wingding

All my food trips to Brighton Beach in the past combined disco lights,live organ music,and not too great food .And I don't drink vodka.The places on the boardwalk can be an interesting way to while away a sunny afternoon[Russian sushi?].

Mice .Especially mice with cell phones...

Now 'bachlorette' dreck on food tv too.I've never seen so many channels with so little original thought.If what's on tv reflects this society now,we're at an all time low.Throw your tv out the window...

I always use some white wine when cooking quince.Reducing and recooking can make for an oversweet,cloying flavor,and the wine adds some acidity to counteract that,but the flavor of quince shines through.All of these products are easy to make when you live in farm country,and there's an overabundance of fruit.When you live in the city,and have to go and buy pounds of fruit,and cook lots of it to get a little jar of jam,it 's a different kind of labor.I'm not sure how this is relevant to the conversation,but I just had to note this fact...

I was disappointed by the desserts both times that I visited JG,by the work of both pastry chefs.Great craftsmanship-not enough clarity of flavors.Too much going on at the end of a long meal.The desserts at Jojo,years ago,were far superior to me.Much less fuss,much more flavor.

I've enjoyed traveling to search for a certain foodstuff-while on a trip ,traveling to a small town to find a rare local product.Colatura[fish sauce] in Cetara,sburlon[quince liquor]in Modena,kodampoli[fish tamarind]in Kerala.The search,and other things and people encountered in the search is more than half of the fun.My most vivid food and travel memories are of street markets,in New Dehli,Oaxaca,Paris,Kingston,Palermo...with hopefully many more to come.The fancy gastrotourist thing is way beyond my means,so I don't have to agonize about whether I'm gonna do that or not.

I think Italian American food as I've known it came mostly from families who immigrated from Calabria,Sicily,Abruzzo,and Campania.The foodstuffs that weren't available here dropped by the wayside,and simplified versions of favorites became popular.I grew up in a mostly Italian American neighborhood in Mount Vernon,N.Y.Most of the houses were on very small patches of land,and most of our neighbors grew as many vegetables and fruits as possible on their property.There was lots of tomato sauce and fried peppers.

I'm not convinced that the world could live healthy on a steady diet of gelee' noodles,foam,etc.I'm thinking of 'space food' and c-rations.Many of the chefs mentioned make conceptual food.They deconstruct a traditional dish,apply new techniques,make us think different...but people dine out for many different reasons.If you're in the mood for an 'experience',you go to El Bulli[just jump on a plane,what the hell].But on a day to day basis,people are looking to satisfy more basic needs when they go out to eat.Some of the techniques filter down,get passed on,and absorbed into the mainstream.But like conceptual art,there's a limited audience who understands or cares about[or can afford]this stuff.

That's exactly what Madhur Jaffrey attempted to do,years ago,when Dawat first opened.And the food was good.Many of the recipes in two of her books, A Taste of India and Flavors of India,are culled from home cooks.I've cooked a lot of them They are wonderful,and you won't find them in any restaurants here.Why I don't know.

And I've been served By some tough old carcasses in French restaurants over the years.I think that the best high end cooking in Asia has been served in the homes of the wealthy in those countries.Westerners who have been privileged to attend often recount incredible meals.We have experienced very little of that food in the west.A trip through India taught me that I only scratched the surface of a cuisine that varied greatly from region to region.I'm not interested in 'better than',only in experiencing more.everywhere.

Rustichella D'Abruzzo is imported to the U.S. by Manicaretti Inc.-www.manicaretti.com.I love the stuff-it's worth the money.Maybe you can contact them and find out a local source.

'The Splendid Table',by Lynn Rosetto Kasper.

I'm really not sure of the technicalities-I've been discouraged from using it in restaurants in the past,for health reasons[i will stay away from legal terms and discussions from now on-I'm not a specialist in this!]

The fda has made it unavailable for sale,as far as I can tell.It grows everywhere,however.I spent an afternoon with Wildman Steve Brill in Central Park[NYC],and he pointed out some plants-We pulled one up,and sure enough the root had that wonderful smell.

