They charged extra for chili oil? Could the difference be the acronym “UWS”?
That said, Georgian khinkali do tend to be more expensive than much more delicious (in my opinion) Chinese dumplings. I wonder if that’s just a supply and demand issue? There are way more places where a consumer can try Chinese dumplings than places where a consumer can try Georgian khinkali.
The Carbone piece is more evidence that Priya Krishna has the inside track on becoming the primary food critic for the Times.
Fine with me. She’s an entertaining writer and, judging from her photos, she’s svelte enough to last a decade or so before the insane level of food critic calorie consumption catches up with her.
Maybe amusing from whats going on in the mass market standpoint - but the results were sort of what you’d expect from an upscale, chained corporate restaurant - that there is standardization and some branches have better chefs executing the menu than others. Why in the world would a serious eater want to waste meals doing this comparison testing? tho as you say maybe her waistline will stand up to it. To me its a wasted opportunity to say - and what are the independent, interesting alternatives to places like Carbone. That is what the Times critic should be for, highlighting the best food thats out there to eat. Food that is not supported by national advertising budgets. Note this discussion should probably be moved to the dedicated thread that was set up a few days ago I Ate at Every Carbone in America. Was It Worth the Trip? - #13 by Mr_Happy
I really don’t expect any different from the NY TImes
They have a menu of sauces priced at $3 each, and the trio of adika at $8. But as you can see from the pic, it was 1/4 of a tiny sauce bowl of chilli oil for effectively $3.
It’s not so much that there’s a charge, rather how much for how much, and how we might react if other cultures with condiments that also take ingredients and effort to construct charged similarly.
Re khinkali – I checked some other menus, 6 for $18 at another place (somewhat closer to the 8 for $15 we paid at Joe’s).
I was thinking of the episode of Ugly Delicious (S1E8) where Dave Chang goes to Massimo Bottura’s restaurant and discusses ravioli vs wontons made with the same effort and finesse. Funny coincidence re the Carbone discussion, Mario Carbone is on that episode too, and re the XLB reference, a whole discussion on why XLB are tricky. (It was a clever and thoughtful show, I wish they had made another season instead of the direction he went with his TV stuff.)
I would think the bar should be a bit higher than svelte and entertaining, but maybe that’s where we are.
I’ve never seen that show, but I should probably make an effort. I didn’t realize Chang was on HO, but he weighed in on the page I created for Uzbek food.
I think you’re confusing Peter Chang (peech) who I think is based in HK
You are right. We need more variety in last names, or at least I do.
Or just look at the FIRST name, lol
not so hot on kinkhali (eaten picked up and the knot not eaten - its still pretty heavy on the dough side.
The adjika tasting seems rather precious though the owner explains that at least the onion one is special. https://blog.resy.com/2024/04/chama-mama-nyc/.
I really like the lobiani (bean) and kubdari (lamb) filled breads they offer - I thought the breads were really silky and the latter better than kinkhali for meaty pleasure. Their phkali impressed me too.
Its interesting how many people claim adjika as theirs or proliferate versions different from the original which seems to be a chile and spice based sauce without tomatoes. And then there is acuka, what the turks call a similar chile sauce but made with walnuts. This seems to be a version of muhammara brought back into their home region by the armenian diaspora in the middle east. (now dispersed) But forget the turks giving armenians any credit for anything… or georgians abkhazians - and so on. The submersion of the identities of people in the region on the losing side is an ongoing struggle.
There are so many dishes across cultures that are not defined by current geographical boundaries, and current and past conflicts are always going to play in.
I made the adjika recipe in the book Kachka (from the chef of the eponymous Portland restaurant) and it was reminiscent of both muhammara because red peppers and walnuts, and Indian pickle spice because of chillies and fenugreek. Made a lot – still dig it out of the freezer when I remember.
The pkhalis in the book were also delicious.
Just a reminder that there are other types of diners in search of good eats on the streets of the city. The other night I was walking the dog. It was trash night so cans and bags lined the street. I noticed something odd about one pile where something was rooting around. My dog began to bark. This guy quickly climbed up a nearby tree and looked at us crossly for interrupting his meal.
It doesn’t always help. Peter Chang is also a very famous Sichuan chef here in the DC area.
What are we going to do about all the John Smiths? 
KIKI’S
No pics. Still a complete zoo, which is pretty amazing, and they now have three separate spaces. We went very late, after a show nearby, and there were still a bunch of people waiting for tables.
Food was good to great, service was very attentive even if somewhat frantic.
We had zucchini chips, fava, bifteki, octopus, and pastitchio. Plus drinks. Very reasonable end price was a bit of a (pleasant) shock.
I like that place. Maybe I’ll make lemon potatoes tonight, come to think of it.
We went to Tha Phraya on the ues last night, I guess for the UES this is considered a hot restaurant, line to get in, stylish interior, good service, young crowd.
Unfortunately we were unimpressed with the food, we started with the sai ua spring roll appetizer, they take a long, thin piece of sausage and wrap it in a spring roll, perfectly fried but no dipping sauce and the sausage lacked the complexity we’ve come to love at zabb Putawn.
The Palouh hang was caramelized pork belly and egg, stewed overnight and served over egg noodles, nice comfort food but the noodles were a little mushy and Ka-prow Stewed Beef had similar spicing, maybe my fault for ordering two stewed meat dishes.
Lots of other Thai places to try on the ues before we circle back around to this place.
Hainan Chicken House report here:
There’s so much Thai on the UES, you’re right.
My experience with their “standard” fare was a lot better than yours via takeout (we had a picky eater so didn’t get any interesting things).
Pad see ew, crab fried rice, and papaya salad were all excellent, though I can’t say that they were vastly better than the many other Thai spots around there.
