The Hersch

Down here in the south, it mostly goes by the name "fresh side meat". I have a butcher who almost always has some, and if there's none already cut he'll go into the walk-in and butcher some for me.

I've had 100% success against fruit flies by mixing equal parts water and vinegar, adding a few drops of dishwashing detergent, and leaving it on the counter in a bowl or shallow glass. Don't put any kind of cover over this. Leave it out on the counter for a couple of days and every last fruit fly will end up dead in the water. The detergent is the key: it reduces surface tension, which causes the fruit flies to sink into their liquid grave. BWAHAHA!!!!

This one takes care of the obnoxious diners, I guess.

Still in Boston, and here to testify that all Legal Seafoods joints are not equal. As I reported earlier, the plate of fried clams I got at the LS at National Airport in Washington was pretty dreadful: tough, chewy, overcooked, lousy. Fast forward to the LS at the Prudential Center: plump, luscious, perfectly fried, wonderful clams. Excellent. Maybe not as good as the fried clams I had in 1977 at Kelly's Roastbeef in Revere Beach, but those may benefit from the golden haze of years that lie between then and now. The fish chowder at the Pru LS, on the other hand, was a flour-thickened, pasty, revolting atrocity. And as at the DCA LS, the Harpoon IPA was way too cold.

Well, here I am in Boston, having flown up from Washington yesterday. I stopped for lunch at the Legal Seafoods place at National Airport for lunch. A half-dozen oysters and a plate of fried clams. The oysters were fine, although regrettably small. The fried clams were not very good: over-coated, over-fried, tough, chewy little things that tasted mostly of fried-ness. The Harpoon IPA on draft was good, although served way too cold.

I said "...er..." because I was about to use the word "outlet", which is not a favorable term to use about a restaurant, I guess. I was at the original Legal at Inman Square back in the early 70s, only once I think. It was cool. Chainification is almost always uncool, and Legal has gone from a small local chain to a big mother chain, which is even uncooler, in general. That aside, the fried clams at the airport in Washington really were pretty good. That was about three years ago, though, so I won't depend on their still being good. I haven't eaten at any other instantiation of Legal in many years. In fact, the only other one I think I ever ate at was the Kendall Sq. location, back in the late 80s (I think), and even then and there I was underwhelmed. I had some sort of fish, and while it was nice and fresh and simply prepared, I thought it was way overpriced.

Thanks for the suggestions. Legal Seafood is no longer a local chain, by the way. They now have...er...outlets up and down the east coast, in Florida, Virginia, Maryland, DC, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, as well as Massachusetts. They have a restaurant at National Airport in Washington, where I have had a plate of their fried clams (which were pretty good). Since I'll be flying from that airport to Logan on Saturday, maybe I'll just have some fried clams before boarding and after I land, and get it out of the way.

Does anyone have any suggestions for superb fried clams in the city of Boston (price no object!)? I'll be in Boston for a week starting this Saturday, but will be pretty much confined to the city.

I only rarely have multiple brands of vermouth on hand simultaneously, but last night I found myself with Noilly Prat, Boissiere, and Gallo (all dry, white). I bought the Boissiere the other day, prompted by some of the praise it's received here lately. I used to buy it all the time, and didn't really remember why I switched to Noilly Prat as my standard brand. So anyway, I did a side-by-side taste comparison (not blind), and here's my opinion: Boissiere has more botanical character than Noilly Prat, but it's also much sweeter. It was, indeed, easily the sweetest of the three. Gallo has the least botanical accents (hardly any, really, compared with Boissiere), but a clean, fresh, straightforward style that I think makes it very well suited to cooking, and the price is certainly right. Noilly Prat is more subdued in the botanical department than Boissiere, but, again, much drier. And it does have some nice floral notes. I think it will remain my preferred vermouth for Martinis, at least until I try Vya.

Mmmm...bacon. That sounds really good; I'll try it next time I have a rabbit. For those anywhere near Raleigh NC, there's a farm that sells meat, poultry, and eggs at the Raleigh farmers' market (I don't remember the name of the farm), and they usually have very nice fresh rabbits at really reasonable prices. Organically raised, too. Last weekend they were only asking $5 apiece.

To me, there's just no getting around the fact that the rib section and the front legs are basically good for the stock pot and not much else. Rabbit does make a lovely stock, though. I cut the hind legs off, and then cut the loin section in two cross-wise, which gives me four serving pieces, or two servings--a leg and a piece of the loin each. For four people, I'd need two rabbits, and would get a beautiful stock to boot.

There's a place at Willston Center (in the same strip with Mark's Duck House) called simply (I think) Peruvian Chicken and Steak, which I used to go to now and then when I worked in the area. I think the location used to be a Boston Market. Anyway, the chicken and the yucca were both always really good, and their green sauce is terrific. They'll give you extras at no charge. They also serve various steaks and sausages (and I think a big pork chop thang), which always looked good but I never tried anything but the chicken.

But at least it also ruins their texture.

I was in the mood for an Aviation cocktail yesterday evening, but realized I had no lemons in the house. Plenty of limes, though, so I decided to substitute. Then, since I was already being untraditional, I figured what the heck, and added a dash of Peychaud's Bitters. It was a very good cocktail, although no longer an Aviation. The fact that it looked like a Cosmopolitan left me with mixed feelings. But I shall certainly make it again.

