Pan

He's waiting for me to get there first, so he can really be the last person in NY to get there! Seriously, this is the first day I've felt pretty well (crossing fingers) for about 4 weeks, so that's part of it.

The problem with your suggestion, Bux, is that you're dealing with different price levels a lot of the time. I love the detailed reviews Asimov writes for the "$25 and under" category, and I'd resent it if those reviews were butchered into tiny little paragraphs on the basis that these are "no-star" restaurants. Likewise, there's an argument to be made that a good 1-star restaurant that costs $30-40/person deserves as much or almost as much space in a newspaper as a 4-star review of a restaurant that costs $200/person. Gault-Millau may have a different audience from the Times. And though the ads in the Times and many of their Travel Section features sometime make it seem like the Times is really targetting millionaires only, I think they realize that lots of their readers can't spend hundreds and thousands of dollars at the drop of a hat and need coverage and reviews of some less expensive alternatives. This would all change if the Times decided to give 4-star reviews to $30/person restaurants.

Thanks for the report, Lou. I've been to Grand Sichuan Chelsea a fair number of times in the 4-5:30 P.M. time slot. They tend to tell me upfront that they're on break and will be less "professional" at that time. It's annoying to be forgotten about that long, but I think your analysis is sensible. Sounds like at that hour, they'll serve you but their attention is mostly elsewhere. Too bad about the panino, though.

I essentially know nothing about the restaurant business, but the one thought I'm having off the top of my head is what did the NYU grad student (now graduated) Joohee Maeng do right with Temple, the Korean restaurant on St. Mark's Place? (By the way, for those of you who might not have read Asimov's review of that place, here a link.) You're looking to open a different kind of restaurant, but if you can find out how Ms. Maeng was able to work out the business end of things, that might be information you could use someway, somehow. Then again, you may already know how she did it.

I'm glad to hear someone else likes at least some of the tarts at Le Pain Quotidien. I was a bit reluctant to offer an opinion, but they did remind me of things I'd get from an ordinary good boulangerie/patisserie in Paris. Of course, for those who find the whole concept of an "ordinary good" boulangerie/patisserie or any other type of "ordinary good" anything to be nonsense, I wouldn't make any headway, and it's clear to me that VivreManger comes at this from a high level of critical appraisal.

That's funny!

I call that using a double-boiler.

I've never liked snails, but homemade gefilte fish can be good. Tell me the truth, though, when you were a kid, did you use to think that there was a type of fish swimming around somewhere that was called a "gefilte fish"? I did.

I had no idea you wanted to open a restaurant, Bond Girl. Good luck!

Thanks for the detailed report. I look forward to reading about Ceci Cela when you have a chance to write them up.

If you're sure that the snow is too polluted to eat, what about your tap water? Where does Chicagoland's tap water come from, anyway? And, getting back onto the subject, would it be possible to make decent ice cream using crushed ice from the freezer?

I think most of us change our tastes somewhat between childhood and adulthood, and do it without dropping acid.

What did you like and what didn't you like?

Welcome, ChowAlf! Thanks for your contribution, and I hope to read more from you in the future.

I've never been that impressed with Godiva. Way too expensive for what it is, in my opinion. If someone gave it to me, I'd definitely eat it, but that's about it.

Attap Chee doesn't sound Malay to me (rather, Chinese), but anyway, I've never heard of it. Atap was the straw that used to be used for roofs on Malay village houses, though. So is this the fruit of a tree that was used to build roofing material? "Air" has no "ye" in the parts of Malaysia I've lived in and visited. It sounds like the English word "I." (The Indonesians pronounce the "r," but I'm not sure who does in Malaysia; probably people from Kedah.) But in any case, you've got jambu air pegged. Good ones are delightfully watery and crunchy, and refreshing in hot weather. I've tried cherimoya once or twice, but never in Malaysia. I never saw it until a Korean vegetable and fruit store near my parents' place on the Upper West Side of Manhattan had them for sale. They were getting them from South America, I believe.

I hate fire ants! But what I want to know is how your folks changed their pickling procedure in such a way as to minimize the slime.

I wouldn't avoid fertile eggs, but I don't think I'd go out of my way for them, either. But you know something, I can't remember how they get hens to lay eggs even though they weren't fertilized. How?

I'm glad you can keep hens, but it sucks that you can't have any roosters. I can see why, if they want to limit everyone to 3 chickens apiece. But chicks are so cute.

Mudpuppie, check out the okra thread.

Couldn't disagree more! I guess you aren't smelling the same thing most other people smell when durians are around. If durian didn't stink to most people, why would they be prohibited from hotels in Singapore and the monorail in Bangkok? They don't prohibit citrus fruits to the same degree; that's for sure.

Soursop (called "Dutch durian" in Malay [unless they changed the word in the last 25 years or so - place names for fruits and nuts seem to be disappearing in Malay], though it really isn't much like a durian) is another thing I never thought much of as a kid and haven't been impelled to try as an adult. My favorite Malaysian fruits would include rambutan, local bananas, mangosteen, and the bracingly tart jambu air (I forgot the English name). When I was a kid, I used to gather buah kemunting, red berries that grew wild near a local graveyard (my neighbors thought I was berani [brave and perhaps an unwise risktaker] to ride my bike to such a spooky place for those berries. Loved 'em! Unfortunately, by last August, the birds had eaten all the berries, so I missed the season and a chance to taste them as an adult. As a kid, I found buah salak OK but nothing amazing. I'm really not sure what palm fruit is. AzRaeL, do you know the Malay word for custard apple?

Pardon my ignorance, but what's a bain-marie?

I never liked nangka (what most people think of as jackfruit) much when I was a kid and hated cempedak (a stronger-tasting smellier variety). However, at that time, I also hated durian, whereas I like really excellent fresh ones now, and since I didn't try either nangka or cempedak during my trip to Malaysia last summer, I really couldn't say whether I'd like them now. However, both nangka and cempedak taste quite different from durian.

I agree. But it couldn't but help some. You're right that rinsing wasn't part of the question; it's just that some of the wordings of the techniques made me wonder if that was part of the procedures or not.