Nina C.

Savory "french toast" sandwiches the most interesting sounding is smoked goose breast,emmental cheese, fried onions Savory waffles other sandwiches, quiches, salads, soups, crepes Breakfast menu (which I'm not sure if they're doing yet) Omeletes, waffles, eggs.

My old apartment was a fifth-floor walkup so I would tip well. One delivery guy was an older man who looked surprised the first time I tipped him and after that, always wanted to hug me after I tipped him. It was awkward, to say the least, and soon I would only send my boyfriend to the door or order from a different place. My worst delivery experience ever was from Five Spot in Brooklyn. It was my first and last time ordering from them. I had people over, we were hungry. After about an hour I called, wondering where the food was, and was told it was the next order to go out. We got to talking, I got distracted, all of a sudden I realized it had been an hour and fourty five minutes since we'd ordered. I called, and was told it was out with the delivery guy. I said "um, it's supposedly been ready for over 45 minutes. It's going to be cold when it gets here." and the guy insisted that no it wouldn't! they package the food very well. Well, when it finally arrived 2 1/2 hours after I had ordered, it was ICE cold, and two out of the four things we had ordered were wrong! I called the restaurant and was like "I'm not paying for this. It is aggregiously late, cold, and wrong. And you're not taking it out of the delivery guy's pay." we argued for a while, finally I told him I was a food writer and this shouldn't be the tactic he was taking, and he said fine and hung up. Imagine my surprise when at 1:30 in the morning, the police showed up at my door. He had called them and told them I had taken the food and not paid. But fortunately, these are the few and far between stories.

They have been doing a lot of F&F, media visits and training - they're not open until tomorrow. I was able to go last week and its definitely fun and worth checking out. While chocolate is good, emphasis is less on quality of chocolate (or snootiness of chocophiles) and more on indulging the big kid inside.

Doing a star system for cheap eats is ridiculous, particularly when you don't include how much a dinner would set you back. I'd much rather see a list with categories like: Date places/celebration places where you won't have to sell your car to go best of the cheap midtown lunch places Where to eat cheap in notoriously expensive neighborhoods - like pre-theater for Lincoln Center Places for when you're digging the change out of the sofa but you've still got a metrocard. A list like this would have room for Lupa and for some dive in outer brooklyn that you can eat well for $2. But this list felt completely useless to me - interesting to look through and criticize, but never something I'd go to.

I ate at Sfoglia last night before the Ruth Reichl panel discussion at the 92nd St. Y (conveniently across the street). It was a lovely evening. Not quite a destination restaurant (which, since I live in Bklyn, would be a trek) but better than a good neighborhood spot. Bread wiht a beautifully flaky crust and some spicy meaty olives were set on the table - a communal big farmhouse table. I started with a watermelon, heirloom tomato, feta, and pesto salad which was fresh and straightforward. One friend had the walnut, pecorino, and garlic salad, which also had sauteed green beans in it. The pecorino wasn't quite as aged as I would have liked but it a good combination that I'll have to experiment with at home. The other friend I went with got the caponata which came with crunchy polenta crackers. The other people at our communal table got the formaggi with house made jam and it looked so good - a big pile of extremely thin shaved cheese was what I particularly noticed, but there were several other selections as well. I think I'll have to order that next time I go. Our mains were a) spaghetti, crema di melanzane, ricotta salata, peperoncini The pasta was cooked beautiful, and definitely delicious to eat. I finished every biteful in spite of myself. My only complaint was that given the menu description I was expecting some more of the smoky flavor of eggplant, and the bite of peperoncini to come through - instead there was smooth creamy comfort food. Still good, just not what I was expecting. b)pasta, san marzano, garlic, basil. A simple dish, well executed. c)spinach gnudi, e.v., chopped zucchini blossoms This was the standout dish of the evening. creamy little dumplings that had lots of garlic in them. By the time I tried my friend's dish she had eaten all the zucchini blossoms so I'm not sure what they added. The restaurant also offers half-portions of the pasta, which is great because it leaves room for dessert. We shared a sour cherry and peach pie which was a huge portion and included two scoops of amazing honey ice cream. I liked the pie, but I loved the ice cream. FYI- they're a BYOB which is great, but have an $8 corkage fee. And no, it's not a vegetarian restaurant! One of my friends is vegetarian, I don't eat much meat, and the other friend eats meat all the time, but must not have been in the mood last night. http://www.sfogliarestaurant.com/nyc/index.html

Small Brooklyn kitchen means nowhere to store jars of cherries plus I have people coming tomorrow night and I'll need to make a dessert anyway.

