Suzanne F

No, not really, and I wasn't trying to catch you. It just sounded from what Helena originally said, that SHE thought ... No matter. You are absolutely right about how great mushrooms over polenta. And with the tiniest drizzle of truffle oil, heaven!!!

Just received the current "Currents" -- "a newsletter from the Livanos Restaurant Group." It's got a bio of the new chef. There's also one, essentially the same, on the Oceana website The newsletter also says:

If you're making polenta AND something, it's going to be 2 pans most likely: one for cooking the polenta, and the other for whatever else. Unless it's something like polenta with cheese, in which case it's all-in-one. But otherwise it looks so much better if it's a heap of polenta with the other stuff poured over it. I almost always have too much sauce left over from stews and braises (oxtails; osso buco; etc.) -- often enough to sauce another meal. I put the excess away in the freezer. Then just heat it up and serve over a mound of polenta: waste not, want not. Also remember that if you have leftover (or make extra) polenta, you can chill it until firm, then cut it into slices to fry or grill. Mmmmmmmmm

Let's see, Mexico has the Day of the Dead on November 1st, Revolution Anniversary on November 20th, and also a holiday for the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12th. Canada has Remembrance Day, 11/11. And there are those happy happy holidays in the USA -- Veterans' Day 11/11 and Pearl Harbor Day 12/7. What, did I miss something????

You mean eGullet™ perhaps? Where is SuzanneF the Principal when we need her most??? Sheesh, I take a little time of from here to do some, ahem, REAL WORK, and look what happens. Everybody, cool your jets! Squabbling isn't going to make Christmas come any sooner.

I cook for people who don't feel bad. And, especially, for those who do. i pity those who don't cook for people who feel bad. I feel for people who cook for bad people.

National pride. For all we (non-Greeks, non-Turks, non-Middle-Easterners) know, the secret recipes could be IDENTICAL

Hi, Pat! There's already a discussion about the book here. I feel sorry for people who can't/won't cook, but then again, I can't do a lot of the things that give other people pleasure. If something like that at least calms some of their fears and gets them started, there is still hope, brother.

Damn right.

I didn't, and if you can show that I did, more power to you. I just thought it odd that he mentioned instances from a mere 10 years ago (Fresco Tortilla) rather than pointed out that this has been going on with the exact same sort of place for at least 25 years.

That's silly. Asimov ain't no dummy. His age doesn't have anything to do with it - I'm sure he did/does his research. Okay -- so maybe every Empire Szechuan in the city of New York is under the same ownership? Their proliferation goes back to the 1970s. I was simply implying that the phenomenon is not particularly recent, and that we have seen it before in the same exact style.

Ahem. AHEM. AHEM. And Asimov is too young, in this case.

Just heard a promo on WBGO for Arthur's Downtown. Since I've never been there, or Arthur's Landing, I can't endorse one way or another. But it's close to NJPAC, and does a $40 pre-theater dinner. I see Rail Paul mentioned it, too. Personally, I have no problem walking around that area at night.

Bur how do you "descend" a cucumber for the tzatziki? Drop it out the window? I've heard great things about Total tzatziki -- but it's so easy to make anyway.

As Snowangel mentioned in all her excellent information: beans. Especially rice and beans. It takes only onions, garlic, and chilies, plus some dried herbs, to flavor beans. If you want, it only takes a little bit of a highly flavored sausage (chorizo, even kielbasa!) to fool everyone into thinking they're eating meat. By all means, troll the "reduced price" bins. Usually there's plenty of usable product left once you trim away the nasty bits. And you're lucky, your store might even reduce the price on "last day of sale" meat. And soon it will be summer, with fresh vegetables!

Jordyn: what makes you think that the eventual location will be publicly announced so that you can show up to picket? Anyway, now YOU are number one on the waitlist.

Helena, thanks for the link. I never would have thought about reds, but now I will. Mmmmmmmmmmmm, spicy hot food and red wine.

