Suzanne F

Ah yes.... we are only getting ONE ego's side of the story.... And that's why I originally asked if we might see the FULL correspondence. Instead we got "I said, he said" followed by a lot of abuse of the well-meaning folk here. Just about the only thing lacking was that NOT EVERYTHING WAS TYPED ALL IN CAPS, since it "sounded" like screaming to me. Not to worry, Kerouac1964. I was responding metaphorically I'm with you, Dstone001. Isn't it a bit fishy that he started this one-sided flame war just before supposedly leaving for "25 days in Europe?" Even if he's not a hoax, DRREVENUE is certainly rude and unmannerly. Good for you, Steve P., to qualify your acquaintance. In his absence, perhaps you can fill us in on why he seems to have such an axe to grind against Rockenwagner? And Jaymes, you too are a gentleperson and a scholar.

Just had another thought: I've made tomato sorbet (sweet) with red ones; perhaps I could use yellow, with a little saffron to bump up the color. Suvir, I hope you realize that this means hubby and I will have to eat desserts, which we almost never do. I'll have to find out where you live and dump the excess on you! BTW: when I make large batches of salsa verde, chutney, jam, etc., I just seal the stuff in sterilized jars with canning lids, and don't bother processing in a boiling water bath. But I ALWAYS keep the result in the refrigerator.

If you want to know WHY you should do what they tell you to do, definitely Mastering the Art. You will not only learn French food; you will learn HOW TO COOK ANYTHING. La methode and La technique are also excellent, but are best for learning very specific information. Julia et al. can turn any careful reader into a cook. Everything else is commentary.

Thanks for supplying that piece of the correspondence. But ... Wow! If I received a letter like that, I'd be absolutely breathless from your barrage of punches to my solar plexus. And quite at a loss for how to make a reasoned and reasonable response, since it would seem to me nothing I said would be heard by you, you were that angry. I would certainly believe that the preparation of your food was not up to your standards and expectations. But your having attacked me and my staff so violently would make it difficult for me to even WANT to respond. I don't know what business you are in, but if you received such a letter from a customer/client, how would you respond? Would you respond? And to the other chefs and owners here, what would YOU do? Just curious. edited to fix an egregious grammatical error.

DRREVENUE: perhaps some of the previous posters misunderstood exactly what passed between you, the manager, and the chef. Since all you gave was your highly-condensed version of the conversations and messages exchanged, such misunderstanding is understandable (huh? ), even if not warranted. It's awfully hard to be fair and impartial when one is given only a portion of a single viewpoint. If much of it was via e-mail, you could, if you chose to, display the entire exchange. Then we could start all over again meting out guilt and innocence. BTW: I fully expect someone or other to jump down my throat for this post; not for what I actually said, but for what they "think" I said based on their biases.

Suvir, YOU are afraid to make Mexican food? I'm shocked ! I've never been there, either -- or anywhere else "foreign" lately -- but as long as there are books by Diana Kennedy, Zarela Martinez, and Patricia Quintana, I feel quite confident. But then, I don't believe that it's possible for an "outsider" to do "authentic ethnic" food, or to even try -- and that doesn't bother me in the least. I prefer (to paraphrase Duke Ellington): if it tastes good, it IS good. Anyway, all the use suggestions for yellow tomatoes so far have been spot on. They ARE lower in acidity, but that can be a plus in a soup. So they need some added acid for oomph. I also find they can have a higher water content. I've been thinking of using them to make Tomato Jam, reducing the sugar some. In your chutney, did you just substitue in a red tomato recipe, or did you have a different one? I would have left in the fenugreek, but that's just my taste. Gee, after the mentions of shortcake -- how about using peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes (mixed with a little sugar, lemon, and whatever) instead of the strawberries? After all, botanically, tomatoes are fruits. Maybe I'll try it ...

"Crisp 'n Crunchy, meet Light 'n' Lively!" Have you noticed that many of the food ones are by Barsotti?

With all due respect Hey, everybody here knows exactly what you are; you make it very clear time and time again. (Can you say, "Pompous"?) I just approach things literary through training in textual analysis. You're a lawyer; inferences that are drawn from straight analysis are ... what? You tell me.

