ned

I found a mess of menus from a pizza and kebob place on first avenue scattered all over the stoop. An idea struck, an inspiration. I called the restaurant, told them about the mess of menus and asked if they wouldn't mind sending someone over to clean the mess up. They were reluctant, I was polite but persistent, and now someone has come and removed the menus. I think this is an excellent solution that should be adopted by as many of the delivered delivery menu afflicted as possible.

Ottomanelli's may not always have the absolute best of the best like Lobel's is said to. . . but I have found myself a loyal customer there for five years now. Their prices are good, the brothers know all a guy would need to know about meat, they have lots of seasonal specialties, foie gras prices are significantly less than elsewhere in the city and they carry "b" as well as "a" lobes. I recently ordered a suckling pig through them. They got it fast, they got a nice small one and it--not that I didn't have a little something to do with it--was fabulous. They sell aged shell and rib steaks. They are also selling that wonderful (sorry if the spelling is wrong) kurabota pig. If one is in the neighborhood (seventh avenue and Bleeker, just around the corner from Florence actually) and needs a butcher, they're worth a try. A note on Florence: their shop is tiny and their selection is not so broad. I don't quibble with the claims about quality.

Mr. Shaw's I told you so notwithstanding, I was at Madison Park early this morning for the little boy's first play session of the day, did a little interrogating and found that the worst case does appear to have come to pass. No more fast passes. Cash it is. I daresay next year we should each buy ten fast passes and scalp them for twice the original price. Early arrival it is then.

Anybody else have anything on this? Is this the regular pass that anybody (who wants to drop a c-note) can buy or the one that you have to have an AMEX gold card for? I've been looking forward to tomorrow. Please don't tell me have to wait in line with the riff raff.

I like to treat the rendering process like I'm making a stock and so when rendering I add mire poix vegetables plus garlic. Then, most often, I roast potatoes in the fat. I throw away the solids. With vegetables in there during the rendering, one must keep a closer eye on the temp to avoid them burning. God knows which fat I'm using. The butcher just gives me a pound or three of fresh fat whenever I buy beef.

And speaking of Danny Meyer, how about Blue Smoke for some vittles that you can't get across the pond. You can bring the kid and they'll have a high chair and you can go any time you want although you should make a reservation. Here's another idea that my wife, son and I employ from time to time. On Broome Street east of Mott on the south side of the street there is a Vietnamese grocery. They sell these incredible sandwiches called Bahn Mi. . . for like three bucks a pop. You can get iced tea there or fresh squeezed sugar cane juice, whatever. Buy the sandwiches, be sure to specify how hot you want them, then walk to Spring and Mulberry, just a three minute walk, and sit in the park. On a nice day, there's nothing better.

So I've been trying to be patient. . . but lately when I look westish on Houston I get a little wistful. It's anticipation but it also has something to do with desire and appetite. Any updates on the when all those gins will be unveiled?

I have a ten month old. Lunch is the best meal with him and it is often at the Shake Shack in Madison Park. It ain't fancy but it is great and the park is fabulous. Not to be missed. We find that restaurants which would otherwise be very difficult with a little one are pretty easy to navigate if you get there just as they open. And even better at the tail end of the lunch service. Prune for example, I wouldn't even think it in the throes of dinner. But if you get there at six just as they open, you'll be in like Flynn. The owner has a newish baby and the entire staff seems to love kids. And of course, the food is excellent.

I say make it easy on yourself. Dredge them in seasoned flour (add salt and pepper to flour), or wondra if you have it. Get grapeseed oil smoking hot in a heavy pan and throw the guys in shell-side down. A minute or so later, flip them. Turn your heat down and add butter. Brown the butter, don't burn it. Pull the crabs about a minute or so later. Squeeze half a lemon in the pan to deglaze and pour that over the crabs on the plate. Lots of people like to actually bread the crabs. I think it takes away from the flavor. Also it's messy. I've never soaked a crab in milk. Don't think it's necessary.

