Pan

mascarpone and I went to Setagaya for a latish lunch yesterday. We both got Cha-Syu Men. I thought the roast pork was excellent and I liked the subtle, somewhat seaweed-and-onion-accented broth, but mascarpone, with more experience in Japan, wasn't sure it shouldn't have been more flavorful. I thought their Oshinko was quite a bit superior to run-of-the-mill New York restaurant offerings. For example, when I've ordered that at Menkui Tei, it's been not only very salty but also funky in a way I didn't like. Not so at Setagaya, where they also included what tasted like red apricot pickles (someone will correct me if I'm wrong) that I liked a lot. Good seaweed salad, too, though the bamboo dish (I can't find the name right now) was not so interesting. I was quite satisfied with my meal and will be back to try other flavors of ramen. Of course, I lack raji's basis for comparison, having been to Japan only once, in 1975 when I was 10, and I can easily see room for better ramen. mascarpone commented that egg noodles in ramen are usually yellow, not white like the noodles we got.

The last reply on the thread I linked was Nov 25 2006 -- in other words, right after last Thanksgiving.

I'm pretty sure they're not. Sounds interesting, but do you mean (roughly) 3rd St. and 1st Av. or 1st St. and Bowery? There's no 3rd Av. at 1st St.

This thread might give you some information and ideas: Did anyone eat out on Thanksgiving in NYC? For good measure, here are the results of a search of all threads with "Thanksgiving" in their titles on the New York forum to date.

You need air conditioning in this weather? Was it very hot there?

If you're gonna recommend Haveli, in the East Village, why not recommend Madras Cafe, 2nd Av. between 4th and 5th, instead? It's a completely vegetarian restaurant, vegan-friendly, and I find it more consistent and just plain better. The only thing is, if you want your masala dosa really spicy, make sure to ask for little green hot peppers to be put in "so that it's very spicy." But aside from the pickles (which so often taste like turpentine in Indian restaurants in New York), I can't remember anything I've ever had there that wasn't good.

This was the location of the short-lived and, by me, much-missed Taksim East Village. Is Orhan Yegan the same chef? If so, I'll go to Sea Salt very soon.

You wrote "Dok Suni was a terrific restaurant for its time." That's what I was disagreeing with. I'm not sure I tried the pork ribs, so I'll give you that one. I didn't find the "soups and stews" very impressive, from what I remember. None of them were flavorful or spicy enough for me, by clear contrast with places in the West 30s, which didn't tone anything down for non-Koreans.

Interesting report, Fat Guy. I haven't been to Do Hwa, but I have to disagree that Dok Suni was ever a great restaurant. I've gone there occasionally for many years and never thought any dish there was better than merely good, except for the Hot and Spicy Broiled Squid. To me, the better restaurants in Koreatown (including the inexpensive Han Bat) are way more flavorful and a much better value, though Dok Suni has always been dependable and welcome in the neighborhood. I wasn't aware Dok Suni had been sold, though. When was it sold?

El Malecon is below 100th St., and in fact, between 97th and 98th on Amsterdam. I had lunch there today -- Mondongo with white rice, red beans, maduros, and fresh-squeezed orange juice. Since the last time I was there a few months ago, they've done an excellent renovation which created a more spacious room and more tables, though the few stools at the counter (where I was sitting) are uncomfortable. The food is the same as always. I also like Indus Valley, just south of 100th on Broadway, which Daniel mentioned. They share the defect common to Indian restaurants in New York (and not only in New York) of using too much ghee, oil, and cream, so their food can be tough on the digestion, but in my experience, it's consistently tasty, a good value, and arguably one of the better neighborhood non-vegetarian* Indian restaurants in Manhattan (that is, not including really top places that are much more expensive). For the 100th-110th area, Jerusalem Falafel, Broadway between 104th and 105th Sts., should be added to the list, for their very good falafel sandwiches, which are also cheap and an excellent value. *(Of course vegetable dishes are available, as has always been my experience in Indian restaurants everywhere.)

Condolences, weinoo. Hope you know what you're getting into.

See my report on Fruition here. To those of you who recommended it, thank you for doing a lot to make an unscheduled visit to Denver a pleasure! I'm impressed with the city and look forward to a scheduled visit in the future.

