herbacidal

this is very true. not just for particularly fine morsels, though. also very true. the lefties i know make sure to get an aisle seat, or one next to the wall. as far as picking something up from "your side" of a dish, that is something that is taught as well. never gone so far as to divide into portions, though. just general rule of thumb, if you have to stretch or it is somewhat awkward to reach something at a dish, there's probably a rule/guideline you're not following. either use the lazy susan, or just try for the side of the dish facing you.

that depends really on if they just make it cheap, w/o the quality and creativity that makes people interested in those restaurants in the first place.

Allison: You make an excellent point and it's definitely something I would do before choosing any of the restaurants that week. For $30/head for all THREE courses I'd hardly expect them to be serving the ceviche at Pasion they are deservedly famous for. Or if they were it would be more of an amuse bouche portion rather than a "course". Oh yeah - welcome to eGullet! You'll have fun here. just to elaborate on that. i would not expect any of higher priced restaurants to be serving their full and complete menu for their restaurant week menu. rather, what they are likely to do is much like most restaurants in new york (and elsewhere) have done during restaurant: build a condensed menu to have for the purposes of restaurant week, like for instance 2-4 choices per course, the simplest and cheapest, in terms of food cost and food prep time, appetizers, entrees and desserts will be the ones available. for instance, i would expect one of the apps to be a simple salad, perhaps just a basic green salad. most restaurants can be expected to offer something simple like skirt steak and chicken. not a tasting menu, but more of an introduction menu. the economics of the situation just don't make sense for them to offer their full menu. the goal of restaurant week, in most restaurants' eyes, should not be to make a lot of money during restaurant week. they may do more significantly more volume and have higher costs to make the same amount of money. the goal in this situation is: 1) get cash flow in, to keep the restaurant going until better times come along 2) intro the place to people who've never been and always wanted to, but couldn't justify the cost That's not to say it's not worth going, but rather not to expect the full selection available. it matters little to me, because i expect to go with the 3 courses, and throw in a couple more a la carte.

anything with innards is the best.

that's basically right. you won't be committing any unknown taboo. however, if you were a chinese kid growing up in a chinese household, a reasonably strong attempt would have been made to bang the left-handed tendencies out of you. there's more tolerance of it now, but it is still undesirable.

Olga's is indeed huge. Monstrous in fact, but really good. About an 8 or 10 page menu too. I don't think there's anything you can't get in there! Good salad bar too. The shiny new diner (Silver City Diner, I think?) across from the mall is just OK. Too new and not "real" enough for my ingrained sense of what a diner "experience" should be like. More like a cross between a real diner and a Nifty Fifties. A very fake retro vibe going on in there. I'm a fan of Ponzio's, on Route 70. Great baked goods. And real diner waitresses. And all that it implies...hon. I've heard really good things about the Penn Queen Diner on 130 South in Pennsauken, but have no personal experience with it. Will have to check it out sometime. I'm actually pretty fond of the South Street Diner at Front & South. It's open all the time, the food is good, and it's stumbling distance from my front door. All good qualities to recommend it for. i think olga's is crap personally. but i only had one experience there, and was offended by the service. actually more the lack thereof. silver diner is decent. penn queen diner used to be very good, about a decade ago. i believe them to be just decent now. ponzio's is pretty good. i've always liked crystal lake diner, on cuthbert boulevard in haddon township.

Perhaps some discrimination against Canadian restaurants? ~Tad i would speculate it's a business decision. the cable companies are not willing to pay the possibly exorbitant rates that the company that owns both foodtv and fineliving wants to charge for fineliving. perhaps it is because they already are paying an exorbitant amount for foodtv, which they would catch bigger hell for not having. therefore the owners of foodtv have decided, in order to increase demand for fineliving from the customer side, we'll put this show that we think a lot of people will want there, and advertise it heavily as being there. include specific mentions of calling your cable operator and logging into fineliving website to push demand from customers pushing on cable companies for fineliving.

yea, i wuz about to say. AAG?

as opposed to me, all action, no talk. Okaaaay.... i think i expected a more entertaining reaction out of you, miss thing.

well, it has been a while since we did center city. we can probably look into it.

i think raynickben's idea is awesome, and perhaps the best.