I was taken to the Kittichai last night as sort of a surprise. Their roof bar is stunningly beautiful but the brown three-day-old limes in the mojito weren't. About halfway through dinner a forty-two year old woman in painted on jeans and expensive new breasts dropped her bejeweled purse as she passed by our table. The strap tangled in her seven inch heel as she spun around in circles trying to find a way to pick it up with out bending over. I don't know whether she was afraid of falling or putting the weight of her 85 pound frame on her birdlike ankle. . . anyway all of this was a momentary distraction from the tiny portions of delicious food served in asymmetrical bowls. Don't you hate it when you ask for tap water and the server says in that very particular tone: "Oh, you're ok with tap water?." Greed masked as condescension. "So you're a cheap bastard hunh?" Service is a funny thing. There were no mistakes, food came right on time, the restaurant was jam-packed and running like a top but the vibe from the waitstaff was terrible. Terrible. It was so loud in there I could barely hear myself chew. The loudest contributions to the din were the shrieks of men in shiny business suits with unbottoned shirts and pointy shoes. Reading back through the thread, I don't think the menu has changed much. I concur that the green curry was tasty but it doesn't hold a candle to the one a sri pra. Rack of lamb? I know it's a special kind of Thai place. . . there was black cod and lots of good snacky fried things. I think the clientele and general sort of vibe of this restaurant have disabled Kittichai as a place to go to eat food. More like, they feed you surprisingly well if meagerly while you wait to be the subject of some reportage on Entertainment Tonight.

The restaurant Prune has re-introduced suckling pig to their menu. They accompany it with a bright and acidic combination of cherry tomatoes, shallots, parsley, maybe some other things, oh yeah, chopped gherkins. I think these light fresh flavors contrast wonderfully with the heady milky richness of a young pig.

I was there around two one afternoon with my wife. We both got shack burgers, mine was perfect, my wife's was a little raw in the middle. I took it to the counter and showed it to them, didn't have to say a thing before it was wisked out of my hands a free shake was offered and the grill cook was informed that he'd just served a raw burger. Moments later I walked away with another burger cooked to perfection. They sell a ton of burgers. They are unlikely to get it perfect every time. But based on this experience (and many many others) I think they are committed to getting it right. Don't be shy to let them know if you have a problem.

I ate shad roe last night for the first time at Prune in New York. I didn't like it, but feel that if so many people do, there must be something that I was missing. Could anyone give a good description of what is fabulous about the shad roe. Can anyone describe a sublime experience of eating the shad roe?

I can't say so clearly. Pimiento trees have biggish green leaves, very wet and heavy like the leaves of a magnolia tree. I've cooked whole mahi mahi on top of a bed of these leaves. . . the gestalt is fruity I guess, maybe in the way that a blended scotch can be fruity. The spice of the berry is sympathetic aroma/flavor but not really found in the wood. Don't know which North American tree would be an approximation.

Jerk is barbecue and not just because it happens to meat over fire. There are as many opinions about jerk as there are well, you can finish that sentence. I think authenticity is achieved more through a dry environment and slow heat with the proper seasoning package (the base of which is scallion, ginger, scotch bonnet, allspice, thyme, garlic, salt and pepper) than through the use of a particular wood. All of that said, pimento wood is probably the best. BTW, pimento wood is where allspice berries come from. It's not uncommon to burn the wet leaves as part of the jerking.

Ya mon well ya know see me I say those roadside places, typically they don't use anything other than a single drum. There are sometimes two grills, one below for the coals and another above for the food. But just as often the coals just go on the floor of the drum. I've recently initiated work on a small, underline small, cold smoking business in Port Antonio. The local fisherman catch the odd marlin and while there is celebration when it reaches the shore, fresh marlin meat doesn't fetch a very impressive price. I know about the politics of marlin fishing but these are local guys fishing from a sixteen foot canoe, many miles offshore using handlines by which I mean they are fighting these beasts with a piece of car tire wrapped around their hand to keep the fishing line from cutting great grooves into their palms as they pull the fish in. It's not a threat to the population. The long liners and the sport fishers, they are where one ought to fix one's attention. And mostly on the long liners as the sport fishermen largely appear to have cleaned up their acts. All that aside, cold smoked marlin is worth double or triple the price of fresh marlin. So I've been working with a local chef and a local fisherman to get this thing going so the fishing village can make a few extra bucks, or J's as the case may be. In the service of this project I came upon a cold smoker that could work for you as well as it's been working for me. It isn't necessarily a cold smoker. Can work for long and low heat cooking also, and probably more effectively. I chose this design for its versatility. I found it on the internet somewhere, maybe it was on a "smoke-ring" related site by a southern guy. Can't remember for sure. Here it is from the rear: And here is a long shot including me (I'm the large pale man) and the fabricator showing the front: You can make fire in the bottom for super low slow and smoky and use dampering in the connecting chimneys to achieve cold-smoking conditions. For higher heat you can block off those chimneys and make a fire in the top chamber.

