Brian S's Recent Activity
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
Leave the glitzy hotels and glassy skyscrapers of downtown, cruise a few blocks down Archer -- doing just what Bob Wills did in "Take Me Back to Tulsa" when he sang "let me off at Archer and I'll walk down to Greenwood" -- walk through the old wood door of Abears, and you'll enter a different world. A room smaller than a New York studio apartment -- and that's small! -- painted white. A counter along each side with about twelve chairs. A few old guys sitting around talking. A woman with her two small children waiting for a take-out order. A very hospitable owner to welcome you.
The menu is very simple and you can see it here: http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2574/4... I ordered the Shrimp & Catfish Basket, which came with fries for $9.65. I upgraded to fried okra for an extra 50¢. The okra was good, and the shrimp (3 big ones) and the catfish fillet, both fried, were exceptionally good. "Really glad you could come," the owner said as I left, "and I hope you'll be back." "As soon as I can," I replied, and meant it.
Abears on Greenwood, Tulsa
111 N Greenwood Av
592-1025
closes at 5:00 PM, closed all day Sunday and Monday, closed for one week after Thanksgiving
Tasha Bell's review: http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2009/10...
Bob Wills singing "Take Me Back to Tulsa" (version he sang in Tulsa, with Archer and Greenwood mentioned)
http://music.myspace.com/Modules/Musi...
Chowhound Post
A brilliant idea for always getting restaurants to cook steaks and burgers perfectly
Here is a video of the Letterman segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD--6e... A newspaper in the city where the guest was told to leave the steakhouse ran an editorial criticizing the restaurant as reflecting badly on the entire city and saying that if he ever returns, he should get a free steak, perfectly cooked.
http://www.custercountynews.com/cms/n...
Chowhound Post
Sriracha/chili garlic
I think the difference can be appreciated by knowing Sriracha's history:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/din...
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
CLAUD'S -- maybe Tulsa's best burger
That big flat kind of burger you used to see a lot of in Tulsa can be a work of art. I remember going to the 15th Street branch of Ron's when Ron Baber himself was working and watch him cook my burger with the grace of a ballerina. Then Ron retired and while Ron's is certainly thriving, the burgers just aren't the same. (they're quite good, though) I thought it was one of those Proustian taste memories that can never be recaptured. But today, happing to wander into Claud's, which I didn't used to like, I found it the same as years ago, same crowd, except the big older guy at the grill has been replaced by a big younger guy. Only five or six seats, so if you don't go at an off-hour you will stand. Easy to learn the menu; your choice: burgers and burgers. You can get french fries or cole slaw too.Ordered the biggest size they had, extra rare. Thin, juicy, flavorful, big as the plate... a burger to be admired. So Ron's crown has passed to Claud's.
Claud's Hamburgers Tulsa
3834 S Peoria Ave (right across from Weber's, why not have a root beer for dessert??)
742-8332
open to 4 most days, closed Sun and Mon
If you would like to use their hamburgers as wallpaper, go to
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3650/3...
but the one in the photo doesn't look half as good as the one I got.
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
TULSA'S FIRST IRANIAN RESTAURANT
Ever since I saw the wonderful Iranian film Fish Fall in Love a few years ago, I've had a jones for Persian food. But there was none in New York and none in Tulsa either... until a few weeks ago, when a new Iranian restaurant opened. It was reviewed in the Tulsa World, which didn't say a word about it being Iranian, but the names of a few dishes tipped me off. And in fact, on getting there, I discovered most of the food was indeed a sort of nondescript Mediterranean. My friends ordered a mixed platter of that for $9. Not bad, with a cabbage roll, rice, hummus, tabouli, some pressed meat from a rotisserie, but not Persian, and nothing like that movie, in which the lead character is a restaurant chef and half the movie is devoted to loving shots of plate after delicious plate coming out of her kitchen, each more scrumptious-looking than the last. The only Iranian thing they had was two kinds of khoresht (stews). I asked the very friendly proprietor of the place what she would recommend (she looked like she stepped out of that movie, by the way), and she said the khoresht gaimeh ($11). So I ordered it. It was quite good.... a soup bowl with beef, potatoes, and lentils afloat in a red gravy spiced with cumin. It came with a platter of basmati rice and a bowl of yoghurt sauce. I'm not sure it's worth the trip for the food, but maybe for the ambiance too. It was about 3:30 PM and wave after wave of Iranian teenage schoolkids came in to mix with the older Iranian customers who were there already. Yes the decor is like that of a plastic fast-food place, but I remember from long ago that north Tehran had lots of modern places like that, so yes you could pretend you were in Tehran.
