My favorite “frills” new restaurant of the year was Elettaria. Chef Nawab is just doing such interesting things on the plate and the space is truly stunning. I don’t know if this restaurant has staying power, or if the chef will run out of ideas, but it is truly inspired cuisine. My favorite “a little [...]

Inevitably, there are always a few restaurants that you go to again and again that aren’t anything special, but then again, they just are. My favorite no-nonsense restaurant that I tried for the first time this year is an old place on my block called La Locanda. Here, the Italian owner makes the fusilli and [...]

This issue marks the closing of the DISH’s second year! Every week for 104 weeks on end, the DISH has been here to feed you tasty morsels of information about New York’s ever-evolving dining scene. We’ve eaten healthy, unhealthy, in dives, and in four-star restaurants. We’ve also tested recipes, talked to chefs, and shared home-cooking [...]

A couple of weeks back, I got the urge to check out Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. This is a part of Brooklyn located North East of Brighton Beach and Coney Island, and for some reason, it kept popping up on my radar. A year ago a friend’s friend had mentioned his family’s business out there, then [...]

As far as late night bar food goes, I think I can confirm the sneaking suspicion I’ve had for about two years now. The Ear Inn’s food is really the best. I used to live a few blocks from this wonderful watering hole and my former roommate used to always mention, modestly, how extremely decent [...]

I stopped into Batch, Pichet Ong’s P*Ong bakery follow-up on tenth street, and found some unusual treats last week. The least curious, but by no means dull, were two cupcakes. There was a Chocolate Devil’s Food variation, which was chocolate cake/chocolate frosting but surprised with a caramel layer within. There was also a Carrot/Salted Caramel [...]

TM: The idea came from our joint Peace Corps experiences, but also our private sector experiences (Brett’s was in Madagascar): Kind of an appreciation and realization that we could use capitalism creatively to change some things in Madagascar. Dish: I see. And did the Malagache government invest or help you with your venture? Or did [...]

After living in Madagascar several years ago, I have been unable to get it out of my system. Thus, when I bumped into  Madecasse , a new company dedicated to producing high-end exports like chocolate and vanilla from Madagascar, my eyes popped out of my head and my jaw hit the ground. Started by a [...]

Dish: So, when did you go to Madagascar for Peace Corps, and what were you doing? Tim McCollum: I left in August of 1999, a couple of months after college graduation. Dish: And how long did you spend there/what were you doing? TM: I was there for two years. My primary project was teaching English [...]

Mark Bittman gave quite a few picnic ideas in Wednesday’s New York Times. I couldn’t get through the article without being utterly overwhelmed. Finally, I paired down my perfect picnic via Bittman. I’d start with the Thai Gazpacho—that quick blended soup of tomatoes and cucumbers in which the author most expertly adds stalks of lemongrass [...]