tex.s.toast's Profile
The Manhattan Pizza Crawl, 2012. Maffei, Co., John's of Bleecker, Keste, Rubirosa, Forcella.
if rrems didnt like the crust i dont see how ordering a margherita would have fixed it. i think what gets lost pretty often in our discussions of food is the subjectivity of taste. im not personally a big fan of the super thin, crisp, almost -crackery crust at Rubirosa (though i really enjoy their non-pizza menu). regardless of topings or authenticity, its fair to say that pizzas that are aiming for Neopolitan style (where neopolitan means "from naples" and not just "round pizza") are going to have puffier, doughier crusts (with, generally speaking, wetter middles) with wood-fired char flavor. The fried pizzas are a probable exception to the char - frying a neopolitan crust doesnt really make it crisp so much as prevent some of the usual/characteristic sogginess caused by sauce and toppings pooling in the middle.
anyone tried aarpan indian on 5th ave?
can you describe the chennai chicken curry? how "wet" was it?
as for the papadum, im afraid the secret to restaurant papadum is deep frying (not that you went out for indian food because its healthy). they are actually super easy to make at home - and dirt cheap. you can buy stacks of uncooked ones at any indian grocer and microwave them into crispness (assuming you own a microwave, which we dont). i like to throw the popped ones over a gas burner for a second to get a little char on em before eating.
Distinguishing Factors in Determining Good (authentic) Mexican Cuisine in Manhattan: Kahlua's Cafes and other venues in El Berrio
there is good al pastor in sunset park, though its pretty far from its lebanese origins. i know there are at least a few places that are somewhat known for their tacos arabes in the outer boroughs as well (though ive not had any that really spoke to me).
Distinguishing Factors in Determining Good (authentic) Mexican Cuisine in Manhattan: Kahlua's Cafes and other venues in El Berrio
yeah, it still bothers me when buche is described as stomach - the best descriptions ive seen call it "crop" which is apparently a pre-digestive organ (though it would appear to have a differnet use in British English).
my favorite taco shop in santa barbara had ojos tacos on the menu, but they were made of mostly the muscles and tendons from around the eyes, there were no lenses or eyeballs to be found.
in general id say it is somewhat unfair to say that not having lots of offal on the menu disqualifies a Mexican place as inauthentic (while acknowledging that most discussions of authenticity are kind of a joke to begin with) in the same way that it would a Chinese spot. Not having at least 3-4 different preparations of pork, on the other hand would be a sure indication that they were cooking for gringos.
Distinguishing Factors in Determining Good (authentic) Mexican Cuisine in Manhattan: Kahlua's Cafes and other venues in El Berrio
this had me rolling. im really feeling this "chowhounding-as-performance-art" trend . . .
Meat curing salt
id guess the later . . . nothing wrong with sugar (especially in cured things) but id rather add mine separately and at whatever ratio i choose. i do think for home-made cured items its pretty important to follow recipes, at least the first time (which is not, generally, my inclination). just because a recipe works with one type of preservative doesnt neccessarily mean it will work with a different one.
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
I dunno - i agree that providing ample, free water (at a variety of temperatures) would be ideal. but i think its a long way from "they were irresponsible as event organizers to not have better access to water and policies which allowed water to be brought in" to "i couldnt get water at my desired temperature".
Im sure they could have gotten the NYC Water people: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/wotg.shtml to come in and set up fountains, but they were trying to turn a profit, and drinks were very probably their primary vehicle for doing so. it would have been dishonest and shitty of them to not allow drinks(water) to be brought in while charging crazy markups for bottled water. but they didnt do that. i dont think its unreasonable to expect people who want cold water to pay for it.
Meat curing salt
im not familiar with Tender Quick specifically, but it seems to be a mix of salt, sugar, sodium nitrate and nitrite and a stabalizer. Kalustyans doesnt (tot he best of my knowledge) sell this exact product. but as kathrym mentions down thread, they have both prague powder #1/pink salt which is salt with sodium nitrite, and i believe (but am not 100% sure) that they also carry #2 which has sodium nitrate in it as well.
