Holly Moore

Try eating those raw onion sandwiches with Maine Lobster. It's a wonderful accompaniment.

Who the Hell is the Stephen Shaw cat? The authorship should be credited to Fat Guy!!!

Holly's and mine are, I believe, identical. Except she butters the outside of her sandwich before making it and I, after. And you're right. They're great. HE (Holly) is also too lazy to boil the corned beef himself except on those rare occasions when he craves a New England Boiled Dinner. But then there is never enough corned beef left to attempt a Reuben.

There are two Reuben's. Open faced and closed. As my definition of a sandwich is something eaten with one's hands as opposed to a knife and fork, here's how to make a Reuben: Butter one side each of two slices of rye bread and place the buttered side face down on a cutting board. On one slice of bread add thousand island dressing, swiss cheese and drained sauerkraut. On the other slice, more thousand island dressing (personal preference) and the corned beef (if you buy it sliced it's already cooked). Fold the two halves together, give it a press to condense it. Then onto a griddle, cast iron skillet or frying pan. Cook on one side until toasty brown, flip and do the same on the other side. Little Pete's at Latimer and 17th in Philadelphia makes the greasiest, best Rueben I've had.

As I recall, McDonald's 86'd the deep fried pies because fresh out of the fryer the sugar filling was dangerously hot - too many law suits.

Back when I was working new products for Dunkin Donuts I came up with the idea of a premium jelly donut, one that was filled with quality preserves as opposed to the cheap ultra-sweet jelly that Dunkin' and everyone else was using and still uses. I felt and still feel it would have given Dunkin' Donuts a unique product and most importantly it would have traded up some jelly donut purchasers to a better, more expensive product. Easiest way for any business to increase sales is to get its existing customers to spend more. Got shot down by the operations and the marketing departments. Probably one of the reasons I left with wonderfully shallow world of corporate thinking. As to the yeast issue - As I remeber, Dunkin uses a mix that includes the yeast within the mix. If KrispyKreme adds fresh yeast to the mix at time of preparation, they are doing it differently and I suspect the live yeast would result in greater leavening than yeast incorporated into a mix. The wonderful thing about working corporately at Dunkin Donuts is that they kept their break room well stocked with fresh donuts and fresh coffee. Got french crullers fresh out of the fryer every morning. Those were the days...

What makes KrispyKreme special is the conveyor belt in many stores that runs right past the customer service area. When donuts are in production, the server grabs the piping hot donuts right off the conveyor belt - resulting in a super fresh, warm donut. Once cooled off, they are not as good as Dunkin Donuts.

This is refreshing. A thread that's mostly pro Jack McDavid. In Philadelphia, Jack McDavid is like "Moxie" (a uniquely flavored soft drink found mainly in Maine). You either love him or you hate him. The "foodies" hereabouts tend to hate him - they can't get beyond the hog-jowl soup on Jack's menu. One Philadelphia columnist panned Jack's pulled pork in a column on a Wednesday. That Sunday Jack's pulled pork took first place at the North Carolina Barbecue Festival. I've eaten there on a number of occasions. It's my showoff restaurant when I'm dragging visitors about. Jack's Firehouse has never let me down. I tend to tell the kitchen to send what they want, and we get a great taste of the menu. Just about everything comes from the region. Some of the growers sell only to Jack and Jack has started farming his own fish and produce too. I was there one time when a farmer stopped by with a van full of strawberries. The guy who was supposed to buy them bailed out and he was stuck. Jack took the whole van load just to help out the farmer. He does that a lot. There was a time - alas no longer thanks to some rat finks who tipped off local authorites - the Firehouse basement resembled Sweeny Todd's. Talk about fresh. Jack once sent me out a plate of extremely fresh sauteed goats brains. Had to tip the waiter megabucks to get the brains to the dumpster without Jack knowing - brains are about the only part of the anatomy that I can not abide. My loss I'm sure, but... Back when I was writing my column he was my hole card. Whenever I was stuck for a topic, I'd call Jack. We'd chat for a bit. And before I knew it I had a column. My favorite was when I took him on about Red Eye gravy. His is cream based. I called a number of deep south places to get their recipes - and their comments on a cream based red eye gravy. Jack stopped taking my calls for a while. Here's a link to Jack McDavid in action, at the Blue Ridge BBQ Festival in North Carolina: Jack Going Whole Hog

Alas, no Wiz at Dalessendro's either. Still a very good sandwich though. As is Chubby's across the street fromDalessandro's. But Steve's Prince of Steaks rules.

