Wilfrid

Paranoid! "Interdisciplinary" means what it says, and in itself is no bad thing. Politicization of content and low academic standards - too different things - can easily be found in non-interdisciplinary programs.

This is a new series of food-related Biography specials, right? Didn't I see a promo for a show on Mr Lagasse?

The Flute bars. I was a regular at the 54th Street branch, just off Broadway, from shortly after it opened. It's fairly secluded, down some steep stairs into what used to be a speakeasy. The service was superb, and the manager, Rudy Santos, became one of my favorite hosts in New York. As the bar became more popular, they introduced djs and live music, which I found a little oppressive in the fairly small space. I continued to go, as Rudy was willing to reserve seats for regulars, but after Rudy left (initially going to Petrossian, I believe), I drifted away. Then I moved out of the area. I started using the 21st Street branch, which was more convenient. It is a much larger space, and more impersonal, but perfectly located if you are going on to any of the Gramercy/Flat Iron restaurants. There is music, but it's less intrusive. I dropped in at the 54th Street branch earlier this year, and Rudy was back - I don't know if he's still there - having altered some of his other plans in the wake of September 11. As Tomkmy said, about ten champagnes by the glass. I recommend the "R" de Ruinart Brut, and the Pol Roger NV. There are usually at least a couple of Vintage champagnes available, which gives you an opportunity to sample without spending several hundred dollars. Hors d'oeuvres available - spring rolls, sushi, and so on. There used to be chocolate samplings. Cabrales: when you say Bubbles, are you referring to Bubble Lounges? In a nutshell, the Bubble Lounge in Tribeca is more like the 21st St Flute than the 54th St Flute. I think the champagne lists, by the glass at least, are comparable.

I am more than happy to think about suckling pig at Lespinasse.

Cabby, did you go at a quiet time? My one visit to Chicama was after work on a weekday, and although the food was unobjectionable, it was such a raucous scene (and doubtless fun, if that's what you wanted) that I never thought of going back.

It worked. This is one post I was quite pleased with, so let me quote it again for any offal lovers who joined since March and might have missed it: "Just a few more tips on cooking the bison balls, in the event anyone feels like trying them. The versions sold at Union Square do come ready peeled, so that saves some trouble. The tricky thing is that these organs retain a great deal of moisture, and you can end up with a mushy result if you're not careful. In the past, I've tried packing them with salt to draw the moisture out. Trouble is, they seem to suck the salt in. My technique with the bison bits was ad hoc, but worked. First I soaked them in water with a few drops of vinegar for about forty minutes, changing the water frequently. At this point, they are still oozing just a little blood, so you want to keep changing the water until it isn't pink any more. Drain them well. Then slice them into disks, as if you're slicing boiled eggs for a salad. Spread them out on absorbent paper, put another sheet on top and pat it down. Leave them for a while. You can repeat this until you get bored. Then soften some chopped onions in oil, with some garlic if you like, celery - whatever. Throw your disks in and sautee them briskly. Guess what? More liquid leaches out. Drain it off. When they've changed colour and are looking a bit firmer, take them off the heat and reserve the whole mixture overnight in the fridge. Next day? Yes, more liquid. Drain it off. I gave them a final frying, checking the seasoning, and adding a little cream (some white wine or butter would have been good), for dinner on the second day. Sprinkled some chopped parsley on top - chives or chervil would be good. Now they came up firm, not mushy, and very tasty. I can see the Chicken McNugget analogy, but these are really much more interesting. Enjoy. "

Me too. I have never had chicken livers breaded and fried. Individuall? Or do you clump a few together and make fritters? Toby, the cuchifrito stew requires more investigation. Me and my Beloved haven't come across it - I take your point about the small green bananas too. Pig's head - Bayard Street again must be the first port of call: your one-stop pig shop (hmm, is that a new eGullet slogan?). As for lamb's insides, the Greek restaurant on Ninth, on the west wide - isn't it called Nick's - serves lamb intestines on skewers and lamb sweetbreads. They are probably sourcing them from one of the nearby butchers. And by the way, newcomers here may need to know that the Bison meat stall at Union Square Greenmarket on Saturdays will sell you a pair of testicles if you ask nicely. I have a pair in my freezer right now. Hey - with the new search engine maybe I can find my testicle technique, which someone - was it Priscilla? - requested recently.

Making a confit of duck legs is actually pretty easy - Soba, I use a method I found in Fergus Henderson's Nose to Tail Eating. I usually try to fill a big jar with duck and rabbit legs covered in duck fat at the beginning of winter. It did go wrong last year - first time - when something contaminated it and the meat turned green. Normally it's a day's work for several good meals. Because I usually dip into the jar for a piece of confit to crisp in the oven and serve with frites, I don't always have my own confit available for cassoulet. But there are suppliers of confit out there. The imported tinned stuff is usually absurdly expensive, but in New York Dean and Deluca have duck leg confit for around $8 a piece, as does the French Butcher for a few cents more. I am not going to insist that confit is essential to cassoulet, but I dolike its distinctive flavor and texture. I make a cassoulet in less than two days, but I suppose it will be just that much less succulent than John's. Not that I get too many complaints.

I am in two minds about whether cheeks qualify as offal, but I think I am going to say yes - I think head meat in general does. As for getting pig's lungs, I am sure the meat market on the south side of Bayard between Elizabeth and Mott, mentioned by Toby earlier, will supply any pig parts you could desire. I think I've seen lungs there. In Barcelona, of course, the specialist offal stalls in the markets offer huge displays of lungs, and there's no mistaking them once you see them. They look like, well, lungs.

