Anyone know of restaurants having special menus for Chinese New Year?

Hey all - where can I find a sparkling Shiraz from Australia in Cambridge? I went to the Cellar the other day and they looked at me like I was crazy for inquiring if they had any sparkling reds. I checked out a couple of the package stores in Central too, but to no avail! Any suggestions about where to find a couple bottles?

ooooh, i love it!

First of all, thank you for all the suggestions! However, I should probably qualify my question by saying that the place should fulfill the following three criteria (let's leave amazing food as a given):

1. Be inexpensive
2. The food should be able to be eaten quickly (if the date is a disaster) or lingered over (if the date is fabulous)
3. The noise level should be at a minimum so you can actually talk (about the food you are eating, your five best meals of all time, the virtues of MuLan vs. Mary Chung dumplings, etc.)

So I'm on a quest for the best foodie first date in Cambridge. I have a couple ideas about it: Christina's ice cream, Le's, Formaggio Kitchen...I posted the question on my blog (www.sexyspoon.com), but have been greeted by meager replies and I need to come up with a good place quick! Any suggestions?

I would just like to specify for O Ya: you must must must try the foie gras (check out www.sexyspoon.com for details). If I could only have one bite of food before I left Boston, this would be it.

I'm not a big fan of Anise - I think it's rather overpriced and though they have a couple tradiational Sichaunese dishes, the rest of the menu I find to be really just Americanized Chinese.

That said, just down the street is MuLan, which is Taiwanese, but has some surprisingly spicy, more Sichuan-style dishes. In particular, the MuLan yupian (house special fish) is served in a very spicy broth with Sichuan peppercorns that reminds me of the hot pot I used to eat in Chongqing.

Hi all - I'm looking to try some new bourbons and was wondering if there's a good liquor store to check out, preferably in Cambridge, with a knowledgeable staff and a wide selection of bourbons.

I'm on a quest to find the best bowl of pho. Any suggestions!?

I had a fabulous meal there too on Saturday night - service was a little slow, but the food was wonderful. We also had the beet salad, which was delicious. For my entree, I had the "duck, duck, goose," which was quite luxurious. I had eaten at No.9 Park the night before and, to be honest, found this meal to be much more enjoyable - so fresh and exuberant.

Verdura in its original form no longer exists. It's now owned by the owners of Mezze in Williamstown and goes by the name Allium.

I think most restaurants in GB are pretty overrated these days (and over priced). I still like Bizen and Rubi's is good for a sandwich.

My grandmother is coming to visit for 3 days and I'm looking for a restaurant in Cambridge that will satisfy her preference for ambience and mine for fabulous food. We're eating at Oleana Thursday night, No.9 Park Friday night, but need a place for Saturday. Any suggestions?

I ended up going to Formaggio Kitchen in Cambridge - the staff were incredibly knowledgeable and articulate and helped me find a great aged balsamic for about $50. The shop itself is so incredible I could just get lost for hours there.

I'm looking for a source of really well-aged balsamic vinegar - any suggestions?

Thanks everyone for your suggestions! We tried to go to Franklin, but it was packed adn there was a 45 min wait. We ended up going to The Dish and sitting outside - the perfect, end of summer date! We had a delicious tomato salad, a rather boring seared tuna appetizer, and fabulous mahi mahi tacos, as well as a delicious seafood pasta special.

Not too pricey (though that's negotiable) and not too loud are really my only criteria. Good atmosphere is key.

Need to find good place for first date in the South End. Any suggestions?

I'm looking for a great restaurant in downtown Portland for lunch this Saturday. Any suggestions?

Church St. Cafe in Lenox is always solid - great food and service. Definitely the best restaurant in the Lenox/Lee area these days (and for many years, I should add!). Another good option is Rouge in West Stockbridge. It's French, as the name would imply, and has an excellent wine list and amazing steak au poivre. I

Hmmm...I'd be happy with Cantonese too. They'll be about 25 people. KTV is not necessary. Would you choose Congee Village over Congee Bowery?

Looking for a fabulous Chinese restaurant (Sichuan or Shanghainese) with private rooms. Any suggestions?

I spent several weeks this past August traveling around Xinjiang (Urumqi, Turpan, Kashgar and beyond). I had both Lonely Planet and the Rough Guide and they weren't terribly helpful with finding good places to eat. Here are my recs:

In Urumqi, check out the Wuyi Night Market - they have everything from yangrou chuar to hot pot and lamian (pulled noodles). It gets very lively (as the Chinese say, hen renao) and vendors set up tables and chairs on the sidewalks. Another option is to check out the restaurants around the mosque in the Uighur part of town (if a place is full, you can't go wrong). My favorite Uighur dish is dapan ji - basically a whole chicken chopped up and cooked with potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, to which you can have noodles added.

In the morning, grab some delicious nan bread hot from one of the many Uighur bakeries (there are quite a few new the night market). The traditonal round breads come flecked with bits of onion, salt, and sometimes fennel or sesame seeds. Some vendors even have bagels! Just make sure to get them when they're still hot - they'll be hard as stone otherwise. Also, you can try samsas, which are baked dumplings stuffed with mutton and fat. I was not a fan, but hey, when in Rome...

As for Turpan, my friend and I made up the rhyme that "zai tulufan, ren bu chifan" (in Turpan, people don't eat). Most laowai end up at John's Information Cafe across from the Turpan Hotel, but we were determined to eat somewhere more local. We searched for 2 hrs without finding a place that wasn't full of Chinese tourists. That said, we did find some delicious raisins and local wine.