca.

Laksa, if you like the bakery, please mention its name here or in a thread in the New York forum.

To which I would only say that there is much meaning that is difficult or impossible to translate into mere words. But I'm not sure there's much use in my going further with this line of discussion, in words, on a site that is about food and not about the meaning of music. My condolences, too, on the loss of your wife.

Killing off dangerous creatures isn't the only issue. If it smells stinky, it's undergone a chemical reaction, and the chemicals resulting from that reaction themselves may be bad for you.

I really enjoyed all the photos, Jason. Just one comment on the masala dosa: At the places I've gotten them in New York and New Jersey, they described the sauces as vegetable sambhar and coconut sambhar, so what you're calling soup is what they were calling vegetable sambhar. I'm not sure if there's a traditional way of eating the dosa with the sambhar, but I tend to put the coconut sambhar on semi-evenly first and then dump the vegetable sambhar on the dosa. Sometimes, a generous soul has offered to give me additional sambhar.

The way you describe it is really funny, but it actually looks pretty tasty to me.

Interesting thoughts from you, as I'm growing accustomed to. One demurral, though: DiFara's does not use a coal oven. As a matter of fact, I was there this afternoon, introducing a colleague to the place, and having delicious pizza as usual (square slice with porcini and artichokes this time, and he had a regular slice with pepperoni and mushrooms). I'm trying to remember what time we were there. Anyway, Dom's oven is an old gas oven. Also, not only is the pepperoni at DiFara's made from pork, but if you have a look at this post, you'll see that one of the secrets of his tomato sauce is that he flavors it with prosciutto. So anyone who objects to having any pig byproducts in their food should not eat at DiFara's (well, maybe the calzone, but I wouldn't count on it).