Wilfrid

I didn't mind those sculptures at all. Not that I paid enough attention to them to have an unshakeable opinion, but they were on the plus side rather than minus side for me (at ADNY and Cello).

And first use of that phrase on eGullet. Well done!

My goodness, Vanessa, I didn't mean to give you such a dramatic flashback. My family came from South Hackney, so I saw a lot of that area in my youth. Simon, I used to conduct unofficial Ripper murder site tours, but gave it up because too many people found it in bad taste, even though my entire theme was to debunk the ridiculous media glamorisation of the whole affair. Pearls before piggies, as ever, I'm afraid.

Give the man a banana. It is indeed a vintage Berkel, 1897 to be precise. It is in perfect working order, the blade is self-sharpening, and it is valued for the incredible thinness of the slices it produces. And I can testify to that. It was a present to Tony May from the Friuli region; lucky Mr May. And that concludes my unpaid investigative journalism for the day.

If you've never wandered around the area, I'd recommend that too: the facade of Hawksmoor's Christ Church, the beautiful Huguenot houses in Fournier Street just beside it, the tangle of old streets between the market and Bishopsgate, and of course Brick Lane. Worth an hour or two of anyone's time.

Thanks for the tip. We did meet Adela late in the evening, but I had the impression that her daughter had been running the kitchen on this occasion. It was also clear we should have gone much earlier.

It is an annex out back which you get to via the kitchen. I don't know whether you'll have heating problems, but it is somewhat underdecorated in comparison with the main room, and you may feel a little cut off. I was seated there the first time I went to Blue Hill, because I suspected nothing, but I would generally ask not to be seated there now. Sorry. The food's still good, of course.

And if you do add the tax and tips, and drink a moderate bottle of wine instead of two glasses, and even a cup of coffee, I think my point stands.

For two people (unless you ate two dinners) anything under two hundred bucks is not expensive these days. My basis is that it hard to keep the check under $70 or $80 per head in an ordinary, casual East Village bistro.

The San Domenico slicer is much more stylish. I'll try to find out some more about it.

Thanks for the warning. Did I read that Urena has now left, or is that my imagination?

The latter I cannot help you with; we should send Fat Bloke along to inspect it. As to the former, the prosciutto was notably thinly sliced by the great gadget, and very well flavored.

And indeed Odette must be one of the longer-serving chefs in a Manhattan restaurant. Yes, that prosicutto machine is an amazing thing, isn't it? We were comped slices of prosciutto before our dinner at the weekend.

The sommelier is very good, despite his disturbing hair style. Sorry you missed the raviolini; the egg-filled raviolo has been a signature dish for Odette Fada for a long time, and I sometimes feel the kitchen has got bored with it. I didn't notice pomegranate seeds in my salad, so either I wasn't paying attention or I didn't get any! Did you sit at the bar or in the restaurant?

Yes, Liza, I would particularly like to try some of those cute little ones you see in the market. I am looking forward to the official list, because I have not the faintest idea what I offered to contribute.

In the absence of any specific responses, Cabby, I would say that Burgundy seems the obvious way to go; best year you can afford.

Phooey, maybe (although I prefer "pfui"). But brining is so easy and so cheap that I say "Why not?" Maybe the same bird would have been great without being brined, but why take a chance?

Still in the freezer!

The wood pigeon is a nice dish, and I'm glad to hear they're calling it wood pigeon these days, not "grouse".

Maybe not compared to Ducasse's other menus, but if you want to sample white truffles rather than Ducasse's cuisine, the food bill for two at San Domenico was $197.00, including three courses with liberal truffles followed by desserts.

What a pity about those service faults. The only explanation I can think of for presenting the pasta in the way they did was that they misunderstood you and thought your wife just wanted to taste it. I just can't fathom why they would present a shared dish that way. And you're right about the wine list too. I don't recall it being withheld when I dined there; I thought I perused* it at the same time as the menus. Has anyone else had such a bizarre experience? *Yep, pompous today.

Just catching up, let me observe, as someone who has also worked in the music business, that those people who are so good at picking 'hits' - and they certainly exist - are, much of the time at any rate, identifying product which will sell in large quantities to a young audience with disposable income. The last thing they are doing is identifying high quality music, or even anything they would listen to at home. One of the finest producers I ever saw at work would judge whether he had cut a hit single by playing the track back over a really smalll, lousy speaker. This would tell him how it would sound over a cheap radio. This had nothing to do with refined connoisseurship, although he had a hell of a knack.

Weekend in the kitchen. Filled the confit jar with duck legs - so they will be true confits de canard in the course of time, with the distinctive color and texture preservation lends. Made a couple of huge stews which freeze well - coq au vin, tripes a la mode de Caen, and zipped them into one pint servings for supper on cold nights. And dinner last night was a beef filet, black and blue, with a dollop of the French Butcher's own pate de foie gras on top. Roast potatoes following the Blumenthal emthod, about which I was somewhat sceptical, but using goose fat. They came out like big fries - golden, nicely crisp, but with very soft interiors. I am still not convinced about the extensive pre-boiling which HB recommends. I think I prefer more of a chew to my roast spuds.

A couple of belated remarks. As far as the steak goes, it wasn't so much the cut as a combination of cultural differences and the type of restaurant it is. By Puerto Rican or Dominican standards, that was a rare steak. I agree with Cabby that it was medium well by our standards, but I don't know how you would convince a family-style Puerto rican restaurant to serve bloody meat. Also, it's a cheap joint catering to locals, and the kitchen was ready to close up (hence the chicken dishes being finished), and they weren't, therefore, too bothered about how they were cooking the steak. Let's be honest, they are not dependent for their prosperity on return visits from fussy foodies . I liked the bacalao too, and wish there'd been more. I also liked the big, floury, sauce-laden potatoes in the sancocho. Overall, although the restaurant is smarter and more comfortable than some of the other Latino diners in the area, I didn't think the food was out of the ordinary. Just decent examples of that kind of cooking. Of course, maybe the the chicken is sensational.