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
thats actually not true. their website (and tickets) explicitly encouraged the use of re-usable (and therefore unsealed) websites. unlike, say, the mets, who do check for the seals with water bottles entering CitiField, there was no such scrutiny by GM security staff.
they did a lot of things wrong, but their water policy is, i think, one of the areas they actually got right.
Meat curing salt
my fairly recent search for curing salts took me to a variety of drug stores without success - i ended up going to kalustyans. you could probably get them cheaper online, but unless youre planning on starting an at-home pate business, the quantities online ordering requires dont seem worth it.
Foodie Jobs in Delhi
yeah, it was quite an experience, seeing them stirring vats of sambar with spoons the size of oars, the workers taking curry leaves off of full sized shrubs (bundles upon bundles of them). my knife skills were also apparently enough for me to earn some credibility with the staff (despite less than ideal impliments).
Are there any old-time soda parlor/candy shops still around?
bob96, or anyone else for that matter, have you been to the reopened Hinsch's? it seems like (from reading about the reopening) the new owners spruced up the decor a bit, which while generally commendable makes me a little sad - part of the place's charm was just how old it felt. the patrons and waitresses are probably the same, which would keep it from feeling too new (the time i brought my perenially dieting mother there and she tried to order a 2% milkshake only to be firmly shut down by our waitress was most memorable).
Lers Ros worth a trip for a neyorker who lives next to SriPraPhai?
I grew up in sf and now live in NY (sadly not next door to Sripraphi) and i think Dave MP hits this on the head. Im exctied to be planning a return to sf for the first time in a while and will most definitely prioritize burmese food (and probably a banh mi) on my trip because those are things i find more lacking in ny - we get to Zaab Elee in the east village enough that unless someone specifically wanted to take us for thai in SF id probably not try too hard to make it happen.
Noah's Ark and Bialys, a bit of history still found on the Lower East Side
I don't get how Noah's Ark can be considered a cheaper alternative the second avenue deli - the larger or the two sandwiches you cite is 2 bucks more than the basic sandwich at Second Ave (which im sure weighs half a pound). I dont love the second avenue deli frankly (not keeping kosher myself id always prefer a place that makes its food decisions based on taste and not 6000 year old arbitrary preferences) but i think its a little unfair to say that an 18 dollar sandwich is a great alternative to the pricy 16 dollar ones at second ave.
anyone tried aarpan indian on 5th ave?
do you mind telling us what you ordered? we rarely eat indian out (im pretty comfortable with cooking it myself) but i noticed from the linked menus in the post that they offer some less typical dishes outside the range of standard cookie cutter north indian spots. it would be kind of nice to have a nearby option if i didnt feel like cooking my own indian (for the record ive found kinara to be pretty servicable in an unassuming neighborhood kind of way).
Rehearsal Dinner in Dec.
faced with a similar dilema we opted for chinatown. cant comment on the noise factor since our rehearsal has yet to happen, but with a group a little larger than yours 40-50 we were able to get a private room in chinatown, so noise isnt something were worried about.
are you expecting booze to be included for the 40 bucks? (i notice your post says 'toasts")
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
I ask this out of genuine curiousity and not out of any judgementalness about your personal finacnes and choices of recreation:
did you really pay 250 dollars each for the unlimited food, booze and schmooze premium package and then go wait in line to pay 15 bucks for a sandwich with the 'regular folks'?
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
i have personal experience with similar festivals - the organizers take of gross reciepts can be as high as 33-35% (its another story altogether about how they negotiate into what counts as gross reciepts)
you didnt think M Wells actually got to keep all 15 bucks from that horse and foie sandwich, did you?
oh, and beer. they make money by being the provider of the alcohol, which is insanely profitable.
Advice - Mains under $30
Is Da Andrea a viable option? we had a really pretty great meal there last week (friday even, without a reservation) and their mains seem pretty close to 20 in almost all cases - we actually didnt order mains, but if the pastas and antipasti are a guide to the mains, they'd be well worth ordering.
After the Ball Fields
Good point about defonte's weekend hours - its really not a great "after the ballfields" snack type place, its more like a "after working a double in your construction job" or "after a marathon" kind of snack.
