David G. Imber wrote:
>
>
> I agree completely with that. But I have friends who live in
> the midwest (including Des Moines, as a matter of fact) and I often
> find the parochialism they report they encounter when it comes to food
> absolutely staggering!

In my own family my sister used to like curry, but now she can't stand
it and doesn't remember ever liking it! But I used to *not* like pizza
at all -- "sweet" cheese and "sour" tomato just too weird -- whereas
now I can almost eat it every day!

> These are people who came from these areas originally, moved
> to NYC then moved back, or were born here and moved to the midwest for
> other reasons. If they even manage to find the most prosaic foreign
> stuff, like tofu, they're regarded as so weird they may as well be
> eating dog food. Or injecting it.

Interesting. My social crowd was younger back then, so maybe that had
something to do with the lack of food parochialism. It got to be a
frat-house atmosphere at times, people egging each other on to eat
strange things.

> When they get back to NY and I take them to the most common
> sort of place here in Chinatown, for instance, they practically weep
> with joy.

I know the feeling. Coming home on leave, I felt the same way. Except
I didn't do it for "the most common sort of place" -- something like
Big Wong on Mott Street you can find in most any large US city , even
under a million.

> As for the erratic menu situations you've encountered in
> Middle Eastern places here (what started this thread), well, sometimes
> erratic is...just what it is. Maybe it's part of the "charm"(?)

Yeah, you can say that again...I just went to the "grilled chicken
salad place" again...this time, they want to charge me $20 for a fish
entree, which I'd paid $15 for last time! It was another dude at the
counter...I've noticed this with even the Arab groceries here...they
just make up prices.

I should have haggled!

> DGI

Nope, not there, I swear -- it's the joint exactly at the corner of
Steinway and 25th -- it *is* the corner, I mean -- and there's only
"grilled chicken salad" on the menu, no mention of a "sandwich" or pita
option, nothing like that.

No wonder they can't beat the Israelis!


There, I've said it. Ahhh. =)



Golden California Girls wrote:
>
>
>
> You just need to read the rest of the menu where you will find a chicken salad
> sandwich listed ... hence the question