roryrabbitfield

For those in NYC, you can get Lacinato Kale from Fresh Direct (www.freshdirect.com). Make sure you cook it long enough...it is much tougher than regular kale.

another question about the bread recipe...would it work to increase all the ingredients by a certain percent (say, 30% for example) in order to have a bigger loaf? would it work? i guess i'd have to increase the cooking time too. any thoughts?

Hi all, I just baked a loaf of the NYTimes bread, and it came out great. I used a Wagner brand cast-iron dutch oven (4.5 quart) that has a clear glass lid. Very good results. I baked it 30 mins. covered, then 15 mins. uncovered. I probably would bake a little longer uncovered next time (inside bread was a little too moist). I used oat bran instead of wheat bran, because that's what I could find. in the store. I think more salt next time. I wish the flavor were a little more intense. Overall I like this recipe a lot, but I must say that the step of kneading bread really isn't such an imposition and I would not stop making kneaded breads in favor of this no-knead bread. here's my QUESTION: What's the best way to store this bread? I find good breads go stale so quickly, and I want this load to be worth eating tomorrow at last. Any suggestions?

Spinach with Onions and Currants Serves 2 as Side. 1/4 c currants 1/2 c water 1 T olive oil 1/2 c chopped onion 1 pkg spinach pepper salt Heat currants in water in a bowl in the microwave for 1 min. Drain. Saute chopped onion in olive oil in med/large saute pan. Add 1 bunch washed, dried flat leaf spinach,cover, and cook 1-2 mins till wilted. Uncover, add currants, and stir till spinach is cooked but not overcooked. Use enough oil so some spinach gets browned. season with salt & pepper. Keywords: Side, Vegetarian, Vegetables ( RG1173 )

Spinach with Onions and Currants Serves 2 as Side. 1/4 c currants 1/2 c water 1 T olive oil 1/2 c chopped onion 1 pkg spinach pepper salt Heat currants in water in a bowl in the microwave for 1 min. Drain. Saute chopped onion in olive oil in med/large saute pan. Add 1 bunch washed, dried flat leaf spinach,cover, and cook 1-2 mins till wilted. Uncover, add currants, and stir till spinach is cooked but not overcooked. Use enough oil so some spinach gets browned. season with salt & pepper. Keywords: Side, Vegetarian, Vegetables ( RG1173 )

So, is this place open for business or what? I went into Manhattan specifically to go here on Sunday night, and it was closed. I was so bummed.

I've been saving these cooking queries for too long! 1. I cooked a whole duck breast and was amazed how much fat was rendered, so I saved it in the refrigerator. Is it safe to use, when does it go bad, and what the heck do I do with it now? 2. I have an open bottle of vin santo. For some reason I feel like cooking with it rather than drinking it. Any ideas how to use it up? Probably 1.5 cups. 3. I made a red wine reduction sauce using a recipe that I saw in the NYTimes magazine a few weeks ago. I reduced it in a regular calphalon sauce pan for a while, then strained it, and finished cooking it in a small enameled saucepan. After it had been in the 2nd pan for a while, I tasted it, and it had an atrocious metallic taste. I assume the taste came from the enamelled pan. What went wrong? Is enamel too reactive to use with wine? I thought only aluminum was bad. 4. Out of the same NYTimes article, there was a recipe for pork chops brined in a mixture of water, apple cider, salt, and pepper (the above mentioned red wine sauce was the accompaniment). I brined the chops 48 hours (max was 72). Then dried them off and put in a saute pan with oil, as per recipe. The goal was to brown them in the pan, then finish in the oven. But, they kept releasing so much liquid that they just wouldn't brown. Since it is so hard to get pork that isn't dry/tough, I thought this brining thing would be great. So, how to brine it and still be able to brown it too? 5. I bought a piece of monkfish from Fresh Direct (an online grocery store for those outside NYC). Put it in the pan, noticed something funny looking. It was a worm, fully alive. Gross. Question is, should i just assume that all fish is safe to eat as long as I cook it thoroughly, even if I find a worm? Or should I be careful and throw it out? Thanks, Rory

This is all absolutely hilarious. I especially like the "insider" stories contributed by people in the food biz. How do we go about getting this thread moved to someplace more general so as to attract a wider audience? Another story: My poor Mom bought a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken once, the day after Thanksgiving, so as not to have to cook for all the house guests again. Long story short is there was a FAKE mouse in the bottom of the bucket, thoughtfully placed there by the teenagers who were running the place. Thing is, it looked so real, my Mom took the bucket back to KFC to show it to them and complain. The teenagers started to laugh when she returned, and showed her that it was fake, as if that makes it not a problem. We sued them; they settled out of court for $1500.

