DAN SELZER, TOTALLY NOT BUMMING, RATES NYC EAT SPOTS

MORE, NEW stuff.. the stuff from a month ago or so is mostly all gone. all the high end stuff, anyway. but we have a bunch of disco rarities again. and about 4 bins of new disco 12s.

i will have to come look

i'm not dan selzer but my go-to's are:

nha trang - 87 baxter (awesome viet)
new breen bo - 66 bayard (stick to the shanghai style XLB crab dumplings)

new breen bo = new green bo

place across from new green bo is good too

new yeah shanghai deluxe
http://nymag.com/listings/restaurant/new-yeah-shanghai-deluxe/

Oh man, Ian, that last visit to Academy was like, my one alloted record store shopping trip for the year. Actually, I'm going to Jerry's in pittsburgh this weekend which I'm excited about. I didn't get much good disco during that last Academy visit last week, though some nice basics like Knock on Wood...was happier with my cheap rock buys (Roxy's Manifesto, Bryan Ferry's first solo, The Strangler's Gospel..., and TWO vintage old-school boston scene Propellor 7"s from the Post-Punk/DIY bin.

As far as Chinatown, I haven't really eaten there much so I have no favorites. As mentioned above I've been going to Spicy and Tasty in Flushing, which is seriously good.

Back in queens, finally hit Himalayan Yak...the tibet stuff was just ok, but the Nepali stuff was really good, this dry vegetable dish that was out of this world.

have we covered Lincoln Center recently? Dinner, mid-range?

thoughts on Smoke Joint?

BOO

(decent hot wings; everything else we had was meh to bad.)

(and it came to $50 with two beers.)

BUT I LOVE TO SMOKE JOINTS, AMIRITE??

there have been a flurry of excellent (ie, not shitty momofuku garbage in a bowl) ramen shops opening in manhattan and brooklyn, what are your faves?

mine are setagaya, ippudo and rockmeisha (rokkumeisha).

the only time i went by setagaya, the line was way too long. very excited about ichiran opening in gpoint.

not technically ramen, but i really want to try the cold noodles at saburi (japanese chinese place i think i mentioned to you).

I mentioned this on the fried chicken thread but Unidentified Flying Chickens in Jackson Heights was pretty cool

"hot" and "soy garlic" flavors both get the thumbs-up. we asked the waitress abt spicy mustard flavor and she dissuaded us ... I think that one and sweet & spicy just come out of a jar but the other two are original recipes. the skin is real thin & crispy and not greasy. I'm not the kinda guy who eats three huge drumsticks and six wings at a sitting but at this place I devoured me some chickenz.

One of my japanese coworkers has been repping Setagaya to me real hard lately. Really wanna go. He said try to go at night cuz the poor AC makes it almost unbearable at lucnhtime (in the current weather).

i might venture to say that setagaya is the best ramen shop in the USA...

i got the tsukemen it was majik:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1046/1046326945_43b0c0bbd8.jpg

my friend got the ramen which killed it:
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1407/1047166332_27a3fbf7b1.jpg

ok i want that RIGHT NOW

I know it sounds so good.

steve shasta i may have asked you this before, but you dig this chelsea snack place Tebaya? every month or so i i have to go up there for wings.

http://www.goojapan.com/tebaya/Teba-wings.htm
http://www.yelp.com/biz/8ExK27hdBWsqrdZJazDFOg

i think ian and bell labs would love it

some of us work in Chelsea

i think you are right sanskrit :D

I'm not a big fan of their sauce there. i like Totto's or Tory's for yakitori (NORTH OF 14TH OMG).

So I talked to Eugene (coworker mentioned above) abt Setagaya, and he says if you go for dinner you gotta go straight from work cause it starts getting really crowded already by 7.

the setagaya yelp is pretty funny. every warning of "broth is too salty" is by wite dood gaijin.

Florencia 13: surprisingly good Mexican food in the village. Cool vibe and the wait staff were very nice.

I had my usual korma from Joy Indian on Sat but it didn't bring me the yoghurt and curry-flavored joy that I expected. It's not you, it's me...OR IS IT??

i'm volunteering at this on sat: http://streetvendor.org/vendies.html

they still need ppl if anyone is interested. free access to the food in exchange for a few hours of crowd-wrangling or bartending.

