Email Author Robert Sietsema

Awards

• 2011 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published June 23, 2010

  "An Open Letter to Josh Ozersky"

• 2011 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 1, 2010

  "May We Interest You in Some Egg Fetus?"

• 2011 - AAN AltWeekly Awards, published December 8, 2010

  "Siam I Am"

• 2011 - Association of Food Journalists Awards, published June 23, 2010

  "An Open Letter to Josh Ozersky"

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1999 Stories by Robert Sietsema

• New Greenpoint Outpost of Southern Cooking

  published December 21, 1999

  Way off the tourist track, Vallo di Diano occupies the semiarid lower stretch of Italy's Campania. On a hillock in the center sits Teggiano, a... More >>

• Bunny Chow

  published December 7, 1999

  Cobbled together of salvaged wood and Quonset-hut tin, it might be a grog shop in Soweto. There's a shelf crowded with handwoven baskets, a couple... More >>

• Shake Your Sumac

  published November 23, 1999

  Glowing like a saffron sun, chelo rice commands the center of the table. Served on a plate the size of a small yacht, each glistening grain... More >>

• Tastes Like Headcheese to Me

  published November 9, 1999

  Silky as a hundred-dollar blouse, ruddy as a stevedore's face in a high wind, the prosciutto di Parma ($9) swirls around the plate, mocking a pair... More >>

• Georgia on My Mind

  published October 26, 1999

  Sure, most Brighton Beach restaurants serve up a handful of Georgian favorites like chicken tabaka and kidney-bean lobio. But since Cafe Pearl... More >>

• Noodle Diplomacy

  published October 12, 1999

  Koreatown is booming, with restaurants debuting all along 32nd and 35th streets. Many offer previously unobtainable specialties. Mandoo Bar (2... More >>

• Frog in My Throat

  published September 14, 1999

  Clad in a checked gingham scarf and apron, the waitress trips across a rustic bridge to deliver the casserole, doffing the lid with a flourish to... More >>

• Watering Hole

  published August 31, 1999

  Once it was a Chinese carryout. Now, teal blue tables, a powder blue drop ceiling, and plum banquettes--a color scheme that doesn't quite work,... More >>

• Monster Mash

  published August 17, 1999

  For the last decade Senegalese, Ghanaian, and Ivory Coast restaurants have held sway over the city's West African food. Now it's Nigeria's turn.... More >>

• Dairy State

  published August 3, 1999

  Most of us have zipped past the intersection of Canal and Broadway dozens of times without noticing a restaurant, but pause and gaze skyward... More >>

• Goodbye Ruby Foo’s

  published July 20, 1999

  Like a Fu Manchu movie crossed with a small upstate university's art collection, Ruby Foo's flaunts its Asian artifacts. Make your way up the... More >>

• Hey Joe, Where Ya Goin’ With That Noodle in Your Hand?

  published July 6, 1999

  Kissena Boulevard is the strip-mall capital of Korean Flushing, lined with clusters of barbers and beauty shops, greengrocers and video stores,... More >>

• Bistro Africain

  published June 22, 1999

  Tucked under the chin of the verdant and mountainous Marcus Garvey Park, African Grill occupies the former premises of a Harlem dive known as the... More >>

• Great Balls of Masa

  published June 8, 1999

  Stuffed with cheese or pork, hand-patted, then cooked to speckled brownness on the griddle, pupusas are one of the great comfort foods. These... More >>

• Upscale Mexican Takes a Road Trip

  published May 25, 1999

  Streaked a single shade of peach, Cafe Frida parrots a too familiar design idea—a village with tiled roofs, arched walkways, and multilevel... More >>

• Still Hungary

  published May 11, 1999

  For most of this century, Manhattan's Yorkville harbored a sizable Hungarian population. Their coffeehouses, butcher shops, and restaurants were... More >>

• Hamburger Heaven

  published April 27, 1999

  You'd think the big-chain renditions would have killed the burger. But the assault of Ronald and his pals on our national dish has only made it... More >>

• Cuckoo for Cou-Cou

  published April 13, 1999

  Sporting an electric-blue awning, Culpepper's is a brand-new Bajan café a few blocks south of Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn's... More >>

• Gimme a Pigfoot

  published March 30, 1999

  There's magic in pied de cochon ($13)— flesh scraped from boiled bones and chopped fine, merged with bits of onion, celery, and carrot, then... More >>

• Eat, Lean, and Snooze

  published March 16, 1999

  Among the many amazing features of In God We Trust is a wall of Astroturf next to the tables, which makes for some comfy leaning after downing... More >>

• Abalone, No Baloney

  published March 2, 1999

  The 2300 miles of mountains that separate Chile and Argentina prevent much culinary resemblance. While Chileans depend on seafood that rides the... More >>

• Royal Road

  published February 16, 1999

  Kings Highway is Brooklyn's camino real— a grand thoroughfare tracing a grid-defying arc through the heart of immigrant neighborhoods: East... More >>

• Stoemp

  published February 2, 1999

  Squaring off across a windy meat-district corner, a pair of Belgian eateries beckon fans with jocular sounding specialties like waterzooi, dame... More >>

• Two Hours Before the Maste

  published January 19, 1999

  The stretch of Coney Island Avenue that runs through Ditmas Park marks the culinary center of the city's thriving Muslim community, packed with... More >>

• Soul Remains

  published January 5, 1999

  Leafing through back issues of The Amsterdam News at the Schomburg Library, I stumbled on a restaurant advertising section dated January... More >>