Such a beautiful writer.
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Well written. Thanks.
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Said more than once, we eat first with our eyes. Just looking at the slide show causes a Pavlovian response from me and I can just imagine what this chef's food tastes like! Wow, what a wonderful find in the South Bronx. I look forward to trying EVERYTHING on offer in this small take-out shop. I do not understand most of the names, but in this case I don't need to. Eleven Madison Park has serious competition and at perhaps 3% of the cost. On My List!!!
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Oooh, how exotic! NOT.
Ligaya, did you try all the Dominican places in Washington Heights, Inwood, and other strongly Hispanic neighborhoods first, to be able to anoint this as the ne plus ultra? In those neighborhoods, every few steps there is a similar restaurant--maybe without the heart-tugging backstory, but with the same food. And some I go to might deserve your poetical instincts, too.
Suzanne, why the snark? Would you rather the NYT ignores "exotic" (your word, not theirs) cuisines entirely? Where did you get that they "anointed" this the best? They found a good spot with a great story and chose to highlight it for their readers who otherwise might never stumble upon it. What's wrong with that?
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I would rather that these reviews were based on research and comparison, and on objective standards for food, rather than the love of a "great story." Have you been to the places touted? Whenever I have tried them, so poetically described in this column, I found them mediocre compared to other similar restaurants, of which there are often many (such as this one). So I question whether it's truly a "good spot." It might be to people who are unfamiliar with the cuisine, and to the people who swallow the sentimental story or go because it's close. But on an objective basis, it looks no different from others (no matter how beautiful the food is made to look).
Suzanne, "the story' is actually the point of this colum.
This is Ligaya Mishans description of her colum from 2014:
"Here’s the romantic spin: Free of the burden of assigning stars, I get to wander the streets in search of the tiny, the hidden, the inchoate, the unexpected and the undersung. Of the restaurants (or stalls, carts or trucks) I choose to review, some are great, some less so, but they always have a story."
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What are jueyes? I couldn’t even find it in my Spanish dictionary.
It’s another word for crab, but most folks say cangrejo.
hands down THE BEST alcapurrias in NYC!! I no longer live in the neighborhood (left in the 80's) but it's well worth the trip each and every time!
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I'm amazed there are no comments. This is beautifully written and makes me wish (which I do rarely) that I lived in NY.
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