I highly recommend a local small business, Bread & Spoon:

www.breadandspoon.com

They will create a custom menu for you depending what you're interested in. Colleen is great to work with!

uh oh, I board my dog at k9dergarten...should I be worried?

Just to point out another example - I was walking to the PATH at Exchange Place this morning and as I was about to cross Grand Street, at Greene, a cop car came careening down the street (toward a red light) at about 50mph. He blew right through the red light without stopping, nearly running me over. There's simply no excuse for this crap - if he was rushing to an emergency, he should have had his siren on and honked to alert the pedestrians. Ridiculous.

Is there any sort of restitution for those who have been illegally towed by one of these companies? I got towed from the Shoprite lot by EZ about a year ago and I knew something was sheisty about the whole ordeal. No visible signage, refusal to take a credit card, and even what appeared to be some sort of inside deal with the cab company that came to pick us up. What a bunch of thugs. I am so paranoid whenever I have to park there now.

great, thanks! I've had such a persistent hankering for palak paneer, so I'll make some this weekend.

Can anyone recommend a place downtown to buy paneer? I'd rather find somewhere nearby but I'll go to outer Newark Ave. if there's nothing downtown. Thanks!

I am thinking of getting a shower filter because I think the tap water is bothering my skin. Can anyone recommend one?

If you can drive, I highly recommend Tribeca-Soho Animal Hospital in lower Manhattan on Lispenard St. It's literally right outside the Holland Tunnel and easy enough to park there on weekends. The doctors are very friendly, knowledgeable and thorough and I didn't feel ripped off. I decided the tunnel toll was worth it after my bad experiences at Westside.

It would make sense they don't do anything about VOC's - my tap water always smells like chlorine and sulfur, and sometimes it irritates my skin in the shower. Gross. Even Brita didn't make it taste better so I get those jumbo cooler bottles delivered every month. Hate doing that but my tap water is really undrinkable.

Fingers crossed!! Glad they finally got the green light to open - it's been sitting empty for months.

Several stores near me have the Bob's Red Mill line - you might try the Liberty Towers Gourmet and the new grocery store at 77 Hudson. The new store has a bigger selection so may have what you're looking for. Otherwise, try Subia's.

Does anyone know what the story is with the new Satis space on the corner of Washington and Sussex?

If compostable bags aren't composted and are just put in the trash, do they really make a difference?

I have to agree that things are a bit too lax around there. I take my dog to the park at the end of Washington and let him off the leash once we're a good distance inside the park, and I supervise him while he cavorts with the other dogs. I realize this is off-leash freedom is a privilege that often passes under the radar and I think we all have to be careful and respectful of others.

What really got my goat the other day was a woman who totally took advantage and put other people and dogs at risk. This woman came from somewhere on Dudley street, sat on a bench in front of Portside and let her aggressive, unfixed schnauzer run into the park alone, completely out of her sight. The dog took a crap and ran up to all the toddlers who were playing in the front circle part of the park. It also ran up to my dog, still on leash, and tried to hump him. The dog ran loose for at least 5 minutes until a friend recognized the dog and went to find the owner, thinking that the dog had escaped from home. It drove me nuts that this woman thought she could treat the street and the park like her own suburban backyard without regard for the other people who use it. If I see her again, I will ask her to keep a better eye on her dog.

YES! I've been remarking on that "poopy" smell for a while. Weird and gross. At least it's better than the real urine smell on some of the old trains.

I actually have to give a thumbs down to Westside. My dog was acting really sick a few months ago, in obvious pain put still eating ok. I took him in and he was examined by the doc, then the tech came in with a list of possible things to do - blood test, xray, urine test etc. I appreciated the cost-consciousness, but I was given absolutely no guidance and the vet wouldn't give me any ideas on what the problem could be or which procedures would be most valuable.

In the end I opted for the less-invasive things, went back twice and still the vet couldn't tell me what was going on. My poor dog was deteriorating and shaking from serious pain.

Finally we rushed him to an emergency clinic in manhattan where the vet quickly diagnosed him with disc disease and gave him some major painkillers and prescribed crate rest. Why couldn't the westside vet even give us an inkling that this could be the problem? We wasted $500 and two weeks with them.

Maybe they're fine for routine visits but I wouldn't trust them for anything more serious.

I agree about the subtlety of the spices - definitely a nice change from the homogeneous curries I've gotten elsewhere.

