Megan Blocker

For future info., which cookbook are these in? Love Ina too! ← I just checked (I have Family Style, Barefoot in Paris, and the Barefoot Contessa Cookbook), and I totally can't find recipes for either. Maybe we WILL have to buy them.

and nothing being sold in the Pantry seems to resemble a "health food" either ... ← Well, we are talking about Ina, after all... I am a HUGE Ina fan, but I doubt I'll be buying these. They sort of violate my cardinal rule (well, more of an effort, really, with an eye toward saving for my vacation in Prague and France this fall) of not buying anything that I can make at home, particularly when it's an expensive something. I'll just make the lemon curd and hot fudge from her cookbooks!

Ah, but my dinner was POST-theatre, after the 7:00 performance...I think we ate around 8:45.

This was definitely not my experience when I was there in December...service was ok at best (they tried to take plates away before we were done and also to put courses on the table when the previous course wasn't gone) and the food, while strong, was not over the top great. The company was marvelous.

I think the Stanhope has closed! It is being turned into apartments.

I was watching America's Test Kitchen today, and they pre-cooked the apples a bit to get some of the juice out and keep the bottom crust crusty...

Click here to read Mimi Sheraton's letter to the NY Times Magazine on the subject of schmal(t)z!!!

Breakfast for dinner rocks!!! We did it all the time when I was growing up, though I was raised by a Yankee mom (born in Boston, moved to Connecticut) and a midwestern nanny (North Dakota!). Never thought of it as Southern!!! We called it French dinner...for the longest time, I thought that was because French people were always eating pancakes for supper. Later I found out that "French" was my nanny's mother's maiden name. My last breakfast for dinner was scrambled eggs... And before that, during my blog...

What was your family food culture when you were growing up? Awakening, Yankee foodie (my mom) and transplanted Midwesterner (my nanny). Was meal time important? Pretty important on weeknights, mostly because we had a very strict 8 PM bedtime...my brother and I would usually eat around 6:00 or 6:30, and then Lori (my nanny) and Mom would eat after we went to bed. Was cooking important? Incredibly important. We weren't huge on convenience foods - the two that I recall are Kraft mac and cheese and Swanson's Hungry Man dinners, both of which really only made appearances when we had a babysitter. Lori was an excellent cook, and dinner was always a main, a veggie, a tossed salad, and some kind of starch. I don't remember eating a lot of pasta growing up - I feel like we mostly ate that out until I was a little older, but there were a lot of grilled meats, roasts, and even some casseroles (that whole Midwestern thing!). Lori moved out when I was 13, and then I went away to boarding school the next year. During summers in high school and college, we ate out a lot until I started learning how to cook. The last couple of summers I spent at home I cooked for the family most weeknights, and my mom cooked on weekends. We had a lot of marinated, grilled stuff those summers. Plus corn, asparagus and tomatoes. What were the penalties for putting elbows on the table? Well, at Nonie's house (my grandmother), it was a call-out and a withering stare. At home it was a reminder of what would happen to you at Nonie's. Who cooked in the family? My mom and Lori are both really good cooks; Mom cooked more often on the weekends and at holidays (we had one memorable Thanksgiving where she tried to flip the 20-pound turkey by herself, in her silk blouse...she doesn't have that blouse anymore), and Lori cooked for us pretty much every day. My dad is a good cook, too - though he was such a restaurant addict from the start that I remember more about the Chinese food and Greek pizza joints we frequented than the food he cooked at his house. Were restaurant meals common, or for special occasions? Absolutely common, though super-nice places (usually in Manhattan) were saved for special occasions. Growing up, restaurants were a weekly phenomenon for us. With my dad, as I mentioned above, it tended to be more Chinese food or pizza. With my mom, it varied - a lot more Italian and French, though, which are still her favorites. Sometimes it was a red-sauce Italian-American joint, but my mom was really excited when a more authentic, higher-end Italian place opened up in downtown Old Greenwich - we ate there once a week from the time it opened till she moved to California about 10 years later. Did children have a "kiddy table" when guests were over? Sometimes, but only if space ran out. Otherwise, we were expected to hang with the adults! When did you get that first sip of wine? Gosh, I can't even remember. Besides communion every Sunday (), it was probably around 12 or 13 at the dinner table. By the time my mom and I went to the UK for a week when I was 15, I was comfortable enough with a glass of wine at dinner that I indulged in restaurants. I think my mom ordered herself a VERY nice half-bottle of Chateau Neuf-du-Pape (her favorite) at a fancy restaurant in Bath, and the waiter poured me a glass, too. She was displeased... Was there a pre-meal prayer? Only at holidays, really, or if the whole extended family was together. Just last Sunday (Easter) I had dinner with my aunt and a couple of my cousins, plus some of my aunt's family (she's my mom's sister-in-law). I said the traditional Esselen (my mom's maiden name) grace: "We thank thee, lord, for happy hearts, for rain and sunny weather. We thank thee, lord, for this our food, and that we are together." Was there a rotating menu (e.g., meatloaf every Thursday)? No, not really. Actually, definitely not. We went more on a "what do you feel like for dinner?" basis. How much of your family culture is being replicated in your present-day family life? A good deal - cooking often and from scratch is a huge part of my day-to-day life. I tend not to do the whole starch part of the meal, unless I'm making pasta, just because it's a lot of food to make for one. But if my little bro comes over for dinner, I always do the whole kit and kaboodle. I also routinely make some of my childhood favorites...roast chicken, a special lamb dish called lamb bedford, chocolate chip cookies and, of course - a salad almost every night.