ALI BABA MEDITERRANEAN GRILL
Tulsa
4709 E 51 St
488-1818
Tulsa World review: http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/articl...
a short part of that Iranian movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEDhL5...
Chowhound Post
A brilliant idea for always getting restaurants to cook steaks and burgers perfectly
Oh is it? I had the same trouble in New York, trying to order plato montanero at my favorite Colombian restaurant. So I phoned the Colombian embassy. They told me to ask for "huerta! huerta!" which I think means something like "bang! bang!" It worked.
Chowhound Post
A brilliant idea for always getting restaurants to cook steaks and burgers perfectly
Ah yes. Eating in Chinatown is always a challenge and a delight. http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/328296 When in New York (which I haven't been in a long while, sadly) I maintain a huge collection of menus written in Chinese and English. When I get a Chinese-only menu that I can take home, I use my collection to translate it. If I can't take it home, I learn characters from the collection that can guide my ordering. Of course, there are pitfalls. 雞 is chicken. But 田雞 isn't some kind of chicken. It is frog.
Chowhound Post
A brilliant idea for always getting restaurants to cook steaks and burgers perfectly
This idea also works in restaurants where they don't speak your language. You don't speak Chinese and you want to order 東坡肉 or (if you like it spicy) some 五更腸旺? Just get a clear photo using Google images, print it out, and show it to your waiter.
Chowhound Post
TULSA -- Lunch in Utica Square
Thanks! I go to Palace Café quite often for lunch and brunch and have reviewed it here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5939...
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
Not only to myself. Anyone searching for any of these restaurants on Google will see this post within the first 30 results, sometimes within the top ten.
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
Good news - bad news on the Brasserie brunch. I dragged some friends along and strong-armed them into ordering the trout amadine. Sadly, it doesn't come with a cream sauce anymore. Still quite good though. The good news is that I've had two other brunch entrees, both excellent. Eggs Benedict, very well done. Beef Stroganoff ($12) was wonderful. Homemade noodles and a rich, yummy sauce that was as good as I've had. (Not that I've had Beef Stroganoff that often lately.)
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
MARY'S ITALIAN TRATTORIA
Mary's looks like the sort of joint you'd find in the back streets of Brooklyn, old family photos and knickknacks on the walls and full of old guys from the neighborhood lingering over vino and spaghetti con vongole. But when I tried it several years ago, it just wasn't good enough to mention on Chowhound. Now it is. I've been there twice, and both meals were excellent. The first time, spaghetti alla puttanesca ($10)... and they made it just right. The next time, chicken cacciatore ($12.50), which was chicken fillets topped with a tomato-based sauce... not exactly how Marcella Hazan says to make it, but a very good sauce. (It was accompanied with a side of spaghetti with a different tomato sauce.) Open for dinner only, and though it might not compare with the very best of Brooklyn, it's certainly worth a trip.
1313 E 15th St (near corner of Peoria)
(918) 585-2495
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
SWEET LISA'S CAFE -- Great Southern chow in Northside
I'd be tempted to call Sweet Lisa an undiscovered gem. But by 4 PM it was packed. So I'll just call it a gem. This Northside newcomer has a simple menu of main dishes: pork or fish. The fish is either catfish or tilapia, and you can have it (or the pork) grilled or fried. All my friends chose the fried catfish. So did I and it was excellent. The real stars of the show, though, are the side dishes. We got candied yams, fried okra, mashed potatoes. The okra was unusually flavorful, the gravy on the potatoes was stellar, and the yams were so great we fought over them. I've heard they bake some mean desserts, but they didn't have any on Monday. Service is great; it's the owner's family. Portions are huge. I ordered three pieces of catfish, which cost $10 including 2 sides, and could barely finish it.
Sweet Lisa's Cafe
782 E. Pine St.(corner of Lansing, east of Peoria)
592-4423
Tulsa World review:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/scene/artic...
