SobaAddict70

Additional comments: 1. I assume the salad of artichokes, tomatoes and cucumbers will be a chopped salad of some sort. I concur with cabrales -- what kind of viniagrette or dressing will you serve? 2. Several garnishes are tomatoes in some form -- have you considered other types of garnishes? You may want to, to avoid over-similarity. As an aside (to cabrales and others) -- is this a problem in other restaurants that you've encountered -- too many similar garnishes? 3. The lobster asparagus salad sounds right for late spring or early summer. You may want to consider varying this dish according to what's available at the market, so that the consistent element of the salad is the lobster component, while the vegetables reflect availability at the greenmarket. 4. You may want to consider the rack of lamb again -- having it crusted with cardamom might overwhelm the meat (cardamom is potentially a powerful sweet spice, used in less than judicious quantities), and may run counter to the delicacy of the haricot verts and celeriac puree. 5. Will there be any desserts? SA

Other people will probably add to this, but here are my initial two cents. I'm not qualified to comment on certain aesthetics, having insufficient experience (i.e., wine), so will leave it to the experts. (::) What's a potato "gurfet"? The duck looks mildly interesting, but seems a little heavy to me (particularly the bbq one). I'm not sure serving it with an overly (potentially) rich item like a mascarpone polenta cake is a good idea. I understand where you're coming from, as you're probably looking for something to set off the intense flavors of the duck on something soft and creamy. Perhaps you might consider leaving out the mascarpone and letting the polenta speak for itself. Ditto for the Asian marinated duck -- competing flavors -- spicy/sweet. The danger here is that the orange glaze might prove overwhelming to the dominant flavors in the marinade. The herb crusted black bass sounds interesting but may suffer from "too many elements" syndrome. Do you really need the shrimp in there? I think you mean roasted vegetable jus or puree, not demi-glace. Demi-glace would overwhelm the fish and risotto. By a trio of oranges, what do you mean? For the veal, what does the marinade consist of? Also, what is the focus of your restaurant? It seems to me that you're leaning towards a fish-predominant menu. Will it change seasonally, or is the menu fixed? SA

Last night -- because I'm weird in my own loveable way, and because I like weird food combinations: cottage cheese, sauteed onions, a sprinkle of spicy Ms. Dash, and chopped tomatoes. I have this big container of cottage cheese in my fridge and wanted to try something new. On a more sane note: Slow-cooked, sauteed onions in EVOO, one anchovy fillet packed in oil, a sprinkle of red pepper flakes, a tablespoon of capers, chopped oil-cured olives, a small handful of red currants, and half a can of crushed plum tomatoes; cooked the sauce down for about half an hour to forty minutes over medium-low heat, until the tomatoes thickened. Served over penne rigate; topped with some fried bread crumbs. Vanilla ice cream with crushed almond biscotti. Evian. Herb tea.

Thanks, Toby. SA

Limoncello is an Italian liqueur that's made with lemons. Very sweet, and sometimes served as either an apertif or as dessert.

What's a cymling? Like an ortolan? Is it mythical? (j/k) SA

Nina, Amen, sister! Toby: Thanks for the thought, but the discussion isn't as bitter as other, more recent, similar discussions that come to mind. Again, thanks for the sentiment but things are ok. Really. SA

Plotnicki-san: WELL (hmph), since you put it that way, of course ratatouille is better than succotash. Anyone can see that....unless they're Puritans, in which case what you have is a no-win situation.

