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It really should have read scallion frizzle, but frites worked. We sliced very fresh scallions on an extreme bias, then added very thin angel hair julienne of carrot. Also added paper thin slices of ginger. I mixed together thoroughly and then dampened the mix with cold water. Sprinkle flour (corn starch) over a portion of the mix and swirl about until ingredients are coated and just slightly gummy. Hard to describe. Drop into the fryer stir about and lift out BEFORE they develop any brown color. garnish the dish immediately lest this quasi-tempura go limp and cold. Nick

This weeks menu. APPETIZERS Shrimp Cocktail 14. Fried Calamari; Wakame Seaweed Salad and Red Chili Dipping Sauce 10. A Soup of Thai Flavors with Ruby Red Prawns 12. Beef Carpaccio Negamaki Roll; Scallion Frites and Wasabi 10. Torchon of Foie Gras Poached in Red Wine; Baby Greens; Fig Shallot Jam; Cracked Pepper Caramel14. A Bakers Dozen of Wellfleet Clams on the ½ SHell; Cocktail and Mignonette Sauces 12. Tempura Battered Fresh Sardines; Summer Corn and Fava Succotash; Citrus Vinaigrette 9. Pacific Stone Crab Claws; Mustard Dipping Sauce 21. TONIGHT’S SELECTIONS Prosciutto Wrapped Arctic Char Risotto and Baby Vegetalbes; Garlic Beurre Blanc 22. City Island Style Broiled Bay Scallops House Made Tartar Sauce and Baked Potato Steak Fries 23 Grilled Daurade Royale with Roasted Fennel, Tomatoes, Shallots and Olives 22. Steak Frites Grilled Onglette (Hanger Steak) with Charred onion, Seasonal Tomato and Thin Frites 20 Sautéed Thin Cut Calves Liver Sweet Onions, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Sherry Sauce 26 Pan Roasted French Cut Chicken Breast On a Bed of Asparagus, Morels and Chanterelles; Small Roasted Potatoes Marchand Du Vin Sauce 19. Thanx Nick

I might say that the experience of mid/late 20th, early 21st century dining;an admittedly encompassing term that includes everything about the restaurant experience (front and back of the house, cooking, tabletop layout, and restaurant design) is analogous to popular performance theatre (inc. opera, ballet, popular dance, musical performance etc.) Now is popular theatre as practiced on the London or Broadway stage an art form? Don't raise the question with an actor, singer, dancer, musician etc. You may get smacked! Robert Brown in an earlier thread, posited the idea of Chef as Couturier. The thrust of that thread was different than this, but a fundemental question over whether modern fashion design is art may also be raised. Somehow I think one must first define art and that job is for someone other than I. Nick