Yes. Actually, they say both "Product of France" AND "Produit de France" on the bottle. But thanks to all who have weighed in. So there's a "regular" and a "super-duper" NP in France? I'll have to check that out next time I'm over there. I don't know if I'd be up for using up my alcohol allowance bringing vermouth back, though. As to Vya, if it really tastes strongly of cassia, I'm pretty sure I won't like it, although I'll keep an open mind until I finally taste it.

Hey, I was trying to be funny too! Cheapness is not my first concern, but twenty bucks or so is an awful lot to pay for a bottle of vermouth, especially since I find Noilly Prat completely acceptable for both martini and cooking purposes (my only uses for vermouth, usually) and it costs me eight dollars for a litre. My real concern was the supposed differences between Noilly Prat found in the US and that found in France, but I guess no one has any information on that.

Gee, I hadn't considered the chauvinism angle. I haven't tried Vya vermouth, but it should be borne in mind that it's close to three times the price of Noilly.

I am told that Coleman's Restaurant, which used to be in the wide-place-in-the-road called Basye, VA, is or was good. I never ate there, but I looked at their menu once and it looked pretty ambitious. That could be good or bad. They recently relocated from Basye about a mile-and-a-half onto the Bryce Mountain Resort property. I haven't heard whether the new incarnation is supposed to be any good. (The nearest actual town to all of this is Mt. Jackson, VA, which is just north of New Market, somewhere in between Harrisonburg and Winchester.) The best eating in the area, though, is what comes out of my kitchen when I'm in residence at Bryce Mountain, which unfortunately is not often enough. If you're planning to be in the area, though, PM me and maybe I'll meet you there and rustle you up a mess o' pork belly or some such.

Does anyone know if there is any truth to the claim made in this morning's Times that the Noilly Prat vermouth one gets in France is different from (and better than) what one gets in the US? The author, Melissa Clark, avers: "It is made differently there, and flaunts a more assertive and complex personality than its blander American counterpart", which seems to imply that the Noilly Prat in the US is produced domestically, which the label on my bottle ("Produit de France") clearly contradicts. But is there a difference? And if so, why?

That sounds good, but what about pot-roast, or stews, or things like that? They not only are okay when reheated, they're usually even better.

An excellent use for roast beef. In my experience there really is no way to reheat dry-roasted meat (not just beef) and achieve an acceptable result. Both flavor and texture suffer considerably. I have no idea why that is, but it seems to be true. Luckily, roast beef, roast chicken, roast lamb are all excellent cold, or brought to room temperature.

Your taste in hotdog brands is impeccable. Have you ever tried Usinger's veal wieners? They're magnificent. As are their Bavarian wieners, although I don't know what's particularly Bavarian about them. On the other hand, while there is no quarrelling with taste, the idea of putting ketchup on one of these...well, I will say no more. Another excellent source of all kinds of sausages, including wieners but also wonderful things like Nürnberger Bratwurst and Münchner Weißwurst is the Bavaria Sausage Company, whose website is HERE. In the backwater where I find myself at the moment, the best hotdogs to be found locally are at Harris Teeter, the Dietz and Watson wieners with natural casing. These are beef and pork. I know many prefer an all-beef product, but the Dietz and Watson All-Beef New York Franks they also carry don't have a natural casing (I think they're skinless), and to me excellence in a hotdog requires that it pop when you bite into it. I was home for lunch this afternoon and had two D&W wieners, boiled, on soft rolls with good strong Dijon mustard and some of my own home-made bread & butter pickles. In my view, the hotdog/wiener/frankfurter is a classic boiling sausage, which wouldn't be grilled or fried in Germany (the fatherland of sausages).

I don't know how old the shaker is, but I do know I don't want to spend any more money on it! At any rate, after practicing on a few cocktails last night, I can pour from it fairly well. Slightly awkward, and certainly from a utilitarian perpective this is not a good design at all, but good looks sometimes persuade us to overlook character flaws.

Your second suggestion had already occurred to me. As to your first: Despite my elaborate education, when it comes to things mechanical I'm pretty much a total idiot. Thus, it had not occurred to me that a large part of what was going on was the lack of air intake. But you are absolutely correct! I went home for lunch and experimented, following your plan of attack. (Although a cocktail at lunchtime can be nice, I used plain tapwater for my testing.) Success! Well, of a sort. Striking the balance between allowing air to flow in and preventing liquid dribbling out the wrong way is a little tricky with this shaker, which doesn't have the little air-hole you mention. Perhaps I can perfect my technique mixing a few Pegu Clubs this evening, although the practice of mixing each cocktail will probably be pretty much offset by the act of drinking it. Thank you very much indeed.

Well, I've tried holding the thing at just about every conceivable angle, and I think the "this design sucks" assessment pretty much covers it. If you hold it sort of upside down and shake vigorously, it does sort of kind of dribble out a little of the cocktail. Not quite the suave effect I was going for. My gosh it's pretty though. Fortunately, I have another silver cocktail shaker that actually works. Thanks for the suggestions.