enrevanche
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Posts posted by enrevanche
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It is strictly speaking not a Cajun or Creole place, but Mara's Homemade in the East Village has some good New Orleans-inspired cuisine on their menu.
They get extra points in my book for flying up live crawfish in season.
Fried catfish is very good, and so are the homemade shrimp-and-oyster po' boys. Inevitably, there is alligator meat on the menu, though I have not tried it. Desserts also very good.
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seriously: i had so much fun writing this homage to melted cheese and crisp bread.....though we settled on fifty ways to make you melt, for space considerations, we could have easily done a hundred recipes......i could write a book of the recipes left over from the manuscript.
Marlena,
I will happily buy your book when it comes out; nothing in the world quite like a good grilled cheese.
As for the "leftover" recipes, unless there are some legal constraints there, I bet you anything that The Powers That Be at eGullet would happily host an e-book of surplus grilled cheese recipes.
Paging the Fat Guy... -
Spent a number of hours going over the evidence, the guy was a pedophile.
He was also a showman and a cook, and knew how to use those qualities.
And I used to enjoy his show.
I am grateful he was never able to abuse my son, and I will assume the sons of those who wax so elegantly about him.
Any child who is sexually molested carries baggage he can never erase.
This guy who abused little boys is dead.
Good.
He will never abuse another child again.
Auntdot,
I certainly understand your perspective.
One mild but significant correction: since you've spent "hours going over the evidence," you surely realize that Jeff Smith was never accused by anyone of "abusing little boys," unless you consider teenagers (15 year-olds, 16 year-olds) "little boys." Under the legal age of consent? Certainly. Little boys? No, he wasn't accused of diddling five year-olds.
(Technically, assuming that Mr. Smith did what he was accused of, he would not be considered a "pedophile," either, but an "ephebophile"; pedophiles target children age 13 or younger, which Mr. Smith was never accused of doing. For more information, see the encyclopedia article here.)
I don't think anyone who has posted here would care to defend Jeff Smith's alleged behavior with adolescent males; nor are they trying to excuse it by praising his work as a TV chef or remembering some aspect of his *public* career fondly. Rather, like many/most people, they are capable of separating a public figure's professional work from his private life.
An example of sorts. I find the politics and history of the Nazi party to be utterly abhorrent; I have nothing but contempt for that ideology.
Nonetheless, I continue to read and enjoy the novels of Louis-Ferdinand Celine. Celine, a 20th-century French novelist who has influenced countless modern writers, was a collaborator with the Nazi government-of-occupation in France, was apparently in fact an honest-to-God Nazi sympathizer and something of an anti-Semite (though there is no trace of this to be found in his writing, interestingly) and was actually sentenced in absentia to jail time for his collaborationist activities.
In short, I find Celine's personal politics absolutely repugnant. This is no way impedes my enjoyment of his novels.
People who are sharing positive memories of Jeff Smith are doing so sincerely, in recognition of his *public* life. None of us knew the man in his private life; all we know is what we read in the newspapers.
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Wow. It is too bad, for so many reasons, that the Oak Park Pharmacy in Raleigh, NC (and its lunchcounter within) has shuffled off this mortal coil. Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Mills, the estimable Southern ladies who presided over it, would win Best Grilled Cheese (regional) hands down, for their Grilled Pimento Cheese with fresh tomato and pickles.
Edited to add: They also did a mean Cherry Smash.
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Scotch whiskey. I thought it tasted downright medicinal at first (and second, and third.)
I kept at it, though.
Now I really enjoy both blended whiskeys and single malts, and there really is a wide flavor spectrum to be appreciated especially among the single malts, which are often quite unlike each other. -
Hunt around on amazon.com or your favorite used book site for "NOLS Cookery." It's a back-country hikers and campers cookbook published by the National Outdoor Leadership School, and the recipes and techniques therein will turn you into a one-burner-stove gourmet chef.
I was introduced to some of these tricks and techniques on a NOLS course in Wyoming twenty years ago, and have used them ever since. Especially if you are planning trips that are longer than three or four days, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
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I remember at some point on the web there was a site devoted to pictures of meals on flights with some very witty commentary at times about the food from those who took the pictures. I should look and see if it still exits.
It's still there. In fact, it's linked in the very first message in this thread.
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I think that there are a lot of people that can appreciate BBQ here in New York. I have been serving it at my restauraunt for more than 5 years and have quite an amazing following. Many of my customers come in and tell me after coming back from vacations down South that my BBQ is just as good if not better than just about any places that they tried.
Dude! Coordinates for your restaurant, please. I will definitely come and check it out.
