Thailand

Our 10 Best Restaurants in Elmhurst, Queens

The southern Mexican food is fine at El Jalapeno, but maybe you'd rather go for the opulent nachos regulares, shaped like a sunflower. To look at the neighborhood today, with its bustling commercial strips, tidy frame houses, apartment towers, and plentiful parks, you wouldn't know Elmhurst was fo ... More >>

Good Reads Before Tonight's James Beard Awards

Voice critic Tejal Rao was nominated for the James Beard Foundation's Craig Claiborne award for distinguished restaurant reviews and the award ceremony is tonight! Meanwhile, you can catch up on reading the critic's three nominated reviews below:

Lost in Thailand: A Promising and Polite Debut

Pressing Thai, Tahitian, and Balinese Grapes: 5 New Latitude Wines

Welcome to the doldrums of winter. Unless you spend your weekends driving to the mountains, you're probably dreaming of warm, exotic locales to escape to during these blustery months. But don't imagine bland lagers and coconut cocktails -- the old drinks of tropical travels -- because more tourists ... More >>

Buffalo Girls

Chao Thai Too: Five Dishes You Shouldn't Miss

1. Homok -- There's nothing quite like it in town, a light-as-helium mousse made from fish, egg, and coconut milk, curried to a deep shade of orange and utterly irresistible. This week, Counter Culture swims into Chao Thai Too, the spinoff of Chao Thai and every bit as good, offering dishes from a ... More >>

Decoding Deepak

Zombie Bread, Yikes!

Is that strawberry jam -- or real blood? This via Incredible Things (where else?) via Tracy Van Dyk: an artist who works in a bakery in Ratchaburi, Thailand -- a suburb just southwest of Bangkok -- has invented a product made out of bread dough that looks exactly like bloody body parts.

Notes on Drinking Cobra Blood

Journalist Lydia Tomkiw visits a night market in northern Jakarta and reports for CNNgo on the handful of cobra blood vendors who bleed the snakes for locals and tourists, and sometimes mix their blood with alcohol as a cocktail.

Make Ngam Chef Hong Thaimee's Thai Fruit Salad

Photo courtesy Hong ThaimeeWho says you can't have a tasty fruit salad in winter?​Hong Thaimee, the chef and owner of Ngam (99 Third Avenue, 212-777-8424), is looking to extend the reach of Thai cuisine into the homes of New Yorkers by offering a series of monthly cooking classes at her East V ... More >>

Michael Psilakis to Star in No Kitchen Required, a Man vs. Wild-Like Food TV Show

Michael Psilakis, chef/owner of FishTag, is going to be jumping into some new culinary terrain. Literally. Eater reports that BBC America is launching a television program called No Kitchen Required, which will be "a culinary competition" in which three chefs get dropped by helicopter into unfamilia ... More >>

Fatty 'Cue Invokes Thai Custom to Encourage Heavy but Casual Drinking

Fatty 'Cue​A couple of days after opening his Carmine Street location of Fatty 'Cue, Zak Pelaccio has taken to Food Republic to explain his approach to the restaurant's bottle service. Unlike the odious practice common to certain twatty clubs, bottle service at Fatty 'Cue will mean drinking li ... More >>

Thailand to Elect Female Prime Minister; Fighter Jet Intercepts Plane Near Obama

​Thailand looks set to elect its first-ever female prime minister, CNN reports. Exit polling shows "Yingluck Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai party with a wide lead over incumbent Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva of the Democratic Party." Shinawatra's party also appears to be set to take the majori ... More >>

Posts of the Week

Here we are on a rainy Friday afternoon, looking back at the week's sunnier days: Way Station's Andy Heidel talks about Flaming Moes, Dr. Who-themed cocktails, and that infamous stroller manifesto. Our 10 Best New Frozen Treats. Why is my spicy tuna roll spicy? Here's why.

Lauren Shockey Likes It Hot at Zabb Elee; Sifton Takes Masa Down a Peg

This week in the Voice, Lauren Shockey orders her food "Thai hot" at the East Village offshoot of Queens restaurant Zabb Elee and is delighted to find a menu that "traverses a maze of sour, tangy, and piquant flavors, each brighter than the next." Sam Sifton shocks the New York restaurant scene by ... More >>

10 Ideas for Foodie Street Fairs That Haven't Been Tried Yet

​Why not put these babies in a bun? I had high hopes when I visited the Hester Street Fair on Saturday, but walked away disappointed. While last year's Korean tacos had seemed fashion forward, this year's meatball sliders seemed hopelessly retrograde - especially given the proximity of The M ... More >>

Soul Surfer: Christian Pandering That Pretends It Isn't

Lotus of Siam Founders Pull Out

Robert SietsemaNorthern Larb at Lotus of Siam​After a flurry of mixed reviews, husband-and-wife team Bill and Saipin Chutima have decided to leave the New York branch of their acclaimed Las Vegas Thai restaurant, Lotus of Siam. Diner's Journal spoke to their daughter, Pennapa Chutima, who said ... More >>