I'm surprised that Steven Shaw needs Steve Klc to defend him. However, I must defend myself, which I will do because I respect the exalted positions here that both Steves occupy: Within the context and timing of FG's unsubstantiated (but not necessarily untrue) statement followed by researchgal's question in direct response to that statement FG's nearly-immediate response (4 minutes later with no other statements by him in the interim) seems to me rather uncalled-for and unhelpful. Or, to put it another way, snotty. He might have given some backup to his assertion of "steady decline" as she requested, or stated his reasons for not subscribing. I see no need to defend my statement any further; nor does The New Yorker need me to defend it. (Do not infer that I think there has been no decline; there certainly has, although not particularly steady.) Rather, it is for FG to defend his statement. Perhaps he would like to start a new thread on "The Decline of The New Yorker: Fact and Fiction, or Merely My Opinion."

Oh, yes, Ithaki was excellent. They had a special of grilled swordfish on squid-ink capeletti, which just melting (the fish, that is; the pasta was perfectly al dente). They also used the capelleti, fried, as a garnish on a scallop special that was kind of busy, but really good. We also had a halibut special that was superb, the fish was soooo fresh, and the feta mashed potatoes were something I could live on. And while I was kind of disappointed in the bland roast figs in my dessert, the honey and yogurt with them more than made up for it.

Schielke: Jinmyo mentioned it earlier in the thread. Scroll up for her description of the technique. Basically, you run the edge of the knife blade flat across the skin of the fish -- it scrapes off the last bits of moisture, so that the skin is absolutely dry. That's what you need for a good sear. Question for BBQers: have you tried using parafin cubes instead of lighter fluid? They impart no off-taste, and work quite well if distributed well under the coals. You place them around the bottom layer of coals as you build it up, and then light the wax with your matches or lighter-thingy. AND you can't possibly singe off your facial hair. I think the ones I use are put out by Weber.

Clarified butter is only the butterfat, without the milk solids that burn and get nasty at high heat. And high heat (to start) is what you need to get a good crusty sear on a piece of fish -- along with having the piece completely dry (the Thomas Keller trick is great). I prefer to sear the presentation side over high heat, then finish it in the oven. As for cleaning cast iron: I am somewhat heretical in that I soak my grill pan after use to loosen the stuck-on stuff and have even been known to take a steel-wool pad to it But my cast iron pan is very well-seasoned; I ususally coat it with Crisco before I put it away, and I re-season it occasionally. As for the original question: it's not what I CAN'T do, but what I won't make the effort to do properly as I know it should be done (regular old flaky pie crust and biscuits are high on that list.)

Flouridated water only works if you're making bread. Lord, how I wish the U.S. of A. had gone metric!!! Only a simple decimal system to worry about, instead of hexadecimal; liquid volume measures related clearly to measures of weight; no having to use inaccurate volume measures of dry goods; and no redundant titles like "ounce" (avoirdupois or fluid?). The problem is not in the day-to-day USE of the system; it's in learning the conversions until one knows them well enough to feel comfortable working only in the "new" system. And that's where Americans are so stubborn and lazy. But for real fun, try converting recipes that use measures of volume to decimal measures of avoirdupois pounds -- e.g., 1 tablespoon of dried oregano = .00n pounds -- so that recipes can be standardized for electronic scales that measure in thousandths of a pound. (Doesn't everyone know that 1 ounce = .063 #?)

We like really strong flavors, so I ususally puree about half a large white onion and lots of garlic in the blender with some tomato juice, then add olive oil (preferably a strong Spanish one like El Toro; no wimpy EVOO here!) and sherry or red wine vinegar, plus of course some salt and pepper. Mix that with chopped (unpeeled seedless) cucumbers, sweet peppers (red, green, yellow, orange -- some or all; anything except purple), fresh tomatoes, and some kind of hot sauce. The chopping can be by hand or in the food processor (each veg separately, of course). If it turns out too spicy (even for us there is such a thing, when my hand slips), I'll mix in some yogurt. And don't forget Gazpacho Blanco, with ground almonds, fresh bread crumbs, milk, garlic, sherry, olive oil, and white grapes (sometimes also cucumber).

