Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

what about Back Forty? They have large trestle tables for groups.

Sorry, in what respect exactly are Hezbollah supposed to be like vegans? Are they also supposed to be a 'splinter faction'? of what, again, exactly? This is sloppy at best, exploitative at worst. Yes we know Bourdain was in Beirut when Israel attacked in 2006. Too bad he didn't return with any better understanding of the food or the politics or of their relationship. He has a platform from which he might draw attention to the devastation Israeli cluster bombs have wreaked on the southern agrarian economy and efforts of ngos such as Land & People to promote local food traditions to help otherwise destituted people benefit from their few remaining resources. For example. And yes, like ccbweb I haven't actually gone to the site. Some sick (racist, sexist, fascist whatever) puns are just not worth investigating.

weirdly enough, you can (or could) get very good traditional sushi at the small sushi bar at Anzu in the Nikko Hotel. I used to eat there occasionally when I would travel to SF from LA and that's saying a lot.

This LES Jewish-Italian vision of NY authenticity is really too banal and um ethnocentric. Can somebody please write a musical and throw the carcass to the tourists? I've lived in NY on and off for many years and I can tell you that I've never suffered for want of fried wontons or chicken parmesan, not in New Haven and not in LA. I am thinking about a possible move even now, and it's Evans Farmhouse milk, Fishkill Farms eggs, local oysters at the GCOB, lebneh and freekeh from Kalustyan's, the odd reservation number at Sushi Yasuda and delivery from Moore Brothers that I worry about. These are among the products I associate with New York food (obviously with at least as broad and international a perspective as the op's).

I recognize that there are more takes on NY food than there are mouths and menus but this is egregious synecdoche.

what's with the compulsion to observe a holiday by doing the same thing as everyone else, or at least, as you imagine everyone else doing? Forget a national thanksgiving dish. Holidays should give us all license to eat what we like best. Some people have strange palates but as far as I am concerned: turkey is nasty. (So, for that matter, are pies. And families).

yes and no.
"soul food" is a blanket term--to different people it means different things.
a lot of the time, it refers to a sort of "home cooked" style found in a lot of Southern USA regional dishes.
another way of saying it might be to say that a lot of southern food is comfort food, but they are not the same thing at all.
It's also interesting to note that a wide variety of "Southern" food styles exist outside of the cliche "fried chicken and greens" type dishes a lot of people associate with the South. I've had the honor to work at both La Jolla and Garrett's, two Montgomery, Ala. restaurants specializing in "new" southern food--gourmet interpretations of all kinds of stuff, from fish to pasta to...yes, fried chicken(La Jolla had fried chicken for lunch for about two months before we decided it was just too embarassing).

@1stmakearoux, the only place I can think of is Cafe Habana, which is the only Cuban restaurant close to the river...their tres leches is awesome as well.

@bitter I was in Philly last summer and went to a fabulous Cuban restaurant down by the river. Of course I can't recall the name, but it was truly like walking into a restaurant in Havana! Beautiful decor, great Cuban food (I had ropa vieja), reasonable prices, and attentive servers and manager.

My gf makes great picadillo when I can talk her into it!

I also happen to be part Cuban too, 1stmakearoux and make a mean picadillo!!!

Right now, I'm craving some shrimp and grits. My bad back has me out from work today, but I can stand at the stove for a l'il bit. I've got some shrimp and andouille (sp?) in the fridge. So tempting.

One thing I miss is fatback. My maternal grands were from Saluda, South Carolina and they used to fry fatback on the weekends. My mom was their only girl, and they were devoted to her. We were their favorites. As soon as Mom parked the car, I'd run up the steps, into the house, kiss them, and then run into the kitchen to eat a piece of crispy, salty fatback. Fatback went into EVERYTHING -- oil for frying chicken, greens - even ice cream. LOL, just kidding.

Right now I reside in Center City Philly - pretty much lily-white, which I hardly have a problem with, except I always have to catch the bus and go to North Philly or West Philly to get the things I miss. I don't have a car, which makes getting the food I crave something of a challenge.

It's a bit like Cajun and Creole. Both are very similar but they are, indeed, different. Soul food is more likely to involve pork in the cooking process - be it through the use of bacon, ham hocks, or chitterlings.

Southern food is light as air biscuits, grillades and grits, squash blossoms, bread pudding, catfish with pecan butter, Hummingbird cake, ambrosia, fresh veggies straight from the garden (Francis I - the sterling pattern- even makes a tomato server), freshly made lemonade and ice tea, juleps, chess pie... those are all southern foods. Just my humble, Mississippi and Alabama raised opinion. :-)