Pontormo

Megan, that's a beautiful picture! I am sure the switch from sirloin to chuck made a difference. And Judy, I am curious to learn if there were any ragus that you find at all unusual in the recent issue of an Italian magazine. While I do not have the wide variety of Italian cookbooks that I would like at home, this thread inspires me to try a recipe for duck ragu that I found in Mimmetta Lomonte's Classic Sicilian Cooking since I have eaten a number of rich sauces in Italy based on stew meats, but only cooked alla Marcella. The ingredients include dried porcini, garlic, fresh sage, red wine and tomato paste. I also found a rather fussy recipe that calls for a ragu bolognese in Italian Cooking in the Grand Tradition by Jo Bettoja and Anna Maria Cornetto. It's called Palle di Fettuccine al Ragu; I wonder if it was created for the Medici in honor of the family's coat of arms or stemma. In any respect, the cook is instructed to prepare a white sauce and cook either tagliatelle or fettuccine for half the usual time. The two are mixed with Parm., cream and, yes, butter, then chilled. After several hours, the lump is divided into very compact balls the size of oranges and stuffed with Gruyere and a bit of truffle paste before being coated with egg and bread crumbs. After THESE are chilled for a longer period of time, they're deep-fried, mounded on a platter and served with the ragu!

Wow! This topic is nostalgia city! Just about everyone in my family was a good cook when I was growing up and cookbooks were virtually non-existent. The only real one we had at home was a tattered all-purpose volume from the CIA written for the home cook, which meant housewife, really, in those days. But then came the Time-Life series! It was glamor, shelved far from the kitchen with all the other serial books, The Family of Man, When The World Was Young, poetry and art. My first serious cooking was done from its pages when my grandmother made the trip all the way out to Indiana: Fricasse de Poulet a l'Ancienne. I picked up several of the spiral-bound recipe collections for .50 each in at a public library sale during a summer vacation, including the one on Middle Eastern cooking and another on Spain and Portugal. However, I was really pleased to find the one devoted to American cooking, published in 1968. By now, it's a real historical document, I suppose. I picked it up because the glory of the fried chicken remains a vivid memory.

Actually, Paula Wolfert has an interesting recipe that calls for lady apples. It's in my favorite of the author's books that I own, The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean. It is a stew that calls for boneless lamb of shoulder and about twenty lady apples. I haven't tried it yet, though all the recipes for stews that I have made (a lot) are fantastic. I return to them again and again at this time of year. Quick, the season is short! And if you can't get your butcher to bone the lamb yourself, check out the instructions offered recently here by jsomethingsomething10, complete with photographs! While living in Michigan, I had some amazing Arkansas Black apples, though the name is a bit disconcerting to me. I don't ever recall eating Snow apples. Back then, as much as I appreciated the great variety of apples at the farmer's markets, I could not understand a friend's enthusiasm for apple season. To me, it was sad. Amidst the gorgeous colors of the changing leaves, despite the happy prospect of warm doughnuts and fresh apple cider at the end of the bike ride up and down hills beside the river, it still meant that the days of peaches, berries and melon had ended. My attitude has changed. Here, our apples come largely from West Virginia and Pennsylvania. One of the great discoveries is an apple that does not grow in the north, according to Eddy, because it appears too late in the season, a time when the weather is too severe and the frost has set. GOLD RUSH is now my favorite apple. It appeared a couple of weeks ago and may be around for a couple more. It is beautiful, first of all. It looks like something that should be in a painting, a still life, and hardly American. Some apples have more green than others, however, the prevailing color is indeed gold, but with more of an orange hue than you'd imagine, skin speckled a bit with brown around the swollen upper body of the fruit, and the most exquisite ones have brilliant rose-colored blushes . The flesh is juicy, firm without being as stubborn and dense as a Granny Smith. It is almost but not quite mouth-puckeringly tart. And unlike store-bought Granny Smiths which can sometimes be disappointing and wan, Gold Rush apples are always charged with flavor. I would never cook them, they're much too good as they are, but they are wonderful sliced on their own, or accompanied by a REALLY good Stilton or peanut butter if so inclined. Edited to say: I honestly did not read as far as the post above. Well, tryska, now you have at least two sources of inspiration.