That one takes the cake, Monkeymay!

Let me refine my position on compensation. I don't think the restaurant is obligated to give diners a free pass when an error occurs. I do think that compensation should be greater when the error is greater. Getting served huge insects is pretty terrible, and we actually treated the restaurant with great sensitivity by handling the whole thing very quietly, whispering to keep other diners from overhearing what had occured. I think that if the compensation is only to not charge for the dish that offends (in my example, that would be if they had just taken the salad off the tab), then they are not doing enough. That doesn't make things even, to say, oh, we won't charge you for this offensive garbage we served you. They should do more. But what that turns out to be will depend on the situation, and the kind of place it is. That it was a very fancy restaurant says to me they should go further, because I have a right to expect the very best service. If it had been a dive, my attitude would be different. A few days after it opened, I went to Blue Ribbon Sushi in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I had a beautiful, flawless meal. But something interesting happened. I ordered a seaweed salad, and it was pretty large. There were 3 different types of seaweed served in separate piles. One of them I happened to not like that much, and since I'd ordered a lot of food, I decided to leave it over. There was nothing wrong with it. After the waiter removed the plate, the manager came to my table, very concerned that I hadn't finished the salad, and asked me if there was something wrong. I explained that it was fine, etc. I was very clear that nothing was wrong. Still, he was profusely apologetic. It was clear from the way things were running in the restaurant during this opening week that they were giving 150% to make customers happy, and it was a treat. The manager offered to give me a free replacement appetizer, but I turned this offer down, because I thought it was unnecessary. As SWoodyWhite points out above, it's bad form to act greedy or opportunistic. So I told the waiter I was totally happy and they didn't need to offer me anything. Still, when I got my bill, they let me know that they had taken my wine off the tab. At that point, I just accepted it, because they'd already written up the bill and I had already been clear that I didn't need anything. So, I accepted this gift, and I've eaten there again since this happened, happier to return than I might have been otherwise, because they treated me like royalty.

Just remembered another one. This one took place in Lima, Peru in August 2002. Went to a very fancy seafood restaurant right on the ocean called La Rosa Nautica. Emphasis on fancy. We ordered lots of food, including 2 appetizers to share, one salad and another one (can't remember it). When they came, I started eating the non-salad one and my husband started in on the salad. We each ate half, and then switched. When I got the salad plate in front of me, I saw that there were several huge insects on the plate. It was amazing that they got past the people in the kitchen and the waiter. I called the waiter over and told him. He fell completel silent, looked at the plate, and whisked it away without a word. We sat there wondering what in the world they could possibly do to keep us from staging a revolt (my husband had eaten off that plate). THe waiter came back, and whispered his apoligies. It was obvious that the main strategy was to keep other customers from catching on to what had happened. He offered to bring us something else. We declined, and said we'd move on to our entrees, which for some reason we decided would be safe since they were cooked. Our thinking was that the bugs were probaby just a salad problem. We were drunk, what can I say? Also there was nothing nearby to fall back on. We forced ourselves to eat our entrees and asked for a check. They brought us a free dessert. I thought we deserved to get the whole meal free, but what can you do? I guess when these things happen I am almost more intersted in what the restaurant will do to compensate me than I am in my own terrible experience. It is a study in customer relations. I feel that they should do more than just take the offending items off your bill.

I tasted a smoked beer at a tasting event at a store called Bierkraft, in Brooklyn, NY. I don't remember what it is called. You could find out by getting in touch with them, I'm sure. They have a web site.