White Truffles? Or do I belabor the obvious? Nick

First, I’d like to thank Steve Shaw for posting the link to Karla Cook’s review of ‘The Frog and the Peach ‘ To carry on: Steve Klc said: I think it helps to treat the New Jersey section of the New York Times as a discrete entity, a weekly regional newspaper unto itself, if you will. Once one peels off the New Jersey section from the rest of the Sunday Times, it becomes easier to divorce oneself from the baggage of ‘stars’, Grimes, Asimov, and Hesser, et al. At this point the word ratings (fair, good, VG etc) become more natural as a method of rating restaurants and Cook’s and Corcoran’s criticisms can then be judged as unique New Jersey food writing and criticism. Now that we have some links, and a method of finding these writings (thanks khao!) perhaps others will read these reviews and enrich the discourse. Steve Klc also said: I mostly agree with you, Steve. But as a Chef I confess that I was thrilled to see another Chef get so much attention (more about that later). I assure you, a purely gratuitous response on my part. I would also like to submit that ‘The Frog and the Peach’ is a very well known New Jersey ‘destination restaurant’. I can’t say for sure, but I seem to recall no less than three reviews of this restaurant in the Pages of the ‘New York Times’ within my recent memory. Consequently Ms. Cook may have made a conscious decision to concentrate on the ‘hash’ rather than the ‘flash’. I offer this only as a possible mitigating circumstance. Jhlurie said: I have been reading Ms. Cook in the Times since her first bi-weekly review. Since David Corcoran joined her in sharing the reviewing duties, I have found her the more pedantic of the two writers. I have always had difficulty pinning down in precise terms exactly why I’ve always felt somewhat uncomfortable with her criticism. Of course Jon nails it with what seems to me now to be an obvious spot on comparison of the two writers. Getting back to the specific F&P review, I’d like to add that I thought Karla Cook’s review was pretty well written. I thought that she spent too much editorial currency on the Sea Bass issue, perhaps at the expense of the things that SK would have liked to see mentioned. I also agree that the review was much too Chef-centric. Other quibbles have more to do with outing the size of her dinner party (some of the restaurant reviewers magic should remain behind the curtain), and an occasional jarring mixed metaphor (i.e. “manly yet tender”). I also don’t much care for left handed compliments (the restrained use of butter is lauded, one sentence later the resultant loss of flavor is spanked!). Not such a minor quibble and one that I find stupefying is that the review is totally bereft of ANY mention of wine other than that which was cooked with. To David Santos, I’d like to say that I thought this review, started life as one with a solid “Excellent” ranking. The major points seemed to be lost over the ficelle crouton under the duck (I don’t know another bread that cooks up so inadvertently rock hard), and the desserts (I assume at least 9 were ordered). In fact, I’d go so far to say that the “Excellent” became a “Very Good” right about the time the ‘Polenta Cake’ shot “off the plate”. She pointedly leaves the description for the last sentence. “Not the best last impression” is a telling final statement. Thanx for Listening Nick

Is there any way to provide a link to Karla Cooks review of the frog and the peach? That's the one that started this thread. I'm curious to see what got chop and others so het up. Nick

ROFL!! That's the problem with Bergen County. We're to close to NYC. Hard to support a true destination Restaurant out here. Though there are some very good ones. Nick

Is that PC-speak for "honky"? Mr. johnson. I'd ask you to remember that this is a food site. The proper term is NOT honky. I'ts...Cracker. Nick

I agree Jin, I think that he's the only worthwhile thing on the Food Network. I like the Discovery channel reruns of the various PBS Great Chefs series. I never got to see them all and they pop up on weekday afternoons on my days off. I rarely watch the food network. Well.. Bourdains show, when I can catch it, and Alton Brown if he's on while I'm surfin'. Otherwise no. I've heard certain publications refered to as food porn. I'm not sure what that means yet. But if my take on that term is accurate, then I'd have to classify the food network as 'food anime porn'. Just my take. YMMV Nick

Thank you. Ahh Espana (sigh). Been there...loved that Nick

Jsibley, could you describe the dish? It sounds intriguing. Nick

Nick

Lord Baltimore, I PM'd you and kindly asked you not to judge me from two posts (The last from June 24th!). I told you that I would then post a response. My response: Proverbs 26:4 Nick

Cabrales, The dishes separate elements are place'd before service. The duck meat is 'pulled' from the leg before service. it is gently heated in some fat and then mounded on the plate with the seared Foie Gras placed on top. Nick

Your opinion is plenty valid . I enjoy readin' ya. As I'm sure many others do. Nick

Jeez, That was really sweet and after some of the shite I've been reading in some of the topics this evening, really welcome. Truly, it made me smile. Nick

