ErinB

I spent the weekend in the city. Had Sunday Brunch at Rose Water, which has been mentioned previously in this thread. It was great. Had iced tea, and one of the specials, which was a yuca cake with spinach, a red pepper type salsa, and eggs overeasy. It was very good. My friend had their sweet potato cake with eggs, which was amazing. I was trying to figure out exactly what was in it, but it seemed like sweet potato, carrots and mushrooms, all thinly sliced. It was really great. I also liked the selection of iced teas ... For dinner, we went to Oznot's dish on a friend's recommendation. I thought the food was good, atmosphere great, and service average (our server said he was new). My wine was great, a riesling. My entree, a special was a whole grilled fish, stuffed with couscous almondine. A great mixture of flavors. My friend got bbq steak, which was steak with a spicy sauce, it was ok. She asked for it medium rare, and I thought something like that should be served more well done, because of the sauce. The flavors didn't go that well. The prune cake/tart was AMAZING. I would go back just because of the atmosphere.

Well, I'm a former vegan turned full on meat-eater. First, it's definitely cheaper to be vegan. 1. I didn't go out to eat much when I was vegan. 2. I ate a lot of beans and vegetables. Now, I try to eat organic food, locally grown produce, and meat in which animals are raised in decent living conditions. And, that is pretty expensive, unless you have good local farms year round. I end up doing a lot of my shopping for meat at Whole Foods which is pretty expensive. I know plenty of vegans who have a "I''m better than everyone else" attitude, but i know plenty who don't. Everyone, vegans, vegetarians, etc. have different rules about what they can eat. Not to be preachy here, because I eat meat now, but generally, americans overconsume , don't eat locally grown economically sustainable food, and that leads to mass production of animals and meat in bad conditions. My brother is a "freegan" which basically means, for one thing, that he goes and dumpsters for food that can still be eaten, but is thrown out in dumpsters. Like at grocery stores (fruits with bruises, day old bread, etc. etc.). From my experience, being vegan and freegan, is an extreme reaction to what's going on in the world today. When I was vegan, I felt physically better than I ever have in my life. I was eating tons of vegetables, and experimenting with things I never would have before. You do not need to take any supplements, if you eat a balanced diet while vegan. I also began to appreciate food in a way that I never had before. That was the beginning of my love affair with food.

I just bought a Weber Performer based on the recs from Egulleters. I am a total grill novice. This is my first grill ever. What do tools and accessories do I really need? I am planning on using hard lump charcoal. I am thinking of buying a chimney starter and a grill cover? Do I need these? Any other suggestions?

The problem you're going to run into is, the good places that are open on Sunday are mostly serving brunch. What time will you be going at? Are you interested in doing brunch?

Can you tell us anymore about it and the address and phone number. What type of cuisine. How large is the restaurant?

I went to a total hole in the wall in Fall River ... really good food. Did a lot of take out business. Of course, I can't remember the name.

Not on Flay's website, but on Menupages.com

The menu is online at babbonyc.com

I did a few searches and the only thing I could possibly find was this: PreviewCT: Playing with Food It seems like the kind-of small town place that you could even call and get advice on what kind-of wine to bring. Let us know how it is.

I have a vague memory of a show on the Food Network that said the cheeseburger originated in New Haven, CT. Can anyone verify that?

Had dinner at Babbo on Monday night. This is my second time to Babbo, the first time I had the pasta tasting menu. Ahead of time, we decided not to get the tasting menu, to share our dishes, and that a majority of the party was not into offal ... which dictated a lot of what we ordered. The first time I was at Babbo we were upstairs, this time we were downstairs. Really, it felt like a very different experience. Upstairs it is much more spacious, lighter, and quieter. As mentioned in previous posts, downstairs the music is quite loud and there is also significant noise from the bar. Throughout the night we heard the beatles and the grateful dead playing ... It all depends on what kind-of experience you are looking for ... For me, I will be requesting to sit downstairs for all of my future visits. It was much more fun ... and I like the decor a little better. For antipasti, we had steamed cockles with steamed chili and basil and Prosciutto San Daniele "Riserva" which I believe was served with a cranberry compote. The prosciutto was very nice but the highlight was the cockles, they were very tender and the chili accented them nicely. For Primi we had: Garganelli with Funghi Trifolati, Beef Cheek Ravioli with Crushed Squab Liver and Black Truffles, Black Spaghetti with Rock Shrimp, Chorizo and Green Chili, and a special which was a thicker pasta with peas and prociutto. I loved all of the pasta dishes, I thought the Beef Cheek was the most interesting and complex of flavors, I thought the simplicity of the garganelli and mushrooms was also great. I must say that everyone at the table had a different favorite pasta dish. For secondi, we Osso Bucco with Bone marrow and Cavolo Nero (split into 3 portions, on the menu it says enough for 2 people) and the grilled quail. The quail was cooked perfectly .. The osso bucco tasted fine, although I didn't feel there was anything spectacular about it ... My favorite part of the dish was the bone marrow (i've never had bone marrow before) and the cavolo nero (black kale?) which really was spiced perfectly .. it may have had some chili in it. We also ordered the side of brussel sprouts which were amazing. Also, one of the dishes had what I believe was caramelized fennel which was also great. I really appreciated how well all of the vegetables were cooked, and not just an afterthought. For desserts we had the assortment of gelato and sorbets and the tuscan donuts. We also ordered two bottles of wine, but I don't remember what we ordered. Also, the drink special was a prickly pear bellini which was great. The service was great, waiters were very friendly, actually told us to order less because he thought we were ordering too much food. The sommelier helped us with our wine selection ...

