Katie Meadow

So sorry you had a bad experience there. And after what you say I'm just glad we stopped at drinks and bar food. Although it's hard to imagine even wanting dinner after eating a slab of that cheese toast. I'm in North Carolina now--in the Great Smokies. Where a tuna melt isn't made with bonito flakes. Actually I don't think they even have tuna melts in NC. What they do have is unlimited quantities of bacon and fresh farm eggs. And lots of grits. Everyone had a garden and almost everyone has some chickens.

They were served room temp with a minty dressing with folds of prosciutto on top. And there were lots of peas! Otto must have a porch with old rockers on the back side of 5th ave where the staff sits around shelling peas and gossiping.

Highlights of the week so far. We made a couple of meals at the apt after trips to Citarella, which I just can't resist. One night we had steamers--super nostalgic food for me, and one night we cooked Skate wings. Skate is cheap and delicious, and this was my first time cooking it. I probably could use a lesson in skate prep, like how to get that cartiledge out, but we just sauteed it very briefly in butter, than made a little brown butter caper lemon sauce to pour over. Sorry to miss Shad season by a few days, but thrilled to arrive just in time for early soft shell crabs. Had them at Great NY Noodletown, best ever. I think it's my favorite food on earth. Drinks and bar food one night at Ma Peche. It's right down the block from my mom's apt and I've never been. After looking at the menu and reading some reviews I decided I could live without a having a formal dinner there. Drinks are good, snacks are great. Had the ubiquitous pork buns, some kind of wildly yummy crispy shrimp balls and the best of all was what they simply refer to as "cheese toast," which for my money is like the more glorified tuna melt ever: buttery crispy edged thick toast, melted cheese and then a flurry of shaved bonito. We ordered a second one immediately. Did a comparison of papaya juice. Papaya King wins. Going back for juice and a hot dog tomorrow. It will be my first hot dog in years! Also at Papaya King my husband found a metro card with unlimited rides, so that must be a sign that the gods favor PK over Gray's, or that someone was so blissed out on their juice they forgot their card. Brunch in chelsea w/my oldest friend from 4th grade at Tipsy Parson. They have a very good fruit bowl with ginger and mint, and a nice selection of breakfast food. Then across the street to La Bergamote for some takeaway pastry. Pistachio creme brulee is amazing! And so was the layered torte--senior moment can't remember what it was called. Dollar oysters and fabulous hot gooey spinach artichoke dip at Mermaid Inn in the neighborhood where I grew up. It wasn't there then, too bad. Lunch at Otto. Nice pizzas but what knocked me out was the fresh English peas served with prosciutto. So so good. Also delicious wine, but didn't write down what it was. Dinner last night at Rouge et Blanc with an old friend. Never been before. The atmosphere is totally sweet, it's relatively quiet and they don't rush you. You can talk! It's adorable! Best dish was a total knockout--we were in heaven: cured arctic char sort of like gravlax, only not salmon) with house-made pickles and a creamy spicy bed of....who knows what, but it was basically a very refined French-Viet version of tartar sauce. Best of all the plates. Also good was crispy broccoli and kale, and I'm a confirmed broccoli hater, but it was great. Three of us shared two desserts, both trance inducing: the gateau chocolate w/marshmallow fluff and chocolate sauce, and the biscuit with macerated fruit with berry sorbet w/ crushed nuts under it. Two days left, but not sure how much eating out we will do.

I haven't been to NY Noodletown in several years, but I'm in NY this week and went for a 3pm lunch. That must be the quietest time of day, since that's when lots of kitchen staff were eating. Spectacular early season salt baked soft shell crabs! Big BIG juicy, perfect. The staff were all eating piles of garlicky pea shoots, so that's what we ordered. Love them. Roast duck also very good. Two big crabs for $18. I'm not used to quite so much salt, but then we're talking about eating Chinese food. Walk carefully, I think they wash the floors with duck fat.

I'm not a fan of non-fat yogurt, nor do I buy yogurt with fruit or flavor in it. My only exception to that is a local east bay yogurt called Saint Benoit. They make a full fat lemon yogurt that is pretty nice. Their product comes in a recyclable ceramic jar, is sold at some farmers' markets and several local groceries as well. I have no idea how widely this is available. For old-fashioned Euro-style yogurt I still think Pavel's full fat is great, and the 2% is okay. I do very much like the Bellwether sheeps milk yogurt but don't buy it very often. That actually tastes a bit like the yogurt I had in Crete many years ago, which I am almost sure was sheep's milk. My favorite Greek-style yogurt is still Fage, and I prefer the 2%; it seems richer that any other 2% yogurt. It's easy to come by and it's versatile. The Chobani selection everywhere seems limited to non-fat, and mostly flavored. I did find some non-fat plain and tried that, but didn't think it was anything special. My TJ's sells the Fage, so I buy it there. I suppose it would be worth trying the TJ Greek. Next time.

