Suzanne F

Yes, Pan, I would have preferred that the portions were somewhat smaller. And I think they could be, and one would still be satisfied, because all the flavors were so strong. But when the food is that tasty, there is the temptation to eat more than one needs to, sometimes with negative consequences. Not that I'm complaining; no doggy bags last night. When (not if) I go back, I'll know better how to order to get all the joy without the uh-oh in the middle of the night. That said, I assume that Chef Gabrielle knows exactly what she is doing, since the place has been open for quite a while now and is obviously quite popular. I've enjoyed pieces by her that I read, and now I have all the more reason to admire her skills of management as well as cooking. BTW, it was Yvonne who suggest eating there, so I've really got to thank her publicly.

Recycle night: Friday's red lentil dal turned into soup via stick blender, with the addition of a can of coconut milk and some additional spices Pseudo samosas of pie crust filled with the last of a ground lamb-potato-pea korma. The last of this weeks leaves (red leaf, romaine, radicchio) and the end of the red and green bell peppers, with Sicilian olive oil and factory balsamic vinegar. Most but not all of a bottle of Dr. Konstanting Frank 2001 Finger Lakes Dry Riesling.l

Last night your faithful servant, He Who Only Eats, and the Johnsons met at Prune for a completely unofficial dinner. The short report: YUM. But who ever gives a short report here? Not I. Prune, 54 East 1st Street, between First and Second Avenues. Small place, with small tables, hard surfaces, somewhat-too-loud music, large strong cocktails, and waitstaff who frequently refill your wine glass -- all of which contribute to making the place rather noisy and cramped (lots of "Excuse me. Sorry" as people bump into you). Nice large restroom, though. A more private room downstairs, from which raucous laughter easily drifts up to the main dining room. Faux-bistro-ish look -- lovely zinc bar, flaking mirrors, etc. Very good to have a reservation on a Saturday night -- it fills up. And, in spite of the noise and physical drawbacks, it fills up with good reason. The food is terrific. The portions are BIG. The waitstaff is enthusiastic, and can describe the food and wine very well. (Although they do pull the "remove plates even if someone in the party is still eating" number, which we did NOT appreciate.) I can't describe Yvonne's Pisco Sour, which was served in a highball glass, but she and G. seemed to like it. My Gibson -- which I ordered because they have house-pickled onions -- was also generous. I probably shouldn't have had it, but oh those onions. We each ordered a different appetizer, and traded tastes. Any one might have worked as an entree. Well, maybe not G.'s quail, but it had so much flavor and tenderness a little went a long way. Yvonne's sweetbreads looked like a complete set, maybe 2. First cooked to velvety texture, then breaded and deep-fried. She can finish the description. HWOE ordered the duck pastrami with a rye omelet -- the thin, faintly rye-flavored eggs wrapped around some diced ?bacon? -- anyway, it was plenty, and good. My grilled shrimp with anchovy sauce turned out to be three head-on U-10s (the monster size), grilled just to the point of complete cooking, but not beyond, so they were juicy and tender. The somewhat salty sauce (anchovy, after all) complemented the sweetness of the shrimp very well. If I hadn't shared, I would have been able to have just that for a meal. For entrees, both couples ordered the same pair of dishes: braised rabbit in a vinegar sauce, and roast suckling pig. We had already decided on these when I asked the waiter her favorites: and those were the first two she mentioned. (I asked not so much for the advice, but to make sure that I could trust her -- I mean, what if she had said "Oh, I don't eat meat," or fish, or whatever -- can you trust a waiter in that case? I don't think so.) We -- and she -- were right. Both were quite good. The pig was a large portion of soft meat and super-crisp skin, with one salad of black-eyed peas and sliced cornichons, and another ("pickled tomatoes") of halved grape tomatoes with sliced halapenos. Even with the vinaigrettes, though, the whole plate was very, VERY rich. The rabbit, also very tender, was a bit too mild and chicken-like. But the sauce was nicely tangy. And again, the portion was monstrous. Since we had been told that everything was a la carte (in spite of the clearly-stated accompaniments to the pig), we got 2 vegetable sides -- served family style -- as well. Cipollini (small, sweet Italian onions) in a sweet-and-sour sauce, and a combo of cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and baby turnips, in a buttery sauce including whole-grain mustard. Even HWOE, who hates brussel sprouts, liked them all (turnips the best, though.) With all this, we had Peachy Canyon Winery Eastside Zinfandel, 2000, from Paso Robles, CA. Two bottles, in fact. Well, the waiter kept topping up our glasses, and none of us stopped her. We couldn't even finish our two desserts: a pistachio pithivier with buttermilk ice cream and fresh blackberries, and a Breton butter cake that must have been a bit more butter than dough, served with a glass of Muscat. Not that we didn't want to; we just COULDN'T. Chef Gabrielle Hamilton makes gutsy food. We liked it.

Any place that has grits and bacon can't be all that bad!

It seems to me that "ethnic food" is just a lazy, catch-all phrase for those cuisines that have not yet hit the mainstream. That's all. As AnnaN said, foreign to one's customary cooking and eating habits. So its definition also shifts, depending on who is saying it. Those familiar with different countries' foods refer to them by nationality, or even region; those unfamiliar may simply call them "ethnic." But that's just my thought. If not for the possibility of further misunderstandings, I rather like thinking of various other cuisines as "exotic" -- as in "strikingly, excitingly, or mysteriously different or unusual" (Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 10th edition). By the way, for a long time French food WAS considered exotic, if not "ethnic." And in NYC, the West 40s and 50s, a little closer in than the Irish neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, was a large French enclave. Some of the French restaurants in the theater district go back to the days when someone could get off a ship, walk a few blocks inland, and find work immediately as a cook or waiter (or waitress) and find a place to live upstairs as well.