The thing about the Babbo wine pairing, is that they've really perfectly paired the wines to each course of the tasting menu. I've never had a meal like that, where I could really tell very clearly how the food accented the wine and vice versa. If you can, I would highly reccommend the wine pairing with the pasta tasting menu. They also offer a vintage wine tasting, which is a little more. Our waiter told us that if you care about food/wine pairing, get the regular wines. If just the wine is most important, then get the vintage. I'm going to Babbo on Monday, but we're not getting the tasting menu this time.

Honmura An makes their own noodles ... but they're pretty expensive. But, really good.

I'm so glad to have such great conversation going on in this thread. Thanks for the tips.

Thanks for the great list. I noticed you wrote that there was a West African shop. Is there a significant African community? Are there any African restaurants in the Providence area? I haven't heard of any, although sometimes, I have heard of Africans having unofficial restaurants out of their houses. (I don't have any contacts in providence unfortunately.)

I'm moving to Providence next month and I need suggestions. Where should I go to get the best fruits and vegetables? meats? Asian (Chinese, Japanese, Thai), Middle Eastern, Mexican, and Indian cooking ingredients? With my very limited knowledge of Providence so far, I know there's Whole Foods and maybe one or two middle eastern groceries on Mineral Spring Ave in North Providence. I also know there's supposed to be a good fruit and vegetable place on Mineral Spring Ave.

Thanks for the post Holly. I drive by this place all of the time, but never heard much about it. You didn't get a chance to try their red sauce, did you?

I just went this weekend, it is only my second time going. This meal was actually better overall, than my first meal there (which was pre-renovation.) But, I got totally different food items, so it's hard to really compare. Following some recs on here, i got pork larb, the choo-chee? curry on tilapia which was excellent. We also got chicken with red curry which i thought was ok. The last time we had the beef with red curry which I thought was a little better.

Nicole from Manic Organic referred me to the following places: Urban Edge Farm, farmer Pat McNiff contact urbanedgefarm@hotmail.com Ledge Ends Farm, farmer Eric Acre contact garliceaters@netzero.com Wishing Stone Farm, farmer Skip Paul contact skippaul@cox.net I'll let you know what I decide to do.

But, we are discussing overrated here. Are we discussing overrated in terms of the general population?, or are we discussing overrated here on Egullet? If we are discussing generally overrated fine dining, then Zagat is a good benchmark.

I am going to Babbo in a few weeks as part of a part of 4. I've already gone once, and had the pasta tasting menu with wine pairing which was amazing. Everyone else is going to Babbo for the first time. My first thought was to get the pasta tasting menu again, unless anyone can think of a combination of dishes we can get that will really represent the best food Babbo has to offer. Any suggestions?

To me, the perfect example of an overrated restaurant is Nobu. I have never been, but it seems to me the main reason why it is always talked about and people go, is because they're likely to see a celebrity there. For me, when I think of an overrated restaurant, most often it's a celebrity chef's restaurant. I've been to Wolfgang Puck's in LA, Bayless's in Chicago and was totally underwhelmed. I'm going to agree with Pan and say that if I'm paying $75+ pp for a meal, I expect a very good to excellent experience. I can't really think of any major celebrity chef's in NYC who's restaurants aren't looked at favorably. Generally Batali's restaurants are looked at well, and even in recent years Bobby Flay's have been getting positive comments as well, I think.

I wanted to post a little update on ethnic food in Providence. So far, my favorite place is Sun and Moon in East Providence on Warren Av. It's Korean and it's fabulous. In terms of Indian, I've been to India, which I thought was ok but a little too americanized for my taste. Kabob and Curry on Thayer St, I felt the same way, but I liked it a little better than India. So far I would have to say my favorite indian, has been Taste of India on Wickenden. While not anything amazing, it is good. I also tried Mi Guatemala on Atwells and thought it was ok. It was my first experience with Guatamalan ... I probably should go back and try some more stuff.

Does anyone know anything about CSA Farms in Rhode Island? I'm interested in joing one. I've found some info on the web, but I'm wondering if anyone has had any personal experiences with any of them. I'm also wondering if anyone knows of any places that have pickups in the Providence area.

I think Cho Dang Gol is a good option for vegetarians, especially if they like tofu, and they have other options for meat eaters as well.