Places we're curious about

[small h]

  

5 hours ago, joethefoodie said:

Oh, I thought that was https://www.essexmarket.nyc/essex-farm?

You're right - I'm using the old building name. I buy my tetrapack tofu there, which is fairly priced, but they stock some stuff that's available directly below them at Southeast for less. And the produce prices are a little out of control - definitely highest tomato and avocado and mango prices in the builiding.

I'm noticing the price increases, and I'm usually way too clueless for this stuff to register. But H has been congratulating himself for a couple of days about gassing up the car before things got too crazy.

[joethefoodie]

6 hours ago, small h said:

definitely highest tomato and avocado and mango prices in the builiding.

I doubt I've ever bought so much as a single tomato there; avos are one of the very few items I purchase at Trader Joe's.  For some reason, I have good luck with that particular produce from TJ, by buying them hard and green and letting them ripen on the counter. Mushrooms too - anything I can check the pack date on, which is one of the better things about trader joe's; most all produce is pack dated, and I cringe when I check a pack date on tomatoes and see that it was 3 weeks ago!

But button and cremini mushrooms I can buy which were packed a day or two prior, which works for me. Last week I tried a 4 lb. bag of "heritage" navel oranges, which turned out to be really good.

[small h]

Yeah, I get my avocados at TJ's also. I've had some bad luck - ones that go black without ever ripening - but it's rare. The tomatoes at Essex Farm are a lot better than the ones at TJ's, which (with the exception of the campari tomatoes) are usually under-ripe. I also don't like buying tomatoes (or onions, or peppers, or potatoes) by the piece, as opposed to by the pound.

This concludes my scintillating T(ed)J's talk.

[joethefoodie]

58 minutes ago, small h said:

This concludes my scintillating T(ed)J's talk.

Allow me to add to it:

this morning, I went over to get some avos - they're now up to $2 a piece. So I bought a 4 in a bag, the next smaller size (4046s) and what was interesting was that they had bags with either California avocados (which I don't see many of here) and Mexican avocados.

The "ban" on Mexican avocados didn't last long...

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/u-s-lifts-ban-on-avocados-imported-from-mexico/

[small h]

  

1 hour ago, joethefoodie said:

The "ban" on Mexican avocados didn't last long...

Good thing, 'cause obviously we can't buy Russian avocados.

[small h]

On 8/27/2021 at 8:51 AM, joethefoodie said:

Perfect slogan for a new restaurant - I think we could do worse!

I've now ordered in from Tipsy Shanghai (because Grubhub gave me $10 off), and I can report that we could indeed do worse. I had Auntie Song's Fish Stew, which was a slightly spicy, slightly thick broth with some generic white fish, shiitakes and bamboo shoots. Nothing to knock your socks off, but pleasant enough. And a tofu salad with preserved egg. The egg was more reserved than I was expecting, and I would have preferred something more assertive. And the sauce was a bit sweeter than I like. But ultimately a satisfying meal, and I'll be putting this on my next-time-I-get-a-$10-coupon list.

[Sneakeater]

That was the thing about OG Tipsy Shanghai in the Village.  It looked like it would be terrible, but it just wasn’t.  It was actually kind of good.  

[small h]

On 3/21/2021 at 12:56 PM, Seth Gordon said:

I can declare Saigon Social’s to be the unequivocal winner

Their softshell crab garlic noodles ain't no slouch, neither.

I couldn't get close to finishing it.

[Sneakeater]

From FloFab's write-up of Froggy's, slated to open in the old Chumley's space:

They plan to respect the original architectural features

I wonder if that includes the collapsing walls?

[Anthony Bonner]

there is just nothing not weird about that pr blurb.

[The Flon]

That Froggy's blurb is total crap but Liz Johnson did great work at Mimi's so I am definitely in. 

[joethefoodie]

On 1/12/2022 at 6:48 PM, Seth Gordon said:

I found the chicken sandwiches strangely mushy texturally. Flavor… ok but they both read more exciting on paper than they actually wound up being. Didn’t come close to Saigon Social, as far as new chicken sandwiches from young hipster Asian restaurants go.

That chicken sandwich (at $25) was very good. Spicy. But some of the rest of the food we had was just kinda not rushing back stuff. I could see this being a good lunch spot and actually want to try a few other dishes.

Additionally had garlic noodles with fried soft shell crab, Imperial rolls (does anyone dry the lettuce they serve with these things?), and quite tasty spare ribs.

[Seth Gordon]

10 hours ago, joethefoodie said:

That chicken sandwich (at $25) was very good. Spicy. But some of the rest of the food we had was just kinda not rushing back stuff. I could see this being a good lunch spot and actually want to try a few other dishes.

Additionally had garlic noodles with fried soft shell crab, Imperial rolls (does anyone dry the lettuce they serve with these things?), and quite tasty spare ribs.

Man, the price has gone up. I think it was like 19 when I first had it. But I guess that’s the case everywhere with everything…

i like their pho, it’s inconsistent but always good. Not as good as Hanoi House, but up there. 

The burger is also pretty decent, but a little much. 

Disappointed that they’ve stopped take-out. Sometimes I want a chicken sandwich while watching pro wrestling on my couch, not sitting in a restaurant. 

The got a new CDC recently, and the first time we went with her at the helm her salt levels were pretty inconsistent. The crepe we had didn’t have a single grain in it, as far as we could tell. Also she replaced the tater tots with fries, which did not make me happy. 
 

[Sneakeater]

Of course when I read "CDC" I know longer think of what I used to think of (which is what you meant).

[Wilfrid]

Codpiece-Dominant-Cat?