Mebutter

No, all food critics aren't pure as driven snow. They're human. But I think the good ones try as hard as they can to remain hands-off and objective and, most of all, anonymous. I work on a weekly basic cooking column with a restaurant chef and occasionally spend a night working in the kitchen of the restaurant to feel the "rhythm" - I do this with the blessing of my newspaper. Before I did, though, I made it clear I would never, ever review anything he did from that point on. Food critics don't spring forth full-grown. Most of us had prior lives and ran across chefs in that capacity. If I review a restaurant where I'm recognized or known, I always tell my readers so they know where I'm coming from. (Some of my compatriots disagree on this, feeling readers think its snotty to mention being recognized or known.) On the whole I go out of my way not to be known or recognized. I think I'm doing a disservice to my readers if the only experience I can report on is what the critic gets instead of what is dished out to the average Joe. And, of course, there's disagreement in the critics community about this. Yet I think the tide has turned, strongly, toward anonymity. I tell people than anyone who shows up in a restaurant and announces he/she is a critic should be shown the door. Either he/she is a fraud or he/she is so compromised the review won't be any good. The Association of Food Journalists has suggested guidelines for critics. (I chaired that committee.) You can read what AFJ has to say by going to: www.afjonline.com.

I try to read the Post food section on-line every week. I think it's a good read and gives people the information they need no matter their level of experience. I always find something new to learn - or learn more about. Steve makes a good point about the Beard awards. I think the awards the Post has won for food testifies not only to the talent of the staff but the Post's ability to "connect" with readers - even contest judges. It's a spark I don't always detect in some of the other food sections I read. Like Steve, I also have to make a disclosure. I have met the Post food editor and Post restaurant critics (Phyllis and Tom) at Association of Food Journalists conferences. I like them. Maybe that's colored my perceptions of the Post's food writing, but I think I'm on solid ground in saying the section is clearly one to watch. (we also used the superb how-to-carve Thanksgiving photo spread in our newspaper.) P.S. I got here via the food media link. Perhaps other replies to Steve's msg can be posted there too???

Wilfred, Thank you very much for offering to do that. With all the warm weather i'm wondering if the run will be earlier this year than usual.

I live in Haddam, just 1/2 mile or so from the Connecticut River. Folks around here think the lower Connecticut River Valley as the place for shad and shad roe. In my town, there's even a "Shad Shack" with such erratic hours that I miss it more often than not. One thing I've always found interesting is many of the fishmongers who bone and sell shad can't stand to eat it. Too many fish in too many hours, I guess. The shad don't seem to start running around here until mid-May. So I'm curious as to where the shad and shad roe some of you are enjoying (the recipes sound great) are coming from. And how do they compare with the Connecticut River shad?

I'm working on a story about premium vodkas made in the United States and was wondering if anyone out there in the ether has any comments to make about them. Are American vodkas all pretty bottles and clever marketing slogans or is there really something to them - something that makes them stand tall with the premium European vodkas out there. Some Connecticut tipplers tell me they think these new USA vodkas are nothing more than a cynical attempt to cash in on the premium vodka vogue going on right now...Any thoughts??? In replying, "real" names would be helpful on this. If you don't want to broadcast your identity in this venue (although I don't know why not, people seem friendly), please feel free to contact me at my e-mail address, daley@courant.com

You could actually control them? I can't tell you how many people think they're doing me a favor eating on the paper's dime. Reporters are the worst - they always cancel at the last minute for a breaking story. Then there's the star-envy thing - why did Lois and Jim get a 4-star and we got a 2 - or which visit do they go on - why are we always the second visit? And, of course, my favorite was Gordon - who ordered a $75 bottle of wine for the table, drank it, and then weaved off to find the maitre d' to order one more. That I haven't killed anyone I've dined with is a miracle.

I just use "my friend, (fill in the name), hated the zucchini." I always feel a little goofy introducing other people into a review but sometimes it can't be helped. So I try to get in and out of it fast and neat and get back to wherever I was going with the review. p.s. I know the hate zucchini example is a bad one. Frankly, I don't care if "my friend, (fill in the name), hated the zucchini." I just want he/she/it to order the zucchini so I can love/hate/dismiss it without the management wondering why the weird guy at Table 45 is surrounded by four vegetable side dishes...

Don't worry. A super duper passion for a Super Duper Weenie has got to be rewarded somehow or there is no justice in the universe.

this is wonderful! I'm getting dizzy from hunger. I've got to get a roadtrip going. I hope, Steve, you find (or have found already) a printed use for your Super Duper description...Great, passionate writing that deserves to be framed and hung proudly over the counter.

Thanks for the info Steve, No I haven't been to Super Duper Weenie but you can believe it's on my list now for that great name alone. I think Jimmy's of Savin Rock uses Hummel's.

I love the traditional Connecticut hot dog, with skins, on a toasted New England-style bun and a single line of mustard. When I was a kid it was a Hummel's hot dog (made in New Haven), but now that I live outside of Middletown (in the middle of the state) the natural casing hotdogs most often encountered are Mucke's (from Hartford) or Grote & Weigel (from Bloomfield). Connecticut's classic hotdogs are a blend of pork and beef, spicier than Boston's dogs but blander than NYC's all-beef. Natural casings, of course, for the snap when you bite down. There are rabid fans of these hotdogs out there. I get more reaxs to a review of a hotdog stand than any other restaurant I visit. The Hummel folks told me once they shipped cases to frank-starved Connecticut snowbirds in Florida every winter.

Call them reviews. People know what the word means. Also, I loved RPerlow's substitution for sublime. I could visualize it in my mind. It would make a good lede.

Don't forget the holy trinity of "tasty" "crispy" "crunchy." I also hate it when reviewers refer to their guests as "my companion," "my other," or - gasp - "my lady." Cute names used ad nauseum sends me off, too.