190 replies to this topic

[SobaAddict70]

Note: Below you will find the collection of digests in chronological order. For the latest digest go to the end.

Enjoy...

Soba
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Amanda Hesser on Antipasti

Restaurants on the Fringe

R.W. Apple on Gidleigh Park

William Grimes dines out at Agave

Eric Asimov: Fish

Marian Burros: Newman's Own and McDonald's

Upcoming Chefs: Helene Darroze

Frank Prial: All About Serendipity

Jason Epstein: A Buyer's Market

Mark Bittman: Parmesan-Crusted Chicken

Grains for Breakfast

Florence Fabricant: Vietnamese Artifacts, Soup on the Side

Bits and Pieces

Letters to the Editor

The Oops File

Edited by Fat Guy, 30 July 2003 - 04:44 AM.

[SobaAddict70]

An Italian version of a Brazillian rodizio -- huge portions led by a beef parade in the form of a monstrous 25+ ounce porterhouse steak. The runners up are equally as weighty:

The steak no longer overshadows the rest of the entrees, an inventive lineup that includes rainbow trout with walnut pesto, an Italian version of Peking duck, boiled veal with fruit mostardo, and branzino wrapped in seaweed.

William Grimes reports on Tuscan (f/k/a Tuscan Steak)

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

There's a section on sandwiches that begins modestly enough with a chicken club and an open-faced egg salad, but the one I intend to try first is the open-faced foie gras, consisting of a slice of foie gras on toasted brioche, topped with a tangle of arugula leaves tossed with chopped preserved lemon, hazelnut oil and cardamom.

Julia Reed gives an oral report concerning Jeremiah Tower's new book

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

The bar and lounge at Barbalùc is half the story, the sleek, glamorous part. The food can be found downstairs, in a small, windowless dining room where the menu gravitates toward the cuisine of Friuli, Italy, with some modest updating and some digressions here and there.

William Grimes gives us his take on Barbalùc

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

But defiant as they may be on the floor of the United Nations, domestically they act like a flock of well-behaved sheep, at least when dining out. The taste buds of Gaul have been in lock-step obeisance to a fat little red book called Michelin's ''Guide Rouge'' for about 80 years.

Jonathan Reynolds on why Le Guide Rouge is a better Zagat's than Le Pudlo Paris

Recipes:

1. Salmon en Gelée With Coconut Risotto
2. Flaming Babas à l'Armagnac


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Have a good weekend folks,

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

Restraint is not on the menu. The newer ceviches include Chilean red lip clams in a parsley and green-tomato cilantro sauce and a Peruvian ceviche of fluke and octopus with cinnamon-accented sweet potatoes...."Killer dates" are Mr. Rodriguez's idea of a party snack, almond-stuffed dates wrapped in bacon and covered in Cabrales cheese sauce.

William Grimes on Douglas Rodriguez's newest creations at Ola

Cheers,

Soba

Edited by SobaAddict70, 04 April 2003 - 02:16 PM.

[SobaAddict70]

The food is hit and miss. It's hard to imagine, in principle, a more appealing menu....Make the right choices, and you'll have the meal of your life. Take a few wrong turns, and, as they say in the theater, you'll leave humming the scenery.

William Grimes gives us his impressions on Jean-Georges Vongerichten's newest venture, "66".

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In some ways, Djerdan is as difficult to figure out as Balkan politics. The menu includes pastas, Parmesans, kebabs, American-style sandwiches and salads, along with the small but most interesting section of Balkan specialties.

Eric Asimov reports on Djerdan Burek

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Dinner with Nell Campbell and Matilda Roche

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Wineries, of course, also like a profit. A $100 wine that cost $50 when it left its maker may have cost as little as $25 to produce. For wines in the $7 to $10 range, the margin is far less, because the makers make money on volume.

Amanda Hesser doffs a professors hat and gives us instruction on Winemaking Economics 101

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Frank Prial on the new Beaujolais

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Speaking of the beans and noodles served at the dance, Ms. Dunay said: "This food is symbolic of how the cultures meld. I have seen it personally in food and dance, Israeli dancing with a Latin beat. It is a very interesting cultural blend."

