Matt Zito

I think the nastiest drink that I've ever had (and continue to drink) is actually a shot. It's called a cement mixer - you're served a shot of baileys and a half-shot of lime juice. First put the baileys in your mouth and hold it. Then, take the lime juice and put it in your mouth with the baileys and swish it around. The taste itself isn't displeasing to me - like a creamsicle, kind of, but the acid in the lime juice curdles the cream in the baileys and you're left with these chunks of clotted baileys in your mouth. Hence the name. Apparently its a joke shot - something mean to do to your friends, but when someone did it to me, I discovered I rather liked it. Matt

*sigh* I will have to give up my seat at the ever-more-enticing-sounding indian outing. Work calls me out of town, and though I tried my hardest to get out, it is not to be. Hopefully someone will take my spot. I think I'm never ever going to get to go to an egullet outing......stupid work...... Matt

Thanks for letting me know... And the other veggies?? Sorry - just rechecked this thread. Eggs and dairy are great with me. Matt

D'oh - that's what I get for talking about a wine list by the glass that I've never sampled. This brings up something I've always wondered - how do restaurants with large by-the-glass lists prevent oxidation? I know there are a wide variety of gadgets, machines, etc. that either remove the air, or layer an inert gas over the wine, but I hear conflicting reports of how well they work. Is it just a matter of turning over the stock quickly enough? Or just letting the wines oxidize?

I find it surprising that no one's mentioned Artisanal yet. They've got 100+ wines by the glass. Plus I think they've got one or two cheeses on the menu.....

Oh, that's very charitable of you - thanks so much! Scholar and a gentleman.... Matt

Gak - this filled up much more quickly than I expected. Is there a waiting list? Could I possibly be added to it? FWIW, I'm also a veggie, so should someone be unable to fulfill their duties, I'll be happy to stand up next to Suvir and veg away. Matt

Alas, I've only attended one of the three weeks of the class - business travel interfered once and the second time NJ Transit had it in for me. So far, though, I agree with Nina - I like the teacher a great deal, and find her very informative. One of the nicest parts is her willingness to spend some time on tangents not directly related to the course but very instructive as to wine in general - an example that springs to mind was her discussion of the growing "wine lake" in various countries and how it relates to where grape must comes from. On a side note - the school itself will let people who are busy/flaky (like me) attend the classes they missed during the next session of the class at no charge, something I'm finding very useful.

Oooh, I finally have a use for the '98, '99, and '00 bottles of Tuscan 1% milk my roommate has left in the fridge. The '99 in particular, as I recall, made a particularly nice batch of Kraft Macaroni & cheese. It'll be interesting to see how the flavor has developed over time.

It definitely builds - the first couple of bites, I was kicking myself for not having been a showoff and eaten the Phaal. Then, as the heat failed to dissipate, I started being grateful I'd gotten the vindaloo. Then I was just grabbing for the water. And I know that water is the wrong strategy, but I don't care for lassi and 'twasn't enough bread.

"tough" is a polite way to put it - as a child, I generally used the terms "nuts" and "embarrassing". They seemed to have enough staff - but few of them seemed as competent as they ought to have been. They kept saying that the kitchen was very small as a reason for the delays in the food. If that's the case, they probably ought not to try to serve quite so many people. Brownsville, eh? I went there once when I was little.....I just remember being thoroughly unimpressed with the Rio Grande I'd heard so much about. I'm from Houston - SE corner of Texas. It's also worth noting that the BLCH meal was preceded by cheese and wine at Bar Demi, where Nesita ably assisted Jordyn and myself in picking yummy cheeses.

Actually, there's a number of bars in NYC that already have that system in place. The few places I've actively noticed it have been in the upscale pub/neighborhood-type bars (two examples that come to mind, iirc, are Kevin St. John's in midtown and Chumley's). They have electrostatic collectors to draw the smoke out of the air, plus good air movement overall.

