Steve Drucker

Lunch crowd at United House Of Prayer was comprised of trades people, business people and so forth. About as challenging inside and outside as lunch at the mall. Queenies crowd was typical gentrifying intown types. Gays, students and babbits like us. Mom and Nikki's is a narrow storefront adjacent to a c-store with iron bars in the hood. Ok, could be challenging. On the other hand, a pure heart, clear gaze and driving mission takes on all comers. I'm exagerating from both ends. Nice people. My only regret is that I didn't have time to get by for lunch, only b'fast. Upon reflection, how many compositions of shrimp and cheese grits and fish with nuts and meat with sickeningly sweet sauces decorated with re-purposed plastic ketchup bottles can one face? Now these, these are what I find challenging. Many thanks for the stellar referrals.

Just got back from a short trip to the Coastal Empire. Based on posts from MAF and Andrew Fenton, we ate superbly, focused this trip on indegenous cuisine--in contrast to prior trips extending back fifteen years when we hit the old Teeples, Elizabeth on 37th back when it was epynomonous and likewise, Mrs. Wilkes and Lady and Sons. 1. Best food of the trip: lunch at United House Of Prayer aka Madison Cafeterie. Perfect buttermilk marinated fried chicken, collards comme il faut, and red rice to absolutely die for. Forgettable coconut cake. 2. Breakfast at Mom and Nikki's. Extraordinary biscuits, good scrambled eggs, choice of hard or soft bacon (both good) and smoked beef sausage. Those biscuits--buttery, reason in and of themselves to get by here. 3. Queenies Soul Food To GoGo. Not the best food of the trip--but damn good. And a totally magical place, the place I want to take others to. Very well prepared not overcooked and very fresh blackened grouper, exc !! fresh local crab mayonnaise bound crab cakes, good collards and okra and tomatoes, red rice a shadow of United House Of Prayer. vg lemon cake. 4. BBQ ribs from a couple of serious smokers, out front of the Emerald City (garage/detail shop) on Bull, southeast corner off of Victory Drive. They are out there at least Fri/Sat afternoons I know. Good mustard based sauce. No side dishes. Just ribs, 'steak' and white bread. 5. Johnny Harris. Not a lot good to say, it wasn't our choice. Terrific main dining room with the domed ceiling and 360 degree mural. ok house baked rolls. Sorry service and food. Worth going once to see the room. 6. Breakfast Club. Nice place, good pecan waffle, dense, not eggy and light. This was pretty much a grab and go to feed my wife's pancake jones prior to the wedding, following b'fast for me at Mom and Nikki's. Thank you Thank you Thank you MAF and Andrew Fenton!

Oy! Debie and I ate like just released inmates last week. Just getting back now to time zone equiibrium after our Sat afternoon return. Preliminary to the monumental followup post, we had a great time Thu night meeting everyone. In summary: Kundos to Lee/Canucklehead for an extra fine job of organizing, selecting dishes and sizing up the order. His wisdom for a large table: one less dish than the number of people to be fed proved sage. Best dish. Put me down too for the crab with kabocha squash and black bean. I am immensely and eternally grateful that no one got a picture of me Tom Jones style immersed in it up to my forearms. Biggest surprise: the boned goose feet. I'm not a chicken feet fan, but these were fantastic, I think it was the combined flavor of the gelatinous rendered goose fat and sesame oil. Who needs french fries when you can have pure pieds? Biggest non-surprise. For the second day in a row (previously at Shanghai Wind), perfectly cooked snow pea leaves, barely barely al dente upon arrival at the table. For some reason, here in Atlanta, they are always overcooked. After a minute or two at the table what remains is a plate of mostly liquid with gelatinous vegetable mass atop. Sea Harbor is a very refined style of food, and different from what I normally think of as 'Hong Kong seafood'--e.g. squid or head on shrimp fried salt and pepper, steamed fish (flounder) ginger scallion, fried pompano. This was light, with clean flavors. Even the closing fried rice with dried scallops was light in its way, read non-greasy. Coda: Drove down to Seattle Fri morning to meet friends for lunch and rest up (if you can call a 4:30 AM wake up call resting) for our Sat 7:30 AM flight home. We managed to get to: --Salumi: meatballs nice but only adequate, sausage A, cured meats A+. Lamb proscuitto beyond words. They packed us a nice lunch for the flight home. --Tamarind Tree, Vietnamese buried in the back of a strip center NW corner of Jackson and 12th strongly suggested by Mr. Nelso on CH board, a very good Vietnamese supper indeed. Comparing and contrasting, however, we probably enjoyed Pnomh Penh even more. --Pike Place. East Vancouver Sat morning farmers market is better, albeit an unfair comparison. Blow by blow of the week via the EG roadmap to follow.

