pidge

i went to cooking school in baltimore (a very long time ago...) and we were required to attend the butchering of a terrapin, who was then used to make terrapin soup. congratulations on receiving your meat already butchered, btw, as the vision of that event has never quite left me. as i remember, the soup was quite tasty, although the meat (in very small bits) was quite tough...but we were after all just a bunch of cooking students! i think i remember seeing a recipe in the american heritage cookbook, or maybe james beards american cookery (two good references, if you don't happen to have them). good luck!!

strangely enough, flipping through the channels the other morning, i saw him on wayne brady (the k-1 fights had finished on espn and....well, i guess there's really no excuse.) anyhow, i couldn't tear my eyes away as the two of them commiserated on their bad luck (wayne brady's been cancelled?!) pumped up mama and made meatballs together, while discussing choderow and the vagaries of fame. good publicist, indeed....someone should lock him up for the next 3 months before he does any more damage.

wow....i thought i was the only one who had the wood/fork/cardboard thing....i feel like i've just had a major breakthrough! my peeve, resulting from all this, is people who walk around with toothpicks in their mouths (*shiver*); can't even look at 'em.

when i was in college...c.1982, we decided at midnight to take the 2 hour drive to nyc to go to the original limelight...the video installations, the pirhanas in the baptismal font, the dancing on the altar....still one of my all time favorite club nights.

yep, the employees at robata were definitely japanese....i remember many (then) exotic meals there from my misspent youth. the place in clark's summit is really quite good....they get their fish direct from new york on the martz bus (i've seen the packsge, well packed in ice and coolers) which probably means it's as fresh as anything that has been cruising around the city for a few hours! ... i have to say i really miss john k's wings...patsels is very nice, and there are a few restaurants around clark's summit that look promising, but does anybody have any good suggestions for decent old fashioned bar food? my family used to love jinn's, which is like a roadhouse in maybe factoryville, but the last few times weren't so great, and as i like to spend quality time there in the summer, i'm wondering if there's something new i might not yet know. anybody?

[blink] Why on earth would you think that "The Restaurant" -- never mind playing to the cameras -- has much to do with Manhattan, or is any way exclusive to Manhattan? i'm a manhattanite.....those people, btw, are not. we call them bridge and tunnel. and, honestly, having seen a little of both places, i would say the posturing is way more l.a., possibly having to do with the fact that it is, after all, television show. i have been (gasp) to "the restaurant" with out of town friends, and i can assure you that it is quite unlike any other place on our little island, with the possible exception of perhaps a few gentleman's clubs and times square hotel bars.

my chef in school worked in the hotel sacher (or at least claimed to have; i don't think he would have lied...) during his apprenticeship. i don't have my bible here with me, but as i remember, there were ground almonds in the recipe and the butter and sugar were creamed together w/ the melted chocolate and the yolks and then meringue folded in. this made a really nice dense but velvety cake. the icing was more or less as you describe, a heavy ganache-though poured on thin, but that may have been a matter of convenience. if i find hte recipe i'll post...good luck!