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
GENGHIS GRILL, Cherry Street
Tulsa now has a Genghis Grill, right on 15th Street near Utica. Since this is a chain, I'll just say a few words about the Tulsa location -- such as the prices, which are evidently lower than most locations, $11 at lunch for all you can eat. It features Asian-influenced stir fries, made to order. In fact, totally selected by you, and it looks like a Top Chef competition. You're given a metal bowl holding about a pint. You go to a counter with a selection of raw meat and seafood and put it in your bowl. Then you go to a similar counter with vegetables. A third counter has lots of spices (e.g ginger powder, chili powder) which you can toss on the bowl. Then you put your bowl on a counter near the wok and get a second smaller bowl and fill it with one of a large selection of sauces (or blend them), put that bowl next to the first bowl, and call the chef. He puts them on a huge flat wok (like a Pakistani tawa) and cooks your order, which a waiter brings to your table.
I filled my bowl with shrimp and steak cubes and tossed in a few mushrooms. (Meat is a better deal than broccoli.) I put in some ginger, too much as it turns out -- best to skip the spices unless you know what you're doing. Then I filled my sauce bowl, choosing "red curry peanut" from the 14 sauces on tap. It all tasted quite good ... not like a Thai panang curry or anything else authentically Asian (and it's not supposed to be) but good nonetheless. And where else can you get unlimited good-quality shrimp cooked to order for $11?
GENGHIS GRILL, TULSA
1617 E 15 St
574-2695
www.genghisgrill.com
One bowl only is $9 before 4 PM, $10 after
Unlimited bowls are $11 before 4 and $13 after
Chowhound Post
Eating dogs, cats, horses, etc.
A new study suggests that it was Chowhounds in southern China who first domesticated the wolf and thereby gave the world the dog.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/sci...
Chowhound Post
Tulsa Restaurant Week - Sept 7 to 13 --- will you go?
Thanks! Menus are here:
http://www.tulsapeople.com/index.php?...
Chowhound Post
Best brunch in Tulsa
Since Wagoner is not in Tulsa, I nominate Brasserie! See http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/5939...
Other good options: Lucky's, Palace Café, Jazmo's. See http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/593960 Last time I passed Kilkenny's it had reopened, though you might want to phone before heading over there.
Chowhound Post
Tulsa Restaurant Week - Sept 7 to 13 --- will you go?
It's on again! From September 13 through 19.
http://www.cfbeo.org/rw.html
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
BRUNCH AT THE BRASSERIE
If you're looking for a place on Brookside to have brunch, I don't think you can do better than the Brasserie. It's a large and rather elegant space, and the brunch menu (served 11 to 4 on Sunday only) has lots of yummy-looking brunchy dishes such as Eggs Benedict, Eggs Norwegian (eggs and herbed cream with lox), sandwiches and tartes. I ordered one of the few things also on the dinner menu, Trout Amandine ($10). I expected the usual fish with a few slivered almonds sadly lurking on top. What came instead was a delight. A trout filet perched atop a mound of dark green leeks. Hidden under that was scalloped potatoes cooked with cheese. On top of the fish were a few cherry tomato halves. They had been macerated in capers, olives and lemon juice and had an intense tart flavor. All around this was a lake of rich cream sauce, like a sauce béchamel made with cream. Thankfully, not the usual trout Amadine, though there were a few almond slivers hidden among the leeks. But the best brunch entree I've had in Tulsa.
3509 S Peoria Ave
(3509 is a big building that has several stores, the Brasserie is in the back and may be best entered from a courtyard in the side street.)