Shel, I rarely eat out, and when I do eat out I don't go for steak. I've been disappointed enough times so that I'm pretty reluctant to order a high priced steak at a restaurant. Truly, when I do get a craving for juicy rare steak I do best by just buying a good quality rib-eye, giving it a nice cowboy rub, and grilling it in the back yard. I generally don't like the atmosphere or vibe of "steak houses" and have found that the better steaks I've eaten out have been at bistro type places. A Cote on College has a pretty good hanger steak, although it has been at least two years since I was there, so no guarantee. There must be some bistro type places in SF where you can get a good steak frites, but it may not be so easy to find. The last time I had a steak at a restaurant in SF it was very pricey and it was so oversalted I couldn't eat most of it. Several years ago I did have a great steak at Jardiniere, but I really don't have a clue what the food is like now, and it likely is break-the-bank expensive. To me, steak is one of those foods where the labor is so minimal that I would rather pay top dollar for the best meat than pay for someone else to throw it on a grill. Check out the Local Butcher Shop in north Berkeley. They might have suggestions, and if not, they certainly can sell you a quality hunk of meat.

Actually I had very good soft shell crabs last spring at Xi'an Famous foods in Chinatown, and that was rock bottom price.

Don't know where you live, but if you don't live on the east coast one of best treats in late spring/early summer is fresh soft shell crabs. They are often on the "specials" menus at a wide variety of restaurants--Italian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. I think it's my favorite seasonal food on earth. Well, not including vegetables and fruits.

Yup. We came home from a seder with a LOT of hardboiled eggs that no one wanted, for some reason. Lately I have been making my egg salad like this: chopped egg, minced celery, tiny amount of minced red onion, generous amount of fresh dill and then a light dressing of approx 2:1 mayo to creme fraiche. Then salt, pepper, dash of paprika. I've also make egg salad by mixing a bit of romesco sauce into the mayo.

So I used plain matzoh and toasted it. It does crisp up. I learned two things: it toasts very quickly (in other words some went directly from the toaster into the garbage) and never to put the raggedy side of broken matzoh down in the toaster because it gets stuck and things get ugly. I did not attempt to wet the matzoh before toasting, as that seems likely to make an even worse mess. There was a slight improvement over untoasted matzoh in the final product, but matzoh brei is going to have that wonderful slightly rubbery slightly cardboardy texture no matter what. That's what makes it good. Once or twice a year.

Noticed the kale chips, passed, thank you. Had a yen for red licorice so I tried the TJ brand "Cast off the Licorice Lines" strawberry (essentially twizzlers) that boast no artificial anything. Actually they weren't bad at all and I'm ashamed to say how quickly the package disappeared. Good alternative to standard twizzlers, which really are 95% plastic. Not that these are exactly artisanal.

I had an old KA hand mixer (not talkin' immersion type) that lasted 15 or 20 years, but then I had to replace it. The new one was awful--blades were lose and tended to fall out. The last Cuisinart I bought was also terrible. Last year I got a Viking, which came with two sets of different blades, digital control and is on the heavy side. Very satisfactory. I think it cost a little more than the other standard hand mixers, but it was def under $100. I don't own a stand mixer, so I use it frequently.

Assuming you like matzoh brei--or at least the idea of it--what was feh about it, the toasting or the whole wheat?

I'm going to toast the living daylights out of my next matzoh brei.

For a seder I like plain, since I mainly eat it with haroset and horseradish which has enough flavor to make even the box taste good. But for matzoh brei I've always thought onion was a good choice. I would be hard pressed to want to pay for artisanal matzoh, if such a thing exists.

We will be driving up from Atlanta in early May, noodling around the hills, checking out Asheville, birding in Chimney Rock, then continuing north along the Blue Ridge P'way and possibly visiting a friend in Stokes County, near the Virginia border. We don't plan to go any further east than the Lexington/Winston-Salem area, then head back to Atlanta. If there is anything to add to the Asheville threads that would be great, but I expect to spend only one or maybe two nights in the Asheville area. Looking for great roadside BBQ and farm to table foods, down home, not super pricey and with no extra attitude, thanks. We will be two weeks in NY before that, and then several days in Atlanta, so we will already have blown a lot of money on sushi and overpriced food, splurges, etc. I'll be ready for grits and farm eggs and greasy wooden tables. As for Asheville proper, Early Girl has been recommended and it sounds like fun for breakfast or lunch. I guess we will be in Asheville for one dinner, but the rest of our plans are flexible. Also would really appreciate suggestions in the mountains or western parts generally for places to stay: old hotels, small modest b & b's, nothing too extravagant or frilly. If you know of any great farm stays, that might be interesting.You could pm me with that if you have suggestions. Thanks so much!

