cakewalk

Oh, they were definitely chopping up the salads, not just tossing them. Maybe the place on 56th between Park and Madison is the one I went to, it was quite a while ago and I never went back. The salad was good, but I stopped them from chopping it. I'm not sure I would have felt the same way otherwise. Is a mezzaluna those two-bladed roundish thing? Because if so, they were definitely using it! A tangent: In Israel, they make their salads by cutting the vegetables into tiny little pieces and mixing it all together. It's actually good, but totally unlike a salad as we know it here in the States. I love to eat the individual veggies in a salad -- be it tomato, cucumber, mushroom, or whatever -- and taste each item. (The Israeli's say that when they eat American salads, they feel like a cow!) The Israeli salads are very good, but there's no one taste in particular that is outstanding, it's all combined to make a wonderful whole. Chopped salads, however, fall into another category altogether. I really dislike the whole thing -- taste and texture. Oh well.

I think this place might have reopened with a new name. Several months ago I bought a salad in that area (I work in the neighborhood), but the place was named "Chop't!" or something like that. (Although I never connected the name with what they might do to my salad -- silly me.) And I had the same exact reaction you did, although I was able to stop them before they took that hatchet to my salad! It's like buying a salad that someone has already chewed up for you. Not my cup of tea.

Beautiful!

I lived in Israel for a long time, and it was quite common then (not so much now) for people to not have ovens, only stovetops. We used this thing called a Wonder Pot. It was shaped sort of like a fairly large bundt pan, and it was placed not directly on top of the burner but on top of a metal plate which sat directly on the burner, I guess it diffused the heat. You couldn't do anything fancy in it, but it did bake some decent cakes. I can remember making quiches in it as well, which came out decent albeit strangely shaped. (With a hole in the middle!!) There was a very popular cookbook called "Wonders of a Wonder Pot" which just about everyone English-speaking immigrant in Israel owned (I still have my copy.) It wasn't particularly good, but if this link works you can see a sketch of a wonder pot on the book cover. (And maybe you can even buy the book.) http://www.cookbkjj.com/bookhtml/022596.html

Well, would you rather walk into a tree or a lamppost? (Sorry, but I'm feeling silly today. It's a Friday thing.) I think the wooden spoon is actually gentler on the hand that does the stirring. I mean, metal gets hot, y'know? And moving right along with that idea, maybe it has something to do with how the heat of the spoon -- or lack thereof -- effects the rice. (I keep trying to convince my boss that I should only work Monday through Thursday because I am useless on Fridays, but so far no luck. )

Portobello mushrooms. It's a texture thing.

I thought that was breakfast!!

We always had supper. Breakfast, lunch, supper. Only rich people ate dinner. Bloody English.

From the NY Times, Wednesday May 3, 2006: Let's Ditch the Potato and Fry an Avocado Hold the chips and salsa. A lusciously addictive nibble to go with that Cinco de Mayo margarita is a plate of avocado fries with smoky chipotle ketchup. Julian Medina, the chef at Zócalo on the Upper East Side, came up with this idea, and he's serving them at the restaurant (174 East 82nd Street, near Third Avenue). But the fries are easily made at home, with avocados that are ripe yet still firm. Halve, pit and peel them and slice into sticks about 1⁄2-inch thick. Dust them with flour, then dip them into buttermilk, and then into a mixture of half flour, half panko (coarse Japanese breadcrumbs) seasoned to taste with chili powder. Quickly deep-fry them in corn oil until they are just lightly browned. Serve at once with ketchup that you have seasoned to taste with chipotle powder or chipotle purée. One avocado will make two servings.

In this past Wednesday's NY Times there was a recipe for avocado chips. Dipped in spcies, flour, and then fried. Sounded quite good. Have you thrown out Wednesday's Times yet?

Are those whole cloves of cooked garlic? If so -- piece of cake! Cooked garlic is sweet and mellow. Now if those were whole cloves of raw garlic, well, okay, that's another story altogether. But cooked? Have 'em for breakfast!!

Piewalk? Of course not! Humph! You'd sink to your knees, and what kind of position is that? But a cakewalk, ah, now that is a matter of floating along, tasting airy and light and flavorful cakes from all walks of life, creating ear-to-ear smiles on the faces of all who choose to join the parade.

Cake, definitely. Pies are okay, I've never turned one down (although I often end up eating the crust and leaving the filling alone.) But given a must-choose ultimatum, let me eat cake.

