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From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

@ Adam--I do like Shopsins (for some reason I don't mind burnt onions), but I"ll have to get out to White Manna soon.

@ Scoreboard: Thanks for the apology, but if you look at the comments, it's actually my colleague Chantal who made the remark about the Twinkies. I've had them. Chantal was just trying to add to the conversation, I'm sure, and had no idea how offended you would be.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

Hey everybody, Sarah here--

Listen, I can understand the nostalgic appeal of eating food from your childhood--I actually grew up working class, but my parents just didn't happen to take me to White Castle or Burger King, and I can't help that. My mother grew up on a farm in the Midwest, and was used to cooking at home to stretch money. (My grandfather, on the other hand, did take me out to McDonald's for breakfast, and I still remember how sweet those pancakes tasted.)

When I drove across the country, moving to LA and back, we stopped for fast food a few times, but more often tried to find cheap, mom-and-pop places, NOT because I'm somehow above fast food, but simply that food was more interesting (not the same everywhere), and better to support the local economy.

Actually, I don't live in a bubble, eating only Kobe beef--people don't go into writing for the big bucks. At Fork in the Road, we focus on cheap eats-- things like $1 dumplings in Sunset Park. We get all over the city, just trying to find good stuff, the cheaper the better.

Hey, I had no idea so many people take White Castle so personally. I didn't turn the burger down— I ate it, and I did like it—just thought the patty itself was a little strange. But you never know, maybe I'll get hooked.

From Serious Eats: New York

Himalayan Yak in Jackson Heights Finally Serves Yak

Wow Joey--looks great. I tried that same brand of mopani worm a few months ago, and thought it tasted like dirt crossed with dried shrimp. Psilocybin mushroom sounds much more exciting!

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I also liked Baoguette, but I don't think it comes close to the overwhelming deliciousness of the banh mi at Ba Xuyen (4222 8th Ave
Brooklyn, 718-633-6601) in Sunset Park. I haven't found a banh mi in the city that's better than theirs. Plus, Ba Xuyen only charges $3.50.

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From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

@ Adam--I do like Shopsins (for some reason I don't mind burnt onions), but I"ll have to get out to White Manna soon.

@ Scoreboard: Thanks for the apology, but if you look at the comments, it's actually my colleague Chantal who made the remark about the Twinkies. I've had them. Chantal was just trying to add to the conversation, I'm sure, and had no idea how offended you would be.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

Hey everybody, Sarah here--

Listen, I can understand the nostalgic appeal of eating food from your childhood--I actually grew up working class, but my parents just didn't happen to take me to White Castle or Burger King, and I can't help that. My mother grew up on a farm in the Midwest, and was used to cooking at home to stretch money. (My grandfather, on the other hand, did take me out to McDonald's for breakfast, and I still remember how sweet those pancakes tasted.)

When I drove across the country, moving to LA and back, we stopped for fast food a few times, but more often tried to find cheap, mom-and-pop places, NOT because I'm somehow above fast food, but simply that food was more interesting (not the same everywhere), and better to support the local economy.

Actually, I don't live in a bubble, eating only Kobe beef--people don't go into writing for the big bucks. At Fork in the Road, we focus on cheap eats-- things like $1 dumplings in Sunset Park. We get all over the city, just trying to find good stuff, the cheaper the better.

Hey, I had no idea so many people take White Castle so personally. I didn't turn the burger down— I ate it, and I did like it—just thought the patty itself was a little strange. But you never know, maybe I'll get hooked.

From Serious Eats: New York

Himalayan Yak in Jackson Heights Finally Serves Yak

Wow Joey--looks great. I tried that same brand of mopani worm a few months ago, and thought it tasted like dirt crossed with dried shrimp. Psilocybin mushroom sounds much more exciting!

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I also liked Baoguette, but I don't think it comes close to the overwhelming deliciousness of the banh mi at Ba Xuyen (4222 8th Ave
Brooklyn, 718-633-6601) in Sunset Park. I haven't found a banh mi in the city that's better than theirs. Plus, Ba Xuyen only charges $3.50.

From Serious Eats: New York

Village Voice Best Bagel Search Has Some Holes

Hey everyone,

Actually, if you read the piece, you'll see that we held a poll for readers to write in with their favorite bagel places, and then we taste-tested the places that readers voted for. It was meant to be interactive like that.

Sarah

From Serious Eats

Where To Find Fried Pickles on the East Coast

In NYC, you can get them at Wildwood Barbeque, where they are called "bottlecaps." I'm not a huge fan of the place, but certainly had no argument with their fried pickles.