I just love Valrhona cocoa. I transfer it out of the box, so I can't doublecheck the fine print, but I don't believe it was dutched. None of my go-to recipes using cocoa (I don't do a whole lot of baking) call for dutched, so I don't even keep it around. Surely Valrhona makes both?

I make my own stocks and lots of various kinds of soups. When I make stock I pretty much assume that whatever nutrients from the veggies have pretty much transferred to the stock. Actually I like to eat the carrots that have been cooking for two hours with a little salt, but I toss celery, onion, whatever other stuff was used to flavor the stock. When I get to making soup, different story. Some veggies might cook for 5 min, some for closer to half an hour, depending upon what they are. I have to believe that I'm getting my vitamins and fibre somewhere in the combo of these veggies and the soup broth. Otherwise what's the alternative? A completely raw diet? Where's the fun in that? People who eat lots of veggies (mostly cooked) and modest amounts of protein along with a variety of fruits and carbs don't appear to be malnourished. No one has really answered your question, OP, but if all it took to destroy nutrients was a little heat, I would just as soon not hear about it.

Yes, cut into one and put your tongue on it. If that doesn't frighten you, take a little bite. No way to know how to cook with them unless you have a good idea of flavor and heat. I am surprised how often chiles I expect to be blistering hot are not. Depends on the seed and where it was grown.

One of the best meals ever, but that was more than 10 years ago.

With CEO's like the final voice from that conference with his "F-you" attitude toward consumers and his shameless and bottomless greed, getting America to eat healthier seems almost impossible. This article was the most depressing cynical thing I've read in a while. A shocking majority of Americans are addicted to high levels of salt and sugar and fat. Until fresh foods are as cheap as processed and every one has a decent market within walking distance and good health care is routinely provided to all who can't afford it; until warning labels appear on all fast foods and people have jobs with pay that affords them time enough to shop and cook (or learn to cook), then let's don't blame the victims. These addictions and so-called convenience foods didn't happen overnight. Kind of shocking, when you think about it, how much money has gone into research for so many years to determine the bliss level of foods that have nothing whatsoever redeemable about them. "Bliss level." Isn't that a killer? The manipulation involved is staggering. Who exactly doesn't want the 1% paying more taxes? Who exactly wants to further eliminate health benefits? So depressing.

Agree that Rockers Oysterfellers (yech what a bad name) is very good. I had excellent flash fried Dungeness crab there last weekend. Note that it isn't that close to Pt Reyes, and would take 45 minutes to drive there--you would have to go to Tomales, then take Dillon Beach Rd and then take Valley Ford. If you happen to be in Tomales, at the main intersection of Hway 1 and Dillon Beach Rd is the Tomales bakery, which has some good breads and pastries plus on the weekends is a wild scene with middle age bicyclists and slightly younger motorcyclists. Across the Hway, behind the general store is a relatively new hole in the wall, no tables, where you can get some home made sausage sandwiches and a small selection of specials to go. Very nice. I think it's called K & A.

The recipe I used called for boiling chunks of the potato, celeriac and kohlrabi separately, until soft enough to put through a ricer. The apple was cooked in a little butter and very little water to carmelize, also soft enough to mash or rice with the rest. One whole apple turned out to be a little sweeter than I liked, but a half would have been perfect. I could see eliminating the apple and it would still be great. Just plain mashed potatoes seem to need lots of butter and cream, but this had enough moisture and flavor to need very modest amounts of butter and creme fraiche, which is all to the good as far as my cholesterol is concerned.

Then there's the original geek, the Carnival Geek, the sideshow guy who specialized in the prep work for cooking a chicken.

Love this vegetable! I like it raw, just sliced paper thin and sprinkled with sea salt. Last week I came across a recipe for a root vegetable mash that turned out to be really delicious: it consisted of russet potatoes, kohlrabi, celery root and a very small amount of apple, all riced and blended. The recipe suggested adding some milk or cream, but I used some left over creme fraiche--just a wee bit--and butter and salt and it was awfully yummy, if you like that sort of thing. Adding a little softened goat cheese and garlic might be great too. But I also like it match-sticked and added to various kinds of slaws. And yes, I always see kohlrabi in chinatown, and have bought it several times there. I prefer smaller tenderer bulbs, and they are not always so easy to find; the ones I see in Oakland Chinatown are pretty hefty. The Chinese must stir fry kohlrabi, no? I like the idea of vichyssoise. I could see mixing it with potato and leek for that. Kohlrabi is pretty sweet on its own and doesn't have a lot of body when mashed.