Pan

I buy that. But then again, as you know, I like things spicier than the average American outside of Louisiana and the Southwest. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon!

Shiewie, I like jambu air very much (by the way, folks, Malay "air" is pronounced rather like English "eye" - not English "air"), but I wouldn't describe it as "sweetish." I find that it has a unique, bracingly sour lemony taste. But perhaps it is ultimately "sweetish," because it certainly isn't as sour as a sour lemon. Malaysian limes on the other hand... I just looked at that link. So despite its name ("jambu" means "guava"), it isn't botanically a type of guava at all?

Where are you located, Mabelline?

Thanks for starting this thread, Felonius. I attended Rudolf Steiner School on the Upper East Side (New York, NY) for 8th grade, so I'm biased. I had a peaceful year with generally nice people, but I consider Steinerism to be largely hogwash. (Just to give a few examples: They believe in the Four Elements and the Alchemic principles of Sulfur, Sal, and Mercurius, and they taught these things in Chemistry, along with both real science and the idea that water is not just H2O because it also has some kind of indefinable life force.) That said, I did spend time at a farm run by Steinerites on the Hudson Valley when I was in 8th grade. I forgot the farm's name, but they sell stuff at the Farmers' Market on Union Square. I'm trying to remember what I got from them a few months ago. They were friendly (like my classmates and teachers were, to a great extent) and I liked whatever it was I bought, but not enough to remember what it was. But I'll look for them again.

Hi again, Shiewie! I hated to miss the tapai season; I always loved that as a kid in Terengganu. They had ubi kayu (cassava) tapai more often than glutinous rice tapai. This past August, a woman who's now a grandmother reminded me of the time when I ate the tapai from the bottom of the bag where they're tastier and have more alcohol in them, and got high (mabuk) on them. She never let me hear the end of what a "nakal" (naughty) boy I was. If the ayam percik you were having is like what Yati serves in the night market in Kota Bharu, it wouldn't be considered mildly spicy by most Americans.

I have no idea what "biodynamic" wines are. Would you please start a thread on the Wine board about them?

All right; then you can count me in. I'll be bringing a wine that a saleswoman at Astor Wines was reluctant to share with anyone. I didn't buy the bottle until I was sure enough bottles remained for her.

Seconded. Their other branch, which I've gone to much more frequently, is on Amsterdam Av. between 97 and 98 Sts., but the 175 St. branch is bigger and feels like the Headquarters. I've had both the excellent pollo a la brasa and other things at both branches. You can get any of the daily specials (there are always several) or order a la carte. The specials are good; get whatever strikes your fancy. If you like freshly-squeezed juice, they do a good job. Get a large glass of it. I go for orange juice "natural sin nada" (freshly-squeezed without milk or sugar added). Informal and somewhat celebratory atmosphere (partly because of the Dominican dance music on the stereo), friendly service. Some decent restaurant Spanish helps.

I would so much like to go to this and try people's pies, but I haven't even participated in making a pie for decades, probably (and it was my mother's apple pie - yes, it was good, I thought at the time). Would it be appropriate to bring a good wine instead? I feel a bit embarrassed to ask, but there it is.

Go. I imagine you could get a halfway reasonable flight from Japan, and the exchange rate should be good for you when you get there.

Mix sounds fabulous. I hope to go there someday. Like everyone else is saying, great review, FG!

Chinese people eat at Korean places in Flushing, NY, too.

You eat a lot of buah epal (that's apples for the rest of you English speakers), Shiewie? Are they expensive nowadays? Frankly, I hadn't the slightest interest in eating imported apples in the land of rambutan and tree-ripened bananas, but perhaps I'd feel differently if I were in Malaysia for years and years. Keropok lekor, yum!!!

Something that has been alluded to but is being somewhat submerged in this discussion is that the people who gave high marks to Grocery probably overlapped very little with people who gave high marks to the much more expensive haute cuisine restaurants. I wasn't much different when I filled out Zagat surveys, in the sense that, as I mentioned previously, if 3 was "excellent," Grand Sichuan got a 3. And of course, what happened if I hadn't been to any 3-stars that year (let's not talk about 4-stars because all three meals I've had at 4-stars in New York have been really underwhelming)? That's right: Since I took the instructions seriously, I didn't rate any of them that year. The upshot, I think, is that it may have been perfectly reasonable for Grocery's clientele to rate it a 3 for excellent in large percentages. What may be senseless is that such a hodge-podge of clienteles get to determine overall ratings in a book.

