At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. The neighborhood surrounding the Elmhurst Avenue subway stop has been home to several excellent Thai eateries for years and new ones have been popping up lately. One worth mentioning is Sugar Club, a tiny Thai grocery/video store. If you have a hankering for curry pastes, palm juice or those scary looking little bottles of Thai Red......

The atmosphere at Ploy Thai, a newish restaurant on the corner of Elmhurst Avenue and Broadway in Queens, seems promising in its authenticity; upon entering for the first time we were pleased to find a few tables of Thai families, a specials board written completely in Thai and karaoke of girl band Girly Berry playing on a flat screen TV. We ordered two of the specials: yum pla duk fu, or fluffy catfish salad and......

A veteran of Nobu and Ruby Foo’s, Chris Cheung was hired 5 months ago to replace Patricia Yeo at Monkey Bar, the red satin and black lacquer midtown institution known primarily for its, well, monkey theme. In an effort to reemphasize the food quotient of the restaurant, the 38 year-old chef maintains an inventory of global tastes and reassembles them using the template of traditional Chinese food: The curly fries, for example, that come with......

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients that you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. What you see before is bag of dried hibiscus flowers, or karkade, as these dried little blossoms are known in Egypt. You can boil them up to make a wonderfully red-hued tea that's packed with plenty of vitamin C. As you can probably guess from the image on the packaging it's sometimes served hot......

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Mesa Grill (pictured), knocking the restaurant down from the two stars given it by William Grimes in 2000. Says that while the Bobby Flay restaurant “has considerable charms… on balance [it] presents only flickers of the excitement it did [when it opened] in 1991… It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.” Peter Meehan goes to Hakata Tonton for $25 and......

You know how Hispanic cooks have been replacing Italians in a lot of pizza joints? The same fate could be in store for the city’s Chinese restaurants, as the booming Chinese economy now gives chefs little incentive to take work in a declining America. Many area restaurant owners are distressed by the trend and blame it on the fact that executive chefs’ salaries in China are matching or even surpassing the U.S. pay grade. Salaries......

When you first thumb through the menu at Eat-pisode, the new Lower East Side Thai joint on Ludlow Street, you might cringe that the pages are numbered "Eat-pisode 1," "Eat-pisode 2," and so on, as though they are chapters into gastronomic revelation. Fortunately, all of the cringing stops there, and delectable food by the husband-wife team of Wara and Natalee Supulchai (also owners of Poh Tree Thai Spa across the street from the restaurant),......

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Centro Vinoteca. Says of chef Anne Burrell “The woman can fry,” and you’ll be happy with your food provided you choose anything fried, especially those items on the piccolini (small plates) menu. The rest is erractic: “Both on and off the plate, Centro can elate and deflate you.” Peter Meehan goes to Nusara for Thai in $25 and Under; says the restaurant “belongs on the short but growing......

When most people think of ethnic cuisine in Queens the first thing that pops to mind is not Polish food. It’s more likely Korean, Indian, or Thai. Nevertheless there exists a pocket of Polish restaurants and groceries in the decidedly old school neighborhood of Maspeth. One of the best places to sample hearty stick-to-your ribs fare as well as lighter Polish dishes is Krolewskie Jadlo, or “King’s Feast.” With all the pictures of Polish royalty......

Williamsburg has its Thai food, and now it seems that Alphabet City has its Cuban. Bodeguita Cubana, a Serbian-run Cuban joint that opened in May on 10th Street (between 1st & Avenue A), is the third in a trifecta of ropa vieja-offering restaurants that's enveloped the neighborhood east of 1st Avenue (the other two are Cafecito & Cafe Cortadito). Arguably the most appealing of them all (though we do love Cafecito), the French doors......

Many of you are probably familiar with the horchata you can buy at Burritoville, a pale, dairy imitation of the real thing made with fat-free milk, rice powder, cinnamon, and sugar. It's potable, but doesn't even begin to compare with horchata made with actual rice and almonds, cinnamon and vanilla, with no milk in sight. Horchata is a sweet, creamy beverage that we love to drink when eating spicy foods (and whenever else we can......

There was very little else for Londonist to be concerned with when the threat of a Tube strike became a very unpleasant reality. The inconvenience was extreme: there aren't many alternatives to the Tube in London despite the best efforts of the Londonist team to get everyone from A to B. Brighter news came in the form of the first ever female Yeoman Warder, or Beefeater as the position is more commonly known, and......

The NY Times has a slide show of assorted items that could be perfect wedding gifts for book lovers. Suggestions range from whimsical bookshelves to personalized book plates. We were most intrigued by Levenger's Thai Book Rest - we suppose you could get a pair of two for a wedding couple. Or one, plus some massage oils and a copy of the Kama Sutra as a cheeky bridal/bachelorette party shower gift. Anyway, on with this......

Servers aren't cheap, so we'd like to take a moment to thank the advertisers on Gothamist this week: Fierce People for making our family seem so much less dysfunctional than the family in the movie - yikes! Visa Signature for making us want to cook Thai food with their fine wine & food event. Rocket Science because dealing with life, love, and public speaking during high school can sometimes be like rocket science. MoMA for......

In honor of the 250th anniversary of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's birthday, the city of Vienna commissioned a special festival of visual art, music, dance, architecture, and film called New Crowned Hope. The name refers to the Masonic lodge Mozart co–founded, a venue in which he made his last public appearance. Beginning this weekend, the Brooklyn Academy of Music will host screenings of six films made for the festival by some of the most exciting directors......

