phaelon56

The names do change by area. In Syracuse - only 90 minutes east of Rochester - the "white hots" are universally referred to (and marketed as) "coneys" (pronounced cone-ee by most but coon-ee by some). And I've seen the white hots labeled as Texas Hots in the Albany area but I don't know if that's typical throughout the Capitol District.

It's also worth noting that many people use the term "New York Hot Dog" without much clarification - perhaps assuming that there's only one style. But is it safe to say that there are two basic categories? I'm thinking that the "dirty water dogs" served by many street carts are really a different breed than the Gray's Papaya, Papaya King and others of the Papaya School.

I'll give myself credit for having already raised this exact issue earlier in the thread (I didn't use the word "spongy" but I was complaining about the crusts - which generally suck). And Nathan pointed out that the "Joe's" I referenced is actually at Bleecker and 6th. The weird thing is that although the place I mentioned (which I have not visited in the past four or five years) was just "Joe's" - not "Famous Joe's". I'm wondering if they really moved up form the corner or of the other place closed and the new guy can't use the name but settled on"Famous Joe's" so that people would assume a connection. I'll be in the city for the last weekend of September and staying in that neighborhood - I'll walk over and check it out.

I agree that the ingredient quality is the biggest factor. But I'd be shocked to see even a few of those places change what they're doing. I think the majority of the slice joints and neighborhood pizzerias in NYC most likely don't mix, knead and raise their dough from high quality ingredients. Pre-made ready-to-stretch-and-bake dough is common and that horrid "Grande" cheese blend (about which I have ranted in a number of past posts) is the other major - and even more significant - culprit. For a traditional gooey slice there is no substitute in texture or flavor for whole milk mozzarella. But there's an entire generation or two of people who've never tasted the good stuff (by gooey slice standards) and don't know the difference. What's that little stand-up slice joint down on the corner by Seventh Avenue South and Father Demo way in the West Village - Joe's? Last time I tried their slices they tasted just like old-school NYC gooey slices. Our best local pizzerias here in Syracuse (there are a few which maintain high standards) have not deviated from their recipes or their ingredient quality. I know the owner of one such place and his position has always been "I maintain standards and raise prices accordingly as my materials costs and overhead increases - my best customers appreciate quality and they'll keep coming back." And he's right. A two item 16" round Neapolitan style pies is about $14 (by the way - the recipe came to Syracuse from Staten Island via his longshoreman father who came here in the early 1950's to open a small amusement park). The nearby Pizza Hut and Domino's regularly run specials with coupons where people can get two theoretically similar pizzas for the same price as his one. Yet his business continues to grow.

... so desperate for something sweet and with chocolate that you actually eat a chocolate fortune cookie that was stashed away in the cupboard (just in case) instead of pulling out the fortune and throwing away the cookie. I did this and could barely face the prospect of eating anything at all with chocolate or even a plain old regular fortune cookie for months after. It was that traumatic.

Just curious... do you mean the three cooking chambers were boilers that have been repurposed? John-John has three other smokers (two of which are visible in the picture of the front of his operation). This big one was custom built for him about 7 or 8 years ago and he talked about if for months before it arrived. For the first few summers it was in operation he hauled it around to his temporary sites with a short bed 1950's era red firetruck - very classy rig overall.

Sunday was a restocking trip. First a jaunt south for some apples at O'Neill's Orchards (no relation that we know of but somewhere back in misty time we are undoubtedly kinfolk). Entering the Lafayette Valley from the East - on Rte 20 -aka The Cherry Valley Turnpike. They have a nice outside eating area where you can have a snack or relax after doing U-Pick. And you might want to eat your fresh apple fritter there (first really good one I've ever had!). This baby was oozing with nice chunks of fresh apple. I had a nice chat with the owner Keith O'Neill. We became engaged about picking schedules because I was in search of Macouns - which I'll have to wait at least 7 to 10 days for. One of the migrant crews that works for him every year is Jamaican - he says they call him "the White Jamaican" because he loves their cooking so much. He was kind enough to share with me a few good bites of the breakfast dish they gave him this morning: bananas with mackerel and tomato. If you like ackee with salted codfish and plantains for breakfast then you'll love this dish - I did. You just never know when you'll stumble across great food in the most unlikely of places! From there I headed north for North Syracuse to visit the area's newest Italian Imports store. It's owned by Sam Mondello and Vince Lombardi (no - not THAT Vince Lombardi!) . Vince's family has run (and still does) the Lombardi Imports store on Syracuse's North Side for many years. I've written about shopping at Lombardi's in other threads and I still go there regularly. But with the neighborhood changing and a large number of potential customers in the Northern suburbs Vince opened a place of his own out that way this past November with Sam as a partner. Nice place. Big, bright and well stocked. And I chatted for a bit with Sam - an affable host. Plenty of bulk goods here including olives and nuts not to mention coarse and fine polenta, durum flour and extra fine semolina (which I use in my pizza dough). Even fava beans. I'll get to those eventually. Big deli counter where I bought imported buffalo milk mozzarella, Parma prosciutto and some of their excellent made on premises Italian sausage. And I bought some of the marinara sauce and past they make there as well. I think that's tomorrow's dinner. Nice prosciutto - I just eat it straight from the package. Tomorrow's meal includes some aged Balsamic and some espresso soda that I purchase awhile ago at Lombardi's. And no Italian meal is complete in this town without bread - most often from Columbus Bakery - good Italian bread as baked by Greeks . The only thing mechanized in this place is the dough mixer and the bread slicer. That long wooden trough on the floor is where the dough rises and is kneaded by hand by a team of men. People often buy two loaves - one for dinner and one to eat in the car on the way home It's been a fun week and I've appreciated the feedback and questions. I didn't choose this town as my home but it has plenty going for it and good food is never more than a few minutes away for those willing to search for it. Today's dinner - sliced Striped German tomato, fresh basil, Buffalo milk mozzarella, Sicilian olive oil and a drizzle of aged Balsamic. See ya all later - I'm ready to eat!