From Serious Eats: New York

Village Voice Best Bagel Search Has Some Holes

Take a trip to Buck's County Pa. Bagel Junction Cafe and Caterer's got them all beat!!

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

Adam - I wasn't serious. And I mean no disrespect to AHT! Mad love! Guess I better watch my typing on the interweb as sarcasm doesn't readily translate.

From Serious Eats: New York

Himalayan Yak in Jackson Heights Finally Serves Yak

hmm, I wonder what Tibetan people would have thought of this feast. Would it be atypical?

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

Dunno where you got that one, Sakura. We have lots of info on burgers in places other than L.A. and NYC.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

I guess it really is true that New Yorkers don't think there's anything outside of New York (except maybe LA...). It's ok. To each his own, huh? My philosophy is to try as many different burgers as I can, whether WC, Shake Shack or mom n' pop shops on the road. Then I can truly compare.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

Actually that is what I think I was looking at. (concerning the twinkie comment).

Again Sara, my apologies.

I need to go get a burger.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

@Scoreboard44: Yeah, I know. I like to eat everything—the good and the "bad," the high and the low. Of course, it helps that I grew up with easy access to junk food and the like, so I was able to eat it as a kid. If you weren't raised on it and had never had it, I could see why you'd avoid it. I dunno what I'm going to do when I have kids, since I want them to be able to know what a Twinkie is like or White Castle but I don't want them to get too unhealthy a taste for it.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

Okay. I apologize to Sara. I didn't mean to vent on her like that but the article and some of the comments on the site came across as a bit purist.

Especially the part about the twinkie.

From A Hamburger Today

Quote of the Day: Boooooo, Sarah DiGregorio, Boooooo

@everyone: Sarah/VV does tend to focus on the cheap, good eats. And she doesn't appear to live in a bubble. Part of the reason I posted this as QOTD was that I was surprised she hadn't had the White Castle because she's eaten just about everything else out there.

But, yeah, Sarah, I've found that people take White Castle snubs personally and seriously 'round these parts. ;)

I would also say that if you haven't been to White Manna in Hackensack, you've missed out on a truly great slider that KILLS Whitey's slider. Shopsin's slider is almost as good, but he tends to burn the onions.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

The Baogette on Christopher st. (120 Christopher st.) is better than the one on lexington. In addition to the regular banh mi's they have pho in the back. I'm Vietnamese. I've grown up eating Vietnamese pho and I've had pho in Vietnam. Let me tell you, the pho there is delicious! It comes close to one of my favorites. The soup is so hearty and really hits home for me. The scallions are fresh and you can really smell the ingredients. Taste like how my grandma used to make it! I also tried the beef tongue. Exceptional as well.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

Baogette's iced coffee is a disappointing affair---UNBELIEVABLY TASTELESS and WEAK with JUST A HINT OF SWEETNESS due to a STINGY amount of sweetened condensed milk. Was so looking forward to that rich, creamy coffee that is a signature of Vietnamese restaurants from Chinatown to Jackson Heights. The sandwiches are good and filling but the HONEY MUSTARD on the FISH sandwich puts it on par with deli food--not good.

Paris Sandwiches on Mott St Nicky's on E. 2nd have something going on with their food which is tastier.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

Baoguette is pretty good, but I felt they should toast the bread more, that is what would make them stand out. if they are gonna do business during the day when its very busy, i don't see how they can toast/bake bread properly.

btw, check out my banh mi site listing all banh mi places in nyc
http://www.nychinatown.org/directory/m_banhmi.html

From Serious Eats

Where To Find Fried Pickles on the East Coast

I love fried pickles but I thought your comment about spears was really weird because I find the exact opposite to be true. The chips tend to get soggy and cold much faster than the spears. Which made sense to me because the spears are crunchier in the first place. I actually avoid places that have chips. Hooters for example has the chips. Which almost everywhere has a hooters so there you go but I don't go because I want the real thing. The full on spear and if you're lucky and you're at Little River BBQ in Townsend, TN then you get the special sauce too (some sort of sweet mustard). It's absolutely the best. Chips really?!!? So confusing....

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

Waited 15 minutes on line to order at prime lunch time - not bad. Waited another 30 minutes on top of that to actually get my sandwich. During which time they ran out of pork (there was more cooking in the oven). During which time the two people behind the counter were taking their sweet time to the point where I wanted to jump back there and help them out.

So I finally got my sandwich and it was quite good. Worth the wait? Maybe. Maybe once a month, but certainly not once a week. Bread was not warm as they were using it up too fast to get any QT under the warmer.