My father spent many years owning and operating restaurants, which has given him a certain fanaticism about restaurant service levels. When I was a child, there was a ritual where whenever a new "family restaurant" opened in our corner of Texas, we would go visit it in the first week after it opened. Of course, the staff would be a disaster - dishes would get forgotten, drinks spilled, inability to discuss dishes, etc. At the conclusion of the meal, my father would ask to speak with the manager. The manager, generally a young guy in his 20's would hurry over and my father, a distinguished looking man with glasses and salt-and-pepper hair would say something like, "Son - I appreciate that you just opened. But I've got twenty years in this business and if I ran my restaurants the way you run yours, I would have been out of business long ago.". He would then proceed to critique every service failure over the course of the evening, not just at our table, but at all the tables within his field of view - never raising his voice, never getting angry, just discussing. The manager would then apologize, cards exchanged, and my father would then leave - content that he'd helped a new restaurant on their way to success. Now, that was when it was a new restaurant. Restaurants in business more than a few months were an entirely different story. Serious service failures in these restaurants were not tolerated, retribution was swift, and heaven help the manager who copped an attitude with my father. The relevance of this to Brick Lane Curry House is that as I watched customer after customer be violated (including Jordyn and myself), all I could think was, "Thank God my father isn't here". BLCH is located on 6th street, towards 1st avenue. We arrived at around 8:30 or so and the restaurant was packed. This seemed to be largely an effect of a favorable writeup in the Times the previous week, as the staff seemed overwhelmed by the number of people they were dealing with, and the phone was ringing nonstop. The woman who seemed to be the floor manager informed us that there were no tables available, that it was very likely there wouldn't be tables available anytime soon, and would we want to eat at the bar? Jordyn and I agreed, and were given menus. The menu at BLCH is best described as "deceptively short", compared to many Indian menus. There are approximately a dozen apps. and kebabs, plus 8 curries as the main dishes, each available with multiple kinds of meat or veggies. The most notable dish was the "Phaal" curry, which was described as, "more sweat and spice than flavor". The menu said that those who succesfully ate an entire portion would receive a free bottle of beer and get their name up on the "'Phaal' of Fame" (which, incidentally, was a small chalkboard that had long since filled - new winners had the dubious distinction of having their name placed on a Post-It note that was placed on the chalkboard). Jordyn dared me to try the Phaal, but I decided to adopt a defensive posture and go for the vindaloo (the second-hottest curry). Jordyn ordered the Lamb Madras. Papdum was served, which was excellent - tangy with a hint of nuts. While we were eating this, the couple sitting next to us at the bar (more than halfway through a bottle of wine when we sat down) inquired whether they would be getting their entrees soon. With an apologetic expression, the server informed them that not only were they not ready, it probably was "going to be a while" before they would get their food. The scene behind the bar was one of general disorganization - servers not saving steps, food arriving from the kitchen with no one knowing whose table it was for, plus the constant ringing of the phone. It took about an hour for the food to arrive. I'll leave Jordyn to discuss his Madras, but my vindaloo was delicious. The vegetables, a good mix of potatoes, eggplant, and peas, were nicely cooked and the sauce was a good consistency. It was certainly spicy - starting slow but gradually growing until, five bites in, I was lunging for the water. The spice, however, didn't overshadow the flavor, which was heavy on the cardamom - I'm just glad I didn't get the Phaal. The rice served with the dish was basmati rice, extremely moist, with big pieces of cinnamon stick thrown in. I also got naan with my dish, which was very tasty, but obviously rushed out of the kitchen, as it was very light in color and doughy in the center. Service was spotty - I was drinking a lot of water and had to occasionally seize someone firmly by the upper arm to get more water or rice. Overall, the food was excellent, but the restaurant is a study in what happens when an underequipped, underprepared restaurant becomes suddenly successful. Judging by the number of angry and frustrated customers I overheard over the course of the meal, they would have been better off simply politely turning customers away and running fewer covers. The consistent reason given for the delay was that, "The kitchen here is very small" - so perhaps they ought not to try to pack as many people as they do? I'll definitely try BLCH again, but in a few months, when the crowds have hopefully died down. I doubt my father would be so generous.

I'm less concerned about the restaurants - more about the bars. It seems silly to ban smoking in a place where you go to drink poison and get to meet complete strangers. And for the people who say they don't like being around smokers in bars, I dislike being around loud, agressive drunks who pick fights with me - I could always stay home. Sorry if I'm being agressive myself, but the coworkers and I just had a 30-minute argument version of this discussion, so I'm all riled up.