I think I've just about worn myself up for the week and the weekend. I'll catch up with yesterday's lone meal and provide a glimpse of what's in store for me for tonight - or perhaps tomorrow as I'm not feeling enthused about standing up to cook at this point. Saturday's real meal was breakfast (dinner was a leftover rib and some sweet potato salad). Yellow grits - love these (don't much care for plain old white grits) and can't find them around here. We picked these up at a roadside stand in rural South Carolina when I had a hankering for boiled green peanuts (which are weirdly addictive) Tried to make "basted" eggs but I screwed 'em up pretty darn good. The oil and butter was so hot that the eggs spread out too thin and got crispy in the whites. But I was able to keep the yolks runny so they could ooze down into the grits they were served on top of - crucial. And my multi-grain bread was smeared with this tasty concoction I found at a Christmas crafts market in Ithaca last year - very good stuff. And we do have a bit of food retailing in the family tree. My dad's father ran O'Neill's Cash Store during the late 20's and through the middle of the Great Depression (when he went under because he extended too much credit to people in need at his "cash" store). At my great grandpa Johnsonbeck's insistence he made Mr. Manton - the butcher - teach him the art of meat cutting - which later proved to be quite useful. This is an original handbill that is framed and remains on my parents dining nook wall. Porterhouse steak was one of the pricier items at 29 cents per pound - then again.... one of my uncles was a food salesman making $25 per week - considered to be "big money" in our area at the time. The store was located here - the neighborhood has changed.... After the store closed he went to work in a commercial bakery a few hundred yards from his house - the decaying brick hulk of which was still standing when I was a young boy. But in his mid to late 70's, before the Social Security program provided the elderly poor with a semblance of a living pension, he returned to work - as a butcher (needless to say - my dad, his three sisters and their spouses wanted to make up the income shortfall but pride would not let that happen). So.... when I was 7 or 8 years old my brother and I would regularly stop at the Dale Market to get a big smile and a piece of penny candy from Grandpa O'Neill. ironically enough it happened to be the same market and butcher where my mom's family bought all their meat when she was a girl. And today it remains in service - only ten blocks or so from my house - as the Syracuse Real Food Coop. Some circles remain small. With no further ado - for the benefit of Catew (whose mom lives even closer to the Food Coop than I do) here is the Half Moon Cookie. Now - where is that recipe you promised? I bought the cookies at a satellite store of Harrison Bakery - an outfit that consistently fails to impress me except for their very tasty Half Moons. By the way - there are plenty of truly mediocre Half Moon cookies now sold in this town at grocery store bakeries, convenience stores and the like. But a few good ones remain. And in another sign of the times - this bakery (a few blocks from my house) is in the exact same space where Martin's and Tannenbaum's Kosher Meat Market was located for many, many years. Times change... groceries like Wegman's meet most people's needs and the number of families in town who keep Kosher continues to decline. John-John's remains closed - all the more reason for a rib smackdown sometime soon. This is just one of his several smokers - the man can handle volume - for certain.

The clay pot option was indeed listed on the menu - I'll try that next time. Yes - a big squeeze bottle with no label that looked like a ketchup bottle. It was tasty and I applied it liberally.

