LindaK

Apparently. So far we have Paris 1906, Tour of Thailand, Childhood, and in January 2012, a Tribute to El Bulli. I'd rather spend money on the meal than on an iPad...but these ebooks do sound excellent.

I'd start with a homemade stuffed pasta--agnolotti would be my choice. A quote from Matt Kramer in A Passion from Piemonte: No exaggeration. A lot of work upfront, but quick last minute service and oh, these are delicious. Kramer and Marcella Hazan both have good recipes for the filling, a mixture of meats, spinach, and a touch of cheese. The filling can be made a couple of days ahead, the pasta rolled and filled a day ahead. Cook last minute, toss with fresh sage fried in browned butter, a bit of grated parm cheese. It is sublime. Second course? I prefer fish to meat. I've had great success following the agnolloti with a second course of another excellent Hazan recipe, Cold Sauteed Trout in Orange Marinade. Whole trout, pan fried and then marinated in a gentle vermouth-orange marinade. Served room temperature. Another great recipe for last minute service since the work is done in advance. I've served it with a fennel and arugula salad. Delicious, substantial but not so heavy that there isn't room for dessert, nor a food coma afterwards. Let us know what you make.

Pictures, please, everyone!

Kouign Aman, could you save me some embarrassment and tell me how to pronounce your Breton pastry namesake?

Chef Grant Achatz is publishing a series of e-cookbooks on iTunes with recipes from his Chicago restaurant, Next. For those who might not know of it, Next serves a single prix-fixe menu that changes seasonally. The first e-book was recently released with Next’s inaugural menu, based on the theme of Paris: 1906. As described on iTunes: “Paris: 1906 includes the exact recipes for every dish served as documented by our chefs, over 200 photos, and short essays describing the key dishes and concepts” Achatz plans a new e-book for each menu. At $4.99 for each one, not a bad price if it’s a good product, and the reviews are good: Apple web site with a link to iTunes for full reviews and download. In general I'm not jealous of those who dine at places where I cannot, but I would have done much to have dined at Next for this menu. If anyone has it or gets this ebook (or any future edition) I’d really love a report. I'm grinding my teeth, this is enough to make me want to run out and buy an iPad, I can’t imagine using it on my phone or ipod.

When work becomes especially high stakes and stressful, I find that simple tasks with a knife are the best therapy around. Food processor be damned. Having dispatched a pile of onions and garlic, now I'm off to chop a few cups of parsley and cilantro...thank heavens for cooking.

A mixed verdict. We all liked it, some more than others. First of all, it doesn’t pretend to be anything but beer, despite some champagne attributes and a nice pop of the cork. It’s a clear gold-amber with a very creamy head, and with a light and long-lasting effervescence. Not the nose-tickling kind of bubbles you can get with champagne, but most definitely bubbles. The beer itself was very creamy and malty, with a nice hit of citrus and spice, not unlike a seasonal Octoberfest beer. It didn’t have any of the acidity that you’d taste in champagne. Not surprising since it’s a beer and not made with grapes—the term invites comparisons that don’t really make sense. So the wine drinkers in the crowd (including me) were a bit perplexed by the “champagne” hype. The beer drinkers thought it was an unusual enough departure from a standard ale to qualify as a seasonal treat. We’re all glad we tried it.

I bought two bottles yesterday. They're going in the fridge now to chill. I've got friends coming over for lunch today, let's see what they think. Note that the bottle says "ale" clearly at the bottom right.

I think this is the link Norm intended: Smoke flavored foods may be toxic

No soup dumplings here but I love their shrimp dumplings in soup (with or without noodles). Followed by the suckling pig or duck, with baby bok choy.

No Summershack in the neighborhood, the nearest is in Back Bay near the Hynes Convention Center. The waterfront would be a good place for the next SS. Which reminds me, there is a Daily Catch near the Courthouse on the waterfront. I can't vouch for the food there, and I always found the offerings at the original North End location to be uneven, the pastas being the best. Stay away from the awful fried calamari.

Yes, the Barking Crab is open. High on atmosphere, food mediocre at best, imho.

I’m embarrassed to say that my knowledge of the restaurants in that neighborhood is mostly second-hand. Development in that area has jumpstarted in recent years but as others say, there are still many empty lots there. A few places I get to from time to time: Sportello, one of Barbara Lynch’s restaurants, contemporary Italian. Her cocktail bar, Drink, is downstairs. Lucky’s Lounge for bar/music scene with decent pub food, and the Sinatra brunch on Sunday is fun. Flour bakery for breakfast or lunch. Channel Café for informal lunch. Legal Test Kitchen (LTK) aims to be a more eclectic version of the successful Legal Seafood franchise. The latter is traditional New England seafood, LTK has a more international slant. I’ve never been to Menton, Lynch’s high-end French restaurant in the neighborhood, but it gets good reviews. There are several new, big places at Liberty Wharf but my impression is that they’re more about a bar scene with waterfront views than they are about the food. As for proximity to other neighborhoods, the Seaport area is about a mile from the Financial District (rather empty in the evenings), the North End, and Chinatown. Other neighborhoods a little further. It feels more removed, though, because development of the area is still underway.

