Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Agree, Ssam Bar does the best.

"Leaving behind nothing but half empty Cosmos and a faint aroma of leftover Magnolia cupcakes tinged with a hint of Buddakan kitchen" - brilliant. Magnolia survives, nay, expands, because of SATC.

I'm not sure why people do these tours, but there are a lot of cliched tourists out there. I think SATC will remain part of our pop culture for a while yet, and New York really was the fifth character in the show.

Love Chuko! The ramen is incredible - with the most perfectly cooked egg I've ever had!

I love the sound of Le Bernardin, Bar Basque and A Voce's canapés! I helped set up the event - looked like it would be amazing, so glad it turned out well!

LOVED the beef dog with truffle gruyere sauce and thought the baguette was a great touch! Agree, the fries have to be hot and fresh, but love that they're not fried. Saw lots of people ordering just the mac n cheese and based on your review will have to try it next time.

"I imagine most Asian, African, Middle Eastern and European kids brought different (likely better) foods. "

My high school (early-mid 90's) in Sydney was extremely multicultural (I think we had 70 different nationalities) and we all pretty much ate the same thing. If you brought it from home: ham, cheese or salad sandwich, with a small packet of chips. I only remember my friend from Hong Kong occassionally bringing leftover noodles, he usually had sambos too.

If you bought your lunch at the canteen, either a roll (ham/salad was always the most popular) or a pizza pocket. For recess we'd either buy choc chip muffins, a packet of chips or Sunny Boys.

We had a few cafes up the road from the school and we'd sneak out to them even though only Year 12s could, because the choices were brilliant: a French patisserie (still remember those palmiers), a mom-and-pop deli where we lived off fresh bologna rolls for $1.20, or a gorgeous pasta shop.

Great posts, thank SE, looking forward to more in the series.

To avoid the smokey house situation, could you roast the belacan in a wok/frypan over high heat for a minute instead, before using? I'm thinking that might not get as smokey as direct flame heat?

Best!

I really do want a Herb Savor as I've found the glass-plastic bag trick doesn't work that well all the time.

Great post, please keep them coming! Who doesn't love a kitchen gadget?

Oh that is the best news ever! I have the biggest crush on Mark!