Suzanne F

Getting back to the freezing of ginger -- When I've done that, all I can use it for afterwards is juicing; it gets very soft and wet when thawed. Anyone else have the same experience?

I cover this question like a cloche: I come down on all sides of it. Yes, I make my own stocks and keep them in the freezer (one-cup or larger for soups, ice-cube size for pan sauces). But sometimes I start them with packaged broth (Swanson's Natural Goodness, or Imagine, or Health Valley) if I want a really strong stock but don't have quite enough bones and scraps. If I really want the flavor of the stock to inform the dish, there's nothing like real stock. I have been known to use cubes or powders (Knorr, for example), but not for "stocks" -- only for flavoring rice as it cooks. The only exception there is Knorr Tom Yam Bouillon Cubes: I love them for making SE Asian soupy-dishes.

The ones starting at 6:30 are at the restaurant (Diwan). Any pre-pre-dinner drinks, before 6:30, are up to you.

Thanks to Yvonne and Nina (oh, yeah, and you too, Suvir ) for holding down the fork, I mean fort, while I was eating, drinking, talking, and listening in Cambridge. Here is the list with all additions and deletions to date/time: Diwan 148 East 48th Street, between Lexington and Third (212) 539-5425 6:30 schmooze and pre-dinner drinks 7:30 SHARP, eat $50 pp, cash; exact change preferred BYOB for with-dinner drinks Cash Bar for pre- and after-dinner drinks 1. rstarobi 2. BklynEats 3. Charles Smith 4. Macrosan 5. Yvonne Johnson 6. g. Johnson 7. Suzanne F 8. Fat Guy 9. Sandra Levine 10. Alan Levine (with Sandra Levine) 11. CathyL 12. Double 0 13. Mrs. 00 14. Tommy 15. Toby 16. Blondie 17. KimWB 18. StephanyB 19. Damian 20. Ann (with Damian) 21. Nina Wugmeister 22. Nina’s beau 23. MHesse 24. CooksQuest 25. Diana (with CooksQuest) 26. Cakewalk (Veg) 27. Laura 28. Rachel Perlow 29. Rosie 30. Lowell (with Rosie) 31. Bara Sapir (with Rosie) 32. nervousnelli 33. roryrabbitfield 34. Daniel (with roryrabbitfield) 35. jaybee 36. tigerwoman 37. anonymous #1 38. anonymous #2 39. froggy 40. Suvir Saran 41. Guest #1 of Suvir 42. Guest #2 of Suvir 43. Helena Sarin 44. nyfirepatrolchef 45. Aaron T So we are again at our max, and unless someone drops out, that's it. Or unless Suvir develops another soft spot in his heart for a member who begs politely See you! NOT edited to make tommy look foolish, just to provide better service.

I'm sorry - I can't let this go by. You made that up, right? Right? Maybe not -- sounds like a variation of a Prairie Oyster (raw whole egg + Worcestershire sauce), one of those out-of-fashion hangover cures. The addition of aspirin is just part of the "cure."

no way man. my jeans are crisply ironed and ready to go. Ah---but what about your jelly fish t-shirt? i've got a new baby seal t-shirt. i get a new t-shirt every time i visit an aquarium. Watch out that nobody clubs you.

Grammar and spelling aside , THIS is an interesting point. The closest NYC has come, I think, is Paul Liebrandt -- who failed to create a sufficient following at either Atlas or Papillon. What does this mean? That we are incapable of understanding the logic behind, or the pleasure inherent in, that sort of food? That we refuse to stand for such nonsense? Or something in between? I've never eaten in any of those restaurants here or across the Atlantic, so I ask this purely for discussion, preferably by those who have.

I sure hope you mean the beverage! As for me -- working in an in-home office means lunch is pretty easy: leftovers or a quick sandwich (usually cold cuts on good bread). My husband/business-partner is more the "I've got to get out for a while and I'll have lunch while I'm out" type. Fortunately, there are some good, inexpensive places close by. But I agree with birder53 -- it's just so that I don't pass out before dinner time.

