enrevanche

And, in many cases, owned by Albanians. There is, however, a very authentic "Little Italy" in the Belmont neighborhood (Arthur Avenue area) of the Bronx, easily accessible from Manhattan by bus and subway.

Thanks, Ellen. I can die happy now.

Holy cow, Chicago-style hot dogs too? This is just an embarrassment of riches. Lovely photo essay, Ellen. I love that bright green relish on the hot dogs - that is a shade of green that does *not* occur in nature, but totally typical and necessary for a Chicago dog! I see they've got the tomato wedge, sport peppers, and other necessary accoutrements. Though I didn't see it mentioned, given Mr. Meyer's quest for authenticity in all things I'm sure there's a dash of celery salt on there too.

Rachel, I hope that you will get plenty of good suggestions for Sunday dinner. Mine would be: lasagna, a little time-consuming but easy to make and nearly foolproof; crisp green salad with a simple homemade vinaigrette (or good bottled dressing is just fine too); crusty bread (decent storebought bread is fine); a bottle of Italian red wine like a nice Chianti. For dessert, now that summer is here a fresh fruit tray (apples, pears, maybe plums or peaches) with maybe some nice store-bought sorbet to put in little cups? However, I wanted to give you a word of warning and encouragement at the same time. I don't know you *or* your in-laws, but I am sadly familiar with this type of situation. Here goes: Cooking for hateful, vicious people is a no-win situation. Do *not* get your self-esteem all wrapped up in trying to "impress" people who have snubbed you for ten (!) years; if they have that much pathology working for them, don't expect them to act appreciative or even rational. Cook to satisfy yourself and your husband, and don't worry so much about the in-laws. Make something nice and tasty for them, be polite and correct and friendly, and if they don't like it (or start picking at you or spewing venom for some reason), fuck 'em. Not your problem, not your fault, their issues not yours. When you're dealing with people like this, the best thing you can do is do what pleases you.

Lots and lots of food references on this disc. Here's a shout-out to my favorite Bleecker Street cheese emporium, from "Oh Word?":

Aw, you just ain't never had it fixed right. Chop into 1/4" thick slices, dredge in cornmeal, and fry in a medium-hot iron skillet in a little melted shortening. Them's good eatin'. Ripe yellow squash is also good prepared according to this method.

I am only an occasional martini drinker--bourbon is more my thing--but sometimes nothing else will do. And I *like* vermouth in my martini. Bombay Sapphire Gin, please, with a generous slug of good vermouth. (If I mix them at home, about 5:1.) Perfection.

KFC can have this one from me for free: pico de gallo/salsa fresca. Chopped tomatoes and onions, a little lime juice, some fresh cilantro, a touch of garlic and a little bit of jalapeno pepper for heat... nothing simpler. Salsa, in one form or another, is now the most popular condiment in America. A small dish of pico/salsa fresca is very refreshing as a cold salad, great with chicken whether roasted or fried. It would even go with their godawful honey-coated wings. And you can eat it with a spork.

Manhattan Fruit Exchange, in the Chelsea Market (15th St/9th Ave) is a good place to find exotic or unusual fruits and vegetables, at great prices. Bought some beautiful Meyer lemons there almost as cheaply as they can be bought in California. Haven't seen exotic limes there (yet), or for that matter at my neighborhood Gourmet Garage, but will keep my eyes open for them.

I'm so jazzed about having a real frozen custard stand in the City. Grew up down South eating exemplary frozen custard. There's nothing quite like it, and a frozen-custard-based *milkshake* is truly a thing of wonderment. No accident that they've named their park stand the "Shake Shack" - the custard milkshake is a culinary WMD (Weapon of Massive Deliciousness.)

Bingo. Cottage pie = beef and veggies covered with mashed potatoes, shepherd's pie is made with lamb. Note that many US restaurants serve "shepherd's pie" that's actually made with beef. Our local neighborhood Brit expat hangout, Tea and Sympathy. does a mighty tasty version of this. I have been known to add finely diced carrots to my cottage pie (just saute a minute or two with the onions) or even fresh corn kernels sliced off the cob (ditto.) It's a great way to use leftovers: I make it all the time whenever I have leftover roast beef or brisket (though ground beef/chuck will work just great.) Making that nice gravy is crucial.

Jonathan, the Help stuff has to be downloaded and installed as a separate package. There are three d/l files you need for GIMP: the main binaries, the GTK (toolkit) runtime environment, and the Help files. You can get everything you need here. Some useful tutorial and doc packages (I've checked the links; they all work): Introduction to the GIMP interface GIMP User Group - great tutorials here, also useful discussion forums for both new and experienced users Tutorials at the gimp.org site

Aw, yeah! It's gazpacho time. And the local sweet corn is coming in, too? Wow. I had to work this weekend, and missed my Saturday trip to the Greenmarket. Now I'm really kicking myself.

