Megan Blocker

Cafe Sabarsky, 86th and 5th. I know it's not nearby, but it IS great! They open at 9:00, I think. Balthazar (Spring and Broadway), also not close, also very good. They open at 7:30!

Live music, palm trees, Asian food, new health regimen...definitely MizDucky!!!!

Funny you mention that, as the show I caught today was a beach picnic. Pasta, pesto, and pea salad, a shrimp salad, lemon poundcakes. Or maybe a muffaletta - my favorite picnic food to carry along. ← That pesto pasta salad is really good...she mixes spinach in with the pesto and adds some peas and pine nuts. I made it for a reception at my brother's theatre company last year (for large donors - I'm on the board and yet I still end up doing the work ), and it was a HUGE hit. Everyone wanted the recipe. Here's a link: click! My favorite thing for a picnic is cold chicken. Prosecco to drink, definitely. Maybe some blanched asparagus with homemade lemon mayo?

Will you eat cold cooked foods? Like, cold chicken? Pasta salad? That's one of my favorite summer things. One of my favorite anytime things, really. Judging by the inclusion of "bread" in your list, I'm guessing not, but I'm not sure...

French fries. Forgot those. Organ meats I'm coming around to cooking, more and more...but still can't quite bring myself to potentially ruin foie gras.

Rapunzel is like lamb's tongue, I think...rampion.

Anything Asian, really. I LOVE Asian food (particularly Vietnamese, Japanese and Thai), but I never make it at home. I should probably start doing that...hmmm....

The big change for me is that I avoid turning on my oven...oh, and anything that requires you to actually stand over the stove for a long time, like risotto. I'd still eat it in a restaurant, but you won't find me cooking it. Dear god, where do you live? Remind me never to visit in summer. New York is bad enough.

Yes, they do feed you well on that pasta tasting menu...I did it during my blog, and I had a dream that night that someone was force-feeding me pasta. I'm not kidding.

Rapunzel!!! ETA: I just whipped out my annotated volume of fairy tales, and I don't see arugula mentioned, though, obviously, rapunzel is mentioned at length. From the annotation (by Maria Tatar): Or, from "Into the Woods," by Stephen Sondheim:

I'm headed to Prague in the fall, and am just wondering if this place is still worth checking out!!! I'll check back in for more general suggestions closer to the date, definitely!

Grapefruit sorbet from Eli's!

Not sure if this was breakfast, brunch...who knows? I went out this morning around 10:30 and grabbed an iced coffee (with Splenda...I know, I know, but it dissolves better in the cold coffee) and a mixed berry scone from DTUT across the street. If I'm going to have Splenda, then I get half-and-half instead of milk. I sat outside and enjoyed both for an hour or so while I finished reading my Prague guidebook. Then, I took a walk down to Eli's on Third Avenue, where I bought some seeds (sage, for my burgeoning windowsill herb garden) and a sorbet...grapefruit! Refreshing and mouth-puckering. Maybe the flag-paper is for Memorial Day?

Most cheese, actually. It's weird, I know. I love cheese when it's cooked into something, I like parmesan on anything, I like brie melted on a baguette...but I'm still not ready for cheese that's an add-on, like cheese on a burger or, in this case, on top of something that cheese doesn't belong to. And, yes, I hate the fake, pre-shredded stuff. NASTY. I know, I'm a freak, and a bad foodie. But I've actually gotten pretty good in the last year or so, and will eat most cheese when it's put in front of me. OK, tangent over.

Yum, those steaks look awesome! Which books? I'm desperate for a new read; having just re-read Persuasion AND Pride and Prejudice, I'm looking for something fresh and that doesn't make me mourn for the state of romance in the modern world.

Oh. My. God.

Not it - I don't like cheese. I'm all for mixing food up on the fork, but wouldn't all that gunk make the chicken fingers soggy?

Awesome, awesome blog, Deborah. Thanks so much for inviting us into your new home - your kitchen is fabulous, and so are you!

German! Whatever that means ... Seriously, Germans settled Cincinnati and for a while it was called Porkopolis because of all the slaughterhouses, pork and sausage factories. Kahn's is based in Cincinnati, or was. I think of Brats, Metts, pickle loaf, balogna, sauerkraut, headcheese, all of which my German uncles made. Most of my food influence was from the Italian side of the family. The famous chili is Greek, though. Chili-spaghetti-cheese. Never, EVER say "chili on pasta!" ← Like Yorkville!!!! They should open up near me.

but just like you know in your head what mcd or bk tastes like, so does he...so why waste valuable foodstops on places he already knows? For example, what if he skipped out on chik-fil-a just so he could go to mcd for a baseline burger? he would have totally missed out on the heaven that is the original chicken sammich from cfa, and could've just as easily compared in & out or whataburger without getting his quarter pounder. ← Fair enough. But how often does he actually eat McD's? I haven't had Wendy's in more than five years...maybe he was equipping himself to make comparisons? I. however, would have done that before hitting the road, definitely.

Oh, you totally win this contest. Hands down.

Indeed. I think you need to invite Frank along with you next time, so he can see how the pros do it.

Hmmmm...but you need some basis for comparison, no? Especially for us East Coasters...where I grew up (outside of NYC) and where I live now (right in NYC), there aren't a lot of fast food chains outside of the big, huge ones. They're what we compare everything to, you know?

Today in the Dining section of the Times, a piece about Frank Bruni's cross-country journey, on which he samples lots and lots of fast food. A link: click! A quote:

Izakaya's are the best! Thanks for another fantastic round of food, Deborah (and Mooshmouse!)!