Pan

I doubt that's possible. Gossip in the village told everything about everybody (just by listening to my landlady talk to my mother and whichever other women may have been visiting, I knew about all the alleged love affairs in the village, for example - and sex outside of marriage was not only illicit but punishable by a heavy fine that was and is sometimes enforced in neighboring villages and larger cities), and it's really hard to imagine that everyone wouldn't have known if there was someone refusing to eat her rice and getting ill. The only person I can remember that we knew was malnourished in the township got malnourished not because she wasn't eating enough but because she would eat only cake, so that's all her mother fed her. (The Malays among whom we lived tended not to force children to do things they didn't want to do.) She got beriberi (vitamin B-1 aka thiamine deficiency), I think, or/and pellagra. We also knew a really poor widow or divorcee whose daughter was a classmate of mine, and they always seemed to be hanging on by a thread, but that was due to extreme poverty, not an impulsion to starve themselves while plenty of food was available to them. In terms of the history of anorexia in Europe, let's not forget that there were some saints who starved themselves to death, such as St. Catherine of Siena. This subject is complex, but I have yet to see clear evidence that anorexia exists in all cultures. Another delicate subject is the much higher percentage of women than men afflicted with anorexia. I'm no expert on genetics, but if I remember correctly, sex-linked hereditary traits tend to be expressed more readily by men, because - again, if I remember correctly - it often takes only one X chromosome for them to show full symptoms, whereas women often need both X chromosomes to express (or fully express) the trait. Examples: sickle cell anemia, thalassemia. There are some exceptions, though: Female-Specific Genetic Diseases. And I wonder whether perhaps, now that Malaysia is much wealthier and Malaysians are much more apt to be fat, there are now cases of bulimia and anorexia, where there seemingly may not have been in the past.

And not even needed for that. I've gotten used to using www.superpages.com and no longer keep a paper copy of the Yellow Pages.

We don't know when we're eating it because the government has resisted calls to require labelling of GMO products. If more people knew, would they care? That I don't know.

Karen, what's burdock root called in Italian?

That is interesting, and if it works, great! But if it's really a defect, why was anorexia unheard of on the East Coast of Malaysia when I used to live there? I've always thought of anorexia as a culture-bound disease (bound to more than one culture, perhaps, but not universal), and still do.

Andrew, it seems to me that the New York Times caters to a local, regional, national, and to some (probably small) extent international audience, plus of course its advertizers. It's all a question of balance, marketing, etc. As a New Yorker, I do like the reviews of good neighborhood places, but I, too, could do without reviews of trendy places that serve mediocre food - except that I tend to think they deserve to be slammed for that. What I don't see much point in is a review of a hanger-on that was trendy 15 years ago.

I loved the Yuyuan Gardens. As for places to eat, I can recommend Old Shanghai Moon.

Ya-Roo, what is "copia"? Also, the pasta really tasted like rubber bands?! I haven't tasted rubber bands lately but do remember just how awful that taste is.

I emulated Rachel by putting some powdered garlic on the calamari pizza and found it helped a lot.

I haven't been to Minca lately but did go shortly after they opened and loved their gyoza and ramen. 5th st. between Avs. A and B.

Yetty, I don't remember whether I had these. How do they taste, or are they mostly texture?

I was glad to make it this afternoon. I found all the pizzas I tried to be pleasing. For novelty value, the calamari pizza wins. But the pizza that was awesome was the clam pizza! Man, Lombardi's claims to be known for their clam pizza? What blasphemy, after having some really good clam pizza at Arturo's.

Not drinking that! I rarely drink beer.

melonpan, you should come to Brooklyn College some time. There are a bunch of gingko trees on campus, and man, when those fruits drop - well, you know how they smell! I like gingko nuts, though.

You didn't come off like an ass at all! Just two comments: Lemongrass is definitely not inedible, when fresh! Galangal isn't truly inedible, either, given that I ate some yesterday. But as for the canned straw mushrooms, I hate the canned taste. At the very least, maybe there would be some way to get rid of that taste by throwing out the water in the can and soaking the mushrooms in fresh water or some kind of marinade. But a better idea would be to use any kind of decent-quality fresh mushroom. Tara Thai, a local (1st Av. between St. Marks and 9th) place I used to like, did that. I don't have problems with all canned items, but canned stuff that has that "can water" taste bugs me, whether it's mushrooms, baby corn or, to a lesser extent, bamboo shoots.

