SobaAddict70

There are places like the bakery two blocks from my apartment that I don't want to see vanish because some super-duper chain store sets up shop in the City, then replicates like cockroaches to the point where the places that made NYC unique vanish because people are attracted to the promise of [temporary] low prices. That bakery, I should add, is pretty awesome. Their prune danish and strudel are worth getting up at 8 am and I am not a morning person at all. They've been around since the 1950s when that section of the Upper East Side was known for its concentration of people of Hungarian descent. Nowadays, it's yuppieville and kids fresh out of college. In a five block radius from my apartment, I can count two Starbucks, a McDonald's, a Burger King, a Barnes & Noble, a Best Buy, two Gap stores, a CVS and a Footlocker. I'm just going off of memory. I'm sure there are more chain stores that I'm forgetting. I don't think we need more of the same. It's terribly depressing.

I would have thought that pasta with red sauce would be even more riffed than carbonara. Sugo di pomodoro or salsa di pomodoro is fairly simple until you get to America. Did that just sound snooty? There's a reason for that.

Mostly leftovers from last night's pasta extravaganza. I also had some heirloom carrots that I bought a while ago and apparently forgot about, having left them in the crisper. I marinated them in a little rice wine vinegar, cayenne pepper and cumin overnight, then combined them with some olives, capers and a mint vinaigrette. Heirloom carrot salad with olives, capers and mint Recipe will be posted shortly on the blog.

Apprently there are several definitions depending on your point of view. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minestrone for example. Minestrone can be really hearty and substantial, depending of course on what you put in it.

Lately, I've been thinking I want to make a pot of minestrone, like maybe this weekend after I get back from USGM. Minestrone is a wonderfully versatile soup that can take on many different forms because its ingredients depend on the season and what's available at the market. Some examples: Harvest minestrone -- onion, potatoes, pancetta, cabbage, Swiss chard, zucchini, celery stalks, celery leaves, string beans, squash, tomatoes, RG beans, water. Summer minestrone -- onion, summer squash, green beans, fresh tomato, corn, carrot, cheese, vegetable stock Spring minestrone -- onion, ramps, asparagus, carrot, heirloom potatoes, celery, watercress, shallots, parsnips, RG beans, cheese. I used chicken stock this time around. In general, I prefer a light version where the vegetables aren't cooked to death, and where tomato isn't so predominant. I usually include pasta or beans. Sometimes I'll serve with a thick slice of crispy toast that's been rubbed with crushed garlic and drizzled with a little olive oil. How do you make yours?

Use in a mirepoix, when making chicken stock or as a substitute for fennel. I always include a few chopped up leaves (a little over 1 tablespoon) when making a soffritto. It adds a clean, fresh flavor without being too overwhelming.

Her personality, for one. Before Emeril (who has genuine cooking cred, just that the buffoon schtick never won me over), knowledge was king over personality. These days showmanship is all. Her catch-phrases really grate on me. It's extra-virgin olive oil, not EVOO (is she really using extra-virgin olive oil to sauté garlic? Really?). WHAT is "choup"? (which stands for thicker than a soup but thinner than a chowder) Seriously annoying. Secondly, she constantly estimates quantities in her recipes, like "half a panful", "a drizzle of this" and so forth. If I were a newbie to cooking, I'm sure I'd want more precision, otherwise using her methodology might result in some seriously screwed up dishes. Even a really basic recipe like Julia's French omelette: 2-3 eggs, a 1/2 tablespoon of butter, 1 teaspoon cold water ... that's fairly precise. I shudder to think what that translates to in Rachael-speak. FYI, 100% of what I cook and blog about is simple stuff. I *know* how to make beef demi-glace and what quenelles de brochet are but that's not what I eat every day. And if I did blog about that, most of my audience would look at me like I just grew a second head. Don't generalize.

LOL I'm having seconds as I type this. This btw, is actually my fifth meal of the day. I'll have another -- a bedtime snack -- in two hours. S.

Spaghetti with lobster and spicy tomato sauce

If they ever do decide to build a superstore, I imagine it would only be once they've established a foothold in NYC (for a number of years). That would require some oversight by the appropriate City agencies -- DOB, DOT, BSA, DCP and maybe a City Council vote. Certainly there would be involvement from the affected local community boards. The amount of input from the community would be huge. To give you an idea, on a scale of 1 to 10, it would be a 15. But this is getting away from the main thrust of the thread. If you want any more details, PM me.

There are many objections which are succinctly summarized in this NYT article -- http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/04/nyregion/04walmart.html (and I'm sure have been debated to death on eG, so I won't rehash them here). Also, the characterization that groceries in NYC are dark, dirty and have security at their doors is not at all accurate -- at least not in the sections of the City in which I am most familiar with ... certainly not in my neighborhood. Maybe to someone who thinks that we're still living in the era of The Bonfire of the Vanities, but not in my present reality.