Pancit. (Filipino dish consisting of glass noodles with minced chicken, pork, dried shrimp, vegetables and various seasonings -- such as garlic, patis (fish sauce) and baguong (fermented shrimp paste)) Cantonese pan-fried noodles (usually with pork and vegetables). Ants on a tree. (rice noodles with minced pork, tofu and chili paste. the name is derived from the minced pork representing the "ants" and the noodles representing the "tree") Spaghetti with white clam sauce. Spaghetti (or other pasta) with basic meat sauce. I think that my interest in Italian cooking stems from having one too many bastardized versions of Bolognese sauce when I was growing up -- one jar of Aunt Millie's, ground beef, onions, garlic, 2 bay leaves, and 1 T. sugar. That's ok, but I've been corrupted -- now that I know what the real thing tastes like. SA

Plotnicki-san: On this board? I dunno. I'd say flip a coin or something. Some of us like to talk about ratatouille (altho I have yet to see a thread on Provencal specialties -- most of the threads seem to lean towards the Escoffier school of cooking, not the peasant school. I mean, no one seems to want to talk about stuff like coq au vin, beef burgundy (unsure about the French spelling of "burgundy"), and soupe au pistou for example. Some of us might talk about succotash -- not me, I find lima beans kind of boring. As for me, I prefer to talk about succotash with truffle butter. Now THAT's interesting (to me, anyway). But I suspect that's not within the scope of this thread, as most of y'all seem to lean one way or another. Also, the topic begs the question of "What is the general definition of 'interesting' as applied to food in general"? I'd say that's what everyone is really discussing. What is interesting tends to be subjective, but Plato might say that there's a Form of Interest, and that's what you're really talking about. Hm. Not sure if I'm babbling. Wilfrid, help? SA

Steve P -- when I first read the corn thread, my immediate response was to try to recall a recipe for pan-seared steak with buttered scallions and three-pepper corn relish that used to be a feature item at An American Place, but since I couldn't immediately recall the details, opted instead for the corn bread stuffing recipe. (Yes its tangential, so sue me. =P) Most of the interesting things I find about fresh corn have nothing to do with the basic recipe for cooking corn; they have a lot to do with corn kernels sliced off of freshly picked cobs. Corn tossed into a pot of boiling water, and subsequently slathered with melted butter is interesting....to a point. Corn pudding, corn bread, etc. -- now THOSE are what holds interest for me. I guess what I'm trying to say is that both fine dining and cheap eats hold an interest for me -- different proportions of interest in those regards. Of greater interest however, is that simple ingredients normally used for cheap eats, have the potential to reach something greater when elevated one or two levels. Take for example the hamburger at db moderne. Yes, it is a hamburger, but one made with foie gras. Steak tartare is essentially raw hamburger with a variety of toppings. Cassoulet is at its most basic, baked beans cooked with a variety of meats (yeah, yeah, the meats in question aren't your typical sausages being that some require advance prep and special techniques, but for the sake of my argument, humor me...)No one denigrates those as "cheap eats". Ironic isn't it? Um....Chinese and Japanese cooking comes to mind? Chinese -- congee? rice and noodle dishes? Congee is usually served at breakfast. Rice and noodle dishes are by tradition served as one course during a Chinese banquet. By your definition, these two examples fit, since risotto is rice that's been cooked with stock, butter, cream and other ingredients. Japanese -- the rice/pickles/miso course at the end of most evening meals? 1. Bouilliabaise/ciopinno. One is a Provencal preparation, the other is native to the Bay Area/San Francisco. One involves the use of various shellfish and fish, notably racasse; the other varies according to availability. One uses rouille as an addition to the soup, not sure about the other. But both are cheap (relatively speaking to caviar), potentially complex, and quite good (if prepared well). 2. Most Provencal dishes, for that matter. Ratatouille (sp), salade Nicoise are two other examples that come to mind. 3. Pasta fresca (and sauces made for it). Pasta secca (and sauces made for dishes that use it). Most authentic Italian pasta dishes. Timbales. 4. Indian cuisine in general. For example -- no two garam masalas will ever be made (or taste alike). Garam masala is an excellent example of a cheap, complex and good preparation that is on many levels, as complex as a properly made demi-glace or beurre noisette. (I am not that knowledgeable in this regard as other members...Suvir/anil/indiagirl, help?) Each area of India has its own basic preparation, unique to that geographical location. Add to that, chutneys and raitas. Many students of Indian vegetarian cuisine, to demonstrate the level of potential complexity, spend as much as three to four weeks contemplating various ways and techniques on cooking and preparing potatoes -- before applying those techniques to other vegetables. I could think of others, but I'm a little frazzled at the moment. I can volunteer....if y'all promise not to roast me afterwards. I mean, I don't have a paella pan. But I promise not to use any stuffed olives in mine.

