Fat Guy

Our OXO pump-action salad spinner is almost ten years old. It hasn't been used constantly for all that time, but it has gone through periods of very heavy use -- it's in the middle of one such period right now, which has lasted for about the past three years. The primary trick to getting lettuce very dry with a salad spinner is not to put too much in it (i.e., dry in batches if you're doing a whole head of lettuce). In addition, it helps to spin a few times and to adjust the lettuce between spins. This way all leaves get a chance at the outside edge, where the velocity is greatest. Finally, you need to give it a much longer spin than most people do. As a rule, I pump the thing 50 times. I find that the salad spinner is a great convenience compared to any other method of drying lettuce. I also use the OXO as a vessel in which to wash lettuce and other greens. Once you fill it with water and swish the leaves around, the dirt falls through the mesh. I store it on top of the refrigerator, covered with a disposable plastic shower cap (as a dust cover) about a hundred of which I pilfered from a hotel back in the day when I was a frequent business traveler.

Had an excellent lunch at Kampuchea, and particularly enjoyed a dish I hadn't tried before and ordered on account of some lingering vegetarianism at the table: a Cambodian-style crepe with shiitake mushrooms, edamame and chunks of butternut squash.

I'm greatly relieved to hear about this favorable turn of events.

I haven't had the miso ramen at most of the places mentioned above, but have enjoyed it at Naruto Ramen on the Upper East Side.

So is the menu still abbreviated? And, if so, has anybody heard a convincing explanation for the change?

A couple of years ago I started a topic aimed at determining true favorite restaurants. Let's bring this up to date. The same rules apply: - Let's rule out the neighborhood takeout and HMR (home meal replacement) places that you'd never visit again if you moved to the other end of the city. - Let's also rule out the super-luxe special-occasion places. - Rule out business meals, meals of necessity (compromise places near the theater, near your parents, etc.) or any meals where someone else is covering the bill so it's not your personal money at stake. - Don't list a place unless you personally and happily pay to eat there at least every other month (five or six times in the past 12 months, minimum -- past 12 months only; for the purposes of this topic we don't want to know where you used to eat a lot). Based on all those criteria, the following are my favorite restaurants right now: - Burger Bar at Beacon - I've posted ad nauseam about the Burger Bar/Kitchen Counter at Beacon, which is probably the place I've visited most often in the past several months. This is the place I go for lunch with my son. - Szechuan Gourmet - I had a great run with Szechuan Gourmet over the past year, with more than a dozen visits. It still remains an open question how the New York Times review and increased popularity will affect the restaurant. There have been enough negative reports lately that I'm worried, though my last meal there was superb. - Momofukus - Not a creative, choice, I know, but I can't stay away, particularly from Noodle Bar ever since it moved to its new location. My concern right now involves reports of an abbreviated menu, but I haven't been in since that popped up. - Kampuchea - This went from being a place I had doubts about to being a place I've chosen over the Momofukus on a couple of key occasions when I had people I needed to impress. I think Kampuchea (which will be the site of my book-release party, so I'm now hopelessly in the tank for Kampuchea) is consistently under-valued in the press. I may go there for lunch today. - Sripraphai - I think there was a dip in quality after the latest expansion and wacky New York Times two-star review, but recent visits to Sripraphai have been totally successful. I used to go more often but have probably been five times in the past year. The following are repeats from my 2006 list: - Bread Bar at Tabla - Like the Bar Room at the Modern (which fell off my list this year), the Bread Bar is the "lite" version of a fancier USHG restaurant. This synergy works for me, because you get the skill of the fine restaurant's chef, a professionally managed service team, access to superior wines and cocktails and a number of other benefits you wouldn't normally get at the price point. - New/Nice Green Bo - For me, NGB (which changed its name from New Green Bo to Nice Green Bo this past year) has been the most consistently terrific restaurant in Chinatown. - Katz's Deli - The best pastrami, end of story. People who think otherwise don't understand pastrami. Who's next?

I think that's right, however the Beefsteak and Chowder dinners are special events as opposed to ongoing offerings. And I think they mostly attract the existing customer base rather than expand that base.

