Suzanne F
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Posts posted by Suzanne F
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I don't think of Grand Sichuan as particularly romantic -- although I suppose it depends on how you feed each other.
Sounds as though you've never been to NYC, or at least not together. So kill two birds with one stone and stop by Grand Central Terminal (you'll have to hold each other so as not to fall over while looking up at that fabulous ceiling
) and then go for a drink at The Campbell Apartments. Just bring lots of money for the drinks. 
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Ooh, akur23 -- thanks for those links! I've got some plantains I want to use up, and those seem like perfect vehicles.
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Doris (an Italian deli, not a person) on Yamato Road.
It's been a couple of years since we shopped there, but if it still exists, as I presume it does, it is worth checking out. Iirc, it is not within Boca city limits, but is just outside, in Palm Beach County.
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No, really, it was a mistake, however delicious!
Cooked about 6 hours -- but this was just naked duck (browned first in clarified butter), chunks of carrot and rutabaga (ditto), peeled whole small onions and large garlic cloves (ditto). With wine, chicken stock, dried thyme, and S&P. And when I say naked, I REALLY mean it: I slipped off the entire skin before cutting up the duck, so just about the only fat was the butter. Did this for several reasons: 1) I didn't want to have to defat later; 2) I don't like to eat duck skin unless it's crisp crisp crisp, and this way it couldn't be; and 3) I need to rebuild my collection of renderable fat for future confit.But since you mention it, with less liquid and sans vegetables (only keeping the garlic, of course), it could very well be a way of making a "low-fat" version of duck rilletes.
If that isn't too much of an oxymoron. 
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HWOE and I ate there yesterday, for a very late lunch/very early dinner.
Escarole Salad with Jerusalem Artichokes: also some chopped roasted almonds and very fine crumbs of cheese (maybe ricotta salata?). It took a while to find the pieces of Jerusalem artichoke, which were kind of buried near the bottom. But they were crisp and sweet, less artichoke-y than when cooked. Very nice lemony dressing, maybe just a tad too much, but it was quite light so that was all right.
Weekly special Pizza with Guanciale, Radicchio, and Pecorino. Talk about porky goodness! Yummmmmm. Nice tangy tomatoes between the crust and this other stuff.
Pizza al Vongole, the infamous in-the-shell clams, lots of fresh mozzarella, a few parsley leaves. Less oceanic than the clam pizza at Arturo's on Houston, but it hit the spot.
A quartino of a Bastianich Tocai Friuliana, and of a Ramitello.
And since this is one of the few places where I actually look forward to dessert:
Olive Oil Coppetta, with olive oil gelato, (salted) caramel sauce, candied tangerines (or clementines?), and a little olive oil;
Tangerine Parfait, with tangerine sorbetto, cranberry granita, and almond crema.
Ahhhhhhhhh. The texture of the gelato was smoother than anything I've had, and the parfait was wonderfully refreshing.
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How about making LARB with beef?
And I grew up on a horrible version of "Hamburger Pie" which even on a student budget could be made much better than my mother did:
Brown ground beef. Mix in a can of mixed vegetables
and a can of tomato soup. Put into baking dish. Top with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with paprika, bake until potatoes are brown. (Horrible, but I loved it then!) -
In addition to Lustau, another good brand to look for is La Gitana.
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I don't see anything wrong with a jus lie, as long as you use a starch that will keep the sauce clear and glossy. Definitely NOT flour, that will be clunky.
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I blend almond paste into the dough for my chocolate-chip cookies, instead of adding nutmeats.
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(Where I live, we cannot have undersink food disposal units[...].)
I thought I read in The New York Times sometime last year that New York City had lifted its longstanding ban on garbage disposals. I've this vague recollection that it had something to do with that huge new sewage treatment plant in Harlem.
Or was this just a limited demonstration project in a specific part of the city? (I also seem to recall that the stated reason for the ban had something to do with clogging the water and sewer lines.)