Sietsema surveys Roosevelt Ave tacos in VV:

http://www.villagevoice.com/nyclife/0739,sietsema,77911,15.html

I stand by the Carnitas Tacos from the taco truck at 52nd and roosevelt...way out of his range but pretty close to my house.

the humitas from one of the ecuadorian carts in the low 80s are incredibly tasty.

dan, what do you recommend at zabb city? i checked out their menu online and it looks like they have much less stuff than the zabb in queens. why no crispy pork and chinese broccoli, why!

http://www.chowhound.com/topics/417332

here's a chowhound thread that's sort of recent for reference. sounds like salads are the way to go, and it also sounds like it's nowhere near as good as zabb in qns.

(that thread is most valuable for a transliteration of how to say basic phrases in thai. keep reading to the end.)

zabb city was pretty great! we got everything thai spicy, and they have a scale of 3, 4, or 5 stars. we got everything 4 stars and it was definitely more than enough. i took four bites and immediately ordered sticky rice and a beer. the waitress asked if it was spicy enough and laughed at us and then brought us a pitcher of water. my cold is totally gone now though.

had the pork labb, duck salad, and zabb noodle. and fried banana with honey for desert.

those tacos across from heathers are no joke

also we tried to hit setagaya late-nite last night thinking it might not be crowded but they don't stay open past 11 on weekdays. shot down.

I'm not super into those tacos...Jeremy gets them ever time we do Dazzle Ships, but they're too messy! They start out good then they start adding the sauce, and adding, and adding!

My mind is boggling about the taco cart Siestema mentioned where they press fresh tortillas for your taco as you order it. That's pretty awesome.

The duck salad at both Zabbs was fantastic. Zabb Queens was a bit more refined, the apples and onions chopped finer and just more interesting, but Zabb City had bigger bits of apples and onion and added pineapple, which was pretty awesome. The duck itself was the same. The only other thing I've had at Zabb Queens was a shrimp dish someone on chowhound recommended, and something called Crispy rice and pork skin, which I miscontrued to mean crispy pork skin. The rice was crispy. The pork skin was not. It was the texture of skin, and I can't say I liked it very much.

I went to the new Arepas place in Astoria last night, pretty good and they were very nice. Got a free refill of their brown sugar lemonade, which was awesome.

yes I thought they were the dazzle ships official tacos, they have their own jpg on tropical computer system

the spicy chipotle one I got was great

setagaya field trip is u & k.

ZABB was the only restaurant in NYC whose waiter asked if we wanted our Pad Kaprow to be served authentic Thai style. We said yes and to our delight, the chicken came diced, the way they serve it in Thailand.

This was good to read. The first time I ordered Kaprow at Sri, I was suprised the chicken came pretty much ground up, where I was used to the american thai version which is basically like the chicken you'd find in a chinese take-out. I wondered if the was just Sri or if that was the real way to do it. I've ordered it once or twice since then and sometimes they even ask "ground?" because I guess people come expecting the "usual".

pork skin definitely needs to be crispy!

yeah, i've never been to setagaya or any of the fancy ramen places. i've been really in the mood for cold soba lately though...is there any place that specializes in that? do they hand-cut the noodles at any of these places? (this question may be better suited to the ask steve shasta thread)

sobaya but its north of 14th.

i work north of 14th, it's cool!

i love zaragoza tacos. the chorizo and the lengua, mmm. i agree that they can be a little wet, but as for the sauce just say that you don't want a a lot. the guy is really nice and accommodating.

I need to figure out a place for a lunch date :(

This is a bad thing?

zaragoza is great. they have plastic forks! what i do usually is eat a bit of the filling with said fork, then it's easier to wrap the taco up without spilling anything.

Zabb City was v v good, would eat again. My favorite was the duck salad; it had plenty of duck and it was crispy and had a really great flavor. The soup seemed kind of like normal soup, but we got it last and my taste buds were a little worn out from the intensity of the labb & duck salad. I think next time I might want to try one of the curries, even though they're not a specialty of the region. Or maybe one of the regular noodle dishes.

weird, i'm reading this thread and just polished off a pad kaprow at my desk

daer foodies,

i loathe st marks place, but should i go to kenku?
is there a better alternative?
need japanese snax soon