Here's my take on it (not discussed with Waldy): Firse, I think Beacon is a profitable business (though this year is tough for anybody who profits from Midtown corporate private events) but has slow times and unused spaces. The kitchen counter, for example, doesn't take any seating away from the restaurant. And presumably Sunday nights on 56th Street are not terribly busy, plus whatever audience Beacon has on Sunday nights is probably driven by nearby hotels rather than local businesses. So Waldy is just being smart about utilizing spaces and times that can bring a few extra bodies into the restaurant, even if they're essentially break-even additions. In addition, I think Waldy and his cooks need projects to help keep themselves interested. The day-to-day Beacon menu is essentially an upscale chophouse menu with a few twists. That has got to feel repetitive after a time. So these special menus are a useful tool for morale. Finally, I think some of it is PR driven. Waldy has been (unjustly, in my opinion) skipped over by a lot of media lately, because he and Beacon are not trendy. But he's a significant (and excellent) chef dating back to Hudson River Club and his then-groundbreaking Hudson Valley cookbook. So he's a bit like Alfred Portale in that regard: a large figure in the recent history of New York dining but without many particular news hooks for 2008. So he's creating some news hooks. P.S. Was at the burger bar yesterday and it was hopping. We arrived right at the end of service (2:30pm) and so did other people. There were people eating at the Burger Bar well past 3pm.

My casual observation, not scientifically supported, is that the 10am drill got harder after Labor Day.

As far as I know they're still filling almost all their seats at every sitting. To put it in perspective, seven nights a week for the entire sitting Ko is like a popular restaurant on a Friday night at 8pm. There is extreme competition for seats. However, even in that scenario, there are always going to be cancellations. I think one issue with four tops is that it can be tricky to assemble a group of four people willing to deal with all of Ko's inflexibility. I know when I had a four-top reservation I was only willing to go with eG-type people because none of my non-eG friends would have been disciplined enough to show up exactly on time, eat a set menu, sit on stools just because it's Ko, etc.

Lior, those are some nice centerpieces. I've never thought to do anything beyond apples in glass cylinders. Quick question, though: aren't the seven species a Sukkot thing? What's the derivation of that tradition anyway?

Okay so, predictably, Frank Bruni has nothing to contribute to the conversation. Ed Levine makes some points with which I agree -- and I think we even make the same point about Forgione, so we must be right -- but I have two nits to pick with Levine: 1- he bases a lot of his arguments on the present (this is the problem with a no-criteria list, though); and 2- his suggestions of Peter Luger and Coach House don't even come close to meeting the "last 40 years" criterion.

I think it's a less-than-compelling list, with no clearly stated criteria. There are some no-brainers but several places I'd replace with others. For example, if the idea is to acknowledge Warner LeRoy, Tavern on the Green seems more significant than Maxwell's Plum. Shun Lee isn't even good and there were other high-end Chinese restaurants, e.g., Uncle Tai's Hunan Yuan, that were equally groundbreaking at their time. I don't even get the claim that Windows on the World was significant; certainly if it was significant its significance was not culinary. Its proximity reminds me that I'd pick Hudson River Club instead -- now everybody is using Hudson Valley ingredients etc. but HRC was a trailblazer in that regard. River Cafe? Clearly Larry Forgione's more important achievement was An American Place. Odeon? If the idea is to acknowledge McNally then of course Balthazar is the better pick. If it's about TriBeCa then what about Bouley or Montrachet? The omission of the Momofuku phenomenon -- quite clearly the most important right now -- is inexplicable unless it's just Gael retaliating for her bad experience at Ko. I don't quite get the explanation for why Union Square Cafe was omitted. Also the opening of Alain Ducasse at the Essex House was probably the most talked-about restaurant opening in history. What do Ed Levine and Frank Bruni say, Mitch? Do you have those links handy?

Three thoughts on the issue of a non-Asian writing a book like this. 1. Many books about Asian restaurants and food written in English are by non-Asians. Some that come to mind immediately are the two books about sushi by Trevor Corson and Sasha Issenberg, James Oseland's "Cradle of Flavor," and Fuchsia Dunlop's "Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook." These are, fundamentally, nonfiction research-based books so the author's ethnicity shouldn't much matter. Although, I do think Jennifer 8. Lee's "Fortune Cookie Chronicles" is aided by her Chinese-American upbringing. 2. It would be impossible for someone to be a member of all the ethnic groups covered in "Asian Dining Rules." So, for example, if a Chinese person wrote the book, that person still wouldn't be Japanese, Korean, Indian or any Southeast Asian ethnicity. The best you could do is be a member of one group; the worst you could do is be a member of none (like me). 3. It's a book about restaurants in North America, not in Asia. Also, it's part of a larger body of work by me, which started with "Turning the Tables" (I also liked that title, but the marketing people liked "Asian Dining Rules," which was one of several I offered -- everybody seemed to like the double meaning as well as the way it rolls off the tongue) and is continuing in more focused fashion in "Asian Dining Rules." I may do other consumer-oriented guides to getting the most out of other types of ethnic restaurants in the future, though I'm not currently working on such a project.