In other news, unless they storing their "house made" mayo in industrial size Hellman's bottles, it's not so much homemade.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I discovered Banh mi sandwiches about 7 years ago and they were a revelation: crunchy and soft; sweet, spicy, and savory; cold and warm all in one glorious bite. Baoguette's version is fine if you're in the Curry Hill area and you've a hankering, but it doesn't hold a candle to those served at Banh Mi So 1 on Broome or Saigon Banh Mi on Elizabeth. To my knowledge, Banh Mi is served on a hero roll made partly with rice flour, which gives it a fluffy, airy lightness. Baoguette's bread did not have this special texture - it seemed to have the density of a typical baguette. The meats were fine combined with everything else but not very tasty individually (I kind of deconstructed the sandwich as I ate). On a positive side, the sandwich was generous in size and contained lots of fresh cilantro. Baoguette has a sandwich titled the "Sloppy Bao" that I'd return to try - beef in green curry and some other interesting ingredients - but I'll do my best from here on in to get my banh mi fix further downtown.

From Serious Eats

Where To Find Fried Pickles on the East Coast

How did I ever miss this? Toots was my first exposure to fried pickles back in college over 10 years ago! Now, Jockamo's is my place to get my fix!

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I have been on a Banh Mi kick this week to discover the best in town. So far I've been to: Paris Bakery, Saigon Bakery, the new An Choi and then back to Paris all in one week. Paris is more of a $4 smaller baguette but so fresh and great bread. Saigon, was bummed about the Special and the bread felt like a hoagie but great price under $4. An Choi (Orchard/Grand) great sit down, their Special is ok, their grilled pork was DELISH! I loved their touch of serving it with shrimp chips, priced at $5-5.50 but you can actually sit and enjoy the restaurant. Their iced coffee... meh, very weak.

I'm a bit hesitant to try Baogette but its next along with Nikki's for the taste test. There should be more Banh Mi spots in the city, its an odd thing that New Yorkers have not entirely discovered while we are so international. In cities like Seattle and San Francisco they are much more recognized.

Every sub par SUB shop should become Banh Mi fo sho!

Check out this site: http://battleofthebanhmi.com/

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I finally made the trip to Kip's Bay (the true neighborhood of this shop) and I ordered a classic and the catfish. I'm a picky about my classic banh mi, I like the head cheese salty and the pate porky, and this was a slightly different twist. The pate was different from what I was used to, a little more mushroomy, but still enjoyable. While the cat fish curry was appropriately spicy, I just thought it was a tad too sweet. I still hope the Baoguette trend catches on, I need people to know there are alternatives to 5 dollah footlongs.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

Just had the classic for lunch today. As others have said, the bread was excellent, with the perfect crispyness to it. However, the filling left a bit to be desired. It was very meaty tasting, which is a good thing, but was lacking the highly flavorful, sweet/spicy crispyness of a normal banh-mi. It just didn't taste like a banh-mi.

Overall, I'd give it a B, primarily because of the bread. It's good, and the meaty flavor is nice, but I'm looking for a banh mi, and it just didn't taste anything like it. Saigon is head-and-shoulders above Baoguette.

The other sandwiches looked nice, but I haven't tried any of them.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

Just finished the classic ($5) and the Super ($7).

The classic was OK, but the roll was huge and doughy. Nothing crunchy to enjoy.

The Super was not super at all. The roast beef was of extremely poor quality; I took out all the meat and just ate the carrots, basil and cucumber. Even though it was spicy, it disappointed.

Service was wanting. Customers waited for orders, while the four people working there didn't pitch in to get them out quickly. The sandwich maker (Mexican? guy wearing a Burritoville baseball cap) worked hard, while a woman took her sweet time making one salad while he pumped out four sandwiches. The cashier rang up three customers in 30 seconds, and then stared at the sandwich maker the rest of the time. Another man sat tapping on a laptop, only occasionally turning around to chat with the Vietnamese staff.

I'm not going back, although I've been dying for a place like this to show up in my neighborhood. Food + service = don't bother.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I'm still waiting for a vietnamese restaurant in Manhattan that uses all the correct herbs (purple shizo, fish mint, vietnamese coriander etc.) Many just opt out and only offer thai basil in their dishes or as side accoutrements.

From Serious Eats: New York

Baoguette: Great Vietnamese Sandwiches in Murray Hill, Possibly the Best Banh Mi in NYC

I'm fortunate to have my choice of bahn mi shops within a short drive of where I live. The bread is important, some places nail it, others don't. And, they're cheaper here, thank goodness.

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