cringes in active recognition
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This was before Nyonya (which I had to miss because I stabbed myself in the palm with a bread knife in the interim).
These don’t look much like pea leaves to me either - but there can be different qualities/ages in the market and imagine restaurants will sub other greens from time to time - I have been certainly served chewy “pea greens” in the past, which should not be!!
Flushing Popeye’s spicy flounder sandwich was maybe 7 or 8/10. Higher if I had omitted the sauce as intuition suggested.
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I’m fond of fried-to-order fish sandwiches, though I prefer to patronize shops where I can season them myself. Here’s a pop-top view of a whiting sandwich, with hot sauce and a little lime juice, from The Moon Fish Market on Columbus near 104th.
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Do you rent out your life by the week? Man-o-man, I’d take any week you have on offer and eat in place of you. The places you spot!
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Aquarelle on Avenue B. What a find! We had a phenomenal dinner last night. Started with lobster bisque and octopus carpaccio. Stanley had scallops on a bed of mushrooms and I had a whole grilled snapper. The mains don’t come with sides, so we ordered creamed spinach and truffled fries. Everything was mouth-wateringly good.
Service was very nice too. The only downside is the loud music. which made conversation a bit difficult, but we will tolerate it for food like this. Also, we might stick to weekday when I assume it wouldn’t be quite as busy or loud.
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You think it’s the same owners as Lamia’s? Same address, interior and menu very similar. We went to Lamia twice and thought the food was pretty good. And it was indeed loud, both the sound system and the clientele. Kind of a Brighton Beach, Rasputin crowd.
I looked it up and apparently it is. Lamia’s closed in 2024 and Aquarelle opened in 2025 after renovations, The menus are similar but not identical. The clientele didn’t appear to be what you describe; it was a mix of ages, races, and nationalities.
Cool! We will check it out.
I haven’t found a fried fish sandwich as good as the one used to be at van horn in Cobble Hill before it closed. I still think about it! What is the best you’ve found?
I was looking for a picture of it, and found this article
Looks like the commodore is still there and still has the hot fish sandwich on the menu, I may have to check it out soon.
The fried chicken sandwich in park slope almost scratches the itch it’s so good, but it’s not fish, obviously
My top two candidates, judging by what’s surely an imperfect search of my Flickr archives, both date from about that time, but neither business is still in operation. I did find a photo from Celia’s Pescaderia, just across the river in West New York …
… which is not a sandwich, obviously. But given all the excellent fried fish at Cuban-American spots like Celia’s — which is still in business — I’ve got more research ahead of me, once the weather is consistently warm. Till then, maybe I’ll walk up to Harlem.
We had lunch at le veau d’or yesterday. There’s just 13 tables, tough to get a dinner reservation but lunch is a little easier.
my wife started with a generous salad lyonnaise, I had the hefty slab of pate en croute with their wonderful mustard. Paired with a very good cdr, in all honesty, we could have left at that point sated and happy but it’s a two-course price-fixe, and we both ordered the duck confit.
It was one of the best preparations we’ve had, the duck skin crispy, meat melted in mouth and the slightly acidic juice from the duck infused the surrounding mushrooms and salad with a rich umami.
Luckily for my health, a 45 minute walk from our apt so my wife won’t be saying “let’s nip on over to see if they have an open table” but we’ll def be back.
best,
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Have not been to Roscioli in NY, and I guess I still have not. We went to the pop-up with Sarah Cicolini of SantoPalato restaurant in Rome. Great experience and I look forward to returning to Roscioli for their menu.
5 courses, tripe cacciatore style and carbonara were both amazing. Slow cooked lamb shoulder with fregola that seemed to be done risotto style was really nice as well. Recommend it if she does it again.
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More NYONYA.
A visit to make up for the gathering I missed (courtesy a kind offer from @rrems to return).
We skipped appetizers in favor of mains, but I’m pretty sure we still over-ordered 
. But no matter, we put up a brave effort and cleared every dish 
.
I think my favorites were the rendang (no surprise there) and the ribs (curry was sweeter than I expected, but the potatoes were an excellent addition). The fish was a honking portion – not complaining, just surprised!
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Beef rendang
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Curry spare ribs
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Ginger duck
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Sting ray in banana leaf
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Nyonya house special squid
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Chow kueh teow
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Kangkung belacan
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Ipoh bean sprouts
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How would you describe the sauce on that squid?
i still havent been in case you want to find out…
somewhat fruity and sweet (sweetened tamarind water?), but balanced, you can see the curry leaf; not hot as you might expect from the visible chiles - This was the dish the waitress recommended and it was good.
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Onions, shrimp paste, soy sauce were predominant. I didn’t really taste much tamarind but I trust @JenKalb’s palate. And there were curry leaves and whole red chillies in the mix, though it was not a spicy dish at all. Savory with a sweet tinge.
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I’d go back. So many more things to try.
Also the other Malaysian place on Bayard.
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