Pan

Sushi Yasuda, that's an amazing story! If all places are that accomodating, then there really IS no problem. My brother has been reluctant to go to WD-50 because too many of the signature dishes there are things he doesn't eat. How accomodating are they? (Or should we talk about that in the WD-50 thread?)

Please elaborate. How is the drive that gave us the whopper the same drive that gave us prime beef and micro greens? Do you mean the drive for profit or the drive for tastier food? I ask because I wouldn't associate the whopper with tastier food.

You don't, but isn't it a fair point that people who don't eat various foods (such as pig) are thereby inconvenienced or excluded from having the pleasure of the restaurant's cuisine?

I really like the idea of a soup blog! Here in New York, lately, we've been having some days where the weather doesn't get out of the teens or twenties. On Thursday, when it was around 15 in the evening, I had Asam Laksa (tamarindy mackeral and various other things spicy noodle soup) for dinner at Skyway, my favorite Malaysian restaurant in New York. Friday, when the high temperature was around 17, I met another eGullet member and his wife for two courses of Korean soup. At first, it was a mandoo (beef dumpling) soup; then, kimchi and noodles were combined with the remainder of the stock and water to form another soup. And for lunch today, I had Yasai (vegetable) Soba. I'd eat even more soup if there were a good Shanghainese restaurant in my neighborhood, but there isn't. There is a Polish restaurant around the corner, though, and they make good hot borsht, chicken soup, tripe soup, pea soup, etc.

Chestnut paste "noodles" would be a good thing!

Yeah, annatto contains an orange pigment. I always thought American "cheese" was just a so-called "cheese food." But what it really is to me is absolutely murdered cheddar. I've always liked my cheddar extra sharp.

Michael, it's cantonese: dow see = black beans gnow yuk = beef chow = fry fu gwa = bitter melon ho fun = flat rice noodles Noodles topped with beef stir-fried with black beans and bitter melons. ← Thanks, TP. That's yummy stuff!

What other than methi (fenugreek, right?) is in that dish?

That's French Guiana. I'll bet their cuisine is not the same as that of the formerly English Republic of Guyana. A dear friend and former girlfriend is Indo-Guyanese, and I had an Afro-Guyanese apartment mate for part of the time I was in college. He made a good potato curry, and my ex-girlfriend's relatives made excellent Mulligatawny Soup (which they pronounced "Multani") and Indian sweets. There are a couple of big Guyanese communities in Queens, New York, but I haven't frequented them much. When my friend looks for Caribbean food near her place in Park Slope, Brooklyn, she mostly finds either Jamaican or Trinidadian places.

Well, sweet soups are very common in certain cuisines (Chinese, Malaysian, Hungarian, e.g.), and basil is often used in fruit salad. Sweet noodle dishes aren't unusual, either. For an Indian example, there's payasam. I guess I'm not totally clear on the nature of this challenge. Which herbs count as those "we tend to think of as savory"? Sage, which can be combined with butter, cinnamon and sugar and served with pasta? Pepper, which can be used in all sorts of sweet things? Ancho, which can be used in a very good flourless ancho/chocolate cake? I don't understand yet what is meant by the challenge.

You had what?

I can buy the utility of deli Swiss, Muenster, and Provolone, but I hate American "cheese." Yuck!

Wow, this is great! How many more installments are there going to be?

Just to use up stuff, eh? Nice!

What does gah hing mean? I really feel like a foreigner in this thread. I guess I am, though.

I guess to you then, "weird" does not connote negativity, necessarily? Anyone else? Maybe it is my perception of this that is "weird"! ← I think "weird" is usually a negative word, but the phrase "weird and wonderful" isn't such a strange phrase to me. And for the record, I don't think much of Picasso's Rose Period or the Blue Period before that, and don't think he would have been a great painter if he had stopped there and hadn't gone on to his cubist periods. So any of you who disagree with me can just go sue me.

Right. Or drink tea. There's a good reason why Chinese people have drunk hot tea for so long. It's a lot safer than contaminated cold water!

Snowdrifts and chicken feet. I say it's Dejah!

Don't get me wrong, Marc; I will accept a comp gratefully (and reflect it in the tip) if it's given to me when I'm at the restaurant, but I won't announce myself in order to get a comp, simply because someone at the restaurant saw a positive report from me online. If I did, I'm not sure I'd be dishonorable. It smacks too much of a payoff to me, but I know that their gratitude and desire to acknowledge it through a comp the next time I come are sincere, so I really don't have a problem with it. It's all a question of one's comfort zone, I guess.

After I posted a favorable report on a restaurant, a member of its staff contacted me to offer me some kind of freebie the next time I came. But I don't intend to take him up on the offer, nice though it is, because my praise was sincere, and I think my reports have more credibility if I come as an ordinary customer. (OK, that remark could reopen a very large can of worms - better get the fishhooks. )

Good point, Adam. To me, the hamburger is the patty itself. I call the whole setup a "hamburger on a bun." And I didn't make up that nomenclature; I presumably got it from my parents and other adults I grew up with. Hotdog on a bun, hamburger on a bun. Yes, it IS possible to have them on a plate with no bun, and people DID do that at cookouts I attended as a kid in the 1970s. Does that make them no longer hamburgers or hotdogs, in the opinions of some of you?

I am very upset by this news. During my time as an eGullet staff member, Bux was truly a mentor. He always demanded that we do things right or not at all, so he could be very tough at times, but he was always sincere in everything he did and said, and I learned a great deal from him. Bux wrote passionately and clearly on any subject he approached, whether for public consumption or in private emails. He cared about communication and he cared about integrity. And at bottom, he cared about work, about people, and about life. I shared two meals with Bux. The first time was when I gathered together a group of people to go to Yeah Shanghai Deluxe. We had a good time. Everyone enjoyed the dishes I knew and loved and also humored my desire to try the Chrysanthemum Fish, which was truly a wonder to behold but whose sauce was really overly sweet. Bux didn't regret that we had ordered the fish. He found the experience interesting, and said something like "Everything is worth ordering once." The other meal I had with Bux was a time when he was having dinner with his wife, Esilda, and some other eGullet members and needed another person to fill the table. We started off at Bar Jamon, where we had a taste of some wine and a little bread, ham and cheese, and olives, as I recall. Bux was a good conversationalist, and the time passed enjoyably until it was time to go to the main restaurant and join the others. My heart goes out to Esilda and the rest of Bux's family and friends. Bux had a life that mattered -- to those of us who knew him in person and through his writings. May we remember him in death.

Very good-looking sambal udang, Bruce!

I haven't been to the Midtown location of Menkui Tei, but I do frequent the East Village location, which has great gyoza, and I have heard from Japanese friends that the Midtown location also has great gyoza.

Thanks for the link, Margo. I really enjoyed the article. I'll think of your dad's cousin next time I see bees in my neighborhood.