Email Author Robert Sietsema

Awards

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

  "An Open Letter to Josh Ozersky"

• 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"

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2002 Stories by Robert Sietsema

• The Epistle to Jonathan

  published December 31, 2002

  Celeste is just what the Upper West Side was waiting for—a real East Village-style trattoria serving modern Italian food at reasonable... More >>

• Another Little Italy

  published December 24, 2002

  The Bronx is full of surprises. Glued to my Hagstrom map, driving south of Pelham Parkway in search of a rumored Jamaican vegan joint, I stumbled... More >>

• Ordeal by Beef

  published December 17, 2002

  The seven-course beef dinner known as bo bay mon is the holy grail of Vietnamese cuisine. Some say it was invented by a Frenchman in Saigon a... More >>

• Flying Snails

  published December 10, 2002

  Nigerian cuisine is the fastest-growing segment of the city's African restaurant industry. Four places have recently opened—one in Queens,... More >>

• Irish Stew

  published December 3, 2002

  Gottlieb's interior is a museum of smudgy '50s-style Formica, green Naugahyde, and the kind of high counters that made you feel smaller as a kid.... More >>

• Codless

  published November 26, 2002

  The perennial favorite of the dining-and-dancing crowd, Nell's ruled its lonely stretch of West 14th Street for over 15 years. Now stiff... More >>

• A Short History of Fruitcake

  published November 19, 2002

  Blame the fruitcake plague on the cheap sugar that arrived in Europe from the colonies in the 16th century. Some goon discovered that fruit... More >>

• Kitchenless

  published November 12, 2002

  Roasting meat and fish in a wood-burning oven is de rigueur in restaurants like Five Points, Mercer Kitchen, and the Harrison, lending a smoky... More >>

• Busting Out

  published November 5, 2002

  How come Manhattan's Chinatown has never had a Taiwanese restaurant? Hong Kong, Malaysian, Shanghai, and Fuzhou cuisines have become a formidable... More >>

• Vapo-Rub Lamb

  published October 29, 2002

  If certain restaurant locations are cursed, then the opposite must also be true: Some places are blessed. A case in point is the upstairs at 113... More >>

• Circular Logic

  published October 22, 2002

  Burek Central used to be Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a half-dozen Serbian bars served up the fabulous flaky pies called bureks, as big and round... More >>

• Scar Face

  published October 15, 2002

  We'd forgotten all about "liquor ball" ($2.95) when it belatedly arrived, looking like a bowl of egg drop soup. The first sip was pleasantly... More >>

• Favoring Curry

  published October 8, 2002

  When curry conquered the world, it traveled by devious routes. By the late 19th century it had invaded Japan—arriving from England, not... More >>

• Aw, Shucks

  published October 1, 2002

  Drive to the mouth of Sheepshead Bay, take a quick left, then a quick right, and find yourself on Harkness Avenue, a stubby street that dead-ends... More >>

• Doner Party

  published September 24, 2002

  Second-floor spaces are considered slow death by restaurateurs, who prefer a street-level place with plenty of windows. Inspired by an Istanbul... More >>

• Drugstore Dining

  published September 17, 2002

  Eschewing the obvious Park Slope, Cobble Hill, or Fort Greene locations, Locanda Vini & Olii hopscotched across the Brooklyn map to an abandoned... More >>

• Pig Out!

  published September 10, 2002

  Six stately women resplendent in pearls and neatly pressed blouses sat at midday in the mirrored dining room. Somewhat incongruously, they were... More >>

• Formica Sea

  published September 3, 2002

  Years ago, Sheepshead Bay was defined by its garish row of working-class clam bars. One by one they went down for the count, as urban renewal... More >>

• Point Counter Point

  published August 27, 2002

  The path from the parking lot to the new Flushing Mall passes a political convention's worth of flapping banners and pennants, and on a recent... More >>

• Muddy Waters

  published August 20, 2002

  The municipal beach at Lago di Chiusi has seen better days. A crumbling concrete jetty worthy of Robert Smithson curves into the weed-choked lake,... More >>

• Schnitzel Watch

  published August 13, 2002

  New Yorkers have been surprised over the past few years by a spate of Viennese restaurants of a sort never seen in the city before. Leading the... More >>

• Highway Food

  published August 6, 2002

  Now that Tuscan-inspired food is ubiquitous, the dining populace is turning elsewhere for Italian thrills. In the last few years, there's been a... More >>

• Porky's

  published July 30, 2002

  The rhythmic chop-chop-chop of the machete resounds. Close your eyes and you might be standing in a sugarcane field. Hiding behind a bouquet of... More >>

• Paint It Black

  published July 23, 2002

  Nobody doesn't like llapingachos. I fell in love with them last year in Quito, where they're the quintessential worker's lunch. Fried to brownness... More >>

• Bowne, Bownie, Bownier

  published July 16, 2002

  It's no longer necessary to drag your ass to Staten Island to get great Sri Lankan food. Bownie Restaurant is the latest addition to 45th Avenue's... More >>