David A. Goldfarb

I recently tried this with Niagara grapes (a white slippery skin grape with seeds) in the fruit and vegetable strainer attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, and it worked pretty well.

Better not to defrost them, I find (fewer ice cubes required that way), and if I have enough forethought, I peel them first and wrap them in plastic wrap before putting them in the freezer, so I don't have to peel them with a knife. If I don't have a chance to peel them first, a quick rinse under warm water makes it easier to cut off the peels without thawing the banana.

This continues the grousing and griping of Food Terms We Loathe/Misuse. I could do without "tuck in." It's as if eating were some arduous process like trench warfare--"and then after another whimsical amuse bouche, we began to tuck into our prime rib in earnest." Are people who "tuck in" tucking the food into their faces or tucking themselves into their food? They might as well say, "and then we began to make a revolting spectacle of ourselves with regard to our meal."

Thanks for the warning! It seemed like a good concept.

I got a free bag of King Arthur brownie mix with my last order. It was pretty good.

My father always thought of the condition of the restroom as an indicator of the general cleanliness of a restaurant. If the restroom isn't clean, what does the kitchen look like? Some people thought Frank Bruni paid too much attention to restrooms in the NYT.

Is Shopsin's still open?

My wife was jonesing for laing (taro leaves) after reading this review of Engeline's Filipino restaurant in Queens (we've been there) a few days ago in the New York Times, and yesterday I happened to be checking out an Asian market I hadn't visited before and found Lucia's dried taro leaves imported from the Phillipines, and I think this is my favorite new ingredient. I've made fresh taro leaves before in Hawai'i, but these dried leaves have a smoky flavor. They don't seem heavily smoked, so maybe the drying process is just finished over fire. They're also not too expensive (about $2.50 for a 14 oz bag) and look like they can be stored indefinitely on the shelf. Though the label, mysteriously, says "keep refrigerated," they're certainly not refrigerated in the market. They can be prepared pretty much like spinach or other greens, but since they're dried, cooking time doesn't have to be long. I made them more Indian style than Filipino, browning chunks of carrot, potato, onion and chicken in ghee with some salt, pepper, garlic, bay leaf, and eventually garam masala, then I added about a quart of chicken consomme and some water and the taro leaves, simmering and adding water as needed. The butter, stock, garam masala, and the smoky flavor of the taro leaves worked very nicely together.

I don't go out for breakfast that often, but if I had one breakfast to do, I'd go to Sarabeth's on 80th and Amsterdam. If you're coming on a weekend, the brunch line tends to be long.

Fine and Shapiro catered our son's bris about three years ago. Eh. It's okay, if you need kosher, but the food is nothing special, and the atmosphere of the restaurant is a lot like that of a diner. I also think they are kosher but not shomer shabbos. I've never been to Estihana, the kosher sushi place in the same neighborhood, but I've always been curious about it-- http://www.estihana.com/manhattan/

That's the way they would normally be sold in NYC. They look great. Next time I'm passing through that neighborhood, I'll take a look.

I guess another one I should mention is the Women's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery in 12 volumes starting A-Bea, Bea-Cas, Cat-Cre, etc., which I don't own, but that I grew up with and that we seemed to consult whenever we wanted to try something new or were unsure about the proportions for a recipe. When I was little, I remember looking at the sections by Helen Evans Brown featuring some special technique like aspics, called "How to cook superbly" and wondering what "superbly" was, and if it was tasty, and why it needed so many different discussions in separate volumes. My father and I joked about when we would eventually get around to making "Hoppin' John," which we never did. There were also features by James Beard.

It may also be the breed of cow. I recently bought some heavy cream from a local dairy called Milk Thistle that uses Jersey cows instead of the much more common Holsteins, and it was another thing entirely. It seems to have a higher fat content.

I made cold sesame noodles last night and tried XiaoLing's infused water suggestion--ginger, onion, and garlic in my case--and that idea looks like a keeper. I liked it. My son's preschool has decided they are not only nut-free, but also sesame-free and egg-free (fortunately milk-free only applies to snacks we have to prepare one week per semester for the whole group), so this morning I tried cold noodles with a sunflower seed butter sauce and no sesame oil, again using the infused water from last night to get the right consistency--not traditional, but not bad, I'd say.

This is the kind we are using for my son's preschool lunches. Ours has a more domed lid, so there is some problem with food migrating, but today I tried putting a layer of plastic wrap between the food and the lid, so we'll see how that works. I like it, because I can put little sticky notes on top to tell the teachers which sections to warm up in the microwave, and which should stay cold.

A book is a statement with its own context, ethos and moment in time. Google is a little of this and a little of that--very handy if you're looking for a specific recipe or what to do with some particular ingredient, but not so great for learning about the history and culture of food. There are, however, lots of historic cookbooks available in their entirety for free on the internet, so if you like books, and have more free hard drive than shelf space, here are a couple of sites that I like-- http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/ http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/browse.html

I learned to cook mainly from my father, so I've never accumulated cookbooks, though I have lots of other kinds of books, but if there's one I learned from and always keep on hand it's James Beard's Theory and Practice of Good Cooking--few recipes, mostly technique. While I do look at other books to find out about new things and techniques that I haven't tried, my general approach to cooking is to start from what looks good in the market and go from there.

Is it my imagination or were Vidalias sweeter when they first appeared on the national market, and as they became more popular, they've probably been overproduced, and now less different from ordinary Spanish onions than they used to be? The same seems to be true for Clementines as well.

Yeah, it's very tough to find someone who not only gets paid to sharpen knives, but actually does a professional job. I've sharpened my own knives for years, but recently got a bit more adventurous and have been experimenting with reshaping and bolster grinding with a few old ones. I haven't made a knife worse than it was before I started, and I've reshaped a couple of old Sabatiers that are now better than they've ever been, for as long as I've owned them.

Presuming you weren't trying to pry open a car door or something with it, I agree, it probably is a manufacturing defect. You've got nothing to lose by seeking a replacement. That said, it looks like it was long overdue for a professional sharpening. If the bolster isn't ground down periodically, it starts turning into a boning knife.

I don't buy many cookbooks. 24 total, not counting things like pamphlets of recipes that come with kitchen gadgets, my own kitchen notebook, or my grandmother's recipe box. This is just what's on the shelf. There are a few more I've downloaded in the past year since discovering that some historical cookbooks are available for free on the internet, and I'm not counting those, but they wouldn't change the percentage too much. 63% used for more than one dish. The ones that I haven't used much tend to have been gifts. A couple I've acquired in the past year and just haven't had a chance to use.

As gifts for other people they think, probably incorrectly, will use them, though the recipients will consider them a nice gift and will imagine they'll use it, but they probably won't, kind of the way that suburban and urban types think they'll use their SUVs or hiking boots for some practical purpose someday, but in most cases won't actually do so. It's an aspirational purchase.

A fan might cause the surface to dry out too quickly, effectively sealing in moisture in the center of the meat and causing it to rot. Unless you have particularly high humidity, I don't think it would be a good idea, but maybe with something small like duck breast, it wouldn't be a big problem.

It doesn't sound likely to me. Partially hydrogenated oils are produced by introducing hydrogen to the oil under pressure and high heat. I don't think it could happen in a saute pan without a source of hydrogen.

Done. I would encourage others to comment as well, as there were only seven comments posted when I added mine.