H. du Bois

I made a point of walking past this place last week (I work fairly near there). I'd never noticed it before. Odd that I hadn't heard of it till recently, even odder that I'd never noticed the building before, given that I like to look at architecture and I've lived in this town for quite some time. Ah well, moot point. I know it exists now.

Hmmmm...what would you suggest as a replacement? Snack? Bite? Taste? Pre-meal degout? Mini-appetizer? Harbinger of things to come? I'm curious!!! Omen works for me (though I'm rather fond of your "harbinger of things to come"). Anything other than that which has ceased to be amusing.

What items do you feel are missing that shouldn't have left?

I'll go again. Want to taste more of what comes from their grill.

I dined here last night without either having read this thread or having heard much about it, so it was a blank slate situation for me, which perhaps isn't a bad way to approach a restaurant. I was rather incoherent in my ordering, in the sense that I usually try to choose appetizers, drinks and entrees that would match well with each other. Instead, I just randomly went with whatever struck my fancy at a given moment. Rather schizoid, but the upshot was that I ended up enjoying all my choices. I had a sour cherry caipirinha, which worked for me. An order of the fried spiced hominy was shared amongst the table. I liked it, and didn't run out of steam with it, as GAF did above. We didn't finish it, though. Perhaps it's the fresh-out-of-the-hot-oil circumstance that makes the dish work. Didn't care for the creme fraiche/shallot spread for the bread - I couldn't put my finger on the flavor combination within, but it didn't appeal to me. I don't know if their oven was still out of order, as I ordered from the grill and the rotisserie. My favorite part of the meal was my appetizer - grilled calamari with fingerling potato salad and olives. It was so nicely grilled that I wished I'd ordered a grilled entree instead of what I did. It was also a generous enough portion that I wished I'd ordered another appetizer instead of an entree. I had the Hudson valley rabbit with polenta and fava beans, as Daniel did. The rabbit was more rare than I'd have liked, but the fava beans & polenta were terrific - I liked the crisp edge of the beans contrasting with the softness of the polenta. My portion was again huge - I swear they gave me twice as much rabbit as what was pictured in Daniel's entry. No room for dessert. All in all, a very pleasant dinner. It didn't knock my socks off, but then again, I wasn't expecting it to.

Like most New Yorkers, I don't have a pantry. We have space issues, and many of us have shops within easy walking distance of our homes, so picking up stuff on the fly isn't difficult. That said, aside from the usual fruit/cereal/milk/salad/coffee stuff in my refrigerator & cupboards, I see that I could offer anyone a glass of red wine or a gin martini. I could make them pasta with marinara sauce or with garlic & olive oil. I could bake just about anything except for bread (no yeast). In fact, I could throw a fabulous tea party - I have a huge selection of teas, and I could make scones with jam and butter. Freezer is empty due to an electrical outage a week ago. Did have chicken stock and bolognese sauce in there.

Whoah. I wish you well this morning.

Brits don't say sammie, they say sarnie. Rachael Ray says sammie. After having frequented this site, I don't care if I ever see the word amuse again. I don't even care if it's correct. It's overused and tiresome.

Veselka was probably the place I most frequently ended up in at the end of the evening, back when my social life revolved around the east village art scene. (Which really dates me). It wasn't a place I'd seek out for great cooking, but it was a great place to catch a bite after a long night of it. I still associate the taste of mushroom barley soup with too much carousing.

Perhaps, given our reputation as a country of tiny waists, meager appetites and minute portions, they presumed we'd be content with one small dish.

This place looks fun.

There was a thread discussing this very topic not so long ago. Link below: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=84136&hl=

Wonderful menu! Best wishes to you for an amazing event.

Wonderful essay, Tim. You hit every note about this wonderful beverage. I had to replace my grandmother's brown betty with my own (a clueless roommate tried to reheat it on a direct flame), but I can still make a cup just as she served it to me and somehow feel as if she's still there. Resonance indeed.

It served me well (and would probably would serve me well still!), but I got tired of looking at chipped enamel, mismatched lids, and rusty tin. Aesthetics won, and I upgraded. Still, there is a point to be made in all this - appearance doesn't make a damned bit of difference. My poor-grad-student method of using a glass jar filled with ice water to roll out pastry dough was, in fact, superior to my fancy-schmancy Williams-Sonoma rolling pin. Go figure.