Cabby, I was considering lunch at Sushi Yasuda. What would you say about the price range and about need to book? Thanks.

Old Street area sounds perfectly civilized. I was thinking you meant South of the river, or some council estate in Tottenham. Big girls blouses. I hope my opinion from the other side of the Atlantic is both helpful and relevant. (Just couldn't think if I'd been to the Wenlock - apparently not.)

Bad luck with the riots, Bux, but you are making me pine for the Barri Gotic. Pig's feet wafers - yes please.

Where is this Wenlock, then? Deptford?

I was holding back while this thread was part of the Bourdain Q and A, and now I hardly know where to start. Deep breath... Chitterlings Chitterlings are pig's intestines. I have never seen the southern style chitterlings in downtown Manhattan restaurants - maybe you can get them in Harlem. However, pig's intestines cooked Chinese style are certainly available in Chinatown, in restaurants, or in meat stores. The store Toby mentioned (for pig's stomachs) on Bayard between Mott and Elizabeth is offal heaven: pig's bungs, tripes, various feet, lungs, the lot - I should've guessed that's where the stomachs were. Pig's intestines, simply braised, and served in coils looking very much like what they in fact are, are also available from Dominican outlets. Called tripitas, these are really a street food, by which I mean you are less likely to find them in Dominican restaurants than at a food stalls, or the lorries which park under El's up in Washington Heights and the South Bronx and serve all kinds of good carne. Cuchifritos A generic term used by Puerto Ricans to designate offal snacks - usually, if not exclusively, from the pig. If a Puerto Rican restaurant sells this stuff, you'll usually see it being kept warm in a glass display near the window. Available in Dominican restaurants too, where it is called pica longa.Yeah, pig's ears, tongue, cheek (buco), crackling, and so on. I am intrigued by Toby's reference to cuchifritos in a spicy red sauce with green bananas (actually green plantains, to be pedantic). Deep fried cuchifritos is surely the norm. Toby, could you be referring to mofongo, where various meats are mashed with green plantains in a pestle? Puerto Ricans occasionally serve this with a spicy red sauce; Dominicans almost wholly eschew spicy food. Sancocho As a Dominican dish, Sancocho is a broth with all kinds of goodies floating in it. Traditionally, it should include seven different meats to give it flavour: chicken or gallina - a delicious darker fleshed wild chicken, which seems to be to be guinea fowl or a close relation - is obligatory. Other meats can include longaniza, a garlicky, rustic pork sausage, pig's cheek, pig's stomach (as Toby says), and usually some smoked pork. A marrow bone is a prized ingredient too. Mi esposa, who is Dominican, is sceptical about the use of a salted pig's foot - she says preserving meat in salt is not a common practice in Puerto Rico or the DR - but that's not to say people aren't making it that way. Well, unglue my lips

I have never poured brandy on a sandwich before - new frontiers open up. Yvonne - any particular kind of ham? Soba's meatloaf sounds good too. I used to incorporate pickles into meatloaf, to give it some surprising crunches and spots of sharpness, and I have also cooked whole eggs in there, but Soba 's seems to go beyond that.

Something useful there, John. I have been holding it up to the light and poking the garlic slivers out with a toothpick*. I am game for your alternative! *Might I just add bitterly that I rarely use it, but somehow always end up cleaning it?

Oh yes, Boisdale. Often overlooked. A Scottish restaurant, no less, but with excellent produce from around the British Isles, fairly priced wine, and very friendly. I actually chose it as the restaurant for my farewell meal when I left the UK, so that's a recommendation.

If you don't want to crush it, take off the tips at top and bottom with a sharp knife and discard. Then it's down to hard work and your fingernails. I believe storing it in the fridge is the thing to avoid. Emeril taught me that on the telly, and he was right.

Spot on. And the word is also used in manufacturing industries for similar waste.

I was given a bread knife serrated on both sides. Fantastically dangerous, and long since trashed. Yes, the reason I raised the point about technique is that I have a bunch of bread knives from various sources, none of them fancy, and I have never come across a loaf I couldn't cut easily. Maybe it's a bluntness problem?

Yes, I've seen them canned and bottled. Priscilla's description had me imagining fresh ones. The short answer to your question is meat. I will have to think about the longer answer.

I hope it still includes the pig snout!

Is the talk of the restaurants "rights" misleading? Strictly speaking, I am sure Jaybee is correct - they have no "right" to ask you to leave, unless it is included in the contract in some form. But we negotiate much of our daily lives by observing common practices rather than by standing on "rights". Is it normal, reasonable or fair to sit in a restaurant over your empty coffee cups shooting the breeze for an hour or so while the staff wait to turn the table? Maybe you have a "right" to do that, but I think most restaurants would try to move you on, and I don't blame them. When I am waiting at the bar for a table to open, and I see people, their dinner long finished, taking forever to pick up the check and leave, the thought in my mind isn't usually "Well, they have a perfect right to do that" - it's "Come on, there are other people in the world."

Can I get grape leaves in a New York food store? I never noticed them, and I feel like stuffing something.

For someone who only registered ten days ago, Talentchops certainly has made up It's mind about other members pretty quickly. Hahahahahahahhahahahahah.