Megan Blocker

Here's a link to their NY Mag profile, which says the cross street is 9th. Also found this photo stream, which mostly looks like pre-opening shots.

Klary, to answer your question, I have seen ragout used in English to describe dishes similar to your veal dish, though I can't recall exactly where. (I also found this Dictionary.com definition.) I love the addition of whiskey to your shrimp cocktail recipe. Boozy is always good, in my book.

I, too, am not necessarily in disagreement with Fat Guy; certainly, on the radar of unethical goings-on, this is a tiny blip. I still think she was dumb not to be more careful, given the history.

I had a 9:45 reservation there in April. We closed the restaurant, and felt no pressure (quite the opposite - the staff became friendlier and chatted with us) to leave.

Most of you probably remember the brouhaha that broke out over Amanda Hesser's 2004 review of Spice Market. She gave the restaurant three stars while serving as the interim food critic at the Times. It promptly came to light that Jean-Georges Vongerichten, the chef and owner, had given Hesser a very positive blurb that appeared on the cover of her book Cooking for Mr. Latte. Well, it's happened again. On Sunday, June 3rd, Hesser's review of Patricia Wells' new cookbook Vegetable Harvest was included in a larger piece called "Cooking Roundup." What did not appear was a note disclosing the fact that Wells, like Vongerichten, had contributed a blurb for another of Hesser's books (The Cook and the Gardener this time around). (A correction was subsequently printed on Sunday, June 10th.) My gut feeling is that it was definitely unethical for Hesser to publish both pieces without disclosing her relationships, and that it seems especially dim of her to do it a second time, given the fallout from the first occurrence. Here's the text of the most recent correction: Here's a link to the Gawker item about the whole thing. What do you guys think?

My last two experiences at Cafe d'Alsace have not been great...however, every meal I've had at Bar Etats-Unis has been very good, and their wine list is great.

Eek. This is tough on the UES. If you order right and forgo alcohol, you might be ok at Bar Etats-Unis (probably closer to $35, in reality). Maybe E.A.T. on Madison at 83rd? Sandwiches, salads, etc. Overpriced, but should still come in at your budget level. There are any number of little coffee shop/diner type places on Madison in the 70's and 80's...that may be a good bet.

And is it just me? I've noticed more and more cocktails using flavorful spirits like gin and whiskey, and fewer with vodka. And more people looking for the gin instead of the vodka. It's quite heartening.

Ann, the antipasto platter is quite something. Can you name the bits and pieces for us? The shrimp look grilled...did you brine or marinate them at all? Yum. Thanks to all for the welcome back messages!

I was thinking the same thing...wild is no longer so much a truth as it is a truthiness - a way to distinguish from other kinds of asparagus...

I believe that wild asparagus is now grown here in the States - according to this source, it was first brought over in the 18th Century. I LOVE wild asparagus...I eat it at home, mainly in a spaghetti dish, but also had it on a recent trip to Per Se, where it was served with butter-poached lobster and morels. Quite divine. I made my pasta dish for dinner last night...

Tracey, how was the corn this early in the season? Should I be buying some Jersey corn tonight? After a couple of months' hiatus from the Dinner thread (so busy tackling my new Host duties!), I'm back! I spotted some wild asparagus yesterday, and decided to make this...a little garlic, butter, salt and pepper, and spaghetti, of course. It was awfully tasty. ETA: Inspired by last night's dinner, I wanted to start a topic on wild asparagus - turns out there already is one!

Here's a link to the Tabla cocktail menu - they have a couple of drinks with tamarind and ginger (not to mention chiles and curry leaves).

I was thinking the exact same thing earlier, but had too many meetings to post it. I second that (even though I'm totally the one who posted Mimi's comment ).

Bit of a scathing post about Waverly Inn over on Amateur Gourmet today: I'm loving his tone, though the story doesn't surprise me at all. Not one bit.

