David A. Goldfarb

He's also on Facebook a lot lately.

I don't own a lot of cookbooks--maybe twenty-five, which doesn't seem like a lot to me, because I'm an academic, and I own lots of other books--but one that I always keep as a reference is James Beard's, Theory and Practice of Good Cooking.

Here's Ruhlman's read-- http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2009/08...oodie-cook.html He spins it into a distinction between "foodies" and "cooks," not that the two are mutually exclusive.

Location, location, location. One of the things I remember being a student at Cornell in the late 1980s was that the Ithaca farmer's market had not only better and more varied produce than the supermarkets and even the Greenstar Co-op, but it was also less expensive. The farmers there at the time were generally really local--within a 90 minute drive at the most, I'd suspect. I definitely feel that I'm paying a premium at the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan, and I also get a sense from shopping at other Greenmarkets around the city over the years that vendors adjust the price for the neighborhood.

It does seem like mass paranoia. Did some school get sued, because some toddler with a nut allergy took a bite of some other toddler's PB&J? My wife attended a meeting for parents at the school where the food policy was discussed in very serious tones, suggestive of the pronouncement of a moral imperative, and the parents of the children in question seemed thoroughly unapologetic and even to profess a sense of entitlement about their child's school's adoption of the nut-free/allergen-free policy.

The nut-free policy seems to be the hot thing in Manhattan pre-schools this year. Our son is starting at an NYU pre-school in the fall, and they are nut-free (two kids with nut allergies) and egg-free (one kid with an egg allergy), and I believe the snacks that each parent has to supply for two weeks a year for all the children also have to be milk-free (one kid who is lactose intolerant). I've been browsing the vegan baking recipes at the Post-Punk Kitchen-- http://www.theppk.com/ At least trayf is okay.

Haven't tried deviled duck eggs, but they sound promising. Ostrich eggs figure significantly in a recent Iranian film called "Song of Sparrows" by Majid Majidi. They look like an interesting challenge!

A little more than that even. I bought these from a farmer at the Greenmarket, so I assume they were pretty fresh. What worked for me was to crack them, start peeling, and then you can feel the membrane between the shell and the white. Tear the membrane with your fingers, or I suppose you might use a needle or something, and let some water run between the membrane and the white, and it will slip off with the shell more easily. I think a certain number of broken eggs is inevitable. I think I got 20 halves from a dozen eggs (you can count the eggs in the picture and check me on that).

You get that from the little Zabar's cafe on the corner, next to the main store. If the weather's nice, you can walk west to the 79th St. Boat Basin and eat it by the Hudson River or walk east to Central Park.

I think Zabar's is best for price and selection, and Fairway has a pretty good selection at a slightly higher price than Zabar's, but when my daily routine started bringing me down to Bleecker St. regularly this past year, and I started buying from Murray's every week or two, I noticed that cheeses I'd bought elsewhere often seemed better from Murray's, perhaps due to better selection or better storage conditions, and Murray's features more handmade cheeses. I haven't tried a blind side by side tasting, but that could be an interesting exercise.

I'll vouch for this recommendation and say they still do make a fine cubano. I lived about a block away from this place for about four years, and it's one of the stops I often make when I'm in the neighborhood.

Nixon is said to have had his own special California wine bottles filled with Margaux, so who knows what Obama has in his Bud Light bottle?

For a nice sit down brunch, Sarabeth's. For the best deal in New York, get on the 1 train uptown to 79th St., and go to Zabar's and get a couple of Nova specials--lox, bagel, cream cheese, kalamata olive, small bottle of "fresh squeezed" style orange juice, and a coffee for $5-6.

Gates generally drinks Red Stripe, but apparently did not do so, owing to the historic nature of the occasion and the opportunity to relate the event to important figures in American history. According to the New York Times-- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/us/polit...%20adams&st=cse

The quote I like: I know this is true statistically, and also not true in the sense that people I know who like to cook seem to watch a lot of this stuff. They're statistically insignificant, I'm sure, but it's an epiphenomenon of some sort. I don't have cable, so I don't watch the Food Network at home, but I did grow up watching Julia Child, and mainly learning to cook from my father, who learned to cook from his mother. My father has some undiagnosable degenerative neuromuscular condition that's made it impossible for him to cook anymore, and it has even become dangerous for him to eat, because he can't entirely rely upon his swallowing reflex, but he still has often had the Food Network running in his hospital room when I've traveled to visit him in recent months. Ironically, we were watching Ina Garten making lasagna when one of his doctors came in to discuss the possibility of installing a feeding tube, which is now connected to his stomach. So there was something strangely resonant in this speculation from Pollan's article--

A long and searching article by Michael Pollan on the growth of TV food shows and the decline of home cooking in the US-- http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/magazine...&pagewanted=all This is stuff a lot of people here know, but it's well written and well argued.

Up by Columbia during the summer V&T's might be a good option for pizza in a college atmosphere, particularly on a Monday night. They have two dining rooms, one of which is likely to be otherwise closed, if it's not busy. If these are music students, is there a Carnegie Hall component to this trip? I think the Carnegie Deli has some private rooms, and that's something that's distinctively New York (despite the fact that New Yorkers are constantly arguing about Katz's vs the Carnegie--I split the difference and prefer Katz's for pastrami and the Carnegie for corned beef). Even if you aren't going to Carnegie Hall, the Carnegie Deli isn't too far from the Times Square area.