Joan Nathan on a pan-Latino Seder table

Recipes:

1. Carribean Kugel
2. Orange-Date-Walnut Passover Cake

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Sidebar:

Nostalgic Times, part 1: Melissa Clark on matzo brei

Recipes:

1. Caramelized Onion and Mushroom Matzo Brei
2. Matzo Brei With Caramelized Apples, Honey Vanilla Sauce and Mascarpone


Julia Moskin gives us the lowdown on egg complexity

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In her restaurant, the escaoutoun is turned into a rich, creamy underpinning for an appetizer of stuffed chicken wings with mushrooms. "Peasants often serve it with the neck of a pig," she said. "I vary the way I serve escaoutoun. I've done it with black truffles in season and hazelnut butter, or like this, just with mushrooms, like cèpes, and parsley cooked with ham or duck fat."

Florence Fabricant continues her series with Hélène Darroze

Recipe:

1. Escaoutoun With Basque Cheese and Wild Mushrooms

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The combination of the hot, browned fish, crisp on the bottom and tender on top, on a bed of cool greens, with the sweet, pungent dressing, adds up to the most complex taste for a simple preparation that I know.

Mark Bittman on minimalist fish cookery

Recipe:

1. Steamed Cod with Mesclun and Sweet Soy Dressing

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Nostalgic Times, part 2: Frank Prial on the Automat's Golden Age

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Bits and Pieces:


Star Anise Truffles, Zabaglione, Celery Microgreens, Tea Menus and Chocolate Flowers

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One important change is the federal requirement for traceability. Tags must be attached to the container used to ship shellfish from the fisherman to the wholesaler. They carry the dealer's name and address, certification number, date of harvest and harvest location, and they must be kept on file for 90 days.

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Marian Burros goes clam digging on the Internet

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Off the Menu: Dos Caminos SoHo, Chickenbone Cafe and Citarella's newest branch

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Note that I'll be covering for nerissa for a few weeks.

Cheers,

Soba

Edited by SobaAddict70, 09 April 2003 - 09:11 AM.

[SobaAddict70]

Hard by the Midtown tunnel, food expectations run very low. Tournesol, another fresh face down the street, showed that Long Island City, touted as New York's new Left Bank, could tolerate a smart little bistro. Bella Via is making the same argument in Italian.

William Grimes does what Romans do, at Bella Via.

Cheers,

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

Matt Lee and Ted Lee give instructions on creating the perfect crown roast of lamb

Recipe: Crown Roast of Lamb

To come up with improved varieties, Mr. Bacon and his predecessors at Sun World's breeding program made tens of thousands of crosses over 15 years. No artificial genetic modifications were involved, but because early peaches ripen before their seeds are mature, the breeders employed a technique called "embryo rescue," pampering the tiny seeds in test tubes and adding nutrients until they grew large enough to germinate and be planted.

David Karp on ULTRA early seasonal peaches

There are two levels of kosher wine, one made through the normal method of winemaking and one made with an additional process. A kosher wine is produced with equipment and machinery used exclusively for the wine, and only Sabbath-observant Jews may handle the grapes from the time they are crushed until the wine is bottled. Many kosher wines undergo one more step, to be made mevushal, or pasteurized.

Amanda Hesser on the changing face of kosher wine


Nigella Lawson celebrates Easter with all the trimmings

Recipes:

1. Easter Egg Nest Cake
2. Rack of Lamb with Mint Salsa
3. Roasted New Vegetables

Its tomato, mozzarella and basil tart is as simple as A B C, but the puff-pastry crust is ideally flaky and the tomatoes, slow-cooked to concentrate their flavor, have a firm, acidic grip, complemented by sweet, syrupy balsamic vinegar. Small pleasures like the tart are scattered throughout the menu. French fries, flavored with vinegar and herbs, come to mind immediately, a comically large pile of crisp potatoes that seem intended for four but can have a party of two fighting for the last fry.

William Grimes reviews Kloe, where New American regional fusion reigns supreme


Florence Fabricant reports on Pepolino's ricotta tart (recipe included with article)

I asked a waitress about the size of a serving of butakakuni...or stewed pork belly, and she called it an appetizer. Maybe for a sumo wrestler. The pork, which resembles unsliced, unsmoked, unsalted bacon, is served in a slightly sweet broth with a dab of strong mustard on the lip of the bowl. It is soft and tender enough to cut with chop sticks, and absolutely delicious.

