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That looks a lot like what's often called "Chinese broccoli" around here, except that the stems on this specimin look a little longer and thinner. Still, I may well have had that vegetable steamed with oyster sauce. Let us know if it's crunchy and just a bit bitter.

Why do you suspect that isn't all there is to the story?

Why does it have to be four cuisines? Why not five, seven, or ten? I would nominate Chinese, French, Italian, Indian, and Thai, in no particular order, but clearly, people can make good arguments for other cuisines.

I don't mean it as a cheap shot at all; I just sort of felt like it should be said. If a term means different things to different participants in a discussion, that will virtually ensure that different conclusions will be reached.

That looks something like a rambutan, but "scarce taste" would never describe that wonderful fruit!

Based on your discussions of the New York Times star system, your judgment of what constitutes a 4-star restaurant or 4-star meal clearly seems to be at variance with the judgments of most if not all other participants in such discussions, and I think it's fair to say that if it were up to you, many more restaurants would be awarded 4 stars (though your ultimate preference is for stars to be eliminated). So as this thread continues, it might be expected that you would consider it more likely for home cooks to be able to achieve a 4-star level than other participants would. It's very possible that in this discussion, though everyone is agreeing on using the term "four-star," the term doesn't mean the same thing to you as it does to most of the rest of the participants, thereby making this thread somewhat of an apples vs. oranges argument, though an interesting one, nevertheless.

Not exactly, but private school is virtually always expensive. I imagine that some scholarships are available, though. I didn't realize that you could get a suitable filter for $25. It seems like the press coverage I've seen has been poor. You're right; this is not eJewishLaw. It makes perfect sense that you'd want to do what's necessary to ensure that all your guests will be confident in the kashrut of your food, drink, and cutlery.

Turkey is fine, but I prefer the taste of chicken and all other chicken-like birds (capon, Cornish hen, guinea hen, etc.). My parents feel the same way. I think the chances are about 90% that we'll have chicken for Thanksgiving if we're doing our own (which I think we are). Possibly, if, as there's some likelihood of, we invite one family of cousins, we'll get a capon or make two chickens.

Here you are, courtesy of www.superpages.com: Suenos Restaurant 311 West 17, New York, NY 10011 (212) 243-1333 I hope you enjoy your meal, and please report back to us.

Andrea, the thing I find odd about all this is that it has never been necessary to be rich to be an Orthodox Jew (as witness the many really poor Jews who used to live throughout Eastern and Central Europe and the Muslim world for centuries), and I say that in spite of the fact that one certainly pays a premium for kosher meats. If it truly is suddenly necessary to filter water with ~$1000 contraptions to remove things that no-one had ever seen with the naked eye, what's next? And who is going to pay for the filters for poor Jews in New York and other Americans towns and cities, let alone Jews facing starvation in Ethiopia? Is this going to be a major new charitable venture? (My "what's next" question is quite honestly rhetorical, but my question about a charitable venture to get water filters to all Jews who will use them is a serious one.)

I haven't found that my sense of taste has changed after taking a dose of Hydrocodone. Perhaps one would need to take more than the recommended dose of 1 teaspoon in 4-6 hours for it to have that effect, or perhaps it has that effect on some people and not others (as is true of lots of side and even main effects).

No, not individual "faith"; interpretation, based on evidence provided in the words of the review. That it is not definitely provable that Bruni considered the food in Babbo 4-star and gave the restaurant 3 stars because of factors other than the food is not at all the same as saying that there is no basis whatsoever for reasonably interpreting his review as having essentially said or at least broadly implied that. So I guess the key word in your post is "assume" and the key word in mine is "interpret."

No, I've never been there. I'm pretty sure it closed a few months ago. But there are so many bars and restaurants in this neighborhood that even if I went to a different one every day (and I don't), I wouldn't hit them all. It sure beats the Upper West Side, where I used to live, although I think the UWS has been gradually improving as a restaurant neighborhood for several years. It would be nice for your brother-in-law to join eGullet and post about more of his favorites on the New York Forum. Is he another foodie?

I was amazed to find out that Mancora had been reviewed in the New York Times today, in the "$25-and-under" column. I've never been very tempted to get anything but their pollo a la brasa, which is good and I'm glad to have it in my neighborhood and that's about it (I don't think it's nearly as delicious as the Dominican version at El Malecon on the Upper West Side and Washington Heights). Considering that the free salad they provide with an order is always over the hill and not worth eating, I'm surprised that the Times felt they were good enough to deserve a mostly positive review. Maybe it would be worth my while to try some of their other dishes some time and stop turning up my nose so much because of the salad.

