SarahD

Nuts. and Rice. That's where I always find them. *shudder* Toss packages. Clean everything. Sure makes an argument for a good prophylactic pantry cleaning a few times a year.

My most spectacular kitchen injury involved 2am post midnight mass baking of gingerbread men for the stockings. It was the first year that I was hosting Christmas in my own place and everything had to be just so. My family has it's own gingerbread man pattern, a cardboard template really, that we lay on the dough and cut out with a knife. In my exhausted state the knife slipped from my hand and landed IN my foot. No blood in the food, but the baker had to take a break to staunch the wound and soothe hysterics. I think I decided at that point to do the rest of the cookies in the morning ... when, as I recall my mother accidentally set the presents on fire (candles and wrapping paper are a bad combination). I've strived for lower-key holidays since then.

Back in the dark ages, I had my 16th Birthday dinner there, and thought it was just the most swelegant place.

I've been searching for a discussion of this with no luck. What's out there and what's worth checking out? One in my 'hood is "A" on Columbus and 106th. Small space, small menu, but they manage to turn out very good French/French-Caribbean food using only hotplates and convection ovens.

Awash is a little short on atmosphere and the service can be glacially slow, but I've always found the food to be tasty, and hey, it's in my 'hood. I second slkinsey on the veggie combo plus a meat dish idea ... I got something last time with beef and collards that had interesting spicing. Haven't tried any of the other Ethiopian places in NYC.

Excellent, excellent topic! I'm also single and on a reduced budget for the time being, and am always on the lookout for things to try while I eat out of my freezer and cupboards with judicious additions. I've a question about kasha varnishkes ... what does it traditionally accompany? Some sort of legume dish to complete the protein? Anyone have any good ideas about what to do with amaranth (as I explore other grains)? I've been pondering taking the leap into home yogurt making ... what kind of yeald to you get per quart of milk? ... I'm thinking as soon as this heat breaks there's some pork butt and sweet potatoes in my future!

Nice, but LOUD. The service was good but a little frantic. We were seated within 5 minutes of getting there. I had the bream with artichoke hearts, which was very tasty … HOWEVER, as they serve the whole fish, I really could have used a sharper knife, or dare I say a FISH KNIFE … my date looked at my pitiful efforts to get at the flesh for about a minute and sent it back to the kitchen to have them take it off the bone, which they did happily (not much fish left after that though). My date took pity on me and gave me a substantial taste of his cod, also very good. Apricot tart for dessert. Yummy.

Friday I tried Chucharamama. YUMMY! I opted for 3 smaller plates (still too much for just me): the shimp ceviche, a tamale with duck, and a "salad" of grilled pinapple and pumpkin. I thought all were excellent, and it was very entertaining to sit at the bar and watch everything be prepared in the wood fired oven ... and make note of all the other dishes to try on subsequent visits. After consulting with the staff, I opted for the chocolate bread pudding for dessert: nothing like any bread pudding you've met before, but gooey, dense, delicious, and rich enough that even the small serving they give you could be happily shared.

So far ... Monday I ordered in from Satay (what struck my fancy in my host's menu drawer). I got the General Tso's chicken, wontons in spicy sauce and hot & sour soup. This is my version of comfort food. It was all tasty, and disappeared alarmingly quickly, though the sauces were more sweet and less spicy than I usually prefer. Tuesday, using the lure of crawfish to entice a Louisiana born friend across the Hudson, we hit Oddfellows. She pronounced the crawfish boil very good and consumed 3 lbs. and has plans to return. I sampled one of her bugs and found it tasty indeed, but too much work in my opinion. I got the catfish special, which was baked with sauteed peppers and onions on top. We followed with the pecan pie and bread pudding, both giant portions but not quite good enough to entice us to finish them. I enjoyed the presentation of the bread pudding and the fruit stuffing, but thought it needed more gush to it. I'm all about the custard. Tonight I'm planning on cooking at home. Both Grimaldi's and Chucharamama are close to where I'm staying so they're high on the list of places to try next.

