Pumpkin Lover

Hey, while they're ironing, can they take out some dry cleaning as well? I'm not even PMSing, just depressed--chicken parm. I want some chicken parm with extra gooey cheese.

27 pages on gardening: wow! I have to go through all of this, but before I do (and I hope this question hasn't been asked): I'm starting a little herb garden on my windowsill. Nothing too big, just chives, basil, and parsley. After casually reading that tea leaves are good for extra nitrogen, I sprinkled some on each pot last week (the plants have been going for about a week). Yesterday, I found some white, fuzzy mold growing on one pot, and I removed it, and some of the tea leaves around it. I was wondering if the tea leaves could have caused the mold growth, or if mold like this is naturally occurring in soil. I don't know much about gardening and plants, so any help would be much appreciated!

HUMINA HUMINA! That looks amazing! I'm usually not overly excited by my cooking--I'm slowly learning how to cook regularly and creatively--but tonight I impressed myself a bit. I made chili with fresh chicken "andouille" sausages from Whole Foods, and for the first time, I achieved a level of spiciness that was just perfect for me. Not so hot that we couldn't eat it, but just enough to break a sweat. Yum! I think the last few times I've made chili, I've used jalapenos that weren't so spicy. Do chili peppers differ in capsicum levels when they're young or old?

Malawry: I must do the requisite sorority girl voice (even though I have a feeling none of your girls are like this): OH MAH GAH! This is, like, totally, the best thing EVER! TOTALLY! Okay, done. Thanks for doing this blog! I have a question about your campus. Eating disorders were, and still are, rampant at my college (I graduated last year). Out of my seven best friends, three have serious eating disorders, and I have a pretty bad image problem myself. Do you find yourself dealing with eating disorders? Are you in close enough contact with the girls so that you might suspect when someone is purging or starving, and if so, how do you deal with it?

Caridad is still there (the storefront looks like it's straight from the seventies), and I'm pretty sure I've seen Mirage. I'll check that one out, thanks!

Ooh, pcarpen! Recipe, please? I'm going to embark on making my own ricotta very soon, and I want recipes!

Can anyone report on JP Cunningham's? A while back, someone recommended Flanagan's to me, but we never ended up going. How's the new place?

Yes!!! is that the place between vermilyea and broadway? i used to be a regular when i was attending college in the bronx (and had a girlfriend who lived down the block ), they had good domincan food and great cubanos!! We also used to go to this restaurant on the NE corner of dyckman and sherman or is it vermilyea? I can't seem to remember the name since I haven't been around there in years. They also had really good cubanos. ← Zeitoun, that's the place. We've eaten dinner there a few times; their cocktails are nice, but I think it's better to get take-out, as the prices are lower and the portions are a lot bigger. I wish I knew the other place you're talking about--I'd love recommendations! There are just tons of restaurants in the nabe, but I don't know about their quality.

There's a place called Mi Floridita on 125th and B'way that does Cubanos. As far as I can tell, it's a Cuban restaurant, but I can't confirm that. They top their sandwiches with butter before squishing and toasting them. They're divine and well-priced, I think about $4. Another place is down the street from me, La Nueva Espana (207th and Broadway). Again, I don't really know who runs the place, but it's a mostly Dominican nabe. Their sandwiches are also great, but no butter topping, which I guess can get over the top if you're not that hungry.

Oh, Cafe Lebowitz's fries... good god, how I miss those. That was my and my BF's "date place" before it closed. ::sob::

WOW! ejebud, that looks incredible!

I have to put a huge, colorful emphasis on the word fusion in describing Tabla. If one wants authentically regional Indian food, Tabla ain't the place to go. If one wants food that's either French or Indian in origin, and that has common elements of Indian-ish spicing to it, then Tabla's a good bet. I had a fantastic meal at Tabla during Restaurant Week; it was by far the best RW choice my friends and I could have made. But Tabla isn't a strictly Indian restaurant. That New Indian Cooking thread that Soba listed (the link didn't work for me, BTW) contains a very interesting, lively, and testy discussion about the ways in which Tabla has taken Indian cooking in America.

