Pan

About 20 years ago, I guess it was, JoJo was my family's favorite restaurant in New York. We haven't been there in quite some time now. How do you rate it by comparison with other New York restaurants you like?

Well, I've finally gotten to this place. I was one of a party of four for dinner on Monday. As per its name, it is a truly small cafe, and we had to wait a few minutes for a table. I found the place very pleasant and enjoyed the food and drink. We shared a pitcher of nice red sangria and the following appetizers: Empanada de Pollo Grouper Ceviche Frituras de Camarones For mains, we got: Cubano (I tried some and it was a very tasty sandwich) Camarones al Ajillo (very garlicky, quite a good point in my book) Picadillo (a dish my mother made when I was a kid, and this was very nicely done) Churrasco (ridiculously large skirt steak) One slight problem was that the churrasco, ordered medium rare, was delivered medium well. It still tasted good. But again, the portion was totally ridiculous. It was a huge slab of meat plus a separate plate of good tostones and yellow rice. The tostones came with a very nice dipping sauce and black beans (also for dipping). Some dishes like my picadillo came with maduros that were sweeter than usual and I really liked that. Two of our party live in Park Slope and felt that someplace or places closer to them was/were (a) better Cuban restaurant/s, but I've forgotten the name(s). I think one was on Smith near Sackett. One word of warning: The watermelon martini was found to be overly sweet by those who ordered it, but I can't corroborate their opinion because I didn't try it. Second word of warning: Though this was most pronounced with the currasco, all the main dish portions were overly large, which is too bad because I might have liked to try their desserts by had no room left. It might be a good idea for a couple to share an appetizer plate or a couple or three appetizers and a main dish. With a good tip, the total cost for the meal was $32/person, as I remember, a good value. I noticed a fair amount of positive discussion of this restaurant on Chowhound, but obviously, not much here. Have any of you eaten or gotten takeout or delivery from Cafecito?

Well, since no-one else has yet posted about our meal, I'll post in more detail. We were a party of four and ordered the following: Roti telur (2 orders; good as usual) Satay (1 order chicken, 1 order beef - in Malaysia, this would be merely good, but for New York, the smokey taste of the satay and the tasty peanut sauce were excellent) Nasi Lemak (everyone was delighted with this) Squid with Special Sauce (terrific complex sauce I can't really describe, but it had a great rempah [spicy mixture]) Aromatic Crab (another great dish, with a different fragrant rempah) Kangkung belacan (very good rendition) I don't think I forgot any of the food. The cost was $21/person, even though the crabs were dungeness and cost something like $25, I think. Next time, I think I'll post an ISO, and anyone who doesn't come is a rotten egg!!

Did I miss it, or did anyone suggest gratin already? Or, what about a cauliflower soufflee (with some good gruyere or some other good cheese, of course)?

RecipeGullet Did that help?

I still haven't been to Chinatown Brasserie, but the Beef and Chinese Broccoli Chow Mein at Congee Village is a very nice dish, so the idea of coming in to the city for that (among other things) is not strange to me at all.

If you get a chance, you could try their branch on 32 St. just east of Broadway, and compare the two branches.

There once was a man from New York Who could use neither spoons nor a fork When they brought him some soup You could see his head droop 'Cause he felt like a miserable dork.

I had dinner at Skyway tonight with three other people, including gaf, who will undoubtedly post later. I've revised my opinion of this restaurant upward, based on the meal. Skyway's bigger plates are better than the noodle soups (asam laksa, curry mee with young tau foo) which I tend to have when I go there by myself, and I believe those plates might well be considered good and not merely so-so if the restaurant were in Malaysia. I'm looking forward to going back again with a group of people and getting an asam dish and a curry.

Dude, I can't believe you ate all that! No wonder you haven't posted yet today. I hope you and your girlfriend feel OK.

Don't all the filters filter fluorides?

You deserve to take a rest after such a magnificent blog! I not only had fun; I learned interesting things from this blog. Thanks.

This'll be great! Bryan, have fun!

That certainly should have been early enough for there to have been plenty of hot (or at least warm) food to choose from.

What time did you show up at each place?

The sauce is complex. To my palate, it's based on a combination of peanut butter, dark or regular good soy sauce, roasted Sichuan pepper, chili oil or perhaps chili powder, and a bit of sugar. The sauce is fairly smooth and emulsified (perhaps just a bit crunchy) but needs to be mixed in with the noodles. The noodles are topped with plenty of toasted black (?) sesame seeds, slivers of cucumber, and the green parts of scallions. I don't recall bean sprouts. There are plenty of bean sprouts in the Dan Dan Noodles, which include ground pork. There is no meat in the Sichuan Cold Noodles. I get this dish most often at Grand Sichuan St. Marks.

magic, I'm really shocked by your experience at Golden Unicorn. I hope that was some kind of awful fluke and not indicative of their current level.

Ed, what do you think of the Sichuan Cold Noodles at Grand Sichuan? I think they're damn good.

Thanks, that was very touching and a good read.

I can see this topic will make for great viewing. Elie and Andrew, great-looking meals! One question, Elie: Was there enough residual salt in the salt-baked fish for it to taste salty?

Food for thought: Doesn't that go some way toward defeating the purpose, since you have to subtract the environmental benefits of not purchasing food from far away with the environmental damages from all the exhaust you're expending to drive all over the place?

she's way too busy stuffing her hole to speak... ← Does she say "More!" when she wants a second helping?

phlawless, what an interesting premise for a foodblog! And your daughter is adorable! What does she say when she likes her food?

philadining, I'm glad you made it up to New York for some pizza. Pardon me if you posted on anything else you had in New York and I haven't read it yet, but did you get to try anything else on this visit?

I read labels, but I haven't eliminated anything in my diet, though I'm limiting my consumption of certain things.