Carolyn, I'm moved that you decided to share those deep thoughts with us. Your father is lucky to have such caring daughters. Take good care of yourself and remember that your mother's love doesn't disappear with the end of her corporeal life on earth. As I type this, I can feel the love of my grandmother who died 18 years ago. I still miss her, but she continues to live inside of me and all of the people who she touched. Good luck to you in your new ventures!

Please spell out those acronyms. Thanks.

Sounds like you had a good meal, JJ! Your link on Strega didn't work, though. Check it.

Seems like there's little doubt that public perceptions are colored by sexist attitudes toward whether a woman would be properly considered a "great chef." It sort of reminds me of the racist attitudes that until recently existed in sports in the U.S., whereby, for example, in American football, blacks were considered good at supposedly unskilled "strength" positions like the offensive and defensive lines and perhaps "speed" positions like running back, but not "skill" positions like, Heaven forfend, quarterback. When black players were finally given a chance to excel as quarterbacks, some did in major ways, proving the irrelevance of racial considerations to doubters who had felt that if blacks had never excelled in such positions, maybe they couldn't. But then, in sports, there are much more nearly objective ways to demonstrate the excellent of a player - by resort to statistics. Judgments about chefs are more subjective and, therefore, probably even more susceptible to conscious or unconscious bias than judgments about the excellence of athletes.

Karen, I think a lot of the readers of this thread are interested and read Rogov's article and the posts here from one or another point of view but don't feel all that qualified to post on a discussion between professionals. At a certain point, I thought of posting, but decided that others were addressing the issues better and with more knowledge of the specifics of a career as a chef. I will say this, though: As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing "taboo" about the idea of a woman being at the top of any profession whatsoever. I'm a feminist and don't believe in the idea that there's some profession that women (or, for that matter, men) are unsuited for. There is, however, one thing that men are absolutely incapable of doing: Being pregnant for 9 months at a time and giving birth to the next generation. And if there's anything that shows the strength and endurance of women, it's their ability to do that, so don't anyone try to tell me that women are weaklings or something. (Not that you were suggesting that, Karen.)

I went to Klong for an early dinner tonight. My Tom Yam Gung was OK (it would have been better if they had used fresh mushrooms instead of canned straw mushrooms) and the Chicken Pad Prik was better than OK. It was not very peppery but had a complex gravy, and one thing I liked very much is that they cut their galangal in little strips rather than leaving it in big chunks. Obviously, they want people to eat it, and eat it I did. It gives the dish a fragrant, earthy quality. A waitress told me that the galangal is cut in strips like that in Thailand, and they want to make it as authentic as possible. Do they use bell peppers in Thailand? I had them hold the bell peppers (while explaining that hot peppers are fine), but bell peppers sure are listed in the menu descriptions of a lot of dishes. I can't fully evaluate this restaurant on one trip, but certainly, based on this visit, it's well worth my exploring their menu on repeated visits and deliveries. While I was there, five customers came, all Asians, with at least two definitely Thais (speaking Thai). Some will like the decor; others won't. On balance, I prefer something a little more restrained, but I really don't care much. The important thing is that it does seem to be at least a somewhat serious Thai restaurant in my neighborhood. The food plus a pot of jasmine tea was just over $15, for a total of $18 including tip.

I'd have to disagree. When I went there with my brother, mother, et al. some 15 years ago, we went for the food and ambiance and I don't recall being insulted there. We wouldn't have stood for that. Of course, we could be the exceptions that "prove the rule."

Among eGulleteers, in addition to Fat Guy, Oakapple and lxt (I wish she would post more) come to mind as people who could be interesting critics for the Times. I liked Asimov's "Under-$25" columns, but I don't feel like I know the work of all of those critics well enough to give an overall preference.

Sarma, please don't bang your head against the wall! Probably the overwhelming majority of people who post on eGullet long enough have lost long posts. I know I have, and I don't even consider myself a dork (though I guess that could be debatable ). We'll look forward to your input whenever you post it, and if you're concerned about losing a post again, try typing it up in Microsoft Word or WordPad or something and then cutting and pasting it.

Food + ambiance, for me. Sure, drinks, too, but I wasn't having any. I used to go there with my brother (then an East Villager) and his then-girlfriend, or sometimes with my brother and mother (I figure my father may have come along at some point). Another East Village scene restaurant from the 80s with good food (or so I thought at the time, until it went way downhill) was Sugar Reef. But keep in mind that those were times when sort of upscale Vietnamese and Jamaican restaurants were a novel idea.