Yep, was just about to. 1) Amuse - Same cucumber soup. I liked it as an amuse - very clean, very simple. I think I ended up getting what was the amuse from the last meal for my first course which was... 2) Corn Soup - an interesting visual feature of this soup was that it had a set of almost identical small green disks floating in it, which were revealed to be 50% asparagus slivers and 50% suspended drops of basil oil. The soup reminded me a lot of the cucumber soup, in that it was very unadorned and simple. People often make corn soup with dairy and/or chicken stock, but this was a surprisingly hearty corn soup with neither. 3) "Tomatoes" - this was a tasting-size portion of the dish I've heard so many people talk about. It was a really great change from the simple amuse and soup to this incredibly tangy and flavorful dish. Several different kinds of tomatoes, plus the tomato sorbet, and the sauce - excellent. The wine they served with this dish was a particularly good pairing, with a nice complexity and acidity to match the tomato. 4) Vegetable Lasagna - the most interesting imagining of a lasagna I think I've ever seen. It was two squares of pasta (more coarse than traditional pasta - perhaps made from a heavier flour?), with a wide variety of vegetables just sort of sandwiched in between. The whole affair was covered in a very thin green sauce, whose components were very hard to identify - there was definitely olive oil, pepper, possibly green tomatoes. I intended to ask the ingredients, but it slipped my mind. The vegetables included broccoli, peas, baby carrots as the primary ingredients, plus a few others. The vegetables were perfectly cooked and tasted as fresh as any I've ever had, while the pasta served as a heartier counterpart. I was ambivalent about the sauce - from a flavor perspective, I didn't feel it really added anything, though it ably took the place of butter or cream. The wine pairing, incidentally, was weakest here - we had a very full Italian red with hints of chocolate that was far more than the dish had to offer. I'm more than willing to attribute that to the fact that all of us got the same wine for each course, despite the different foods. I would imagine it would go extremely well with the pork, though, so at least Jordyn benefitted. I then had the same palate cleanser and dessert as Jordyn. I liked the palate cleanser, but felt like the sauce actually detracted from the incredibly ripe peaches. I enjoyed chocolate a great deal - I agree the cake was mushy, but I feel like it contrasted nicely with the very crunchy crust. The ice creams were good, but the flavors were not as strong as the chocolate cake. I agree with Jordyn - I felt like there ought to have been one more course. Part of that was because my dishes, by and large, were not very filling - lacking the usual complement of mushrooms, potatoes, etc. usually found in NY veggie dining. It also didn't help that I went into the meal pretty hungry to begin with. I definitely want to go back to Blue Hill at some point - the room is absolutely beautiful, the service excellent, and the food extremely inventive. I just wish there'd been more of it.....

There were three of us - me, Jordyn, AND a non-egulleter. Please forgive jordyn's grammar - he's not so swift. Though I definitely appreciate the support, Nina. (edited to add appreciation for Nina)

I ate cereal when I was a kid - it was always boring stuff like Rice Krispies, Total, etc. This was because my parents firmly believed that sugary cereals were second cousin to the devil and would result in cavities, communism, and general hedonism. It was a great step forward for breakfast in my house when my parents agreed that my brother and myself could each get one box of sugary cereal a year - on our birthdays. That was when I was 10, iirc and alas, by the time I was 12, I had really begun to dislike sweet cereals. Rather than let this opportunity go to waste, I began donating my sweet cereal option yearly to my younger brother until I left for college, a massive generosity on my part that has gone unthanked for the last 10 years. Oddly, while Cap'n Crunch was a strictly regulated controlled substance for breakfast, "Cap'n Crunch Fried Chicken" was a fairly regularly dinner meal. There was no particular magic to the dish - crush up Cap'n crunch, dip the chicken breast in egg and milk, then in the crushed Cap'n Crunch. Then pan-fry the chicken. The Cap'n Crunch cereal was so porous and sweet it would absorb a huge amount of grease. Even at a very young age, I remember being keenly aware that there was no possible way this was good for me. Today, I don't eat cereal. I don't drink cow's milk anymore and I never have soy milk in the house when I need it, so cereal is out. I find granola and yogurt to be a rough analogue that is overall much more satisfying, and in one of those mysterious product migrations that happen in NY, every deli in Manhattan suddenly has pre-prepared yogurt, fruit, and granola mixtures at breakfast.

