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I think that probably, it would generally be OK for the taste of cumin to be most present in a curry. But as you know, I like curries that are made with specific amounts of different spices, rather than "curry powder."

I'd like to give some love to green cardamom, a delicious, sweet, very fragrant spice! It's lovely in savory and sweet dishes alike. Of course I also love cinnamon, cloves, black pepper, and hot pepper. Cumin is wonderful and it's hard to use too much of it; coriander seed is a delicious spice, and fennel seed is also great. Fresh ginger is versatile and doubles as a tonic for the stomach. Galangal is fragrant and has a nearly indescribable and unsubstitutable taste. Juniper berries give a lovely evergreen note to meat, and rosemary is great on roast chicken and other roast meats. We're lucky to have all those spices!

Al di Là may be underappreciated here (I had one of my best meals of 2006 in their wine bar, a truly fabulous experience!), though I think it receives a proper degree of appreciation on Chowhound's Outer Boroughs board.

Bitter melon goes very well with thin-sliced duck or beef. I haven't cooked it, but I've eaten such dishes with pleasure.

I'm glad you don't seem to have had a bad time with the shots. When I got a cholera shot (among two other shots) in 1975 in preparation for an eventual trip to India (which also required a booster in 1977 after two years in Malaysia), it made me so acutely ill, it was truly scary! I actually got serious cholera symptoms - my extremities tensed up so much that my mother had to cut my shirt off with scissors, and I got a high fever and just felt awful! The booster was painful, too. Fortunately, when they realized that the cholera vaccine was only 30% effective, they stopped administering it. Do you have any ideas of what you would like to eat while you're in India? I really ate well in India, and the trip was great and almost worth the suffering from the cholera shot (but maybe not quite). Feel good! I'm having what might be the beginnings of a respiratory illness, which would be awful, because I have a recital on the 25th and again on the 28th... I'm sure you had a fantastic dinner tonight! What's on tap for tomorrow?

Megan, I was in your hood today. I played a morning rehearsal at the 92 St. Y and then felt impelled to walk to Two Little Red Hens. I got a butterscotch brownie, a lemon square, and a coconut-lime square (the "squares" were actually rectangular ). I love the place.

I tell people to get ONLY the 10 good dishes at Restaurant X and warn them that I am not responsible for what will happen to their tastebuds and general demeanor if they order anything else. I tell them not to go if they can't control the dining habits of the other members of their party. I tell people that as long as Restaurant Y has the one good dish, it's worth going to if you like that kind of dish, but that because everything else there is horrible, it's hard to know whether even that dish will deteriorate without notice. I do not recommend the restaurant. As for Restaurant Z, I simply warn people that they're playing Russian roulette if they go there. None of the people I discuss these restaurants with are innocent bystanders, and those who are would be people I don't know and have no chance to speak with, so that's their tough luck. If you're asking how the restaurants should be rated in terms of a review, It's clear to me that Restaurants X and Y do not deserve a rating higher than "fair," unless perhaps if the menu at Restaurant X makes it evident to anyone with cursory knowledge of the cuisine that the 30 poor dishes are only for ignoramuses (as in a great Sichuan-style restaurant with typical Chinese takeout-level American-Chinese food). Restaurant Z may deserve a star, but with a warning.

Great stuff from Larry! If you do go to Yeah, I suggest that you get a plate of two or three cold dishes, because they make good ones, and the "Two Delicacies" or "Three Delicacies" are cheaper than getting two or three different full orders of cold dishes. Among the cold dishes I particularly like there are Kao Fu (I don't remember what it's now called on the menu), Beef Tendon, Spicy Cabbage, and Seaweed. In Midtown, though further west and south (between 44th and 45th on 9th) is a delicious Greek bakery called Poseidon, which makes great savory and sweet pastries. There's no place to sit, but if you don't mind taking your food and walking with it, consider a visit. The staff are very helpful, and I've always been very happy with the food there.

Megan, congratulations to your brother and his fiancee! A question: What are bread and butter pickles?

Not really...I've never been a habitual visitor...any suggestions? Doesn't have to be Chinese food...I would love some good Vietnamese! ← I don't know any really good sit-down Vietnamese restaurants in Chinatown, only Banh Mi Saigon Bakery, which is great but has no place to sit. My favorite non-Chinese restaurant in Chinatown is Skyway Malaysian, on Allen St. between Division and Canal. For Chinese food, there are a bunch of different ways you could go, depending among other things on whether you want Cantonese or Shanghainese, for instance. Great NY Noodletown on Bayard and Bowery is ol' reliable, but there's also the Congee Village (Allen St. near Delancey)/Congee Bowery (near Rivington) chainlet and the unrelated Congee on Bowery between Hester and Grand, and I've been wanting to go to Cantoon Garden and some other places that have been getting raves on Chowhound. For dim sum, you could try Oriental Garden on Elizabeth near Bayard. If you want Shanghainese, Yeah Shanghai (Bayard between Bowery/Elizabeth and Mott) remains my favorite, at this point. For good, cheap Chao Zhou soups and offal (pig's ears and such) side dishes with very fast service, you could go to Bo Ky on Bayard between Mott and Mulberry.

