ned

I recently had the opportunity to work for a week in Chef Guenter Seeger's restaurant in Atlanta. Phenomenal food comes out of that kitchen and prepared by a talented and necessarily dedicated brigade. At Seeger's. a dish never left the kitchen in which each part hadn't been sampled by a cook to check it's balance, freshness, temperature saltiness, etc. Each part. Nothing left to chance, instead excellence was arrived at using emperical methods. The message that was hammered home to me is that the secret to a perfect execution is not in proscribed cooking times or good recipes or some sort of metaphysical knowing. The secret is paying close attention to what you are doing by monitering the process with your nose and hands and mouth and ears and eyes. This particularly applies to the questions in the previous two posts regarding the use of herbs, cooking times and the prospect of using this method on sweet potatoes. When boiling the potatoes (par boiling is best I think because the potatoes cook more evenly), sweet or otherwise, taste them often. Sample them as you go along by pulling one out and cutting it to check if it's cooked through. You'll know if it isn't if you see a halo or if the center isn't hot to the touch. Taste it to see if it's salty enough or too salty. When you determine they're cooked through, drain and set them aside until they cool to room temperature (and while that happens the exterior will by drying also). Toss them (gently so they don't fall apart or the edges get all mushed up) in some kind of fat, and salt if necessary. Put them on a roasting pan with herbs (a few sprigs here and there, not shaken out of a jar or pulled off the branch) and into the broiler or 500 oven and watch closely. If you smell the herbs burning, take them out (easy to do when they're still sprigs and just as effective in terms of what they do the the potatoes) and put in some fresh ones, or wait till closer to the end to add more. The potatoes should brown evenly. If the edges get dark fast while the rest of the potato stays light, the pan is too close to the heat or the oven is too hot. Slow the cooking down a little. Conversely, if it takes too long, the potatoes are going to break down too much. They're already cooked through. Their time there is only for crsiping the exterior. As to the viability of this method with sweet potatoes, I'd be inclined to say it could work but that things would have to be modified a bit. If I were a cook in Chef Seeger's kitchen charged with working this out, I'd use all my senses and keep a very close eye, tasting and feeling as often as possible keeping my nose peeled during the roasting and I'd do a test or two before putting them on the menu. Sweet potatoes break down more than say yukons. They're less starchy, have less structural integrity when cooked. I'd begin experiments with the theory that they should be boiled less and roasted hotter. But don't trust me. The best way to find out is to test it yourself. Your potatoes might be different from mine, your oven, the pan you're using, the type of fat or salt. . . Good luck.

There are an increasing number of izakayas in the city. I had dinner at one tonight on St. Mark's called, I think, Taishu Izakaya Kenzo. Usually I go to Hagi up in Times Square. A preliminary pass at a description for the uninitiated. . . They are very informal, surprisingly inexpensive and the food feels like comfort food mostly but also tonight I had the option of enjoying bull's penis (which I passed on), cow tongue (which I enjoyed very much, though it could have been better) and chicken meatballs (I was getting full by then). Those are all small servings of which you could order many and there is a wide variety of them not relegated just to weird meats. Additionally you could eat a huge plate of noodles, one of those giant vegetable-filled pancakes or a bowl of noodle soup. And lots of cheap cold tap beer. I'm interested to hear of others and also others' experiences of this type of restaurant.

Prime Burger!!!! and Oyster Bar at Grand Central!!!! (where not everything is cheap but most of the best stuff is)

Peeled.

Well I tested the salt theory last night. I can't speak for Chef Gagnaire but for me salted water yielded. . . salty boiled potatoes. In re cooking time, yeah they cook much faster and at a way hotter temp than a roasted from raw tater. Lately when cooking for just myself and my blushing bride I save cleaning a pot by broiling on tin foil in the toaster. Last night the potatoes were tossed in duck fat to go with cod poached in low temp duck fat.

I made dinner with a Portugese fellow a month ago. He cut up some yukon golds into roughly 3/4 inch squares (triangles? what would that shape be called?) boiled them in generously salted water till they were on the near side of cooked, drained them and then arranged them on a hotel pan with lots of olive oil, whole cloves of garlc and thyme, kosher salt. Then roast at very high temp or even broil. The oven bit is just for crisping/browning the surface, not cooking through as that's already been done. Executed well, this method produces a very fine roasted potato. Very fine.

I've had those lobster treats and I like them but not for eighteen dollars. Much better to go for the fish skin, shrimp with pea tips or others for six or eight dollars. Just as much bang for far less buck. The relative sceniness depends on when you go. We've been frequent fliers there during our two year old's naptime and as parents, we are never alone. Always kids in there on the weekend running around and harassing the koi downstairs.

I liked the review. Thought it was measured, thoughtful and had a meta-quality necessary to looking at a certain kind of NYC restaurant of which there are many. The kind of place where there is great food alongside bad food, alongside throngs of people waiting to get in, some for dubious reasons. And with service that is attentive or forgetful or institutionally weird in a way that is charming. Bruni wrapped his mind around all that stuff in a way that for me was enjoyable to read. Below the fold however, in the review of what sounds like a pretty cool place that happens to be very near my apartment, Peter Meehan writes "The plainest version of the hot soba is served in a broth brightened up by pinches of yuzu and mitsuba." You can't pinch yuzu. It's a citrus fruit. I guess you could use a pinch of the zest, otherwise it would be a dash or a squirt.

