jbonne

incidentally, if anyone happens to use the Toddy on a semi-regular basis and wants to discuss why they like it, drop me a private msg. or reply here, as ye like ...

on a happier note, Penelope Corcoran believes that Dahlia Lounge has bounced back under the watch of Eric Tanaka. it's enough to inspire a return visit. after two lackluster trips a couple years ago, i gave up.

i've been a longtime fan of Zoe and was saying again last night i'm about due for another visit. not only does the menu always impress me, but so do the prices. with entrees topping about $25 and dipping well below, i feel i'm being treated fairly not only as a diner but as a consumer. service is always great, decor is understatedly lovely. (and they have the same chest by the bathroom i have in my office, though i don't use mine to store cleaning supplies.) a terrific model of a restaurant done right. did i mention i need to head back there soon?

hard to say exactly. the two to concern yourself with are morels and chanterelles, though others might add some additional ones in there. morels usually start mid-spring, maybe April, though it varies. (for more, read this rather in-depth take.) and they go through early summer, though i found some decent morels at the market this weekend. (but i'd say the season has largely past.) chanterelles usually start early fall and go into the late fall. (check this item from 1997 in the P-I.) so now's not an optimal time for fresh mushroom cooking. matter of fact, we just took Czarnecki's cookbook back to the library, having found we weren't inspired to cook much out of it. also, most of the recipes that caught our eyes called for soy sauce, oyster sauce or both. not my thing.

fascinating -- my experience exactly, though on just one visit. soup was brilliant, tart was blah, other stuff was middling. it was July, which is low time in the mushroom world, so that may have contributed. was made extra bizarre after we figured out the woman at the next table (of a mostly empty restaurant) was Karen MacNeil. all in all, i was surprised, since everyone had raved about it. the flavors were muted, sometimes over-salted. i'd make a return visit to verify, but not so enthusiastically. incidentally, Jack Czarnecki's mushroom cookbook is an informative, fascinating but slightly curious thing. i loved the info, and about half the recipes looked delightful. the other half i found a tad bizarre.

might be the summer lull (it was always quiet there in the summer) but i suppose it could also be a bit of bloom-off-rose. i always hated Brasa's location. it's just a bad block. too many transients, too little foot traffic. really nothing else there at night, and a bit spooky. despite my four years of college in Harlem, and being a relatively solid-looking guy, i still get a bit freaked out over there late in the evening. admittedly, i haven't been in about two months, so i haven't been helping things at all.

on the topic of unfortunate locations ... maybe it's my paranoia, but i'd take it as a troubling sign that the Falling Waters space that Alexandria's now occupies was vacant for three-odd years. anyone else find this problematic? for whatever reason, that block seems to lack much foot traffic. of course, venues on 1st and 3rd in that same area seem to be doing just fine, so who knows. haven't been there yet. i've been exhorted to visit, though. initial reports from friends were thumbs up on the food, thumbs down on the wine selection.

i've generally gotten my carnitas fix at the local taco trucks, most of which offer them in taco form. Penelope Corcoran at the P-I did nice summaries of local options a year ago: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/134105_taco08.html http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/food/134681_dine13.html