Sandy: I for one save a bundle when I shop at Safeway, admittedly taking pride in being a Coupon Queen and going almost exclusively for sales & pantry items. (Around 32% this week, or $26.) The "lifestyle" [grrr, that's the word I HATE, though it's useful in contexts such as this one] store (Whole Foods), farmer's market, and so forth are for other things. I know plenty of people, including parents of young children who divide their loyalties between stores, so you may not be alone. My neighborhood has smaller establishments close to Metro train and bus stops where people hurry on their way home. A friend up in Maine who wishes she lived in Paris keeps an African basket in the back seat of her Volvo for the daily rite of food gathering. The European tradition seems to be creeping into some of our lives. Whole Foods certainly caters to the tradition best, hoping that the habit of a daily coffee at Starbuck's will encourage its own shoppers to drop in and sit in booths, spear pineapple on a toothpick and come back on Monday for the item that wasn't in yet on Saturday morning. You're right to point out that that long-established supermarkets have to keep looking like bargains if they are to remain profitable. Safeway can't just compete with up-scale places. It USED to be THE upscale place until Whole Foods came to town. Here, the Georgetown Safeway was the place to go to run into Powerful Politicos wheeling around shopping carts and those with worn-out heels went to Giant for better prices.

Busboy, I KNEW you'd pipe up with the reference to congressmen's wives! And Megan, here's the link to the article on Michael's, which I guess is shared by Ladies Who Lunch and Women Who Power Lunch: Table d'Hot

Good point re Adams Morgan & LP, though I have seen tourists exit taxis to go to mediocre restaurants north of Dupont Circle that rely on their patronage. Ben's is directly across the street from the metro stop. It is considered a serious tourist destination by some, including readers of Gourmet & fans of the Sterns. The area does not accommodate the usual things visitors do in town, but holiday lights are up in Adams Morgan already. The U Street corridor and streets nearby are becoming a bit of a Mecca for shoppers since there are so many stores with furniture and household goods, funky jewelers, imported wares and so forth. The set who tend to gravitate to Georgetown are starting to head to the vicinity of Ben's, so their friends from out of town may follow.

Of course! The higher the heel, the more likely she is to have both a driver and a podiatrist on call. I wear flats. ← First, might I gush? I just think EVERYTHING, EVERYONE has to say is so very, very MARVELOUS!!!! Sigh. I've just finished being a DWD (Diva who Dines), only not quite a diva since I did the cooking and that meant at 6:45 throwing everything on every surface in my place into a box and hurling that into my bedroom and shutting the door, seconds before I heard a knock. I hope this isn't TOO off-topic, but I gotta mention a seminar that was cross-listed with Women's Studies. All women except one brave, good-natured male soul. All who registered were asked to bring one item that they owned for show and tell on the first day of class, something that they thought was gender-specific and explain why. Emma [not real name] was, so I thought, this sweet, quiet, very traditional, unshowy young woman. What did she bring? After kind of apologizing as she unzipped her backpack, saying that they, like, were you know, really on sale, she pulled out... ...a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes!!!!! Judging by the way she described how they made her feel when she wore them, I suspect there might be a small (Post)Modern Lady Who Lunches hidden within what proved to be a brave, smart, opiniated, hard-working, ambitious self, one that will be let out only on an occasional basis which doesn't quite count. I gotta say, the rest of this is so much better than washing dishes! Speaking of high heeled shoes (and by the way, POINTY matters, too. Poor, poor squished toes!), thank you Fabulous for a sense of what replaces the cucumber and watercress sandwiches or Chicken Kiev at The Russian Tea Room. I had thought it would be chicken Caesar salad, but I guess that's too vulgar. And Jennahan, I have to say one of the reasons you are only a part-time LWL is absolutely adorable! Your Fridays do sound amazing. Finally, I LOVE the idea of the museum ladies. We have our fair share in D.C. But because we like to compare ourselves to the OTHER national capital, the Style section of today's Washington Post did a story on power lunches at Michael's in Manhattan.

I agree! Check out the food served on the airline for the Emirites!

I poked my head in while they were prepping for dinner crowd. They said that it came to their kitchen directly from Italy. However, they also recommended the source in New York City...and the fact that Frank Ruta makes his own guanciale, a remark uttered with a respectful nod to the north.

It's interesting that "ladies who lunch" and "lunch ladies" represent such radically different demographics. What do lunching ladies eat these days?

Wonderful contribution, Megan! Postscript: You mention the BEST song...and singer, surely. However, there's also a Cole Porter song, not a favorite of mine, "Miss Otis Regrets" ["....she's unable to lunch today" is the first line] about a woman who cannot fulfill her social obligations having just shot her lover dead.

This is terrific! I am not sure if there has been a discussion of the topic before, so please add a link to an earlier thread if there is one. However, does anyone have a story about a memorable meal served on an airplane? Does anyone make or assemble special treats or meals to bring on board when the prospect of peanuts does thrill, or when the flight is very long and chocolate and a great novel, for example, seems like a good idea?