I just looked over a couple of credit card statements, and combining that with estimated cash expenses, I'd guess we're spending about $450/month in New York for my wife, myself, and a toddler, including wine, good cheeses, coffee shipped from Hawai'i, and such. We eat most meals at home. I don't feel like I make a big effort to economize on groceries, since I figure every meal we don't eat out in New York is a big savings, and I don't clip coupons, but I'm not particularly wasteful either. I always buy whole chickens, for instance, and cut them as needed, saving backs, necks, and bones for stock. I don't buy much in the way of processed foods. I don't skimp on the quality of ingredients, since good ingredients inspire me to cook, and again, every meal we don't eat out in New York is a big savings. That doesn't mean we never eat out, but that we'd rather have one memorable $300 meal occasionally than six forgettable $50 meals out.

Gazpacho Foam Blend at high speed about 1/3 cup chopped onion and one clove garlic with about 1/3 cup beef consommé and the juice of one lemon. Add about 2/3 cup tomato and an equal amount of peeled cucumber and blend thoroughly. Add marjoram, black pepper, sea salt, and piment d’Espelette or other hot pepper or Tabasco to taste. Dissolve 2g Knox gelatin in about 1/4 cup warm beef consommé, and blend into mixture. Strain and chill. Pour one pint of the mixture into a 1 pint cream whipper like the Thermo Whip, charge with one N2O charger, and shake vigorously, then turn the whipper upside down and shake a couple of times to bring most of the liquid to the spout. Release the foam gently at first to produce a controlled spray. If dispensed at this point, it will be drinkable. For a firmer foam that can be eaten with a spoon, allow the filled whipper to rest in the refrigerator overnight on its side. Shake vigorously and dispense into a cocktail glass garnished with a cucumber slice and a spear of red bell pepper.

The mango pickle and chutney look really good.

This achara is based on the version in Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan's Memories of Philippine Kitchens, with a few small variations and hints I've picked up. The word, "achara," most likely comes from the Hindi and Urdu word for pickle, "achar," the result of Hinduised Malay influence before the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. 1. Bring to a boil 4 cups of premium cane vinegar with 1.5 cups of sugar, 1 Tbs. kosher salt, four cloves of thinly sliced garlic, and a two-inch piece of ginger peeled and cut into matchsticks. The brand of vinegar I use is Datu Puti, but they make a cheaper grade of white cane vinegar and a premium grade of brown cane vinegar. Romy's recipe calls for rice vinegar, which is milder and goes with more things, but cane vinegar is probably more traditional. With, say, a delicate fish dish, rice vinegar is probably better, but a heartier beef or pork dish will hold up to the sharper cane vinegar. Simmer for about 20 minutes, add one tsp. ground black pepper, cool, and refrigerate overnight. 2. Peel, seed, and shred a green papaya of about two pounds and three large carrots, and mix with three (or fewer, depending on how hot you want it) cored, seeded, and thinly sliced rings of long red or green chili peppers and two large onions, cut in half and also thinly sliced. You can find green papaya in Asian markets, and it usually will be separate from ripe papayas. It should be hard and totally unripe--not just a less ripe papaya among the ripe papayas. The seeds will be white and immature. Ideally the papaya and carrots should be uniform in shape and in long strands. I've done it with a food processor, which doesn't make very long strands. Romy suggested using a mandoline, but I think I might try the more primitive Thai method next time, which is just to score the papaya with a knife and cut thin slices across the scores. Toss with 2 Tbs. kosher salt and refrigerate overnight. 3. Rinse the papaya mixture in a colander lined with cheesecloth, gather the cheesecloth and wring out as much liquid as possible. Twist, squeeze, and press down with all your weight. If necessary, do it in more than one batch. 4. Put the papaya in an airtight container and just cover with the vinegar solution. Extra vinegar solution can be used as a dipping sauce for spring rolls and the like or as a marinade. The achara will keep for months. Yield--about 8 cups.

My wife was ordering lunch once at a Latino chicken place on the Upper West Side in Manhattan, and the woman at the counter asked "le o bre" about a half dozen times, before my wife figured out that she was asking if she wanted the leg or the breast.

For achara, I salt the green papaya, onion, peppers, and carrots overnight, rinse, and then squeeze out thoroughly with a cheesecloth. I've seen pictures of old Filipina women doing this, and they really look like they're trying to wring as much liquid out as possible, so I think it's an important step. The achara stays crispy for months this way. I served it to my wife's sister's family this evening and got another approval. She thought it reminded her of their grandmother's achara, so I'm on the right track.

I'd give him that one. I would guess that, even in New York, fewer than 10% of all restaurants offer a free glass of sparkling wine in the bathroom.

You might try the shop that makes Hammersmith copperware. I forget their trade name, but they are located in the Williamsburg industrial zone, and you could find them by calling Brooklyn Kitchen, which sells their cookware. No idea what they would charge, but they do general metal fabrication (I think their main contract is some big project for the city), and they are familiar with cookware.