The book discusses that phenomenon and proposes some ways around it (most of which boil down to being pushy and demanding the real stuff). It's maybe 3 pages of material in one place in the Chinese-restaurant chapter, and mentions here and there in other chapters (because it happens in all kinds of Asian restaurants, not just Chinese).

The following are all the zins on the list (the last number is the price): Zinfandel 650 Renwood, Grand Pere, Amador County, Sonoma, CA 2004 88 651 Hendry Block 28, Napa Valley, CA 2004 83 653 Ravenswood, Teldeshi, Sonoma County, CA 2004 67 654 Lamborn Family Estate, Howell Mountain, Napa, CA 1998 56 655 Ridge, Lytton Spring, Sonoma County, CA 2005 59 656 Murphy-Goode, Liars Dice, Sonoma County, CA 2005 44 657 Consentino, Alexander Valley, Sonoma County, CA 2005 48 Also this is what LaBan had to say:

That's the price on the printed wine list.

I had never considered the combination of brisket and bacon before, but it works beautifully. I'm cooking a brisket right now and I keep thinking how much better it would be with bacon.

Table 31. I started a separate topic for that one. (We were just in for Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast -- spent the rest of Sunday in Bucks County.)

Another thing LaBan notes in his review is that wine prices have come down since opening. I have the whole wine list but no good way to post it. I can try to answer questions about it, though. I thought it was drinking very well -- it tasted fresh but had developed some complexity over time. I wouldn't be surprised if the PLCB has it because Table 31 pushed for it. Then again I don't know the ins-and-outs of the PLCB process.

This is the downstairs dining room, where we sat (our table was the one on the right, the second one behind the tree). And this is the downstairs bar, which we overlooked and through which you pass to get to the Comcast building lobby. This is the way they present the steaks: Mini ice-cream cones: Chocolate cake: Again, these photos were provided by the restaurant. They were professionally styled, lit, etc. However, they are accurate reflections of what I saw (I haven't posted photos of anything I didn't see, though I have some in inventory).

