Digest

Our favorite products, gadgets, restaurants, bars, wine, beer, and food websites and blogs.
» General Topics Digest

The Green Parts of Green Garlic

The bulbs of green (immature) garlic are milder in flavor than mature garlic bulbs, says LNG212. But what about the green, leafy parts? danhole uses them raw like chives, and finds they’re just right in intensity, not so strong in flavor as to be overpowering. Bat Guano says, “They taste like mild garlic, with a sort of green leafy undertone. The same way the green parts of scallions taste like onions, except milder and … greener.”

foodwich finds the leafy parts to be aggressive in flavor, and prefers them either cooked or “combined with something to tamp down the intensity.” During the winter in India, green garlic is chopped fine and mixed into spicy ground lamb, which is served on a platter with raw eggs on top, says foodwich. Scalding hot ghee is poured over, and it’s eaten with flatbread.

Board Link: Can one eat the leafy green part of green-garlic?

Posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 by Sarah Perry in General Topics Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» General Topics Digest

Hot Lime Pickle on Everything

Indian hot lime pickle, also known as lime chutney, is “the single greatest thing I’ve discovered since moving to the UK,” says Kagey. It works beautifully in traditional Indian dishes such as dal, but also fuses perfectly with scrambled eggs and rotisserie chicken. “I can’t eat Coco Rico chicken without the stuff now,” says moh. hungry_pangolin likes puréed lime pickle served over pan-fried white fish, while gordeaux purées it with sour cream and shovels it down with potato chips. emerilcantcook eats lime pickle on sandwiches with cold cuts and cheese, and testifies to its addictiveness: “If I knew that it would taste good with Oreos, I would even try that.”

Board Link: lime pickle: interesting combinations

Posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 by Sarah Perry in General Topics Digest | 1 Comment
More like this:

» General Topics Digest

Mexican-Made Peruvian Beans

kare_raisu reports that Chata, a Mexican company from the state of Sinaloa, produces canned refried mayocoba beans that are delicious. Look for them in your local supermercado or mexicatessen. Also known as Peruvian beans or Peruanos, you can find them dried and soak them yourself, says DiveFan. So why use canned? “Convenience, bra,” replies kare_raisu.

Board Link: Chata canned beans

Posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 by Sarah Perry in General Topics Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» Los Angeles Digest

Not Your Standard-Issue Indian Street Food

Surati Farsan Mart is the only entity in LA that does justice to street food from India, declares losfelizhound, and it holds its own against some of the above-average places in Bombay, too.

Pani puri is a must-order. It consists of A) wheat puffs, B) cold soup, and C) lentils with potatoes. Put some C into A, then dunk into B, and voilà: tangy, hot, and sour perfection. There’s also an intense mint chutney.

Just down the street, Standard Sweets & Snacks looks like the newest street-food joint in Little India, but it’s just been on hiatus for a couple of years, says boogiebaby. It doesn’t really compete with Surati Farsan, but it does offer an unusual Gujarati specialty, mogho pinni, or boiled yam in a spiced tomato sauce—very sour, but delicious in its own way.

Standard’s pani puri isn’t as good as Surati Farsan’s, but the puffs are fresher, and they seem handmade.

Surati Farsan Mart [Little India]
11814 E. 186th Street, Artesia
562-860-2310

Standard Sweets & Snacks [Little India]
18600 Pioneer Boulevard, Artesia
562-809-5009

Board Link: Review: Standard Sweets and Snacks (Long)

Posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 by Cicely Wedgeworth in Los Angeles Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» Los Angeles Digest

Mediterranean Find on Pico

Clean and friendly, City Best Chicken serves consistently delicious chicken shawarma, kebab, and lula; and beef and lamb gyros, says FishFood.

Each entrée comes with a choice of four sides, including tabbouleh, hummus, mutabbal (baba ghanoush), Greek salad, and more.

City Best Chicken [Mid-City]
5303 W. Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles
323-938-7409

Board Link: Great Kabob, Shawerma, Gyros - Pico and Fairfax Area FINALLY!

Posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 by Cicely Wedgeworth in Los Angeles Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» Los Angeles Digest

A Little Taste of Wat Thai

Although there’s no sign that the food court at the Thai temple in North Hollywood is coming back, a couple of the vendors have resurfaced at the nearby New King Seafood Supermarket, says Hypnotic23. Look to your left as you enter; one has satay skewers, the other mango and sticky rice.

Check out Silom Supermarket on weekends, where you’ll find vendors of khanom (sweets) and curry, plus the still warm tapioca-pork dumplings and minced-meat salad on the shelves by the checkout counter, says Erik M.

Lax-C, the giant Thai supermarket, also has several vendors on weekends, with skewers and sweets, plus ready-made stuff inside the market. Its Isaan sausage is mass produced but pretty darn good, notes TonyC.

New King Seafood Supermarket [San Fernando Valley–East]
12811 Sherman Way, North Hollywood
818-982-2082

Silom Supermarket [Mid-City]
5321 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles
323-993-9000

Lax-C Inc. [Downtown]
1100 N. Main Street, Los Angeles
323-343-9000

Board Links: Fans of the NoHo Thai Temple Food Stands
Thai Street Food Vendors

Posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 by Cicely Wedgeworth in Los Angeles Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» Manhattan Digest

Promising New Barbecue at Wildwood

Wildwood, Manhattan’s newest barbecue joint, is “the real deal,” declares drumwine. Its short ribs are “as good as it gets,” he says, and its brisket is moist, smoky, and less fatty than the much-praised version at at last year’s ’cue conqueror, Hill Country.

