Pan

What's the URL for your website, beans?

Eric, try the Beef Tendon cold dish, though only if you like things that are very spicy.

Chef Fowke, it's prompting me to input your password in order to see the photo you posted. (No, I don't know your password! )

I really want to promote this place. I took a friend to dinner there tonight a little after 9 P.M., and there was as always plenty of room in the restaurant. It's too bad that people are waiting on line to go to Joe's Shanghai and (at times) New Green Bo when there's a place with better food overall and better decor that has plenty of free tables. Our dinner tonight: Cold seaweed Juicy buns Eel with leeks in black pepper sauce Crab sauteed with garlic, scallions, and hot peppers The seaweed was good as usual. It's nicely garlicky. The juicy buns were tasty. I think perfection in juicy buns is probably impossible; some will leak when picked up with chopsticks. But I managed to avoid getting any food on my shirt. My dining partner wasn't so lucky. The eel was delicious! Really tasty, plenty of hot pepper, tasty leeks. The crab was really high-quality with roe inside. The accompanying vegetables (mentioned above) were fried up nicely. In particular, the hot peppers were tasty, though potent (do not chew up more than a bit at a time unless you really know what you're doing). All of the above was $38 including an appropriate (slightly generous) tip.

Thin like those other sauces. I don't have any recipes handy, but I imagine Shiewie would be a good source. (Are you reading this thread, Shiewie?)

The food was in fact good at Uncle Nick's. I regret that I don't know other Greek restaurants in the area. Poseidon is a nice Greek bakery, though. West side of 9th Av. between 43rd and 44th Sts.

sk: For the uninitiated, what's HRC? I find it interesting that you're talking about Hawaiian sovereignty as something that's a likelihood. (Personally, I'd love New York City sovereignty, but there's no chance of that.) But I guess that's a line of discussion that can't be pursued further outside of a connection to food.

I'll be curious to hear what kind of service you get there. They did almost everything but throw us out the door while we were still eating - not because we did anything obnoxious or were really slow, but just because they wanted to turn the table. Those schmucks will never see me again.

Chef Fowke, like the others, I think you've got a great idea (for whatever that opinion is worth from a non-industry person). It sounds like you have a clear plan, and I believe you will be successful. Will you be serving pastrami?

Kicap (or kecap) manis is most common only in Indonesia, not Malaysia, and fish sauce is indeed used often enough (though not as often as shrimp sauce, which is called belacan or terasi). Fish sauce is called budu in Malaysia.

"Homemade" would belong in the same category. If I want homemade, do I go to a restaurant? Perhaps my mattress is "hotel-quality."

You're right, mongo_jones, you aren't the only one. I could easily tell funny stories about mistakes I and my parents have made in trying to speak foreign languages, but I don't remember any of them relating to food and they'd be off-topic on this thread. I guess my attitude on this thread is that there are lots of mistakes we've seen on English-language Chinese menus that are funny. When I see a misspelling like "eggplant parmagana" that was probably made by a native English-speaking American, it usually isn't funny; just stupid.

Besides, what's wrong with chestnuts? One of my favorite foods.

Do you never laugh at ethnic jokes? You're seeming very humorless at the moment. It seems to me that all of the participants in this thread are people who love Chinese food and have a lot of respect for Chinese culture and history. Aren't almost all jokes at the expense of someone?

I agree with the others that it's impossible to have Tom Ka soup without coconut milk. How about making Tom Yam soup instead?

Creme brulee is very pleasant. No, I think tiramisu creme brulee would suck.

I don't know where this post belongs. This is too strong to be a wine, it isn't a rum, and it certainly is no beer. It is a spirit, though. (Why isn't there a miscellaneous alcoholic drinks forum?) The last time I ate at a good Korean restaurant in Manhattan called Kang Suh, there was a table of 5 Korean men sitting next to us. We observed all the food they ate, and they then proceeded to pour each other shots of this drink. One of the men gave me a couple of shots, gesturing that it should be drunk in one shot, and it went down smooth like an excellent cold sake. My friend had about half a shot too, and I finished that shot off. It wasn't until I got up and felt just a bit unsteady and slightly lightheaded that I realized the drink was stronger than it tasted. We walked east on 32 St. and came upon a Korean prepared food store that sold some alcoholic drinks, too. We saw the same bottle we had been served from in the restaurant and asked the cashier to take it down for us to look at. To our surprise, it turned out not to be a rice wine at all, but a liquor distilled from 70% tapioca, 15% barley, and 15% sweet potato. The alcohol content is 22%.

What's salad cream?

I guess if I found something bland and tasteless, it wouldn't consider it worth any risk to eat it.

Suzi (Tarka), it was delightful to meet you, and have a safe trip back! I'm not available at 1 P.M. on Saturdays. Have fun everybody!

Why don't you see it as a risk?

If it's bland, why is it worth the risk even if someone else is buying?

That's a great article, and Adam Lang comes across as an endearing character.

Nice pictures, Greenfield. And the picture of me (in checked shirt) trying to make sense out of the evaluation form is funny. I knew we waited a long time, but I had no idea how long. Good dining partners and good conversation goes a long way toward making waiting enjoyable.

One of the places we talked about at the BC gathering yesterday was Turkish Cuisine, on 9 Av. between 44th and 45th. It's both just a little far and not in either of your preferred categories, but you might consider it, anyway. The problem with the location of the Javits Center is that, last I checked (which, truth be told, is some time ago - most New Yorkers have very little cause to frequent the area) few people live in the area and it's therefore a near wasteland for businesses. One caution (or selling point?) regarding Landmark Tavern: They allow smoking in the bar, although it's illegal to smoke in bars in New York nowadays.