[CH] Hot stuff in the Big Apple; was Thanks for the mustard recipes
phirsch@nypl.org
Fri, 7 Dec 2001 11:26:37 -0500
In response to my grumbling, Alex wrote -
<Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 21:57:10 -0400
<From: Alexandra Soltow <pamra@rockland.net>
<Subject: Re: [CH] Thanks for the mustard recipe<
<
<Peter wrote,
<
<>could I coax some hot tips on chile-related cuisine here in the (=
<>currently somewhat bruised) Big Apple.
<
<Hi, Peter! Nice to hear from you.
<
<Won't any of the myriad Indian restaurants here spice things up
sufficiently?
<
<Alex
<
<Alexandra Soltow
<pamra@rockland.net
<
<*><*><*><*><*><*>
<
<Practice safe eating -- always use condiments.
Hi back to you Alex,
Good to hear from someone on this list whom I have actually seen in the
flesh (wait, that doesn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean. It's
not Rael speaking after all, though I am enough of a knuckle dragger myself
to even visualize unintended implications). Anyhow, I tend to rant about
how much arm twisting it takes to convince chefs that they can cook for me
as if the restaurant was back home in Asia, Africa or S. America where they
learned to cook. I have once in a while convinced them that they will not
be sued if I find the food too spiced up. Usually, I see them peering,
grinning, from the kitchen waiting for the first, anguished, gasp from my
direction. Not being acquainted with my fire-proofed palate, they then
assume an attitude somewhere between puzzlement and amusement. I do
graciously accept the refills of my water glass and generally try to make
direct contact with the person in the kitchen before I leave. It sometimes
feels like a losing battle, since the tide of people going the other
direction, blanding down the cuisine by asking them to lower the heat to a
level that I frankly cant even detect, causes restaurants that start with a
high chile rating, seem less adventurous on subsequent visits.
I have had good luck with a number of Ethiopian (Queen of Sheba on 10th
Ave. , most recently) Vietnamese (a place right next door to Q of S that I
don't remember the name of) and Baluchi (two or three restaurants of this
name are scattered around town; Baluchistan is somewhere in the
Indo-Pak-Afghan sphere, but I haven't figured out exactly where yet). I
guess I am frustrated that this city has so many thousands of restaurants
and my list of hot spots is so small. I also find that a majority of those
places that I find satisfactory are tiny "dives", usually little more than
luncheonettes. I love these places and their atmosphere for the most part,
but it is often difficult to dig them up and then hard to figure out just
what is being offered and how to make my standard plea for heat to the
waitress in a language that I speak little or none of.
Well, nuff said for now,
Peter H