Now that I've had a night to wrap my brain around the idea, it doesn't seem quite so strange, though the context in which you place it sure helped. (If we brine our turkeys in juniper berries and wrap them in bacon, then why not ... ?) And you said the magic words, " a whisper of swine goodness" - I'd trust the lightness of your touch.

Aren't we? Hell, I'll take the rap. Miami Danny, I do believe he's being ironic - the British sense of irony is very well-honed and in common & constant usage (I always have to adjust to it when I'm over there. Otherwise I'd spend most of my time being appalled). I've never heard anyone call a restaurant a resto before, though. This is an Americanism? Is it a regionalism? I enjoyed the article very much, especially the bit about equipment & knives. I know some people for whom the owning of the very best of everything is an end in itself - they never actually use the stuff. BondGirl and FFB, you need interventions. Manolo Blahnik is good for you.

Oh dear. I'm a member of the try anything once club, but something about this just doesn't sound right. Alchemist, was it really wonderful?

Beautiful food, beautiful photos, beautiful countryside ... I think I'm going to up stakes and move to your side of the continent.

I have a set of Cutco knives that were a misguided gift from my family. The knives are going to go on eBay (they are horrible!!!), but the shears are going to stay. They are sharp, precise, sturdy and well weighted, and beat any pair by any other maker I've tried. Only thing is, I think they probably cost a lot of money. But I can vouch for them - they are really good.

Oh Ann, I agree with you utterly that it's heads above the other chains. In fact I'd venture to say that it's the best American grocery chain I've seen. I just think that people hearing about Wegman's from eGullet would assume (as I did), that there'll be D'Artagnan sections. splendid cheeses and fresh morels at each one. Alas, there aren't. I'd meant to ask you about the squash you'd served. Was that summer squash, and if so, how did you cut it, and how did you cook it? Summer squash is one vegetable I haven't been able to get past because it's just a bit of peel around watery mush, in my experience. What I see in your photo doesn't look like it's lost its texture at all. Homemade bagels, wow!!!

I wanted to clarify a few things about Wegman's - mention of them has been made all over these boards. They are indeed a Rochester, New York institution. I grew up there, though I moved away half a lifetime ago. Wegman's was always my preferred grocery store when I was growing up, but it only seems to be in recent years that they've gotten forward thinking about what they provide to their customers. A conclusion about them that one could draw from viewing these boards, and it would be quite wrong, is that they offer all manner of wonderful things at each and every one of their stores. They don't. I was up there last autumn, and after having read some of the blogs here and seen some of the photos, was very excited about what I was going to find in the Wegman's store nearest to my family. I fine-tooth combed the place, and boy, was I disappointed. I did find some things I'd never expected to see up there within my lifetime (Plugra and clotted cream!), but the big selection of specialty items I was expecting just wasn't there. They are market driven, and they don't stock items that won't sell in a particular community, particularly the perishables. When I asked people up there about it, everyone said, "oh, they've only got those things at the Pittsford store." The other suburbs are less economically flush, and perhaps less epicurean. Whatever the reason, the things I wanted required quite a significant drive (and a lot of gasoline). A friend of my mother's, hearing me gripe about it, did say that the meat department can get you anything, or cut anything any way you want it. It hadn't occurred to me to ask that of them (though I'm used to asking small shopkeepers that down here). Whether an individual Wegman's store manager would be willing to stock items at a customer's request, I don't know - I didn't have the chance to find that out.

When I was in grad school, I had (and all were purchased used at yard sales): 1 small and 1 medium saucepan 1 stockpot 1 cast iron fry pan 1 cutting board 1 serrated bread knife 1 spatula 2 wooden spoons 1 big mixing bowl 1 strainer 1 baking sheet I somehow managed to make anything I put my mind to with the above. Years later I upgraded my entire kitchen - but I've rarely cooked as much as I did then, and with so little.

Well, I see that I should be spending more time in the Dinner Thread than I do - I've clearly been missing out on good stuff! Ann, your meals look amazing. And you truly have an "eye" for recording them. Very, very nicely photographed. I'm really looking forward to more. (And I'm craving snails now, thank you very much).

The NYT always goes thin and slack in the summer. Wait till after Labor Day when everyone gets back from the Hamptons. FWIW, I despair of news in general.