Whether you spell it Issan or E-san (as the folks at Poodam’s Thai Cuisine do), the cuisine from this Northeast region of Thailand by Cambodia and Laos is some of New York City’s most delicious and spiciest. The restaurant’s name translates to black crab. While that particular delicacy doesn’t appear on the separate Issan menu, there is yam poo dong, or pickled crab. When you order it the waitress will likely ask if you’ve......

When a restaurant throws down a chili-laced gauntlet with the title, “Can you take the heat?” most people expect to be crying by the end of the meal. Andy Yang, Rhong-Tiam’s executive chef, has issued just such a challenge. Yang’s three-month old West Village Thai spot is offering a special tasting menu, which gets progressively hotter, through April 15. The prize for eating every last spicy morsel is dinner for two at his upcoming East......

The atmosphere at Ploy Thai, a newish restaurant on the corner of Elmhurst Avenue and Broadway in Queens, seems promising in its authenticity; upon entering for the first time we were pleased to find a few tables of Thai families, a specials board written completely in Thai and karaoke of girl band Girly Berry playing on a flat screen TV. We ordered two of the specials: yum pla duk fu, or fluffy catfish salad and......

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients that you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. What you see before is bag of dried hibiscus flowers, or karkade, as these dried little blossoms are known in Egypt. You can boil them up to make a wonderfully red-hued tea that's packed with plenty of vitamin C. As you can probably guess from the image on the packaging it's sometimes served hot......

This week in the Times, Bruni one-stars Mesa Grill (pictured), knocking the restaurant down from the two stars given it by William Grimes in 2000. Says that while the Bobby Flay restaurant “has considerable charms… on balance [it] presents only flickers of the excitement it did [when it opened] in 1991… It’s an overly familiar, somewhat tired production. More to the point, it’s an inconsistent one.” Peter Meehan goes to Hakata Tonton for $25 and......

When you first thumb through the menu at Eat-pisode, the new Lower East Side Thai joint on Ludlow Street, you might cringe that the pages are numbered "Eat-pisode 1," "Eat-pisode 2," and so on, as though they are chapters into gastronomic revelation. Fortunately, all of the cringing stops there, and delectable food by the husband-wife team of Wara and Natalee Supulchai (also owners of Poh Tree Thai Spa across the street from the restaurant),......

Probably the best way we can describe Snooth, a unique wine database that recently launched online, would be if the illegitimate web-child of Google and Facebook went to wine school. Or, more simply, it’s a ridiculously large database of wine that allows you to do really cool things and share it with your friends. Technically, Snooth is a self-described, “web based social shopping experience that is simplifying how people select, interact with and purchase their......

Williamsburg has its Thai food, and now it seems that Alphabet City has its Cuban. Bodeguita Cubana, a Serbian-run Cuban joint that opened in May on 10th Street (between 1st & Avenue A), is the third in a trifecta of ropa vieja-offering restaurants that's enveloped the neighborhood east of 1st Avenue (the other two are Cafecito & Cafe Cortadito). Arguably the most appealing of them all (though we do love Cafecito), the French doors......

Servers aren't cheap, so we'd like to take a moment to thank the advertisers on Gothamist this week: Fierce People for making our family seem so much less dysfunctional than the family in the movie - yikes! Visa Signature for making us want to cook Thai food with their fine wine & food event. Rocket Science because dealing with life, love, and public speaking during high school can sometimes be like rocket science. MoMA for......

Just steps from the interminable reconstruction of the BQE’s Roosevelt Avenue exit, and under the round-the-clock clatter of subway tracks, is Zabb Queens, an Isaan Thai restaurant. Isaan cuisine is soul food from the northeastern region of Thailand, and while the clichéd “hot-sour-salty-sweet” plate-view applies, it would be something bordering criminal to talk about Zabb Queens as such. A few things right off the bat: first, when you go, find out if there are any......

Jagshemash! Borat is a hit. It's getting rave reviews, grossing millions, and definitely the most quotable thing we've seen in ages. But Borat seems to have missed most of the -ist cities, and we were all wondering how the film would have been different if he'd made his way around the world on the -ist tour. In Shanghai, Borat would be observing Inane Learnings of Penis Photos for Make Benefit Glorious Flat World of......

Bruni hits Jean Georges' "fringe players," Mercer Kitchen and Vong. Between the two, Vong emerges victorious with one star: "you keep wondering if the food they deliver is really as it should be and all that it could be, if the restaurant is receiving Mr. Vongerichten’s most considered judgments . . ." while Mercer Kitchen rates a mere "satisfactory": Bruni calls their menu an "ethnically indistinct assortment of dishes with enough pro forma salads and......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

Do you remember rock n' roll? Not the synthy 80's stuff that's been inundating our ears lately, but actual guitar grinding rock. Well Dear Leader will make you remember, incase you don't. They are what rose from the ashes after the band Sheila Divine broke up in 2003. Their lyrics and sound are anthemic and loud. So come stomp your feet to them tonight at Pianos. More details after the interview. Recently Aaron Perrino......

Bennie Thai's Green Curry Soup...

Gothamist was excited to see this sign pasted in a window on 23rd between 6th and 7th Avenues the other morning. The Chinatown location of Pongsri touts itself as the oldest family-run and operated Thai restaurant in New York City, and there are two additional locations -- one in Gramercy and one in the theatre district. We definitely welcome this addition to our neighborhood, as we are in dire need of some decent Thai......

Gothamist is a sucker for a street fair. We're not talking about the neighborhood-based, culturally-themed festivals that pop up from time to time. Those are great, but we'll take the tired old generic street fair - factory-second underwear and all - that pops up on a different Manhattan avenue every Saturday and Sunday from March through November. Sure, they're all the same, but who can resist the predictable variety of these so-bad-for-you-but-so-good movable feasts? Among......

Will be in NY next month. Need a good restaurant for dinner after The Boy from Oz at the Imperial Theatre. Can you give me some choices? Many thanks. It's always an issue. Where do you go to eat after the theater? You want a unique dining experience, and not to end up at the Olive Garden. Here are some recommendations: There are several really great restaurants on 9th Ave. If you are willing to......

Lauren Antler, Comedian...