Pan

I agree. Ugly crap. My mother and father both grew up near where you're living, Seth. Well, my father lived in different neighborhoods in three boroughs, but my mother grew up on Union St. near the Botanic Gardens. My father belonged to a club at the Brooklyn Museum when it was more than just an art museum - a club of kids who volunteered to be on the first commercial space flight to Mars. But now, he's no longer interested in going.

It used to be longer. In 1987, it took me 13 1/2 hours to go overnight from Wuxi to Beijing, though I think the train was delayed by 2 hours or so. I had two skewers of lamb (the sign said mutton but the vendor said "lamb") kebabs from the Xinjiang-style barbecued meats vendor in Flushing for lunch today. At $1 apiece, naturally the lamb was not of very high quality, but the taste was pretty good. He used whole cumin seeds and a nice spice mixture he dabbed all over just before handing the skewers to me. I'd consider trying it again. Incidentally, he does not serve goat. It was "Mutton," "Mutton Chop," "Beef," and "Chicken," I believe.

Oh. To me, "necktie"=bowtie; "long tie" is the kind that goes straight down, starting at the neck. Maybe that's an idiosyncratic usage of mine.

No fair! You left us all in suspense! [pouting emoticon]

That's quite a story, Cusina. I'd file it in the "shit happens" folder, but probably wouldn't give it that label to my children, if I had any. Sounds like I might have been scared too - now.

Great. And I want to hear what you think of the taste. I wanted to know how it would turn out.

Close: Halászlé. I was pretty sure I remembered that spelling, and got these "about 14,200" results from a Google search on it.

Yeah, great story!

I guess I should weigh in on long-distance trains and busses in China. I found my trips on long-distance trains and busses the most interesting thing I did during my 1987 trip to China. Since the people knew they'd be together for a long time, it seemed like they relaxed somewhat and there was a sense of community. We communicated as best we could, I lent them my cheap tape player and headphones for them to listen to their music (yes, they gave it back in the same condition), I played a game of bullshit with a girl from Toronto, one of her Cantonese relatives, and a boy from Beijing (bushi=no in Mandarin). And people shared their food with me. I shared a hard seat compartment with a family - a couple and their 4-year-old girl, who already wrote hundreds of characters along with doodles in her little drawing book. When it came time for breakfast, they shared some noodles and tea with me, that hit the spot. On my way back from Beijing, I made sure to bring some food on the train so that I had something to share - chocolate, pingguofu, etc. It was hard travelling (33 1/3 hours from Beijing to Guangzhou, a terrific dim sum breakfast in the station, then another trip to Shenzhen, through the checkpoint, then into Hong Kong), but it was worth it. Would I take such long train trips again? I'm not sure. But I'm not 22 anymore.

Neckties only? Long ties aren't acceptable???

That plate looks terrific, Seth!

As you might imagine, dim sum has been discussed on this board before. Here are some relevant links: Dim Sum Sunday brunch in Manhattan Dim sum breakfast at Grand Harmony Chinatown: Restaurants & Shops, Walking Tour (sounds right up your alley) dimsum in Chinatown (older thread, from 2002) Also, all of these threads apparently refer to dim sum somewhere, as they were search results for "dimsum" on the New York board: Page of search results For good measure, here are the Google results for "dim sum" + "New York" (Googling eGullet only), which I won't go through right now, but feel free to skip through them at your leisure: Results 1 - 55 of about 86 (looks like there's a lot of chaff in those results, though, in view of what you're looking for) But the short version is that, though I enjoy the big eating halls like Golden Unicorn, Jing Fong, and Harmony Palace, the best dumplings I've had in New York have probably been at Grand Sichuan on 50th and 9th and Yeah Shanghai on Bayard, both full-service restaurants and not dim sum specialists. The best cold dishes I've had, overall, have been at Spicy & Tasty on Prince St. in Flushing.

Hmm...a pastry with milk and honey...sound like Knafeh to me! [Edit: Well, cheese and honey, anyway.]

Joanne, if you ever feel like posting some or all of your train-logs, I'd be interested in reading them.

That's alright, Chad. It probably bore repeating.

I sort of like dressing up for special occasions (perhaps because I'm a musician), so if I go to a fancy place, I usually wear a suit and tie, then depending on the temperature inside the place, may take off the jacket or/and tie when inside.

What a weird experience, Ali! I just checked www.menupages.com, which seems to confirm that Marseille (as it's spelled there) is still in business, on 630 9th Ave. I don't know if I'd rush to go there, though, based on your report.

Have a look at the quoted portion of the first post in this thread, Chad.

Yes, there is an abundance of little stores in this neighborhood that sell Indian spices, etc. Dowel, the best of them, is good indeed. As far as I'm concerned, 6th St. is mostly a case of "The Emperor has no clothes." But this neighborhood is not likely to be devoid of Indian food for some time to come. The restaurants like Banjara, Haveli, and Madras Cafe that charge a little more and serve something other than a super-oily slop of identically-identified dishes are probably doing better than the row of eateries that could be served by the mythical central kitchen. I certainly think this is true of Madras Cafe, the first restaurant in the neighborhood to really break with the "North Indian" model of the 6th St. restaurants. It had trouble for a year or so, but gradually, positive word of mouth and good reviews came through for them. I wouldn't shed a tear for the demise of a bunch of cheap, lousy places. The only thing I'd feel bad about is that some of those places have employed some good musicians, and I hope those guys get work somewhere else.

My father pronounces it "borshch," and it looks to me that the non-Jewish Polish pronunciation would probably be "barshch" (they spell it "barszcz"). I say "borsht," and I think that would be my spelling, too.

Sort of. Seems worth a try for that. I'll see if they deliver.

I've always seen "gaijin." The spelling of the website name should probably be changed.

Jokes like what? That name doesn't seem particularly funny or unusual to me.

Beats me, too, but I'm curious where that Persian grocery story was. Sounds like a good one!

Thanks for the explanation and the link to that beautiful photo, Adam.