emsny

I see you haven't had many replies here. There's an inexpensive but very good restaurant called, sweetly, A La Cucina Economica: via Guicciardini, 8 - 02 783 256. The woman, who cooks, is from Puglia and the man, who doesn't, is from way up north - maybe Friuli. So the cooking isn't Milanese. But we enjoyed it enormously. Friendly and very popular; no decor, naturally, but pleasant in that simple Italian restaurant way. The recommendation came from the SlowFood "Osterie d'Italia 2005". Back in September we had this to eat there, for fifty euros (for two people): Orecchiette with provola affumicata; mozz; tomatoes; basil Farfalle with zucca and porcini Fumada from Trentino - slightly steamed, then smoked beef - raw, really. With sliced apples and good oil. Crostata di frutta: plums, peaches, figs. Called a charlotte - but definitely a pie, as the Polish Szarlotka. Choc cake - excellent, with breadcrumbs lining the mold. Wine: Verdeca Ognisole “Medico di Maglie” Puglia Feudi di S Gregorio. Owner said traditionally drunk on San Giorgio's day. So when is that? He had no idea. Grappa from the Veneto: mixed aromatic grapes: Venegazzù. Also offered another grappa from up north - Treber-grappa. Is “treber” German for trebbiano?

More useful information, and I thank you.

Thanks all, very much. I shall examine all those sites. EMS

Could someone recommend a terrific wine merchant (with an on-line list) from whom I could order a mixed case of wine to be sent to some friends in London? I'm looking for carefully chosen, interesting wines, probably most of them not French; I think these people are more interested in Italian wines. Price not a big issue, though I'm not looking for fancy wines by any means. (I live in New York, which is why I can't answer my own question.) Thanks, all.

Of course, sometimes it IS "neeswah", when attached to a masculine noun.

And note that Perry Street (along with a few other Vongerichten restaurants) is on the OpenTable list for those of us who prefer to deal with machines.

The late Alan Davidson's "North Atlantic Seafood" has already been cited - and everyone should get hold of a copy. But to complete the picture for someone working in France, it should be supplemented with the same author's "Mediterranean Seafood". The indexes in both works are exemplary and useful.

On a trip in the dead of winter this year, we adored Vecio Fritolin.

I've been to Perry Street perhaps five or six times since it opened; each time the menu has been quite different - apart from dishes that have become classics (if we can talk about "classics" in so new a restaurant) such as the rice-cracker tuna. At Jean Georges too, much of the menu seems to change all the time - every time we go, we hear some variation on "How did you like that dish? It just went on the menu today". It would be hard, though admittedly not impossible, to keep these up to date on line. It would also be courting disappointment for diners who were hoping to eat a dish they'd seen on a Tuesday that had been replaced on the Thursday of their dinner. That said, I too enjoy looking at menus on line in advance of a restaurant visit.

I wish I could make a first-hand contribution to this thread, but I can't. Towards the end of last year, Peter Meehan reviewed this place in the NY Times: Waterfront International Enterprises, 40-09 Prince Street (Roosevelt Avenue); (718) 321-1363. Sounded worth a visit. Has anyone been?

This is only marginally relevant, but last night at Jean Georges we found among our amuse-bouche a spoonful of noodle-free "sesame noodles" - made with long strings of cucumber. It made me laugh with pleasure, and, yes, for that moment, it was the best sesame noodles in New York.

The article covered only health/diet aspects of high-fructose corn syrup, and devoted no attention to the environmental/agricultural issues raised by, say, Michael Pollan in Omnivore's Dilemma. I won't try to sum these up, because I'm bound to mis-state them.

And yet his book Among the Thugs, about soccer violence (also well worth reading, and quite horrific), is certainly reportage, just as participatory as Heat and more dangerous, to the point of life-threatening.

Salkhino is an excellent Georgian restaurant (25 Kronverksky Prospekt); Stolle is a pie bakery with a couple of branches, one right near the Mariinsky Theater - both sweet and savory pies, which you buy by weight; there are tables and they serve drinks. Amazingly good.