Friday's breakfast was the usual thawed croissant, banana and an apple. No need to show that. And I humbly submit that the apples grown in the Syracuse area - specifically in the Lafayette Valley area just south of the city, are the finest in the country. One particular variety known as Macoun (pronounced Muh-cown) has the most incredible combination of fine crisp texture, tartness and sweetness that I have ever tasted anywhere. By the way - terroir matters in apples just as it does in wine and coffee. If you happen to find Macouns in a store like Wegmans they come from big apple farms in the Hudson Valley or from flatland farms on the south side of Lake Ontario. They are not remotely close to being as good as those coming from the Lafayette Valley. This variety is grown in limited amounts and has a much shorter season than the more well known types (Macintosh, Empire, Jonagold, Cortland etc.). I'll get some today if they're ready by now. Friday lunch was comprised of two local specialties - purchased at an outdoor grill just down the road from my office. They use a big cooker fired with hardwood scraps from the nearby Stickley Furniture factory. Syracuse was the epicenter of the Arts & Crafts movement in the US with Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Workshop in Eastwood ( now a neighborhood of Syracuse - then a small separate community on the edge of the city). The Roycrofters were in nearby Aurora NY (about 45 minutes away) and my all time favorite ceramist - Adelaide Alsop Robineau - had her studios here and created the incredible Scarab Vase (the Apotheosis of the Toiler). I stop to look at this piece very time I visit our local Everson Museum (first art museum ever designed by IM Pei - maybe we're not such a hick town after all eGulleteer Lonnie (aka Lonnie Chu) has a terrific blog called Walkable Eastwood - which highlights the efforts she's been spearheading to help this neighborhood retain its historic character. Here's a great she did on Cafe Kubal - a great local microroaster and cafe (one that I visit regularly). Among the local connections are the fact that all of the cabinetry in the shop was built by a Stickley alum using some methods unique to that product and the antique roaster being used is a Royal #4 - made in the early 1900's in Hornell NY. On to food. I had a chicken Speidie (Binghamton's contribution to the food world) and some salt potatoes. A healthy and decent lunch for $5. That evening my plans for a Polish dinner were postponed due to schedule shuffling by my planned dining partners. I wasn't up to driving across town anyway so it seemed a good occasion to try this mysterious little Korean restaurant that is just a few doors down from th e currently shuttered John-John's BBQ operation. By the way - when I have lived in town (which is for close to 40 years of my 51 year life) I have always gravitated to the East side - where both my mom and I grew up. We like to think it has a more interesting mix of people and culture than do other parts of the city - nothing wrong with being biased towards your own neighborhood. A few doors down and behind Chorong House - the Korean restaurant - is the Jean's Potato Chips factory. In 1995 they were purchased by a larger regional chain known as Terrell's but the Jean's brand still has a loyal local following and is available to this day. Upthread someone mentioned "Friday fish fry". Perhaps due in part to our large Catholic population there has always been an abundance of places where fried haddock was served on Friday. Although the Catholic Church has long since removed the dictate against eating meat on Friday the tradition prevails. There are fewer fish fries now than there were back then. But "back in the day" we used to visit the jean's Potato Chip factory every Friday - where they opened a special retail counter one day each week to sell fried haddock and French Fries. And.... no sooner did I tell Sandy upthread the Syracuse University has little if anything to do with the number of local ethnic restaurants.... but I find Chorong House to be one exception to the rule. The few other restaurants in town that offer Korean food are billed as "Japanese-Korean" and sushi offerings, teriyaki etc. play a large part in their popularity. Chorong House appears to have a primary market of Korean students from the nearby university, who appear in significant numbers on weekend nights, leave their shoes in the foyer and sit cross-legged at low traditional tables in a large rear dining room. The two middle aged ladies whom run the restaurant appear to be surrogate moms of a sort who feed the hungry throngs and bring them a taste of home. I sat in the tiny (five tables) front dining room adjacent to the open kitchen. In case you might be wondering about the subject matter of the photos on the "wall of pictures" - nearly all of them are pictures of happy diners sitting in front of that same wall of pictures! I am nearly clueless about Korean food and until this meal I'd never had any that I found all that appealing. But this was a terrific meal and I will definitely return. Meat and vegetable dumplings Kim Chi and other pickled items served as a complimentary appetizer / side dish (one of the items appeared to be slices of either small hot dogs or large Vienna sausages that had been pickled - but it was tasty) The main course was Bimbam... bap? I'm not sure of the suffix as there were several Bimbamxxx items on the menu. It was comprised of marinated and cooked slices of beef, mushrooms, lettuce, spouted beans and other vegetables along with some thin black strips of what appeared to be seaweed - all served on a bowl of steamed rice with a dried egg on top. This dish is similar in many ways to one of my favorite Vietnamese dishes. The table adjacent to me had a huge bowl of steaming soup that I'll be sure to try when I can revisit along with other people to share the food.