I picked up the last quart of sour cherries at a farmer's market this morning, intending to make a pie. I was hoping it would be close enough to the right amount. Alas, I see I should have about 1 1/2 to 2 quarts for a 9" pie pan. I was thinking I could try to make a cherry cobbler or a cherry clafloutis, but I'd love to really highlight that great sour flavor. I also thought I could mix them with some other fruit but wasn't sure which one. Apples seem like there would be textural problems. Perhaps strawberries? What would you do in my shoes?

So far, I haven't found the premium membership to be as valuable as I thought it would be. It does have how-to-pitch articles, but for someone just starting out, many of these aren't that relevant, or aren't on subjects I'm qualified to write about. In any case, that's not what you are interested in. I got it because I was taking a class, and the discount for members paid for most of the membership cost. The class was enormously useful. If I were in your shoes, I'd save my money. You might also try applying for jobs as an assistant production editor, or an assistant to a production editor at a book publisher that publishes lots of cookbooks. (although I'm not sure where you are located, and most of these are in New York). Most people want to go into developmental editing (working with the authors) rather than production (working with copyeditors, copyediting, working with printers) so these kinds of jobs are easier to get.

I come from a make-sure-there-are-excesses-of-everything family. When I am cooking just for myself and my sweetheart, I consider it an accomplishment to make just the right amount. But when company comes over, all bets are off. I want guests to feel indulged, and able to indulge. If it's all gone at the end, I worry that someone is leaving hungry, or unsatsified. What if someone took considerably less than they really wanted because they could see there wasn't going to be enough? A royal tragedy, I tell you. And even when I make way too much of something, an email out to the friends with an invitation for noshing and tv seems to do the trick quite well.

There wouldn't be a varmint in that there grass, would there be?

So Lorna, this was your first time tasting red velvet cake - what did you think? (don't worry - those of us with it in the blood won't be offended if you didn't like it. We'll just assume that a Canadian didn't make it properly! Just kidding - I can only aspire to bake as well as you, I'm sure.)

tonight's confirmed my stance on this matter a chocolate layer cake which others raved about was a teensy too dry and too similar in texture/flavor. Whereas a slice of strawberry rhubarb cobbler (since it had both top and bottom crust which met on one end, I am firmly placing this in the pie camp) was delicious - that contrast in textures, the different elements which balanced sweet/savory/tart and dry/flaky/moist, the way that a cooked piece of fruit feels in your mouth - soft and supple and round and waiting to be burst open. Pie it is (although I still make exceptions for the very very best cake - a once in every five years kind of thing)

What a wonderful post! I started off thinking, okay not what I would choose to eat, but not the worst certainly. And yet, with each sentence you managed to build on the one before, taking us into undiscovered layers of Dante's- no, I mean Daniel's - Hell. The uncooked egg and karo blood comparison is priceless. But perhaps the best part is the image of your family all simultaneously making Elvis face. Hilarious!

Oops! almost forgot dessert. We ordered and split three: chocolate cake, rhubarb & strawberry cobbler, and banana cream pie. The standout was the cobbler - the crust was excellent, and the fruit just how I wanted it - a little sweet, a little tart. I have very high standards for cake, and IMHO this was a teensy bit on the dry side. Others in my party loved it. Banana cream pie was what banana cream pie usually is - a lot of cream, a lot of air, not much to write home about.

It's actually not uncommon for couples with a large wedding to get a smallish decorated wedding cake and a secondary sheet cake that stays in the back until plating. Helps with service, cost, etc. as you say. But generally flavors and components stay the same. Pity the poor person who has to lay fondant on a helpless sheet cake that will never be seen in its entirety!

Again, since this thread hasn't been updated in a while, thought I'd add my thoughts. I had dinner at Blue Smoke tonight with a group of friends who hadn't see each other in a while. One of our group had worked in USHG, and suggested the place. As a whole the experience was very mixed. Service was not good - long waits, entrees didn't arrive all at the same time, and she had to be reminded of drink orders. We split barbequed mussels which were good, and the potato chips and blue-cheese bacon dip. The potato chips were thin, crispy and made me keep going back for seconds; the dip was good but could have been more flavorful. I skipped it after the first couple of chips. I thought it was strange that you had to order and pay for them separately - what would you have eaten the dip with otherwise? And I was sad that there was no bread to soak up the mussel broth with. I had heard mixed reviews of their meat, and since I try not to eat meat too often, I decided to skip it and rely on bites of others. Instead I opted for the special - seared scallops with blue corn grits and apple-herb salad. While perhaps a strange choice to order in a barbeque restaurant, I was so glad I had. Although the grits and salad were pretty forgettable, the scallops were outstanding. Full of flavor, fresh, tender with a crisp crust - in short, everything you could hope for. Much better than the ones I had the other night at Al Di La. (Interesting to note that downstairs at Jazz Standard, this dish is also served with caramelized vidalia onions. That could be just what is needed to wake up the grits and salad. Or perhaps just a heavier hand with the seasonings.) Pulled Pork was a huge serving and flavorless, but the accompanying beans were pretty good and thankfully not mushy. Ribs were pronounced "safe" and similarly pulled no punches. For sides we shared the hush puppies with jalapeno marmelade and the fry bread with chipotle butter. The hush puppies were light, spiced well, and just the right temperature. I like Fry Bread a little less puffy and less zeppole-like but since it seems like there are a million variations and preferences for Fry Bread, I won't criticize them too heavily for this. But the accompaning sauces were misnamed at the least - I know that I have a strong palate for spicy food, but these had absolutely zero heat. I think it is the Texas heritage in me that wants big flavor from barbeque. This flavor was weak, limpid, afraid to stand strong. Where are the punches? With a few exceptions, this was tourist fare and definitely not worth a recommendation.