I am very glad you explained that joke! (I had no idea.) As for chocolate bagels, well, it figures. I mean, we're talking about the Red Sox, no? (I'm from the Bronx folks, I can't help it.)

comfort ← Good answer. London afternoon tea is one of those things I know about only from books, like learning about "treacle" from "Alice in Wonderland." (I still remember getting the dictionary to look up "treacle," but that didn't work for "London afternoon tea.") It took a while before I realized that "tea" included food, too. (Doesn't it interfere with dinner?) I also used to think it was just for the "rich folk," but reading Dickens put an end to that, even his characters have their afternoon tea. Next time I'm in London I'll have to make a point of experiencing this ritual. Will it offer comfort to an American?

What does the very best afternoon tea in London consist of (in terms of both food and atmosphere, since they seem to be two separate elements)?

Hey, we have dandelions and pigeons. You got a problem with that?

← My only question here is whether these chains "reflect" the expectations of the community or "create" them by making a certain standard so overwhelmingly available. As TrishCT showed, if people are introduced to other options, equivalent in price but superior in taste, they notice the difference. But many people (even locals) aren't aware of the alternatives. Before the chain-restaurant boom, I think many people just didn't eat out. The prevalence of that seems to me to be fairly recent, although I may be wrong in that assumption. And I think it was the chain restaurants with cheap, not so good food that created that pasttime.

It was that chemical dressing stuff. Really not nice.

I went to Olive Garden in Times Square a couple of months ago because I wanted to "see what it was all about." And I can tell you that even from my perspective (which is that of a culinary novice, at best) it was truly awful. (Note: I don't eat meat, so I'm very limited in what I can order.) My server's name was Kevin. He should live and be well, but does he have to smile all the time? And talk in the royal "we"? The salad wouldn't have been terrible, despite the iceberg lettuce, if they hadn't put that awful dressing on it; but they had, so it was. I didn't have breadsticks, but they did serve bread; I think it was the worst part of the meal. I don't know how else to describe it except to say it was what I call "fake bread." Puffy and flavorless. I had pizza, and it was simply not memorable. But I remember I didn't eat the crust, because I couldn't (and that's usually my favorite part.) I don't remember what kind of wine I ordered (except that it was a dry red), but I do remember that it tasted like wine that had been left in the bottle overnight. The place was full and everyone was eating heartily and enjoying themselves. I really couldn't understand. I still can't.

This what I believed schmear to mean as well.. ← Ditto. Dare we quote Humpty Dumpty here?

What's it made of?

That was me, I'm afraid ← Well, since it was you, I'll let it slide! I just love the taste of coffee! (Not to mention the caffeine, but really the taste is just as, if not more, important.) I remember years ago, when Celestial Seasonings tea was first starting to appear on the scene, they had a flavor called Morning Thunder (they might still have it for all I know), which was reputed to have twice as much caffeine as coffee. A friend of mine who was a big tea drinker was trying to get me off coffee, and he would make me this Morning Thunder tea. (Shudder.) I don't care how much caffeine the stuff is reputed to have -- it tasted like TEA!! I simply couldn't swallow it, literally.

Yesterday, after some diligent web-surfing, I compiled a four-page list of different haroset recipes. Moroccan haroset, Yemenite, Turkish, Egyptian, Surinamese!! Much of it is variations on a theme -- dried fruits and spices -- but the variations are fascinating ones. (I have it as a Word file, I wonder if there's any way I can get it on eGullet?) There is one Moroccan recipe that is rolled into balls and then rolled in chocolate, sort of a dessert haroset, which I am dying to try. There are an incredible number of variations on this stuff. As for funny stuff happening at Seders, the weirdest for me was when I was about 14 or so. There was a fire in one of the buildings attached to ours -- nothing major, just a little fire that was extinguished quickly -- but one family went up to the roof, crossed over, and came down the fire escape. We were on the third floor of a six-story building. So they went down the fire escape knocking on people's windows to be let in. No one was home, of course, it being Pesach in a Jewish neighborhood, so it was only when they got to our window that they had some luck. I remember we were in the middle of the seder and we heard this knocking on the living room window. My father went over and opened it, and in marched, one at a time, Mrs. Neighbor, her daughter, her other daughter, a policeman, and then their dog! One after the other. My father invited them to stay, but they all declined.

Another coffee vote. I can't imagine a day without. The idea of substituting tea for coffee sends shock waves through my body. I am aghast at the very thought! Yogurt is a close second. I have it every morning for breakfast with whatever fruit is in season, but only during the week at work. Weekends I usually have something else. But coffee. That's a daily have-to.