I found Fruition on the 10 Best in Denver Area thread while my only access to eGullet was my cellphone and I was on the Light Rail from Nine Mile on an unscheduled overnight stay paid for by United because I missed my connection to LaGuardia en route from SFO. Thank you, everyone! I had an excellent meal! My starter was an Heirloom Tomato Soup, which came with a sort of toasted cheese sandwich (I don't remember the name of the cheese, but it was a mild cheese that reminded me a bit of fior di latte) and some sprouts. (Mizuna sprouts? The dish isn't listed on the "Menu - Summer 2007" on Fruition's website, which doesn't actually include everything served there in the summertime.) The tomato soup was the main point of the dish, though, and it was a thoroughly pleasant cold-soup version of a very good tomato salad, without the oil-based dressing. My meal continued on an upward trajectory with Maple Leaf Farms Duck Breast, Carnaroli Risotto, Grilled Arugula & Smoked Duck Prosciutto, Red Onion Marmalade. Grilling may have helped make the arugula very bitter, and I thought that the inclusion of such a very bitter green involved a risk to the restaurant but was a well-chosen accompaniment to the salty, savory duck breast; delicious, very flavorful duck prosciutto; lovely risotto; and truly unusual flavor of the sweet/savory red onion marmalade, which I could have stood to have had more of. I broke off pieces of bread to sop up the sauce still at the bottom of the plate after I finished eating all elements of this dish. But it was really the dessert that I considered most risky and most inspired. I ordered the Plum Financier with Honey-Ginger Yogurt and Pistachio Granola. The plums on the financier contained a bit of sourness, but the real risk was to include a frozen yogurt that actually had a sour yogurt taste along with a sweet honey taste and a genuinely very hot powdered ginger flavor. And let me add, for those who are unfamiliar with my standards for what real hotness means, that I spent two years in Malaysia, where a traditional saying is "If there's no chili, there's no taste," and ate and enjoyed almost everything spicy that I could get there. This was really hot, and it went together with the financier and the crunchy granola brilliantly. I was given tastes of two red wines by the glass -- O'Reilly's Pinot Noir, Saint Paul, Oregon, and another which is not on the wine list on Fruition's website but whose name started with "Mythique." Both were $12 a glass. I chose the Mythique, which I considered merely good and not great (as was the Pinot Noir, in my view), but which hit the spot after a long day of traveling and did cut through the duck pretty well. The total cost for the meal, including a tip of just under $12, was $69, certainly a fair value for a thoroughly enjoyable meal at a restaurant which dares to give expression to the creativity and originally of the chef, who I found out later in talking to the host, is co-owner. The man who had been acting as the host, and who I had suspected was more than that, is the co-owner who manages the front of the house, and he told me that he never has to worry about the kitchen, because he's working with such a great chef. By the way, for those of you who would like to get to Fruition from LoDo and lack a car, I found out that it is difficult if not impossible to successfully flag down a cab, but there are buses that stop somewhat closer to the restaurant (I took the 15 and walked 9 long avenue blocks from Colfax, but I saw that at least one bus goes down 6th Av.), and 6th Av. near Marion is a good leisurely walk from the Capitol and the mall on 16th Av. (about 2 miles, according to Google maps directions).

Wall St. is a good location in the sense that it's walkable to Chinatown and TriBeCa and close to several subway lines. I haven't been a fan of New Malaysia in the past, though it was years ago. PM me if you'd like me to join you at Skyway. In brief, my recommendation is to get any of the seafood items (fish head casserole, aromatic crab, spicy squid, etc.), in particular, but there are other items I also like. My favorite dim sum place in Chinatown, by the way, is Dim Sum Go Go on East Broadway right by Chatham Square. I didn't find the two main dishes I've tried impressive, but much of their dim sum items are. Get the tapioca coconut custard dumpling, for example.

I'm back from a month-long trip to the West Coast and a couple of Mountain States, jetlagged, and look at the time! Anyway, in terms of Malaysian food, try Skyway on Allen St. between Division and Canal in Chinatown (there's a thread on it). Where are you in fact staying?

Busboy: I'm too late to offer a suggestion you can use, but where did you end up going, and how was it?