Eric Asimov mentions his take on Ajisai, an Upper East Side sushi palace with charm to spare


Mark Bittman on braising with Sauternes or other sweet wine

Recipe: Beef Braised with Sweet Wine


Amanda Hesser -- Chardonnay with Spring Risotto

Recipe: Spring Risotto

In the Dordogne and Bergerac regions of France, a glass of Monbazillac is likely to accompany local foie gras. At Le Centenaire, a Michelin two-star restaurant in Les Eyzies-de-Tayac, there are 10 Monbazillacs on the list, many from La Domaine de l'Ancienne Cure. For Timothy Harrison, Le Centenaire's English-born sommelier, the sometimes smoky, nutty, quince-paste concentration of older vintages make them a perfect complement for foie gras.

Florence Fabricant: Monbazillac vs. Sauternes


Bits and Pieces: Almonds, Avant-Garde Quesadillas, Duck Confit, Burrata and Mozzarella

(Iraqi Road features a despondent Saddam Hussein, the wheels fallen off his jeep.) Among a dozen randomly selected taste testers assembled by this reporter, one called the taste "undistinguished," another "cheap — like the little cups of ice cream in elementary school, the kind with wooden paddles." Smaller Governmint was said to taste like toothpaste or Noxzema shave cream. Nutty Environmentalist and Iraqi Road won some compliments — except from the person who declared the latter "chalky."

Kate Zernike reports on Ben & Jerry's alter egos: Star Spangled Ice Cream


All About WD-50, March, Théo, and other spotlights of the moment...


Enjoy,

Soba

[snooky]

An unofficial tally of Nigella's latest article:
7 uses of the word easy, ease, or easily.
1 use of the word simple.
1 use of the word voluptuous.
1 slam on France.
1 shameless plug for her new book.
When is the Times going to get rid of this bore.
Quit wasting paper and give us someone with
some creativity.

[SobaAddict70]

What if someone designed a restaurant around amuse-bouches?

Amuse, true to its name, really does amuse. And it offers one of the few herbal desserts that does not seem perverse, a sharp grapefruit granité with honeyed grapefruit segments and rosemary sabayon.

William Grimes gives us a bird's eye view on Amuse

Cheers,

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

In his new cookbook, ''Cafe Spice Namaste: Modern Indian Cooking,'' Cyrus Todiwala, M.B.E., will surprise you not only with the sophistication and subtlety of his recipes but also with their ease of preparation. The owner of two restaurants in London, one of which was recently nominated best Indian restaurant in the U.K., Cyrus is not only a brilliant and original chef (would you ever imagine steamed eggs on potatoes as the culinary apex of your week?); he is also a nonstop raconteur.

A Passage to India: Modern Indian Cooking

Recipes:

1. Kharu Gos (Lamb with Whole Spices)
2. Ginger-Garlic Paste
3. Cyrus's Express Bread-and-Butter Pudding


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Just when the Tabla/Diwan debate couldn't get any better!!!

Cheers,

Soba

Edited by SobaAddict70, 19 April 2003 - 09:25 AM.

[Orik]

errr...I've owned this book since 1998 (I believe I've also discussed Mr. Todiwala's kitchen on eGullet before). Quite odd.

[SobaAddict70]

The real multicultural shocker is Japanese-style kobe beef in Perigueux sauce, as high-toned a French sauce as there is. It's served with a blue-collar potato-leek pierogi, oddly appropriate for a gold-encrusted restaurant set smack dab in the middle of the Bowery. There's a dessert to match, chocolate soufflé with s'mores and a good old-fashioned egg cream. And yes, they squirt the seltzer from a charged bottle.

William Grimes makes a couple of visits to Capitale, the newest darling of the NY foodie scene


Have a good weekend folks,

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

''Why is it,'' I asked my friend, who had been raised in Little Italy, ''that most of these restaurants cater only to tourists?'' I was puzzled that sophisticated New Yorkers, their palates honed to microscopic tolerances and their antennae aquiver to new tastes, are never seen on Mulberry Street, as if it were forbidden territory.

My friend waited until we had crossed Canal Street into Chinatown and said finally: ''Because if a family were seen taking its meals in a restaurant when this was still an Italian neighborhood, people would think Mama was a terrible cook. No self-respecting son or daughter in those days would insult Mama by eating out. So Mulberry Street restaurants have always been for tourists, never for natives. Not,'' he added, ''even now, when there are hardly any mamas left to offend.''

