Lady T

Makin' it real as always, Ronnie -- beautiful report! It's good to hear Opera's menu is developing and evolving.

Hispanic markets have it in jars. There's probably a recipe around here somewhere (Marlene? Is there? Hmmm?) for making it fresh from scratch.

They eat overcooked lima beans and overboiled beets in Hell. With margarine.

Damn all. This could make me look forward to getting up early in the dark.

Or like a buzzard.

The stomach reels! The feet retreat. I'm leavin' it.

You didn't invite me, but I want in on that. Where Nero goes, I go. Oh hell's bells, YES, ma'am -- if I didn't make it clear, anybody who's interested is welcome! Only one proper and honest warning: I'm setting up to review the place and whoever's in is gonna have to put up with my usual scribbling and cooing and purring and snarling and muttering.

Plenty of liquids. Plenty of sleep. We'll supply the sympathy.

Fair enough and proper. The question still stands, however, and I'll be glad to ask her when the Q & A comes up: how can anyone write a review of a restaurant, when the reviewer didn't/wouldn't/never will sample dishes known to be important elements of the regional cuisine in which the restaurant claims to specialize? If the lady can't do better than this, she needs to go back to writing 30-minute recipes and doing think-pieces on nutritional issues.

This accurately describes 90% of the restaurants in London I'd've pegged that at 75% to 80%, remembering some marvelous Chinese and Indian meals I've had in London -- but point taken, just the same.

This is entirely possible. I got a gift box of beautiful Ruby Reds from a friend at Christmas, and promptly grabbed the reamer and a bowl to make a nice cold batch of juice. It took me a couple of days to work out the craving, and go back to eating grapefruit halves for breakfast the way I usually do. Peculiar.

I can't answer for anyone else, but I've had the continuing impression that food writing/restaurant reviewing in Britain is fiercer and more over-the-top than in the common practice here, just as a matter of genre. Seen in that context, Norman's rhetoric isn't all that far 'out there.' Without knowing British libel law, I couldn't say what kind of chances Shepherds has of getting anywhere in court. My (uninformed) suspicion is that the case will go nowhere unless Shepherds can (1) prove malice and (2) present proof that this allegedly malicious article did some substantial damage to their business. Not likely. My strong hunch is: it's just PR noise. It gets Shepherds' name into the papers, and Norman's name too.

Just checked the CT's website: the $75-and-under section is still there, and still extensive. They also have half-bottle and by-the-glass ($60/glass for '95 Dom Perignon: understandable but ow!) options. The flight of wine pairings that accompanies the kitchen-table menu was $85 the last time I was at CT's...but I planned for it, and wrote it off, if only in my own delusions, as an educational investment. It turned out to be so, actually, by the time I finished asking questions about what they poured and doing the comparison/contrast with what my own pairings might have been to those foods seasoned and sauced just as they were that night. If you can spare the dinero, I'd recommend it.

hmmm... perhaps the same concerns apply as to the primaries..if the leader is announced early on, will it affect the votes still to come? Can we expect the Dean supporters..oh, I mean the pork supporters to rallytheir troops to get to the polls??!! No statistical anomaly, Kim; I just love my dairy goods. Now if I wanted to bias the results, I'd be doing intermittent, successive single posts for: Gruyere. Brie. Camembert. Emmenthaler. Gouda. Gorgonzola. Parmesan. Goat. Feta. ...and so forth. I might get another vote in, maybe even two, before you yelled "FOUL!" But no. This is Chicago, to be sure, but I'm not "voting early and often."

The proof's in the writing. Let's see how he does.

Todd English I can believe, and maybe he can even pull it off. Samuelsson and Lomonaco would do it (a) for the pure crazed fun and (b) for the PR and money, and likely they'd do a nice job. But Portale? Pepin?!? I can't decide whether I'm so fascinated I have to see this, or so horrified at the concept I have to run screaming.

Cheese.

We haven't set up the specific date yet, but Ronnie and his wife and I are looking at some time in the next two months. You in, Nero?

Last year, my youngest godson demanded -- and got -- a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party. His apprehensive parents rounded up every adult they could possibly hornswoggle into attending, including me. I figured: hey, convenient way to deliver the gift and maybe even socialize a bit with the 'rents, no? I handled the hot and cold running bedlam at lunch at Les Halles in NYC, after all; what's to fear? Ha. I lasted 45 minutes. Three deafening, mind-numbing, nose-battering quarters of an hour. Then I handed over the boodle and fled, dodging that mangy six-foot waddling gray beast in the process, and went home feeling so assaulted I stopped off at Whole Foods and picked up a chicken to roast. Went heavy on the wine that evening, too, after I turned off the ringer on the phone. Gah. I did apologize to my godson's parents at a later date, for abandoning them to the howling mayhem, but...dear God of Wisdom, I'd've started screaming and throwing things and biting people if I'd stayed much longer. Not unlike most of the kids.

I concur.

Congratulations, chef. I hope to be in within the next two months or so.

Oooofff. Your orchestra librarian must've loved that to pieces. I bet the music was rented, too, and cost a bunch to replace; Sondheim rarely if ever does business any other way. On the other hand, Sweeney is a messy(!) musical by definition -- they've got to have run into that problem before. (Imagine how the end-of-year expense reports must read for music maintenance/replacement costs: parts splashed with seawater in the first scene and fake blood and shaving cream elsewhen, scores slashed periodically with razors or put through a meat grinder...expensive show, no?) Don't forget A Little Night Music..."a weekend in the country/How amusing, how delightfully droll!" after all. Sounds like a road trip excuse to me! Ehhh. I just wanna get out of this office. Can you tell?

Best. Musical. Ever: I agree. Sometime before I retire from singing, I want, really badly, to do the role of Mrs. Lovett. ("Shepherd's pie, peppered/With actual shepherd...") Or, at least, to rent the score and learn it. As to eGullet invites -- think of it the other way around and it's funnier and scarier yet: This is the one place where Mrs. Lovett's tastes, though unindulged, might be understood!

We're there, sir.

People seem to eat any kind of pie I make. Obviously I need to go into business with Elyse.