therese

Schilo's one of my favorites. I ate there twice on my last visit. And La Fogata is where my SA in-laws take us for Tex-Mex when we're not downtown.

Yep, they're all a pain the @ss to shell: crowder, field, zipper, whatever. As they mature the pods get much thinner walled and papery, and then they are pretty easy to shell, but then the peas aren't as young and tender. And where I buy them you have to buy an entire bushel if you want them shelled. I very seriously considered doing so on Sunday, as I'm serving zipper peas today for the 4th, dinner for a dozen. Fortunately I've got a 12 year old daughter with nimble fingers and strong fingernails who devoted much of Sunday afternoon to shelling zipper peas for me. I'm cooking them now, and will serve them as a salad containing country ham, sauteed Vidalia onions, and apple cider vinaigrette. Great blog, and great topic: you're lucky to live someplace that offers so much great local food.

And here's a not particularly great photo of pan/paan from a local restaurant here in Atlanta (Madras Saravana Bhavan). These come wrapped in foil, and are sold at the counter. They're often sold out, so I assume they're made off site, but are clearly pretty fresh. There's no size reference in the photo, but the triangle's about 2" (5 cm) per side. These are sweet, and I like them that way.

Since the pan maker (walla) is making them on the spot you can just tell him that you'd like it less sweet and he should be able to accomodate you.

My husband's family is from San Antonio and they don't frequent Mi Tierra except for baked goods and sweets for take away. If you really want to sample the kitsch interior you can order sweets at the counter and order coffee to accompany them at a table. My favorites are the naranja and leche quemado. When they do want Tex-Mex downtown they go to Casa Rio on the Riverwalk, where they've been going since they were kids (so soon after it opened, in the 1940s). On my last visit (for a conference at a hotel on the Riverwalk) it was very good (well, the tamales were good---I can't really vouch for anything else) and very inexpensive. And we sat right on the water, so very nice ambience.

No dessert? I've not been in several years (it's on the other side of town) but seriously doubt that the "no dessert" thing is the norm. Most likely an issue with staffing due to summer holidays or something. It is a cool space, located right on the Chattahoochee. The space was originally a sort of social hall/dance club from way, way back. Generally a very good reputation and a popular option for business entertaining, though I recall it being a bit loud. The present chef's been there a couple of years, taking over for a guy who'd been there for quite a while and left to open his place. One of the few upmarket restaurant kitchens in Atlanta to be run by a female.

The cherries sound great as a sub for the raspberries. I agree, store-bought raspberries are good for garnish and that's about it, so I use raspberry liqueur instead. You could make the panna cotta either raspberry or almond-flavored to contrast with the peaches. Has anybody mentioned rice pudding yet? You could make a slow cooker version of rice pudding to go with the macerated peaches. I do this with fresh cherries as well.

Peel and macerate with some sort of liqueur (something raspberry is nice, and melba-esque) and serve with ice cream, or as a filling for crepes. Almond's also a nice combo with peaches: peel, slice in half, remove pit and replace with marzipan, plate in some groovy way. I never cook fresh peaches, by the way, but if you feel really compelled to do so you can make a sort of cobbler on the stove stop, steaming the dumplings on the surface of the hot fruit.

Grenadine is (usually) pomegranate syrup and gets its red color and tart flavor from pomegranate (though of course commercial products may have added food coloring). Using grenadine would add sugar and pomegranate flavor to the cake.

Red Velvet Cake was featured in "Steel Magnolias"? I didn't notice, but that was most likely because Red Velvet Cake's been a favorite in these parts (and every other place in the southeast that I've lived) as long as I can remember. Red Velvet Cake's one of my very favorites: moist, nice sweet/sour balance. Cream cheese frosting crucial.