That's interesting, Tupac...I haven't tried the soft-shell crab BLT, so I can't comment directly. However, I do know that when my friend Madhurima got it, she really liked it, but also made the comment about its size... Can I ask which branch you visited?

Why sugar, Shaya? ETA: Is it an abrasive for the saffron?

I don't know that I would consider Aquavit's brunch anywhere near "painfully hip," FWIW (lots of families, plus, no matter how good it is - and it IS good - it's still a buffet)...it's pretty casual at that time, though. I would say a blazer with jeans would do you. ETA: I would head for Shopsin's or Spotted Pig if you want a New York brunch...lots of people nursing hangovers in glamorous sunglasses and bedhead.

Geez, if Starwich had just read your eGullet bio, they would have KNOWN that you're the Cucumber Queen. Is Starwich coming to Chicago anytime soon? ← I know it! Actually, I forgot to add the postscript to the whole pickles and cucumber experience...I went back a few days later and ordered the same sandwich. The SAME THING happened. My friend Danielle went back in for me and asked for pickles...they said they were out, and that's why they were left off my sandwich. Well, ok, but why didn't someone tell me? Humph. I still love Starwich (had the short rib signature sandwich the other day, and it was to die for), but I'm not overly impressed with the attention to detail. The service is really friendly, though. Oh, man. This post makes me sound so crotchety!

Amen.

For your ham...caught this on a re-run of Sara's Secrets the other day: Piperade Basquaise.

As have I, Anne...I think there was an interesting crossover somewhere in the Baby Boomer generation. My mom and her friends and siblings have always been very into food and comfort...there's a certain emphasis on frugality and economy, certainly, but nothing like what my grandparents have been like.

That's a great story, FFB! As a fellow Yankee, I'm proud to be gluttonous...though my very Yankee grandparents have always frowned on gluttony. Hmmmm... As to your second point about foie gras/starving children induced guilt: I agree. However, I do think it's reasonable for someone whose health is in jeopardy to feel a little guilty about not taking good care of themselves, food-wise. Sort of like my mom, who always felt guilty about smoking (Until she quit - good work, Mom!) because it might have meant that she would be around and with us for a shorter period of time. But that's a guilt that has a genuine cause, rather than one that's manufactured just to make you feel bad about yourself or keep you "in line." But it doesn't follow, by any means, that folks who need to watch what they eat (which, really, is all of us, if to varying extents) can't still enjoy their food.

It's so funny...I was just talking to my Australian colleague about this. I ordered a bagel with peanut butter for breakfast yesterday, and they put, like, half a jar of peanut butter on the thing. I had to scrape most of it off before I could even begin to eat it. He made some comment along the lines of "America, it's always bigger is better..." And I replied that it's not always the case, and started talking about the puritanical values that are at the core of American society (especially prevalent in the WASPy world I grew up in, where frugality clashed with the desire to golf every weekend) and how they fuel the fire - by making us feel guilty about our desires, those values feed a fire of guilt that just drives the behavior underground.

Gael Greene is a NYC food critic! Here's a link to her New York Magazine archive. Click!

You don't? I do. Or not.

I always think a tomato salad is nice with grilled steak...I'm also with Karen on the grilled corn!!

Man, Jason - that's a great picture. Especially how you can practically SEE the humidity rising off of the pavement. I'm SO not looking forward to summer weather.

Building on what Jason says above, I think the frenzy is more about the advent of spring and the nice weather than just about the burgers. I used to work in Eleven Madison Avenue, and it was always a huge deal to be able to go outside again when the weather turned...and that was back when we had only the hot dog cart! There are plenty of places to get a good burger in Manhattan, and many of those (Blue Smoke, Old Town) are in the same neighborhood. But spending your lunch hour in Madison Square Park when it's just become nice out (even if most of that hour is spent in line) beats those hands down.

They must do something with the cake, though...it's made in a bakery in Queens and then brought into Manhattan for serving...I'm guessing they must refrigerate it.