Off the top of my head I can think of two contemporary artists who have engaged food in a way that engaged me. There's a fellow named Rirkrit Tiravanija who for more than a decade has been cooking meals for people as a form of low-key performance art/institutional criticism. Here's an example of his work: http://calendar.walkerart.org/event.wac?id=2710 Wim Delvoye made a machine that eats, digests and excretes. More info here: http://www.newmuseum.org/more_exh_cloaca.php PS: Great work Pontormo.

Surely you're looking for someplace within the city limits. Nevertheless, I'll put a plug in for a joint just outside New haven. I think it's in Branford. Your grandma would be right at home there if she happens to have blue hair. Always big buses outside. My wife and I call it the U.S.S.C.P. It's the USS Chowder Pot. Don't miss the honey butter bread.

Absolutely not. The S stands for sodium, after all. ← DUH!

Fish, I'd like to introduce you to Mr. Barrel. Swim in circles for a moment while I load up. Now how do I do this without splashing myself? Oh well cover your ears, here goes. Actually Ms. Ephron cited many of my own complaints. They pour out water that fast so another bottle may be sold. And another and another at eight to twelve bucks a pop. And the same goes for wine only bump the price up a bit. As for checking on the table when the food has just arrived, seems to me there's a miscommunication at play. "Is everything all right" actually means "Do you have everything you need, did the backwaiter bring you the right food, is the steak medium-rare like you wanted, may I now leave you alone for a while." They oughtn't be looking for critique and most of the time I don't think they are. When it comes to salt, I usually need some. And I like the crunch of maldens or fleur de sel, or whatever the salt of the moment is. But I don't like those tiny little bowls either. particularly when they don't have a spoon. Who else's nasty fingers have been in that bowl anyway? Could be that an appropriate serving device for large crystal salt has yet to be introduced. There's a niche market for ya. Dining is a delicate dance. I think there's plenty of room for both sides to endure their petty irritations. And voice them too. Maybe there should be an occasional page devoted to editorials in the NYT Dining section. . . This piece, harmless as it was, sure garnered a lot of interest.

Get thee to Zig Zag.

I've been drinking a lot of Chargers lately. Got through a bottle of Gary Regan bitters and am on my way wth the Angostura. With the latter I kept wondering what that more than familiar flavor was until it hit me. Wray & Nephew Pimento Liqueur. Almost identical. I wonder what the drinks mixing implications of this similarity are--one month down, eight to go. There's an opportunity here as the liqueur carries with it a punch of sweetness. For those of you who want to experiment, all you have to do is go down to Jamaica and buy a bottle of the stuff...

Can you sub msg for salt?

I'm pretty sure Steingarten wrote a piece on this. . .

I love a cubano. Most of all I love it when the pork part is leftover from a roast suckling pig and there's lots of cracklin. The bread bit is tricky because it can't be too high-minded but also must be just right--lightish, not doughy, I find myself scooping out the insides with a spoon if there's too much thickness. The lube is schmeared garlic that has been poached slowly in olive oil, with lots of that olive oil spooned onto the bread. A thinly sliced new pickle. Lots of pepper. I like to use a young pecorino and the ham bit I haven't yet resolved. It needs to be a brined ham, juicy and salty. I find mine at Food Emporium. The sandwich is assembled and then cooked using a cast iron skillet as a weight with the sandwich in a non-stick pan. Heaven. Lately I've been eating roast beef sandwiches with lots of pepper, cold butter sliced thinly and stone ground mustard. The roast beef has been leftovers from pan roasted rib chops. Then there's a whole other canon with Balthazar brioche on either side. More on that layer.

Anything with a flour-based sauce. also Lobster Thermador

What she said. Nobu has turned into a caricature of itself. Go to Yasuda or Sushi Seki, or one of NYC's other fine sushi joints instead.

There's a duty free past the baggage check in the Kingston airport. It's up and running. They have a weird system where you buy booze then surrender it as you board and then they give it back at some point later on.

Never fear, you can still buy duty free in Jamaica. I was just there a couple of weeks ago. BTW on that same trip we "accidentally" managed to import some fantastic roasted chicken from Boston Bay. OOPS. I can just see the headline "Flight 101 escorted by fighter jets and forced to land beecause sad man threw away pastrami sandwich in 1st class lavatory."

The world is a dangerous place. Some people think Zagat is a credible resource!! I mean come on. Here's another thread that obliquely broaches TT's topic: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=80814&hl= And for my own self, I sure hope you post about bad experiences.

I've had many great and very inexpensive Saturday lunches at the bar at Otto while my two year old naps away. Pasta, not pizza.

This doesn't warrant much of a reply. . . so I'll just observe that based on your post it doesn't sound as if you've ever been to Seeger's. Seeger's is owned by chef Guenter Seeger. It is his only restaurant and he works on the line in the kitchen every night. Every penny they make is hard-earned and well deserved.

You can go up to the Hunt's Point Market the night before your party. They say it opens at 12:00 am but nobody is ready to sell anything until about 2:00am. Costs four bucks to get in. As an example of the pricing, this summer I bought two headless wild chinook for 7 bucks a pound. At that time the same fish were selling in the markets for 14 to 19 bucks a pound.