Thanks for asking. It's early Sunday morning at the moment and I'm finally up to posting again. I managed to work the day Friday and actually got a few meals in but Saturday's food activity included nothing but a light breakfast - had to pass on lunch and dinner. I'm glad this blog was a tag team effort (thank you Melissa!) I promise to do that. And I look forward to that recipe - my dad loves half moons. No visit to Ithaca yesterday and thus no Moosewood visit. But I have decided to get down there some upcoming weekend very soon and will report on that visit in the New York forum. My mom was long active in the Home Ec Club of Syracuse and was involved in the management of that recipe sharing column in some way for years. A few weeks ago I spotted a recipe she submitted recently in response to a reader's query (this being in the Post as the Herald is long gone). It was one she'd clipped years before, filed and knew exactly where it was - but she never made it for us! Ghostrider (who happens to live in the same "swamps of NJ" where I lived until a few years ago) asked: Ahhhhh... the "Crick House". Yes it's still there. Not thriving as it once was when Ithaca Gun was still in business and ran three shifts but it's there. One of my former Cornell colleagues tells me that some of the Ithaca gun retirees would show up there every weekday morning at 8 AM to have coffee while their still working friends came in for beers after third shift. And the Louie's versus "Truck" info is appreciated. I walked by Louie's every day when I worked at Cornell as I was living on Wyckoff Ave. But the "Truck" I barely noticed as Stewart Ave was not on any of my regular routes. Having mentioned a few days ago that my latter art improved I'll confess that it has to do with improved espresso shots. On Thursday evening I decided to change the gasket and the dispersion screen inside the brew group head (gasket seals the coffee holding poretafi8klter in so proper pressure will be maintained and the dispersion screen has a fine mesh screen behind a metal plate with multiple small holes that regulates the flow and distribution of water. I'd been suspecting the grinder - a used Mazzer that I recently put into service (one of the many grinders and espresso machines in my basement). Voila! Great espresso once again and improved latte art to boot. Here are the results from the past three mornings (Saturday is a bit abstract but maybe it's a swan?) Friday Saturday Sunday Smackdown indeed - you're on! And I'm sad to report that John-John's operation seems to have ground to a halt as it has so many times over the years. They closed for State Fair week and threw up a hastily lettered sign saying they';d be back after the Fair. All the smokers and the cart are still there but there's no one present and no food being cooked.

Sandy - you're far from being the only person who's commented with surprise about my use of an electric smoker. But it's cheap, easy, convenient, takes up minimal storage space in the winter and requires very little waiting time for cooking to commence. The ribs it produces are better than any I can buy locally in restaurants (far better than Dinosaur BBQ) and at least as good as what our local rib king John-John offers from his cart. I like convenience, ease of use and saving time - especially as I am out the door most days at 5 AM or 5:30 AM and don't get home until after 6 PM - that makes for a long day. Another point well taken but I don't use sauce on my own ribs and the few guests that I have seem to use very little of it. But I will try that recipe sometime - just for fun (when I actually get time!) Minor point of personal interest: my best friend's family is from a small town near Tuscaloosa Alabama and his late mom (who was a Mills) had a cousin named John "Big Daddy" Bishop. He'd mentioned "Uncle" John's sauce to me a few times but it wasn't until I heard an audio piece on NPR about Southern BBQ that I made the connection - John Bishop was the founder of Dreamland. And I've still never had a chance to try the sauce! (I'm guessing that I have to go to Alabama for that but I think his family sold off their interest some time after he passed on). The university has had very little to do with it - apart from a handful of ethnic restaurants immediately adjacent to the campus (none of which I have mentioned here). Several factors have been at play over the years. As a traditional heavy industry / manufacturing city we had some industrial concerns in which a handful of immigrants from a given area would be hired and subsequently bring relatives over for the burgeoning job opportunities. This accounted for significant portions of our German, Polish, Ukrainian, Italian and Tyrolean communities. With a relatively low cost of living (at least back then), moderate housing prices, good public schools (back then) and no major metro area nearby to lure people away with higher wages - these have been stable communities. We have never had a large number of Latino families here but in more recent years the sum total of new arrivals in the area from Dominican Republic, Cuba, Central America and the Caribbean have bolstered the small existing Puerto Rican community to the extent that we haver an annual and well attended Latino day festival. We have a Puerto Rican restaurant in town (mediocre), a two location Dominican place (okay but not great) and one small neighborhood Dominican joint (Casa del Te) that is stellar. Years ago, not long after the end of US involvement in the Vietnam War, a local inter-religious council became actively involved in a resettlement program for Hmong refugees. That program expanded over the years on both a formal and informal basis resulting in a sizable (relative to the size of our city) population of Hmong, Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants. That community continues to grow and at one time supported three Vietnamese restaurants - two of which remain open and I visit one of those regularly. Another factor that may be significant is the fact the people of limited means CAN open a restaurant here if they work hard. By today's national standards the city of Syracuse has remarkably low real estate prices and is economically depressed. The cost barriers to opening a small food business are lower than in many cities. We also have many people, including both people of the specific ethnic communities and "regular" folks like me (i.e. people who are acculturated and whose families have been here for many generations - regardless of race or ethnicity), who appreciate good food, want moderate prices and are quite comfortable eating in humble surroundings. And good food nearly always wins out. There have been any number of ethnic restaurants that have come and gone but the best ones (with a few notable exceptions) seem to endure. I am sad to report however that my very long time lady friend's daughter had to close her soul food take-out operation when her business partner threw in the towel. They were under-capitalized and hadn't figured out the right way to market to a larger audience. Given time and money I believe they could have done very well.

