Pan

Interesting article. Many excerpts could be commented on, but perhaps this is the most interesting: Bruni won't have much anonymity, as his picture is available on the Internet. But the rest of the remarks have been seen already on threads on this site.

A sauce, like a condiment. Of course. Would you mind asking your mother for the exact proportions? It would be worthwhile to have them. I emailed her. I don't know to what extent that was based on a recipe or made up, or even whether my mother would have an easy time finding the recipe if there was one, but it never hurts to ask.

Hesser gave Landmarc a very good review. She criticizes two dishes but this is her only real slam of the place: As my classmates used to say in 7th grade, "Oh snap!" I found this remark rather arguable, though: OK, asking for Frisee aux Lardons without the Lardons (which Hesser mentions) is one thing, but would a "No Substitutions" sign make you feel kindly disposed to a place? It makes me feel like they're either lazy, overworked, or kind of stuck up. There may be dietary reasons for people to ask for substitutions, and I would think that a restaurant might consider such substitutions on a case-by-case basis. Instituting a blanket prohibition is their prerogative, but it seems dubious to me.

So now I know that the photos were for a review in the Times, rather than Newsday! I wondered what had happened to the promised review in Newsday. Great review, and they deserve it.

I remember writing a paper in 3rd grade or something about Wewish, the acorn bread that's traditional in, I think, Leni-Lenape land (New Jersey, Delaware, etc.). I might not like it, but I'd be interested to try it one of these days. Which Latin-American cuisine is least represented in New York? Any Paraguayan or Bolivian restaurants?

The types of ferns I've eaten have all tasty funky in a ferny spory kind of way, and I haven't really liked any of them much - ramps least of all. The Malays on the East Coast of the Malay Peninsula traditionally ate some varieties of ferns, especially the smallest called pucuk paku (literally, "fern shoot"). I would have eaten it again if someone had presented it to me last summer, but it's not something I miss. Now, cashew leaves, on the other hand...

My mother and I have made cranberry sauce with crystallized ginger, lemon zest, lemon juice, and orange puree (if I remember all the ingredients correctly), and it was good. Sorry that sort of pilafy thing didn't work, Lucy. You work in a school?

I don't cook much, but my parents do nothing to get rid of the delicious aromas of Indian spices, and I love those aromas, too! I don't think too many Italians try very hard to get rid of the wonderful aroma of garlic frying in extra-virgin olive oil. Much Indian food is based on aromatic substances frying, too. I say, embrace it! But if not, good luck.

Thanks for all the info, everyone! lambretta76, if you have some locations or names for some of the places you mention, that would be terrific. If not, hopefully someone else does. jschyun, good point. What about (U.S.) Native American food in New York, of any variety?

Thanks for sharing that with us, and welcome to eGullet! I hope you stick around or at least check in from time to time to update us on your progress. I wish you all the best.

Are those a type of fern? (My other thought was some kind of stem plus bean?) I can't read Japanese but do recognize the Kanji character for "mountain" twice on the subject line (?) of the 2nd link. (Mandarin "Shan"= Japanese "San," and the "San" pronunciation is also heard in parts of China [e.g. "Toy San"]). However, that doesn't tell me what this plant is related to.

Are there English names for jowar and bajra?

I wouldn't agree with that. What you're saying is true of certain foods like ulam, which is a bunch of green vegetables eaten with sambal belacan (shrimp paste with hot pepper), budu (fish sauce), tempoyak (fermented durian) for those who want it, etc. But what about when things are cooked with belacan and hot pepper, for example? There are all sorts of Malaysian sauces that dishes are cooked with (some of the curries are quite hot and it's standard for hot peppers to be pounded into the curry paste), not to mention things fried with dried chili. And then there are the stuffed hot peppers... As for the cuisine of Sabah and Sarawak, I'm frankly ignorant of it, never having set foot on Borneo. On the Peninsula, perhaps East Coast food is hotter than West Coast food, but I kind of doubt there's a really pronounced difference. Just the same, try visiting Kota Bharu next time; it's worth visiting for a bunch of reasons. Based on only two weeks in Java (Jakarta, Jogyakarta/Solo, Surabaya) in the 70s, I got the feeling the cuisine there was subtler (not counting that awful black Javanese tea ) and not as hot as Malaysian food.

Lucy, you made Jinmyo speechless! I think that's gotta be a first. Sleep well!

The what?

This is a really interesting thread, so I hope I'm not asking an inane question, but why does anyone use the term "heat pasteurized"? Is there a way to pasteurize without using heat?

Isn't there an Albanian neighborhood in the Bronx? I seem to remember Jason mentioning that they make pizza a lot? And there's a Bosnian restaurant in Astoria, I think? What about sparsely-represented African cuisines? Any Namibian, Malagasy, or Ugandan restaurants, for example?

Maybe, but there's been a continuous presence of Tibetan cuisine in New York for many years. Where Mermaid Inn is used to be Lhasa, and there's the place on 9th St. and Shangri-La (I think) on 2nd Av. between St. Mark's and 7th. And that's just in the East Village.

I've tried a Turkish sour cherry soda that's really good, but I forget its name. I also have always liked Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray.

I used to think I hated beets, but that was because I had only had canned beets, which are truly awful! Fresh beets, on the other hand, are delightful.

Kara, are you sure you aren't thinking of the Tibetan restaurant on that block?

Lucy, do you ever cook Chinese food nowadays?

I seem to remember reports that it was just OK. Good Cambodian food can be fabulous, as I discovered in Paris. Are there any Nepali restaurants in New York?

Yes, it's unusual in New York, as people have said for a long time that it's the only Cambodian restaurant in New York. Unless it closed, in which case there presumably are none.

That Uzbek place looks sort of accessible by subway (R to someplace on Queens Blvd., several blocks' walk), but Floral Park is near the Nassau County line (ergo, the subtitle of the article on the Indian Coffee House that JJ linked to: "Stormy South Indian food journeys to far eastern Queens").