Its a bit surprising given that this isnt a british place, but in the wikipedia entry for "pudding" there is this note: in the UK and Australia "pudding" is used as synonym for a dessert course.

are you looking for it as an ingredient or a beverage? many mexican places will carry aguas frescas or fresh fruit drinks. ideally a sandia (watermelon) agua fresca is nothing more than blended watermelon, maybe with a little sugar depending on the melon/maker. sorry i cant give you tips on where exactly to look, but if you have a local taqueria/mexican market its worth checking it out.

i'm of the opinion that reading previous responders posts generates better discussions, BUT if you are only interested in responding to the original poster, then use the "[leftward curved arrow] reply" button on the original post - otherwise the system that CH uses to display and organize posts will put your comment in as a response to another reply, as opposed to the original post.

i think he meant that you appear to have replied to bronwen's comment, not the original post.

there have been some changes to how posts display here lately that seem to bury responses to subsequent posters more than when people respond to the OP.

pretty certain no insult was intended.

its quite possible that in the 7+ years since this thread was started that the Bk heights/Downtown BK "borders" have shifted somewhat. its certainly the case that downtown is much more happening than it used to be, so perhaps its just less daunting to call the area downtown than it used to be.

That said, i personally think of Court as the border between the heights and downtown, with Queen lying on the Brooklyn Heights side of the border, but its a pretty marginal case by that definition.

We tend to order delivery from Koto on 6th ave and Bergen, who will deliver to us down in the south slope. if were going out in the neighborhood Ten has been pretty reliable, despite the somewhat tacky effort at upscale decor (my mother-in-law really liked the light up ice cube that came with the sashimi platter) and a once-less-than-stellar DOH grade. its not destination sushi by any stretch, but both are more than okay for when the need hits and we cant get into the city for something better.

oh god! must have been before my first cup of coffee. good catch nokitchen.

my bad - i guess i should have left it at "south asians" without more specific intel. i just meant that it has a s. asian focus but they carry lots of spices of various origins/uses.

maybe this is the wrong venue for this discussion, but the ambiguous pan-south-asian/middle eastern vibe at kalustyan's always struck me as somewhat odd. they clearly stock lots of indian/south asian products (including the majority of their house-made items), but also stuff from all over the middle east. i think the part i love the best is the encyclopedic knowledge of all the various things that the latino employees have acquired over their tenures there.

its monday, so it may be a little easier, but ive definitely been deterred from going to HC before due to long wait times (usually at prime hours on fri/sat nights).

they are on opentable, though it appears that the closest reservation for 4 available is at 645. this may tell you something. . .

Strangely enough Mocha is the name of a popular franchised chain of coffee and hookah shops across India :

http://www.franchisebusiness.in/c/Moc...

I think the canonical answer here is kalustyans on lexington for variety (though many would, rightfully, point out that they dont offer the lowest prices around, but if you want breadth or a specific hard-to-find-item, or cinnamon sourced from 9 different countries/regions, they are great).

also was recently in Dual Specialty on 6th ave/1st St in the east village, which had a very broad selection (its indian owned and run but they had a ton of non-indian spices too) and much better pricing.

both do a lot of business and turnover would be high, though for any given item that may not always hold true, obviously.

i think you'll probably do better via phone - we ate at renato e luisa on a recent trip and really enjoyed it. in fact it was the place i thought of when i read the title of your post about 15 people (its a fairly large space - the main room was anyway, we were seating in the slightly smaller back room, still fairly spacious but we live in NYC so everything seems spacious)

they exist. what do you mean by "interesting" and what are your preferences more generally?

Im a sucker for both. We were there last week and highlights included a new (to me) pie featuring a bunch of different peppers (which doesnt seem to be on the current version of their website so i cant get the name) as well as two non-pizza dishes, an excellent calamari and the chicken "confit" with bagna cauda, which caused some raised eyebrows at our table when i ordered it but then those same eyebrow owners were fighting over wiping the plate clean.

the bee sting will forever have a special place in my heart (we served it at our roberta's catered wedding)

We also got the meatballs at Roscioli, and im pretty sure i remember from both the menu and taste that the shredded cheese is smoked, adding yet another incredible layer of complexity to the already deep flavor.

and those pomodorini were really, truly excellent.

