Fat Guy

The latest crop:

Relevant story in the New York Times today: "The Lunch Tote Has Acquired a Sense of Taste" CONCEPTUALLY, the lunch tote is nothing new: reusable versions of the brown paper bag have been around for several years, often insulated and made with spill-resistant material for easy cleanup. But the lunch tote is evolving....

I finally made it out to M. Wells today for lunch, or rather brunch. The restaurant only serves brunch, Tuesday through Sunday from 10am until 4pm. I have to embrace the term "quirky" that has been used in some writing about M. Wells. The restaurant is run by Hugue Dufour, who is an alumnus of another quirky restaurant, Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal. It's a diner, in a classic old diner building a few feet (if you get the right exit) from the Hunters Point station on the 7 train (that's the second stop in Queens -- very fast trip). It's not really possible to categorize the place. It's not Quebecois, though there is some of that food on the menu, including some profoundly unremarkable buckwheat pancakes (aka plogue). I guess it's a little like the diner equivalent of a gastropub, except not British in orientation. We had some exceptionally tasty food, some decent food, and some bad food. The highs were very high, though, such as the best sausage-and-egg sandwich I've ever had: a big fat English muffin topped with a big fat house-made sage-sausage patty, very fluffy scrambled eggs, cheddar, tomato, mayo and jalapenos. Nothing I've ever made or had comes close. Also exceptional: the bacon hash, and a dessert item called Graceland which is half way between a cupcake and a muffin, heavy with peanut-butter flavor. I'm sad that Elvis never got to try it. Also very good fries and a chili dog worth traveling for if you're a chili-dog aficionado. Not so good were the aforementioned plogue, the maple pie (it would have been a mediocre pecan pie if it included pecans, but it didn't), and the worst doughnut you can think of. There were a couple of good sweets in addition to Graceland, though, including a Momofuku Milk Bar-like chocolate cookie and a moist brownie that was either made with Mexican chocolate or with some other kind of chocolate enhanced with capsicum. There are a lot of things on the menu that I'd still like to try, including the Maine shrimp salad, meat pie (it was 86d today), steak tartare and Cubano sandwich. Although the kitchen is a little slow, the servers are very friendly and pretty well informed. Prices are low, with most things under $10 and I think pretty much everything under $15 except the day's special of duck confit for two.

I stand corrected. I need to make a trip out to Flushing.

It seems that the overwhelming majority of fine restaurants these days serve their food on plain white plates. Whereas, in the overwhelming majority of nice homes the china has patterns. I get that the white place shows off the food. But a beautiful pattern on a plate can really enhance a table. Which camp are you in? I'm in the patterned/colored plate camp. I'm not sure I own any plain white plates.

John, my in-oven wing-making improved dramatically when I added a rack to the sheet pan. Definitely worth doing it that way.

For those of you playing at home, 100g = about 3.5 ounces.

Although a directory search reveals plenty of Chinese restaurants with the word "Hunan" in their names, as far as I can ascertain there does not appear to be a single actual Hunan restaurant in New York City. Am I wrong about that?

I saw an article last week in the New York Times Connecticut section that I thought I'd bring to your attention -- I'd have missed it if I hadn't been visiting relatives there. "When TV Makes Your Diner Shine." It's about the impact that Guy Fieri's show has had on several Connecticut diner-type places. The impact is huge.

Nakji, what's the size of a package where you are? Pound, half kilo, something else?

How do you all compute pasta serving sizes?

But it can't be the case that the rest of the world is gripped by epidemics resulting from unrefrigerated eggs. And while I could believe that the eggs in a place like Switzerland are so clean they don't require refrigeration, whereas American eggs are not nearly as hygienic, it's hard for me to believe that about, say, China.