You could make a lamb or chicken tagine that uses preserved lemons as part of the sauce. You could make a lemon confit with some preserved lemons in the mix. Or use it as a condiment for couscous, and some harissa. I have a few recipes at home that use p. lemon, so will post later when I get home from work. SA

You're making me hungry just reading your report. Someone once told me that cooking school's two biggest hurdles are enduring the physical aspects (standing, the need for good shoes/clogs) and honing knife skills. Once you get over those, everything else is just gravy. Sounds to me you're well on your way past those. You go! SA

Well this is one thread that I didn't think would live past one or two pages. How wrong I was!!! hehe I almost never watch The Food Network anymore....at least since it became an homage to His Majesty of Lard (aka Emeril "Kick It Up A Notch" Lagasse). And that's a shame, because the TFN I remember had shows such as "Taste", Julia Child's series, and other shows which managed to demonstrate a degree of care about food and the culinary arts. Emeril probably serves that function, but I cringe whenever I manage to force myself to watch his program. He might know how to cook and could probably run rings around the Winsome One, but the way he demonstrates his talent to us, the Little People, makes me want to gag. For example, his plating skills are horrendous -- at least, those shown on air. In real life, its probably a different story. I confess I haven't seen Nigella's show -- at least not yet. Gratuitous abundance aside, its refreshing to hear that she can walk the walk.

Probably because these two rank themselves among quasi-food journalism rags, and so it wouldn't do to write about something that's better suited towards the weekend section of the New York Times (i.e., the Travel section, which btw, contains a great deal of restaurant/food reviews). The NYTimes especially -- they need to market themselves to all aspects of the general population, and for some, that means articles which serve to introduce to the masses food/cuisine presented from the insider looking inwards....on occasion, once in a blue moon, to use an overused cliche. You see examples of this statement in the Times' occasional special on foods of America (e.g., Chinook salmon; apples; native Louisiana cooking (specifically New Orleans)). You see it more often in Saveur (incidentally, this is why I no longer subscribe to Saveur). Bon Appetit has a regular feature in 12 out of 13 issues every single year; a single city or destination is covered, and the food angle is justified by dropping in one or two recipes (ditto why I let my subscription with BA run out). I suspect that Saveur's readership consists of people who are less interested in the whys and wherefores of cooking and food in general than in finding the next cool place to visit/eat/travel to/do. As for the Times, all sorts of people read it, and so, the theory is probably more complicated. Macrosan -- is it the flavoring that you find underwhelming? the texture (or lack thereof)? the casing? the toppings? the method of service? or perhaps its the nature of the beast? after all, we're the stepchild that lost our way...to certain povs. (yes I'm an Anglophile and a monarchist to boot.) the closest British equivalent I can imagine to a hot dog is a piece of black pudding, but that's not something served to the general public, I don't think. Mr. P.: True, dat, for the reason you give in your reply. But I suspect, and mind you, this is cynical old me, another reason is that most people don't give a hootin' nanny, in this age of convenience and loosening standards. I don't want to make sweeping generalizations (and its so easy to do), but when was the last time people actually spent a good portion of their available time cooking? Nowadays, most just pop their favorite dinner/leftovers or what have you into the microwave, either because of lack of time, laziness, or some other combination involving something else and either or both of those two factors. Why bother to cook when you can just pop open a can and drink your breakfast? Etc. etc. I think the food mags realize that the desire to cook or at least, to appear as if one knows how to cook is there, but that the numbers don't support this notion, at least in sufficient terms. Therefore, they market their content to appeal to their readership. We, the Gentle Readers, have only ourselves to blame. This may eventually change. There was an article that appeared in the Times, or elsewhere (can't remember where), that teenagers have exhibited a new interest in cooking, and that this isn't a passing fad, a la The Naked Chef and his ilk. We'll see, though....at least I hope so. Then perhaps, BA, Gourmet, and the NYTimes can get back to the genuine business of food writing. SA

