What's the best artisanal chocolate maker based out of NYC?

Hi all! I'm going to visit a friend who recently had to leave the city and loves chocolate. I'd love to bring him something great from a local producer. He currently lives in Europe so something that he couldn't get there would be ideal. I'm looking for something a little more avant garde than your standard fussy chocolatier's products.

Any suggestions are most welcome!

xerg in The Best

Where's the best burrito in Brooklyn?

Interesting suggestion. I tried a taco at their cart and was seriously disappointed with it. I think I had the carnitas one. It was completely bland and seemed like it was trying too hard to be upscale-ish. Maybe I'll give the GP location a shot and try a burrito there just to double check.

xerg in Outer Boroughs

Where's the best burrito in Brooklyn?

I'm most interested in places in Bushwick, Greenpoint and Williamsburg but recs for other nabes are appreciated as well. I have had the most miserable luck with finding good Mexican or even Tex Mex of any kind ANYWHERE in NYC. I have just started this quest and found myself at Buffalo Cantinia (don't ever ever go there) and Tortilleria Los Hermanos (which is fine, sorta, but doesn't do burritos).

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Tortilleria Mexicana Tres Hermanos
271 Starr St, Brooklyn, NY 11237

Buffalo Cantina
149 Havemeyer St, Brooklyn, NY 11211

xerg in Outer Boroughs

Are there any great, authentic malt shops (that actually serve -malts- not just shakes) in Park Slope?

I'm going to be there tonight with a few friends visiting the States for the first time and I'd love to show them what a real malt tastes like as they don't get them in their home country. Extra bonus points if it "feels" like an old school shop. We're going to be at the Bell House beforehand and would prefer something in walking distance but we can train or take a car if need be.

Thanks!

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Bell House
149 7th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215

xerg in Outer Boroughs

Etiquette for dining alone at communal tables?

I'm going to Compose solo tonight for the tasting. Would it be odd to bring a magazine to read? Or should I go and hope to be included in others' conversations? I've never done this before so advice is greatly appreciated!

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Compose
77 Worth St, New York, NY 10013

xerg in Manhattan

Any favorite places for a tagine?

Please do and report back. I really hope the tagine just had an off night. Even at Le Sud, the restaurant across from my apt. in Marrakesh had its bad days (although they were few and far between). Best of luck to you or perhaps I should say alhamdoulillah, as it were.

xerg in Manhattan

Any favorite places for a tagine?

I thought I'd chime in about the Kiosk as, after having lived across from one of the best restaurants in Marrakesh for a year, I feel pretty confident about my ability to rate tagines.

Although it sort of breaks my hear to say this, the one time I was at the Kiosk the poulet citron confit I was served was salted into sweet oblivion. There was also something off about the consistency of the meat-- it managed to be both "fall off the bone" and dry at the same time. The seasoning was also a bit off.

That said, it was still the best tagine I've had in NYC since moving here almost exactly a year ago. Then again, I stopped trying after that one because it came so highly recommended. I've also been to Zerza (what an utter joke) and to some place in Bay Ridge that people swore by (more authentic but very boring).

I have been meaning to give the Kiosk another go because the owner is AWESOME. I adore him-- my husband, he and I all had a rollicking good time talking on and on and on as Moroccans are wont to do. I will definitely go again just to see him. Also, my husband had a very good cous cous (we've both forgotten which one) so perhaps the one tagine I sampled there was an anomaly.

So there's my two cents.

In fact, I have become so disillusioned with the prospect of finding a good tagine in an NYC restaurant that I've actually been meaning to get up to Astoria to try and find a real tagine (I have a few, but they're all in storage in my home state and I never manage to bring them back/send them out). I won't suffer an expensive one from Williams Sonoma-- I want the real thing. Does anyone here know where to find one?

xerg in Manhattan

If I have a subscription to Wine Spectator's print magazine do I NOT automatically get access to winespectator.com?

That's what it looks like to me but I wanted to double check to make sure I wasn't missing something. If so, it's the only magazine I can think of that has different subscription plans for its online content vs. its hard copy and I don't understand why that would be the case.

Thanks!

xerg in Wine

Is there a restaurant in town that serves moving, living food?

