The best guacamole in the world was created by Chef Scott Linquist at New York’s Dos Caminos. The rest of the food there is pretty fantastic, too, in my opinion. There are locations at 50th & 3rd, at Park between 26th & 27th, and at West Broadway & Houston.

You can find the recipe for the guacamole here, at Elizabeth Laney’s blog.

You can also find it at a bunch of other places by doing a Google search for it, but I’m linking to her blog because when I did the search, I not only found the guacamole recipe, but also her recipe for Gruyere Baked Grits, which looks tremendous, and which I plan to try this week.

Buenos Aires is not, as far as I know, known for its great Chinese food. However, if you happen to be in the Las Cañitas neighborhood (which is where all the cool kids, including me, live), there’s a take-out only place called Min-Min which makes a mean chao mi fen con verduras (vegetable chow mei fun - like lo mein, but with very thin rice noodles). There are two nearly identical locations: one at Migueletes 623 and one at Olleros 1767. (There’s also a different, nice-looking Chinese place on Maure, but I haven’t tried that one yet - I’ll let you know when I do.)

Speaking of good Chinese takeout, if you happen to be in Miami, Florida, Kim’s Chinese Restaurant in South Beach (at 1245 Lincoln Road) is the best you’ll find, and it’s not bad at all. The only thing they don’t do very well is General Tso’s Chicken.

This leads me to my final recommendation of the morning: if you want the best General Tso’s Chicken in America (and, in all likelihood, all of the Americas) you have to go to New York, a fact that surely comes as no surprise. The place from which you have to order, though, may surprise you quite a bit. It’s called Wu Liang Ye (at 215 East 86th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues; there are also locations in midtown on Lexington Avenue and on West 48th Street - but I’ve never been to either of them), and it looks like a typical Manhattan Chinese place, which it pretty much is. Except for the all-white meat General Tso’s.

To get the best version, you can’t simply order the General Tso’s Chicken. You have to specifically ask for it with all white meat, and they’ll do it for you, no questions asked. The difference is striking, and I expect thank-you notes from the people who take my advice on this one. I mean, I’m telling you about life-changing General Tso’s here.