Orik

Good news indeed. After venturing to a canceled fringe show and witnessing the somewhat careless transport of meat on the east end of Canal (think pork chops falling on the pavement) we had one scoop of gingery ginger and one of chestnut. Both perfectly textured, creamy, but not overwhelmingly so, with tiny pieces of ginger (fresh) and chestnut respectively. $2.75 for a small cup/cone, $3.25 for a medium, large seemed irrelevant. Snyder was there, keeping a watchful eye on his ice cream maker, making sure espresso is properly brewed and milk is frothed to the right temperature and giving the overall impression that he well and truely cares.

In that case I think you'll be looking at a volume ratio of about 1 to 8.45, as milk fat is approximately .96gr/cl while that of skim milk is around 1.036 gr/cl. Temperature also plays a role, so you may want to stick with weight ratios... Edit: typo - 7.45 instead of 8.45

Are these %s by volume or by weight?

It's a combination of two (probably related) recipes: Kibbeh bil saniyah (or souniyeh) - which is a Syrian/Lebanese baked kibbeh (saniyah is the name of the round mold used for making it, much like a terrine is called after the mold). Siniyeh - which is a Jewish dish of "simplified" kibbeh (just the stuffing) baked under tahini. Anyway, I made the kibbeh according to this recipe: http://www.lebaneserecipes.f9.co.uk/KibbehbSounieh.htm about 35 minutes into the baking, I topped it with a cup of tahini sauce, made the usual way (i.e. about 1/3 cup raw tahini, mixed with 1 minced garlic clove, juice of one lime and water) and continued baking for 10 minutes.

Back in the late 80s, several Rabbis were willing to say capybara is kosher as it ruminates and has split hooves, although I'm not sure this ever became mainstream orthodox opinion. It was particularly important to some orthodox jews back in Israel, because like the pig, its heart valves are probably useable for transplants. I will try and find references, but most online news archives don't go that far back. I believe it is also one of those magical animals that have been given the status of fish. In any event, it is not cuy.

- Yogurt cheese balls, made with thick greek yogurt from the yogurt place on sullivan st (very good), rolled in za'atar and olive oil. Served with grilled pita. - Baked kibbeh (kibbeh bil sannieh), topped with tahini (and then baked for 10 minutes longer) - Melon soup with almond blancmange.

And a supposedly kosher venezuelan specialty at that (they chew their cud and have something that passes as hooves). Capibara (chiguire) is also said to be very salty and needs to be washed well before cooking. I think the typical venezuelan way of cooking it is to fry it in a sofrito, but this is getting a bit off topic...

On a related note, does anyone know if capibara is served anywhere in or around new york? Cuy before: Cuy after:

Yes. Those orbs are what I was talking about. It is just a really cheap and nasty kind of Pasta, which makes it even more surprising that Marseille chooses to serve it in place of real couscous. Edit: Translated From "Al Hashulchan" - an Israeli food magazine: "...we searched internet sites around the world to figure out what the 'goyim' think of as Israeli food. The answer was astonishingly simple - ptitim. Yes, yes, those balls of baked pasta are known all over the world as 'Israeli couscous' and enjoy an oriental, exotic aura..."

We dined there a couple of weeks ago. The summer tasting menu, priced at $55, started with three small (and insignificant) salads - slightly spicy carrots, mundane beets and eggplants (sauteed I think). It continued with a very good dish of sweetbreads and artichokes, a fish tagine (can't recall what kind of fish) that was seriously under spiced and a very nice fillet of dorade with a hint of preserved lemons and some other sauce (?). As a main course, we had lamb shanks, topped with a phyllo cigar stuffed with short ribs (tasty but soggy) and served on Israeli couscous [1]. Very nice. Finally, for desserts, we got peppermint ice cream served with a mini chocolate marquis, some pudding made from Israeli couscous and a third dish I can't recall. Desserts were accompanied by very light tea, served with peppermint in metal teapots that were to hot to touch. We also opted for the wine pairing, at $30/person, that was worthwhile only because of the 1994 chateau Musar. If I go there again I think I'll just focus on that wine. Overall, we thought it was a nice place, but certainly not worth going out of your way to dine at. As expected, there were some details in common with Blue Hill, such as the relatively dark room, the vertically aligned bread and the service procedures but the experience does not compare favorably with BH. Also, the decor is, without going into to many details, poor. [1] "Israeli couscous" is something that you eat in Israel if you're in the army or if your mother needs a quick and neutral side dish. Most people there do not even refer to it as couscous (although that's what the packages say), but as "flakes" (ptitim). When you see couscous on a menu back there, you can bet it is going to be plain old moroccan couscous.

