Hi Leela,

Thank you for this - sounds lovely.

I bought a cannister of the dried leaves a while ago, and was very pleased as they made tea that tasted exactly like the ones we've had in Thailand (and decent Thai restaurants elsewhere), with that quite remarkable orange-red colour. I was somewhat surprised though that the leaves contain vanillin and food colouring. Are they what make Thai tea leaves Thai??

I love lots of rubbishy eats but fake vanilla and FD&C red & yellow are probably new lows....

What a lovely thing to do for your friend.
Not much to add to the great ideas above - how about savoury pies in individual portions, and some of her favourite music perhaps?

Sannakji (raw octopus) in Korea. They look revolting (the pieces are served still squirming), have barely any taste, and the suction cups stick to the roof of your mouth, making them all but impossible to chew, let alone swallow. Really vile stuff.

Be careful Kenji, people say it's terribly addictive.
I'd hate to see you end up a foodie.

How to be a domestic goddess

Durians!

Jitlada, if you'd like to try non-watered down Thai. The usual suspects like pad thai, tom yum etc are offered, but the menu also has lots of other dishes that aren't found at other places. Undoubtely authentic but more importantly, eormously enormously delicious.

@wadejay26: Yes!

That's in the same category as "awesome," which has become the go-to word to describe everything from your grandma's knickers to her apple pie.

@Kenji,

I'm with you - there's virtually no way to please everyone (or anyone it seems). While, as you say, no-one should take these things too seriously, you cannot deny that delicious tacos are enormously important in life. I'm afraid you must persist!

I think one has to approach Yelp with managed expectations - it is simply a platform for anyone pleased/cross enough to put pen to paper. Writers on sites like SE generally offer considered and thoughtful reviews, because well, I imagine they're considered and thoughtful to begin with, but more importantly, they write with a sense of accountability to their readers.

Food reviewing is a craft, as with all other kinds of writing that are not Yelp-esque. It demands a good grasp of the material, intelligence, time - TIME, Yelpers! - and I think, empathy. To state the obvious, a business is awfully hard work, and a good reviewer needs to think a little about the impact their writing might have on the restaurant. Not to excuse plainly bad food/service as such but constructive criticism should certainly come into play. The typical Yelp reviewer is simply not going to think about what their readers are going to do with that information, and they really don't need to.

Not to get too political here, but Yelpings are a little like SuperPac ads in form and function. They're often just plain daft and a lot of noise, but also have the potential to give you a sense of the candidate. Ultimately though, if I want to find out more, the onus is on me to turn to better sources, not moan about the ads. Otherwise we may all get the moose stew we deserve... (which I hear is enormously delicious, although it's off the menu this year!).

Utterly brilliant - and written like a true ramen otaku I may add. Hunting down good ramen is a bit of an obsession in these parts too, so this post is a lovely surprise.

However. With the volume required of a business, I can't imagine many ramen-ya washing and cleaning the bones like you did (Zen-ifying as it may be!), begging the question of how the guys who do this for a living get the broth so unctuously milky?

Royce nama chocolate