I do something similar to CC's dish but use orrechietti, and sometimes add crumbled Italian sausage as well. It works pretty well with any sturdy, shaped pasta. When I need something REALLY fast: cooked pasta shapes (also anything sturdy) plus a can of white beans (rinsed), a can of tuna (with the olive oil), and a can of diced tomatoes with their juice -- and a little chopped preserved lemon, roast garlic puree, and chopped parsley. The only problem is which wine to serve: I prefer a light red, but Paul thinks white. Who cares? (I know that's treason to the wine mavens here; sorry. ) In any case, I never met a pasta I didn't like, and adore just about all of them. My triumph, though, was fettucine with a lamb ragu (I chickened out and didn't make the noodles myself, but next time I will!) Edit: Mike, by any chance are you from Hawaii??

Thanks to all who offered suggestions. We did not get to Lobster Pool, but did eat at Ithaki Essex Seafood (twice) Boulevard Oceanview (for Portuguese food) Mad Fish Grille (my husband ate there last year and loved it; I found the food to be way too busy, with too much going on in each dish; also, the service was teenage-anorexic-clueless, as in "What is that beer like?" "Oh, I have no idea." "Well, would you mind finding out?" "What? Oh, I guess so.") Woodman's (I had to see if it was as awful as people say. It wasn't, but it couldn't hold a candle to Essex Seafood) Stone Soup, but for lunch -- we didn't realize that dinner was totally different. Lunch was okay, but not the orgasmic experience dinner is supposed to be.

A misspelling of "die cut." Oh dear, how the mighty New Yorker has fallen in its obsessive-compulsive editing.

Speak for yourself, FG. I just spent 17 vacation days reading articles going back as far as the mid-1980s -- including the one by Mark Singer on the Chinos, as well as several by Jerome Groopman that relate closely to the very recent one on testosterone. In any case, you are, once again, the master of the obvious but unnecessary: true, gradual is the opposite of acute. So what? Those of us who have been reading the magazine for, oh, 40 years do, in fact, notice the changes. Those who do not read it probably do not. What source of pride is it to say one has not subscribed for 5 years? Snotty, is all I can say. And no, there has NOT been an issue totally devoted to food before. Although there have been issues about food: remember the McPhee piece about the mythical Otto, who used white pepper to "preserve" the quality of the meat in his mythical restaurant?

I have recently started consulting to a company that plans to manufacture "gourmet pet food" using all human-quality ingredients (plus nutritional supplements). One of the ingredients is spinach -- which so far in recipe development and testing has been FRESH. I most certainly hope that I can get them to switch to frozen. As A Caped Chef said, when you're doing 300 portions it just doesn't make sense to use fresh when there's good frozen product available. I was heartened to read approval for frozen puff pastry -- I used to work for Dufour, which I still think makes a GREAT product. Yes, it is definitely better than what an inexperienced person could make; and what really great pastry chef has the time? Want a good use for garlic powder? as printed in Urban Quality Indicators, Issue 13, Spring 1999, page 5: (reprinted with permission)

???????? SobaAddict, have you suddenly switched into some obscure language? I don't understand what that means.

And how about pouring the grease from the Sunday morning bacon onto the as-yet-unused coffee grounds in the french press canister?

Oh, Varmint! I thought they were 2 different things: 1. is "CIA grad on the line" 2. is "Welcome to my kitchen"

Pour untasted wine into a batch of stew on the stove. Did it once with a bottle of Michigan wine, which made the stew (and the whole house) smell like Chateau Mucilage. See, there IS a good reason to have a slurp while you're cooking (besides the enhanced creativity!).

My Vermont experience is all basically along Route 9 (Bennington to Brattleboro) with little offshoots up or down Rtes 100, 112, or 30 -- in other words, the very southern part of the state. I've found some surprisingly wonderful restaurant food there. What kills it for me, though, is absolutely horrendous service: teenage-seeming managers "supervising" teenage-seeming servers who couldn't open a bottle of wine even if it had a screw-top, much less answer questions about the menu or give proper service. Sigh. But hope springs eternal; I'll be up there again starting this Saturday. See you all in about 2 1/2 weeks.

Tommy, if you mean me, I did not so much retract it as decide that this was a time-waster right now. I still agree to disagree with those who hold differing opinions -- as always, without any name-calling. Try it sometime.