I'll definitely check it out. Five blocks from the BF's place; I have no excuse!

My hero! Thanks, JJ.

Wow! I didn't know that all those groceries operated out of Hicksville. This is great information; thanks TongoRad and jaynesb!

It's featured in today's "$25 and Under" column. Anyone got an address for this place? Either I'm blind or the article doesn't list it. Menupages and Citysearch don't have addresses for it either.

I checked out Takashimaya this afternoon to take a look-see. The food area is nowhere near as big as the Takashimayas in Japan. I tried inquiring about cherry blossoms, but all I could get was that any cherry blossom product wouldn't be in until the spring. Even sakura tea! Bummer. I did buy some of the Takashimaya Rose tea, though.

Oh, poop.

Hathor, this sounds lovely. Is that the red textured sauce next to the meat in that picture? Can you share how you made it?

Just to add to Amy's post: it seemed that the show had different hosts since 1988. What we saw was (I think) some kind of get-together reunion show. One focus that the show seemed to have was on weird foods. The hosts would try a soup with a scary-looking ingredient and comment upon it. But, like Amy said, it also had a regional focus as well.

Dude, JJ, you got me! I haven't been to the Takashimaya in Manhattan. If it's anything like the one in Tokyo, however: it will have expensive, luxury food items, kind of like a Dean & Deluca. Zeitoun's right, it had a great selection of teas, chocolates, and candies. I went to Tokyo in the spring of 2003, and at that time, Takashimaya carried a lot of sakura items, like sakura candies and ice cream. So, maybe try there, but now that Zeitoun's mentioned Mitsuwa, it seems to me that NJ might be a better bet. But, if you do go to Takashimaya, tell us what they have down in the food area.

Maybe Takashimaya will have it? Sounds like a luxury item. The JAS Mart on St. Marks' might also have it; that's the biggest JAS Mart in Manhattan, I think.

WOW! eGullet comes through again. Thank you guys so much. This has given me a great start. By MHesse : //Is the Stella Doro bakery plant still open in the Bronx// I pass by the bakery when driving from Westchester to my apartment. Do you have an exact location for it? Zeitoun, thank you for all your input. This really sounds great to me: //There is one called Blue Mountain Cuisine at 3762 Boston Road.// I went to Negril last month, and seeing the words "Blue Mountain" makes me very happy, esp. if that restaurant has the same great Jamaican coffee. These tips were fantastic, and hopefully I will be good about reporting my findings not only to the Bx Beat, but here as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't WAIT to explore all this places!

This semester, I will be an arts/entertainment/culture reporter for the Bronx Beat, the Columbia J-School-produced weekly newspaper. We've gotten specific requests from other reporters to work on the Bronx food scene--of course, I was planning to dig into this anyway. But, I need your help. Next week, I'll be exploring the borough: I'll be touring the Hunts Point market with someone in charge of it, and I'll also be walking the streets with a native Bronx reporter. I know that Arthur Avenue is an area dominated by food, but I'm wondering if there are any other enclaves (most likely immigrant neighborhoods) that also have good food scenes. I'm wondering: are there South Asian neighborhoods up there? Middle Eastern? I'm thinking that Bronx's diversity might resemble that of Queens, but I'm not sure. A guy from City Planning once told me to explore the communities surrounding hospitals; there are usually Filipino communities and restaurants that are located close to local hospitals (at least, that's how it works in Queens). So I want to explore those. But, are there any other neighborhoods with strong or growing food scenes that you guys would recommend? Any help you guys can give would be much appreciated! I'm quite excited about this assignment, actually, even if Arthur Ave. is the only place that I go to cover food this semester.

Oh, holy moles, I've been jumping to the second page without reading the first one this whole time. Thanks, Kristin. EDIT: Punctuation.