I thought it's Ecuador. Or should I say "E-cuy-dor?"

Thanks for your report. We often eat there pre-Carnegie Hall, but usually at the antipasto bar. Once at a table (no room at the bar), and found the regular menu a bit dissapointing (for similar reasons as you mentioned). But we really enjoy the antipasto offerings. Seafood salads are always excellent, and the vegetable preparations are quite interesting. My only complaint is that they rarely check to see if the flames under the hot foods are lit. But it's still tasty.

Please, no mullet.

I thought that the $65 wine pairing we received at Jean Georges was very good and a good value -- at least in that it saved us the pain and suffering of having to agonize over a list with many unfamiliar bottles. Not every wine we had was to our taste, but overall we got to taste some we would never have imagined. So we learned a lot. Even if they did rip us off -- now we know some new wines to try that are not terribly expensive (the silver lining to that possible cloud). Sip here for description of our meal and wines

Tigerwoman -- thanks for the post that restores our faith!

There's an article about the three Ortanique restaurants in the November 2002 issue of Santé Magazine. The food sounds tasty; I love Caribbean ingredients. If you report back good things about the place, maybe I'll try it when I'm down there in a couple of weeks. BTW, it was great to meet you and Edemuth at the show. You two did a terrific job on the demos!

I guarantee, if you use those Mae Ploy Thai curry pastes, you will NOT have bland food. Usually they call for 50 grams of paste to one can of coconut milk -- that's about 2 heaping tablespoons. It works! I've worked with chefs who made their own, and with all due respect, the bought stuff is almost as good! When you do your Indian dishes, try cooking your spices with the onions, etc. This will bring out their flavor more than if you just add them later. You may notice that a lot of Indian recipes include both individual spices and "garam masala" which is a spice mix one usually makes oneself. I usually use Sun Brand Madras Curry Powder as the garam masala. It has a nice combination of flavors and heat. But remember you can always add cayenne or whatever for more heat.

Bux, you raise a good point. I took over the receiving for many kitchens in which I worked, simply because I couldn't stand that others were accepting past-date goods without even checking. It's one thing to take the chance at home; it's quite another when the product will ultimately go to a paying customer. I once had to send back about one-third of a delivery of cheese because when I opened every case, I found that much already moldy (and it was tubs of soft goat cheese!). Even well before the expiry. So many factors. But for home use, I will buy reduced-price last-day-of-sale meat as long as it isn't green and doesn't stink. "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger" yet again.

And I will bring a bottle of something red, most likely wine. Cakewalk, somewhere around here -- either the India board or the Wine one, I think -- someone posted a link to suggestions of wines to go with Indian food. Sorry I can't point you there right now, but it's been a rough day, and will only get worse (nothing to do with eGullet ) Yvonne: how much lead time do you need to do the name tags? And should people PM you with their "real" names if they want them on the tag? Everyone, please try to comply with Yvonne's deadline. Otherwise we may have a lot of "uh, hey you"s there

I like Rachel's suggestion that we do any meeting-and-greeting early, and really start the meal right at 7:30. Suvir, please let us know when we might start to collect. Speaking of collecting, How is that normally done? I very often cover the check-in/$ collection table at professional events, and I used to run a box office, so if no one else cares to do it, I can. Even have my little metal strongbox. As to seating: I would rather not have to pick up and move in the middle of the meal -- takes so much time. Where I sit and with whom doesn't much matter to me. Suggestion: we could number the tables, and when you check in you pick a number out of a hat, so to speak. Then it's just up to the people all at the same table to arrange themselves.

I was once at a restaurant that used ONLY duck fat for all their sautéeing. Meats, poultry, fish, vegetables -- EVERYTHING. I guess as long as it's not highly spiced ...

Oh, Chefette, what a shame that you didn't get to taste the Apple Salad! The multi-layered, multi-level desserts such as yours and Patrice's were great, but his showed that even simple ingredients, combined simply, can also be astonishing. The Honey-Gold-something-something apple flavor was highlighted by the little bit of lemon juice and sugar, and the chocolate mint played off them really well. And the cucumber sorbet made another contrast of flavors, temperature, and texture that worked extremely well. I thought you all did a splendid job under tough circumstances. Thank you!