In the US we refrigerate our eggs. Refrigeration of eggs is so ingrained in our culture that if a carton of eggs gets left out of the refrigerator for an hour a lot of Americans will throw it in the trash. Yet, in many countries around the world -- perhaps most of the world -- eggs are not refrigerated. They're left on the kitchen counter. I'm interested in any scientific evidence one way or the other on this cultural difference. Are Americcans crazy to refrigerate eggs, or could the rest of the world improve its lot by refrigerating eggs?

I think for a waiter a waiter's corkscrew is great, but the virtue of carry-on-person portability is much less at home. And no matter how well-made a waiter's corkscrew is, you need pretty good leverage to get corks out with it.

Glenn Collins has a piece in the New York Times today discussing some of the surprise results of the city's recently adopted letter-grading system for restaurant health inspections. The premise of the story is that the fancy restaurants are not doing as well as the greasy spoons. Corton, Daniel, Le Bernardin, Esca, Le Cirque... are all facing possible low grades, while 60% of restaurants on the whole, including plenty of little dives, are getting A grades. "...owners of high-end establishments complain that the system does not take their size or complexity into account." That certainly would seem to be the case.

I bet they have great customer service, a la Harry & David. These places that sell mediocre food products tend to survive on corporate gift-giving revenue and the administrative assistants placed in charge of those efforts really appreciate the companies that make it easy.

I'm trying to see it from the perspective of someone who thinks salt is pure evil. But even if I step into those shoes, I can't make the argument work. They're still selling salt, just not fancy salt? I also think sometimes when you have a more premium grade of product people will use less of it.

I'm not going to speculate as to motive -- that way lies madness -- but I found the argument weak.

At my mother-in-law's house this past weekend, I was flipping through a Penzeys catalog from a couple of months back. On the page listing the salts, I found this message: I've got to say, I find his reasoning -- such as it is -- unpersuasive. He's still going to sell regular salt but not fancy salt? This is somehow going to improve people's health? Not to mention, salt is only an issue for one segment of the population. I don't get it.

After reviewing most of these answers, doing some Googling, and comparing all that to availability at the stores we had access to on the way to our friends' place, we decided on: - Chocolate-covered almonds. It seems there are several traditional housewarming gifts, e.g., sugar, honey, that are in the category of "something sweet." - Candles. We got a hurricane-type glass and used it to present the chocolate-covered almonds. When the almonds are gone the glass holds votives. Candles popped up as traditional housewarming gifts in many cultures. - Salt. This seemed de rigueur in all the literature. We got some nice Mediterranean sea salt in a grinder. - Bread. Ditto. Got a couple of nice artisan loaves. - A pineapple. Because it just felt right. And we took them out for dinner.

I think most things have improved and some have worsened. Availability of ingredients, in all but the most war-torn lands, is a slam dunk in favor of the present. Quality of ingredients is mostly in favor of the present, but there are some key categories of ingredients that used to taste better especially at the mass-market level in the US (e.g., beef, pork). Written information is vastly better now than ever before, as is multimedia. Information handed down through families is weaker now than in the past, though it may be rebounding. If we break the question into all its components I think we can find out the parts of the answer.

Eataly isn't a restaurant as such. Within Eataly are several foodservice and retail areas, including one restaurant, Manzo, where you can make reservations, and several other no-reservations restaurants like the pizza-and-pasta place. I think a visit to Eataly is an absolute must for current food cultural literacy in New York City but I don't necessarily think you have to eat at any of the restaurants.

Isn't there some tradition in which you give a pineapple?

In my culture (European-derived American-Jewish) we have a tradition of giving bread, salt and wine as a housewarming gift: Bread so you'll never go hungry Salt so you'll have good luck Wine so you'll never be thirsty I believe it's derived from a German custom, and I know variants are in play all around. What are some other housewarming food gifts you all know about? Or great ideas? Some of our closest family-like friends just moved into a new house and we're heading there soon.

I think your friends may be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the sparkling wines from Franciacorta (Italy). Many think they are competitive with good Champagne. These are not at all like cheap Prosecco. They are serious.