I recently paid 28 bucks a pound for morels at the Whole Foods in Union Square.

As always, Bux, you have made many incisive and level-headed comments. I always look forward to your read on these things. You're the Daniel Schorr of egullet. Wouldn't it be spectacular if Delouvrier did open a bistro? I love, love his simple French food, at least as it's represented in his book and on occasion on the menu at Ducasse. Apparently they haven't been filling the house very often, for whatever that's worth.

Here's the culprit. I found this bottle some years ago (it's still full today) at a liquor store in Chinatown. Curious to see if it was over-indulgence or the noxious beverage itself that was the cause of my distress. I and a few others smelled the stuff. Responses were uniformly negative although one fool did offer to take a shot in exchange for twenty dollars.

Big changes are afoot in the kitchen at Ducasse. Delouvrier's last night was Friday, that night the pass was helmed by executive sous Sebastien. Last night, Saturday, Delouvrier's replacement entered the fray. He's French, worked in Ducasse's Paris restaurant and is named Tony. Curious to see how this plays out.

There's a cognac, I think, that they call XO, expensive by Chinese standards but also kind of ubiquitous. I don't know where it's made. . .

Oh man this is making me ill just thinking about it. I got into some kind of ridiculous early twenties (mine, not the decade's) drinking contest in a little town in Southern China called Yang shua. Big on the Lonely Planet circuit. It was with some Chinese men, turns out they were cops from a much bigger city nearby, and we were drinking a chinese liquor called bai jo. That's phonetic. I was sick for a week. I will never forget that night, at least the parts I remember. Chinese drinks are outs for me. Yao. Apparently saying fuck you to a chief of police is a bad idea even if he and you are in the depths of delerious salubriousness. Fellow travelers claim I'm lucky not to've ended up in a ditch. I can attest that I did end up in a ditch. Luckily, I guess, I was the one who put me there.

Judging by what they have to say at bbc.co.uk, I may have mixed something near to a PGGB last night although I can't be sure as I was wearing my danger-sensitive glasses while I mixed it. Maybe via the infinite improbability drive I was posessed by the spirit of Zaphod Beeblebrox just back from a couple relaxing days of Jamaican vacation with the triple-breasted whore of. . . getting carried away here. I infused Wray and Nephew overproof with ginger, halved key limes and allspice for two days in the fridge. For the first day there was mint but then there came a brownish color eminating from it. . . so I pulled the mint. Also there was some simple syrup. Maybe 1 pt syrup to four parts rum. In a tall glass I crushed fresh mint with the ice and another piece of key lime, then poured the infusion and a little more rum and on top of that some soda water. Very smooth, alchohol almost invisible (to me a problem, that) and refreshing. And while I expect that the gold brick would have adverse effects, this concoction had none. . . that I can recall. Though I do have a filament of memory of a protracted and rather boring conversation with a fellow named Slartibartfast about a medal he won for the fjords of Norway?

I second Fish's Eddy but raise you one Crate ad Barrel.

Road food makes me think of joints where the cabbies eat. I can think of two right off the top of my head both tiny--oops three--delis but with samosas and all kinds of good things. One is on Crosby just south of Houston. The other is on 18th street west of Broadway, south side of the street. Both are middle eastern. The third is in Chelsea just off the West side highway across the street from Gagosian gallery which I think is on 22nd street. Oh and there's another in Tribeca, not sure exactly where or even if it's still there. My last visit to this restaurant predated September 11th. It's called Pakistani Teahouse. Good luck.