I'm interested in this curse thing. Makes me want to go next year (if there is a next year) and see what happens. Sinkholes? Flaming hail?

Dunno about the cell service, since I didn't need to use my phone at all, but I saw plenty of slack-jawed millenials roaming about gazing raptly at their screens, so it must've been at least adequate.

There were dedicated wine and beer tents that sold drink tickets just outside, kind of like buying rides at an amusement park. As far as I could tell, it was smooth sailing. I spent some time in the wine tent - just to get out of the rain, 'cause I don't drink during the day - and there were tons of people sampling tastes from the many purveyors. If there was dissatisfaction anywhere, I didn't see it.

And now I'm super-happy that I went yesterday, 'cause the festival was rained out today. I read some online rumors that the vendors were giving away food. And then some other online rumors saying no! they were not.

Watch the gardening board for chive news. I'm going to plant them soon.

We didn't go last year, lucky for us, because most everything I've read about it makes it sound like hell on earth. But I'm happy to say that, except for the not-great weather, we had a very enjoyable time at this year's festival. We got free tickets online through the lottery. Grub Street or Eater or whoever put up a list a few weeks ago of what each vendor would be serving, which I edited down to "what small h intends to eat" and brought with me. We arrived around 12:30pm, when the crowds were relatively thin. By the time we left at 3:30, there were lines at some of the booths, but none more than 10 or 15 people long. I had:

1. Softshell crab sandwich from Vinegar Hill House. Very good, two small, perfectly fried and seasoned crabs on a soft roll. One of the two things I had that I thought was worth the price tag ($11, in this case).
2. Beecher's mac & cheese. Not as good as the mac & cheese I make myself. And waaaaay more expensive ($10!). Pretty good, though.
3. Lobster roll from Red Hook Lobster Pound. Lobster was excellent. Roll was crazy salty.
4. Lemon-thyme soda from Brooklyn Soda Works. Refreshing, and not too sweet. I wished it was bigger, after that crazy salty lobster roll.
5. Margherita slice from PizzaMoto. Fine. There's so much good pizza around these days that this did not rock my world. Partly because it was too cool.
6. Momofuku cereal milk ice milk. The apparently tiny cup turned out to be the perfect amount. Because it was very sweet. Thought about spending another $4 for another soda. Decided against it.
7. Maison Premiere grilled oysters with sauce verte, which is French for chimichurri sauce. Only got these 'cause we won a $10 food ticket by spinning a wheel at the Swoon booth. They were good, almost raw (a plus), but extremely garlicky.
8. Ricotta crostini from Saxelby. I was trying not to get anything from a place that I can walk to from my damn house, because come on, but I was suddenly overwhelmed with desire for ricotta with honey and salt. I should have been stronger. The bread was tough as leather. Cheese was good.

I thought the food was overpriced overall (I could not bring myself to pay $10 for a falafel, even a black-eyed-pea falafel), but considering that admission was free, and there was plenty of entertainment, the afternoon was, on the whole, a good deal. I also picked up some seeds from a "teach kids about farming" booth. The envelopes are decorated by the kids, and there's a note in crayon on the chive seeds advising me to wear gloves and have maracas and a sombrero ready before opening the packet. I do not know what this means, but I like it.

The Voice has been circling the drain for what seems like a couple of decades. I'd say the decline began when they became a free paper to compete with the New York Press (I'm sure people older than me would point to a date even further back), and then it accelerated after the internet destroyed the classified ad business. Sietsema is a special loss, though. It's easy to find reviews of movies and plays and bands, but who's going to write about eating a bowl of goat lips after walking twenty-seven blocks from the northernmost stop on the F train?

http://gawker.com/bloodbath-day-at-vi...

This sucks. I hope he finds a place to write for. I'd like to keep reading him.

Just curious - what do you think is the appropriate age for a kid to learn this? Because 4 seems about right to me. I wouldn't expect him to emerge from the womb knowing where apples come from.