I love their dark chocolate stout, but it's too strong for a lot of people i talk to.

i've heard both these places are decent. gonna hafta try them when i get a chance.

I really enjoyed the show when it was on here. Their mama (one of 'em's mama anyway) is a hoot - you look at her and are expecting the Italian accent, etc., and she comes out with this broad Texas Hill Country drawl. Unfortunately, I don't think any of what they do translates through to the franchised version of Carrabba's - I was expecting it to be decent-to-good fern bar stuff, on the level of Maggiano's, but was disappointed. (Maggiano's would be a good chain candidate if they fit the 50-location thing, but I think they're only up to about 28.) never seen the cooking show, also haven't been in maggiano's. i do think carraba's is pretty good, though. you think maggiano's does stuff better? hmm.

Jane Jacobs may be food related, if only unintentionally. She has been an advocate, practically forever, of cities put together on a scale that works for people. One of her observations is that neighborhoods with a good mix of, say, restaurants and homes, tends to keep people on the streets day and night, which is healthy. The Vietnam war does not have a lot to recommend it, except, from my perspective, that it caused a lot of smart, talented people to move to Toronto, including Jane Jacobs and her then draft age sons. it is a fine book. i can see how it is the baseline for a new generation of urban planners. that idea about mixed use is contrary to many views i've heard, but obviously does make sense. diversity of sources allows to not be overly dependent on any one source. didn't know she was living in toronto now.

i get the feeling you need more work on prioritizing, and handling the workplace stress, etc. of a restaurant than anything. your culinary chops and experience are gonna develop, so i'd be focusing on a restaurant and not the personal chef thing right now. unless after you graduate you want to go straight to personal chef-ing. in that case, the restaurant experience might not be as useful, although to clients it might look better. i'll go back and recommend the restaurant, any restaurant would be better than personal chef right now for you.

Tepper Isn't Going Out, Calvin Trillin (got this from this thread) The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs Empire, A Tale of Obsession,..., Mitchell Pacelle (history of the Empire State Building) coming up as soon as I finish one of these: No Logo, Naomi Klein none food related

as opposed to me, all action, no talk.

How very apt. With apologies to browniebaker, I am one of those who've long suspected the best use for mooncakes were as hockey pucks. They taste like sand (esp. if they're stale). Vaguely sweet, but dry, sand. I have never met one that I liked. Having said that, it's been ages since I've deigned to bite into one, and so, will go looking for one during the upcoming Autumn Moon festival. i do like them. wouldn't eat them often, but a quarter, maybe half of one once a year is just about right. knew something who once ate 3 of them before he knew what they were like. boy, he felt it later.

just this friday we tested the first of my infused vodkas. Let me tell you: habanero infused vodka gives a nice additional kick to a mary. we used equal parts habanero vodka and regular vodka, to about 35% (feel free to modify that, we had to because I made the habanero VERY VERY STRONG) juice of a lime and a lemon about a third a cup of water (seriously, the habanero vodka is strong) some horseradish tomato juice to fill We made 2 pitchers full (the second had more horseradish than the first). I did add tabasco and pepper to my own cup.

I know who Eric Ripert is, but have never heard of Gina Gershon. Who is she? she's really nothing special, although she doesn't look half bad. she was in a couple of movies, Bound, ferinstance. She was in Face Off as (Nicolas Cage)the main bad guy's (ex?) wife and mother of the kid.

here being new york, correct?

I'm sorry, perhaps I was unclear. I was wondering if the Indian food in the UK was predominantly Punjabi, as Jason indicated that most of the Indian food in the US was predominantly Punjabi and Moghlai. Also, is Moghlai the same as Mogul/Avadhi style cooking?

chinese will never use the soy sauce on the table, though. they would ask for soy sauce and peppers when using it.

really? i didn't want to use lemon grass because i had it in a drink before. i thought it overpowered everything else. thought the ginger was a better ingredient for a subtler, more moderate drink.