Milk.

Hmm. Macoun apples and crystallized ginger. Could work as an appetizer or dessert. ← Thanks, that's what I was thinking at first re pear. However, it also might be nice to use those apples and fresh gingerroot in a savory soup to sip out of a mug along with the meal, especially if you choose pork as the meat. Saute ginger with onions, add a little cider to chicken stock and maybe a drop of Calvados. Then afterwards a simple boiled Swiss chard salad. If you don't have a crisp duck skin, for sake of texture after all the soft food, maybe a different, equally simple, complementary salad of thinly slivered fennel. Use Meyer lemons so the sweetness of maple syrup returns in a different guise. Not yet 3:00. Too late to affect grocery shopping?

Uproar aside, one thing that's so interesting to note is the choice of animal. Fall menu? Roast pork is good too. Practical? Maybe, grabbing onto a squirmy large pig might be a bit too much for Jamie Oliver unless he had assistance, but, still... The slaughter of a lamb? It's so symbolic! So biblical! Postscript: Consult the new link I added to the revived thread entitled "Food in Poetry." It is a prose poem, "The Beef Epitaph" and is related to this topic.

Since the uproar over Jamie Oliver's televised slaughter of a lamb is a popular topic, I would like to contribute a relevant prose poem by Michael Benedikt from the Web site of The Academy of America Poets. This is also a good way to revive a favorite thread. I warn you, the font is quite small and text compressed, so if you have magnifying glass nearby...The Beef Epitaph

I'd go for the duck or non-breakfast sausages or La Brea Tar Pit chicken wings (Gourmet cookbook, though I found them on the internet). Thing is, how are you going to fit in something green?

A light fruit soup made with pears and ginger or apples. Use mugs.

Reliability and scholarly integrity of the source would be the principal concern in most academic circles of which I am aware. For example, an article in a juried or peer-reviewed scholarly journal has much greater prestige than one published in a journal whose editor is the only one who decides what to publish. That is, a panel of recognized experts are selected to read and evaluate articles that are submitted to a reputable publication. Scholars who cite sources in journals need to demonstrate they are familiar with the most recognized work related to their own interests, whether it is used to support their arguments or serves to distinguish new findings from established points of view. For similar reasons, books published by university presses are trusted more than those that are issued by commercial publishers. Hmm, this is just a longer explanation than the one that jackal10 just posted. I'd add that internet sources are scrutinized for analysis by scholars. For example, someone pursuing attitudes toward monikers and full disclosure of the identity of posters might glean this thread for data. An accepted reference would offer the full URL and the date of consultation. If the scholar were enthralled by certain posts, s/he might wish to contact administration and ask that the desire for a follow-up interview be conveyed to the anonymous poster.

I am reminded of something Karen Resta said recently about the differing world views of people who watch television frequently and those who don't, an observation she reported from a class in Communications. As someone who does watch a fair amount of television, I find the uproar ironic, too. In the United States, CSI is one of the most popular shows for reasons that I find disturbing. The show is graphic in its portrayal of gore, if primarily posthumous viscous matter that reflects the light of studio lamps in brilliant contrasts of red and white. Desperate networks wishing to compete amp up the anxiety of victims on lawyer/police dramas and move heavily into sexualized violence to add an additional layer to the sleaze factor. Thank g-d Fear Factor no longer is in production since one of its features is the consumption of disgusting items chosen to elicit gagging: living, crawling bulbous bugs, for example. (So popular was the show that it is now in syndication!) At least they don't whimper or bleat. Then there are cable shows where subscribers watch operations from beginning to end. That said, these shows do stir controversy, don't they? I wonder what distinguishes the slaughter that Jamie Oliver performed on camera from the violence that viewers are accustomed to seeing. One factor, of course, is the difference between fiction and real life, as much as so-called reality television blurs such distinctions. There is such a venerable and even distinguished tradition of represented violence going all the way back to the first recorded epics that we have grown accustomed to finding pleasure as well as ourselves in such forms of cultural expression. When you know no animals got hurt in the making of the film and no beautiful woman got snuffed, it's okay. It's just a movie. Who cares if it says something awfully distressing about who we are if we find the scored, choreographed stalking of Julia Roberts entertainment? Another factor is the intersection of the categories of "baby" and "animal." Cuteness, vulnerability, instinctive desires to protect.....buy the leather jacket and the rib-eye steak, but shun the veal, etc. All these matter. We all know Mary's little lamb has a special place in the hearts of a nation that has just outlawed fox hunting. Couldn't the guy at least have chosen an unattractive species when he decided to butcher on film? Context matters, too. People watch cookery shows for Food Porn. They want to salivate....or learn. Recently, Jamie Oliver has received particular respect for his good works, whether training youth from bleak neighborhoods to staff restaurant kitchens, or improving the quality of school dinners/lunches and making them healthful. Therefore, there are expectations that this Hot Young Daddy with a soul is not going to do the Jack the Ripper thing. What caught my eye in reading the linked story was the fact that the lamb was aware of what was happening to it. How much more accepting would viewers be if it were clobbered on the head first? As much as I would like to think myself enlightened, someone who has caught my share of fish, eaten venison in the woods on Thanksgiving Day and knows where my meat comes from, I also know I would not want to watch the episode that is causing such a stir. I am glad Charlotte spun her web and saved poor Wilbur, but how I loves me pork! We are by nature conflicted. Living with cruelty and the pain we inflict upon others is not easy and some of us handle it better than others do. I am glad Jamie Oliver used his celebrity and his television audience to make his point, nonetheless. I would also like to assume he spoke to his audience and let everyone know what he was about to do when he caught the lamb, held it so it could not escape, and raised the knife. Some who object and say children wouldn't turn off the telly and might be traumatized have other kinds of programming to object to as well. In some cases, they may be romanticizing the sensibilities of their children.