A scant half year from the time you requested information about Le Pescadeux, I'm here to give it to you! We had dinner there this evening, and it is a lovely little place. The gentleman who greeted us and checked in with us repeatedly throughout the meal (the owner, I assume) was a charmer, as was our server. We split the appetizer special, a lobster salad with avocado, shallot, cherry tomato, arugula and fennel. This turned out to be the evenings weakest dish. Although each ingredient tasted fine on its own, the whole was something less than the sum of its parts: too bland, too wet. And too cylindrical - I have a low tolerance for salads disguised as a game of Jenga. More happily, the bread was excellent, and my partner loved his risotto with uni and lobster. It was pretty swoon-worthy, and faultlessly prepared. My bouillabaisse was also very fine, with an assertive but not too heavy broth, and a wealth of perfectly cooked shrimp, mussels, fish (cod? probably cod), lobster and clams. Extra credit for the super-smooth red pepper puree that came with the toasts and gruyere.

The only downside was how cold it was in there, since the front wall was open. I'm sure that on a warm day, this would be very pleasant, but on a chilly spring night, it was not. Many of the diners were wearing their coats. As the room filled up with what seemed to be neighborhood regulars, it got warmer, and the atmosphere was further improved by an appealing jazz combo performing exactly what you'd expect - Misty, Night and Day, Ain't Misbehaving. A very nice evening all around.

I will ask my mother, born in Brooklyn in 1945. Although you'd think that if she used that expression, I'd have heard it at least once or twice by now. Maybe I wasn't listening (very possible).

While I agree that NYC tap water is excellent, I've never heard the phrase City Gin, and I've lived in Manhattan since 1983. I've occasionally heard someone - usually a server - call it Bloomberg Water, and before that, Giuliani Water. (Never Dinkins Water or Koch Water, though.)

I don't make a habit of buying bottled water, because I think it's a waste of money, and I would rather not create more trash than I have to.

You're welcome! Glad I could help.

At the top of the thread list, you can choose to sort the threads by "replies" or "last reply." If you sort by "last reply," the thread with your recent post will be at the top of the list - that's what you want. If you sort by "replies," the thread with the most replies will be at the top of the list - that's what you're seeing, I think.

Here it is;

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

There's plenty of steps you can skip to make it less fussy, like using plain old chopped cilantro instead of making cilantro oil.

<I am not sure if anyone mentioned a stranger>

Hell, I'll mention a stranger. The other day, I was standing at the bus stop and noticed two young men trying to make sense of the posted schedule. Because I am a helpful (read: pedantic) sort, I asked where they were trying to get to. Houston Street, which they pronounced H-you-ston Street, as any sane person would. But here in Manhattan, as you well know, it's How-ston Street. So I corrected them. "That's fucked up," one said. "It is," I said, "but if you want people here to understand you, that's how you say it." I hope anyone who hears me screw up a pronunciation does me the same service.

I'm glad they cater to their own. That's why I'm at the ethnic market in the first place, to buy "their own" food. And I can't recall any instance when I've felt discriminated against because I'm white. I'm sure a red, brown or yellow person who acted as confused as I sometimes do would face the same occasional grimace or eyeroll.

Roasted corn & avocado. A little labor intensive, but worth the effort.

Takahashi. At 6, you can probably get a table without much of a wait. I usually stick to the specials, but I don't think you can go too far wrong whatever you order.

http://www.takahachi.net/

We should start planning its bar mitzvah.

I've never been to Sugar Cafe, but it's right across Allen from the National Underground, it serves dessert, and it's open 24/7. And I just learned that it has the world's slowest loading website.

http://www.sugarcafenyc.com/index.html

But it's not very big, so you probably won't all be able to sit together.

And if you have an aversion to a movie or a tv show or a book or a song, is that also a fear? Because I don't think I'm scared of Girls. I just don't like it. In much the same way that I just don't like zucchini.