Yum, garlic soup! A woman after my own heart! Too bad you're taken.

No fax was sent to me by Grand Vefour in the summer of 2002 when I was part of a 4-top for lunch. I communicated by email and then called from the U.S. and was informed that I had already been given reservations based on my email (confirmation by email); upon arriving in Paris, I called to reconfirm. I have no idea whether they now routinely send confirmation by fax, but how very disappointing that they somehow deprived you of your reservations!

Hi, Harold. Thanks for sharing some words of wisdom with us. You would probably be interested in knowing that one of our members, Rachel Caroline Laudan (username caroline) wrote an article called "The Mexican Kitchen's Islamic Connection," which was published in Saudi Aramco World. Here's an excerpt: If you're interested, have a look at this eGullet thread, which includes a link to the article as well as discussion of it.

Wow, did you folks think I had real animosity toward Karen? I must really have been peevish yesterday...

Interviews are routinely distorted because after the fact, the interviewer edits the interview by changing the questions, so as to make the answers seem to follow more from the questions than they may have originally. I consider that a kind of fraud, but I doubt anyone in the media thinks anything of it. Honest historians admit that all histories are fictions, not in the sense that an ethical historian would lie, but in the sense that they are making a narrative by editing out loads of things from the daily lives of x-number of people. It would seem that journalism is a fiction in the same manner. What you choose to cover and how you choose to cover it is probably always a subjective thing on some level. But addressing this more deeply may require some pretty deep philosophy, because even our own lives are fictional in the sense that all of us choose what to pay attention to and what to disregard from among numerous stimuli, so I'll step back from this philosophical abyss and see how other people deal with the question of what constitutes unacceptable distortion in an article and what constitutes exemplary reportage. I hope I just said something that meant something...

I'm pretty amazed that Malaysians pack into McDonalds, KFC, Wendy's, etc., when Malaysian food is so great and so much of it is so cheap. In particular, I was kind of floored that within a 2-block radius of the Night Market in Kota Bharu - full of all manner of very inexpensive delicious foods, especially Ayam Percik Yati - there was a Wendy's, KFC, McDonalds, and I think some other chain, filled with Malaysians. But there's no accounting for taste...

That Sweet Potato Cinnamon Roll recipe looks really good! The night before Thanksgiving is nothing special in my family. One special Thanksgiving was held in 2001 at my godmother's apartment. We all said something about what we gave thanks for. I said I was thankful that we were still here and they hadn't wiped us out. Many others had more obviously positive things to say, but ultimately, I think the celebration of life is the most positive thing, and holidays to me are really all about the joy of surviving to share another occasion and another meal. Jews traditionally say the Shehechianu for special occasions, thanking God for sustaining us so that we are able to celebrate the occasion. And really, if you think about it, that's what's so great about every day - that we're here to appreciate it. As the wonderful Headmaster (retired and still alive and kicking at 92) of the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine that I spent 3rd, 4th, and 7th grades at used to say at Chapel every Friday, "This is the day that the Lord hath made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." And whatever your religion is or isn't, isn't that what breaking bread with loved ones on holidays is really all about? Whatever else happens on your Thanksgiving, I hope all of you have the chance to rejoice in that day.

We must have been blessed, because in the ordinary local supermarket - not even a very good one - on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, Polly-O ricotta was easily available for as far back as I can remember (i.e., at least the early 70s if not earlier). I'm guessing you grew up in the Mississippi delta? Or do you just live there now?

Indeed. I was concerned that I, too, might have been overly belligerent yesterday and almost PMed Carrot Top to that effect, until I saw she could take it. Forum hosts are human beings, too. And now, back to your regularly-scheduled program...

I'll drop this for now, but not before asking whether anyone else feels that some food critics present their views as if they're facts, and if so, whether anyone would like to give any examples.

Nope. Decide for yourself. ← Copout! You're the one who brought it up, and since (correct me if I'm wrong) you wouldn't suffer professionally by naming names, I thought you would. I have yet to feel that a food critic was presenting his/her views as facts. The only tangentially related thing I can think of is the criticism Jonathan Gold has gotten for presenting inaccurate "facts" about cuisines he's apparently not nearly as much of an expert in as he seems to claim. But wrong facts are a different issue from opinion masquerading as facts, and besides, I'm getting that story mostly second-hand from an eGullet thread on the California Forum, Jonathan Gold, On the Korean psyche. Seriously, I sort of think you owe it to us to tell us who you think does this, lest we consider that you've just set up a straw man (woman?).