We got out to Shanghai Wind yesterday for lunch. A moderate lunch. Just dumplings and salad. Soup dumplings, steamed vegetable dumplings, fried dumplings, onion cake and snow pea leaves/garlic (aka by the waitress 'Bean Leaves'). Waitress stopped me from ordering more. She was right, but she destroyed my plan to order more of the core ouevre: Lions Head, Pork Belly with greens, Tienstin Dumplings, silky tofu, rabbit, fish etc. Sigh. Deserving of the ultimate accolade: good clean food, home cooking at its finest. Shanghai Wind and Pnomh Penh (sp?) have been off the charts this week. Speaking of Pnomh Penh, evocative of Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas for wonderfulness. Two visits. Second visit, if anything, better than the first. Seaweed soup, with the rich broth, squid balls and fish balls. Top notch oyster pancake. Had to have the spicy garlic squid again--waitress arranged a half order. What brought LOS to mind was the Lap Kapip--'spicy pork', from the specials page. Very similar to an Issan (northern Thai) Larb. Served hot in a bowl in a chile laden sauce which was moderately spicy but I suspect toned down from what it might be, but unlike an Issan larb moderated with a touch of coconut milk, with raw vegetables cucumber and cabbage.

I believe, but this requires verification as my memory is suffering from EG Vancouver forum induced good food overload, that we saw this Sat afternoon at Les Amis du Fromage, bloomin' (grin) rock solid frozen.

I believe, but this requires verification as my memory is suffering from EG Vancouver forum induced good food overload, that we saw this Sat afternoon at Les Amis du Fromage, bloomin' (grin) rock solid frozen.

What is the best that can be legally sold? Where is it sold? A food service pro perspective: smoked salmon comes out of the freezer pretty well. That said, everything that goes into the freezer undergoes cell wall decomposition as water expands during freezing. If cold smoked salmon is improved by the process, I remain in show me mode. rephrase: Lend me direction, I'm a field dog attuned to the point! Else I'll stick with the Half Moon Bay sockeye at Costco. Sigh.