we went last night with another couple, one of whom has spent plenty of time as a reviewer and food editor. my completely first take impressions, based on the one (not terribly impressive) visit: Food: ** 1/2 Service: * 1/2 Decor: ** (see the menu here.) the spreads that open the menu were a disappointment. the skordalia was limp; the carrot-nettle puree lacked zing. at $3 for a ramekin-sized portion (not a large ramekin, either), i expect a pretty stunning take on Greek appetizers. in my old Queens neighborhood, i could have gotten far better and far more for about the same price. not the auspicious start i'd hoped for. after that, things improved. the kabobs were perfectly cooked and delectable, especially the lamb tongue in a peach glaze. the tagines too: beautifully cooked goat with dates, and a succulent seafood mix in saffron broth that were standout entrees and perfect to share. i especially like that Tom Douglas and Eric Tanaka chose a menu style that's more Palace Kitchen than Dahlia. the spreads, meze and kabobs on the left half of the menu are all small enough to be shared around a table and ordered by the threes and fours. the prices are too high for the portions, but that's not unusual anymore, and not as bad as many small-plate experiences elsewhere. no one should be paying $3 for a small dish of sliced pita, either, given the stingy few pieces that were served with our spreads. there were some notable omissions from the Greek pantheon of dishes. no sign of orzo on the menu, though the roasted potatoes were delicious. a take on moussaka would have been nice, too. the wine list is petite, but generally well-chosen. as with the other Douglas restaurants, there's plenty to enjoy by the glass -- like a Mission Hill pinot blanc. glasses are poured straight from the bottle at the table, and tastes are offered, another sign they're concerned with process. they serve Mountain Dome brut both by glass and bottle, which i always take as an auspicious sign. (we finished our meal with a bottle, instead of dessert.) a few Greek items hold true to the theme, though there's little in the way of a roadmap to guide diners through the arcane Greek varietals. i was certainly stumped. which brings us to the real problem: service. our server managed to fall short on just about everything -- and i'm not even counting him spilling some rosé wine on my wrist, and then not offering me a napkin to mop it up. we were unquestionably a picky foursome, asking lots of detailed questions about the wine list and menu; some were answered just fine, others appeared to be stumpers. when serving things like Greek wine, i'd like something more than "it's really tannic," when describing a red. we were lingering with the "family-style" menu, as it was described with us, and were subjected to endless checkbacks in our first half-hour. the only thing worse than the servers vanishing is when they're always hovering, pushing us to decide. it's hard to get four normal people to decide on dinner's worth of small items to share, much less four foodies -- one of whom shared a lengthy discourse on the relative intelligence of squids and octopi. and of course, when we actually were ready to order items, the server was nowhere to be found. didn't spend any time in the bar, so i can't speak to the bartenders' talents. the decor, while lovely, is an acoustic nightmare. the booths' fabric is, indeed, the only soft surface in there, and it hardly absorbs a peep. the rest -- hard floors, hard ceilings, big windows, allowed a packed house to reverberate almost deafeningly. it was hard to hear my dining companions. note that Palace Kitchen is similarly configured, but somehow the pillars there and the layout (and the high sides for the booths) help dampen the ambient noise level and make it feel cozier. eating at Lola vaguely resembles dining at Grand Central Station. my companions concurred on pretty much every point, though at least one was even more bothered by the service than i was. i'm likely to return to make my way through the rest of the menu, since the food was promising and often mouth-watering, but i'm not terribly enthusiastic overall. here's hoping i encounter some better servers -- and maybe some artfully placed sound-absorbing pillows.

in the "yes, they could take a hideously unfortunate gaffe and make it worse" department: A “MOO”VING CUSTOMER APPROACH: BRING YOUR FAVORITE COW TO DAIRY QUEEN® FOR A FREE MOOLATTETM MINNEAPOLIS – You’ve heard of “Belly up to the bar boys,” but here’s a customer approach with a “moo”ving new twist. To celebrate the kick-off of State Fair season, Dairy Queen® invites you to bring your favorite cow – the authentic, living, four-legged bovine variety -- to any participating Dairy Queen or DQ Grill & ChillTM location nationwide from 2 to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, August 24th for a coffee break, and receive a free MooLattéTM, Dairy Queen’s newly-introduced frozen blended coffee beverage. ... “We wanted to do something different and totally fun to celebrate MooLatté,” said Michael Keller, executive vice president of marketing for International Dairy Queen, Inc. “We’re expanding our customer base with new products like MooLatté. And, with this promotion, we’ve added a new twist.”

total speculation, but i'd guess that they may be buying direct from the terminal markets or using ethnic distributors, either way taking a much smaller markup than large, distributed retail. i don't know enough about supermarket economics to know what items are loss leaders, but i'd guess produce is one area where they can recoup losses on other items. remember that the average supermarket has a margin of about 1-2 percent profit, so they're looking for cash where they can find it.

after all the amazing suggestions, we ended up julienning it and making the traditional remoulade -- but between the soups and the Hazan puree and some of the other ideas, we decided we'd load up on celeriac this weekend at the farmers market and have a celeriac-ful week. i especially like the roasting idea. have made something similar, with olive oil and rosemary, for Thanksgiving for years now. would love to add celeriac to the roasting pan too ...

will report back after dinner tomorrow night. have heard nothing but praise. granted, five years in a Greek neighborhood in Queens has left me with a pretty high bar to clear. but i do have a fond place in my heart for Palace Kitchen, so i'm very eager to see how TD has interpreted the Adriatic.

way better than i could remember. and interesting -- seems the prices there are actually undercutting our local farmers market, though ours is probably the priciest in the city. (at least gauging by morel prices, which is my nonscientific benchmark.) may be the first time i can ever recall anything being cheaper in NYC. though the bodegas used to sell saffron for $1.75/packet. hard to find that here.

