Help me find authentic Asian and Ethnic Cuisine?

[Mambwe]

I am new to this forum, but I have been reading posts for while. I can't beleive how much I have learned from this forum. I am hoping that you guys can point me in the right direction for a couple of restaurants in NYC.

1. I am looking for an Asian style restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. I want an authentic experience with some good food. I am sure there are a few of these places I am just not sure where they are.

2. Not sure if anyone has seen the movie "Along Came Polly" but they go to an ethnic restaurant and they both sit in front of a huge plate of food, which they are sharing, and they eat with their hands. There are no utensils. Do places like this exist?

Thanks in advance.

[feedmec00kies]

2. Not sure if anyone has seen the movie "Along Came Polly" but they go to an ethnic restaurant and they both sit in front of a huge plate of food, which they are sharing, and they eat with their hands. There are no utensils. Do places like this exist?

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Haven't seen the movie, but that sounds like Ethiopian. Check here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=46255

[Nathan]

it was Ethiopian.

the NY standards are Ghenet and Queen of Sheba.

[raji]

I am new to this forum, but I have been reading posts for while. I can't beleive how much I have learned from this forum. I am hoping that you guys can point me in the right direction for a couple of restaurants in NYC.

1. I am looking for an Asian style restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. I want an authentic experience with some good food. I am sure there are a few of these places I am just not sure where they are.

2. Not sure if anyone has seen the movie "Along Came Polly" but they go to an ethnic restaurant and they both sit in front of a huge plate of food, which they are sharing, and they eat with their hands. There are no utensils. Do places like this exist?

Japanese is usually going to be the only one with a shoes-off policy. Some restaurants also have sunken bottoms below the tables, so at least you get that feeling of the floor close to the table.

I'd suggest Aburiya Kinnosuke as seriously authentic, down to the utensils, and they have tatami rooms. Most of the midtown Izakaya also have tatami rooms, like Riki, Hizen, Ariyoshi. Downtown, Typhoon is probably the best you can do. Just call and ask if they have tatami rooms. I can't recommend AK enough, go there and you will thank me.

[LPShanet]

I am new to this forum, but I have been reading posts for while. I can't beleive how much I have learned from this forum. I am hoping that you guys can point me in the right direction for a couple of restaurants in NYC.

1. I am looking for an Asian style restaurant where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor. I want an authentic experience with some good food. I am sure there are a few of these places I am just not sure where they are.

2. Not sure if anyone has seen the movie "Along Came Polly" but they go to an ethnic restaurant and they both sit in front of a huge plate of food, which they are sharing, and they eat with their hands. There are no utensils. Do places like this exist?

Thanks in advance.

←

While it's Ethiopian that is depicted in Along Came Polly, there are a few cuisines that often will present food in a large communal vessel to be eaten with hands (or pieces of bread) to pick things up. A couple of Middle Eastern and North African (Moroccan, Tunisian) places do this as well. A good Middle Eastern option is Mamlouk in the East Village. They have a prix fixe menu that at last check included at least one course served in a giant metal vessel that you eat in the way described.