Rainy Sunday morning shuffling through the opening hour crowd in the Granville Island Public Market building embarked upon a quest: BC cold Smoked Salmon. Never frozen. The McCoy. The impetus: genetic. Three generations of immigrant Middle European forebears reverant of smoked meat and smoked fish. Have in prior years paid multiple pilgrammages to Schwartz's on St Laurent for smoked meat not lean. My wife still wears her Schwartz's t-shirt to bed half the nights of the week. She wore it last night here at the hotel. I have read perhaps the best Montreal novel mis en scene ever written multiple times (the first three chapters of 'The Main' by Trevanian). The Oyama sojourn, (Jambon Bayonne, assorted salumi), in response to my query the counter person suggests BC Salmon across the aisle. An inspection of BC Salmon's smoked salmon selection yields the same packages as at Longliner and every other booth vending smoked salmon in the Public Market. All the same, all previously frozen, all the same price. Something's fishy. A conspiracy against the true believer? Insult to injury, last week at Costco in Atlanta I picked up some very nice Alaskan cold smoked sockeye at $8.99 USD for a half pound (227 grams) Half Moon Bay brand. The Public Market price was uniformly $14 CAD--ergo not a good value. I chuckle and figure the valuation--my restaurant food cost consciousness suffers not an iota of attrition despite the fact I'm twenty years out of the loop. By 11:00 or so, we're done with inspecting every booth in the Public Market building and its raining like hell. My wife embarks upon obligatory tschotchke (eg. tourist clutter) shopping. Its pretty much the same stuff as she can buy at Faneuil Hall in Boston or even Underground in Atlanta. She quickly loses interest. Peeking out the door of tschotchke central, she spies Lobsterman around the corner. Its raining harder than ever, we've brought an umbrella, but it is back in the car two blocks away. We tighten our collars, dash across the alley and into Lobsterman. Inside, we shake off like water dogs. Our eyes adjust to the light. We walk ten paces forward. Spread before us, the front counter runs the width of the building. It is FILLED with cold smoked salmon and black cod. The proprietor seems to be a European woman well beyond a certain age. She replies to our questions with terse patience. She is uncowed. Are there any nitrates in the salmon? No. What are the ingredients? Fish, salt, sugar, smoke. How much sugar? Very little. Where is it made? On premises--the only place on Granville Island that smokes its own--here she waxes (well, for her, anyway) eloquent. The prices are a dollar or two or several less than the fixed prices in the Public Market building. My blood quickens. She doesn't offer a taste--she's hip to that game, and offers nothing. Rather she points to a bag of pre-sliced ends and pieces and observes that the bags are half the price of the pre-sliced 1/4, 1/2 and one pound slabs. Same product. Best price of entry. She seduces me, sure she's found my button. She has. I accept a bag with a plan fully formed, lay down my $3 CAD. Faster than she can park my money in the register (and for this shopkeeper, that is very fast indeed), my fingers are knuckle deep in fish. 'Ok' I say, 'I own it now, now I'm going to taste it'. She allows the barest smile. Silky, salty, dense. I lick my fingers. I mentally plot my return the day prior to our departure and query her about possible difficulties in bringing her pre-sliced cold smoked sockeye across through US customs, back to Atlanta. None, she says. None whatsoever. Patiently terse again, the deal done. Another customer comes in through the rain. My time is over. Lobsterman is a do not miss. You get it, or you don't. Thank you EG. ................................ Granvile Island Market Miscellany. To host the smoked salmon, an artisanal caraway rye from Bagette et L'Echalote. The other choice was Terra, which had a very long line. Not all the breads at Baguette looked good, but the rye seems to be the real deal. Bought those Rainforest Crisps at Dussa's. Not to our taste. Too much sugar for crackers. 6.95 down the drain. Rather than 86 them entirely, gave them to another Oyama customer, somewhat taken aback at our largess. We explained that a friend had recommended them. She was from Chicago. Hope she enjoyed them.

Atlanta is not the place for BBQ. Period. Don't know why, merely reporting. Best BBQ in 25 years we've had has been from a hut on the GA FL border in the shanty town section of Jasper FL--A&B. Open weekends and only sporadically. One of those end of the rainbow places. Jasper is known primarily as the home of a state prison, not as notorious as Raiford, but just as grim. But we really like hard cider and fresh unpasteurized cider. Will keep a lookout. ..................... Also, will keep an eye out for La Frenz Montage. Wish there was time to sojourn at Lake Okanagan, it looks terrific.

Native NY-er, Atlanta expat, life-long NYT subscriber, semi-frequent NYC visitor and very frequent business traveler chiming in. Pay CLOSE attention to what Eric Asimov writes, and Sam Sifton. Mr. Sifton's NYC pizza and pastrami rundowns are spot-on paragons of their type that I can vouch for personally. Roy Apple writes beautifully composed food-centric travelogues. Disregard ALL the rest of NYT content re chow, in both Travel and Dining, and just enjoy them for their inherent quality of rhetoric . Its far wiser I've found, to seek out cyber world chow friends' wisdom. Not foolproof, but nothing is.