Great stuff, Shiewie! I wish I were still there and you could take me to more makan. Please let me know if and when you're coming to New York.

And having read the rest of the thread to date, I have another comment: Haute cuisine isn't inherently better. Rather, when I go to a restaurant that's fancy and expensive and has a reputation or pretention for haute cuisine - especially if it's already received 3 or even 4 stars in the New York Times - I am much more critical of faults than if I'm going to an unstarred $12-for-dinner diner. I guess I don't even think that haute cuisine at its best is necessarily better than the great meals I had in certain restaurants in India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia. Of course, some of those were haute cuisine in relation to food in those countries - but some were not. I know the argument about ingredients, but it doesn't always obtain. When you have access to fresh seafood, free-range meat and poultry, and high-quality fresh produce in a place like Malaysia without paying an arm and a leg for it, what's the obvious, inherent advantage of French-style haute cuisine? I wonder what Tony Bourdain, the well-known fan of Southeast Asian cuisine, would have to say about all of this. Frankly, this kind of talk strikes me as having more than a whiff of the "complexity" man who will remain nameless unless someone pushes me to name him.

Well if he won't do it I will. First of all, Bux, clearly you're a moron. But that's beside the point. The important thing is that everybody except me is a "tasteless moron." Especially those pesky Mexicans. And if you think the Grocery is as good as Daniel, forget about it, even the tasteless morons won't talk to you -- you're basically a disabled tasteless Jewish non-union Mexican moron with unconventional sexual preferences and leftist political opinions working for minimum wage, which we all know is the worst kind of tasteless moron. But seriously, not that I'd like to take Grimes' side in the low vs. high culture argument, but many non-Western cultures also have similar distinctions, so it's not necessarily racist or cultural-imperialist to make that distinction. And is it really that different from distinctions on the sophistication of cuisine, or does substituting "complexity" for "sophistication" eliminate a cultural or/and class bias?

Excellent reply, but I think it's just a bit off track on this minor point. The issue isn't how many good Indian restaurants there are, but how much Indian restaurants popularize their food to people without roots in the Subcontinent. And in that respect, most Indian restaurants outside of Jackson Heights, the Edison area, and other areas with large concentrations of Indians (Pakistanis, Bangladeshis et al.) popularize, just as I suggested they do: By watering down the level of hot and black pepper and adding more or less large amounts of sugar. Note though that I said most of them, not all of them. I had a terrific Indian meal in the restaurant of the Quality Inn in Harrisburg. The hotel is owned by an Indian man and when I asked for my food to be very hot, they made it like the owner likes it.

Selamat Tengahari, Shiewie! Sorry about the tawar lunch. Nice to hear from you. Michael

Believe it or not, I don't think I've ever had a Cuban sandwich before, but count me as a possible for the proposed outings.

I see your point. Looks like it could work well. But I think this works better in an online format where you can merely click links to go to 'bars' as opposed to 'restaurants.' In book format, where you have to hunt for the section in table of contents, then find the page number where it begins, then leaf through pages of the book to find the right one, etc. this would be more onerous. It isn't onerous in Time Out's paper format.

So what do you have against mules, eh?

I don't know why you think it wouldn't work. Have you checked out Time Out's guides? I used their Paris guide, and it was divided both geographically and between various types of eateries. Start here and navigate through the rest of the site, if you like. In fact, Zagat's also does this, just not in the main body of their guides.

Are you sure that New York's Chinese fits into 3rd place among, say, Vancouver, Toronto, San Francisco, and Los Angeles?

Rachel, your example from "Chef!" is good, and I don't disagree with your premise about the breadth of tasty offerings available here, but surely you've overstated your case. New York gets 2nd or 3rd place in French food, after Paris? Is that really possible, when there are cities like Lyon, Orleans, and so forth? New York gets 2nd place in Chinese food outside China, when I know from personal experience or consensus that you can get fantastic Chinese food in Kuala Lumpur, Ipoh, Penang, Bangkok, Singapore, Vancouver, and Toronto? I love New York, and much good food is to be had here, but comparing the breadth and general quality of Chinese food in New York to what's available from top to bottom in Kuala Lumpur or Ipoh is pretty laughable. Maybe it's time for you to consider a trip to Southeast Asia; lots of friendly people there, including some extremely knowledgeable eGulleteers.