Fat Guy

Another view of the glorious (and exceptionally tasteful) Mike Mills sauce fountain:

eG Features director of operations, Dave Scantland, with Blue Smoke's carved watermelon.

Our son PJ enjoys some barbecue.

Not bad at 11am but now they're long if you don't have a FastPass. Moving well though.

<a href=" title="0613091142c.JPG by steven_a_shaw, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3340/3621686415_1281fb4991.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="0613091142c.JPG" /></a> You thought you loved chocolate fondue? Behold Mike Mills's St. Louis Red sauce.

The Society is pleased to welcome Vino Mundo as an eG Ethics code signatory. Vino Mundo is the blog of Christian Staples, a self-described "lawyer obsessed with food and wine." Welcome!

Tablet is a new online magazine focusing on Jewish issues. Mimi Sheraton, former New York Times restaurant critic and author of millions of food books and articles, is writing a food column for Tablet. Her first column is here, for those who are interested.

The Society is pleased to welcome Aidan Brooks, Trainee Chef as an eG Ethics code signatory. Aidan Brooks, aka "Trig", is a 21-year-old chef-trainee from the East End of London. He's currently living in Spain, training at several top restaurants. Last year he was at Comerç 24 in Barcelona. He just finished a two-month stage at Lasarte and is now at Hotel Ferrero in Valencia. Who knows where Aidan will go next? Welcome!

The Society is pleased to welcome Oui, Chef as an eG Ethics code signatory. The Oui, Chef blog is written by Steve Dunn, a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu and several other programs. In his blog, Steve chronicles the adventure of teaching his kids how to cook. Welcome!

The Society is pleased to welcome Docsconz - The Blog as an eG Ethics code signatory. The Docsconz blog is written by John Sconzo, who lives in upstate New York but writes about the whole world of food, wine and dining. John, a long-time eGullet Society volunteer, is now a member of the emeritus staff. Welcome!

This is one of my favorite food subjects. For portability it's essential to use either a scrambled egg or a broken-yolk fried egg. There are a lot of gradations of broken-yolk fried eggs, ranging from pretty-much-scrambled-on-the-griddle to just-pricked-a-little. I prefer the latter, cooked to the point where the yolk just gels up enough not to be runny. I make one of these sandwiches for our son about three times a week as a breakfast to be eaten on the commute to school. The tradition calls for a kaiser roll but a few years ago I was inspired by the use of Martin's Potato Rolls for chopped barbecue sandwiches at the Big Apple Barbecue, and so I've been using Martin's Potato Rolls for egg sandwiches. One egg, punctured yolk, fried in butter, Martin's Potato Roll, salt and pepper. That's the whole sandwich. I personally don't favor cheese on an egg sandwich. I think of an egg sandwich with cheese as the equivalent of full-cream ice cream like Ben & Jerry's, whereas the no-cheese sandwich is more like gelato. In my opinion gelato is better. Bacon, ham and sausage are another story. I like those fine on an egg sandwich, but you're talking about a major increase in labor and mess. In a deli setting, you have a ton of cooked bacon standing by for use in sandwiches. But if you have to get out the door, meats are not really convenient. Plus the minimalist egg sandwich is quite satisfying on its own. Or at least two of them are. Runny-yolk egg sandwiches are wonderful but not portable. The best one I ever had was at a deli in Westchester where the roll was not sliced in half but, rather, cut into on one side so as to create a pocket. Into the pocket went the runny-yolk egg (and bacon). Superb, and portable enough to eat on premises with the aid of a foil wrapper, but not portable enough to throw into your briefcase and eat on the subway. Also, non-portable egg sandwiches don't benefit from the steaming-in-foil effect of portable ones. A while back, we took a road trip and I packed the standard egg sandwich. It didn't get eaten, and was left in the car overnight. It was cool enough out that I wasn't worried about food safety. So I ate it the next morning. It was pretty good.

The book has arrived! I just received a copy from the publisher. I'm not sure of the actual release schedule but will keep you all posted.

One big advantage of overbowling, I find, is that you drop less stuff, especially when it's a dish that needs to be tossed, stirred, etc.