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Once, and once only, I flew first class to Europe. I was bumped from coach on an overbooked flight, and missed the next one too through a series of snafus at the airport, and a sympathetic airline representative hooked me up with a great seat on the next available flight.
It was an Air France flight to Paris, and the food and service were just spectacular. It started with dry champagne while we were still on the runway, and it just got better from there.
I would never pay with my own money for a first class seat, though. The cost difference between first class and coach would buy me ten great meals in Paris (for example) and a few bottles of wine besides. I can put up with some discomfort and unpleasantness for eight hours or so for that kind of money, and clearly that's what most airlines deliver these days to their coach passengers.
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Dining times sound fine; August 21st is penciled in on our calendar.
It looks like there's time in between lunch and dinner for some focused drinking at a friendly watering hole. Just sayin'.
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Having grown up in Eastern North Carolina, I know that "barbecue" is a noun, and it means slow-cooked, smoked pulled pork dressed with a simple sauce of vinegar and pepper. Preferably served on a bun with cole slaw, accompanied by some good hot hushpuppies. I never visit my folks in NC without bringing at least a few pounds of 'cue back in my carry-on bag, frozen for the trip and ready to be thawed and eaten once I return to the Heart of Barbecue Darkness that is New York City.
But honestly, I am capable of enjoying *any* slow-cooked, smoked meat, as long as it is prepared with as much love and care as the pitmasters of Carolina bestow on their pigs.
I have eaten and enjoyed Texas-style brisket, Kansas City burnt ends and ribs, Memphis-style dry-rub barbecue... I am also quite fond of Korean barbecue and Sichuan tea-smoked duck.
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Wife Carrie and I have eaten at Wolfgang's already and enjoyed it hugely, and are old hands at Luger, but the thought of doing both in one day has us Strangely Intrigued. Count us in, pending date availability, etc.
I like steak blood-rare, she likes hers a little more done than that, but we happily compromise on medium-rare when ordering a porterhouse for two.
Will follow this with interest as it develops.
Barry
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...we'll have a pretty festive meal today, regardless!
Absolutely you will. Gah! These people don't deserve such effort being put forth for them, but at least you and your family will enjoy a grand meal tonight.
By the way, my vote on the mozz would be to go ahead and dot the lasagna with some. It gets lovely and creamy and melty, and as mags said will brown a bit and take on a nice flavor.
Oh, and lasagna (even cooked lasagna) will freeze and reheat pretty decently. If you've made a big old pan of it, and you don't have guests to help eat it, slice some into family-appropriate portions and pop it into the freezer; it'll be a quick and delicious meal one night when you don't feel like cooking.
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Wow, wongste, those are beautiful pictures. I can almost taste those wonderful dishes.
Pan (et al) I really wish I coulda been there. Unfortunately, my early-morning trip to the Greenmarket pretty much wiped me and my wife out for the day. We found some beautiful ripe cherries (among other things) and came home and wolfed down maybe a pound and a half of cherries, between us, for breakfast.
We've spent the rest of the day with wretched stomachaches.
Stupid us. I've been drinking diluted iced tea all day and cursing the gods. We washed the cherries very thoroughly and everything - I have no idea what went wrong, as I've eaten far more fruit than this at one sitting with no trouble before.Anyway, delighted that everyone had a good time.
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My favorite all-time food-related exchange from The Sopranos:
Paulie Walnuts and Big Pussy Bonpensiero are in a Starbucks in New Jersey, looking for a couple of errant thieves who reportedly work there.
Paulie regards the coffee bar balefully:
Paulie: Fuckin' expresso, fuckin' cappuccino, we invented this shit. And all these other cocksuckers are getting rich off of us.Big Pussy: (sighs heavily, exasperated) Oh, again with the rape of the culture.
Another throwaway food-related line. Tony Soprano unpacks a bag of Chinese delivery and discovers, to his dismay, that they've gotten his order wrong. Again.
Motherfuckin' goddamn orange peel beef!During the workweek, we eat a fair amount of takeout ourselves, and this has become the standard line in our house when a delivery order gets messed up.
And, finally, Tony, trying to wax philosophical but unable to come up precisely with "Revenge is a dish best served cold":
Revenge is like cold cuts... -
I'm curious about "roasts" in the crockpot...can you steam-roast in your crockpot with no liquid at all? I tried it with a chicken (in New Zealand, I don't have a crockpot in Japan) and was impressed - it was nice and juicy.
A couple of insanely useful crockpot recipe sites:
About.com's Southern Food Crockpot Index
Every crockpot roast recipe I've ever seen has included at least a little bit of liquid... some water, stock, vegetable juice, *something.* I make a crockpot pot roast pretty often and it always turns out really well; it uses some (not a lot) stock, a little red wine, and also the juices from the vegetables cook out somewhat.