Italian in the East 40s - L'Impero on Tudor Place (not that close to Grand Central but walkable). I haven't been there for some time, but good reports continue to predominate (though my brother and mother were slightly less impressed than many when they had dinner there about a year ago, for whatever that's worth).

I've noticed that you and some people on Chowhound call the restaurant "Sriphithai." Why is that?

Have fun, Megan. Any thoughts on where you might have lunch in Chinatown?

I'm not sure that's true in New York. I've seen a lot of Chinese people eating in Malaysian restaurants, and I think a lot of them are just people who live in Chinatown or Flushing. I've spoken with customers who were not from Malaysia, Singapore, or Indonesia, but just like the food. I also found that a significant percentage of the clientele in the Flushing branch of Woo Chon, a very good Korean restaurant specializing in barbecue (galbi, bulgogi) were ethnically Chinese. And that's not to mention how much many Chinese Malaysians like food that's thought of as Malaysian, not Chinese. Go for dim sum in a place like Xin in the Concorde Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, and you can have some fabulous curried chicken dumplings, which use such aromatic flavors as galangal (if I remember correctly).

I didn't think you did. But I think some eGullet members, who think that expensive starts at $200/person, would.

I thought of including tacos, and I thought of something Asian, but I think that fried chicken is pretty universal (OK, and maybe roasted chicken - pollo a la brasa, soy sauce chicken, etc.) and that the 2nd and 3rd generations in the U.S. tend to eat the things on my list. I don't think that the hotdog, hamburger, salads, and yogurt are likely to lose nationwide appeal any time soon.

I'm not sure french fries should be on a top-5 list, but it should definitely be on a top-10 list. Just for the hell of it, in the next 50 years, I'll propose the following list: Hotdogs Hamburgers Yogurt Salad Fried chicken Which, honestly, is not so inaccurate for the last 30-some-odd years.

Sorry, Jessica, but Excellent Dumping House has never impressed me. For noodle soups, places like Great NY Noodletown and Bo Ky are far superior, to my taste, but I think there are a bunch of other places that could be mentioned on this score, probably including places I haven't gone to for some time, like Marco Polo Noodle House and East Corner Wonton. Incidentally, I do have a doctoral degree but am a musician, and I do live in a neighborhood with quite a few very worthwhile inexpensive and moderate-priced restaurants. And by the way, Hearth is not moderate-priced, as far as I'm concerned. Speaking of which, since Hearth has been mentioned in this thread as overappreciated, could we please have some discussion of restaurants at the same price point as Hearth that provide just as consistently tasty food with just as good service? That would be some information most of us could use.

A colleague of mine who used to work for UPS recommended pure glycerin, and it seems to be helping somewhat, but I'll keep your remarks in mind in case things get worse. Thanks a lot for the useful information, Kim.

Peter, I enjoyed your Luang Prabang report. Excellent writing!

Nganga means "open the mouth wide" in Malay.

I think there are still a few Tad's around! ← Including several (I believe) in Manhattan. I know there's one on E. 23rd St., between Madison and Park, I believe. I haven't seen Pizza 'n Brew or Brew Burger (?) mentioned. There was a Pizza 'n Brew on 45th or 46th St. and Broadway when I was in high school (1979-83). I think there was a Brew Burger in White Plains or thereabouts when I was in college, and I think it was a chain and had other branches in other parts of Westchester County.

Get well, Judith and Pam! Thanks for blogging -- and for dealing with that extreme cold! -- you three.

How often do these "not especially well-off by city standards" people go to such restaurants? If they go more than occasionally, they are well-off or perhaps in danger of going bankrupt. The average New Yorker isn't a wealthy stockbroker, lawyer, or businessman with an expense account. The average New Yorker either makes prepared foods or cooks dishes made with ingredients bought in the supermarket, or goes to cheap chains, diners, or so-called "ethnic" restaurants most of the time. Your "mainstream" is skewed toward the upper-income half of the population, at least. I sure don't know many people who regularly go to places where entrees are $25-30. In fact, I'm not sure if I know ANY such people offline!

Maybe, but I would never call high-priced restaurants "mainstream"; the main stream is represented by low- and mid-priced restaurants, because most people rarely if ever patronize high-end restaurants.