Pan

GIMB, nice to see you here again! Guess what, the kind of Sambal Oelek I get is Huy Fong brand, too! You can have a look here: http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/oelek.htm Since the picture in the link is a little small, I'll describe the appearance and give you the ingredients list. It's a rich red color, with plenty of chili seeds, and has a nice robust chili-and-vinegar smell. The ingredients: Chili, salt, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate and potassium bisulfite as preservatives. I get it in Chinese or Southeast Asian stores. Try it some time.

A local Southwestern-oriented restaurant I like (Miracle Grill) makes an Ancho-Chocolate cake which is really good. Granted that anchos have a smokey taste different from habaneros, but how would an Habanero-Chocolate cake taste? Might be interesting.

Enjoy your meal, Melissa.

Aw, c'mon Melissa! I was posting while you were!

Thanks for your reports, Kara and Suzanne, and I'm glad you enjoyed your meals. For anyone who wants to know more about Satur Farms, you can click here.

In rural Malaysia, people used to cut out the intestines of the local (small) snails before cooking them. Then, the intestines were used as bait for fishing. I've never liked eating snails myself, but I just thought I'd tell you that at least one people has a tradition of taking out some of the insides of snails before cooking them.

Sounds delicious, Andrea! Shabbat shalom.

A more interesting question is whether there were better Chinese restaurants on the UWS in the 70s than there are now, and if so, why. I answer to the first part of the question, with the caveat that I haven't had Chinese food on the UWS for some time, given my downtown location and also the job that takes me through Flushing every week, I think the answer is probably yes, but I may be wrong and wonder what others with long memories and fresher comparisons to UWS Chinese restaurants of today think. As to the answer to "why," I really have no idea.

Well done! Looks like we can learn a lot about effective dealings with customers from you.

Have fun, Lucy!

How? Since an answer might risk going off-topic, feel free to PM me if in your considered opinion, that would be better than posting a response here. But I'm curious, as this is an issue I and probably most any other teacher has to deal with nowadays. It sucks when someone's cell phone goes off while I'm playing music for class, including during quizzes and tests.

If you ate out for Thanksgiving, please post your report here. How was the service? Was it a special meal for the holiday? Would you recommend that others consider going to that restaurant next Thanksgiving? Why or why not? I'm sure many of us would be interested in reading about your experiences.

Jen makes a good point about the garden. So in light of the cold weather we're having, perhaps we should wait until Spring to go to Franny's (though I'd go any time, schedule allowing). But perhaps we should consider an indoor place. I haven't been to Li'l Frankie's in some time, and I remember liking a pizza made with mozzarella di bufala very much, plus they had great salad. But I'll consider any place someone wants to recommend except Fairway (which I won't go to for personal reasons - though that shouldn't stop the rest of you). Shall we pick a preferred location? There were some interesting suggestions on the first page or two of the thread. Does anyone want to include non-Italian-style pizza/pitza?

I went uptown to my parents' apartment for a 3-person Thanksgiving (we spoke with my brother in SF over the phone). My father cooked. He made pheasant, using a James Beard recipe from the Fowl and Game Cookbook. The sauce included Muscatel, lemon zest, and almonds, and was very nice. We had some over rice. (No stuffing.) The side dish was an Indian cauliflower recipe, which included garlic and ginger. It went with the Beard recipe and the combination of the two dishes at the same meal represented a kind of fusion meal which somehow seemed very American to me. For dessert, I brought some nut and apple strudels from my local kosher bakery, Moishe's, which was open on Thanksgiving, and I also had some fresh but already-sliced pineapple. The beverage with the meal was fizzy Apollinaris water with pure unsweetened pineapple juice. It was a pleasant dinner and it was nice to share it, except for the fact that all three of us are in more or less iffy health, essentially in different stages of colds. I compensated for not cooking or washing anything by installing new DVD-R drives in both my parents' computers and installing DVD-making software.

Thanks, Todd. I'm eager to see Arthur's opinion about those and other places. I like the merguez sandwich at Zaytoon's, and of course Sahadi's is legendary, but I haven't tried Bedouin Tent and appreciate the recommendation. Is that the Syrian restaurant across the street from Yemen Cafe? Arthur, do you like Yemeni food, and do you have a favorite Yemeni place, either near Atlantic Av. or elsewhere?

Interesting. So you feel the system that exists in most of the world outside the U.S. is wrong? How does that wrongness reflect itself in terms of lousy service in Italy, France, China, Japan, etc.?

In which case, are you sure servants are your social inferiors? I don't mind it if you consider waiters paid servants, as long as you'd also treat a servant as your equal. Since you consider servants socially inferior to you, what I'd be concerned about is how that might be reflected - consciously or unconsciously - in your behavior.

Five hours?! I always tip extra when I've stayed a long time, but five hours?!!!!!

Have a look here.

Yeah. So what happened? Was Silly Chicken Dish served to the dishwashers?

I remember that their desserts were terrific, though it's been a few years. And of course, Michael Laiskonis is now the Pastry Chef there. Did you get any dessert when you were there?

Of course! And a followup: Any favorite Arab restaurants on and around Atlantic Av.?

i guess that's why 1 has a choice between chocolate & vanilla... ← Obviously, we're talking about opinions here. No. In no way does paying high prices because a Chinese restaurant is on the UWS, superficially fancy, and caters to non-Chinese make it have better food. Would you say the same thing about the fact that the cleaners on 97 St. between Broadway and West End charge at least 50% more to clean a suit than the cleaners on my block? Do you suppose they do a 50% better job? Well, they don't. And I think think this is probably a more unfavorable comparison than simply the same quality of food for higher (probably at least 100% higher) prices. But that depends on some things I'll discuss in the next paragraph. What I remember is a long time ago when Shun Lee West was actually a good, though overpriced restaurant - in relation to good restaurants in Chinatown. What I remember more recently is mediocre meals there, or worse (characterized by extreme - and I mean extreme - blandness the last few times). Granted that the last time wasn't very recent and I'll admit it was a few years ago, but if Shun Lee West has suddenly become one of the best Chinese restaurants in Manhattan after probably never having been, I'd be amazed and very pleasantly surprised. Is your point of view that Shun Lee West has been a "great" restaurant for a long time or that it experienced a steep improvement at some point? If it's the former, we are simply in strong disagreement; if it's the latter, when do you date the improvement from?

Happy Thanksgiving, Sam and Kathleen! I'm sure your efforts will be a great success!