Fat Guy's graciousness, though well known, nay, legendary, never ceases to amaze. Still, I'll pass - the only way I could initiate that topic would be by saying nasty things about establishments I haven't visited in a while and which, for all I know, have regained all their previous luster. Anyone else interested?

Perry Street - admittedly pricey vis-a-vis most other places in this survey (why does one feel the need to stipulate this?), but not what I'd call a special-occasion restaurant. It has the comfortable feel of a neighborhood restaurant (not OUR neighborhood, though - if it were, we'd probably go more often than once every couple of months), and it fills the need for excellent, elegant - and satisfying - food in a handsome environment where one doesn't feel rushed. The few other places we used to go regularly have either closed or changed beyond recognition. That could be another interesting topic, actually, if Fat Guy feels like starting it: once-loved restaurants that have fallen from favor, and why.

Well, there was a page in NY Mag, and a story in the NY Times, but, true, there certainly hasn't been much chatter about the markets here on eGullet.

Just a reminder that Nina Planck's "Real Food" markets will be getting under way on Saturday, June 17th. I'm curious to see what sorts of products will be available - my impression from reading about the enterprise is that everything will be from our region, but that the rules will allow a broader range of raw and prepared products. Could make for interesting eating. Hope so. They're going to be downtown: Lafayette and Spring/Kenmare; and Sixth Avenue and Bleecker/Houston, according to her web site.

And bacon need not be sliced before cooking: simmer it and serve it with lentils; cook it as part of a choucroute; braise it with sweet wine and (at this time of year) add some turnps a few minutes before serving.

From the How-To section of the Kronos web site cited by Fat Guy: "D. DO NOT ABUSE MEAT WHILE SLICING"

Pastry doughs. I would not be surprised to learn that most of the city's phyllo compositions and strudels were made from that ubiquitous brand of phyllo dough (is it Athens? Apollo?) - which does indeed come in a slightly thicker version, suitable for strudel. And I should imagine that Dufour supplies an awful lot of the puff pastry used in up-scale food service kitchens. Off topic: next time you're in France, check the garbage outside a neighborhood patisserie (not the top-quality ones, obviously). You will find empty boxes that once contained things that will amaze you, such as instant choux-pastry powder.

Of course, Fat Guy is surely right about mozzarella made from farm-fresh milk. But I doubt that you'd run into that very often, even in Italy. We'll be there in July and will report back. But the comparison with buffalo-milk mozz is not really to the point: that's a different product with a different flavor. Indeed, in parts of Italy where they care about these things they use a different term altogether for cow-milk mozz: "fior di latte". Tricky stuff, mozzarella; very fussy about pH and what not. I know a restaurant chef who had planned to make mozz from scratch and who tried all kinds of milks - homogenized, unhomogenized, you name it (even tried bootleg raw milk). Eventually, the only practical solution (short, presumably, of hiring a full-time dairyman/dairymaid - like Le Cirque's creme brulee guy [cf today's NY Times story]) was to buy . . . Polly-O curds. By the way, Fat Guy, I was going to say, "Hey, I never said it was such a 'fantastic product'". But the fact is that, when it's still around blood temperature and oozing, it IS pretty fantastic irrespective of the provenance of the curd from which it is made.

And why do Polly-O curds come in 43-pound boxes? Not 40, not 45, not even 44 (which is near as damn to 20kg), but 43? That apart, I'm not too bothered by this, because much of the pleasure of eating fresh mozzarella is preserved with a ball freshly formed from curd, whether Polly-O's or anyone else's. I believe that many of the cheese straws repackaged or sold in bulk around town come from the company known as John Wm Macy, which also sells in their own packaging. Again, a good product.

Thanks. So, they have no plans to try to find a new location?

We were walking down Second Avenue today and saw that Elk Confectionery had closed. A "no further information" message from the phone company played when we dialed its number. Does anybody know what happened? Last time we were there, a couple of months ago I suppose, it seemed to be thriving.