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
honestly - the number of vendors relative to the attendance was not one of the major flaws. i worked an event half again bigger, with fewer than 50% more vendors. Id lay some of the blame on the vendors themselves for not being prepared to deal with the volume - it takes a streamlined operation to run smoothly with those kind of numbers, and i think a lot of folks got hit harder than they expected.
My biggest quibbles with the organizers are the size of the meadow relative to the crowds - lines are inevitable, but the way they had things set up it was frequently difficult to tell what the lines were even for because there was insufficient space for lines as long as they had.
second, some of the policies were just amateur - wristbands needed to be available at the door, cash should have been accepted everywhere. and the beer booths (not the big tasting tents) were totally too small - they were running the beer operation out of jockey boxes with golf carts ferrying kegs around to the booths. full on refridgerated trucks with sufficiently trained and numbered staff would have been a much better call.
apparently sunday went way smoother - it just seemed like there was a lot of rookie bs on saturday during prime hours.
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
we stayed to hear the roots. i couldnt say for sure but it seemed like there were no lines during the concert, but it also looked like some of the vendors were already packing it in, so no lines may not be an indication of easy-to-get food.
it didnt seem to be just the organizers who were caught flat footed. joseph leonard was sold out of food by 330 (they said they planned to reopen by 5). a fair number of other booths (the chocolate banana people) were also sold out well before the end of the day.
Googa Mooga Food Festival in Prospect Park
Ive heard positive reports from folks who were there either early saturday or on sunday, but my experience arriving at 230 saturday was pretty shitshowtastic. epic lines and disorganization for everything - by the time we had gotten some beers we were feeling might defeated. ended up only getting the bacon flight at hammageddon, which i thought was pretty good (i was surprised that i liked the schaller and weber so much more than benton's, given its lauded foodie pedagree)
Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge..great lunch deal for a foodie....
i had assumed they would take the train one way and only walk the bridge one way.
Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge..great lunch deal for a foodie....
I think the manhattan bridge, even with the current work being done on the brooklyn bridge, is nowhere near as nice to walk on. the whole design and where the walkways are located relative to the roadway is less scenic.
its not a terrible plan if the OP loves walking (and bridges). it should be noted its not too far from most parts of chinatown to the entrance to the brooklyn bridge (but the manhattan is definitely closer)
Walking across the Brooklyn Bridge..great lunch deal for a foodie....
i personally prefer walking across out of brooklyn (no turning around for the city views, plus it means lunch options are chinatown - BB to Great NY Noodletown is in my tourists in town rotation pretty regularly).
if you're invested in walking the other way (from manhattan into brooklyn) you'll find yourself in dumbo or downtown brooklyn, not neighborhoods known for an over-abundance of awesome food. maybe the new shake shack?
im sure other folks will have suggestions, but your best options will be a bit further away, which is fine if youre ok with walking (ive walked over the brooklyn bridge with folks all the way down to smith street, where you would have lots of choices - but that may be further than you'd like to walk. if not, search the boards for carrol gardens or smith street and you'll see many options - maybe mile end?
Manhatten with Food Allergies!
Can you help us help you a bit? What types of restaurants generally work with your restrictions? I see no dairy/lactose and think asian, but the no peanuts/treenuts/sesame has me rethinking that. How close to 42nd and 9th do you need to be? is a short subway ride or cab okay?
Best restaurants for low carb/paleo eaters when dining out
Bumping this thread for a more specific suggestion - we're looking for a place that my lovely SO can carbo load before saturdays half marathon (preferably pasta or noodles - not neccessarily italian though) where i can do well with avoiding carbs.
constraints:
-moderate (less than 100 total, she wont be drinking and its unlikely ill be - see low carb above)
-somewhere we can actually get into tomorrow night
-no shellfish for her
i suppose we could try to go to somewhere like rubirosa and i could order the octopus salad/app and or meatballs (which i know have breadcrumbs, but this would be a cheat day for me so im ok with it). other thoughts?
suggestion for Italian, generous portions
thirding rubirosa - the small size of the gnocci (which is awesome) was so big that the first time we thought they had sent out the larger size.