I went to Battambang for lunch today. Based on my meal, I think the place is good, probably very good, and definitely worth trying if you're in the area, but I'm not sure I'd recommend for San Franciscans to go to the East Bay just for a meal there. Then again, I tried only two things. The portions are humongous; don't do what I did (eat there solo). I ordered the following: 30. Baksei Trung Kor (Cripsy friend boneless quails [actually, contained leg bones] stuffed with ground pork, bean threads, onions and ground peanuts served with pickles and vinegar sauce) 15. Yihoeur Char Kroeurng (Calamari Sauteed with onion, fresh mushrooms, ground peanuts and sweet basil in spicy lemon grass sauce), as a lunch special (served with rice and soup of the day [in this case, a mild vegetable soup]) I asked the waitress for the food to be made very spicy and sour like she likes it, explaining that I haven't been to Cambodia but lived in Malaysia for two years. She suggested putting the sauce on the side and I said, no, have them cook the dish with the sauce. The quails had a somewhat Thai-like taste to me and were very tasty. The calamari was indeed served solidly spicy. I asked for lime (actually lemon was given). The waitress was surprised, saying it was sour enough for her, but I felt some additional lemon improved the dish. It was tasty, and didn't taste quite like anything I've had before -- a sort of curry with a bit of holy basil and so forth -- though it didn't blow me away. I was glad the waitress suggested ordering the dish as a lunch special, because she said the dinner portion would have been bigger, and this portion was way too much for one person to eat. Battambang Restaurant 850 Broadway (between 8th and 9th Sts.) Oakland, CA 94607 (510) 839-8815

I was taken to Trattoria La Siciliana for dinner today, by a friend who has dined there frequently and is a friend of the chef/owner and his family. We had a very good meal. We started with some good sour dough bread and a dipping sauce that was so tasty I would have enjoyed it over noodles. We then shared some delicious Caponata con Crostini, which was mainly fairly large pieces of eggplant fried in olive oil. We also shared Melanzane Impanate, which was (were? after all, the name of the dish is plural) quite nice. I enjoyed the tomato sauce a lot and sopped up some of it with bread. We then had primi piatti - Rigatoni Cosa Nostra for me and a dish I can't find on the menu right now (also rigatoni, as I remember, with a tomato/cream sauce and prosciutto - perhaps it was San Giovanella, and it was pancetta rather than prosciutto, but the description on the online menu seems off when I read it). My rigatoni was made with a pesto plus a bit of tomato, but this wasn't a typical thick pesto, but instead, a more liquid, very green-tasting one, and very good. If anything, my friend's dish may have been even better. The portions were big, and I had previously had a large dim sum lunch at East Ocean in Alameda (which was good, though not mind-blowing), so secondi were impossible. We did get dessert - good Tiramisu' for him, good Bomba (basically, molten chocolate cake with chocolate sauce and whipped cream, so not so interesting) for me. I was also given a bit of delicious Limoncello on the house. So you see that we were given VIP treatment, but take that for what it's worth. I don't think you can fake the quality of the meal, and everything being served to others looked just as good as what we ate. From their business card: Trattoria La Siciliana Authentic Sicilian Cuisine 2993 College Ave Berkeley, California (510) 704-1474 Website: http://www.trattorialasiciliana.com/ And a bit of a heads-up: The chef/owner told us that he will be opening up a deli in Emeryville in a month or so, and it might double as a wine bar in the evening. I'm sure their panini will be well worth checking out.

Katie and I also shared a meal at Amma at least once when Suvir was the Chef and Hemant, the Sommelier. I recall that Katie had an interesting conversation with Hemant about his excellent wine pairings. Katie is always a pleasure to be with.

I was part of a party of 5 for dinner at this Guatemalan restaurant tonight. In short, the place is great! We had the following savory items (numbers, dish titles, and parenthetical English explanations from the menu): 7. Frijoles Negros Volteados (Refried black beans, with two pieces of cheese guatemalan style) 8. Guacamole 17. Salpicon (Chopped beef meat [really, stringy stew beef], with sour orange, onions, cilantro & mint leaves) 20. Pollo en Mole 27. Camarones Asados (Charbroiled Prawns with Chimichurri Sauce) 33. Enchilada Guatamalteca (Fried corn tortilla, chopped meat and vegetables, onions, sauce, hard boiled egg & dried cheese on top [also beets]) 35. Tamales de Chipilin (Small corn tamale with chipilin leaves [which I found reminiscent of sarsaparilla]) We were also provided with excellent artisanal chips (tostaditas), one mild pico de gallo, and one really fiery one! Everything was delicious, with the Enchilada (my order) probably the best and most unique of the lot. The Chimichurri on the Camarones Asados was not at all the same as the sauce I've had in Peruvian and Argentinian restaurants, but instead, the shrimps were grilled on a skewer with aromatic herbs without a wet sauce remaining. The Tamales de Chipilin were quite interesting and worthwhile and not really like anything I've had before. Some excellent Guatemalan beer (I forget the name, but it was the one the waitress recommended) and some Tamarindo (which I found overly sweet, because I prefer for the sourness of the tamarind to come through more) were drunk. It was too close to closing time for them to prepare Platanos for dessert, but we had some very soothing Atol de Elote, rather a sweetish corn soup I felt somewhat analogous to dessert soups served in some Chinese and Malaysian restaurants as a kind of digestive. The waitstaff were extremely nice and spoke very clear Spanish and a little English. A knowledge of at least basic restaurant Spanish is helpful. The decor and music at the restaurant were charming. The total cost amounted to $100 including tip. No-one should be deterred from going based on any false notion that Guatemalan food is very similar to Mexican food, because it is quite dissimilar in many ways. Go and enjoy! From their menu: San Miguel Fine & Authentic Guatemalan Cuisine 3263 - Mission Street [between 29th and 30th Sts.] San Francisco, CA 94110 Phone (415) 641-5866