That can lead to an intersting topic - which restaurants (if any) in New York have private rooms that are really private? Happy anniversary FG.

We discussed Oliva back in 2000, I believe bux did not enjoy it at all. http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@13...4@.f065b05/6082 Olica is completely unrelated (in location, decor and food) but is also worth a visit. I'm not sure it will last as long as Oliva.

Sunday was vietnamese day shrimp summer rolls with nuoc cham, pork/peanut sauce and sriracha, some pickled carrots and daikon grilled pork and rice powder balls grilled lemongrass flank steak skewers served with vermicelli and a herb plate for dessert we had some hot, sweet, salty Thai guava

Indeed. Some hard core Russian feasts I've been to featured a bottle of vodka per diner, quantities of caviar that would probably cost well over $10000 here and buttered white bread. Smoked salmon, blini, sour cream, etc. were also available, but treated as fillers in case you're still conscious after the requisite drinking (at least a third of the bottle, preferably half).

I was present at an event (a wake of sorts) where deviled eggs were served. Every person who had them, fortunately not including myself, was hospitalized for 1-5 days with confirmed cases of salmonella. I do not want to repeat the pathology, as this is after all a gastronomic site, not a gastrointestinal one, but I can assure you it is not pleasant at all. I'd say it's much more likely to suffer from salmonellosis than to win the lottery, but still not as likely as to make me avoid raw eggs and other would be hosts.

That's true, although the improvement is more pronounced if you use a food processor instead of a meat grinder. If you're preparing large quantities, rolling the peas inside a large towel separates most of the skins.

Here's something I wrote a while back: Much like espresso, coming across a good plate of Hummus (khoo-moose) in Manhattan should not be a difficult task, but since in real life it is almost non-existent, I thought I'd share this with the board. Ingredients: Dry chickpeas Tahini Garlic Salt Lemon Olive oil Paprika Parsley Cumin Ingredient footnotes: Dry chickpeas These tend to be kept in stores for many years, far exceeding their shelf life. If you can't find a vendor that can vouch for their relative freshness (i.e. this year's crop or at most last year's), try to shop where there is likely to be a high turnover rate so you won't waste time on stale, moldy peas. If high quality dry beans are not available, go for canned, but notice that there are huge differences in quality between brands. Since these are priced at around $1/can, you could just make a comparative hummus tasting. Canned beans that are not very soft will result in poor hummus. I've had some positive experience with a brand imported from spain that comes in glass jars, I forget the name. Tahini Again, freshness is key. Try to get some lebanese tahini that wasn't made more than a couple of months ago (of course this tends to be spotty). Some of the american made organic brands sold at Whole Foods tend to be very good, but you have to water them down as they tend to be almost solid (compared to the more liquid consistency of the middle eastern brands). Olive oil Use a robust evoo, either lebanese, israeli or some greek oil. Preparation: Soak chickpeas in water for 12 hours. Drain and wash peas, place in a pot with plenty of water, bring to a boil and cook, covered, for 2-3 hours, until peas are soft. (if they're not soft after 3 hours, they're probably old and stale) Grind chickpeas in meat grinder, adding around one clove of garlic per cup of cooked peas. (or less, if you're not a garlic fan) and some salt. To the ground peas, add tahini - about 1/2 cup for every cup of ground hummus. Add lemon juice (about 1 tbsp for every cup of ground peas). Mix well, taste and add salt as necessary. If the mixture is too thick (and it probably will be), gradually add some of the cooking liquid until you get a creamy consistency. Serve drizzled with some evoo, lemon juice, chopped parsley, paprika and (optionally) ground cumin. P.S. Refrigeration is the sworn enemy of good hummus, but the cooked peas can be refrigerated (even frozen, I'm told).

