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Pan

eGullet Society staff emeritus
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  1. Pan

    Cho Dang Gol

    I guess I don't know what your standards are for sogginess. I didn't find either those pancakes or the ones I had at Kang Suh to be notably soggy.
  2. Sheesh! How much can you eat in one day?
  3. Yesterday (Tuesday) night, Scamhi, a non-eGullet friend of hers, and I met up at this Korean eatery, on 55 W. 35 St., Tel. (212) 695-8222. The meal was soothing and very pleasant, and the company was also thoroughly pleasant and gracious. Cho Dang Gol specializes in artisanal tofu, which it makes in several varieties. I'm sure Scamhi could describe the dishes better than I (and I hope she does), but one that was particularly appealing was a near-puree of tofu (consistency slightly reminiscent of farmer cheese or ricotta) in broth - very soothing. We also had a stewy soup of another type of tofu in a spicy broth with scallions and such-like, a third soupy dish with yet another type of tofu and consistency, and a non-watery dish with some bean threads, rice sticks, sliced smoky pork, scallions, etc., and oven-baked tofu (yet another type of tofu). Some of the panchan dishes were interesting, too: Kimchee with tree ears and some other things in addition to cabbage, and some root vegetable we couldn't identify with red chili sauce and little bits of some kind of bacala'-like dried fish. Our appetizer, kimchi pancakes with sliced pork, was better than similar pancakes I've had at Kang Suh, very tasty. The room is elegant, too. I basically consider this a purveyor of special heimish Korean food that's made from scratch, and I'm certainly interested in going back.
  4. You truly are providing a service, Mitch and Toby.
  5. Wow! I used to eat often in a home-style Hakka restaurant in KT Chinatown owned by a woman whose husband was the chef, which made fabulous chili udang galah (huge jumbo prawns the size of a big langoustine)! I went to Sekolah Kebangsaan Merchang. My mother did research for her Ph.D. in anthropology at the time and plans on returning in July for a few months for the first time since 1982 to find out how village medicine has changed with economic development and greater Islamic orthodoxy. I'll probably spend part of August in Malaysia for the first time since 1977, and I'm very excited, though a little apprehensive for off-topic reasons I won't discuss here. But getting back to food, perhaps you'd like to post in a thread on the the "Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific" board about your favorite eateries in KT? And which part of Malaysia are you from?
  6. Selamat datang ke eGullet, Shiewie! Yes, Nasi Kunyit - glutinous rice cooked in coconut milk with turmeric - is a staple of Malay kenduris (feasts) for weddings, circumcisions, Hari Raya (the two most important holidays in the Muslim calendar), and so forth. For Malays, the yellow color that comes from the kunyit (turmeric) is essential for symbolic reasons: Yellow is the royal color for the Malay sultans. It's interesting but not surprising to me that Chinese Singaporeans also cook and serve Nasi Kunyit, by whatever name. There's been a lot of cultural interchange, and Chinese food in Malaysia and Singapore is a (several?) regional cuisine(s) all its (their) own, different in various ways from food served in China. I take it you're from Singapore, Shiewie? Are you there now? I'm a New Yorker (yes, by birth ) but spend Standards 5 and 6 (that's 5th and 6th grades for all my fellow Americans ) in a Sekolah Kebangsaan (Malay public school) in a village in Terengganu.
  7. Yes, it's inferior to restaurants that are twice as expensive. Why would I want to spend any money at all there? Frankly, I find that a silly question. You had a bad meal there. I haven't. Once more, in context: Now, based on my experience, are you telling me that if you were me, you wouldn't go back? Frankly, I can't spend some $25 on dinner every night. If money were no object, things would be different, obviously. But none of this has anything to do with the fact that you had a bad meal. There's no reason for you to go back, regardless of how much the food costs.
  8. Of course I never implied they did, nor did I ignore the dictionary definition.
  9. When I was living in Malaysia, it was routine for housewives to pound fresh turmeric with mortar and pestle every day. Fresh turmeric has a considerably different taste from dried turmeric. Fresh turmeric is orange, wet, earthy, and tasty. Dried turmeric is yellow and a bit musty, though I still like it. I can get fresh turmeric in Manhattan's Chinatown and have offered to bring it up to my parents (who cook; I seldom do nowadays), but they have declined the offer because they don't know how to adjust the amounts in the recipes they've been cooking and don't want to bother with cleaning, peeling, etc. It surprises me if Indians prefer powdered turmeric because it ostensibly works better in tarkas. Malay housewives make a paste out of the turmeric, along with shallots, garlic, and fresh ginger (all also pounded), and use that paste as part of the base for their curries. It works quite well that way, fried in oil.
  10. Rozrapp: As I follow the subthread Alacarte addressed, the subject was really Jewish delis. I submit that, in that context, the remark that they are defined by being kosher makes a whole lot more sense than if you bring up a dictionary definition that applies equally to non-Jewish German delicatessens and so forth.
  11. I actually like the dip, but it's made from red bell peppers, and it's no good for me (I clearly have an allergy to bell peppers). But the solution for people like you and me is to ask for olive oil and dip the bread in it. I really don't require any other type of spread for bread in an Italian restaurant. I've had the pasta e fagioli, and while it certainly doesn't compare to what you can get in an average restaurant in Siena, I found it hearty and enjoyable enough for the price and location (essentially a couple of blocks from my apartment). I really can't comment on the rest of your dishes, as I haven't ordered them (except for perhaps the spinach?). I don't think I've ever gotten a side dish at East Post (maybe the first time I went?), because their portions are so oversized. I will say this, though: I would assume that its specialties are pasta and fish (and perhaps seafood, though I'm careful about shellfish). For the record, I've found all of the pasta and fish dishes I've gotten at East Post to be at least satisfactory and usually solidly good. While the quality of its food and ambiance are clearly inferior to places like Col Legno and Lavagna, its prices are about half as expensive. So perhaps the watchword is to order carefully there or eat elsewhere.
  12. Pan