Holly, based on my limited knowledge of statistics the .0065 percent is not the relevant number. When public opinion polls are taken in this nation of 300,000,000 people there are typically 1,200 people polled. That's .0004 percent (I think -- someone check my math; I did it in my head), yet if the sample group is carefully chosen to be representative of the whole population then polls are quite reliable at determining the statistical likelihood of what the entire population would answer if asked the same questions as the sample group. Even if you cut that big number down to be only registered voters or whatever, the percentage of the sample size versus the total is insignificant. The real question is, what is the value of asking more people the same question? Are you likely to get substantially different answers if you keep asking? At some point you say no, we're pretty much within the margin of error that a rational person would consider acceptable. Odds are that your limited knowledge of statistics is surpassed only by my limited knowledge of statistics, but I suggest that comparing potential voters to restaurant meals is akin to comparing apples to antelopes. Voters, especially those from the vast silent majority, are far less complex and far more predictable than a restaurant meal. There are so many things that can go wrong in a restaurant and many of them, once they occur, like the first domino in a long chain, set off a dynamic reaction that turns an evening's meal turnout into a disaster. True, one measure of a restaurant is how it handles these disasters, how well it maintains it's consistency, but every restaurant has had nights, probably too many nights, where they praise the Lord the reviewer from the Times was dining elsewhere. Some of these things that go wrong can impact a restaurant for a week. Or a month or more. Best example is a chef storming out of the kitchen on a Friday night. So let's say a reviewer hits the place that weekend. Comes back a couple of weeks later. No new chef has been hired, the sous chef is doing his best, but the food is maybe 85 percent there. That's two dinners. The reviewer does the write up. Gives the place a B- in whatever pictograph he's chosen to instantly communicate his impression, and moves on. A few weeks later a great new chef is found, or the sous chef comes of age, and the food is back at 100 percent. Only problem is, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of reviewable restaurant and that hapless restaurant is branded with a B- for five or more years until a new writer has taken over the reviewer's job and returns to that restaurant. If the reviewer is from some apartment complex's newsletter, it's not that serious. If he's from the Times - the restaurant is way up the creek. It wouldn't be all that bad if the public took restaurant reviews with a few grains of salt. But alas, as goes a major reviewer, so goes a majority of his readers - those that read the pictograph rating and move on to the TV schedule and the few that actually read the entire column. I've said before that I'm not a fan of negative restaurant reviews. In Philadelphia, much less New York City, there are far too many good dining experiences to squander column inches on bad ones. The bad ones die out soon enough.

In last Sunday's Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, Inquirer restaurant reviewer Craig Laban tagged along with four high school seniors on their quest for the best Cheesesteak in the Delaware Valley. The Ultimate Cheesesteak The group settled on the cheesesteak from John's Roast Pork, located in an industrial area of South Philly. Been there since 1930. Embarrassingly, I had driven by John's a hundred times and while curious, never stopped. They always seemed closed. Their hours are Monday thru Friday, 6:45 AM to 3 PM, so they probably were closed when I happened by. Today, the line was out the door at 2:30 in the afternoon. Yeah, I had to try it. The wait was 45 minutes. Despite their new found fame and pressure, they were still cooking steaks to order. Give them a lot of credit for that. I'm willing to bet that the steak I tried today, in the midst of the frenzy, was pretty much the same steak as Laban's hood ate during the testing. Anyway, the do serve a great cheesesteak and an even better pork sandwich. The cheesesteak is on seeded Italian bread from a local South Philly baker, the portion of sliced rib steak is huge and it has twice as much cheese as a typical cheese steak - incredibly a bit too much cheese for my taste. Never thought I'd say that about anything. For now though, I still rate Steve's, Prince of Steaks number one, and John's Roast Pork and Dalessandro's as tied for second.

I'd trust a good impression more than a bad one with just a single experience. In the case of a bad experience it would depend on the degree. One time had a server chase me out of a restaurant because he didn't like the size of the tip (it was fine). I called/wrote the owner and he never got back to me. That time I formed an opinion and have stuck to it. It probably also depends on how many people you get to tell. If one has a column or writes reviews, two visits is a bare minimum, three or four is fairer though not really all that representative. I think I've done the math here before - a restaurant is open for lunch and dinner six days a week, averages 100 covers per meal. It serves 200 meals a day, 1200 meals a week, 62,000 meals a year. A critic with a dining companion visits a restaurant twice before reviewing it. That means the critic has experienced 4/62.000 or .0065 percent of a restaurant's yearly output. Hardly seems fair to declare one's impression to a few hundred thousand or million readers on such a small sampling.

Pie, baked in a pie pan, though I can't be sure it was called a pie pan before there was pie.

At wholesale an 8 count Usingers Certified Angus Hot Dog, including refrigerated shipping from Milwaukee (minimum order 1000 lbs, can be combined with other products), costs $.33 each. A 4 count dog, similar conditions/specs, runs $.64 each. I wouldn't listen to the Sabrett Supplier, he's off on shipping cost by a decimal point or two, at least from Milwaukee to Philadelphia. Guess he wants you to buy Sabrett. Any other questions?

Just when I was up to my navel in pinto beans and seeking purpose, your post has rekindled my spirit. If HollyEats.Com can get one person, just one person, to overcome his fear, drive on, and eat a deep fried Oreo, it has all been worthwhile.