Is annisa too eclectic and/or too fancy/dressy? (there was a recent conversation about the formalness there - its not stuffy and im pretty certain theres no dress code but some folks may be dressed up). The tables are very well spaced and the setting quite intimate compared to many places in the city.

xian is totally, very definitely, worth doing. the "burgers" are great - and as much love as the cumin lamb gets, i personally think the stewed pork one is even better.

Totonno's in coney island is a pretty easy drive (and, if you are going to midtown after not grossly out of the way). Parkings pretty easy - no beer on tap though they do have shitty wine in single serving bottles. is there beer at totonnos?

I was replying to rose water, not the OP. perhaps rw's hankering isnt strong enough to justify the trip. maybe they have a car?

id make the trip just for the saturday special hydrabadi masala dosa with a thick smear of incindiary green chili paste on the inside and huge pat of melting ghee on top. and the excellent sambar, which i usually can take or leave, even in india.

even narrowing it to brooklyn still leaves many options - is there a neighborhood or section of the borough your guests will be staying in/coming from?

also, is the 50-80 dollars inclusive of service and taxes as well as beverages? is your crowd full of big drinkers? beer/wine or liquor also?

Yeah, as a late 20s person who often feels old in NY bars, getting your target demographic down was pretty important. Brooklyn Inn is not one of those places, but far from stuffy/boring also. I guess they have been closed for renovations for a bit but im pretty certain they just reopened.

Hmmm, before i read the body of your post i was thinking Brookly Inn, which is about a 10 minute walk down Hoyt, but is, in my opinion, a pretty cool and laid back bar. If your priority is proximity, i suppose there must be better (closer) options.

Is the wedding at the hotel? how many people are you thinking you will be with? ages and bar-style preferences?

You mention Eataly - the rooftop bar/restaurant Birreria is pretty nice and midweek, midday you might not have to deal with the crowds/maddening waits that you'd see on weekends or evenings.

Can you get out to flushing for the hindu temple society canteen? its kind of a schlep but man, so good.

we ate at Roscioli (salumeria, not forno) a few nights before Renato e Luisa and found it to be excellent (i know it has taken some hits on this board for attitude, maybe as NYers we were just used to it?).

Forno Campo di Fiori i stopped into to grab a piece of pizza bianca, but i dont recall seating and certainly not service, but perhaps i missed something? it seemed to be basically a bakery.

Honestly - id have you rush to Roscioli (my wife said she would have gone back the next night and ordered the exact same things). The carbonara was the best we ate in rome, the smoked mozz on the meatballs was fantastic, and the burrata was only topped by the stuff we had made the second before we ate it at a private function.

Don't get me wrong, i LOVE "COPS!" (the show, not the people) - it just stuck out to me as indicative of the rank amateurishness of their restaurant endeavor (along with the obviously thrifted/repurposed sign)

my food memory may have been a bit slowed by the lack of coffee this morning (or excess of wine the night we dined at renato e luisa) but other people in our party had (and i sampled) some great lamb chops, a filet in a wine reduction with prunes, an excellent arrabiata, and a plate of mixed antipasti including fried flor di zucca, and cheese stuffed dates.

had a really great dinner at renato e luisa on our recent visit to rome. it wasnt sunday but elizabeth minchilli seems to indicate they are open on sundays (not mondays, though).

http://www.elizabethminchilliinrome.c...

it had a very local feel - lots of families and several kids of various ages. our server was positively hysterical, reluctant but able to speak english, even if some of his usage was amusing ("hotted" in place of roasted, "jumped" for sautee).

great specials and wine, we had both the octopus and squid ink dish linked in the post above and a special of mixed lamb offal with artichokes and ricotta which was sublime. and its perfectly located near your place.

its different enough that i didnt notice until halfway through a brunch that someone in our party was eating a dish i had ordered at al di la about a month before.

Im eager to hear other reports. My appraisal (as a neighbor) has been fairly superficial - for a place with "cafe" in the name their coffee business seemed suprisingly weak, and even with the closing of the popular if snooty Cafe 474 across the street they havent done much to capture it. Is opening a coffee shop at 8am reasonable?

Dont get me wrong - i love a good dive, but why does the TV have an episode of COPS! on every time i walk past?

I wish i had a picture but i love that the "tiny sign [that] says Caribbean Food" is clearly repurposed from anther restaurant, it has stock photography of a random chicken breast with rosemary and a cup of coffee on it, and when its lit up you can plainly see where they covered another word with the word Caribbean.