I don't know if there IS a correct angle. All I know is it should be even, so you get squares (90º) or, um, diamonds with equal sides -- Rhombi??? The main thing is not to have your marks crossing really strangely, or not at all. You know, you just pick up the slab of meat, give it a turn of 90º or so, and plop it down again. None of this pick-it-up-put-it-down-pick-it-up-put-it-down-again-and-again nonsense. UGLY!!!!! (Please forgive me for my overweaning pride, but when I worked the grill at Match Uptown, my chef told me I marked very well. I've never forgotten that. )

It's just the fancy French term for marking. You know, that cross-hatch pattern you get from the grill. Yeah, YOU know.

That's what I figured. But how about objectively? I just have a hard time imagining limiting oneself to only one cuisine. When I call myself an omnivore, I REALLY mean it.

Since Les Halles Downtown is a short walk from my house, and I stop in when I'm desperate for a latish dinner, I had to check this out. I ordered a couple of the same dishes, just to see how they were. Soupe de Poisson à la mode d'Arcachon: what this had to do with Arcachon is beyond me. Larousse says it is a town "...dear to the hearts of gastronomes and lovers of oysters. Arcachon is famous for its magnificent oyster beds." OYSTERS????? Not in this soup, that's for sure. Leeks, yes, and more leeks, and more leeks; a rather over-reduced fish stock; tasteless tiny bits of unidentifiable fish; and red wine, which gave the whole a truly bizarre tint. Although as a positive: at first it gave off a lovely aroma of ... butter! Entrecôte à la Bordelaise: well, after all, Entrecôte IS a ribeye steak. But mine was lovely -- quite tender, hardly any removable fat, perfect quadrillage. Sorry, Wilfrid, maybe my steak karma is better than yours? However, yes, the "bone Marrow" was almost devoid of marrow. And when I picked up the bone, there was a perfect circle of grease on the sauce where it had been. It left a nice thick "O" of grease on the paper table-cover where I placed it to get it out of the way. And the 3 pieces of tournée potato felt and tasted as though they started life in a tin can. But the sauce was delicious -- much better than the shallot sauce they serve with other dishes: richer, meatier, winier. BTW: they were out of the duck special. The service: well, I've never had good service there. I think they are terribly understaffed on waiters, and overstaffed on bussers who probably get paid bupkes. When I asked the sullen-looking busser who cleared my soup plate for water and bread, he immediately ... went over and told my waiter, and then walked away. And the waiter could not multitask (bring bread? bring water? Not both at the same time!) yet kept telling me how they had seated too many tables at one time. (Sweetie, I really don't need or want to hear that I want bread. I want water. ) So when the "manager" came by (after walking through the entire length of both dining rooms running his hands through his hair ), and asked how everything was, I said, "Well, it took an awfully long time to get bread and water." Oh, said he. Soon thereafter my waiter came by, looking very worried: "Was there something wrong with the food?" No, everything was all right (well, the soup was semi-edible), but I told her what I told the manager about bread and water. More apologies. "He shouldn't have scared you like that," I told her. And I tipped my usual 20%. I've got to find out which places force the waiters to tip out management; so that in a situation like this, I can hand the waiter cash and mark a big X on the charge slip where the tip goes..

Cabrales, I hate you. Now I'm going to have to join JBF to have access to these dinners. Wow!! Except for the "Argentine Parmesan" -- um, ain't nothin' like the real thing.

Cabrales: are the ?s because you are unfamiliar with the item? YOU? I thought you had eaten nearly everything. "Basturma" is similar to Roumanian pastrami -- spiced, cured beef -- except that the spicing is a little different; according to Tess Mallos, "a large quantity of fenugreek is included in the garlic and spice coating." "Tarator" is a sauce of bread, nuts (walnuts or hazelnuts), olive oil, wine vinegar, and garlic, all pureed together. There are variations with pine nuts, and others with tahini instead of the nuts. But the Turkish version is the first. The whole menu sounds terrific. I hope when I'm in Beantown next month I get to eat there.

Wilfrid -- YUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK. I was happy to see that I'm not the only person who was stupid enough to taste it, though. By definition, anything one drank in college has to be among the worst. Therefore: Blatz. (that's the name of the beer, not just the noise you made after drinking it.)

Yeah, I've heard that about you.