jhlurie

Ah yes, the Kosher Meal... El Al

The WORST food can sometimes be the most interesting to talk about. The BEST food can sometimes be the most boring. And vice versa. The odds are in favor of the fine food being the most interesting, but its far from universal. Fine cuisine invites discussion of technique, and that's always a large area for discussion. But "cheap eats" invite more comparison, more discussion of value, and in some cases some very interesting points about mass production. Grandmaster P's point also ignores the gray area between the two--what we sometimes call "ethnic food" for lack of adaquate terminology. He's reducing the low end to hot dogs and hamburgers, and we all know that's not an accurate representation. I can walk down to a store on my corner and get a bowl of Vietnamese Pho for less money than I'd spend at a Burger King, and his assumptions just don't work there. Yes, the best fine cuisine will be more enriching and ultimately MOST worthy of discussion. But it's neither accurate, nor right, to claim that everything else is "{not} very interesting on an analytical level." It's too broad--it's just one of those types of dramatic generalizations people use to win points in a debate class.

Uh oh. Mention it once and salmon pikes up on it. Everyone will want to get trout of here quickly.

Almond Butter on sliced Granny Smith apples. Much better than honey.

ew. Gross.

It's been said already... The claimed "two stars" in that range of seven possible NJ ratings is not a bad rating at all. A VERY GOOD is cause for opening up some expensive champagne, and extending your restaurant's lease. A NJ restaurant is usually overjoyed to get a GOOD. Two stars has got to be somewhere in that range, since its the halfway point of the scale. Unless this person was claiming that they got the SECOND LOWEST rating, which is NOT what I've been reading here.

Mine too. My grandmother would flip, but it works better than her Chicken Soup ever did.

BON posted this link a while ago: Ramen shop webcam But it doesn't seem to be up right now.

A long long time ago there used to be an airlines called "TWA". Once--only once--I flew something called "Ambassador Class", on the upper level of a widebody jet, where in addition to seats as big as chaise lounges, we were also stuffed with unlimited amounts of lobster, chateaubriand and reasonably good champagne (well, not me, I was underaged at the time--this was twenty years ago). You don't get that kind of service anymore.

For the record, my main course was Mr. Shaw's "favorite", the short rib and strip combination, prominently featuring fava beans and an assortment of "spring" vegetables. It WAS quite worthy of praise, although Rachel's rabbit also looked kind of neat from where I was sitting. The rib/strip combo was essentially a pretty simple dish, as you can tell from Steven's photo, but that doesn't detract. The other item I consumed, which has not yet been mentioned, was the green and white asparagus salad--a vinaigrette, with thin but plentiful slices of summer truffle and a fairly wonderful layer of parmesan cheese crisp. The asparagus were not as crisp as my ideal, but overall the effect was nice. Overall... I certainly wasn't dissapointed. Matt's not going to have much trouble finding a place if the world works like its supposed to.

First, the meal. Rachel's descriptions are good enough that, in general, I won't try and improve on them. I'll say that the item which most impressed me was the gnocchi with morels, sunchokes and relish. It was representative of several of the best dishes in that the sum was much more impressive than the parts themselves. The gnocchi by themselves were what gnocchi always are--inert lumps of potato. But taken in one fork-load with the saltiness of the morels, the sweetness of the sunchokes and the mustardy tang of the relish, it worked, by god. If it wasn't a word which has been damaged beyond repair by reviewer misuse, I'd almost use the "s" word to describe it. But I won't. Who needs it? The wine, overall, was good, but the Chianti was much more than good. I also hope that Cab grabbed that wine list. And yes, I enjoyed the sweetbreads as well. But I've been burned by sweetbreads often enough in the past to still not be a wholehearted convert. The Valrhona Chocolate Popover with Chocolate Cream and White Chocolate Sauce was interesting. Perhaps the pastry chef, Chika, has the same philosophy as Matt. The ingredients by themselves--particularly the popover--were fairly boring. But the three together were perfect. The "Cream" was kind of a highly dense mousse, a bit strong by itself, but mellowed appropriately by the White Chocolate Sauce and the Popover. As for the closing... Years ago, I lived in that neighborhood for a bit, my father had lived there for close to an entire decade before that, and my sister for four years past that. I know the area pretty well... since I don't think the nature of it has changed that much. There's this big wall of restaurants along 2nd Avenue that people don't usually cross. York Ave. itself is kind of dead--it's a faceless uniteresting neighborhood, except for the hospital and Sotheby's. Certainly the timing and the nervousness of the investors were big factors... but its just not a good location. Period. It's too bad--the space itself was very nice.