Indeed. VG style breakout at this link "BC Wine Guys Style Guide" http://bcwineguys.com/style.html

Terrific. I know I put up a long reply overloaded with 411 and qualification, but its the dialog I launch in whole or in part depending on receptiveness with sommeliers and the degree to which my wife's eyes glaze over as she patiently hears the same wine routine umpteen times again. After all, its the sommeliers' job to match their list full of bottles I've never tasted with my own tastes and what I'm eating that night and my preferred price range within their list. Its successful about nine out of ten times, failing only when the sommelier doesn't genuinely listen. From time to time a sommelier will suggest alternate price points to meet my preference, and most often I am never disappointed following their lead. Having in a prior life run my own small wine list (75 or so bottles), I'm now merely a civilian who doesn't get to taste everything the salesmen and winery missionaries bring in the door like a sommelier does. I'm the one eyed man in the land of the blind, and very much aware of my shortfall. So speaking from the fount of that experience, you, Mlle. Zuke, appear to have A-1 sommelier potential! Many thanks. .............................. And I've taken note that price points will differ from place to place :-)

Ok. General: Wines as a rule (ok, there are exceptions), but wines to go with food anyway that are greater than 13 % alcohol and hence balanced with sugar are no-no's--they just give me a headache if I drink more than a glass. This precludes almost all current CA reds and whites, and also precludes just about all Aussie wines and NZ wines.I've had some interesting OR Pinot Noirs, but at the price point to get something good, there are many other better values from Europe, albeit they wouldn't be Pinot Noirs. White. Prefer a paucity of oak, vanilla, pineapple. Prefer whites NOT aged in oak. For glugging, decent Spanish Rioja such as Marques de Caceres or Marques de Riscal Rueda or say Don Tommaso Pinot Grigio, or at next price level a Loire Valley Sauvignon Blanc (Pouilly Fume), or stepping up the price scale drastically Chateau Carbonnieux white Bordeaux; or fermented in steel appellation controlle Chablis. Have not enjoyed recent vintage CA chardonnays, CA varietals such as Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc--although the ones that meet the 'General' guideline above can ok or better. I have had (and I think this is one of the exceptions) recently a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc from Veramonte (and with a screw top no less) that is pretty good. Its got practically no wood and its 13 % alcohol. Red. Detest CA Merlot. Period. Hate it. Its like flabby skin, all body, no taste or dimension beyond depth. Lately have been enjoying some Spanish reds--Tempranillos from Roija (Solarz--a very old brandy house) but not the thinner lighter bodied ones from Catalunya, reds from old growth Grenache vines, Faustino V and Faustino VII, old reliable Marques de Riscal regular and reserve; some Italians from Sicily (Torresino springs to mind, Salice Salentino as reliable houses); many good values in reds from Langeduoc although transportation costs drive their prices up. What these reds all have in common is a moderate amount of chew and spice and that they open up within at most 20 minutes and are generally less than $10 USD here in Atlanta. Rose. There's some amazing things going on with Rose. We have had (ok, these are 10-20 USD) some great FULL bodied NOT sweet rose's from France and Italy this year. One that springs to mind is Domaine de la Petit Cassagne. In a blind tasting, these have so much body that you might think many of them are reds, not rose. About these prices. These are Atlanta prices. Alcohol taxes are on the high side here in Georgia, legacy of the Baptist sin tax now memorialized in the state budget process.

Wow. reservations? this is very enabling--my wife LOVES plans, so long as they don't interfere with vacation siestas or the 'temple of beauty' which precedes stepping out. I wonder if I should book straight through for the week :-) ?.

I just googled around, and I think that you are right. I ASSumed that 'moving his Paris starred bistro' meant the original La Regalade in Paris. Doh.