DAN SELZER, TOTALLY NOT BUMMING, RATES NYC EAT SPOTS

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

or kenka, whatever it's called
http://www.yelp.com/biz/9xRIcn0jTyvWNH9aBO3oAA

ATTEN ZAYTOONS ON VBILT NOW OPEN STOP RUN DON'T WALK THERE STOP HALLELUJAH STOP.

kenka kind of rules. it is what i imagine tgifridays would be like in japan (pls note i have never been to japan). the beer is really cheap and you get to make your own cotton candy. foodies do not like the food but it's solid and not expensive.

at least one japaneses i know insists on eating there everytime he visits nyc

xxpost - yah I had zaytoons last thurs, it's pretty good

did I tell you guys, chavella's was fuckin with us the other day, they claimed they didn't deliver on our side of vanderbilt. and la taqueria won't deliver on our side of flatbush. SOUTH BROOKLYN NEGATIVE ZONE MEXICAN FOOD VORTEX

in the end we browbeat chavella's and they agreed to deliver

chavella's is basically the ONLY place that will deliver to me (wrong side of classon, so lonely)

i'm thinking maybe that yakitori place also on st marx. but kenka might work. sounds fun.

it's been 4 years since i got food poisoned at smith street zaytoons. maybe it's time to forgive and forget.

yoko cho and yakitori taisho are totally solid and cheap, too.

Bell there's a possibly not that great but hey Japanese place on corner of Franklin and Dean now, they should deliver to you.

yeah i have their menu. have you tried it? it looks very meh.

I had really great molé enchiladas on Roosevelt the one time I visited Dan's place in Queens.

I still think Village Yokosho is my fave yakitori/etc. place on/near St. Marks. I've tried a bunch of the new(er) joints but they didn't do it for me.

Oh, it's pretty meh. I'm not gonna go out on a limb to defend that place fo shur except that it opened across the street from my prev apartment a few months after I moved out.

i actually haven't had the urge to get delivery since i've moved. having a much larger kitchen and no roomates to compete with for space makes cooking funnnnn.

who are all these new noisers

what's good within walking dist of Moving Image Museum in Astoria, ie 36/35 nr Steinway or Broadway? I know Uncle George's. I'm going to be hungree after 3-1/2 hrs of Chelsea Girls.

...not to mention ten straight minutes of Nico crying.

that makes me more thirstee.

AT SOME POINT THIS WEEKEND I AM GOING TO ZAYTOON'S ON VANDERBILT. ANTICIPATING NOM NOM

it's very good (and delivers to franklin fuck yes!) but it possibly gave ian and i food poisoning last time we ate it.

xpost to morbs -- I kinda like Cronin & Phelan (fish & chips, Irish pub grub). 38th and Broadway. not a whole lot around there. Cup Diner is nearby (35st & 36av) but it kinda sucks imo.

it's very good (and delivers to franklin fuck yes!) but it possibly gave ian and i food poisoning last time we ate it.

wow really? me and shannon too. and check out sanskrit's comment upthread. gotta be more than a coincidence.

You guys, that is so depressing.

sorry :(

if it makes you feel better I've had it four times but only got semi-ill once

try your luck

yeah, the other time i had it, i was fine. and i used to eat smith st zaytoons on a weekly basis when i lived over there and never had a problem.

i WILL eat it again. though i may avoid ground lamb stuff.

that is the same dish me & shannon split

ground lamb platter

it was tasty :(

25% chance of spending a night in stomach hell... I LIKE THOSE ODDS

I've eaten smith st. zaytoons so much that one of the guys who used to work there bought me a drink at Boat once. That was weird. Anyway, it never made me sick, though when I got the chicken kebab platter for delivery it was sometimes undercooked. That's pretty gross. Their lentil soup is AWESOME, so thick you can eat it with a fork.

The Cup sucks, but Cafe Bar has some ok stuff.