David A. Goldfarb

I'd be thinking pulled pork shoulder.

I usually try to get to Bombay Brasserie when I'm in London, but haven't been since they've reopened.

Haven't seen those in a while, but my grandmothers wouldn't have used them either. They each did have one of those enormous 30-cup percolators that everyone of their generation seemed to have. Things I have from my grandmothers' kitchens are a Griswold cast iron skillet, a hammered Club Aluminum dutch oven, an aluminum hand-cranked grinder that every Jewish woman of their generation had for making chopped liver, a set of dishes, some crystal stemware, a silver-plated tray, a set of silverware, a silver fish knife and fork so ornate that they would not be out of place as implements for keeping one's place when reading the torah, a recipe box from one grandmother and a few assorted recipes from the other.

I've found the best way to find deals on heavy copperware is to look either for shops that are closing out their tin-lined copper, or look for second-hand pieces on eBay, particularly if they need retinning, and have them retinned if needed. Usually the need for retinning will frighten most buyers off, but it's really not that difficult to have done, nor is it extraordinarily expensive, particularly given the cost of the items. For instance, Zabar's and Bridge Kitchenware were both selling Mauviel heavy tin-lined copperware at 50% or greater markdowns compared to new stock for years, particularly on large pieces like stockpots. I bought my rondeau in the size you're considering for around $300 with lid as I recall. There's a seller on eBay ("harestew") who bought up a lot of the large pieces from Bridge before their most recent move and is selling them off piecemeal at a significant markup from what Bridge was asking, but for less than the new prices from sources like buycoppercookware.com. There are sometimes good prices on selected pieces of Mauviel copperware from metrokitchen.com You might keep an eye out for copperware made in Brooklyn, New York. Some of this stuff is developing a cult following, so it isn't always such a bargain, but the company now known as "Hammersmith" is actually an old U.S. manufacturer of copperware for the hotel and restaurant trade. Their main contract these days, I gather, is some kind of metal fabrication for the city of New York, but they have the old molds and patterns and make copper cookware on a small scale and sell it at Brooklyn Kitchen-- http://www.thebrooklynkitchen.com/

I also tend to leave a standard tip, but if I think the service is extra good, or if I think the waiter deserves some extra because we were occupying a table for longer than a typical meal, then I'll tip extra.

Ahh, the once-perennial favorite of fundraisers everywhere--Chicken à la King. Google that phrase, and you'll find a few variations. Just ignore any mention of canned soups. A little cayenne can bring the flavors out a bit, and a parsley garnish at the end could brighten it up, both visually and in terms of flavor. I'm not sure why you're thickening the sauce with both flour and egg yolks. I would pick one or the other. Elizabeth David has a good basic recipe for braised chicken in a custard based sauce called simply "Le Poulet à la Crème" in French Country Cooking, thickened with egg yolks and cream and flavored with a squeeze of lemon juice at the end, which can be a surprising flavor in a cream sauce. I've done it adding some lemon zest as well to bring that flavor out.

Since moving to New York in 1991, Thanksgiving has always been an improvised meal for us, guests included. We ruminate about whether to invite guests for a few weeks until the last possible moment, after which it may be too late for any conceivable guests to take a shower and get dressed in time to make it to our place in time for dinner. Sometimes we invite people over, usually foreigners who don't have family in the US who are likely not to have anything else to do, and if they come, that's great, and if they turn out to have another invitation, that's okay too. Once I have an idea of how many people there will be, I usually go to the Greenmarket or another market, depending on how last minute it is, and buy something that used to have feathers of appropriate size for the number of guests. When it's been just me and my wife, sometimes that means a brace of poussins or squabs or maybe a pheasant. If there are more, it could be a goose, occasionally even a turkey, but a turkey is usually too large, unless we want to be eating turkey for the next two months. Any other dishes I make are based on the same criteria I use to make anything--what looks good in the market. The less planning the better.

My first thought when a waiter touches me is, "Oh, you read about that study, too, that showed that tips are on average higher when the waitstaff touch the patrons."

Thanks for the info about the spawning cycle. I always thought it was concern about summer bacteria/algae/red tide, and such.

The old rule of thumb before refrigeration and air transport was only to eat oysters in months with an "R" in them, clams being the alternative in the summer months.

The ones I've tried are Freirich, which is usually available in New York, and I've had another brand called "Mosey's" with the name in a fake Hebrewish typeface (not sure if they're still around), and they're okay, but really nowhere near as good as home made. As far as prepared corned beef goes, if you don't live in a place that has good deli, I'd look for Vienna Beef from Chicago.

Sure it does. I should think that if numerical/star ratings are an insult, the feelings of those to whom the offense is purportedly directed ought to count for something. If there aren't very many of them saying, "I am insulted by this," then maybe it just isn't that insulting. An insult to restaurateurs is quite a different thing from an insult to gastronomy as a creative activity. An individual chef or restaurateur may or may not be offended by all kinds of things, but a larger question is whether numeric rating systems reduce the nuance and complexity of aesthetic experience to something meaningless, as I believe they do.