Off topic slightly - but I was alarmed the other night when I poked my head in a restaurant to find a sign advertising their "Mojito Mondays". That was 1/2 off of mojitos in either Strawberry, pineapple or banana flavor. Needless to say we didn't eat there. I consider it a clear sign that the mojito craze is crashing.

One of the topics that I write about is weddings, and so I read a fair amount of wedding magazines. 99% of cakes that are shown in wedding magazines are fondant cakes. Why? because they look pretty, photograph well, and can use interesting techniques. So brides have come to equate (or perhaps have always equated) fondant with wedding cake. It's that very finished and polished look that is so hard to duplicate otherwise. There will not be fondant on my wedding cake.

My southern family agrees that Cake Man's red velvet isn't chocolatey enough, but it is a hit here in Brooklyn. I suspect that Cake Man's personality and good deeds for the community have at least as much to do with his success as his recipe does. My stepfather has a great red velvet cake recipe but keeps "forgetting" to give it to me

I doubt you'd find too many of the Philadelphians making a claim for a cheesesteak as the ultimate sandwich. Roast pork? Sure. Hoagies? You bet. But putting the cheesesteak in its place is something of a point of pride... ← Point taken! I am merely a rube from Brooklyn who salivates during the car ride down to Philly over potential cheesy oozy peppery onion goodness, and they'd probably mock me for the way I order even that. But prove me wrong Philadelphians!

Thanks for the food porn Jason! I keep scrolling up to drool again, and wonder what kind of sandwich I am going to make for breakfast. I keep waiting for the Philladelphia crew to step in and show us some cheesesteak porn!

This salad from Gourmet is a sure-fire winner. The salad I make most often is lettuce or mixed greens (never iceberg) with roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, tomatoes, a balsamic vinaigrette and sometimes feta or other protein thrown on top.

I suspect that my budget for "regular" places is slightly different than many of yours, but nonetheless, I'll bite. Dumont in Williamsburg - This used to be our regular neighborhood place, before we moved. And yet, I still keep going back to it. The atmosphere is cozy while still seeming fresh, the food excellent, and the price decent. I usually bypass the much-lauded burgers and mac n' cheese for the nightly pasta specials which are buttery, brothy, and richly satisfying. Crif Dogs - grilled dogs, amazing toppings, Ms. Pacman while you wait. Grand Sichuan - ditto to what was said above. Simply no comparison. Dumpling House on Eldridge - ditto again I'm a big fan of the 'ino, 'inoteca spots - great for meeting a friend. You can be assured there'll be something tasty and affordable on the menu without seeming like you've chosen a "cheap" spot. And they have good wines by the glass, although I'm hardly a wine connoisseur. Ici in Brooklyn is relatively convenient to me but I think I'd go there anyway for brunch, and the grits with poached eggs and truffled sauce.

When I was about seven, my family and I moved to Mexico so that my mother could work on her dissertation. My first summer there, I was playing with new friends and they pulled a strange red thing off the tree in their backyard. I know now it was a pomegranate, but then I only knew the small red seeds as the most delicious thing I'd ever had in my mouth. My mother, who vigorously boiled all vegetables so as to avoid Montezuma's Curse, was horrified that I'd so casually eaten something off of a tree. I did end up with the dreaded illness that summer, but I suspect it was probably from all of the other things I'd tried without telling her - such as pan dulce, tamales, hard candies, and more. To this day I am disappointed by pomegranates in this country. None of them can measure up to the memory of that first taste.

Melissa - thanks for continuing to update us on your plans. Immediate thoughts at this hour include -cold soups like gaspacho or chilled carrot soups seem like they would freeze pretty well. - soups that use the bounty of summer vegetables like soupe al pistou - marinated and grilled meats to make fajitas, toss on top of big salads or put into sandwiches - pre-assembled (seasoned, stuffed with cheese, etc.) but not cooked hamburgers - stock for use in other recipes