We were down in Philadelphia over the weekend because Ellen was working on a newspaper story about the new children's museum, and we managed to coordinate travel and free dinner with our friend Shelley Clark (also New York-based) who does PR for Georges Perrier's Signature Restaurant Group. Perrier and his protege Chris Scarduzio have recently opened Table 31 (named for the most desirable table at Brasserie Perrier) in an impressive three-story space at the base of the new Comcast Center (now Philadelphia's tallest building). Craig LaBan recently gave it three stars (or three of whatever those symbols are that he uses). As someone accustomed to New York City dining, one of the first things I notice about many restaurants in Philadelphia -- Table 31 included -- is that there's more space. The tables at Table 31 (we sat at table 33 by the way) are separated by chasms (by New York standards) of space, which for me is a totally unfamiliar feeling especially at a steakhouse. In general, Table 31 has built a non-steakhouse restaurant around a core of steakhouse steaks. This is nothing new: in many cities over the past decade or so I've been watching the rise of contemporary, user-friendly, non-macho steakhouses (New York's Peter and Penny Glazier, owners of Strip House, were real trailblazers in this regard back at the turn of the century, and Tom Colicchio's Craftsteak concept is one of the current leaders in the genre) as well as attempts by non-steakhouse restaurants to serve steakhouse-level steaks, but at Table 31 I felt as though someone finally cracked the code and got just about everything right. So much so that it has blurred the lines between steakhouse and "regular restaurant," perhaps beyond recognition. We started with American Wagyu sliders (mini-burgers to be precise, and delicious); a gorgeously presented shellfish salad of shrimp, crabmeat and bay scallops (all very high quality) over french navy beans with mustard vinaigrette; crabcakes as good as you're going to get outside a couple of places in Baltimore, with crispy shallots and red-pepper remoulade; and tomato-and-burrata salad with mediocre, pale beefsteak tomatoes and very good burrata. We also shared Chris Scarduzio's signature cavatelli with crispy guanciale, olive oil, tomato, basil and ricotta salata -- it deserves to be a signature. I had the bone-in 20-ounce New York strip. This is a USDA Prime steak, however in breaking with steakhouse orthodoxy it is not dry aged. It's wet aged for 28 days. Chris Scarduzio's position is that this long wet aging -- 28 days is much longer than the wet-aged norm, as one business advantage of the process is that it's quick -- yields a more tender steak. This is going to be a sacrilegious-sounding claim to steakhouse traditionalists, but I'm a results-oriented taster and I thought the steak was remarkably good -- one of the best steaks I've had in recent memory. As good as Peter Luger? No. But as good as the next level. There's a whole separate discussion to be had on wet v. dry aging, but my take-away from my Table 31 experience is that if you have great steak to start with you can get great results through long, slow wet aging. I was not able, just sitting there in the restaurant, to detect the lack of dry aging. It's something I had to find out by asking. My wife and son shared a filet mignon, which was about as good as filet mignon gets (I'm not a huge fan of this cut because it sacrifices flavor for tenderness), though he quickly defected to the strip. Also on the table were braised short ribs with a red-wine sauce. The ribs were boned out, so I'd call that cut of meat flanken. I'm not sure how I'd improve the dish -- it was quite good -- but I've had short ribs as good several restaurants. (It's just not a hard dish to make well.) The steaks come with a small corn salad/relish, which is good. Other sides, as at a normal steakhouse, carry their own price tags. We got the fries, which were just right, as well as truffled mashed potatoes (with little detectable truffle flavor) and broccoli rabe with garlic (well executed). The steaks were cooked exactly as ordered, but a sample size of two at a table being looked over by the management is not exactly indicative of anything. LaBan's review had this to say about doneness: Service was on par with what you'd expect at a good, upscale, New American restaurant. The servers wear name tags, which is a little tacky and distracts from their otherwise nicely designed uniforms, but our server -- "Kelly" -- was delightful and particularly accommodating of our three-year-old son's needs (extra Maraschino cherries, etc.). It was the sommelier's night off but we were well advised on wine by manager Marc Grika, a survivor of the Chodorow and Fireman empires in New York, who it seemed to me easily could be a sommelier were he not the general manager. We had the 1998 Lamborn Family Estate Howell Mountain Zinfandel, which if we'd been paying would have been $56. I tried to ascertain the retail price with Google but couldn't -- and I'm not even sure you could get a 1998 bottle right now if you wanted. I'm pretty sure it's a low markup for a restaurant list, though -- I seem to remember seeing these wines in the low 30s. And it was just right for the combination of foods we had. Marc himself is a big fan of Merlots, and the list has several good ones, but we didn't go down that path. The pastry kitchen, headed up by Signature Restaurant Group's Rocco Lugrine, puts out impressive desserts. My favorite was the bread pudding with almond nougatine and vanilla ice cream, everybody else's was the chocolate cake, and the most visually stunning was the rack of three mini ice-cream cones. After dinner, we wandered into the lobby of the Comcast building, where we watched a pretty amazing display of video artistry on the world's largest high-definition flat-panel monitor. It's so big, it's totally out of proportion to anything I'd ever seen: 80 feet by 30 feet, with something like 10 million pixels. Here are some more details about that. I have some PR photos I got from the restaurant, which I'll post separately. Table 31 1701 John F. Kennedy Boulevard Philadelphia, PA 19103 www.www.table-31.com 215-567-7111 (edited to correct typos and such)

We were just in Philadelphia for the weekend and had Sunday breakfast at Carman's, which in my opinion remains one of the best breakfast spots in the USA. There was a breakfast special of braised brisket with rich gravy, served with eggs, potatoes and a pumpernickel roll. I also opted to include bacon (recommended on the menu board). While eating it, I felt a little guilty that I hadn't first spent 5 hours working in the fields.

Sadly, we won't be seeing Paul Adams's reviews in the New York Sun anymore. The paper is going out of business today.

Haroset is a Passover food, meant to symbolize the mortar used by slaves in Egypt. However, it's not wrong to eat it at other times of year.