I was inspired by Jonathan Gold's account of the time he ate a live prawn at the Living Fish Center in LA. You can here the account here, it starts at ~11:50

http://thislife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1218

He had this experience at a Korean restaurant, but I'm curious about the notion of eating anything that's obviously alive and moving (I feel as though oysters often are live (maybe not?), but they're a bit far removed and generally immobile). It would be an interesting experience to look into the eyes of a wriggling prawn before eating it!

Any suggestions on that topic would be welcome!

Also, does anyone know of any generally "bizarre" restaurants in town? I have a friend in town who enjoys pushing the limits of dining and he's looking for any recommendations of strange dining options, preferably ones that are specific to NYC but I think just being strange and "out there" would be enough. We're going to WD50 tonight which seems to intrigue him, if you'd like to use that as a touchstone. But feel free to go beyond that since it doesn't strike me as being too outre!

Thanks for any input on either topic!

xerg in Manhattan

Looking for good eats in Marrakesh, Fes, and Essaouira.

It is quite moderate. We'd often get out of there for 570DDH with an ap, two mains, a bottle of wine and dessert. Mains are between, say, 12 and 18 USD. They have a website here: http://www.lesud-marrakech.com/

If you click on Restaurant le Sud and then click on le carte, you can brose the menu. There's no English version, but a few of the staff speak some (but not much) English if you don't speak any French.

xerg in Middle East, Southwest Asia & Africa

Where to find Moroccan wine in NYC?

I moved to Manhattan from Marrakesh a little over a month ago and I'm becoming increasingly worried that it won't be nearly as easy as I thought it would be to find Moroccan wine in town. Granted, I've mostly only searched in my local liquor and wine stores in Chelsea/Meatpacking thus far.

Is there a better neighborhood or even just one store that stocks the larger Moroccan names (Cuvee President, S de Siroua, Ksar, etc.)? Actually, I'd be happy with pretty much anything as long as it's from the Maghreb. Even though I'm not Moroccan and only lived there for a few years, I'm feeling intensely homesick for the place of late... A little vin du pays would go a long way toward salving that.

I know that it has to be available -somewhere- in New York since I've found instances of some of the more swish Moroccan vintages in Minneapolis' higher end wine shops. If it's getting to MSP, it's probably coming through here en route!

While I'm here I'd also love it if someone could advise me as to where the best poulet citron [preserved lemon, chicken and olive] tajine can be found. I'm also very curious to discover where "little Morocco" may be if there is such a thing. While I'm open to suggestions of mid to high end restaurants, I'm most interested in finding an area that contains a number of small, unpretentious hole in the wall joints if there is such a place.

Thanks in advance for any input!

xerg in Manhattan

Looking for good eats in Marrakesh, Fes, and Essaouira.

I know it's a bit late for this to matter, but Le Sud is hands down the best Moroccan place in Marrakesh right now. It's too new to be in the guidebooks, but it's reasonably priced, has good service, a great atmosphere and to-die-for tajines and cous cous. I used to live in Marrakesh and I can tell you that most of the heavy hitters you'll find listed in the book aren't really that great-- they're overpriced and inauthentic. To get authentic food you usually have to seek out some dingy little hole in the wall in the medina or the back streets of Gueliz. Le Sud gives you the best of both worlds-- genuine Marrakeshi cuisine served in a posh yet very Moroccan ambiance.

Tell a taxi cab to take you to Cafe La Flamme at the end of Ave. Mohammed Cinq and turn left. It's one block down on the lefthand side-- there's usually a large man in traditional dress standing outside.

Other than that, Riad 42 is superlative as well. That's one of the few places that gets written up in the books that is actually ridiculously good. I'd be hard pressed to tell you how to find it since it's in a part of the Medina I never went to otherwise.

For a special occasion, I would absolutely recommend Ksar Char Bagh. It was voted one of the top 50 best restaunrants in the world by Conde Nast and it's one of my absolute favorite haute cuisine experiences of any kind. The setting is amazing and everything on offer is pitch perfect. It's located in the Palmerie and is thus a bit of a haul outside of town-- call them and they can arrange for their lavander colored London Black Cab to come and pick you up (for a fee-- which is TOTALLY worth it to watch the driver interact with passersby who are amused beyond belief to see such a thing wheeling around their city).

xerg in Middle East, Southwest Asia & Africa