The "Special Italian Hero" at Faicco's Pork Store on Bleecker Street. It is the Platonic ideal of a sub sandwich/hero/grinder. For ten bucks, you'll get a sandwich easily big enough for two people, containing the best-quality Italian deli meats (prosciutto, cappicola, sopressata, etc.) and cheeses to be found in the city. My wife and I will often pick one of these up on a weekend day and stroll down to the Hudson River for an impromptu picnic.

Jenny - The CubbyHole, maybe?

I had never heard this before, Susan, but I have to say it makes good sense. Many folk practices seem to embody good, common-sense practical psychology when it comes to comforting people. I have always really appreciated the practice of the Irish wake... sort of like sitting shiva, but with whiskey. I *was* taught very carefully, as a child, that one never returns somebody's dish empty. A few baked goodies or something similar on the plate being returned was a way of saying thank you. (This didn't apply to dishes brought during illness or mourning; that appeared to be an exception. It was a rule, though, for dishes brought by neighbors and friends under other circumstances.)

Addictive? You said it. These things are the crack cocaine of the nut world.

Does Canada Dry even *make* Wink any more? It's been years since I've seen a bottle. God, I used to love that stuff.

Me too. A good friend, someone I like to cook with, observes that cooking and eating are very intimate acts. When we're having an "on" night in the kitchen, we can make things that will cause people to make noises of appreciation that ordinarily they would never make, at least with their clothes on.

Happily, not an exclusively Southern phenomenon at all. The big Greenmarket at Union Square in New York City has a couple of vendors who sell homemade pepper jellies; my personal favorite is a green pepper/bell pepper jelly with just a few habaneros added into the mix for a little piquant "kick." And yes, it's great on a bagel with a little cream-cheese.

The only person who has ever actually accused me of being *obsessed* with food was my ex-wife, who included my relatives in the bargain, as a parting shot: "...and your whole f***ing family is totally obsessed with food!" (She didn't seem to mind it so much all those years when I was cooking for her. On the other hand, she grew up in a house where "cooking" meant taking something out of a can and heating it up, so given her deprived background, it's not so surprising that She Just Didn't Understand.) Heh. The current wife, and my friends, tend to view my foodie tendencies as a Charming Idiosyncrasy, or at least that's what they tell me to my face. They reap the benefits of my "obsession" on a regular basis--the search for better and better flavors, textures and combinations. all of which winds up being plated up and served to them at some point. I am also the "go-to" guy in my circle of friends for restaurant recommendations.

Brooks, Having grown up in the South myself (North Carolina in my case) I am very familiar with the dynamic you speak of. My mom took sick last year, and I rushed home to look after her and my dad. When I arrived the kitchen table was positively groaning with delicious homemade food brought by the neighbors. We barely had fridge space for the stuff that had to be kept cold. In my case, when I am bringing food to a sick friend/sick friend's family, I try to make something simple, tasty and nutritious that will keep a while and can be reheated with a minimum of fuss. That usually winds up being a pot of chicken soup (remarkable in its curative properties), a pan of lasagna, or something similar. If the sick person is feeling up to eating something substantial, I often call ahead and ask "what do you feel like eating" and make that. (When my aunt was going through chemo, she was jonesing for peanut butter cookies for some reason. She felt like she could eat those? Great. I made a ton of them.) One of my neighbors back in North Carolina was famous for bringing delicious *beverages* when someone was ill. Her reasoning was, everybody else was bringing food, and they're all going to need something to drink... she would show up with a couple of gallons of homemade lemonade, iced tea, etc. I always thought that was pretty sharp, actually.

The GIMP (main site) GIMP for Unix/Linux distros GIMP source code (compile it yourself)

Wow, thanks for all the thoughtful, in-depth replies. I am going to keep on keeping on with GIMP, as I sense that I have just sort of scratched the surface of what it can do. In re: Paint Shop Pro, I just made a happy discovery. If you go to the publisher's web site (JASC Software) you can download, for free, a 60-day evaluation version of PSP 8. It's a big download--55MB, thank God for broadband--but you can get it, along with other resources like plug-ins and a very complete documentation set, for free and try it out for two months. I guess these folks come out of the shareware tradition. Very nice. A two-month trial period is quite generous, and for the price PSP is looking like a huge bargain in the world of commercial graphics software. I've been playing with PSP for about an hour and really like it. Great interface, great built-in photo tools. (Note also, JASC has a new product called Paint Shop Photo Album, priced at $45, that seems like a decent tool for storing, organizing and doing light editing of digital photos. I may download and check it out next.)

Might as well face it, you're addicted to tea...