Bon, since Pocky has a lot of imitators, is there a word or name that covers all of the various products that are similar to Pocky in appearance? "Pocky-like" seems like a good word to use temporarily, but we'll use the real word if one exists.

I got the last one, Mark. Yeah, I'll be there. I just didn't know for sure until today. As for the Pocky Drill Team... yeah, right. You can continue to think that they are marketing for teenaged girls if you want... but did you notice that "Men's Pocky" is prominent in the end-cap of that commercial?

Fink, what is that little bit of funky music on your website? I can't name that tune...

Actually BOTH Smith & Wollensky AND Ruth's Chris are technically chains, Aurora. Ruth's Chris is huge compared to S&W, which started in New York, I think, and only has about 7 or 8 locations (whereas Ruth's Chris supposedly has more than 80). Apparently Ruth Fertel, of Ruth's Chris, just died a few months ago.

Well, these guys seem to be willing to SHIP you some Green Tea Mousse Pocky: Click Here. (edit - just saw someone else post this...) also, Suzanne F, elsewhere on eGullet posted this:

There was a WONDERFUL discussion of Chicken Soup WAY back towards the beginning of eGullet. The improved search engine finds a lot of Chicken Soup discussions, but unfortunately not this one. The thread was even CALLED something like "Chicken Soup". Oh, well... the search is still about 100 times better... Anyway, I think I had a slightly controversial position that Jewish Grandmother chicken soup (and I've had REALLY GOOD Jewish Grandmother chicken soup) was far from my favorite these days. I've had Thai and Mexican chicken soups with were MUCH more to my current taste. Other people mentioned AVGOLEMONO (Greek Lemon Chicken Soup) and CHICKEN PHO (Vietnamese).

Been a lot of years since I've had a Chipwich (especially with the number of clones which have popped up) but I like the looks of this... This history of Chipwich would be a bit less objectionable if it wasn't an obvious teaser for a book. But I do like the bit about how a Englewood, NJ student came up with the name in trade for college tuition...

Your first link (to the eGullet post) is broken. The second? Wow... gotta dig that funky music. Sounds like a combo of Kool & The Gang and the theme from Sanford & Son...

But... Mark... it's such a... catchy tune. You mean you didn't like it for the catchy tune? Pocky, Pocky, Pocky... (and I expected TOMMY to be the one to make the suggestive comments! )

Please note my "sometimes" status is because I think that the two of them are absolutely nuts. But it was a chance for some free Pocky. By the way, what exactly IS a wub? I've just used one without knowing.

Okay...we did candy elsewhere... so how about Frozen treats? Rules as before... let us know what neat Frozen dessert treats you know and love... gourmet or junk off the back of a truck. Pictures, if possible. Upper left corner of this page--"Popsicle Shots". I'm eating one of these right now... not bad, but it would be better if Good Humor had made it a bit more sour. Amazingly it's only 10 Calories and 2g of carbs. I could hardly believe it.

Help! Oh never mind.

Dessert Bacon? Where?

Please no, you are hurting me. (what am I saying? I had reconstituted oatmeal today. In one of those little vacuum sealed cups where you add water, and then you ignore the directions and add other stuff from your cupboard.)