The concern was for households on combined sewer lines, those that carry both sewage and storm runoff, and the effect on nitrogen levels in the surrounding bodies of water. But by golly, you're right! the ban was rescinded some years ago! Not specifically because of Riverbank, though, but because the 21-month pilot study indicated a minimal impact. Whoo hoo! I could get me one of them garbage grinder thingees when I redo my kitchen! (I should live so long)
The NYC Department of Environmental Protection has helpful suggestions for disposing of grease.
And I could be wrong about the temporary nature of the effect of soap on grease. I was thinking about how, if I soak a greasy pot with soapy water and let it sit longer than overnight
, eventually a slick of another sort forms on the surface. (No, not mold. I don't leave dirty pots in the sink THAT long. Well, um, not usually . . . ) -
Anything you can braise on the stovetop or in the oven, you can do in a slow cooker. Sometimes better! Besides the aforementioned onion confit, I've used mine to make duck confit, chili, congee, braised lamb shanks, beef stew, pozole, etc. etc. The only time it has been less than great is the most recent: I was braising a duck, totally skinned, cut into pieces (including hacking the bones into pieces with meat on them), and overcooked it by several hours.
Tastes fabulous, but almost completely dissolved the shreds of meat on the bones. -
I always figure that whatever grease goes down the drain, no matter how small an amount, can eventually meet up with its buddies somewhere further along and cause problems. Maybe not in my plumbing, but somewhere. Soap only breaks it up temporarily. So I prefer to wipe out as much as possible before washing; we just about always have twice- or thrice-used paper towels lying around, such as were used to wrap salad stuffs. (Where I live, we cannot have undersink food disposal units, and I have limited outlets for compost.)
Of course, I AM a child of the 60s.
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Le Zinc (Chanterelle quality at far lower cost)
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. . . There's a place next to OTB on Bowery that has good, cheap dim sum. I go there once in a while to pick up breakfast before I go to work on the weekdays. Shrimp Dumplings and a few buns for under $3. You can order it from the lady at the counter for take out, the food is right behind them so you can look and point. Yummy.
You mean Chatham? We haven't been there in a few years since it took that name (used to be Hop Shing??), but maybe we'll try it again.
HWOE was back at Dim Sum GoGo recently and said it was still very enjoyable. I agree with mikeyrad, the vegetarian dumplings are really good (and beautiful).
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Quite true. And really, if you are used to low-salt, you won't even notice. Those mushrooms were soooooooo tasty!
Although I kind of doubt the Serrano ham and the cheeses are low-salt. And who knows about the bacalao?
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We ate at Oliva tonight, with a visiting cousin of HWOE's.
Except for an almost complete lack of salt, the food was quite good. (Normally "no salt" would be a kiss of death for me, but everything was pretty flavorful even without it.) We shared the Setas a la plancha (grilled sliced mushrooms) and Txangurro (stuffed crab flavored with tarragon, topped with panko. Yes, the Japanese panko). Both portions were more the size I think of as ración -- that is, about twice the size of a tapa. Even so, the prices were quite reasonable.
There is a short list of mains, maybe half a dozen? I had the Roast Chicken, and HWOE and Mort had the Paella a la mariscas (sp?). My chicken was two mostly-boned halves of a poussin-size bird, glazed with cherry (rich but not sweet) and served with excellent olive-oil mashed potatoes. The paella had mussels, clams, calamari, and shrimp. I tasted a piece of calamari, and it was really tender. The guys loved the whole dish. And at $18, it seemed a pretty good deal.
Good bread served with very fruity olive oil for dipping. Very good coffee. A nice tempranillo (El Paseo) for $27.
I noticed they have many varieties of sherry from Lustau, our favorite brand. So between that and wanting to try the gambas a la plancha and the grilled calamari and many of the other classic items, we expect to go back. Provided we can figure out a "quiet time." Because yes, it was noisy: early on, the music was loud; then as it filled up, it got even louder with conversation.
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It's too bad Wilfrid's beloved can't settle this, but if it doesn't have garlic, can you really call it pernil? I'm thinking of the Dominican and Puerto Rican versions, such as the one Luckylies posted and those I've eaten in local restaurants: they all have garlic -- preferably, a LOT of garlic.