But in essence, if they're going to a David Chang restaurant, some sort of research has already been done. Just do a little more. ← Eh, not really. I had a friend ask me tonight if I'd been to Momofuku Ssam, and I know for a fact he had no idea who David Chang was (or, if he - the friend - has read about Chang, he didn't retain anything about him). You live in New York, you pay a reasonable amount of attention, you hear about restaurants. If you don't care about chefs per se, you may not know that Chang's the "next big thing." You may just have heard that the Bo Ssam is massive. Or something along those lines. ← Ummm, your friend "asked you." How did he not know who DC was if he asked you if you'd been to Ssam bar? That's research! And you may have said something along the lines of, to get the full experience, don't go at lunch. ← Because, in my experience, not everyone thinks about restaurants in terms of chefs, not everyone follows the JB awards, etc. Someone told him they had a good meal there, he knows I like restaurants, he was making conversation. My point being, he wasn't asking because it was a David Chang restaurant - it had nothing to do with the chef as a person or phenomenon or whatever, just to do with the food. He would not have been able to name the chef, and would have asked me the same question about Goodburger or the Italian joint on my corner had he heard something about those. Yes, it's research - my point wasn't about doing research, it was about how most (or at least many, many) people think about restaurants.

No reason you can't do all of the above, really.

I really enjoyed the pasta tasting menu I had in February 2006, and the individual pastas I've had since then (last time before April, though, was last August). However, there were a couple of dishes (the calamari and the lobster pasta) that disappointed on my last visit. That said, it's definitely still worth going. We ended up sort of making our own tasting, sharing three pastas and two mains between three of us...

But in essence, if they're going to a David Chang restaurant, some sort of research has already been done. Just do a little more. ← Eh, not really. I had a friend ask me tonight if I'd been to Momofuku Ssam, and I know for a fact he had no idea who David Chang was (or, if he - the friend - has read about Chang, he didn't retain anything about him). You live in New York, you pay a reasonable amount of attention, you hear about restaurants. If you don't care about chefs per se, you may not know that Chang's the "next big thing." You may just have heard that the Bo Ssam is massive. Or something along those lines.

Personally, myself, I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But that still doesn't negate the need for that information to be disseminated - if someone as well-informed and interested in food as Mimi Sheraton wasn't aware that she was going to a Korean Chipotle for lunch (again, I think it's MOST important that she still didn't like it - had it been excellent fast food, her opinion would most likely have been different), then maybe it's good that she's saying so, so people will know.After all, if you're a casual follower of the restaurant scene, you might hear that Momofuku Ssam is supposed to be great, and decide to head there for lunch one day while you're in the 'hood, and be sorely disappointed. Now that's a bit less likely to happen, no?

That looks amazing...I am so jealous...green with envy of your green walls.

Maybe they just cleaned them poorly the one time?

I think her unspoken point (that hype and buzz create unrealistic expectations) was actually quite well-served by her methodology. I shouldn't have to (as an eater) go to restaurants four times to have a good meal. To write a well-thought out, broad-ranging review that incorporates a whole menu? Sure. To write a blurb on a disappointing burrito? I really only need to taste it once. She's not writing a review in the Times; blogs are, by their nature, immediate and changeable. She didn't put this in a paper of record, but chose to send it to a buzz-creating/gathering/disseminating machine, of sorts. Makes sense to me. I guess my point is that Mimi (to follow your lead ) is thinking of the average eater, who may not do a ton of research (and I sometimes think we become very myopic in thinking that people should be as obsessive/knowledgable about where they eat as we are) before choosing Momofuku Ssam for a meal. You hear someplace is good, you go there, and you have a disappointing meal (again, we're not talking not transcendent, we're talking just plain not good) - nothing unreasonable about saying, hey, guys, this place may be good, but it sure as hell ain't perfect.

I think one important point is that Sheraton just didn't like the meal she had. She didn't say, "It was fine for $7, but what's the big deal?" She said it just wasn't that good. It doesn't matter what expectations you have; if the food isn't good (which is pretty subjective), then it just isn't good. Even if it isn't a signature dish - it should still be good. That said, I think comparisons to Spago are, for the reasons Doc notes above, moot. This is the same restaurant, the same location, the same purveyors, and the same chef. There's no reason for a drastic change in quality (even if the menu items are different).