i may be a bit rusty, but ... regular retail in NYC might be Gristede's, D'Ag, Food Emporium, &c. even the bodegas and Korean groceries, though there may be a price premium at some. there are, admittedly, a paucity of larger markets in lower Manhattan.

just curious -- how *are* the Greenmarket prices versus regular retail? (i won't even touch GG; any place like that has basically purchased a license to charge at will.) here in SEA, the farmers markets are incredibly affordable compared to even basic retail -- $1 for a huge bunch of basil, or a bunch of beets, or carrots. i paid $2 a pound for amazing green beans this Saturday. but haven't been to the NYC Greenmarket in nearly 5 years, so no clue how prices are tracking on that coast.

that's even more interesting. if i were inclined, and i may yet be, i should really write a piece about produce prices in Toronto versus New York (or even Phila., Boston, &c., wherever there's similar transit/distribution costs) and consider all the various factors that make up the retail price. begging the question: are U.S. retailers gouging us? not speaking of the specialty retailers. i *know* they're gouging us. but that's why i split my time between farmers markets and Whole Foods.

an interesting tidbit from the California peach/nectarine/plum growers last week: this June was a bumper crop, with the sweetest fruit imaginable. but because it came about a month early, the fruit were too small for most retailers, and the wholesale price took a dive. farmers were leaving something like 30 percent of their fruit in the orchard to rot because they knew they couldn't sell it.

i'd speculate, with scant evidence of course, that Canadian retailers are less likely to jack up their share of the retail price. would be interesting to compare the U.S. and Canadian farm price spreads. i'm guessing Canadian farmers, and even wholesalers, are seeing a larger chunk of the retail price. just a guess.

i suspect some of the vast differences in quality even on single airlines is due to the various catering facilities at any given airport. Air France may be able to offer culinary wonders from PAR-NYC, but they're beholden to the JFK ground crews on the return. that, and expectations. i'm just happy for anything with a better consistency than vulcanized rubber.

no question about it on domestic, but i've seen some outstanding examples on int'l flights. Malaysian Airlines had terrific coach food on their trans-Pac flight (LAX-TPE-KUL), including a peanut chicken and (slightly oversteamed) dim sum for breakfast. Cathay is supposed to be even better. none of this stopped me from getting a bowl of chicken congee during our stopover at the Taipei airport, of course. 18 hours is a long flight. domestically, i give extra kudos to JetBlue for at least devising decent non-meal snacks, and being very clear about their no-meal policy. by contrast, Alaska is a mess -- and they're stingy even with their club soda. and it only goes down from there.

i really like the addition of the tarragon here. imagine it would nicely balance the mustard flavor in the remoulade ...

i love the soups! and will have to try it in the salad as well. reminds me of putting raw jicama in ...

i touched on this a bit in my own piece on the same USDA study, though there was a lot more i couldn't squeeze in. (and some question about the USDA figures, which factor in canned/frozen/juice.) the real issue, as the study notes, is that most shoppers buy based on per-pound or per-item prices, yet we have no easy way to mentally translate that into a per-serving cost. an ear of corn may cost 50 cents, but do we interpret that as 1 or 2 servings? (closer to 2 than 1, though your results may vary.) the perception of what's required for the 8 recommended produce servings a day is far greater than what you actually have to eat. oversized specimens are also partly to blame. when was the last time you saw a peach that would provide just a half-cup of fruit? plus, as a couple folks noted, the quality of produce in most markets is such that we tend to feel a bit gypped for what we pay. (given that i was buying huge bunches of fresh basil at $1 a bunch at the farmers' market yesterday, and given that a small packet of fresh costs $2 in the supermarket, i sympathize with that feeling.) for the cost-conscious, there are almost always fruits and veggies on sale -- if you've got a broad palate and time to prepare what's cheapest. but quality can suffer, and many of us have grown so accustomed to year-round sourcing for produce that we all can probably take a bit of blame for costs being what they are. it's not that we *can't* eat cheap produce, it's that the market has shunned it in favor of February apples and iceberg lettuce.

aside from celeriac remoulade -- my childhood nemesis, now a rediscovered fave -- and mashed potatoes, thoughts on how else to use? we picked some beautiful specimens up yesterday at the local farmers' market and i'm inclined to experiment. (p.s. extra points for hot-weather dishes.)