Back to fair food. One of the best fairs for eating, and it's not even a state fair, is the Bloomsburg Fair in Bloomsburg PA, happens in Mid September. The Bloomsburg Fair But there's good eating to be had at any State Fair. Best bet are the buffets set up by the local church groups, fire auxillaries and growers associations. Also regional and specialties, like pork tenderloin at the Indianna State Fair, Turkey Legs at the Iowa State Fair and Giant Cream Puffs at the Wisconsin State Fair. But Bloomsburg is the one to eat and it's a reasonable day trip from NY or Philadlephia.

My World Famous, Award Winning Chili, first served in 1979 at Holly Moore's Upstairs Cafe and so popular that customers would climb the steps three at a time in fear we would run out, is based on the original Chasen's recipe, but craftfully embellished. I like chili with beans. I like chili without beans. But Chasen's used beans, so we used beans. Besides, it kept the food cost down.

Yes. Genuine, dried pinto beans. I just don't admit to that when in Texas.

I was recently called upon to prepare my World Famous, Prize Winning Chili. I got as far as soaking and tenderizing 4 pounds of pinto beans when the ungrateful louts canceled the event. I could go ahead and prepare my World Famous, Prizing Winning Chili and freeze what can not be eaten within a reason period of time, but I'm not sure my World Famous Prize Winning Chili would remain World Famous or Prize Winning if I chose that route. I could just toss the pinto beans, but that doesn't seem the eGullet way. I could freeze the pinto beans. Has anyone done this. Is this the best way to preserve them until I am next called upon to prepare my World Famous, Prize Winning Chili? Or what else can someone do with a stockpot 2/3 full of pinto beans.

Nah, not New York. But if you're driving through Philadelphia next spring.....

The other option is that he doesn't understand the product. But my guess is that: 1. Danny Meyer heard Usingers made the best hot dog, which they do, so he is using them. 2. He is steaming / seeping them either because it is the NY Cart way of doing hot dogs or because actual Chicago hot dogs are boiled (they don't use Usingers in Chicago). 3. He is seasoning the water (totally unnecessary for a Usingers hot dog as their dogs have so much flavor in themselves and are already packed with garlic) because he needed to make the plain old hot dog a "Union Square Dog." He wanted to both create some PR points of difference and he hoped such slight-of-hand would meet customer expectations that a Union Square Dog will be "gourmet" - better than the others. My reaction to Danny Meyer's approach to a hot dog is the same as when some Philadelphia chef makes a cheese steak with prime rib eye and two year aged cheeze wiz, or a place in Maine uses remoulade sauce instead of mayonnaise on a lobster roller. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. So, you ask, how would I have approached putting out a top quality dog from a cart in New York. I'd use Usinger's dog, but grill it. Judging by Nathans, Papaya King and Gray's that isn't a novel concept for NY and carts can be set up with grills. I'd fly in New England style hot dog buns. And I'd upscale the condiments - make my own mustard, relish and such. My goal would be a great, if not the best, New York style hot dog, not an over-embellished Chicago Dog.

Usinger's hot dogs must be grilled. Boiling/seeping them is the eighth deadly sin. Might as well boil an aged ribeye. Beyond that, there is so much spice/flavor in an Usinger's dog that adding herbs and such to the cooking water is a joke. This is an example of a restaurant owner feeling he has to embellish upon perfection for reasons of PR and ego. Still, it is evidently for a good cause.

The Moore family always split the live lobster in half and broiled broiled them. It is a different flavor from steamed or boiled lobster. Having had lobster that way all through my formative years I think it's still my preference. I once had dinner at the Old Original Bookbinders with the head of some national seafood pruveryors' association. He clued me into a half and half - half steamed or boiled and then finished off under a broiler. That was awfully good too.

Steven - If you are speaking solely of Cabralas, I can't disagree, as it is up to her to decide. If you are making a general observation I must disagree. While some diners are better served by developing cooking skills, I know of two instances where the acquistion of those skills has made said diners intolerable as diner companions. One case was a former Philadelphia food writer / critic. His criteria for judging a chef's worthiness was whether a chef's kitchen could prepare a dish at least as good as the food writer could in his home kitchen. The other was a friend who went from zero cooking knowledge to what he considered total knowledge. He was always happy to share his knowledge with a chef who blundered over to our table. Happily the chef always took it in good humor when this helpful guy passed on Cooking 101 techniques to the chef. Some people are better off if they limit their food knowledge to reading the menu, chewing and swallowing.

It is the squeeze bottle that should be banned. Detracts from the "whole-ketchup" experience. Like a screw cap on a bottle of wine. Takes away the ritual. Makes it too easy. As Heinz has said, it is all in the "anticipation" - those character building moments when the food is sitting in front of you screaming to be consumed but the ketchup has yet to have left the bottle.