The potstickers are inspired! Today was the farmer's market. End of grocery shopping and no more arroz con mango again till Friday night. However, this is starting to remind me of a game played by Lynne Rossetto Kasper during her show on NPR. Callers itemize the contents of their refrigerators and then ask the host to limit herself to their list in creating a meal that sounds appetizing despite the lengths they go to challenge her.

This IS funny, thanks! I really had wanted some folk to be silly or try to inhabit another self for a change. You obviously did both. I especially enjoyed the postscript. And thank you, too, Bill Miller--I just read your choice of a southwestern theme, something that was on my mind as well. I was actually thinking of being Tom Keller and designing an eleven-course meal with two dishes in each, working one's way through American culinary history from the base to the sublime while responding to different regions of the United States. Got as far as an inverted California burger (ethereal poached sesame dumpling with an avocado and bacon core, coated with organic free-range beef, Kibbeh style) wrapped in lettuce and plated with a thin streak of Ancho-ketchup, a small pile of slivered deep-fried white root vegetables and a cornichon. On the side would be what appears to be a frothy chocolate milk shake in a small, tapered, ribbed glass with a base that was designed expressly for the dish. The chocolate would actually be a rich beef broth with a hint either of mushroom or maybe something like a mole sauce to respect what the drink resembles. The straw would be fashioned from a special variety of chive that assumes a very pale hue if treated like cauliflower as it grows. I abandoned the effort since everyone was being very thoughtful and serious. My own plans were also all rather too much and without a succession of truly complementary dishes, it just wouldn't be in the spirit intended.

Maybe we should start a NEW thread similar to the one where members list the titles of cookbooks they wish to give away or trade. This would be especially useful for newly-wed members who can't return all the extra waffle irons or newly merged households, anchoresses who take monastic vows... I am not sure if eGullet would allow the trade or donation of kitchen appliances and/or gadgets, though, since cookbooks are, in general, not as potentially dangerous as devices that plug into electrical outlets. Perhaps, if a waiver of liability were signed?

Another ditto. Charles hit precisely the note I would have on Moby's and it's a pleasant surprise to see the number of us who appreciate this very humble, no frills establishment. Great kabobs, specials including fish, and sandwiches. Same re the sides. Ben's is very important culturally, especially since there is so little left in a changing U Street corridor that endures from the African-American owned and run businesses of the past. The smoked sausage is the best thing there. The chili's mediocre as are the fries, but I am fond of the old booths, atmosphere and friendliness. A historic stop on one's way to Home Rules for silicon kitchen supplies or Go Mamma, Go! for the "We Who Have Money Sure Do Like the Third World" supply of seductive linens and crimson-dyed wooden salad bowls. FYI, Matchbox (never been there) just got written up again in tomorrow's magazine for the Washington Post. It received two stars.

I once made turquiose fettuccine noodles. I wrapped them in a nest and left it on the top of the fridge for about a month, collecting dust. Looked cool, but I couldn't bring myself to eat them. Come to think of it, most "fluorescent" colors weird me out, though I will eat them. I love beets, but just am not thrilled when cream gets turned fuschia. There's a hippie soup in one of the Moosewood cookbooks. I think it's called St. Cloud pea soup. It calls for a substantial amount of tumeric which turns the stuff chartreuse.