I talk to the waitstaff and we all taste together-every day.It's fun,and gives dessert sales a definite boost.Visual appeal helps too,but be aware,we are entering diet season-everyone suddenly realizes that they will be taking off the coats and wearing less.

The dim sum parlor on the corner of East Broadway and Market St.[formerly the Garden cafeteria] makes a nice char shu bao.Fresh is the most important thing,as well as a touch of cooking sherry in the sauce.For steamed buns,nothing beats dai bao for me-a large steamed bun with chicken,hard boiled egg,chinese sausage,sometimes mushroom.Mei Lei Wah is the current champ for this one.

In the same fish family-pomfret,found in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.[i had it cooked in a tandoor in New Dehli].Pompano cooked in salt is one of the most delicious things on earth [to me].Stuff the cavity of a whole fish with herbs and lemon.Mix salt with enough egg whites to make a workable moosh,and cover the fish,top & bottom,on a sheet pan or wherever it will fit.Bake for about 20-45 minutes[depending on the size of the fish] and crack the crust carefully-you don't want to get salt in the fish.Delve into the crust and remove thefilets,and serve immediately.The best...I noticed fish cooked in salt in many places on the coast of Campania-usually branzino and orata,but pompano is the most heavenly.

I haven't been to Spain,but am always on the lookout for different Spanish[and Portuguese]cheeses in New York.My favorite,so far has been Suspiri di Cabra[whisper of goat],a semisoft cheese that appeared at Murrays' last year.Also Azeito from Portugal.In N.Y.,Fairway and Murrays' keep bringing in new and different cheeses from Spain,so stay tuned.Or maybe save up for a plane ticket...

Chef Achatz;When you are not on the job,what types of food do you enjoy?

Envy and sniping aren't exclusive to kitchens.Bands do it,artists do it,even birds do it!I think that in N.Y. anyway,that the star system and food columns up the ante,and take us right back to elementary school.He got a gold star,and I didn't...my sister got a bigger serving of pudding.I've listened to it all in kitchens too,and it is often silly,but it's just human nature. I think that publicity is overvalued sometimes-it doesn't always have as much effect as people think...

I wish I could agree that most of the world finds mass marketing and globalization of everything somewhat disagreeable.But when I walk down the street,and see how most people dress,eat,and what movies they line up for,it looks to me like they are swallowing the deal whole,and enjoying it.Around 25 years ago,'selling out' was a lot more controversial.In the arts there was a downtown,an underground,and it was a lot more healthy and resistant to mass marketing.The media began to swallow up everything and spit it out faster and faster,and finding a way to stay small became harder and less attractive. Job security in the restaurant business is fragile,and like I said before,being on your feet for 70 hours a week can't last forever.People compromise themselves for practical reasons,lots of times,...families to support,bills to pay.That's life.

We have a Big Wong in N.Y. too,on Mott Street.And a barber shop,named Mei Dick,is right down the block.

The cries of 'sellout' are not unique to the foodie world.Musicians,artists,dancers,and clothing designers,just to name a few professions,are prone to the same accusations.It's How you sell out that is controversial,to many.If you can do it without dumbing down your work,gracefully,with style,then go get 'em.Easier said than done of course...But yes,I'd rather dine in a restaurant where the chef is minding the store.Things are better,period...I don't care how talented the staff is,it's just not the same.But chefs.like everyone else,want to make their professional life more diverse,and make some extra change when they can.You can't be on your feet for 70 hours a week forever.

To really succeed in N.Y. at this point in time,you need lots of return customers.It's somewhat hard to tell from an early press blurb what things will really be like-they would naturally gravitate towards the more unusual things going on.Playing around with conceptual food is great fun for chefs,but one has to be really honest about certain things being worth more than one 'interesting' taste.The people involved are certainly well loved and respected in the food community,and hopefully are throwing some good business judgement into the mix...but I'm only going to try a dessert with parsnips once,if at all.

I had a lovely dinner at La Caminetta D'Oro a few months ago.You'll probably need a reservation,unless you have an early dinner.The food is fancy/rustic-roasts and local meats[great culatello].The staff was friendly and professional.