I had a friend from my hometown in the city over the weekend, and she made the suggestion that we go out to Sunday brunch. As she put it, "New Yorkers like to go out to brunch all the time, right?" So, we went to Artisanal, which has a $20.02 prix fixe brunch that I've eaten once before. The food is fantastic and at the price point, I feel its one of the better deals in the city. The menu is technically three courses - the first course being either a mimosa, fresh juices, or sheep's milk parfait with granola and fruit. Both my friend and myself had the parfait, which was excellent - the fruit was very firm and sweet, offsetting the tangy sheep's milk nicely. For a second course, I had gnocchi with mushrooms and artichokes. I'm not a huge fan of artichokes and left those alone, but the gnocchi in the mushroom sauce was very hearty and filling. My friend had the cheese blintzes which were, like the gnocchi, very simple and flavorful. For the third course, my friend ordered the waffles with pistachio butter and vanilla syrup. This is what I had the last time I had the brunch at artisanal, and while I found each individual piece to be fantastic, together it was too terribly sweet. Rather than being a contrast to the very sweet syrup, the pistachio butter was so sugary the nut flavoring was almost lost. If you like sweet breakfast foods, you will probably enjoy it, but I'm not a huge fan of sweets. I had scrambled eggs with potatoes and boudin blanc, but I requested they hold the sausage. The eggs were fabulous, a generous portion cooked to what I consider the perfect consistency: neither runny nor so firm that they hold together easily on the fork. The potatoes came in the form of a little latke-esque patty of shredded, grilled potatoes. The taste was excellent, but it had been overcooked and was dry and too crunchy. Despite being almost completely stuffed at that point, we asked for the fromagier to select a cheese plate for us (it seemed a shame to not get cheese as long as we were there). If I can get the list of cheeses from my friend, I'll edit the post and add that in. The service throughout the meal was attentive and friendly, and the room is an interesting mix of bistro and trendy new American decor. Something I wished I'd noticed at the start of the meal rather than on the way out was the wine list - it appears as though all of their 100+ (guessing) wines are available by the glass.

I had the asparagus with morels and shaved pecorino. The asparagus was enjoyable, but a little mushy and the morels rather tasteless. Adding the cheese helped the dish considerably, but there was unfortunately not enough cheese to carry the dish through. The entree was indeed orrechiette with a tomato and basil sauce. It was very competently executed - the pasta was firm and the sauce very fresh, but there was nothing enthralling about it. It felt as though it was a dish the chef would prepare if I'd requested "pasta with tomato sauce" rather than letting the chef make anything he wanted. Incidentally, the wine list we were given makes reference in the pairings section to a "Spring Vegetables with Truffled Grits" that sounded much more interesting, but wasn't offered as a possibility. The sorbet was excellent - strawberry, mango, and another fruit I couldn't place. It had an almost carbonated tingle to it that was surprising and enhanced the overall experience. When Jordyn had to leave, the server suggested that I eat his as well - I was rather tempted. Overall, I agree with what everyone said - the food was definitely enjoyable, and the environment is just beautiful. I feel like the food should have been much better, considering how much some people whose opinions I trust rave about it. I'll give it another shot, at dinner, and hopefully experience what other people loved.

I ate at March once with a friend and did the 5-course w/ wine pairings. I'm a pretty reasonably sized guy and was doing okay with 5 glasses of wine, but my 5'4" non-drinker friend was in a bit of a state by the end of the meal. I don't think there was any shouting at the waiters, but I do recall some extremely overenthusiastic raving about the food to our very friendly server when he happened to pass by and inquire about how the dessert was. I was just glad we didn't do the 7-course.

I cook a lot with tofu - even in italian style dishes. I think the key to making it fit into italian cooking is to get the extra-firm, press the water out, chop it into very small bits, and fry it in olive oil and garlic. Alternately, slice it very thin, marinate it, and bake until dry, and then do what you will with it. The big issue I always had with tofu is the texture - even the extra firm could best be described as "squishy". Tempeh is actually better for this, and some of the Morningstar Farms products are the best of all. Their "crumbles" product (ground beef substitute) is phenomenal in meat sauces - I've served it to non-veggie friends with most of them not being able to tell whether its meat or not. Wheee, soy, Matt