Not sure if it's identical. Mine is "seconds" - usually with a small inclusion in the glaze - from the Syracuse China factory store. They have the same overpriced not-such-a-deal type things that most "outlets" have but also have a back room (and an outdoor tent in summer) with bins and carts and shelves full of overstocks, seconds and discontinued lines from their restaurant china division. The round 10" plates were 75 cents each on sale.

Soooo... nothing from me for a few days and now a veritable flood while I catch up. I did manage to get a better rosetta on the morning cappa I made at the coffee shop yesterday (before I went home and collapsed). Today's on my own machine at home was far better but more on that - and why - in a different post. Did I mention that I love ribs? This past June it became evident that my cheap but trusty Char-Broil H20 electric bullet smoker was finally getting a bit rusty and worn out after ten years of use. Despite the shortcomings - a bottom that collected water leading to rust and necessitating messy clean-out, a lack of good airflow and thus a lack of adequate smoke flow-through, a heating element that didn't get quite hot enough and no way to add more hot water to the pan except by removing the top cover - it was still good for a cheap smoker. Good news: over the years the price has risen by about $20 but they eliminated the cupped bottom, created good airflow with a dampered vent, bumped the heating element from 1500 to 1650 watts and added a side door so water can easily be added during the smoking process. I know you purists will scoff but the new smoker - with the addition of an external Variac (voltage regulator that allows me to precisely bump up the heat) - makes fantastic ribs. have not tried anything else with it but I'll get there eventually. I used to do St. Louis style prep but now just remove the major pieces of fat, the folded over hunk-o-meat on the back and the membrane and leave the rest of the rack intact. Makes for bigger and meatier ribs even if there is some stuff to work around. Have been using McCormick's Montreal Steak Seasoning as my standard dry rub for years. This summer I tried Weber's Chicago Style Steak Rub (might be good on steaks but I did not care for it on ribs) and also a sweet/spicy rub a co-worker made. His had too my brown sugar and again - not to my liking. I typically cook for myself and one guest so a cryo-vac of three racks gets prepped and rubbed on day of purchase with 1/2 to 2/3 of it going into the freezer for future use (that came in handy yesterday - when I really didn't feel up to very much cooking). Prepped ribs The Variac ($120 new on eBay - made in China. Where else?). I live in an old house in a neighborhood served by an aging substation. My 110V AC power is often less than that and the smoker sans Variac couldn't get much above 200 degrees F - especially if it was a cool day. Now I can get a true 120v or even 130V if I need it. I start out hot for an hour to get good smoke going, back off to cooler for the next three hours and then goose it back to hotter for the final thirty minutes. The flat plate below the heating element is now the bottom of the unit and allows plenty of airflow as well as water drainage. Note the pre-soaked wood chips (hickory) already in position. Side door for adding water to the pan during cooking You'll notice a foil pan underneath. greases and water drippings tend to slide down the inside surface and drip off the lower edge below the door. I put a small foil pan of water there to catch that and keep the deck and the concrete pad clean. Weber used to make this great black "porcelain" heavy duty rib rack for standing multiple slabs on their sides. Now Weber, Char-Broil and everyone else seem to offer only a cheesy chrome one that's not heavy duty. Where can I get another one of these? Help! Halfway to completion Do any of you recall my mention of another use for fish sauce? Here we go..... Peel some yams: the orange sweet type - do not use "white sweet potatoes" (in some stores both types are labeled as sweet potatoes). If the yams are big and old like mine were you need to are the touch white coating if that's underneath the skin to expose the good orange part. Dice and boil - do NOT overcook! It's very easy to do - they go from firm to mushy in a flash. Dice a bunch of colorful stuff that looks good contrasting with orange - I use red, yellow and green pepper, scallions and a small bit of finely minced celery: As we did previously in this same blog, make a dressing from plenty of fresh lime juice, some white pepper, a touch of salt, a tsp or tbsp of fish sauce, some seasoned rice vinegar and some fruity olive oil and... this time add some fresh ginger. It tastes better if you use a really cool miniature grater lie mine but I can't bear to part with it. You have to get your own (I jest but not really - no other grater I own including my microplane can come close to grating ginger the way this little baby does). Be generous with the ginger. Very generous. Toss the diced ingredients with the cooled potatoes but add the dressing to each portion only at time of serving. Sweet potatoes seem to get soggy more easily than white potatoes. I make extra and store the "dry" ingredients separately from the dressing. Keeps for about three to four days that way. The final touch is to sprinkle on a few things for extra color, flavor and contrasting texture. I use chopped pecans because there are nearly always some pecan halves in my freeze left over from the past winter's pecan pie making. This time I uncovered a bag of black sesame seeds in the pantry (have no clue when or why I bought them!). Looks good and tastes even better. And the sweet potato salad taste might good with a big hunk of pork rib. By the way - I never cook or baste with BBQ sauce. I keep Dino's Sensuous Slathering Sauce and Wango Tango in the fridge and mix about 4 parts of the former with one part of the latter for a respectable and reasonably hot pre-made sauce. I don't use the sauce myself but my guests are welcome to put their own on at the table. And yes - they taste as good as they look