But you never know. Poke around in those recipe collections; maybe somebody has a dry method that works.
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If you have some ripe tomatoes available as well, mix ripe and green to make green tomato salsa. Like a basic pico de gallo recipe, but with chopped green tomatoes and just a tiny bit of vinegar added.
chopped green tomatoes
chopped ripe red tomatoes
-- in roughly the same proportion
plus:
finely diced sweet onion
crushed garlic
chopped cilantro
finely diced habanero pepper, to taste
fresh lime juice
*small* splash of good vinegar
I have made this before with all green tomatoes, but it's pretty darn tart. Mixing with red ripe tomatoes mellows it quite a bit but it still has that green tomato "kick."
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Yesterday I made French toast, for the liquid I juiced a bunch of those oranges I had. Then I found a small bag of ground almonds so after I dipped the French bread into the egg/orange stuff then I dipped it into the almonds. It was really good--tasted just like an orange dreamsicle! And baked some of that applewood smoked thick slab Cudahy bacon to go alongside. Wow!
Damn, Rachel, that sounds fantastic. Brunch is at your house! (I'll bring the coffee and fresh peaches.)
Sounds like all you need to do is trust your instincts, gain some confidence and use the Force (forks?.) You are a born culinary Jedi.
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From Ananova:
Rooster 'keeps coming back to chicken restaurant'A rooster in America has found a new home that he keeps returning to - the foyer of a takeaway chicken restaurant.
Staff at the Chick-fil-A takeaway in Bluffton, South Carolina, say they first noticed the rooster strutting around the foyer last week and let it out - but it keeps coming back.
The Carolina Morning News says the restaurant, which invites customers to "Eat Mor Chicken" is now trying to decide what to feed the bird.
So far staff have fed it bread and biscuits. But it seems to want more.
Restaurant manager Carlton Beall said it would be 'gross' to feed him 'his own kind'.
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Thick slice raw sweet onion (Vidalia, Texas Sweet, etc.)
Sliced tomato, lightly salted and peppered
Crisp lettuce
Dijon mustard
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Fourth Amendment be damned. I look, and sometimes silently marvel at what I see.
I'm not as bad about it as an old friend of mine back in Chapel Hill. I had helped write a business plan for him (he wanted to set himself up as a personal trainer, back before that seemed such a ubiquitous job) and he had some pretty interesting dietary theories of his own.
So anyway, I would run into him in the supermarket every now and then, and he would run over to me, slap me on the back and cry "Health food checkout!" and then proceed to rifle through my cart. "Yeah, this is great. Oh, good stuff here. No, this has gotta go, what are you thinking..."
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How do you shred fresh mozzarella? It seems like it would be to soft to me. I have a hard time just cutting it with a wire.
Hmm. I have coarsely shredded it before with no problem.
I agree that if you tried to shred it finely it would basically turn to goo.
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Don't sweat the plates and glasses; the only "presentation" anyone will notice is how the food looks once it's plated up.
A little lasagna-making advice. One, I agree that a handful of chopped fresh basil in the ricotta/egg mixture is a very nice touch. Two, make a little more Bolognese/red sauce than the recipe calls for, maybe half again as much. A little extra sauce never hurt anybody's lasagna, and you'll need more than three cups of sauce to generously spread over a couple of layers.
And you could *absolutely* use fresh mozzarella. I always put some mozz in my lasagna. If I were you, I'd shred it, not slice it, but either would work. And I would frankly prefer it to bechamel sauce in a lasagna.
I like mags' idea of a plate of cold cuts and olives for starters very much. This will keep the guests busy and whet their appetites. If you can't serve wine, make or buy some lemonade (always a summer winner) or iced tea for people to sip.
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Anybody know?
Seth, give Jefferson Market a call. It's a little odd for a gourmet market to stock this stuff, but I am pretty sure that I've seen some canning supplies (in season) in there in the past.
NYC Report -- hitting the highlights
in New York: Dining
Posted
Lovely travelogue and photographs.
In re "no toasting" (of bagels) yes, it seems to be a New York thing. I asked our neighborhood bagel place, not long after I moved here, for a toasted bagel, and the counter lady looked at me as if I had suddenly sprouted an extra head. "You toast stale bagels, or bagels out of the freezer. These are *fresh* bagels; them, you slice and eat."
Oh, okay.
Any diner or breakfast joint will happily toast your bagel for you, however.
You chose your restaurants very well. Next time you're in town, try the pizza at Grimaldi's (on the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge) and definitely don't miss Grand Sichuan. And a good deli, like Katz's or Second Ave, should be a don't-miss New York experience for the kids.