I don't think that the exotic cuisine argument applies in Manhattan as much as it does in the burbs, but maybe I'm wrong. It just seems like the factory that produces chinese take out restaurants added a sushi module a couple of years ago and now they are chicago testing their vietnamese add on. There are even a few (well, quite a few) Chinese-Mexican combos around, surely for cost cutting and not for extoicness. P.S. It's Yum! Brands, not PepsiCo

Do you think of this as being different than KFC + Pizza Hut + Taco Bell combos? Similar motives, similar results, just as interesting from a culinary perspective.

How odd. One summer, when I was around 10 years old, these mysterious creatures appeared near the shore of Israel, either dug in sand or clinging to the coastal rocks. We had no idea what they were (certainly not that they were edible) and the following year they were gone. I wonder what geoducks (or their relatives) were doing along the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Oh you can hear the diggers say, as they're headed for the bay, "Oh I gotta dig a duck, gotta dig a duck a day. 'Cause I get a buck a duck if I dig a duck a day, so I gotta dig a duck Gotta dig a duck a day." Dig a duck, dig a duck, dig a geoduck. Dig a duck, dig a geoduck, dig a duck a day. Dig a duck, dig a duck, dig a geoduck. Dig a duck, dig a geoduck, dig a duck a day. Well, it takes a lot of luck, and a certain 'mount of pluck, Just to dig around the muck, just to get a geoduck. 'Cause he doesn't have a front, and he doesn't have a back, And he doesn't know a Donald, and he doesn't go a quack! Dig a duck, dig a duck, dig a geoduck. Dig a duck, dig a geoduck, dig a duck a day. Dig a duck, dig a duck, dig a geoduck. Dig a duck, dig a geoduck, dig a duck a day. from: http://therussler.tripod.com/vdj/vocable_du_jour.html

1. Don't you find it odd that The French Laundry is third most popular in SF? what does that mean? How about popularity in NYC? 2. Do you think a current critic would say that Picholine, Aureole and Al's soup kitchen all deserve the same food score? How about Corner Bistro? according to zagat it STILL serves the best burger in town. 3. If zagat does indeed match the current critical opinion, why is it needed? Personally, I have found it to be a poor predictor of how enjoyable my dining experience would be. It matches critical opinion, but carries long tails for reasons widely discussed here and elsewhere and it does not make the obvious use of technology for classification (i.e. give me your ranks for 10 places and I'll tell you what you'll think some others).

Why settle for Derrida when you can get your fresh Postmodernistic text every time you reload http://www.elsewhere.org/cgi-bin/postmodern/ ? At the risk of agreeing with Plotnicki, I like the 7th - less touristy than 1 through 6 and yet not as remote as the 15th (althogh, admittedly, the market on rue commerce is wonderful).

If restaurants want to make a profit they should cook the books, everyone else is. Sorry, had to say that. Great post robert. Thank you.

Grand Sichuan Intl on 51st and 9th Beer and a burger at Thady Cons Han Bat Shanghai dishes at Moon House

Interesting. My grandmother, of Romanian descent, born in Egypt and raised with a Turkish/Jewish nanny until her family moved to Paris and subsequentially to Venezuela seems to share Roden's pan-middle eastern view of cooking. It was very likely for her to cook a meal that had Bamya (an egyptian okra stew), turkish burekas with wild spinach, stuffed artichoke hearts (where from, I do not know), moussaka (from somewhere in the balkans) and in her particular case, some venezuelan staples such as empanadas and carne mechada. I think that for Egyptian recipes per se, you may be better off with Egyptian Cooking: A Practical Guide by Samia Abdennour Most of it is (in my mind) rather unappetizing, but gives a realistic picture of what egyptian cooking is like.