    The Mermaid Inn

    East Post? Horrendous? What did you order? As for Mermaid Inn, I'm impressed with the makeover they did on Lhasa. They were imaginative in the charts and other atmospheric things they got.
  13. Pan

    NYC Smoking Ban

    A bar on 11 St. between A and B (I saw no name) was very smoky and without ventilation. I left.
  14. Pan

    French Kosher wines

    Thank you for all your answers and suggestions! I think it's actually Yarden wines that I liked most, and I confused myself, which just goes to show how often I drink kosher wines (i.e., pretty much only on Pesach and when I'm with my orthodox godmother). In any case, I'll print out this thread and take it with me when I'm shopping for wine for the seders. Say, no good kosher wine from Belgium or Germany, eh?
  15. Nasi Padang, in part? Just a wild guess. Nasi Padang comes from the Minangkabau country. Many Minangkabau left for what was then Malaya in the late 19th/early 20th centuries and they form a plurality of the population of the Malaysian state of Negeri Sembilan. Nasi Padang was very popular in Malaysia in the 1970s, and I assume (unless someone tells me otherwise) that it still is.
  16. Pan

    French Kosher wines

    Thanks a lot, Steven. What is Mevushal?
  17. Pan

    French Kosher wines

    All things being equal, I'd like to bring some French wines to the seders this year. I'm willing to spend up to about $15 or so (maybe $20) for really superior wines. I'd prefer something not super-dry, as I like wines that have some fruitiness, and it would be a pity if I brought something so bitter-tasting I wouldn't drink it, but I'm not looking for a dessert wine, either (though you could feel free to recommend those in a separate thread, if you like). Anyway, have at it, and I'll see whether I can get any of your suggestions at my local wine and liquor stores (e.g. Astor Wines and that discount store on Broadway near Waverly). FYI, I've often brought Italian kosher wines to previous seders, with uneven but mostly good results. Of the Israeli kosher wines, I've generally found Baron de Herzog (or whatever exactly that's called) to be good.
  18. I like rice pudding, but are the names of the flavors too clever by half?
  19. lissome: Perhaps, but it's a lot neater to discuss specific restaurants in detail in their own threads. Oh. Perhaps I'll do a search.
  20. More sedate, but I found the prices pretty much the same in one visit there (Dok Suni's is around my corner, so I've had their food frequently, though often as takeout).
  21. Thanks for the reports. Sounds expensive. Is it very expensive?
  22. Thanks for that interesting link. One bit of evidence that the rice table is not really Indonesian is that I have never heard of any term for it other than the Dutch rijstaffel (and the English translation, but that's not common). Anyone ever heard of meja nasi? I didn't think so.
  23. My local kosher bakery, Moishe's, on 7th St. and 2nd Av. in Manhattan, makes excellent Passover macaroons. But the passover sweet I always liked best was the pesadicher cake made with marzipan and apricot and raspberry jam. Yum!
  24. Little Frankie's is the name, I do believe. I've never eaten there because, as a small place, they allowed smoking. Now that that's no longer an issue, I'll have to try the place. Warning about East Post: Their pastas are absolutely humongous! Unless you don't eat anything the rest of the day and feel like you could eat a horse, hesitate to order an appetizer plus pasta, let alone a traditional Italian multi-course meal. I do find the food good there. Though I prefer places like Lavagna and Col Legno, they're more expensive. East Post is a good value, but I'd happily pay the same price for about 1/3 less food.
  25. Germany is about 1/2 Catholic, isn't it?
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