Jason Epstein gives the lowdown on DiPalo's Fine Foods, a fantastic cheese store on the fringes of Chinatown

Recipes:

1. Eggplant Parmigiana
2. Marinara Sauce
3. Ricotta Cheesecake

Soba

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ps. Note the date -- I was out of town this weekend, sorry for the late entry. --SA

Edited by SobaAddict70, 28 April 2003 - 07:35 AM.

[SobaAddict70]

The Silver King is a reinterpretation of a recipe published in the Savoy Cocktail Book in 1930. Devised by Eben Freeman, the bar manager, it is refreshing from head to toe, which is not an easy task. Not too sweet, not too strong, not too stupid, it has Goldilocks's gift for lottery, if the three bears had run a bar.

William L. Hamilton gives a royal sendoff to the Silver King, one of WD-50's specialties de la maison.


Recipe:

1. Silver King

Cheers,

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

Every dish has at least one surprise. Sometimes it's an ingredient, like the tangerine oil in artichoke soup with mussels and chorizo, or the combination of almonds and cauliflower in a purée accompanying roasted daurade with beans and dried apricots....Mr. Dufresne has a gift for strikingly simple effects.

A mini-review by William Grimes on the new kid of the block -- Wylie Dufresne's WD-50.

Sign me up for a reservation!!!

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

"He has adapted the bluefin tuna he currently serves at Union Pacific -- sashimi tuna with bits of mango, Asian pear, cilantro, wasabi and fish sauce -- into a Rocco Roll by shaping the whole thing like a pickle, wrapping gelatinized juices of fennel, cucumber, red pepper and cubanelle around a torpedo of the fish. It tastes remarkably like the original, and while it may be too pricey for the fast food we're used to, isn't it a hate crime to deprive a group of people of a quick snack just because they're rich?

What if Mario Batali and Bobby Flay worked for McDonald's and White Castle?

Recipes:

1. The Flay Burger
2. Adobo Fries
3. Mango Batido
4. Mario Batali's Spaghetti on a Stick
5. The Rocco Roll
6. Gabrielle Hamilton's Flavored Butters
7. Maury Rubin's Passion Push-Up

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Sidebar:

The appeal of this kind of laser-targeted diet intervention is hard to miss. If you turn out to be among the population whose cholesterol count doesn't react much to diet, you'll be able to go ahead and eat those bacon sandwiches. You'll no longer be spending money on vitamin supplements that aren't doing anything for you; you'll take only the vitamins you need, in precisely the right doses. And there's a real chance of extending your life -- by postponing the onset of diseases to which you're naturally susceptible -- without having to buy even a single book by Deepak Chopra.

Bruce Grierson reports on the future Atkins diet: genetic gastronomy


Cheers,

Soba

Edited by SobaAddict70, 04 May 2003 - 06:19 AM.

[jhlurie]

Soba, there were a few other articles in that section, all about Food and "The Future":

The Futures of Food, By MICHAEL POLLAN, also discussed here, about how science is starting to get in the way of food once more. It predicts a bleak future where BigAgriBusiness continues to coop more and more of the rhetoric of the Organic movement in an effort to "fight back" and regain that lost section of the market.

The Next Big Flavor, By MATT LEE and TED LEE, which looks a bit less into the future and seems to mostly be about fruit.

Imagining a Better Kitchen, By CLIVE THOMPSON, about kitchen gadgets.

Vintage Cuts, by Amanda Hesser, By AMANDA HESSER, is more "Back to the Future" than "Future", since its about heirloom pork.

Edited by jhlurie, 04 May 2003 - 08:26 AM.

[Suzanne F]

Also today in the Book Review:

a review of Pepin's The Apprentice;

Under the title, "Bites of Passage" a look at 4 food autobiographies:
Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser
Fried Butter by Abe Opincar
Untangling My Chopsticks by Victoria Abbott Riccardi
Feeding a Yen by Calvin Trillin.

And a combined review of memoirs by Colette Rossant (about Paris) and Patrizia Chen (about Italy).

There's also a Books in Brief review of The Bobby Gold Stories.

[SobaAddict70]

whoops

I'm so used to just doing the Sunday Mag food section that I skipped the entire layout.

the sidebar is there only because the link to the article is on the web site's "cover" page.

Soba

[Suzanne F]

I kind of got the feeling that the Times is treating food as yet one more minority -- you know, there's Black History Month, and Women's History Month, and the rest of the year nothing much matters. Not that I'm accusing the Times of such behavior. But it strikes me as odd that they should have put so many eggs into today's basket, so to speak.

