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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2003 Stories by Robert Sietsema

• Lung Heat

  published August 5, 2003

  Scott extracted four from the pot, lined them up on the edge of the plate, then popped them into his mouth one after another. Soon a flush spread... More >>

• My Faraona

  published July 29, 2003

  Snag one of the tables on the outdoor balcony and find yourself hanging above a fairy-tale landscape that stretches downward through vast fields... More >>

• No Mooncakes

  published July 22, 2003

  Of all the recent attempts to reinvent the American diner, none has more appeal than Mooncake Foods. Obscurely located near the Holland Tunnel on... More >>

• Clusters

  published July 15, 2003

  Like an epidemiologist studying the distribution of diseases, I plot clusters of great restaurants on a big map. Long ago I noticed that many of... More >>

• Soused

  published July 8, 2003

  Though the culinary wonderland of Nostrand Avenue is dominated by Trinidadian, Guyanese, and Jamaican joints, other nations make cameo... More >>

• Up on the Bayou

  published July 1, 2003

  Three years ago, when Bayou debuted in Harlem, I'd just returned from a New Orleans binge and was in no mood to tolerate mediocrity. After downing... More >>

• Like Gangbusters

  published June 24, 2003

  It's right to be skeptical of the new places opening in Park Slope's lower altitudes, particularly around Fifth Avenue. Many are overpriced and... More >>

• Noodle Envy

  published June 17, 2003

  When a Los Angeles colleague wrote about visiting 40 Thai restaurants in a single week, all in one section of the city, I was frankly jealous. We... More >>

• Priest vs. Godzilla

  published June 10, 2003

  A dozen times I'd passed the storefront deep in the shadow of the W and the gates were always pulled down. Flanked by fading plywood cutouts of... More >>

• The Passion of Ulrika

  published June 3, 2003

  For years New York wasn't big enough to hold two Swedish restaurants. With a handsome celebrity chef and one of the most expensive menus in town,... More >>

• Eating for Two

  published May 27, 2003

  Let's face it—getting married at City Hall is a nerve-racking adventure, filled with bureaucratic details that only partially distract you... More >>

• Doubles or Nothing

  published May 27, 2003

  Wending its way northward through Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy, Nostrand Avenue rocks to an island beat. The busy thoroughfare is lined with... More >>

• Pigging Out

  published May 20, 2003

  Venice Restaurant and Pizzeria was founded 51 years ago by three relatives from Ponza, an island 50 kilometers south of Rome and directly offshore... More >>

• Got Goat?

  published May 13, 2003

  Harper, Texas, is a hamlet 100 miles west of Austin, strung out along Highway 290 near the source of the Pedernales River. We sailed into town on... More >>

• Dog Day Afternoons

  published May 13, 2003

  Screw madeleines! My own Proustian summer memories are inextricably bound up with hot dogs—bloated pink franks downed at ballparks with a... More >>

• Worth the Splurge

  published May 6, 2003

  Victor's Because the U.S. embargo has decimated the restaurant industry in Cuba, there are very few places on the island that match... More >>

• 100 Best & Cheapest Latin Restaurants

  published May 6, 2003

  Welcome to the third annual "100 Best and Cheapest Restaurants" issue, this year spotlighting Latin food. While New Yorkers have... More >>

• Crazy Eights

  published May 6, 2003

  I've heard it said that the pizza you love most is the one you taste first. The technical term is "imprinting," used by psychologists to describe... More >>

• Getting Your Goat

  published April 29, 2003

  It's been five years since Jackson Diner moved from its cramped original location to spacious new digs further down 74th Street. Unfortunately,... More >>

• Peruvian Viagra

  published April 22, 2003

  Recently I sang the praises of Ecuador's soupy ceviches, which immerse ingredients like black clam, shrimp, octopus, and a Pacific equatorial fish... More >>

• Ghost World

  published April 15, 2003

  Exiting the Knitting Factory one evening, I spotted it for the first time. Despite the late hour the place was jammed with ghostly figures only... More >>

• Great Gatsby Dumplings

  published April 8, 2003

  Small dumpling shops on the periphery of Manhattan's Chinatown gave us our first glimpse of northern Chinese cooking. Standing at the counter we... More >>

• Epistle to Andrew

  published April 1, 2003

  Hey Andy, Had a yen for pupusas the other day, and pulled up your tip about the Cypress Hills Salvadoran. Brian and I jumped in his jalopy in... More >>

• Fathered By Flagels

  published March 25, 2003

  In the beginning there was Tasty Bagel, founded in 1983 by two brothers from Bensonhurst. The next year they invented the big wheel bagel, a... More >>

• Swish Swish

  published March 18, 2003

  If you don't have a great meal at Happy Shabu Shabu, it's your own fault—you do all the cooking at the city's latest outpost of Japanese... More >>