“So so good,” seconds roze, who favors the beef ribs and finds the pulled pork “pretty awesome” but prefers the bacon baked beans at another local favorite, RUB. Among the other sides, cornbread and mac ’n’ cheese are first rate, says GTopp.

Wildwood’s pitmaster honed his skills in barbecue competition and later at Hill Country and Daisy May’s, so expectations were unusually high, and thus far the newcomer has not disappointed. Its arrival, RGR observes, adds one more destination to Manhattan’s growing ’cue quarter, also home to hound hangouts Hill Country, RUB, and Blue Smoke.

Wildwood Barbeque [Gramercy]
225 Park Avenue S. (near E. 18th Street), Manhattan
212-533-2500

Board Links: Wildwood BBQ
Early Wildwood BBQ Reports?

Posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 by Mark Hokoda in Manhattan Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» Outer Boroughs Digest

Real Russian, Minus the Floor Show

New York’s Russian nightspots often are flashy, over the top, and not for everyone. “I tend to like places that are smaller and less showy,” says StrawbrryF, a Russian hound. Here are some of her humbler favorites:

In Queens, she recommends Emerald in Rego Park, especially for kebabs and other meat dishes; standouts include lamb and beef, served with spicy tomato sauce. Also good: samsa (meat-filled pastries), fresh-baked flatbreads, and a simple spring salad. While Emerald isn’t the Vegas-style showroom you might find in Brighton Beach, on weekends you can “expect to listen to a singer and watch drunk Russian people celebrate birthdays/anniversaries, etc.,” StrawbrryF notes.

In Brooklyn, she likes Stolovaya, a modest, dinerlike spot in Sheepshead Bay, known for its pelmeni (meat dumplings). “Here,” she says, “there will never be a show: there’s simply no room. Just some good ol’ fashioned eating in unpretentious surroundings.” nokitsch, in dissent, suggests that Stolovaya has gone downhill.

In the flashy/over-the-top category, ConOrama endorses the Brighton Beach showplace Tatiana, which delivered “more food, vodka and gaudiness than I had ever seen in my life,” highlighted by delicious grilled lamb chops. At Tatiana and other palaces of food, drink, and show biz, nokitsch says don’t expect true Russian food, but instead eclectic Russian-continental fare where “you will sooner see things like eel and duck salad rather than pelmeni. It’s still great fun though. Russian kitsch = best kitsch in the world.”

Emerald [Rego Park]
97-04 Queens Boulevard (near 64th Road), Rego Park, Queens
718-275-2045

Stolovaya [Sheepshead Bay]
813 Avenue U (between East Eighth and Ninth streets), Brooklyn
718-787-0120

Tatiana [Brighton Beach]
3152 Brighton Sixth Street (at Brightwater Court), Brooklyn
718-891-5151

Board Link: Tatiana Restaurant and Club, Brighton Beach

Posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 by Mark Hokoda in Outer Boroughs Digest | No Comments
More like this:

» Manhattan Digest

In Little Italy, Cheap Marcona Almonds

Di Palo’s in Little Italy, a go-to spot for cheeses and other Italian foodstuffs, also has a hard-to-beat deal on marcona almonds from Spain, Benjamin68 reports. He spied them recently at $9.99 a pound, “by far the cheapest I’ve ever seen them for in the city.” The same nuts, imported by Mitica, go for $16 to $18 a pound at such places as Murray’s and Whole Foods, he adds.

Benjamin advises going on weekdays at an off hour to avoid a long line. The earlier the better, MMRuth adds; the marconas tend to sell out not long after the doors open.

Di Palo’s Fine Foods [Little Italy]
200 Grand Street (at Mott Street), Manhattan
212-226-1033

Board Link: DiPalo selling marcona almonds for peanuts

Posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 by Mark Hokoda in Manhattan Digest | 1 Comment
More like this:

» San Francisco Bay Area Digest

North Chinese, Home-Cooked Style

There may be hits and misses at Sun Tung, says K K, but the hits “are spot on and provide that home cooking feeling (especially if you are from Northern China somewhere or Taiwan).” K K adds that it’s a simple, homey, small, mom-and-pop sort of place.

It serves “fresh and tasty dishes without MSG and at very reasonable prices,” says akbaron. It has all the familiar standards, such as excellent hot and sour soup, and kung pao everything, but akbaron adds that “they’ll also prepare stuff from Northern China, their former homeland.”

There’s good niu rou mien (beef noodle soup), with “slurpy and bouncy” noodles. There’s a special on the wall in Chinese, called “suan miao dou gan,” which is strips of marinated, dried tofu stir-fried with julienned bits of yellow garlic stem—a “super homey dish that tasted exponentially better with self help application of white pepper,” says K K. And there’s “excellent” ma yi shang shu (bean thread noodles stir fried with minced pork and soy sauce).

There are some good weekend brunch items too, continues K K, such as sweet hot soy milk, crunchy Chinese doughnuts, and very authentically Taiwanese jieo tsai her zi (toasty baked boxes of chive, bean thread noodles, and egg).

Sun Tung [Peninsula]
153 S. B Street, San Mateo
650-342-5330

Board Link: Sun Tung Restaurant–a real find!

Posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 by C. Thi Nguyen in San Francisco Bay Area Digest | No Comments
More like this:

Page 1 of 812345»...Last »