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I'll second Cong Ly and Nha Trang, but they're still not anywhere close to HCM City pho.

Strangely, I had a bowl of pho at hanco's in park slope that had a better broth than either Cong Ly and Nha Trang, but the bowl had too much meat in it.

One thing that no Viet resto in NY does right is the noodles.

Aren't those stumps left over from when the place got redesigned? It used to look much cooler.

I'd agree with hmw0029's friend, and strongly disagree with the author: Totto's broth is insipid, near downright bad. Ditto its eggs. Though the skimpy serving of pork is good, as is the actual space.

But de gustibus, etc. Although I am consistently mystified by people adoring Totto Ramen or Yakitori Totto. They don't stack up against other similar NYC places, let alone the oft-repeated "just like in japan" platitudes.

But I don't get the metric at all. Is Rai Rai Ken's "style" shio? It's shoyu is far better than its shio or miso. Minca's chicken/pork mix is far better than the straight pork.

There is one similarity between NYC and Japan, though. Tonkotsu is way overhyped.

Kenji,

Butcher and Packer has beef bungs:

http://www.butcher-packer.com

What I wrote was just as simple, and probably more flavorful.

I'll concede the point about the wine. But why not deglaze? This is hardly authentic.

Ribsteak

Ribsteak.

Rib steak

(Bone-in ribeye is an oxymoron people!)

Though in a pinch a Peter Luger porterhouse would do.

Smoked Oyster Sticky Rice Stuffing sounds great... but for some reason that ridiculously simple sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon sounds so good to me right now, so I'd have to go with that.

No offal = fail.

I've tried the Surryano ham (I bought it from Heritage Foods, though I think if you buy direct it's cheaper). It's quite good, and it's great to cook with as well. It's odd that they want to liken it to Serrano; isn't Serrano not smoked at all?

Hunan ham is delicious, but of an entirely different character. It's illegal in the US I believe.