pidge

you can find chickweed and wood sorrel, as well as lovage and several other herbs at union square on saturdays. for the first two, try gorzynski's farm (near 16th st., west side of park), early. ask there if they have the others. lovage is pretty common in about a month in bunches throughout the market, but there is the lady with the organic herb plants who generally has everything. she should be on the west side of the square south of gorzynski, but with the new configuration, i'm not sure... good luck!

the scallop shell is a symbol of santiago di campostela (st. jacques, or santiago matamoros) and is carried by pilgrims who make their way across france and spain to the famous site in galicia*, an incredibly popular pilgrimage since the early middle ages.... one still sees the pilgrinms in burgos and the basque regions. pilgrims carry them to drink from and to symbolize their status for those who might offer comfort along the way. i would guess that this is where the holy part of capesante comes from..... edit from asturias...

hi guys... bit off topic, but does anyone know where alberto baffoni might be now? old, old friend, and i would like to get in touch.

not to defend anyone or to continue too far off topic, but you do all remember that mr. bruni threw down the four star italian gauntlet in his original review of babbo? and, quite frankly, could there be a bigger piece of candy dangled in front of every publicist with either an italian-ate restaurant oor an established three star to flog? what easier way to approach the established food press than to say "this may well be the four star we've all been waiting for"? del posto is not the only restaurant to have such ambitions or to publicize them in the past few years... it's just unfortunate that those ambitions are out there on the record when the restaurants fail to make that cut. nobody recalls the bated breath that awaited the (slam dunk) of per se's review. it surprises me that we often forget that as much as anything the restaurant business is a pr driven business, and that a small number of publicists and writers hold tremendous sway. the value of the buzz in real dollars cannot possibly be overestimated, both for the business and the personal interests of chefs and owners.

Being from NYC I was wondering what are the best restaurants in Charlotte and how would a nYC style restaurant do down there

has anyone ever tried silkscreening a specific design onto the acetate? i need a sort of a logo, and i was thinking that this might be the way to go....???

new favorite on the counters of nyc bodegas....happy hippos...some sort of hippo shaped (3D) wafer cookie thing filled with gianduja-like cream....

got some at n.y. cake and bake about 2 years ago....if you can bear the scene !

gina dipalma, pastry chef, babbo vicky wells, pastry chef, mesa grill and bolo ....still thinking.....

alexandra guarnaschelli, butter laura maioglio, barbetta charleen badman and ann rosenzweig, inside sue torres, suenos patricia williams, formerly of morrells vera tong, pastry chef, sushi samba margherita aloi, arezzo

amen. the thing about media portrayals of the kitchen is that no one ever makes it clear that the work is really hard, and requires a tremendous amount of concntration, skill and, yes, often luck. i went to cooking school, i started at the bottom of the kitchen....sort of a modified prep/dishwasher/loading dock operator. it amazes me when kids from cooking school spend time in my kitchen whether as commis', externs or stages, and think they're gonna start out on the saute station, and it's gonna be like iron chef or monica's restaurant on "friends", and never even bother to learn the dishwasher's names. c'mon...currently i have grads from three different schools, all just starting out, in the kitchen...fortunately, they're not your typical college boys(girls), but i see it all the time, too. and, quite frankly faust, if you read tony bourdain's description of a day in the life of a cook/chef, i think you might (if you were a kitchen person), kind of think of him as a role model, just in being able to describe and remember all the things he did in a day. despite his wild ass, party down rep, the man was a working kitchen drone for a very long time before he himself became a media darling. to answer the original questions: 1. nope, they always make me crazy for lack of accuracy and continuity, and... 2. usually any gangster/chopsocky/spy movie with a chase through a busy hotel kitchen!

roasted chicken at williams bbq sable on a buttered bagel from murray the sturgeon king olive oil gelato at otto focaccia robiola at da ciro marrow bones at blue ribbon steak with anchovy sauce at petrosino burger at corner bistro salumi at lupa capretto at l'impero .......still thinking

lucy's is in abc carpet and home, where he used to oversee the cafe and prepared foods. hmmmmm???

Sponge Bob get's swiped from Burger King. http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee.../printstory.jsp ← when i was a kid in pennsylvania, some guys stole the big boy from in front of bobs. unfortunately, he didn't quite fit in the trunk, so the cops found him, scuffed foot and all, by following the giant red smudge to one of the kids houses.....

11 madison park, in the bar area...nicole makes great desserts, and there are some snuggly banquettes under a silver leaf ceiling.