Pan

I'm getting a bizarre error message when I click on that link:

Thanks for the report, Seth. Sahara is a Turkish restaurant? Strange name, in that case.

Mary, could you please tell us more about Mayan onions. I'm not familiar with them. This blog has been great fun, and most of all for the pictures. You consistently get really nice resolution in your pictures. Have you had formal training in photography? I Googled triticale and got results that are pretty interesting: Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development: Triticale

I think that would have a lot to do with the number and percentage of immigrants to the U.S. from the Indian Subcontinent and 2nd- and 3rd-generation Americans of Indian origin who still have a connection to the foods of the regions of their ancestors. The percentage of people of Indian Subcontinent-origin in the UK is much higher than here, where they constitute a particular grouping of immigrants and their descendants, not the largest (?) one. Also, did the British Raj expose some Brits to Indian foodstuffs they brought home to the Mother Country? If so, that would be another historical difference. In short, I tend to think there are certain historical and demographic differences that may have made it easier for Indian foodstuffs to gain a mass market in the U.K. as opposed to the U.S. But I haven't done any surveys on this and could be wrong.

It isn't. As hard as it was for me to learn even survival-level Mandarin and Hungarian, I did my best. Without the rather small amount of both languages I learned, the quality of my trips would have been significantly attenuated. (For example: How would I have bought a train ticket in Wuxi without being able to make the transaction in Mandarin? Paid several times more for the local CITS people to buy one for me, I guess.) I always thought that people coming right up to service personnel in France, Italy, Hungary, etc. and immediately speaking fast English were being rude. "Good afternoon [or whatever]. Do you speak English?" is something anyone can learn in any language. I remember the smile I got from a young woman in a tourism office in downtown Budapest by saying that in Hungarian. It's respectful, and guests should behave respectfully.

The review did read as a pretty harsh slam to me, and the slam had three main elements: (1) Panning the decor (2) Panning the level of noise (3) Panning the use of Paul Prudhomme's Meat Magic and Seafood Magic Along the way, she also made backhanded remarks about service. Seems to me, what she's saying is that a restaurant that serves some dishes that are good-to-excellent isn't thereby doing enough to get a star, and I think her statement is pretty clear and understandable. Based on what she's written in other reviews, it seems to me that style is very important to Hesser, whether as reflected in decor or even the nature of comments made by people sitting at the bar (e.g., "Who was that babe?", which she heard at Masa, I think), and a sufficient reason by itself to deny a restaurant a star, even if she didn't have substantive objections to the food, too.

Further to that point, I recall reading that, because of their representation in the professions, Indians are the richest immigrants to the U.S., in terms of average income per country of origin (sorry, no link because I forget what the source was). That's why many of them don't have to go through the stages penniless immigrants to the U.S. from many other places went or are today going through, doing lots of hard, unskilled labor (such as my great grandmother who took in sewing of U.S. Army uniforms during WWI, sewing all night in order to pay for her children's breakfast while she skipped the meal). To bring this back to food, all we need to do is look at the national origin of most dishwashers and other more or less low-ranking kitchen staff. I haven't done a survey, but there seems to be a consensus that people from Mexico and Central American countries - many of them undocumented are disproportionately represented in such jobs in various U.S. cities and metropolitan areas. And we could also look at what many Chinese immigrants go through, in sweatshops and in restaurants where they in many cases get paid peanuts and have their tips stolen by management. I don't think that there are a really large number of Indian immigrants to the U.S. in these kinds of situations, and in New York, my impression is that the closest many of them get is a skilled but taxing profession: Taxi driving. Gosh, I hope I'm not perpetuating stereotypes. Would you agree with my impressions, or am I overgeneralizing to the point of offensiveness, God forbid?

I care about years-old grime on tables and dustballs on the floor, too. But to each his own. Anyway, that's gone, and now we have bright Chickpea. At this point, my favorite thing to get there is the felafel sandwich, and I like it with both hot sauce and the spicy mixed vegetable pickles, plus other stuff (tahini, etc.).

Thanks; that was a good read! Gianduja is a word known to gelato-lovers, especially those who have spent some time in Italy. It seems doubtful that most other people would know its precise meaning, but then I'm sure that there are French terms on the menu that a majority of "average" diners not particularly fluent in French or experienced with French and French-influenced cuisine would know. Am I right? I wonder how many people not fluent in French culinary terms would know precisely what a confit of duck is, for example, or a mille feuille.

You folks should check out Rinconcito Peruano some time. 9th Av. just north of 53 St., if I remember correctly. I don't know Manu, though.

Thanks for the recommendations, guys. I may also look into Flushing Sweet 'n Tart. A guy who was eating at Spicy & Tasty today reminded me of the place.

What a great way to spend a birthday! Thanks for sharing it with us, Rachel, and what a wonderful post that was!