This week in the Times, ">Bruni goes to Gramercy Tavern, awards the restaurant--now helmed by chef Michael Anthony--three stars. It was last reviewed by William Grimes, when Tom Colicchio was cooking and when it also received three stars. Bruni says the restaurant delivers what diners want: “a kind of unstrained graciousness and unlabored sophistication.” Nearly everything he tasted was “exquisitely cooked,” and while the desserts aren’t the best ever, “there are some fine choices.” In......

Though it’s only been open for a little more than a week, Thai Tony’s on Fort Hamilton Parkway at the edge of Kensington, Brooklyn, is already building a strong neighborhood following. During repeat visits, Gothamist watched the owners and staff bustle around the dining room of the self-described “home-style bistro,” greeting returning customers by name. That’s right, they already know most of their customers by name. Thai Tony’s first came to our attention via our......

FR.OG -- This sleek space in SoHo brings together Chef Didier Virot and his partner from Aix Brasserie, Philip Kirsh, in a tribute to parts of the world that had at one time been colonized by the French and influenced by French cuisine. The name stands for French Origin (it has nothing to do with amphibians), and the menu provides a global culinary romp with stops in Vietnam, Morocco, Lebanon and, of course, France.......

It's a gorgeous day out (high of 76 degrees!), so we're going to echo our earlier suggestion for an outside Saturday event. Head to Chinatown for the Taste of Chinatown, where you can try a number of different Asian foods for $1-2. According to a menu, the dishes include "Peking Duck, Shrimp Salad, Green Curry Chicken, Thai Spring Roll, Papaya Salad, Banana Sticky Rice, Thai Iced Tea, BBQ Pork/Duck/Ribs, Fried Squid, Grilled Beef Papaya......

April 20-21: Wine Rave NYC Wine Rave NYC is an event designed to take away the stuffiness from wine events. There will be tastings galore, plus "Sips of Wisdom," brief presentations from experts, and the "Hip Sips Lounge," where you can talk to wine industry insiders. Friday, April 20 from 6 to 10 pm and Saturday, April 21 from 5 to 10 pm. $65 general admission, $100 VIP tickets, available online, by calling 212-352-9900 or......

Bruni no-stars Kobe Club, Jeffrey Chodorow's contribution to the steakhouse scene. Finds the Kobe "rapturous," but the restaurant as a whole crazily overpriced and gimmicky. Says it presents "too many insipid or insulting dishes at prices that draw blood from anyone without a trust fund or an expense account." And Eater (scroll down) is off by a star this week, having put their money on one-star for Kobe Club. Also in the Times, Peter Meehan......

Just steps from the interminable reconstruction of the BQE’s Roosevelt Avenue exit, and under the round-the-clock clatter of subway tracks, is Zabb Queens, an Isaan Thai restaurant. Isaan cuisine is soul food from the northeastern region of Thailand, and while the clichéd “hot-sour-salty-sweet” plate-view applies, it would be something bordering criminal to talk about Zabb Queens as such. A few things right off the bat: first, when you go, find out if there are any......

- This week in Momofuku hype, a short love note as expressed via a T-shirt and a litany of chefs cite the joint as their go-to spots. - With the ongoing hubbub of how unacceptable the wait is at DiFara’s in Midwood, it’s good to have a fallback, or at least a stopback, for our hunger out in the same neighborhood. All relevant details in this preview article from the next edition of the excellent......

Diane Wongprasert is no newbie to the restaurant business. Owner of Regional Thai Taste, Pad Thai, and Sa-Woy, Lower East Side newcomer Sticky Rice is the latest in Wongprasert's Thai ventures. With yet to procure a liquor license (your server might ask you to sign a petition), the Orchard Street joint is still BYO, but in Gothamist's opinion, that makes Sticky Rice an even better bargain. Dishes prepared in the northeastern Thai tradition contribute......

It's finally cold outside (sort of), so warm up this weekend at the movies. The new "in danger in the jungle" horror film Primeval has a vaguely ominous trailer, but only because it never tells the audience what exactly is hiding out there in the grass. Okay, it's not human but then what? Anaconda already did the giant snake and The Ghost and the Darkness dispatched a massive lion, what else could be out there......

Many of us were out of town for Thanksgiving and might have been too busy stuffing ourselves to keep up on some of the recent restaurant openings. Here's some of the food news you might have missed while you were gnawing on that drumstick: - Kampuchea Noodle Bar Ratha Chau, formerly of Fleur de Sel, brings us a noodle bar where you can slurp alongside your fellow diners at communal tables. The menu focuses on......

Happy Thanksgiving indeed! Researchers say that two-year old trick of showing pandas DVDs of pandas properly mating has really helped the lovable creatures successfully mate. From the AP:It is one of many techniques tried over the decades to get captive pandas — notoriously poor breeders — to do it, and do it right. The efforts to understand and simulate conditions for mating and raising cubs have paid off in China, the panda’s native habitat.......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

Taste of Chinatown started off as an annual event, but it was so successful that it's now held twice a year. We got a chance to see why the other night when we got to sample a few dishes from some of the over 50 restaurants that will be offering tastes for $1 or $2 this Saturday from 1 - 6 p.m. Don't forget to ask for a ballot so you can vote for......

Fusion cuisines are all the rage, but the idea of mixing flavors across boundaries is hardly new. On Grand Street, Nyonya sits among the remnants of today's Little Italy; the restaurant's name refers to "the ladies" -- the women of Chinese-Malay marriages. Also known as Straits Chinese food or Lauk Embok Embok, the flavors of Nyonya mix Chinese and Malay components, deriving from grandmothers' recipes and the influence of Indonesian and Thai cuisine. Coconut......