The largest concentration of "odd cats" was to be found on Dundas. I'm used to the homeless caging money, but nothing else: it's been a while since I've heard "hey, baby." Anyway, the bad news is that I ended up working straight through dinner on Friday night. Worse news is that dinner Saturday was actually worse than expected (and my expectations were clearly not high): lobster bisque too salty and New York strip ordered rare but cooked well done. The waiter did inquire as to whether there was something wrong with the nearly untouched meat, but only after the others (who'd mostly ordered salmon from the limited menu) had finished, and in any case I wasn't excited enough at the prospect of eating any of the food to put him to the trouble of returning to the kitchen. Sorbet for dessert was unexceptional. I did have a great view, looking out from the second floor dining room at the water feature in the Toronto Sculpture Garden as well as St. James Cathedral. And the company was pleasant. Bad weather in Atlanta cancelled my return flight homeSunday, so I dined (and slept) at the Sheraton that's attached to the airport: smoked meat reuben (very fatty, but then it's probably supposed to be) with green salad (greens a bit wilted, which they're definitely not supposed to be). Oh well, next time.

Thanks for the tips. I'll report back.

Okay, more info needed. My dinner date for Friday (an old ex-pat friend who lives in Toronto) is unexpectedly away for the weekend, so now I need something to eat/do that evening. I'm staying near the intersection of Queen and Jarvis. I'm assuming the neighborhood's okay for walking around in the evening (and apparently Gay Pride's on at the moment, so presumably plenty of people out and about). So, single female of indeterminate age. Bar or communal dining setting fine.

Some helpful information from locals in this thread. Scroll down to the last few threads to see what we thought of the various places we ate (including St. John Bread & Wine, New Tayyab, Rules, and several others). We ate at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's on a previous visit, and very much enjoyed it (lunch, a lovely experience) and Veeraswamy (upmarket Indian, not really all that exciting IMO).

It's my host (a Torontan) who has picked the restaurant, so it was too late at the outset. In any case it looks to be a pleasant venue, and sometimes dinner isn't about the food.

Dinner this weekend in Toronto. We're booked at La Maquette, where the web site looks okay, not spectacular (though pretty spendy). I'm not sure how many we'll be, so if it's a large enough party we'll likely be choosing from a limited prix fixe. Any info one way or the other?

I'm inclined to offer ice cream rather than chocolate (or, god forbid, both), as it seems like the appropriate thing to follow pizza.

Certainly not if one's walked across the bridge wearing a jacket. In any case the music on the River Cafe web site was driving me a wee bit crazy.

So that's where Arthur Ave is. Sounds, um, heavy.

Ah, so no concentration of commercial enterprises there at the ferry terminal that merits attention. Good information. We're also considering walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. Anywhere close to the Brooklyn end that's worth a visit?

Indian one of our favorites, so suggestions along those lines welcome Two other destinations for which I need food: 1. Bronx Zoo 2. Staten Island

Bookmarked as suggested. Cool site. Great suggestions. Does Flushing actually have an identifiable Chinatown? How does it compare to Chinatown in Manhattan?

Not to worry---we're young (well, relatively) and fit, and like walking. I walk faster than most people (faster than just about everybody in Manhattan on our last visit) and my crew's pretty good about keeping up with me now that their legs are long enough, particularly if there's food at the other end of the journey. Al di La sounds great.

Yep. New York Hall of Science is in Flushing Meadows Park (so subway 7 line to 111th St). So locations along the 7 line ideal for lunch on our ways there. What are ethnic strengths of the various areas? I did see a mention of an Italian place, Sapori d'Ischia, in Woodside in the "best of" Italian thread. Are any of these neighborhoods good for dim sum?

I was thinking about the the New York Botanical Garden, located in the Bronx, but it turns out that it features a Chihuly installation in August. The same (well, similar) installation was here at the Atlanta Botanical Garden recently, so that's not as much of a draw. So the Brooklyn Botanic Garden seems like a very reasonable option, assuming, of course, that the food in the area is worth the trouble. Cock's sounds interesting, if a tad on the starchy side. What's the ethnic flavor in the surrounding neighborhoods?