So while the other methods of cooking a pork shoulder sound really good, do you end up with pernil or just a superior roasted pork shoulder?
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My list as of this moment:
St. John (London)
March (NYC)
Jai Yun (San Francisco)
Mustards Grill or Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (Napa, CA)
The Corn Exchange (Rapid City, SD)
Bacchanalia (Atlanta)
Amma (NYC)
so I made it only to Amma. Never got across the pond, and only as far south as Louisville; did get to the PNW US/SW Canada, though.
Was supposed to go to Felidia, but had to cancel
Of places I never thought about, I got to:
China 46 in whereveritis, NJ
Otto (well, for the second time)
Peter Luger (twice!!)
DavidBurke & Donatella
clarklewis (Portland, OR)
Ken's Artisanal Bakery (Portland, OR)
The Spotted Pig (not for a meal, though, just a reception)
Grand Sichuan (9th Ave/50th Street)
Blue Hill
The Biltmore Room
(A couple of places in Vancouver, BC, that have been discussed here but whose names escape me at the moment)
August
Devi
Per Se
The Oak Room (Seelbach Hotel, Louisville, KY)
L & T Wine Bar (Louisville, KY)
Lynn's Paradise Cafe (Louisville, KY)
Jack's something or other (Louisville, KY)
Bayard's (for the second time)
and in a little over a week will go to Cafe Grey.
Not so bad for consolation, I guess.
Of course, all but 7 of those were with or because of eG people. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!Tarka/Suzi: I sincerely hope that we can go to St. John in the coming year!
jwagnerdsm, if you're still out there: The Corn Exchange is owned/run by an acquaintance, M.J. Adams, who has received quite a few accolades. And what stuff of hers I've tasted was really terrific.
(edited to add another excellent place in NYC that I forgot about last night
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I'd sooner pay $2.50 for a really great doughnut from the Doughnut Plant than $3.95 for a terrible cup of "coffee" at S***bucks. 'Cause I can make good coffee at home, but not a good doughnut.
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When we lived in DC, we frequented a restaurant called Golden Temple of Conscious Cookery, a joint run by Hare Krishnas. Their "Mushroom Meadow" was my favorite full-meal spud serving:
a bed of lettuces, roughly chopped and lightly dressed with sesame/ginger dressing
topped with a split-open baked potato
topped with a ton of sauteed sliced mushrooms (maybe with onions, too?)
topped with sprouts, and possibly
topped with yogurt, iirc.
The important thing, as far as I'm concerned, is that the potato be organically grown; SOOOOOOOO much more flavor!
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Oh, Lucy, those look wonderful! I've never known what to do with them other than scrub and eat raw. (When the chef I worked for brought some in to play with, he never did actually DO anything with them, so I had no model to follow.
)Added my guess is that they are labelled légumes (yes, the generic term for vegetables) in the market just so people WON'T think they are larvae.
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So, Pan, you'd prefer that we all have to get coffee at the S***bucks at Astor Place? And I used to think you had your taste in your mouth.
Maybe if you stopped in at the MudSpot, and bought a cup to compare to S***bucks, you'd cut the truck a little slack.
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I have always had Johnson Brothers Rose Bouquet, pink -- I mean ALWAYS: since 1970. Used to be, when we went to Europe, if I saw a piece that I couldn't find in B. Altman's (the late lamented
), I'd buy 8 and bring it back on my lap on the plane. Now I just spend all the money I don't spend on cookbooks and AllClad at Replacements Ltd. I probably have enough now to more than make back everything I've spent there, but I still like this pattern.
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Seth, actually, no, that's not the thread I was thinking of.
The thread started with a link to an article in the Voice, that was clearly under-researched. I'd look but I just don't have much time right now. In any case, don't be so hard on that young idealist; we need more like him!!!!!!!!!!! I really don't know whether moving Les Halles was good or not; I've spent a total of 45 minutes in Paris in my entire life, and almost all of that was in a taxi going from the Gare de Lyon to the Gare du Nord.
Toad In The Hole
in United Kingdom & Ireland: Dining
Posted
Oh that card Richard Branson -- just being ironic again, I daresay!