I had no idea there was a corpus of overbowling wisdom out there.

I think her position is that overbowling is chronic in the industry.

I think my wife, Ellen, may have invented a new word. I was serving dinner in bowls and she scolded me for using bowls too large for the small amount of food placed in them. "You overbowl," she accused. It's true. I tend to use a big bowl for a little food. Or a bigger bowl for a lot of food. In any event, I gravitate toward bowl sizes where there will be a lot of bowl for a little food. Do you overbowl? Or, conversely, do you underbowl? Why? What drives us to choose the bowls we choose?

The marketing people at Gourmet magazine are launching a Facebook-like social-networking service. http://www.gourmetretailer.com/gourmetreta...2c68aec810ec2c5 I wonder if there's room for something like this, and what if anything it can accomplish that the established services can't.

The Society is pleased to welcome An Olive Tree Grows in Manhattan as an eG Ethics code signatory. According to the "about" page, an Olive Tree Grows in Manhattan "is written by Laura Sampedro, an enthusiastic home cook that loves her day job but really wishes she could stay home and cook all day. Laura was born outside Washington, D.C. to two Spanish parents whose culinary influence informs her cooking to this day. She created this blog to document and share with other food enthusiasts her daily experiments, triumphs, and failures in the kitchen." Welcome!

The Society is pleased to welcome Gluten a Go Go as an eG Ethics code signatory. Gluten a Go Go is, as you might imagine, a gluten-free food blog. It is written by Natalie Hausmann aka "Sheltie Girl." Gluten a Go Go is winner of a Hope award and is a WEGO Health recommended blog. Welcome!

The Society is pleased to welcome So Good: Food & Wine with Heather Johnston as an eG Ethics code signatory. So Good is a video, recipe and wine blog for the home cook written by Heather Johnston, who describes herself as "a chef, wine professional, mother, wife and indie filmmaker." Welcome!

Richman on Grimaldi's, Patsy's and Di Fara. Specifically on Di Fara:

More like mochi, though Annette kept saying we didn't get the texture right so for all I know it was supposed to be like dim sum. That was the rice Benjie and Annette picked, and by the way it was fantastic. I may have to switch to it as my house brand. I'm not sure there was any actual Filipino rice available in Chinatown. Or if there was I guess Benjie and Annette just like this stuff better.

The Society is pleased to welcome The Cocktail Revolution as an eG Ethics code signatory. Cocktail Revolution is written by Jeff Fulcher, a Washington, DC-based media professional and cocktail aficionado. As described on the "about" page: "The Cocktail Revolution is an exploration of the good life and an argument for the freedoms necessary to find it. Here you’ll find discussions on cocktails intermingled with ramblings on politics, movies, music, DC social life, and any of the other weird stories that make us happy to be free and alive." Welcome!

Some updates to the cast of characters, both to specify who they are and because my guesses at spellings were wrong in most cases: Annette Tomei. According to the FCI website, "After graduating from The FCI in 1994, Chef Annette ran a chalet and owned a café in a Utah ski resort, was Executive Chef of a Napa Valley winery, and ran a private chef service catering to the wineries of the Napa Valley area. She has also co-authored Chile Aphrodisia, contributed to Fork Me, Spoon Me: The Sensual Cookbook and earned a Master’s degree in Gastronomy." Annette's co-instructor, Hayley, is one of the Italian cooking instructors at the school. Benjie is Annette's brother-in-law. Raqui (pronounced "Rocky") is Benjie's cousin. Luisa is a family friend. Incidentally, both Annette and Ana have reported on the class on their blogs, with their own photos and accounts that are surely more reliable than my own. Filipino cooking class report on Wander Eat & Tell Report on Hungry Sofia Part 1 Report on Hungry Sofia Part2

I do love Taconelli's but I'd put it in round two. If the mission is to go to Philadelphia for the stuff that's better than New York, the list is fairly short -- at least based on what I've experienced in Philadelphia thanks to guidance from several Philadelphia-based eG people. If it's more a question of going to Philadelphia to experience a variant of something both cities do well, then the list gets a lot longer and includes Taconelli's and a lot of the other suggestions that have been made on this topic.