Steve R.

Funny you should say that. I have no idea who owns it and, up until last year, had never set foot inside any of their places. However, we had some of Ginny's relatives coming in from NJ last year & we were responsible for finding a place that could handle 8 people with, lets say, varying tastes in food & wine during a lull in the pandemic. We found JWF's web site on line, liked it well enough & took a chance. Turned out great. Incredibly friendly, intelligent service, food above what I expected for the price/location & a definite winner. Enough so that we had another, similar situation several months later & went back. Same result. So... you know the owners? Glad they're nice and expanding into Brooklyn.

tobacco (seriously). in some god awful flavors.

Yep. Same here in NYC. I've seen places I know on several "reality" shows & all were staged to exaggerate so as to increase the "entertainment value". Even Saint Bourdain did this. There was an episode on one of his shows where a very food board popular small Egyptian place was featured. He showed the place with several outdoor tables & smiling groups of diners loving every minute of it. Although the place, its food & its owner were dear to my heart, it never had outdoor tables and the folks sitting at them were friends of mine, asked to come and help stage the shoot.

Adding my 2cents to this, I think that, in N.O. and other southern parts, drum is sometimes referred to as croaker. At least that was what I was told years ago when we were there and I asked if it was related to catfish. Its not.

If you wind up liking the olive oil, its available in the U.S. Although you can find it on Amazon (approx. $35), "yummy bazaar" (which I've never used) has it for around $18: https://yummybazaar.com/products/nyons-cold-pressed-extra-virgin-olive-oil-a-o-c-by-nyonsolive-8-45-oz. When we rented an apt. in Vaison la Romaine several years ago, we drove up to Nyons a couple of times for their town market. Their local olives and olive oils were pretty damn good. Enjoy!

The problem with being on more than one food board is resisting the temptation to carry on duplicate discussions/arguments/agreements/disagreements. Suffice it to say that I found the piece entertaining and laugh out loud funny. Enough so that I've now subscribed to her blog and am reading her other stuff.

So, there we were in Lyon, eating at the Bocuse restaurant/training center in the Hotel Le Royal (I love how pretentious that sounds) several years ago. Our trainee server was a very nervous (but personable) woman in her 20s, who was trying to get everything just right but finding everything way too stressful. Wrong silverware, some almost dropped food. We were supportive... really. Next thing we know, our soup is being delivered by the Manager/Trainer. When we inquired as to where she was, he hesitated but then revealed that she had quit on the spot, saying that Front of House wasn't for her. Maybe I'm imagining it, but I think that this came with a look from him that could've been translated as "what the hell did you do to her"?! I prefer to think of our role as one of "career counseling". 😎 You'll be fine. Happy holidays!

Are we not noticing that this was The Onion reporting?

Yeah, Bourdain did his share of upscale but was at his best, in my opinion, at places like the ones that Williams took him to in Crown Heights, Brooklyn (Caribbean). There's an episode of Bourdain at Ali's Kebab Cafe in Astoria (Egyptian), an old Chowhound (& subsequent food boards) hangout, and one where he's at the Red Hook Ballfields (Latin American), where I first met him, that are great. The Obama one in China Vietnam aint half bad either.

Well, in addition to the requirement that you eat everyone’s “special” rice ball, the chickpea fritters and the spleen sandwiches made fresh at the street market stands in Palermo are not to be missed (yes, spleen). Also, the sardine dishes. And the marzipan pastries.

While we're at it, there are several nice small Mt. Etna wineries that are worth a visit, but you might need someone to make arrangements. We especially liked Romeo Del Castello, a mother/daughter operation on the lower slopes of Mt. Etna. As has been said, Palermo is the better food town, with several street markets selling items that can/should be eaten on the spot. Growing up in Brooklyn, NY I was familiar with the chick pea fritters, the spleen sandwiches and the various sardines, cheeses and other street food. But this was freshly done right in front of the stores selling the meats and cheese and the taste was way better.

Could it be: http://anticamarina.it/en/home/ Its in Catania's fish market, is informal and was (is?) very good when we ate there 3 years ago. At lunch, the fish market is open and its a little loud/bustling. At dinner, the market takes on a nice glow.

Its just one more line that we've crossed over, making it harder and harder to tell reality from, well, fakery. Although the couple of AI clips in this "documentary" seems to be faithful to what Bourdain said in writing, the Director admits that we don't know how many other AI's are in there and, therefore, how accurately they reflect AB's voice. And, straying from this particular piece, among the things that one can now do (with ease) to misrepresent reality are: -call from Paris and claim to be home in NYC (by cell, zoom, what's app...) -answer a door bell from afar and pretend to be home -photoshop into pictures when not present -insert into videos when not there -create AI visual "settings" (like the moon) and insert people, buildings, etc -put a "voice" somewhere that the person didn't speak -watch "reality" TV and believe its not as scripted as NCIS And we wonder why so many folks cant discern what's real anymore and follow Ms. "Jewish Space Lasers" down the rabbit hole?

Do we move this to the "APB - Missing Member" thread now or wait until you've fully digested?

I knew that... just prodding a little. If you're interested, when you're in NYC, let me know & we'll do drinks or dinner. Did you go anywhere worth mentioning in Brooklyn when you were here?

C’mon.... I mean, what could possibly go wrong? 🤢

You comin’ to Brooklyn? I’ll check. As an aside, is everyone aware that there isn’t a bean emoji? Do I have to join a “bean emoji club”?

An entire row (6 or so varieties) at my local, less-than-gourmet, Key Food.

Sorry we didnt know each other when we were kids. I could've invited you over for dinner. The various canned vegetables, "cooked" to a boil, were real treats. Especially the canned asparagus. My mother only had salt in the house: not even black pepper or garlic made the cut.

As an admittedly older cranky guy, I'm having trouble deciding whether he's too young to know enough to do this or old enough to know better and shouldn't have done it.

Seems like a good place to mention the difference between andouillette & andouille.

Great story. As for “I’m a New York Jew. This is how we are.”, did you think that she would be self aware enough to know that she only represented one tribe of my people & not all of us? Overall, her tribe is large but generally harmless & she was only following its "make first impressions a trial by fire occasion" mandate & testing your tolerance. As we say, if you get the worst over with upfront, it can only get better from there. Consider it a bonding ritual. Two things you should note: firstly, bacon is exempt from Kosher laws when traveling more than 100 miles from home to a place that makes good bacon. Sometimes we add shrimp and cheeseburgers to that exemption. Secondly, my aunt said she really liked you.

I too am sorry for your loss. I had never seen this thread & just read it, start to present. Thank for for sharing.

Dont bet on it. I heard that both Uber and Lyft were bidding for the escalators.

see, its working.... people are talking about epicurious.