Pan

Were there no barbecue places in the Five Boroughs before 1980, or is it just that all the places that opened before then are out of business?

That's a really good point, Ratgirl. For the same reason, people undergoing chemotherapy have to avoid salads.

The Chow Mein with Beef and Chinese Broccoli at Congee Village, a very popular big Cantonese/Hong Kong-style eating hall in Manhattan has a sort of nest of noodles that are completely crispy, with the other ingredients except for some of the brown sauce over the noodles.

Wow, some deep philosophy there!

I think Suzy is on the right track: Basics are REALLY basic. How to toast bread in a toaster to your preference without burning it; how to boil an egg; how to boil rice; how to boil pasta; how to make a simple roast chicken; how to fry an egg; how to scramble eggs; how to steam or boil vegetables; how to make a simple mixed salad with pepper, oil, and vinegar or lemon juice; how to broil fish. For advanced beginners: How to make a tomato sauce, how to make fried rice, how to make french toast and such-like, according to your preferences of what you want to make (if you want to cook Vietnamese food, you need to know how to make nuoc cham, etc.). And of course, being able to use knives without wounding yourself. It may be that nowadays, my foremost tool for preparing meals is the telephone I use to order takeout or delivery, but I know how to do all of those basics and much more, so I never have any reason to fear that, if left to my own devices, I'll be unable to cook things that satisfy me. When I was in graduate school, I improvised quite a good bistecca alla pizzaiolo from scratch, purely based on reverse-engineering a rendition I ate at a trattoria in Naples. But I had to have developed decent onion-and-garlic-cutting skills and mastered tomato-sauce-making before I could even hope to give a reasonable attempt at that kind of thing.

It's been quite a long time since I've had typical American-Chinese Chow Mein (which may not be the same as real Cantonese), but I seem to remember that snowpeas were a constant feature.

Go wild, Brooks: http://www.onlineconversion.com/temperature.htm

Welcome! There wasn't any thread on eggplant in the Japan Forum, but here's a 3-pager in the Cooking Forum, and here are the complete site-wide search results for topics with "eggplant" in the title.

There's always pasta alla carbonara. I don't know how summery that is, though.

The lychee is probably my favorite fruit of them all! But to me, there's nothing you can do with them that's nearly as good as eating good ones fresh, by themselves.

I agree with your assessment (good, above average) and that it's probably not worth a long trip by itself, only in combination with a trip to Sahadi's or/and some other place(s) on Atlantic Av., but I don't know what kind of average place has those date cakes. They just aren't common in New York, are they? My opinion is colored partly by the fact that whereas I've been to Naples (Italy, not Florida) twice and therefore know what real Neapolitan pastries are like (and they're way, way better than Veniero's), I have spent very little time in the Middle East and have never been to Syria (I was in Israel for one week in 1977 and unfortunately had a stomach virus for part of that trip but not before having some delicious Arab pastries in Akko/Acre). However, I spent parts of two summers in Nice, which has a large population of Jews and Muslims from Tunisia and excellent Tunisian bakeries. I love the Tunisian pastries with date or fig paste and wish I knew where there might be a Tunisian bakery in New York. I've also been to Hungary, and never found the aforementioned Hungarian bakery that great even way back when it started as a sideline to the now long-closed Green Tree (and long before my trip to Budapest). I haven't been there in years, though. Maybe we should have a thread about how visiting a country or region can make a person jaded in the presence of comparatively colorless renditions of those cuisines elsewhere.

Prednisone can cause nasty side effects itself. I never plan on taking any ever again.

Polynesian, not just Hawaiian. I tend to think of someone I know who lived in Ponape (now Pohnpei) for a couple of years or so. Canned sardines and poi every day. Didn't like it.

Kerry, you made that cake one-handed? Wow!!!! That cake is great, one of the most impressive to me!

Josh, where's Stone St.? What borough?

It's 1st and 2nd, and I think it's fine but not exceptional. I haven't checked out DeRoberti's for a long time. Truth be told, it's been some time since I've been to Veniero's, too, even though I live about 4 blocks away.

You have a good memory. The name of the place is Tanoreen. And yes, the dessert that made my dining partner ecstatic was knafeh (their spelling). Knafe is a standard dessert at Middle Eastern bakeries, and I'm just about positive I've seen at least one version of it for sale at Damascus. The thing that was most unusual to me about Tanoreen's rendition is that it was hardly sweet. I really can't compare Tanoreen and Damascus, because Tanoreen is a full-service restaurant and one serving more unusual foodstuffs (for New York, anyway). As a bakery, Damascus is quite good. As I note below, it's a good side trip if you're going to Sahadi's or the Yemen Cafe & Restaurant across the street. I just did a search and found an old thread about Damascus Bread & Pastries. In the first post of the thread, I describe the thing I've liked most there:

I like "Sushi Revolution." Catchy and punnish. "Revolutionary Sushi" is also worth considering, for similar reasons. "Continual Sushi" has an "Open 24 hours" connotation to me, though. For what it's worth, I also thought of "Sensational Sushi," and I think that if you stick with the "Nation" theme, "National Sushi" has a better ring to me than "Sushi Nation," somehow.

It's topical and figures to be of interest, so I say go for it. I'm loving your pictures of your backyard garden, as always.

Thank you for posting that lovely reminiscence.

You discussed suicide methods? I hope neither of you are considering offing yourselves.

I can't give any helpful suggestions on how to make this cake, but I'd love to see the pictures when it's done.

Whoa, those look really good! I wish this place were in New York! But I don't begrudge people in other parts of the U.S. having access to some good Vietnamese food. Where is Gretna in relation to New Orleans?

Daniel, you're becoming quite a road trip specialist here! What's your next step after you exhaust the routes in the U.S.?

We should talk about some Arab bakeries. I've enjoyed this place: Damascus Bread & Pastry Shop Limited 195 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11201 (718) 625-7070 (Address and telephone number courtesy of www.superpages.com)