Fifi -- you're getting the hang of it here. Wonderful post -- now I want to go find a garden!

No, seriously, Lauren -- tell us what you REALLY think. Welcome.

Because the vinegar (acid) helps the white to set faster -- in effect it partially "cooks" the white as soon as the egg hits the liquid, even before the heat works. Same principle as how citrus juice (=acid) "cooks" the fish in ceviche. Something to do with acid denaturing protein, IIRC. That's also why some instructions say to add a little vinegar to the water for eggs cooked in the shell -- so that if the shell happens to crack, the leaking white will sort of self-seal the break before too much oozes out.

The newest issue of Gastronomica has a review of a book titled The Polish Country Kitchen Cookbook, by Sophie Hodorowicz Knab. It is not a positive review, in part because the reviewer finds the book a little too limited by the author's focus on her own family's food experiences. Still, it could be interesting (and tempting). Tne review mentions other books by the same author: Polish Customs, Traditions, and Folklore, Polish Herbs, Flowers and Folk Medicine, and Polish Wedding Customs and Traditions, which probably will give you as much information as you could ever want. If not more.

Careful, there, Steph -- I can think of a number of folks here to whom at least #2 applies, and maybe #3. And #6 applies to many of us, at least as far as food trends. Not young, though. Egalitarian that I am I have no trouble with "yuppies" eating in restaurants I like; I think they might benefit from the experience. Just so long as they turn their g-d cellphones off. Anyway, I want to thank La Niña for starting this thread. Even though I grew up in Flushing, it was very different than. I know nothing of the riches out there now. I really look forward to learning and trying places discussed here. (Not just in Flushing). One request: can posters please include directions via public transportation? That would be a big help. Thank.

(to ranitidine) Seriously, though -- yeah, it's probably just globs of oil. That's tuna in olive oil, right? I notice that I get similar little globules in jars of home-roasted peppers in olive oil, and jars of the oil I drain off from roast garlic. I don't worry about it. But now I know another reason not to keep my tuna in oil in the fridge; water-packed is okay, though.

What's a Flaming (fill in the color) Gully?!?!? Look HERE Yes, OUR world revolves around food, and drink too. If you make a tomato chutney, try Suvir's recipe.

Show-off.

Only that there are then more surfaces to brown (Maillard effect and all that). But there is definitely something to be said for ease of preparation.

Last July 4th, I brought the fixin's to a party of mostly United Nations folks (furriners, ya know). Except of course that in addition to Fritos it was homemade chili and decent-if-somewhat-mass-produced cheese (Cabot), also sour cream and homemade guacamole. Alas, no matter how many times I demonstrated how to construct it, and of course how to eat it, most people opted for more furrin ways to eat the components. Sheesh. Junk food at its best!

SELL THEM?!?!?!?!? Would you sell your children? (Oh, maybe better not to put it that way ) Anyway, the answer is NONE, because I would buy Scottish Chef's, and he would buy Maggie's, and she would buy Crumbs's, and so on around with merely a re-distribution of books and money. Anyway, we haven't determined how many duplicates we have, taken all together. How many of us have Mastering the Art I and II? Larousse Old and/or Larousse New? How to Read a French Fry? I wouldn't take that number out of the total end-to-end, but I'll bet it would cut down some on the number of titles.

And listening to Arthur Schwartz just now, learned that for the next month or so, Citarella will be carrying a range of artisanal Italian cheeses.

Not to veer too far off, but --- how does the coffee filling compare to, say, a mocha Nestles Crunch bar?

Tommy, I didn't know you always had such luck. I would have thought you'd say, I TRY TO pick lamb chops everywhere ...

Mine intentionally, anally correct, and intentionally ingested.

Oh, please Rachel -- I haven't even tasted the original yet, and here you come with such yummy-sounding variations.

Good morning, all. A good night's sleep and finishing some real work make it easy to face the day. Except that I'm still confused. Here's what was quoted in the article: Now, doesn't that sound as though she is not with the Times anymore? (Note to self: the giveaway might be "I quit and am now working on....") Yet here we have Steve K's stated reason for his piece: (Note to self: check when the LA Times became "the most significant, most widely read food section in the most significant food city in the US.") Or is Steve saying that because she USED TO BE #2 at The New York Times, and presumably wielded great influence (both past tense), she NOW deserves this treatment? I would have just privately said "Good riddance to bad rubbish" and looked for a juicier, more contemporary target. And his saying, in effect, "Look, THEY did it, so why mayn't I?" brings it back to the nya nyaaaa, high-school-locker-room aura mentioned earlier (several times, by several different people). See why I'm still confused?

Eh, so what? They are SOOOOOOOO delicious! So, you gonna offer your shooting to the Knicks?

Five hundred fifty-six. I just checked my catalogue spreadsheet. That doesn't include duplicates of some Time-Life Foods of the World, and multiples of The New Cook that are waiting for me to see the people I want to give them to. Ooops, no, I lied. Five hundred fifty-seven. I forgot I haven't yet listed Peterson's Essentials of Cooking.

Welcome, EJ. I'm a knife junky, but that actually sounds like a reasonable list to me. I don't do much boning or filleting, so I can't comment on that one. But you might see which feels better to you, the 8" or maybe 10" chef knife. I prefer a 10" for the extra heft and weight, for it to do more of the work for me. Just saw that Matt got in first. He is, of course, right.