[SobaAddict70]

I was surrounded by diners ordering the "five-napkin burger," as it is billed on the menu. It seems like a strange choice in a restaurant with gutsy classics like a daube of beef short ribs with orange and sage, or a fine roasted cod with ratatouille and anchoiade (anchovy mayonnaise). My only regret was not eating on a Monday night, when the daily special is aïoli monstre, a Provençal excuse to consume vast quantities of garlic mayonnaise.

William Grimes previews Nice Matin on the Upper West Side


Soba

[SobaAddict70]

If I had to choose one dish that made my head spin all the way round twice, it would have to be Alfred Portale's Long Island First Harvest Spring Pea Soup -- you've never tasted such sweetly intense pea flavor, so optimistic at this time of year. Contrasted with morels in what appeared to be little silk mushroomy purses, it was a brilliant combination in both flavor (sweet and smoky) and texture (liquid and solid), bearing almost no resemblance to dried-pea soup with a ham hock or slab of bacon.

How to convert pea hating people by Jonathan Reynolds

Recipes:

1. Alfred Portale's Spring-Pea Soup
2. Jane Grigson's Peas in the Pod
3. Cold Dilled Peas


Cheers,

Soba

[docsconz]

I just picked up this issue over the weekend to find this article on my favorite local pork producer. Pretty cool. I have posted on them here and here. I just hope they can make it without too many compromises.

Photos posted here.

Edited by docsconz, 12 May 2003 - 10:20 AM.

[SobaAddict70]

So when the Vietnamese started peddling catfish from the Mekong Delta in this country under brand names like Delta Select (a moniker mighty close to the popular Mississippi brand Delta Pride), the farmers got very upset. One of the first things the Americans challenged was the right of the Vietnamese farmers to use the word itself. They maintain that the Vietnamese fish is really basa fish, whatever that is, and that labeling it as catfish is, in the words of Hugh Warren, executive vice president of the C.F.A., the equivalent of ''selling kangaroo meat as sirloin.'' Last year the C.F.A. persuaded Congress to bar the Vietnamese from calling their fish catfish and to require them to stamp their packages with the country of origin so there wouldn't be any more confusion about which delta had been the fish's birthplace.

Vietnamese catfish and the Mississippi Delta by Julia Reed

Recipes:

1. Laotian Catfish Soup
2. Catfish Courtbouillon


Cheers,

Soba

--------
Note from Soba:

This week's Voice of Sietsema will feature the review from last week's Village Voice, along with this week's article. Last week was the week from hell -- I didn't have time to do anything outside of work. 13+ hour work days from Friday to Thursday will do that to you. Thank god its over....for now.

Edited by SobaAddict70, 19 May 2003 - 01:18 AM.

[SobaAddict70]

Fish is the star here. Yujin offers only one meat dish, and it's not even red meat. There is a pan-roasted chicken served with a ginger-accented purée of Japanese sweet potato, but that's it. The rest of the menu is devoted to the likes of miso-marinated salmon in yuzu miso sauce with broccoli rabe, and fried whole snapper with scallions, hot sesame oil and soy.

The Japanese version of Oceana, by William Grimes


Soba

[Suzanne F]

Once again, I shill:

Taka was the sushi chef at Match Uptown when I worked there. I didn't have much experience with eating sushi then, but I loved his stuff. I also loved his stuff when he was with Sushi Samba (much better than the "samba" part of the menu). So I'm inclined to expect great stuff from him at this place. (Plus it's across the street from my beloved Aunt Bette, so I expect to go there a lot -- fish, she'll eat. )

[SobaAddict70]

A splash of Madeira adds its distinctive smoky sweetness to a chowder of spring mushrooms with tiny bits of smoked bacon. Foie gras with pistachio and golden raisins is iced with a layer of gewürtztraminer gelée. Daily specials include chicken in riesling, seafood soup with sauvignon blanc, boneless rib-eye steak with cabernet syrup and osso bucco braised in Chianti.

William Grimes gives us his personal spin on Morrells, including a flight of three wine ice creams

Talk about a restaurant in a public space, eh?

Soba

[Pan]

The place sounds interesting, and I'm in that hood fairly often (and can walk there in about 20-25 minutes, anyway). Grimes mentions "dinner entrees." Does anyone know if the place is open for lunch (and perhaps cheaper then)?