• Although Jules at The Bruni Digest has decamped for Chicago, she continues to write about Frank Bruni’s “reviews” … “Le Cirque: Fancy Pants, but No Family Jewels” … “Time to take off those thatched heather pajamas and put on your fancy pants! The Count, feeling very Countly today, drops in on Le Cirque, flush with seeming nostalgia for the starchy, star-studded brand.” … good luck in Chicago Jules!
• Robert Sietsema says the best place for Sichuan peppercorn-spiced food is Xiao La Jiao … “In a tawdry bi-level strip mall next to Golden Golden Szechuan stands newcomer Xiao La Jiao (English name: Little Pepper).” (this used to be Spicy & Tasty) …the dried rabbit “wasn’t dry in the least, and the subtle smoked flavor was enhanced by dipping each bite-size piece in the accompanying saucer of salt and toasted huajiao.” … “The best thing on the menu, though, is a dish that dry-cooks swatches of lamb with a coating of cumin and Sichuan peppercorns, three ingredients and one technique inconceivable in southern Chinese restaurants.” … 133-43 Roosevelt Avenue, Flushing, Queens, 718-939-7788
• Steve Cuozzo asks, “Where does less than $6 worth of food cost $32?” … our answer: Any place where there are people with more money than judgement (MMTJ) … and at the kind of places we don’t go and don’t think you should either …
• eat drink one woman, after eating ja jang myun at Shanghai Mong, is still searching “for the delicious ja jang myun of my memory. Anybody have any recommendations?” [Citysearch]
• Augieland does his typical thorough review, with pics, of Moto … and Devin Tavern … we wonder why the NYT can’t hire someone to put together reviews half as good as Augie’s – just wondering … and he has a nice overview of the “top of the world of junk food,” Chicago Dogs … we love this:
  

  The last stop of this journey was Hot Doug’s. When Chicago area magazines do surveys, Hot Doug’s often appears on the “favorite places to eat” lists of the Chicagoland chefs I respect most. On a little corner far from the city center (the 3300 north block), across from an empty field with a crew using a backhoe to dig a hole deep enough to fit an extension ladder, is a small (about a dozen four-top tables) lunch-counter kind of place somewhat haphazardly decorated with things like pictures of Brittney Spears, an 8×12 print-out of sausage-centric German phrase translations, and in large white lettering the slogan that “the two nicest words in the English language are encased meats.”

• A Guy in New York visited several “good value” eateries with his friend from Italy, Mietta Buitoni … yeah, those Buitonis …
• Veal Cheeks has a roundup of Four Asian Spots … Lao Bei Fang Dumpling House … Mie Jakarta … New Asha Cafe … Skyway …
• The Girl Who Ate Everything has a picture of omurice at Hiroko’s Place and it looks interesting (according to wikipedia, Omurice is “a contemporary Japanese dish consisting of an omelet made with fried rice“) … “Each plump little grain of rice was coated in ketchup. I’ve never had rice and ketchup before, but it works (if you like ketchup). While I wouldn’t want it slathered on in a goopy fashion, the coating was just a tint of flavor.” … 75 Thompson Street, between Spring and Broome Streets, 212-625-1303 [MenuPages | Yelp | The Gaijin Girl’s Guide to Chinatown]
• pushcart NYC
  

  took my first visit to Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights — or is it Rego Park? — at any rate, near 79th Street, where the legendary Arepa Lady is rumored to hang out.

  I was amazed — here is another piece of the city, unlike any other, as throbbing and busy as Chinatown, and supposedly open later. Queens truly is where the city that never sleeps lives now. Service industry=all hours.

  There are a great number of carts of varying degrees of sophistication strung out along the sidewalks flanking the elevated portion of the R. I have singled out two of the simpler ones for this first review, and I fear I haven’t even done them particular justice…I’ll have to go back soon. Of particular interest: a food-truck specializing in ceviche and the countless fruit salad and fruit-drink carts, particularly the ones that seem to use some kind of crisp pastry as a dish (almost like an sugar cone).

  He promises more soon …

• Twenty bucks a day says the food at Damascus Gate is “totally delicious” … and “the mtabbal, which seemed to be comprised of garlic mashed up with eggplant and peppers, was good and unique enough that I considered taking home a gallon” … but commenters on zabihah say this place is overpriced … 7224 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-680-8844 [zabihah | New York Food | Village Voice] … and says Spartan Souvlaki is “the only restaurant I’ve been to in the last few years (with the possible exception of the dining room in my great-grandmother’s nursing home) that has had flowers painted on the ceiling” … “the gyro sandwich – a true monsterpiece that adds enormous heapings of yummy meat, lettuce and red onions to the tomatoes, and adds a generous dollop of tzatziki to bind it all together. Warning: this tzatziki has so much raw garlic in it that it is just as pungent as a hot pepper” … sounds good to us, but we like garlic …. 6820 Eighth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-748-5838 [Go Brooklyn | Village Voice | insider pages]

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Did we miss your favorite review?

Let us know: aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com … we’re especially interested in hearing about mom and pop places from NYC bloggers …

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