Industry (Food) Dining at Industry this past Wednesday was actually my second attempt at eating there. On Memorial Day, myself and another eGulleter found ourselves hungry and in the area and spent a rather fruitless time searching for it. As it turns out, there's a very good reason for that, as it's unlabeled. Having a reservation and an address, though, was a very useful thing to have the second time around and my dinner companion and I were right on time. At 9pm on a Wednesday, the large bar by the entrance was noisy and standing room only, spilling back far enough to get in the way of the maitre d'. Though I had made the reservation that morning, they had no record of it, and asked us to wait at the bar until a table opened. I had a scotch and my date had a mango martini, which was excellent - not entirely juice, and had a big chunk of mango hanging off the side. After a short wait, they took us downstairs and sat us at a two-top next to the restrooms and kitchen. The restaurant as a whole is of that class of New York establishment that teeters between being a bar/club/lounge and a proper restaurant (other examples being B. Bar, Park Avenue Country Club, etc.). With two levels, there's one good-sized bar on each floor, both packed, and many of the trappings of New York clubs. These include having no towels in the restroom, instead pushing you to tip a gentleman to hand you a towel, loud, thumping music, and the small clusters of obviously drugged individuals amusing themselves in the corners. The one real departure from this is the staff, who are universally extremely friendly and helpful. Once being seated, we enquired about a wine list and vegetarian options. The chef was more than happy to make us a vegetable plate, per usual for New York, but the wine list took a couple of requests before it appeared. The wine list at Industry is a little interesting in that they don't have any half-bottles and don't list any wines by the glass. I took this to mean that they only offered a bar-style set of by-the-glass wines, and was surprised when our server rattled off a list of around 8 different wines by the glass. The first course was a mixed greens salad for my companion and the asparagus, goat cheese, and walnuts for myself. The mixed greens was unremarkable, while the asparagus was excellent. It was cold, spiced asparagus served with goat cheese, walnuts, and what I believe was ramps. The asparagus was well prepared, crunchy with a hint of garlic or ginger , and the goat cheese tangy without being chalky. The glass of Spanish Chardonnay I had with the asparagus was rather acidic and dry, but matched the food well. For an entree, I had the chef's vegetable plate. I'd hoped my sometime-vegetarian friend would order something off the menu so I'd have more variety to report back about, but she opted for the vegetable plate as well. The plate consisted of broccoli rabe, mashed potatoes, mushrooms and garlic chopped and sauteed, and grilled cherry tomatoes. The mushroom & garlic sautee was the best single piece of the plate - the mushrooms were still firm, while the garlic didn't overwhelm. All of the other parts were competent, but a little one-dimensional. Adding the potatoes to the other vegetables helped this significantly, as it provided a heartier base to the rather insubstantial veggies (probably the chef's original intention). This, incidentally, just goes to substantiate my long-held theory that everything is better with mashed potatoes. I had a glass of Riesling with the plate that was nice, but didn't pair nearly as well with the dish as the Chardonnay had with the asparagus. For dessert, we split a bowl of chilled strawberry-rhubarb soup with coconut tapioca. This dish serves better as a palate-cleanser than as a real dessert, but was extremely tasty. The thick soup was white wine temperature, with chunks of very fresh strawberry floating in it. In the center was the mound coconut tapioca, which was an almost mousse-like consistency, interspersed with the tapioca pearls, and very light. Overall, the food was good, though nothing to write home about. The restaurant was so loud I often had a difficult time maintaining a conversation with my companion and the covers are located extremely close to each other. However, as I said earlier, the staff was friendly and accomodating, which eased the sting a bit. I'd go back, but more likely for drinks than dinner, and not when it was as crowded as that night. Matt

Reading some of the reviews, both on eGullet and other sites as well as the Blue Hill website, it sounds like one of the concepts behind Blue Hill is accessible, fresh, and simple food. Given that, why don't you offer a vegetarian entree or vegetarian tasting menus? It seems as though it would complement the restaurant nicely. Thanks, Matt Zito

Skylight Diner - over on 34th, just west of 9th avenue. Great burgers and fries and open 24 hours a day. Kashmir Pakistani - on 9th avenue between 37th and 38th. Get a massive amount of food for $6-$7. Tends toward the spicy, but the naan amd samosas are as good as any I've had anywhere in New York, Indian or Pakistani. Il Corallo Trattoria (sp?) in SoHo is more than $15, but you get a good amount of excellent Italian food for only a bit more. I also second the vote for Curry in a Hurry. Matt