Not everybody is as crazy about him as he is about himself: Carlos Petrini and Slow Food - Is this disdain I'm feeling? _________________ The thing with Mr. Petrini is that almost no one knows of him unless they're foodies. I daresay that AW and Jamie are better-known by comparison. Perhaps that is a good problem to have, w/r/t controversy. edited to add a contraction

The end of what? Kmart & Target are open in NYC and the world didn't end. Reading this thoughtful thread, what I'm hearing is that geography matters. If there is a lot of competition, WM influence is not as strong. The Mom&Pop business model is a tough one to sustain unless they have a niche..best Mexican ingredients, best local produce, gorgeous people working the counter..whatever it is. Middle of the road is a difficult niche to hold on to, particularly as choices expanded and mobility became easier. No? NYC is rife with chain stores these days. There are very few mom-and-pop places that can hold on in the current economy. W-M in the city might be the nail in the coffin.

You may have heard of Wal-Mart's campaign to open a store in NYC. The retailer is being very smart about its tactics this time. The store, whereever it will be constructed, will avoid ULURP (short for uniform land-use review process) because they are not seeking a zoning variance that would otherwise require either BSA (Board of Standards & Appeals) approval and/or an NYC City Council vote. Personally I hope their tactics fail, because once they get in the door, it will be the beginning of the end.

Beat me to the punch, David. Fine Fare is the only grocery store within 1/2 a mile...the other store farther east on Grand St. is a...Fine Fare. There's nothing peculiar to NYC about this. It happens in pretty much every urban area in the country. I haven't been to a Fine Fare in years. Like since the late 1970s.

The bulk of my food shopping occurs at Union Square Greenmarket, so that doesn't count. Closer to home is Citarella where I usually get meat, fish and some spur of the moment purchases on my way home. Daily incidentals like milk and OJ are from the Associated across the street from my apartment. As far as Associateds go, it's a far cry from the supermarkets of my youth. You have to remember that I grew up in Jersey City, Bayonne and suburban New Jersey when I was a kid. The grocery stores that I remember aren't these squished into small spaces that seem so common in New York City. There are many advantages that City grocery stores have over their suburban counterparts but space is not one of them.

While at the Greenmarket today I got a few hydroponic tomatoes on a whim. Tomato season isn't until late June when they start appearing by the bucketloads. Heirloom tomatoes generally don't come in until August. And I was jonesing for them. This is my favorite way to eat them ... Eggs sunnyside-up, fried in unsalted butter, over tomato salad (chopped tomatoes, white shallots, onion chives, salt, pepper, extra-virgin olive oil), over crispy black olive-sourdough toast So satisfying and utterly delicious.

Yes, it was at a restaurant. It's a new place I discovered a while back that's 3 blocks from my apartment. There are a ton of differences with this restaurant from other Japanese restaurants. For example, that ubiquitous carrot-ginger dressing isn't as sweet nor is it neon-orange. There's more of a pronounced ginger flavor as well as more sesame oil used in the dressing. It's the first place I've seen that regularly serves shioyaki. Their salt-broiled mackerel is excellent. And their dinner bento boxes have no comparison. Usually comes with salad or soup, sashimi, one fried dish, one grilled dish, one simmered dish, a selection of pickles, Japanese rice and more.

Had menchi-katsu for dinner last night. No pic as I'm posting from work. And in any event, not terribly interesting. Pretty much your standard patty of ground beef, breaded with panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried. And served with tonkatsu sauce, uh ... sliced corn on the cob, french fries and broccoli. And Japanese rice. Talk about starch overload.

Government regulation is one answer but that makes people's hackles rise. If ramps disappear, I suppose we'll have to love fiddlehead ferns. Most people think they taste like mud, so good luck with that.

Make it an endangered species and people will have to learn to live without. Or deal with farmed ramps.

Boring protein paired with not-so-boring vegetables. Clockwise from left: Pan-roasted Arctic char; spinach and ramps sautéed in butter; morels and chanterelle mushrooms, with garlic, lemon and parsley

Cornish game hen? Possibly.

Thanks for the ideas, all. I'm trying to move away from defaulting to risotto and pasta. I don't like cream sauces. If you look at my foodblog, there aren't that many recipes that feature it. I may do a wild mushroom custard, kind of like chawan-mushi or flan. I have some leftover mushrooms, so have to use those sometime this week. As a side note, tonight's dinner will most likely be pan-roasted Arctic char, with morels and spinach. A visit to Citarella is in the offing later today -- hopefully they have asparagus, peas or pearl onions. Getting back to black trumpets, a chef in Brooklyn features them in a dish with chicken cooked sous vide. I don't have that kind of set up at home (plus I think sous vide is really boring), but it got me to thinking what I can do regarding chicken and black trumpets. Roast chicken is way too much food, so it has to be something that's good for one or two dinners.

Nope. Wild mushrooms (oyster mushrooms, morels, black trumpets) and spinach over crispy sourdough toast, with poached farm eggs.