Apart from my lunch at Ponchito's with Melissa Wednesday was not much of an eating day. Things were a bit hazy in the evening so I went for my standby of a grilled cheese with extra sharp cheddar and a bowl of cream of tomato soup. By the standards of some cities Ponchito's would be just another taqueria but here in "the 'cuse" it's the first really decent Mexican food we've had available in about twenty years. And the place that was really good remained that way for less than two years before it changed hands and went downhill fast. Everything is fresh, cooked on premises, they use their own shredded chicken, excellent slow-roasted pork and real fresh avocados for the guacamole (most places in town use the frozen pulp you can buy at wholesale clubs). I had a chicken taco, a side of guacamole and chips and a Jaritto's Mexican grapefruit soda. It's good but trust me - Ting is better Melissa's burrito looks really good - doesn't it? I.... uhhhh... forgot to snap pictures until my taco was nearly gone. Hungry.

Hello again to all! Sorry for my absence from the blog but I went straight from lunch with Melissa on Wednesday to a prolonged exploration of the wonders of our modern health care system. Having recuperated enough to return to work I'll touch on the meals I have been able to eat or prepare in the past few days. First - the Moosewood. Yes it is still alive, well and thriving. A number of years ago they expanded from their original space and have continued to fill the tables regularly. On occasion I hear some people pooh-pooh it perhaps because they've never made any effort to add "haute" to their simple but delicious cuisine. But Ithaca remains a sort of granola-crunchy-aging-hippie-Birkenstock-wearing-old Volvo-driving town - and the vibe of Moosewood is still a good fit. I'll try to get there for Saturday lunch but no promises as my illness has thrown my schedule off by a few days. I tend to believe the story about the naming but as with other famous food creations... I'm generally skeptical about whether it was invented by those who named it. According to John Cletheroe's USA and Canada Holiday Hints: But... speaking of Ithaca.... some recently uncovered evidence appears to back the claim that Ithaca NY was the birthplace of the Ice Cream Sundae in 1892 - despite rival claims to the contrary. Breakfast: apart from the occasional weekend morning where I make omelets, pancakes or McCann's Irish oatmeal (yes - I love it too and there is no other like it) my breakfasts are uniform and simple. Fresh baked goods don't arrive at the coffee shop until 7:15 or 7:30 AM - far too late for me when I get up at 4:30 or 5. I bring a banana or an apple from home and thaw out a frozen day-old croissant by propping it up on tongs above the shop's toaster: Now... back to meals eaten this week. But I forgot to show you where I've been growing my lovely tomatoes - three patio boxes propped up on rocks next to the retaining wall at the back of my yard. They get plenty of sun here and weeding is a cinch but I think I've been losing a few to critters. We have deer and fox in the neighborhood (despite being in a totally developed area) not to mention raccoons and who knows what else. Tuesday evening I tried to visit our local conveyor style sushi restaurant: Sakana Ya But they had just resumed their "All Sushi Half Price on Tuesday" special and there was already a 45 minute wait at 6 PM. They've only been open for six months - quality is good and they don't need to discount but it's a marketing strategy that has worked well and brought them a large number of repeat customers on other nights. I see the owner, Mr. Han, every morning when he stops in for his coffee. In addition to the sushi bar he owns a Korean-Japanese restaurant and an Asian grocery store - and he works in all three places every day. This guy works harder than James Brown ever did (then again.... JB only claimed to be "the hardest workin' main in show business" - and we all know the restaurant biz can be a lot tougher than show biz!) Tuesday's alternate dinner was some excellent Jamaican takeout from Syracuse's Jerk Hut Owner Irvin Hanshaw ( aka Bongo) is well respected by and actively involved in the South Side community where the restaurant is located. He and his family have run the place for years and don't tolerate inappropriate behavior or dress on the premises - no mistake about that: It's a pleasant enough place to eat in but given the option - I take my food home and eat from china plates with real flatware rather than tolerate foam and plastic. To me food is always more satisfying on a real plate. Their portions are typically generous but this day were exceedingly so. Curry goat, cabbage 'n carrots, rice 'n peas, plantains (maduro style fried - not platanos), a patty as an appetizer and - always - a Ting. If there's a better grapefruit soda on the planet Earth I have yet to try it.

Gorges: Waterfalls: (this is Taughannock Falls - I think there is a scrupulously observed unwritten law that all visitors to Ithaca must either go to the falls or be taken there by someone) Carriage House Cafe - across the street from the Chapter House. Co-manager Chris Deferio established and runs the coffee/espresso part of this business. He is a North American Latte Art Champion and a finalist in multiple years in the North American Barista Championships (I believe he placed third this year). He's also a very nice guy who happens to be from my hometown. Carriage House is one of the very few (possibly the only) restaurant I know of where you can have a quality meal and get absolutely stellar world class espresso drinks after dinner. And they bake killer baguettes on premises. The machiatto pictured is served in a tall demitasse with no handles. I believe it's a sake cup and the aesthetic is lovely - as is the drinking experience.