I agree. Bringing some kind of amuse while the other diner is having a full course is very classy. I loved the concluding paragraph in that New York Magazine article:

My father had stage 4 chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 1995-96. During that time, he drastically reduced his food intake and has continued on a low-intake diet ever since, in various guises, and to good effects, losing weight and feeling healthier - but none of this is a general comment on chemotherapy. However, if you haven't already done so, I recommend that you ask your friend whether nutritionists or other medical people have told your him he should eat more or less of certain foodstuffs or nutrients, etc. Also, does your friend have to force himself to drink tremendous quantitites of water for several days in each cycle, in order to flush the chemicals and dead cells out of his system? That's an important thing to know (he probably already told you if he has to do this, but I mention it anyway). The only other general advice I'd offer is that you can help him by being positive and supportive. When my father was trying to fight off the ravages of the cancer, my mother, brother and I were scared shitless and I think all of us doubted he would survive his crisis, but we did our best never to let this on to him and to always be as positive as we could under the circumstances (not Polyanna-like behavior, of course, which would have been obviously fake and objectionable). Had I told him what I understood his chances at surviving for just another year were, I think he would have died. As it is, he beat the odds and, despite various problems and challenges, he seems to stand a decent chance to not only celebrate his 75th birthday at the end of this year but reach 80, God willing. My heart goes out to all of you who've had chemotherapy yourselves or cared for a loved one through successful or unsuccesful treatments. I'm not up on all the latest research, but my feeling is that most chemotherapies are still more or less harsh and plagued with sometimes pretty serious side effects, not least on systems directly relevant to digestion and excretion. But what is, is, and the best that a patient and his loved ones can do is to genuinely make the best out of it, whenever that's possible. We're your online friends, so please come to us any time you need a little support, because this won't be easy for you, but it's one of the most important things you can do in life.

A know of a woman who used to collect airplane barf bags. Fact is, people will collect everything including the kitchen sink - and dust.

Before and during a ~1-month trip to China (well, including Hong Kong, which was still a British colony in 1987), I learned about 100 characters, mostly numbers and really important words like "nu ren" and "nan ren." I had survival-level Chinese, e.g. "Wo yao sige zhege" (while pointing to dumplings).

Yeah, I know what you mean, Mary. Sorry, Lisa. [frown]

We should go down there again when the waterfront is hopping and check out one of those upscale places for goose liver or something. In addition to other stuff, I also got two very good pastries from a sundries shop, of which there seem to be a bunch in that area (traiteurs, whatever you want to call them). One was like a strudel filled with high-quality fig puree, and the other was especially and surprisingly good - filled with walnuts, raisins and - surprise - candied pineapple! For $1 apiece. That was a really fun occasion, and I'm glad John got a picture of that old parachute thingy.

Mushrooms break down organic material. I don't think they can digest inorganic matter.

That would be ikang parang, kawang. And there's always ikang teggiri. (Mackeral, which is "ikan tenggiri" in standard Malay.) My favorite fish name was always ikan yu bodoh. Ikan=fish; yu=shark; bodoh=stupid. However, even in the 70s, many city Malaysians used the English-language "you" in their Malay, and when you omit "ikan"... But we'd better get back to jackfruit, I suppose. I remember liking both nangka and cempedak seeds fine, but still feeling like they were good in the absence of something better like chestnuts. Nevertheless, they were pretty good roasted over that kerosene stove.

Mary, I hope you don't hate me, but I keep thinking "Dover CANYON-CANYON--canyon-canyon...." Anyone who knows the radio ad I'm thinking of will understand, but I know very well that you and your business are not to blame.

I've had jackfruit chips. You can get them in New York, imported from the Philippines or something. You know, in Terengganu dialect, it's "jeput" and "lepeng," so you can understand my trouble with the spellings. I used to "cari lokang," and I thought "lokang" were spelled "longkang." ("Cari lokan" means "Search [dig] for clams," but "longkang" are drains! But that's standard Malay. In Terengganu, both lokan and longkang are pronounced "lokang." )

Your points are well taken, though I did find most of the food I ate in Hong Kong mild by comparison with a lot of Chinese food in Malaysia, and that certainly includes dim sum. I don't think oiliness is a strong flavor the way hot pepper is. I also find that in New York, there is more strong-flavored (lots of hot pepper, very strong mustard green taste, very vinegary) food in a Taiwanese restaurant I frequent than in the Hong Kong or Cantonese-style restaurants I also frequent (though I do get the sense that Hong Kong food might possibly have become more spicy in the last 20 years or so). As for Shanghainese food, some dishes are quite spicy and others are not. Certainly, sweetness is not a constant in Shanghainese dishes! It occurs to me that Gold may be using "strong-tasting" differently from you - and me, for that matter.

What's meaning of this sentence? I guess you mean you have a hard job , have to go many places for your job. Is right? Yes, basically. I like the sound of that fish jiaozi.

Yes, I understand you very clearly. I'm a bachelor who lives alone in a small apartment and I commute to various more or less far-flung parts of New York City for my jobs. The short answer is that I seldom cook nowadays. However, I do like to eat jiaozi in restaurants from time to time - though they're not nearly as good here as they were in Beijing (or as I'm sure they are in Qingdao)! Thanks for your reply, William, and there's no need to apologize for responding only as soon as you have a chance. And after all, it's only four days this time.