Saveur seems to do this on a more than semi-regular basis. I seem to remember a cover story on "Cheeses in the Dairy Heartland" or something like that -- a piece on Wisconsin's burgeoning cheese industry comes to mind. It appeared to be more than 80% travelogue and 20% genuine food journalism.... That said, I do appreciate their pieces on Asian cuisine, such as one cover article on Vietnamese kai soi. (spelling?)

Yesterday: Took a can of Italian tuna packed in olive oil, and tossed that along with some chopped Italian parsley, EVOO, capers, crushed and pitted Gaeta olives, some lemon juice and minced lemon zest, and LOTS of freshly cracked black pepper over tagliatelle. Haagen-Dasz mango sorbet.

So has anyone seen the "Nigella Bites" show yet? Comments? Questions? Cheers and jeers? Buehler?

I too, confess, to never having had a WC burger. The possibility of consuming steamed hamburgers reminds me too much of what Burger King does to their burgers: flame-broiled/steamed/microwaved and then placed under a heat lamp! No thanks. (I can attest to all of that, having worked at a BK when I was a scrappy teenager. ) Macrosan, you must have had one too many hot dogs on the gritty streets of New York. You know, the kind sold by those hot dog vendors with boiled sausages. However, there are vendors with grilled hot dogs -- these don't quite come close to Nathan's, but they're an okay substitute until you taste the real thing. Most of the ones with grilled operations use Hebrew National (at least in my experience). Try one the next time you see one, and maybe it will make a convert out of you. Fat Guy, my experience with knackwurst and bratwurst is colored by having average ones in Milwaukee. By average, I mean, having one and saying to myself -- "these can't possibly be as good or better than those hot dogs in New York". Every year, Milwaukee plays host to GENCON, which is an all-consuming four day extravaganza of a convention of nothing but role-playing games/science fiction and fantasy novels/comic books/Star Trek and all things Star Wars/board and computer games. If you're a true geek like I am, GENCON is heaven on earth. Until recently, the con was held in MECCA, which is Milwaukee's version of the Jacob Javits Center, except that MECCA is about four times as big and connects by skywalk to a mall that's roughly the size of the mall in Paterson, New Jersey (can't remember the name). Now, the con is held inside Milwaukee's newly constructed Midwest Express Convention Center -- MECCA's replacement. The food was notoriously bad then, and hasn't really changed all that much now -- overpriced bratwursts at $2.50 a pop comes to mind. At least, they very rarely tasted like overly large boiled sausages. Most of the time, they were rather characterless.

I think that if I were on a desert island, that olives would be on one of my "must have" lists. That, dried pasta and garlic. I too have never met an olive I haven't liked -- except for the canned black ones or pimento stuffed green ones, but those aren't real olives anyway, so they don't count. My faves: kalamata (for puttanesca, and other pasta sauces in that vein), oil-cured, Moroccan, and picholine. Hokay, time to get home so I can cook dinner (yep, you guessed it, I'm still at the office). SA

*sigh* The Ghost of Christmas Past has struck again, methinks. Btw, I like quiche. SA