My cynical opinion is that "expiration dates" are put on a lot of items just to make us throw out (perfectly good) food and buy more of the same. I mean, crackers?

I thought I posted this already, but couldn't find it. Some of the ingredients were very specialized stuff, bought at Aji Ichiban (the Japanese candy-and-junk-food store) but I'll offer substitutions. And I want to apologize: unless I'm working on a recipe for R & D, I never measure. "To taste" is the watchword. Roast sweet potatoes (I used 8 # of organic ones) until very soft and the juices caramelize on the pan. Let cool until you can peel them. Scrape up and save the juice goo. In the food processor, very finely chop lemon-flavored preserved ginger slices (or regular candied ginger plus lemon zest) and salted candied dried lemon slices (or about 1/4 to 1/2 of a fresh or Moroccan-style preserved lemon, zest, pith, flesh and all). Mix these with the sweet potato flesh and juice goo, along with one 14-ounce can of regular or "lite" coconut milk and some sweetened flaked coconut. Salt to taste, and adjust balance with more lemon juice or sugar, as necessary. Most likely, you will NOT need more sweet, only more tart. Put in a greased casserole, sprinkle with more sweetened flaked coconut. Reheat in oven until potatoes are hot and coconut is lightly browned. The neat thing about this recipe is that it is totally vegan, and can be served with turkey to people who keep kosher (at least, as long as they are not SO strict that every ingredient has to be certified). And the only fat comes from the coconut milk; one of the few instances where the "lite" stuff would work.

Chefette -- I liked it a lot, too. Especially once I got down to the bottom layer with the bourbon and the cumulative effort of that plus the port plus the Guiness hit me! The texture contrast was neat, too. I hope the recipes get posted, either here or on www.societeculinaire.com, as Steve promised. How was the Candy Cap Mushroom Ice Cream? Note to NickN: The "Florida Seafood" used in the competition before the dessert demo was alligator (!), which is being pushed as a food-animal No comment.

Here is the list as it stands now. I have grouped together those who are related, even if they joined the list at different times. 1. rstarobi 2. BklynEats 3. Charles Smith 4. Macrosan 5. Yvonne Johnson 6. g. Johnson 7. Suzanne F 8. FG 9. Sandra Levine 10. Alan Levine (with Sandra Levine) 11. CathyL 12. Double 0 13. Mrs. 00 14. Tommy 15. Toby 16. Blondie 17. KimWB 18. StephanyB 19. ajay 20. Damian 21. Ann (with Damian) 22. Nina Wugmeister 23. Nina’s beau 24. MHesse 25. CooksQuest 26. Diana (with CooksQuest) 27. Cakewalk (Veg) 28. Laura 29. Jason Perlow 30. Rachel Perlow 31. Rosie 32. Lowell (with Rosie) 33. Bara Sapir (with Rosie) 34. Matt Zito (Veg) 35. jordyn 36. nervousnelli 37. roryrabbitfield 38. Daniel (with roryrabbitfield) 39. jaybee 40. tigerwoman 41. anonymous #1 42. anonymous #2 43. froggy 44. Suvir Saran 45. Guest #1 of Suvir 46. Guest #2 of Suvir

All myself? Oh, no! A couple of those items were brought by guests; some were bought (Japanese nibbles, soup, rolls, pies, cookies). Most of the stuff I made really did not take that much effort except, oddly enough, the birds which I roasted plain -- kosher poultry comes replete with LOTS AND LOTS of pin-feathers (My Aunt Bette keeps kosher, hence the lack of butter and cream in the meal.) There's actually a story behind the purchase of the soup, rolls, and pies: we live 3 long blocks to the northeast of where the WTC used to be. So our favorite local businesses were very much affected. The foods we bought came from places that had re-opened only a few weeks before the holiday. It was our way of reminding our guests that 'DOWNTOWN LIVES!"