779-7070
http://www.thebrasserietulsa.com/
Chowhound Post
Casa Vasca -- Great Basque food in Newark
And I wish I could get this food in Tulsa! Your family sure created a wonderful place! A lot of Basque immigrants settled in California though, and if you try the California boards you could find great stuff like this:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/340247
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
MEXICAN CHOW ZONE AT 21ST AND GARNETT
If you want a burrito or some nachos there's a thousand places to go, but if you want authentic Mexican chow cooked by Mexicans for Mexicans, you might want to head to the corner of 21st and Garnett. South of there along Garnett you'll find Mexican groceries, Mexican bars, Mexican travel agents, Mexican discos, and lots of restaurants too. There's 7 Marez just south of the corner, a few taquerias and torta shops, including one inside a big grocery, and then, a block south, is Casa San Marcos. A tiny place, not much larger (or more elegant) than a Papa John's takeout pizza place...though more colorful, since the outside wall has bright and somewhat garish paintings of fish, shrimp, and other tasty critters. Definitely Mexican and with a surprisingly large menu. 12 different shrimp dishes, most $9.50, including Camarones Borrachos (drunk shrimp, cooked in wine) Camarones Costa Azul (shrimp wrapped in bacon), several fish dishes, most $9.50, including Mojarra Ranchera, a fried tilapia served with onions and peppers, and several seafood stews (between $9.50 and $11.25). Menudo ($6) on weekends. I ordered tongue in green sauce ($8.50), which is the closest thing they had to a molé, and it was good. Lots of tongue, and the green sauce had a sprightly fresh taste thanks to ground tomatillos and herbs. They serve the more standard fare, e.g. enchiladas and quesadillas but my less adventurous friends ordered it and it wasn't as good. So if you want good and unusual Mexican fare, either head to San Marcos, or try one of the other nearby places and explore new ground. (7 Marez, at 2124 S Garnett, also has an extensive menu and might be a good bet.)
Casa San Marcos
2170 S Garnett Rd
437-1718
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
BEST HOT DOG IN TULSA (and a serious contender anywhere else)
If you've a hankering for hot dogs and you're thinking of flying to New York to try the best, save yourself the price of a plane ticket and head on over to 15th St. On a deserted stretch of road just west of Peoria you'll find a garden supply store called Grumpy's Garden, and if you're lucky you'll see a hot dog cart outside. Don Greer is the owner of Grumpy's, and whenever he feels like it, which isn't often, he sets up the cart, with a miniature barbecue pit beside it. The dogs are barbecued -- not grilled but barbecued, long and slow over hickory wood. That's what gives them their fantastic, unique flavor. You can get bratwurst from Siegi's Sausage, or an all-beef Polish sausage, for $3, tax included, and you can sit on wooden benches under a shade tree and enjoy. Belying his nickname, Mr Greer is quite friendly and patiently answered all my questions. You should phone before you go to see if the stand is up and running. (By the way, NYC street dogs are horrid.)
GRUMPY’S DOGS
1140 E. 15th St., 582-3637
Chowhound Post
Thai Cuisine [split from Midwest]
You're right and I should have done more research. But I have truly tried. When I was last in the region, long ago, I tried to cross the Mekong into Laos and couldn't, and I could not even get a visa for Cambodia. (That would have made a great line in the film Killing Fields, with Sam Waterson saying, "you're as dumb as that crazy American who tried to visit Phnom Penh and try Khmer Rouge food!") Yes, that was long ago.
Many New York chowhounds (including me) took long walks around a remote and somewhat dangerous part of the South Bronx because the Times reported that several Cambodian families had lived there. We hoped to find a Cambodian restaurant but didn't. People make long journeys into Queens when a Thai restaurant started serving Issan food (which is similar to Laotian) or when a Burmese restaurant opened its doors. The Burmese restaurant was sensational -- but went out of business in a few months. I think people from Southeast Asia have learned that if you open a Thai restaurant you will, if not get rich, at least survive, but if you open up a Cambodian or Laotian restaurant you will not last long. Even at Tulsa's Hmong Café, they don't serve Hmong dishes.
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
And as long as this post has become active again, here's a review of my new pick for BEST BARBECUE IN TULSA.
My friends offered to take me to any restaurant in Tulsa and I chose Buffalo's BBQ. I'm glad I did. It's located just east of the town center of Sperry. The town center of Sperry is a few sad-looking boarded up brick shops clustered around a misshapen brick gazebo. Must have been quite attractive way back when. It is indeed located in the parking lot of a donut shop. Owner and pitmaster Donny Teel is a great guy (I phoned before going and he put ribs aside to make sure I got some) and the contests he has won are evidently the BBQ equivalent of the World Series.
We got a whole huge rack of ribs plus 2 sides for $26 (tax included) I shared it with 3 southerners who agreed that it was just about the best ribs they'd ever tasted. (The baked beans were excellent too.) The sauce is very good but the meat was so excellent I didn't use sauce.