Wilfrid (and anyone else): Fire-Roasted Tomato and Chipotle Salsa This will make about 4 cups. The heat is about moderate, a 5 or so on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being incendiary and 1 barely noticeable. 1/4 c. plus 1 T. OO* (olive oil) 1/2 onion, peeled and chopped 2 lbs. Roma tomatoes, blackened (or plum tomatoes) 4 t. finely minced roasted garlic 1/2 c. minced fresh cilantro leaves 4 chipotle chiles en adobo, chopped 1/4 c. red wine vinegar 1 T. salt 1 t. sugar 1. Heat a tablespoon of the olive oil in a saute pan over medium heat until lightly smoking. Add the onion and saute until the onion is caramelized, about 10 minutes. Transfer the onion, half the blackened tomatoes and garlic to a food processor or blender, and pulse until finely chopped but not pureed. Add the cilantro and chipotle chiles, and pulse again to mix. 2. Peel, seed and chop the remaining pound of tomatoes, and fold together with the remaining 1/4 c. of olive oil, vinegar, salt and sugar. You can substitute 2 lbs. of tomatillos for the tomatoes. Husk and rinse the tomatillos, and blacken them before using.

Saturday I took a break from my recent spate of dining out -- Thursday @ GT, Friday @ Jewel Bako, and Sunday @ PrideFest here in NYC. PrideFest for those of you not in the know is your atypical NYC street fair held on Hudson and Washington streets in Greenwich Village, and is the conclusion of the NYC Gay and Lesbian Pride March, hosted by Heritage of Pride. I went in need of cheap material nourishment, and also for something to do. One trip through the press of flesh is enough for me...sorry, but streets in the Village weren't made for hordes of people....walking at a pace of an inch per minute is about as much fun as getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist. *shudder* As food stands go, this year's offerings were pretty boring and not an Asian food stand was in sight, although there were far too many of the Italian sausage/pepper sandwiches and natural fruit smoothies out there. Anyway, Saturday: Bolognese sauce with penne rigati; peaches and strawberries tossed with a few grains of white pepper and a sprinkle of rose water. I went all out with the Bolognese sauce -- a mirepoix of celery, celery leaves, onions and carrots which I sweated in a mixture of butter and olive oil, to which I added ground beef and lamb (I used ground meat as a nod to American convenience; if I wanted a really traditional version, I would have added snipped meat from cubes of beef and lamb), chopped mortadella, crushed Italian plum tomatoes, tomato paste, a little milk, and herbs. I cooked the sauce down for about two or three hours, then served it with penne rigati, and grated Parmagianno reggiano. I picked up some nice tomatoes, with which I made a chipotle-roasted tomato salsa, for tonight's dinner -- broiled chicken breasts, rice pilaf, steamed veggies. Nothing complicated -- this is how I eat most of the time, except when I feel the need to flex my cooking muscles...hehe. If anyone's interested, I can post the recipe for the salsa when I get home from work.

Good luck with everything you do, Malawry. I appreciate your effort on keeping this diary, as I too am contemplating applying to an institution such as CIA or other such school, and look forward to any valuable insights or experiences you might have, in your updates to this thread. I suppose one of the things on my To Do list is to pick up a copy of Ruhlman's work and read it. I've heard that its a must read according to some e-gulleteers I've spoken to. Anyway, good luck!

Oh joy. I'm not going to limit myself to the top 5 places, more like the top 15 -- (in no particular order of preference) 1. Sugiyama 2. Nobu 3. AZ 4. Esca 5. Blue Hill 6. ADNY 7. Patria 8. Mercer Kitchen 9. JUdson Grill 10. Oceana 11. Aquavit 12. Chiam (not sure if Chiam is still open; unique from most Chinese restaurants in that they make everything on premises and refuse to use anything canned or preserved unless unavoidable; they make their own roast pork!) 13. Artisanal 14. March 15. Town Why? Most of my foodie friends are in MBA-land, or have just graduated from MBA-land and consequently are not in a position of having disposable income or disposable time. Been busy at work/social life/other engagements, but things might change for the better because of e-gullet. I mean if not for this site, I might not have had such an AMAZING experience at Jewel Bako. SA