No, it's a few blocks from the station. I had dinner at Scott's a few days ago, cup of New England Clam Chowder and a Crab Sandwich, IIRC. The ambiance and location were very pleasant, and the jazz pianists were excellent. The food was just OK. I really got the feeling the place was not about the food.

Chef, so sorry to hear about your cancer. Keep the faith. I personally know people who faced very long odds for recovery from advanced cancer, including my father, who had Stage 4 Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia in 1995-96 and is still very much alive and kicking today. His recovery had a lot to do with a positive attitude toward recovery and a fighting attitude toward the disease (visualization, etc.). All the best to you!

I've known Katie as a person of tremendous enthusiasm, wit, vivacity, and earthiness. I've met her in person on at least one occasion I can remember, though probably more than one -- an eGullet fundraising dinner at China 46 in New Jersey. She brought a Sept Grains wine that was an extraordinary tasting experience for me, chameleon-like. Her departure from eGullet staff is a tremendous loss to the organization, but I'm positive we'll be hearing more great news from her.

The tapa I forgot about was ceviche, which was good. I was part of a party of three at Joe's last night. The meal was very good. I'll post about it at greater length on the Joe's thread later, but I must say that if any of you are going soon, get the Rhubarb Soup. What a fantastic dessert!

The short version is that Primitivo Wine Bistro was very good. Here's the longer version: We were a party of four. We had to wait for a table, so we started with some wine. It seemed only natural to begin with a glass of their Primitivo, Sollione, Salento 2004, which if I remember correctly, we found to be a good, somewhat but not overly dry wine with a nice finish. (I'm no wine geek, so don't expect any fancy wine talk from me). We followed that up later with a bottle of what I believe, based on their online wine list, to have been Rioja, Vinedos de Paganos "El Puntido" (100Tempranillo) 2002, which I considered much better than other Riojas I've drunk, a really solid wine, and again, not simply dry but full-bodied. It went well with the tapas we shared, which were: Artisanal Cheeses with Olive Tapenade, Kumquat Chutney and House Made Bread (Delicious caraway raisin rye bread, very nice selection of cheeses, especially the one with sage in it and the creamy brie-like one. I also liked the kumquat chutney a lot, though I think some members of my party found it sweeter than they preferred.) Gaspacho with shrimps, avocado, and I think something else, which was a special (surprisingly spicy, very good) Sauteed Tiger Shrimp with Garlic, Lemon, White Wine and Chilies (two portions, because we liked it!) "Steak Frittes" [sic] Grilled New York Steak, Peppercorn Sauce with Shoestring Potatoes (again, very good, nice charred, rare-to-medium-rare steak, very good shoestring potatoes that were ungreasy) "Patatas Bravas" Fingerling Potatoes with Garlic and Tomato Sauce (This was a large portion and I loved it and had more of it than anyone; the potatoes were really high-quality potatoes in themselves, were perfectly cooked to my taste, and I loved the garlicky tomato sauce. I highly recommend this.) Paella with Chicken, Tiger Shrimp, Mussels and Chorizo (I'm no paella expert, but this tasted good and seemed to comport with what I understand to be a true paella - really, a risotto-like rice-based dish, not a stewy or soupy dish.) I think we may have had another special that slips my mind. Then, we shared two desserts: Warm Bread Pudding with Calvados Caramel, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream I don't see the other dessert on the online menu, but it was a raspberry trifle with I believe lemon meringue and I forget what else. Both desserts were very pleasing. As you see, I liked everything and was dissatisfied with nothing. We tipped nicely, at 20% of the whole bill including tax, and paid $60/person, which I consider a fair value for such a good meal. The establishment is located at 1025 Abbot Kinney Blvd, right next to Joe's, Tel. (310) 396-5353 The bar area is loud, but where we were sitting, the noise level was not bad, and they have a nice outdoor area in the back. Have a look at their website, if you like.