Don't know about the rest of you but I'm really diggin' Melissa's gas range. And it appears that they eat better there than I do at my house Yes - white plastic package and script writing. It's really good. I used to by my cured chorizo in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood when I lived in NJ and this is as good as the stuff Seabra's Market sells from their meat case. 4X = aged four years or more, 2X = aged 2 years or more. Most generic grocery store cheddar is aged either less than 12 months (in which case it is not labeled as to aging) or is 1X or 2X. Back when he was still able to make fishing trips my dad used to buy cheese at a small cheese factory in Harrowsmith Ontario (Canada - north of Kingston). They had a cheddar labeled as "Medieval" - which amused him greatly as he is a history buff. Tasted like 4X to me. For one you can readily find in grocery stores I think Heluva Good Cheese is a good bet but the Black Diamond 4X is way better than Heluva's "Fisherman's X-tra Sharp (which I think is a 3X). Colosse is the other independent brand that is decent. Colosse also sells a product called "washed curd cheese" which is less expensive than the longer aged cheddars but has similar sharpness (but the texture is not as good). In all cases it's crucial to allow the cheese to warm up to just below room temp before consuming as the sharpness is enhanced and the texture improves. Buttercup dairy is a small independent outfit that sells at our local regional market (a commercial produce market during the week and a retail operation on Saturday morning). They actually sell a 5X and a 10X (yes - aged 5 and 10 years!). They source from Cuba Cheese in Cuba NY and then age it themselves. I think the Cuba Cheese 3 yr Aged NYS Cheddar is excellent - perhaps the best exam0ple iof NY cheddar that I have tried. I'd start with about 1 tbsp and then adjust to taste. It dep3ends on how sharp your vinegar is. I tend to use relatively sweet Asian vinegar but that's just my taste. About 60 miles and for me - one hour of driving time on the "back route". Most would estimate about 1 hr and 10 minutes to drive it. It's possible. My base is Syracuse but I began visiting Ithaca regularly in the early 1970's when I was still in high school. Back then the dining scene and the cultural offerings were better or at least more eclectic in Ithaca than in Syracuse. I eventually went to work for Cornell as a department manager in the Cornell Store and lived in Ithaca from 1991 through 1995. And I still visit there regularly. Gorge pictures later.

Today was a typical day - up at 4 AM or 5 AM or as late as 5:30 and then off to roast or on some days just open the shop. I am a two hour per day barista, a coffee roaster and a competent (just barely) espresso machine emergency repair guy for a local cafe chain consisting of four stores. First my morning cappa at home to be drunk in the car on my ten minute drive to the shop I bought some Streamline blend at Victrola when I was in Seattle for Labor Day weekend. It's likely the smoothest espresso I have ever had but it does not hold up to more than 3 parts milk to 1 part espresso. I like it best in a machiatto but the six oz. cappa is my morning standard. You'll notice some espresso splashing onto the sides of the cup - Naked Portafilter Extraction Problem. Some days my latte art is better than others. Today it was "interpretive". Open the shop at 6:15 AM Roasted some coffee before opening the doors. A small day is 70 lbs ( a fill in of 2 batches) and a big roast is over 300 lbs (about 12 batches - that happens twice each week on average). Every six to eight batches I have to dump the five gallon chaff bucket. Chaff is a pale filmy skin that comes off the beans when they roast. On rare occasion I find weird things in the green beans - usually just corn or rocks or a small nail but last week it was this coconut shell all the way from Papua new Guinea. Here come Tom for his mondo sized Organic - just like every morning. http://forums.egullet.org/uploads/11895255...5127_195174.jpg And Frank insists that I have a shot of espresso with him - every morning. I gladly oblige. It's late (for me) - see you all tomorrow!

Sorry I've been absent today but have been seriously under the weather. I did manage to roast coffee, open the shop and put in a half-day at the office before collapsing but tomorrow should be back in the saddle. I attempted to visit our conveyor style sushi restaurant this evening but they just resumed their "half-price on Tuesdays" promotion and the line was already out the door at 6 PM with a long wait. But my Plan B was take-out and very tasty - photos tomorrow. Answers to questions... some of which I saw and at least one I thought I saw.... Dinner and drinks in Syracuse for 20/30 something group of lively women: I stand by my recommendation of Ambrosia as a choice that should satisfy all. The bowl with the potatoes: It says "Continental International Corp. - Made In Portugal" on the bottom. Hard to believe but it dates to 1952 and has only been used a few times. A couple years back my mom pulled it out of the closet and suggested that I mighty get more use from it than she has. It was still in the original E.W. Edwards Department Store box and was a wedding gift that she never got around to using! The wooden spatula / spoon: Yes it's my favorite and although I have a few others they rarely get used. This one feels like it's an extension of my hand and works in my non-stick saute pan, stainless cookware and everything else I subject it to. Plastic shmastic - give me wood.

