Pan

If you don't mind having some flaky or/and gooey things in your car, consider a stopoff at Poseidon Bakery. Convenient to the taqueria JJ is pointing you to.

Thai cooking uses fish sauce more often and Malaysia cooking uses shrimp paste (belacan) more often. Shrimp paste smells terrible by itself but is a good ingredient when used in proper proportions.

I wonder whether there are many non-Jews who like gefilte fish. Sure, they like quenelles and other stuff that's similar, but what about gefilte fish? For the record, I think it can be pretty nice when home made.

What a fascinating and unique blog this was! I used to gather wild plants and dig for clams in rural Malaysia, but the flora were very different from what's available in your part of Texas! One question: I gather the environment in your area is pretty clean. There are no significant problems with oil spills and such in your neck of the woods?

Which elements of Thai cuisine do you like best?[...] ← Well, that quote above pretty much covers it, except that I don't see coconut milk, tamarind, galangal, shallots, kaffir lime leaves, or Thai holy basil mentioned! What I like best about Thai food is that it's just bursting with flavor. I still remember two fantastic meals I had during my one brief visit to Thailand so far, in 1975 when I was 10! One was a Thai Chinese dim sum lunch in a tiny hole-in-the-wall in the Chinese neighborhood in Bangkok, and the other was a Thai dinner while sitting on the porch of what I guess was a popular neighborhood restaurant and looking at geckos on the walls for the first time (I was to have plenty of opportunity to look at geckos during the next two years, when I was living in Malaysia). I have to get back to Thailand one of these days.

An then there's the meaning of preservatif in French and preservativo in Italian vs. the meaning of preservative in English. (The French and Italian false friends mean "condom," which caused some puzzled reactions when I attempted to translate a joke that uses the word "preservatives" in the punch line.) But false friends are a different topic than pronunciation.

I don't see how that last paragraph goes with the rest of your post, which seems to detail a successful fight by unions to increase pay and benefits for workers. For some reason, you "wonder" and "bet" that the unions are actually harmful to the workers, although the facts you cite would seem to show them as having benefitted the workers. And if you want to complain about pay for union leaders and lobbying and campaign contributions by unions (which seem to have benefitted the workers in this case), what do you think the money Walmart pays to its executives and to contribute to and lobby politicians is costing workers?

← Thanks. Where are you getting them from? Guangdong already?

I don't know if this counts, but one Sunday morning, all the members of Cabin 5 in French Woods camp including the counselors woke up early, walked through a silent camp to the cafeteria, went into the kitchen, and put the sugar into all the salt shakers and the salt into all the tall sugar shakers. It must have been no later than 6:30. We walked back to our cabin through a still-silent camp, went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours or so. We then had the juvenile pleasure of laughing at everyone's faces when they drank salty coffee and had sugar on their eggs and bacon. I tell you, for teenagers, it was the funniest practical joke.

I'm surprised to see "Wo Hop" and "exciting" in the same sentence. Wo Hop is one of the oldest old-style Chinese-American restaurants in continuous operation in Chinatown. What's exciting about it, except for someone who's nostalgic for that style? By the way, welcome to the eGullet Society.

$70 for dim sum? That shocks me because dim sum is cheap food, and intended as such. I almost think of an analogy of someone unfamiliar with American food paying a large sum of money to be shepherded through a diner. What's the added value that could make it worth $70 to do a dim sum tour? I just read the description at the link you gave and still don't see the reason why someone would get good value out of paying such a high fee. That is, unless there are details left out of the description that would explain it. The Savory Sojourns tour does look interesting, though, and includes things that might be difficult or impossible to do yourself, especially as a first-time visitor, so if it looks interesting to you, see what it costs. For a self-guided tour, another reference to check out other than this forum is eGullet Society member Pitchblack70's Gaijin Girl's Guide to Chinatown. Click on the "Places of Note/NYC Chinatown Tips" link and look through it.

Are there traditional foods for Victoria Day?