Wow!, goodngood4u certainly jumped in shooting. However I thought that he/she tried to make one very good point. Unfortunately it was obscured by the loudness and perceived rudeness of his post. The one valid thing he touched on was power. Being a restaurant critic for a large market publication confers a great deal of implicit and explicit power. Because of this power, I submit that restaurant criticism is very serious work. It has the power not only to make careers and firmly establish fledgling businesses, but to also destroy or, at best, set back those careers and businesses. Hence the work of a restaurant critic, IMO, should never be taken lightly. To be consigned to a back page fluff entertainment section in no way diminishes the power and potential of a regular critic. People tend to read them and people expect (rightfully so) a skillfull accounting of the dining experience. The professionals amongst us should demand one. This does NOT mean that a critic must have a fully developed sense of culinary operations or a thorough knowledge of nuts and bolts restaurant front and back of the house ops. All it means is what TCD has put so succinctly: This and the ability to write well may be all that is required. Let me also add to the mix, a healthy and inate respect for the power that is wielded by the hand that holds the pen. That said, I'd like to add that I have great respect for the writing of Mr. Corcoran. I feel comfortable reading his reviews. I garner a sense of culinary and dining competence from them. Is he truly competent? I dunno. Do I know him? No. Nor have I eaten in many of the restaurants that he's criticized. How then do I draw such an obviously ill-informed conclusion about him? Through the quality of his writing. He conveys, through the printed word, a sense of the dining passion that TCD alluded to. The food shows through. It is encapsulated within the confines of a few column inches every other Sunday. Many restaurants are truly deserving of their bad reviews. But the bad criticism, IMO, should be flowing from the passion that TCD described. Not some pedantic tripe forced onto the page merely to fill it up. Thanks for listening Nick

Jin, re: razor clams. The idea I had for these started as a visual one. A random mound of slender razor clams, shells popped open, in an orange colored broth with thin slices of palacio spanish chorizo and roasted plum tomatoes. Two or three toasted panini croutons slathered with saffron butter and baked crisp scattered about the bowl with 'studied randomness'. I've done this preparation with hardshell clams (littlenecks) as well as mussels. The razor clams looked exactly like my dad's old folded up straight razor. They were about 4-6 inches long and about a 1/2-3/4 inch wide. When I went hunting for a method of preparation, I found Pacific NW clams that were monsters. Much wider than what I had in my kitchen. The meats also looked larger and easier to work with. The cleaning techniques posted on these sites seemed ill suited for the long but slender clams that I had. I cleaned them today, according to the instructions on the various sites, but it was long and tedious work. I'll stay tenacious and let you know how the next batch fares. Thanx for the input and advice Nick

You think that's bad. OY! Here in Dumont, the counci passed an amendment to the sign ordinance. Get this!: All foreign laanguage signs in places of business must have English sign translations. The Letters of the English translations MUST be 4 (quatro, quatre, four) times LARGER than the foreign letter signs. The owner of 'Le Petite Patisserie' and I had a good laugh at that one. I sometimes think that people just don't have enough to do. Nick

Namaskaar (Paramus) has a large party room off the main dining room. It's always been empty on the Mondays and tuesdays that I dine there. Namaskaar is also off a fairly major highway (4), near the GSP. Nick

The Alpine Country Club in Demarest NJ, Mark. 'bout 5 miles N of the GW on the Palisades. Members only, I'm afraid Jin, Thanks for the 411. I still have questions. I'll post later. Nick

Ruby??...Flynn??? Is that you? Nick

Ahhh, The famous Jimbo Crowley . I know him. Nice man. We are currently rethinking the shrimp cocktail. Mostly from a presentation view. We'll keep the cocktail sauce. You know how members hate change. But your suggestion is a good one. Nick

Jeez, I like your menu very much, basildog. It appears we have much in common from a culinary standpoint. Perhaps we can continue to post our own menus. perhaps others will join in and post theirs. It'll give me more to steal from Seriously though; I like the balance that the well thought out garnishes give your dishes. Jin and Rachel, I don't have a lot of experience with razor clams. Hence, I thought i could treat them like an Ipswich steamer. WRONG! They're too dirty and the intestinal innards are too weird for people. They also steam up pretty tough. The dish plainly didn't work. So I 86'd them just as the first reservations were settling in. I'm on variouis web sites now searching for proper preparations. Next week I'll run the same dish but this time I'll use Maine steamers. Thanx for the views and your interest. Nick

Yes Jin, The sesame seaweed salad, Hyashi Wakame. Didn't catch the typo. That dish (hamachi) sold well. The fluke sold out and the razor clams...Welll more about them later. thank you. Nick