I get the feeling you think I should try The Jefferson? I'll definately put it on the list ... any nights to avoid? ... what's the word on Hoboken's outpost of Grimaldi's as compared to the one in Brooklyn? ... Stumbled across this while I was nosing around the web, any good? http://www.oddfellowsrest.com/

I'm cat sitting in Hoboken next week and thought I might give some of the local reastaurants and pubs a try. Any suggestions?

Speak for yourself! I luuuuuurrrrrrve me some crabcakes. *drool* But, surely there are other things to eat in Baltimore! -SarahD (who's also in the car)

Who has a nice high tea these days suitable for taking out of town guests and/or relatives on a chilly winter's afternoon? I'd like to avoid the tourist fest of the Plaza hotel. I used to really like the one that Anglers & Writers put on, but sadly they're gone now.

I don't have much to add to the excellent posts above. I thought the first plain pie had an excellent cracker-like crisp to it's crust though it was a tad bland. The clam pie was a total surprise and completely blows away that fiasco of a clam pie at Lombardi's. My favorite by far was the sausage. It wasn't too greasy and the sausage was nicely seasoned with fennel and something else that I couldn't quite identify. The shadow survey of gelato at conducted at Otto was outstanding and worthy of many many more samplings.

Just to add to my $0.02 to Bergerka's post ... I thought the food was really wonderful. The spicing of the vegetable curry especially showed an individual touch allowing some of the more perfumed flavors of cardamom and clove to come through the heat. The pepper papadams served at the top of the meal were nicely spicy, though the accompanying chutneys were the same as you could get anywhere. The tableware was attractive but the 2 entrees and rice dish crowded us. There was clearly something off with the service beyond the preparation in the kitchen. On another night I wouldn't have sweat it, but we had places to go!

Suzanne, I remember going to that French restaurant with my high school French class. The first time I had crepes. And I remember that the waitresses wore those regional costumes with the elaborate lace head-dresses. Other fond UWS memories: Empire Schezchwan has been around in some form as long as I can remember, and we moved into the 'hood in '76. What about that Greek restaurant on one of the sides streets up by Columbia, Symposium?, I think that's been there forever. I also remember going to the Abbey Pub for burgers when I was wee. I remember a great 'hippy' restaurant on 107th and B'way called The Good Earth. On my mom's limited student budget, brown rice, broccoli and cheese sauce made me a happy camper many a night before we hit the dollar double feature at the Olympia. OH MAN, I MISS THE OLYMPIA DINER!

The poop that I have from concerned citizens who live across the street is: Columbia is building yet another highrise apartment building, but perserving the facade of the building and setting the upper floors back a little in exchange for being able to exceed the 10 floor limit (I think 12 are planned). I don't know anything about whether West Side Market will rise from the ashes. ... in related news the discount store next to the Metro movie theater seems to be selling off it's goods. Maybe the Metro's time has come too.

I braved the line yesterday and agree with Suzanne. Nice crisp pastry. The filling good, but I was expecting more vanilla flavor. A total mess to munch while waiting for the M104. I'm curious about the other flavors of filling, hope we don't have to wait too long.

Oh yeah ... In support of a Classical Roman themed party a number of years ago I got a copy of Dover's edition of Apicius (talk about your lost recipes). With all the vague instructions some of the experiments were disasters. However, the ham with wine, figs, honey, and bay leaves was a spectacular success and hijacked by my mother for her holiday parties ever since.

"... its is already Seville orange season, so I must go on my usually fruitless hunt for them this year... " Last year after a column in the Times featured them, I found them easily enough at Gourmet Garage ... along with the duck to go with ... mmmmmmm.

My bagel of choice these days. Location, location, location. Oh for the days of the $0.15 H&H bagel. There was nothing better than a rasin bagel fresh from the oven. I used to be able to get lunch with the redeemed deposits on soda cans accumulated in my locker. *sigh*

Lo those many years ago, when I was growing up on the Upper West Side, my favorite 1/2-day-of-school go-hang-in-mom's-office lunch was chopped liver on a Kaiser roll. Recently having a yen for the same I was STYMIED. All the sandwich counters near my home or office don't carry chopped liver. I'm shocked, I tell you. Yeah, yeah ... it's a heart attack on a roll, but I like it. SO, E-gullions, where are your favorite places to get chopped liver? Am I the only person who craves this on occasion? Am I weird? (Oh wait, don't answer that).