Have you tried making it yourself? It's one of those curing projects that doesn't require a special space or a smoker or even special curing salts, unless you want it to have the bright red color of meats cured with nitrates. I use nitrite/nitrate salts for dry cured meats and some other things, but for corned beef, which stays in the refrigerator until cooked, I just use kosher salt and spices. Basically, you salt and spice the meat (brisket or the top round usually) in a big Ziploc bag, turn it once a day for 2-4 weeks, and when you're ready to cook it, rinse off the salt or if it's been in the cure for a very long time you might soak it overnight, and then you can simmer it in water, deli style, or braise it. The cured meat will last for months in the bag, so you can always keep one on hand without feeling you've locked in the menu for three weeks from the day you've started it. If you make a large corned beef, you can cut off part of it and cook it and leave the rest in the bag. The aroma when you open up the bag for the first time is really incredible, like you're suddenly standing in Katz's deli. There's a good basic recipe in Julia Child's _The Way to Cook_ (if you want something more Jewish style, leave out the sage from her recipe, add a bit more bay leaf and several cloves of garlic to the mix) and another version that uses pink salt as I recall in Polcyn and Ruhlman's _Charcuterie_.

I'd rather get rid of the star and ratings systems culture altogether. Make people read narrative reviews and think.

Among store bought yogurts, my preference is Brown Cow plain whole milk yogurt with the cream on top, but if you like it more sour, you might look for a brand called Seven Stars, which is usually on the sour side. As for making your own yogurt more sour, try different cultures, culturing longer, and making a sequence of batches. You might find the first batch too bland, but the third or fourth batch just right. What I think is happening is that the L. acidophilus culture, which produces lactic acid from sugars in the milk, is eventually overtaking the other bacteria with extended or repeated culturing, making the yogurt progressively more sour with each batch.

Yogurt cheese is indeed more tart than most cream cheese, which I don't think is cultured like yogurt, and the fat content of commercial cream cheese is around twice that of whole milk yogurt cheese. That said, it may be interesting in something like a cheesecake--maybe less creamy, less fattening, and more intense flavor. It's worth a try.

I think the restaurant is just playing of the title of a series on The Discovery Channel that follows a crabbing boat in Alaska. It's notoriously dangerous work, but well paid. I have an acquaintance who used to do it and lost a few fingers on one voyage. The show is called "The Deadliest Catch."

I've sometimes found foie gras and goosefat at Fairway Uptown. You might try there. As I recall the foie gras comes from D'Artagnan, so any of the butchers who carry things from D'Artagnan like Ottomanelli's on Bleecker or Citarella's near Zabar's may have it or can get it. I think the goosefat I've seen at Fairway is an import--German if I recall. I usually just roast a goose occasionally to render as supply of goosefat, and then we can eat the goose.

If you've convinced the other kids, then you're doing well. Melchi is a year younger than PJ, I think, and they're a tough crowd. The teachers are always enthusiastic that I'm giving Melchi different foods every day, and they seem impressed by the bento format, but he's often just not hungry at lunch time, I think, so he doesn't eat much. Most of the foods I give him are things he's liked at other times. I'm also on snack duty this week. Normally they've been getting pretty much the same thing from every parent--apples, bananas, grapes, other fruit, maybe some raw veggies, pitas or mini-bagels with cream cheese (including Tofutti "cream" "cheese" for the ones with milk issues--I brought in some goat cheese and suggested they ask the parents of the kids with milk allergies whether they could tolerate it, since it would at least be food rather than emulsified Crisco and water with the sparest hint of Tofu). The cucumber and carrot maki and avocado maki that I made appealed to a few of the kids, but most weren't interested, though the teachers approved. I made some little pies with spinach, potatoes and carrots that my wife and I thought were really great and a nice change of pace for the kids. They were enthusiastic at first, because they expected a sweet pastry and were a bit weirded out to find vegetables inside, so most of them ate the crust and ignored the spinach. I think tonight I'll just make some mini-bagels. I also supplied the requested fruits, juices and cheeses, so they aren't going hungry.

In old Italian neighborhoods around New York a tomato sauce is called "gravy," "red gravy," or "Sunday gravy."

I just made some little spinach-filled pastries using a crust made with beef fat--really nice crust. I accumulate beef fat from making stock and saving drippings from steaks and roasts and such. Cut 8 oz. cold rendered beef fat (by weight) into 2 C pastry flour (by volume, sorry--should have weighed it after measuring, but it needs to be adjusted by feel anyway) with 1 tsp salt. Mix in about 1/2 C ice water and knead briefly, adjusting flour/water as needed. Chill at least two hours before rolling. Roll and fill quickly--it starts melting faster than a butter crust. You could reduce the salt and add some sugar for a sweet dough. Some people find it a little odd to use animal fat in a fruit pie, but the best tasting cherry pie I've made used bacon drippings in the crust--not as light, though, as the beef fat crust. This batch of pastries used about 1 tsp. filling per 3" round of dough, folded in half, and baked at 425F for 20 minutes and made around 32 pastries.

Those little metal clips that come with bags of vacuum sealed coffee beans. It's not so much that we go out of our way to hoard them, but we use a fair amount of coffee, and we don't throw away those clips, so we are always using them to clip anything that comes in a bag.

The idea of Sous Vide Magic is that the rice cooker or hotplate doesn't have to be accurate--that's the job of the sensor/control unit--and the advantage of a separate control unit and heating device, aside from cost, would be that you're not limited by the size of the container. You can use a larger or smaller rice cooker or a bigger or smaller hotplate and stockpot as needed. While I can see the attractions of a simple self-contained appliance, it's not obvious to me that at that price point it's going to be any more functional.

Looks like a normal wok shovel. You can find them at any Asian market.

I was thinking of trying Sous Vide Magic-- http://freshmealssolutions.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=18&category_id=15&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=31&vmcchk=1&Itemid=31 --which is less expensive (even if you have to buy a rice cooker to use it) and would work with the rice cooker that I've been thinking of replacing, because it's larger than we're ever likely to need for making rice but would be perfect for this application. Sous Vide Supreme certainly looks like less of a kludge than Sous Vide Magic.