As for the question about liquor, the owner said they plan to stay BYOB. I'm happy with that since I like specialty beers and it's fun to pair my own stuff with the spicy indian food - cheaper too!

So we finally tried this place for dinner this weekend, and we were very happy with the food. Everything was fresh, well-seasoned (although a bit salty), nicely presented and not too oily. My only complaints are typical of a new opening - hostess was a bit confused about the menu, there was a long wait between serving our two entrees, and one item I ordered never came. Anyhow, hopefully they'll hire another person so they can get the kinks worked out quickly. The whole place seemed to be run by the hostess and a single guy in the kitchen until the owner came in and got things under control. I thought the prices were good and I'll definitely keep them on my weekly rotation.

There's a new Indian restaurant on Morris St., between Warren and Van Vorst (next to the beauty salon) - on Sunday night it was filled with people, but otherwise it seems closed even though I've seen people inside during the afternoons. They have no information posted in the window. Does anyone know anything about it, and when they plan to open for business? I'm guessing the other night was just for friends/family. It looks really cute and is a welcome addition to this quiet end of Paulus Hook!

I have to second the recommendation for Dr. Wong. I haven't had a baby yet but saw Halpern for regular GYN visits for a while. Once she was out and I saw Wong instead, and I was really impressed...he was very attentive, caring, and took a lot of time to talk to me in his office to answer my questions. Halpern is nice enough but a bit blah, which I find off-putting when you're feeling anxious.

That really stinks. I just had my small dog's teeth done earlier this year and I paid about $300 for the cleaning. Of course, any extractions or extra work would be extra. I went to a place on the shore where we have all of our vet care - much cheaper and friendlier than in the city.

If I may point one thing out, it's not uncommon for dogs waiting for a teeth cleaning to wait a little while before they take their turn - if there are any emergencies that come in, the vet has to attend to them first. The vets usually like to admit all their surgical patients (including teeth cleanings) at the same time in the morning, before the office opens, and then have each wait their turn to avoid crowding and other craziness.

Thanks for the warning though, I won't be using that clinic!

Went last night - two thumbs up! For all the complainers out there, can't we just be happy to have a place like this in JC?

I was so impressed to see such a large crowd there...and a very nice, fun and un-guido-ish crowd at that (my concern from living near Sandbar). All the outdoor tables were full and the indoor tables were starting to fill up as we were leaving.

The beer selection is awesome. No complaints there! I think it would help to have a menu so people can decide what to order before they get up to the bar, which may help the waiting-in-line-for-beer issue. It's a little hard to see the names of all the beers just by looking at the taps.

Had a bratwurst too. Food is solid, nothing special, but all you need when you're sitting outside drinking german beer.

All in all, I loved the atmosphere. It was a nice mix of the after-work crowd, friends meeting up for drinks, and families with young kids. It's like having a new community backyard for JC, which makes me very happy. I'll definitely be luring some manhattan friends over here.

Maybe they underestimated the crowds, but they could definitely use more staff to keep the lines moving at a reasonable pace. Hopefully they're still just sorting things out.

Speaking of Liberty Harbor, does anyone know of any other smallish boats that do cruises? I live nearby and always envy people going out on the boats there, so I'd love to go for a sail sometime if the price isn't too crazy.

I second the rave review of the new place on Morris. I went there last night and got two plain slices (fresh mozz, good sauce and basil) and a roasted portabello salad. I was very very impressed! Not the best pizza I've had in my life, but it was worlds above the basic corner pizza joint I used to have in my old manhattan neighborhood. I'm very please to have this new addition nearby!

The salads look great as do the entrees - they have eggplant parm, pastas, salads, etc in large portions to take home.

I asked about the owner and they said it's owned by the same people as the wine shop next door. Very smart idea - I hope they do well!

I tried the tortas with both chicken and beef brisket - loved them both, especially the beef. Delicious! They were surprisingly light and non-greasy.

I just moved from Manhattan to JC (Paulus Hook) this weekend. We had Comcast set up the TV and internet, and while at first the HD channels didn't look very sharp compared to what we had with Time Warner, they look great now and the internet is very fast - WAY faster than our old TW connection. Plus, the DVR box works much better.

Based on all the complaints here I was expecting the worst, but I'm very pleasantly surprised! What great timing to add the new HD channels.

What is the geographic area covered for getting the HP resident rate at the Newport garage?

Also, can anyone recommend reasonable parking (indoor or outdoor ok) around 2nd/Jersey Ave?

Thanks!