Your example of a baby spitting out carrots is enough to prove your friend wrong. I know a number of people who associate a food with a prior negative physical (not psychological) experience, but that's hardly the only reason someone might reject a certain food. There are the people who taste something soapy in cilantro, for starters.

I accidentally discovered 99-cent oysters in midtown. Had an hour to kill and wandered into Courgette at 204 W. 55th. It's French-ish, although the bartenders are Eastern European (and one of them seemed to be dressed for a Liquid Sky costume party, which made me nostalgic for the 80s).

The happy hour specials were a charcuterie plate or a cheese plate for $8 (both looked very nice), and half price drinks. I was in an oyster mood and was very pleasantly surprised that I could get 6 East Coast & 6 West Coast oysters for less than $12. The bartender wasn't sure what kind of oysters they were, and neither am I. The only ones I recognize by sight are bluepoints and kumamotos; these weren't that. They were very good, but shucked rather sloppily. The cocktail sauce was fine; there was also some watery orange stuff that was horrible. It may have been Tang. Don't put it on your oysters.

ETA According to my receipt, the oysters were hummocks and kumamotos (maybe I can't recognize them after all).

I would have come to the same conclusion as the OP - that various kinds of peppercorns, and only peppercorns, were in that jar. But there is precedent for medley-confusion:

http://www.knorr.com/product/detail/2...

Peas and carrots and pasta and sauce all fall into the "not rice" category. And yet there they are, in a rice medley.

I've seen it in Whole Foods and Union Market. If memory serves, it was over by the artichokes at both stores, displayed standing up in a basket.

Yes, the presentation is a little precious for that type of food. I sort of like the juxtaposition of peasant food in a somewhat expensive-looking setting, but I could definitely see where one might feel ripped off.

Here's another idea for you, though - the vegetarian banh mi at either Banh Mi Saigon or Paris Sandwich.

http://www.banhmisaigonnyc.com/
http://www.parissandwiches.com/menu.html

6ish months ago. I wouldn't recommend it. The food tastes like nothing. But the cheap lunch specials will keep you alive, and there are two colleges nearby, which I think is why Mingala is still in business.

I remember really liking the food at the E. 7th St. branch (especially the thousand layer bread). Either it was a lot better, or I was a lot less picky, or both.

I would like to be able to do this as well.

BellaVitano was set out at the Union Market in Manhattan this afternoon, and I became one of *those* people, the ones who park themselves in front of the samples and will. not. move. It wasn't $7.59/lb, but it was <$10, I think. It would make a great cheese omelet.

Ok, some ideas to get you started. I've been to all of these, most in the past year, and would go back to any of them.

Cafe Himalaya (Tibetan, obviously) This is simple, comforting food (which is not to say you can't make it very spicy, because you can.) I like the noodle soups a lot.
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/cafe-himalaya/menus/main.html

Hangawi (Korean, which you didn't specifically request, but 100% vegetarian) I haven't been here in a few years, but I don't think I've had a single dish I didn't like.
http://www.hangawirestaurant.com/menu.htm

Veselka Bowery (Ukrainian) I especially like the vegetarian stuffed cabbage & the sauerkraut pierogi. And the vodka.
http://www.veselka.com/bowery/index2.html

The only Thai restaurant I really like in Manhattan is Zabb Elee. You could manage there, but you won't have that many options.
http://zabbelee.com/contents/menus.html

Pam Real Thai is pretty good, too.
http://www.pamrealthaifood.com/menu.htm

Pho Grand is decent Vietnamese, but the vegetarian options are not that thrilling. I like the fried tofu with lemongrass alright, and the vegetable spring rolls.
http://phograndny.com/

"Ethnic" covers an awful lot of ground. All of it, in fact, since every type of food on our planet is ethnic, in that it's eaten by a particular group of people. Can you at least narrow your preference down to a continent? A country would be even better, and a region of that country better still.

It seemed quite earnest to me. Inscrutable, but earnest.