Sandra Levine

This one is the best.

Even if it's legal, it strikes me as mean-spirited on the part of the restaurant owners, who can certainly afford the price of a meal at Petrus more easily than the front of the house staff can.

He said that the staff wanted to take responsibility as a team for the sommelier's mistake. The mistake was not pointing to the wine on the winelist and with his finger, bringing the price to the attention of the customer, as is the practice of the restaurant. The assistant sommelier was inexperienced.

The maitre d' told us when we were there a couple of weeks ago that the "complementary" meal would be paid for by the restaurant's staff.

You missed it.

Whew!

This is my family's favorite pumpkin pie. It's very custardy and rich, not at all like sweet potato pie (not that there is anything wrong with sweet potato pie.) Rum or bourbon can be used rather than cognac, if you prefer.

What would you do if this happened to you?

I'm a little puzzled. A friend just called Petrus and was told that the restaurant does not carry and has never carried the wine is question. The sommelier says they do not and have never stocked tha 66 Ch. Margaux. They stock the 97,83,82 47. The 97 is £325 and the 82 is £1100.

A recipe called Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting or something like that, (it was ganache made with sour cream rather than sweet cream) appeared in the McCall's cookbook in the early 1960s using the melted chocolate technique. I made it, liked it and used the same technique with sweet, heavy cream. From my own files: Chocolate Sour Cream Frosting 9 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped ¾ cup sour cream Melt chocolate, add sour cream and dash of salt. Beat till creamy and spreadable. (for a 9” round + filling To what extent this corresponds to the original recipe I cited above, I can't be sure, since I no longer have that cookbook, but I know for certain that it used melted chocolate.

I don't have a link. That's the way I learned to do it, many years ago. Only in recent years did I learn it was "wrong."

Just like home cooks do! (except for the glucose or trimolene.)

Chestnuts, Onions and Prunes

I recently bought this one, and it immediately became my favorite pan. It is the first copper pan I've ever owned. My other "good" pots and pans are mostly All-Clad, which I like very much, although I've always wished that they had a curved edge to facilitate pouring. Last year, Williams-Sonoma had a major close-out on Bourgeat when they decided to stop carrying the line. A pan very similar to the Falk Culinair could be had for about the same price, but I hesitated and lost. I am very glad to have found a worthy substitute. (There is something about that Bourgeat finish, however...) Thanks, Sam, for your advice

How did you shape them?

Rochelle, did you refrigerate the shaped ruggies before baking?

I should have said "something they called Veal Marengo" because, believe me, it bore no resemblance to the original.

Cooper Hall was where we had our meals, at Douglass, the women's college of Rutgers. For my first two years, all three meals were served by student waiters (a work-study job.) By my junior year, breakfast and lunch were served cafeteria-style. Everyone had to take the meal plan and there were no appliances of any kind in anyone's dorm room, except for maybe an immersion heater. Before sitting down, there was a sung grace, led by a music major, standing on a chair at one end of the long dining room. THIS WAS AT A STATE UNIVERSITY!!! (It may have been only on special occasions.) Skirts, rather than pants, were required at dinner. While jeans and other pants were permitted at breakfast and lunch, you were not allowed to enter Cooper at any time in riding clothes. Students were known to stash skirts in hidden corners, roll up their pants and slip the skirt over them in order to be seated at dinner. The food. Lots of mystery meat, most memorable of which was something called Veal Marengo that had olives strewn about. Dessert was always something like rice pudding or squares of cake that they somehow baked stale straight out of the oven. The breakfast of oatmeal, biscuits and bacon, however, was good enough to get me out of bed early enough to eat it whenever it was on the menu. The night before any school break we were usually served an acceptable roast beef dinner, so that when we could answer, "roast beef" to the question, "What did you have for dinner last night?" the parents would feel that they were getting their money's worth. Douglass was adjacent to the Ag School (now Cook College, which specializies in environmental education,) where there was a plentitude of ice cream. It's hard to believe that all this happened as recently as the mid 1960s.

I'm grateful to Starbucks for providing some of the few public toilets in New York City. I understand that they serve coffee, too.

A citrus-scented candle allowed to burn for about 20 minutes after the fish is done takes care of the smell.

Rosa Mexicano was on Second Avenue, near 59th Street at least 20 years ago.

Stock is also much more heavily reduced than broth.

What a fun thread! Neither one of us ate very much at the reception, which was in the afternoon. We came back to New York and spent the night at the Plaza Hotel, after having had dinner in Chinatown at the late, lamented, Say Eng Look at Chatham Square. I'm sure that one dish would have been fish in seaweed.

sandra, do you think it will be hard to get in? or do you think the quality will take a dive. Both

I hope that everyone who wanted to go to Union Pacific has already gone.