201 N Oklahoma 11 (which basically is the north end of Peoria Av), telephone 288-6200 http://www.buffalosbbq.com/
It's a neat easy drive along Peoria. Not always open, since he drives his trailer to BBQ contests around the country, so call ahead
Chowhound Post
Thai Cuisine [split from Midwest]
This is a fascinating question, in a fascinating area -- the diffusion of ideas -- to which not nearly enough attention has been paid. (I used to be terrified that this post would be moved to the General Topics board and I would look foolish. Now I have become so fascinated that I am hoping it IS moved, starting with your first post of August 13 at 6:53 PM)
The question: were the dishes which are known in English as red curry and green curry (but which in Thai have different names, the Thai word gaeng meaning, as I recall, something with liquid that isn't quite a soup) and which most Americans think of as Thai actually invented by Thai people, or did the Thai people get them (or a version of them) from other people, such as the Khmer? I don't know the answer and I just can't find it on the Internet, though there is a huge History of Food in 2 volumes, published by Cambridge Univ and not available online, that might hold a clue.
Here's what I know. The Thai people came down to what is now Thailand, and what was then mostly uninhabited, from Yunnan province in China before the year 1300. (I thought they came in the 1200s, partly as a result of Mongol raids, but Wikipedia says the migration started 300 years before.) Current Yunnanese cuisine has nothing like red curry, though I'm not sure about the Dai inhabitants of southern Yunnan; I visited villages there and was even held prisoner at one village but I don't remember the food. But according to some websites Dai restaurants in Kunming feature food a lot like Thai, and use lemongrass.
But what were the Khmer eating at that time in Angkor? A Chinese diplomat named Zhou Daguan (or Chou Ta Kuan) visited Angkor around 1280 and wrote a long account of his stay. It's just been translated into English but is not online, though I have found online descriptions of his writing in which he reports that Khmer families prepared sauces for their food in earthenware pots and served the sauces in small cups made out of leaves. But were these sauces like Thai red and green curries? They did have spices; Zhou saw pepper plants.
I found one non-food example of diffusion of ideas which shows how interesting -- and complex -- the question is. I've always been entranced by the shimmering moonlight of gamelan music and I've thought of it as typically Indonesian. But I just found out that there have been gamelan orchestras in the Angkor region of central Cambodia for hundreds of years, maybe even in Khmer times. And you won't find gamelans anywhere in between! Not in Vietnam or Thailand or Malaya (as far as I know). So who invented it?
Fascinating. I leave you with a Cambodian gamelan song called Kravnay Chorn Chup.
http://music.myspace.com/Modules/Musi...
Chowhound Post
Thai Cuisine [split from Midwest]
You're probably right about the dishes, but it's hard to say. Penang (or phanaeng) curry shows Malaysian (or Malaysian Chinese, i.e. perinakan) influence because the curry paste is ground as a rempeh and then fried in oil. But its ingredients are more Thai than Malaysian: lemongrass, galangal. I always thought that massaman curry came from the Muslims of south Thailand (hence the name). Both dishes are found in northeast Malaysia (Kelantan) but there they are considered Thai-influenced. (I don't think Penang curry is popular in Penang.) I guess there's just a lot of culinary interchange and fusion in the whole area, with traders from all over helping spread food ideas (e.g Portuguese carrying Indian curry to Japan and south China)
Chowhound Post
New Restaurants in TULSA -- eleven short yet succulent reviews
MORE CHERRY STREET LUNCH PLACES
Lucky's
Sometime around the turn of the century I ate at a new restaurant with a chef I'd never heard of. A supernal lamb shank, a lovely Asian-inflected pork chop; the entrees' flair and sophistication dazzled me. I hoped to return but the restaurant went out of business. Now Matt Kelley is back. While the food really shines at dinner (which I haven't had yet), there are some wonderful lunch choices too. Fish tacos with two lovely sauces (chipotle mayo and salsa verde) , poached eggs with a spicy new take on hollandaise, both $9. It's a relaxing place to linger despite the bare decor.