A dash of the fish sauce does great things for anything resembling a salad dressing or a light sweet/sour sauce. As for the Halloumi - I really don't care for it plain. It's still rather salty when it's fried but if you slice it thin (not too thin or it falls apart in the pan) it gets an intense flavor in the browned bits. It's nearly as radical a transformation as that which occurs with roasted cauliflower. Thin sliced chorizo sausage that has been briefly browned first and blotted free of oil before adding to the pie. And caramelized onions. Yum. Price Chopper (at least the one in Cicero at the Marketplace near Lowe's) carries a good brand of both cured chorizo and linguica from a purveyor based in Rhode Island - home to a large Portuguese population. It's not with the regular sausages - look in a separate section - maybe near slab bacon. or ask the butcher. It's worth looking for. I'll be using some later this week but I don't want to spill the beans just yet on what it's being used for.

And here is today's lunch - partially consisting of leftovers from tonight's (actually yesterday's) dinner. Most days I eat a better lunch than this but leaving my desk wasn't an option today. The tomato-cuke salad was still really good and very few things are tastier on Triscuits or Wheat Thins than 4X cheddar cheese. This is the Canadian Black Diamond brand - available at our local Sam's Club. It's not just the increased sharpness that I enjoy in the long aged cheddars - there's a much better texture as well. They get sort of crumbly and have a way of almost melting on your tongue as you eat the little hunks. It's radically different (to me) than 2X cheddar - worth seeking out and worth the nominal extra cost ($10 per pound versus $4 to $7 per pound for lesser domestic cheddars). It even makes vastly superior grilled cheese sandwiches.

I'm going to cheat - just a little bit - on this first day. I had company for the weekend and we cooked dinner last night. In light of the fact that I may not cook and won't eat much of interest this evening let's just pretend that last night's dinner is happening today - shall we? I knew you'd say yes Appetizer: Halloumi - the amazing cheese from Cyprus. It's not bad just eaten by a slice - a bit dense and very salty with a feta like flavor. But it is transformed by grilling or frying. Tomatoes from my very own garden along with cukes from the grocery store, purple garlic from the Ithaca Farmers Market, red onion, fresh lime juice, white pepper, rice salad vinegar, Asian fish sauce (the one with the fat baby on the label) and a bit of nice fruity Sicilian olive oil. I'll use the same sauce - sans garlic - later this week for a very colorful salad of a different type. For the main course we had a nice looking piece of fresh hake to be baked under foil with red and yellow pepper slices, lime juice, olive oil and a bit of sweet rice wine vinegar. I didn't have any fresh herbs handy so - my intention being good - I soaked some dried Herbes de Provence in the oil and vinegar before slathering it on. The fish cooked up perfectly and proved to be possibly the blandest least flavorful piece of fish I have ever eaten. It made farm raised tilapia taste exciting by comparison. Is all hake that bland or were we just unlucky? The fried cheese and the tomato-cuke salad were both terrific but the real star was the sweet corn. We were leaving the Farmers market and a vendor reeled us in at the exit insisting that we had to sample his sweet corn. I took a bit straight from a raw ear and it was unquestionably the best and sweetest corn I have ever tasted. Had to have it. My no fail always works cooking method: Chop off the ends of the ears and cook as is un-husked in a microwave from 2 to 3 minutes per ear depending on the freshness and the age of the ears (i.e. at what point of ripeness they were picked). Get a couple of cloth towels or a pair of clean cloth gloves. Hold the cooked ears over the trash receptacle and peel back the husk. The silk magically pulls off more or less in one fell swoop with the husk. Brush the ear with the cloth or glove to get the few remaining strands of silk off and you're done. The only sweet corn cooking technique I've yet to see that beats this is roasting but it's messier and I'm usually in too much of a hurry to roast corn. All thing considered (last minute planning... a gloomy rainy day... a bland piece of fish...) it was a good meal.

Indeed. It's surprising to me how many people I know who love the smell of coffee roasting or brewing (which are radically different smells) but detest the taste. me? I love it all. I can't speak for other cities but the Polish community here is much smaller than it was 20 or 30 years ago. In the days of the a thriving salt industry we had a large German community - some of whom came here as barrel makers and others as candle makers (Syracuse is still one of the United States largest producers of ecclesiastical or church candles). We have a fair number of Polish and Ukranian families still here but as with the Italian community they have sort of been absorbed and migrated out into the general community and suburbs rather than living in ethnic enclaves. We do have a fairly large Cambodian and Vietnamese Hmong population. One of my favorite local restaurants is New Century - right next door to one of our many candle manufacturers! We'll visit them for a meal towards the end of the week.

I roast about 800 pounds per week for a local cafe that has four retail stores and a handful of wholesale customers. I'll be doing a roasting venture of my own in the not-too-distant future but some family circumstances and a delay in my capital funds slowed that project down for awhile. You'll definitely see more about coffee in this blog - and not just mine.