Robert Sietsema at Lievito; Lauren Shockey at Junoon

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema discovers a new and delicious breed of pizza bones at Lievito; Lauren Shockey likes the food, but not the boring beige room, at Junoon.​ Sam Sifton finds hits and misses at Lyon: "Some of the food is excellent. ... Best of all are the restaurant's offer ... More >>

Posts of the Week

As we near the end of both the truncated week and the entirety of 2010, here's one final look back at Things That Appeared on This Website This Week and a forward-thinking wish for a Happy New Year: Our Man Sietsema's 10 Favorite NYC Dishes of 2010. Floyd Cardoz talked about Tabla's closing and wh ... More >>

Robert Sietsema on the New York-Montreal Food Connection

This week in the Voice, Robert Sietsema explores the relationship between New York and Montreal food. Sam Sifton awards two stars to Harold Dieterle's Kin Shop, even though it's not quite authentic Thai: "[It's] an American restaurant that serves food prepared using Thai flavors, a restaurant that ... More >>

The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday

Welcome to The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday, where we endeavor to remember the very best thing we stuffed down our gullets over the past 24 hours. Why? Because the only thing better than enjoying a meal is wallowing in the memory of one savored in the recent past. Today's fond reminiscences ... Laur ... More >>

Kin Shop--Harold Dieterle's Second Restaurant Goes Thai

Top Chef's Season One winner opens another West Village spot

The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday

Welcome to The Best Thing I Ate Yesterday, where we endeavor to remember the very best thing we stuffed down our gullets over the past 24 hours. Why? Because the only thing better than enjoying a meal is wallowing in the memory of one savored in the recent past. Today's fond reminiscences ... Rebe ... More >>

Zagat Survey Reveals Texting is Rude; Food Chains Jump on Food Truck Bandwagon

​The owners of Lotus of Siam will open the New York branch of the restaurant with about a third of the 150-dish menu the Las Vegas original has. [NY Times] A Zagat survey shows that 68 percent of diners want local, organic, or sustainable food; 85 percent believe taking photos of food is OK; ... More >>

Thai Restaurants Are Everywhere; Welcome to the Era of the $20 Cocktail

​Two Florida establishments that use "Brooklyn-style" water are suing each other over the patent on the technology that makes it. The water is the key ingredient in authentic New York bagels and pizza dough. [NY Post] Orchards and apple historians are trying to reintroduce "heritage" or "heir ... More >>

Harold Dieterle on Brand-New Kin Shop, Top Chef, and Being 'Mr. à la Carte'

Vicky WasikChef Harold Dieterle​Harold Dieterle is perhaps best known for winning the first season of Top Chef, but he's been obsessed with cooking since high school, after which he attended the Culinary Institute of America. He's cooked at Red Bar, 1770 House, and The Harrison. After winnin ... More >>

Summer Guide: Pichet Klunchun Is the Bangkok Rebel

The dancer-choreographer brings his tradition-challenging work to NYC

Morning Links: Science vs. CEO in the BP Oil Spill; Actors Prepare to Mourn Law & Order; Woe to the Mets

​• BP (and dozens of other oil companies) were allowed to drill in the Gulf without getting required federal permits, "despite strong warnings from that agency about the impact the drilling was likely to have." Also, scientists are saying the size of the spill has been underestimated, while ... More >>

Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop Will be Resurrected

GothamistTiny's will rise again.​Although its doors have been shut for three weeks, it looks like the closure of Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop is only temporary: Eater reports that the Rivington Street restaurant, long beloved for its heros, will re-open in the same location in mid- to late April ... More >>

TASSEL TIME

Burlesquers descend on Gotham

A New Crop of Thais Pops Up in Woodside and Astoria

Food Magazines Going Cheap

Reflecting the bad economy, food magazines are focusing more on cheap home eating.[NY Times]Major grocery chains say that food manufacturers like Nestle, Unilever, and Kellogg have raised their prices too much, considering recent drops in the price of commodicties.[LA Times]The Journal profiles Jose ... More >>

Keep Your Eyes on MaiThai

The next threat to the Queens hegemony

ALL THE RIGHT MOVES

A 10-day smorgasbord of dance

Snacker's Paradise

Microscopic Elmhurst spot offers an inexpensive Thai overview

The Rupture

A Thai interpreter of Malady explains his split decisions

Sorry, Wrong Number: Clever Thai Pulp Woozy With Whimsy

Play It Again, Siam

Gods and monsters: Thai fest balances imports, local wares

Isaan Food Explodes Like a Mortar Round in Jackson Heights

The Connections: X Marks the Spot in a New Boyd Story

A Movable East

Freudenberger Spends More Than One Night in Bangkok

Seeing Double

An Eye for an Eye

Listings

Listings

Some Like It Hot

New Thai Cinema Hits the Road

Mysterious Objects and Black Tigers

That Obscure ‘Object’

Not Your Average Joe

Life's a Beach

Reality Mimics Fiction in Leo's Latest Drama