http://www.luckysrestauranttulsa.com/
Jazmo'z
Jazmo'z looks like the sort of good-time drinking place where the food is an afterthought. It isn't. The Cajun food is surprisingly good. Chicken bon ton ($11 at lunch) is a big chicken breast topped with a red creamy sauce with shrimp and crab, like a sauce Nantua. It's yummy. Simple blackened catfish had just the right mix of spices.
http://www.jazmoz.com/
Te Kei's
Sort of a P.F. Chang wannabe, though the food is quite good and different from Chang's. The Mongolian Beef ($9 at lunch) was sauteed with five-spice powder and made a worthy meal. The exterior looks like a house in a northern Chinese village, complete with tower.
www.tekeis.com
Tucci's
As I wrote above, the Tuesday pasta dish was more or less on a par with Olive Garden. But I went on Wednesday and it seemed like a whole different kitchen. A serious lamb ragù made with onions, fresh tomatoes and fennel served atop penne... plus salad and foccacia all for $8.
BRUNCHES
Several places have good Sunday brunch. Palace Cafe offers a lovely eggs Benedict ($12) and a not-so-lovely "green eggs with ham", lots of other egg dishes too. Home fries are included but I recommend substituting french fries, they're much better. Lucky's has chicken-fried steak with eggs ($12). Kilkenny's and Jazmo'z have brunch dishes too.
Chowhound Post
TULSA -- Lunch in Utica Square
My friends offered to take me to any restaurant in Tulsa and I chose Buffalo's BBQ. I'm glad I did. It's located just east of the town center of Sperry. The town center of Sperry is a few sad-looking boarded up brick shops clustered around a misshapen brick gazebo. Must have been quite attractive way back when. It is indeed located in the parking lot of a donut shop. Donny Teel is a great guy (I phoned before going and he put ribs aside to make sure I got some) and the contests have won are evidently the BBQ equivalent of the World Series.
We got a whole huge rack of ribs plus 2 sides for $26 (tax included) I shared it with 3 southerners who agreed that it was just about the best ribs they'd ever tasted. (The baked beans were excellent too.) The sauce is very good but the meat was so excellent I didn't use sauce.
201 N Oklahoma 11 (which basically is the north end of Peoria Av), telephone 288-6200 http://www.buffalosbbq.com/
It's a neat easy drive along Peoria. Not always open, since he drives his trailer to BBQ contests around the country, so call ahead.
Chowhound Post
Could a robot ever win a Top Chef contest?
In a ramen restaurant just opened in Nagoya, Japan, the chef is a robot. "The benefits of using robots as ramen chefs include the accuracy of timing in boiling noodles, precise movements in adding toppings and consistency in the taste and temperature of the soup," said the robot's designer.
Do you think the day will ever come when a robot will cook a dish that, if included in a line-up of dishes cooked by top human chefs, will not be picked out by expert tasters as machine-made -- or will be picked out as being better?
I'm not talking of dishes CREATED by computers or robots; I don't think that they will ever match the flair, intuition and quintessentially human je-ne-sais-quoi of a genius chef, any more than I think that Michelangelo, if he were alive, would have to worry about a robot surpassing his Sistine frescos. But does cooking a bowl of ramen (which does rely on a sort of non-verbal intuition that would be very hard to break down into a computer program of the kind described in John Searle's "Chinese Room" gedanken-experiment, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_... ) involve something a robot cannot be programmed to do, and do superbly? Can a robot ever do this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwcMsL...
Dan Barber, himself no slouch in the kitchen, once tried to summarize why David Bouley is a great chef and why he inspires the adulation of his line chefs. "His absolute fearlessness," Barber wrote (as quoted in Best food Writing 2006, Holly Hughes, editor), "and his profound, unabashed enjoyment of his own strangeness. That's the sort of dementia these cooks respect, and perhaps even share." And also, "he relies on observation, rather than inquiry, to understand things." How can a robot compete with that?
Chowhound Post
Garifuna Star -- World's rarest cuisine comes to South Bronx
Might be worth it for the music. Garifuni music is incredible, the modern bands fuse African and Latin rock rhythms. Here's one example: http://music.myspace.com/Modules/Musi...
Years ago lots of Garifuni people would hang out in St Mary's Park and listen to Garifuni music, and there'd be lots of great Garifuni food stalls set up around that area, just about every summer Saturday. I don't know if they still do this.