My family Thanksgiving's menu is something of a potluck, with many of us bringing contributions. I generally handle most of the vegetables. In addition to the usual green beans and root vegetable dishes, this year I'm also doing a stuffed pumpkin à la Dorie Greenspan to give the vegetarians at the table something more like a main dish in addition to the sides. So I'll be leaving out the bacon and adding spinach to the stuffing recipe. It is really, really good.

Now that sounds delicious! And please track down that recipe for belimbing.

Mjx, many people find the smell of salt cod to be...choose your adjective for stinky. Uptopic, Chris Amirault mentions that the skin is the worst offender. If you find salt cod with skin, do take it off before you cook it, it will help a lot. File this latest installment under "why the hell didn't I think of this one myself?" Potato and Salt Cod Tortilla. I saw the recipe in David Tanis's A Platter of Figs and had to make it asap. Just lovely and simple as can be: sauteed potatoes and onions, salt cod, and eggs (I always add parsley, I like it). My only deviation from the recipe was that Tanis called for adding the soaked, shredded cod to the egg mixture without cooking it first. I was not confident that the gentle heat for cooking the torilla would fully cook the cod. Yes, I know he's the chef at Chez Panisse and I'm not. Nonetheless, I gave the cod a quick toss in the hot oil leftover from frying the potatoes and onions--and I mean quick, maybe 15 seconds. The end result was perfect: the cod was still moist when the tortilla was done. Delicious.

It just goes to show, there's room for disagreement among knowledgeable eG members and NYT readers. After the first few "Cooking with Dexter" pieces in the Sunday magazine, I stopped reading. All were heavy on father-son sentiment, light on info about food/cooking for the reader. Nothing against shared father-son kitchen experiences, mind you, but it got old fast. Different ingredient/meal/etc., same story. And the articles were all about home cooking, few if any had anything to say about restaurants. I hope to be pleasantly surprised by the new reviews.

The Sam Adams brewery is releasing a second batch of it's champaign-style Infinium beer. This year, they're also showcasing its use in cocktails. Article here: Sam Adams brewer Jim Koch discusses 2nd Infinium batch I didn't get a chance to try it last year, it sold out, but I'm going to make extra effort this year. Sam Adams brewery HQ is only two miles from my house, after all. Sadly, the release party is already sold out.

Root vegetables need moisture and really like fat of some type. They can be roasted with meat, or alone tossed with a bit of stock and butter, olive oil, or bacon fat. I think they respond better to braising than roasting, but either way some herbs are always welcome.

Yes, she's Jamaican. Since I know very little about Caribbean food and it's been suggested here a few times, I asked her in the hope she'd have a cookbook to recommend. It turns out that she doesn't do much cooking herself. But when I mentioned salt cod, she had all sorts of fond memories of her grandmother's cooking with saltfish. This was the one dish she could describe in enough detail for me to figure out on my own.

A colleague at work told me that her grandmother used to make a fish pie using salt cod, greens, and sweet potatoes, spiced up with some scotch bonnet chilis and with creamed coconut in the sauce. It sounded good, and I've been meaning to make it for a while, but only recently saw the type of creamed coconut she told me to use (it's a solid block, not liquid). So I made it for lunch yesterday. The cod and greens (I used spinach) are bound by a basic bechamel flavored with a bit of the creamed coconut and fresh cilantro: The sweet potatoes are mashed with some butter and a scant amount of finely minced habanero pepper. I love the flavor but I can only take so much of their heat. Topped off the filling with the potatoes, sprinkled with cilantro, and baked until bubbly: It was very tasty. I'm not completely sold on using the coconut in the sauce. I used very little so it wasn't overly sweet, but I think when I try it again I'll want to add some warm spices (nutmeg, allspice maybe) to balance it. But the creamy fish, greens, and chili-sweet potato combination is wonderful.

This blog is going to make me very hungry. I've enjoyed your posts from Lebanon and elsewhere, you have a talent for finding great food, wherever you are. To ask the obvious question from your fridge photo, does this mean you eat out rather than cook? Assuming you cook at home sometimes, I wonder if you adopt the cuisine of your new home or if you have some favorites from home that you like to make for yourself.

A very sweet story. Margaret, thanks for the link. Tim, it looks like a brilliant start and truly a labor of love. Best wishes to you and your team.

Derek, Pâte à choux is used for gougere, cream puffs, etc. and is a batter/paste spooned or piped into shapes before baking. Pâte Feuilletée (puff pastry) is a multilayered pastry that is rolled into sheets before use. No eggs. A different thing altogether from pâte à choux. Dorie's book uses puff pastry in a few recipes, but calls for frozen store bought. If you want to understand how it's made, read Julia or other classic texts on French cooking.

True, but they are often called "puffs" which is how I interpreted the mention above. Dorie's recipe is a good one, though calling for a standing mixer to beat in the eggs seems like a lot of unnecessary clean-up work. I've always beaten them in by hand, directly in the pan in which I cooked the dough, using my favorite wooden spoon (and lots of elbow grease) and gotten perfect results.