I was looking through my photos the other evening and found a set I took at the famous restaurant on stilts over the pond in the plaza just outside of Yuyuan (not Yiyuan) Gardens (i.e. the Yuyuan Market) last August, and since what I think this thread is missing is some pictures, I will post them with some commentary. I'm not positive what this restaurant's name is, but there are photos up of all kinds of famous politicians and celebrities from around the world. I'm sure one of you will identify the place. Anyway, here goes: Here are the containers of preserved olives that were sitting on a counter above our table: As you'll see later, we were given some to munch on. They had an interesting fibrous texture and were lightly sweetened, and I enjoyed them. The first dish we ordered was a cold dish of Spicy Cabbage: This dish is a standby for me at New York Shanghainese restaurants like Yeah, but this somehow blew New York renditions away. We all ate it with gusto, despite doubts about whether it was pickled enough to be safe to eat (I don't remember any of us having any ill effects from it). Our next dish was corn and peas with pinenuts: It wasn't fantastic like some of the other dishes, and we discussed whether the corn and peas were canned (ultimately, we decided they were), but we enjoyed the pinenuts and did eat the dish. After that, shredded crab on bok choy was brought for us: This dish was fantastic! It had a lovely texture and we just thought it couldn't have been tastier or more pleasant. I'd love some help on the name of this dish: We got it because it intrigued us, and it was delightful, fascinating, and like nothing else we had had before, but I'm trying to remember what the white root vegetable was. Taro doesn't seem possible, as taro is normally purple. Could it have been preserved cassava? Some kind of turnip, perhaps? The green vegetable is preserved and had a consistency similar to creamed spinach. If none of you can help me remember what the white vegetable is, I may ask family members if they remember. I recall that this was a tasty rendition of Chicken with Cashew Nuts: Following that, we were brought this for dessert: We were hoping it would be some kind of good Chinese sweet soup, but it was just canned Fruit Cocktail! This shocked and disappointed us greatly, but our disappointment was significantly assuaged when we bit into these: These were cakes filled with puree of dried smoked dates. Everyone found them at least interesting, and I loved them. In the end, the meal was a strange patchwork of canned things and great things, but like much of the experiences one has when travelling, it was certainly interesting and worth doing, even if I would never tell anyone this place is a must-visit. In the context of this thread, though, this gives us some dishes as well as a restaurant to talk about.

I wonder where they're getting fresh lychees from this time of year. If anyone knows, please pass on the information. It's a little early for lychee season in Guangdong, I think, though this may already be the start of it.

Hey Ned, don't beat around the bush! Tell us how you really feel. Seriously, though, your report is much appreciated. Can anyone else who's been to Kittichai recently confirm or dispute Ned's account?

You mean something where she pays someone to guide her? I don't know of such a thing. It might exist, but it really isn't necessary. Give us an idea of her interests, and we can suggest places for her to visit. (Aside: Have you already read up some in relevant threads on this forum?) As for the rest, the neighborhood is small enough to be plenty manageable to just walk around.

Well, my mother used to try to get me to stop whatever she didn't want me to do in public by scolding me as follows: "Don't you see people looking at you? Everyone's looking at you!" And she's from Brooklyn and without any French ancestry, for whatever it's worth. I'm not sure how often she said that to me in a restaurant, though; I happen to remember that more as something that happened on the street, in stores (where I got bored while she was shopping) and such. No, I wasn't an out-of-control kid and it didn't happen all the time.

Bryan, did you notice whether they are getting fresh lychees at this time of year or used canned or dried reconstituted lychees?

Jack, have you foraged a lot in your area of England?

Yes, but not only restaurants: "Restaurants, Cuisine, and Travel."

De luxe indeed! He will close this summer for renovations and will reopen with a 100-euro menu. We are told that that will be 1/3 the price of the current menu, but it's still pretty damned expensive - more than the lunch menu at Grand Vefour, no? But perhaps more interestingly, from the viewpoint of a New Yorker, I think of the closure of La Cote Basque and its reopening as LCB Brasserie Rachou, an expensive brasserie de luxe itself (though probably a bit less than 100 euros). Your thoughts? Here's another interesting excerpt: He would logically have to give up his three stars...and quit the highly stressful stage of gastronomic competition. He is like many chefs who live worse and worse from being judged every year by a guide...whose criteria they do not always know. The article goes on to say that at 65, Senderens wants to relax, cook, and breathe a little. I think he's earned the right to do what he likes. Not long ago, it was expected that everyone would retire on reaching 65. I doubt Chef Senderens needs wishes of luck, but I'm sure he will have a lot of fun with his brasserie.

New York, too. Someday, I'll tell you a funny little story about ordering a "glassa wooder" in a diner in "Greensburuh, Noth Carolahna." It's funnier in person.

I believe that shchav is usually made from another type of sorrel, sheep sorrel, which has bigger, floppier-looking leaves and a stronger taste but isn't as common as wood sorrel.

BA-zzel, and I'm from the Upper West Side of Manhattan. But I really think that some of this thread, involving claims that pronunciations of English words in certain dialects and native-English-speaker accents are "wrong," is off base. Where are all the Queen's English advocates when we need them to tell us that all we North Americans speak funny?

Come to terms with it, or you won't enjoy dining in Paris. Anyway, the dogs in restaurants are also well-behaved.