I recently had dinner at Domicile, on West 13th Street, Manhattan (near the Quad Theater). I had such a bizarre experience there I just had to share it with the board. I ordered an appetizer that was described as a lobster salad with greens. When it arrived, half of a lemon wrapped in that nice yellow muslin fabric was sitting on the plate for me to use on my lobster. I squeezed the lemon all over my food, and felt that it was really mushy, and unusually juicy. I untied the ribbon, curious to see what they had done to make the lemon so "squeezeable". To my disgust, the lemon was a moldy mess: green mold on the surface, and the skin all discolored and sort of bloated looking. I alerted my server, who was really nice about it, and they quickly provided me with a different dish (couldn't go through with ordering the same thing again...too grossed out). I was glad that they took responsibility and apologized, but I felt like they had really done wrong by me, sneaking some fetid, gross stuff onto my plate to save a few cents. The fact that they didn't charge me for it didn't really go far enough to make me totally forgive this incident. I think they should have comped me for something else too. Anyway, I'm curious to hear your stories. What weird restaurant experiences have you had?

Thanks for the info. I'll check those out!

Thank you very much, herbacidal, for the chinese lesson. I was looking for the names for the baked and steamed roast pork bun. Now I get it. Many thanks. Anyone with places to recommend in Flushing, Queens or anywhere in NYC? Especially interested in baked roast pork buns.

I will try the Golden Unicorn. Thanks! Any other notable roast pork buns in NYC? I'm low on suggestions for Flushing, Queens. Also Sunset Park, Brooklyn's Chinatown. what is the roast pork bun called in chinese (the eggy one)? What is the other type of bun with meat called, and what is the difference?

Thanks, SFJoe, for the tip about pricking the shad roe to prevent explosions. I just made the other half of the roe tonight, using a different recipe. I chopped up some pancetta, cooked it up in a small saute pan, then added the roe, browning it on both sides. THen added some half and half, about a half inch worth. Cooked it till thicker. I thought then to cut up the had roe crosswise in half inch thick slices, so I could put them in the cream cut-side down to soak it up. Then turned them to soak the other side. Served with little pieces of chive. It was much better than yesterday's plain version. I'll definitely make this again next year. Yum.

Hi Pork Bun Fans, I live in Brooklyn, NY and I'm looking for the best roast pork buns in the city. So far have to try Hop Shing and Mei Lei Wah. Does anyone else have things to recommend in the 5 boroughs? I am obsessed with these buns.

I made shad roe today for the first time ever. I coated it lightly with flour, then sauteed it in butter. Served it with lemon and chives. It was...okay. I was hoping for more. I think that the richer recipes mentioned earlier in this thread (with cream and/or bacon) would be better. I'll try that tomorrow with the unused half. It had the annoying tendency to "explode"; a piece of it would pop in the cooking process, sending butter and bits of roe quite far. might want to use a screened cover if you have one. I was surprised that it was easy to handle it. Expected it to fall apart while I was separating the two halves, and dredging the piece iin the flour, but it didn't do tht at all.

http://www.lambertville.org/Pages/lambertv...tents/shad.html The Shad festival in Lambertville, NJ, last weekend in April (It's right across the river from New Hope, PA.). I attended last year, and it's more street fair than shad fest. You can get shad chowder and shad sandwiches, but I was hoping to see interesting preparations with roe, which there were not. Shad roe is the roe from the shad fish. A pair of roe is about a half pound, it's dark red. I'm sure some NYC restaurants are serving it.

I've scoured the internet and can't find an address or phone number for Don Pepe's. Someone please supply these if you have them. Much appreciated. Felidia is a slice of heaven!

Maybe it's too late to weigh in on your list but here goes... Why, oh why is East Post on this list? It's mediocre at best, and not very authentic in either the Italian or Italian-American categories. I vote that you add Felidia (Midtown Manhattan) to your list; it is amazing. Areo (in Brooklyn) was disappointing to me and several Italian-American friends. I like Bar Pitti and Da Silvano, on 6th Ave in Manhattan. They are right next door to each other. If you need any tasters for your project, count me in! I love Italian.

La Niña is correct about Montes, unfortunately. If you would get a kick out of eating in a former Sinatra haunt, this is the place for you. Also, if I recall, they allow you to order a half size order of any pasta dish, which is nice for some people. But the food's nothing terribly special. Not bad, but for sure there are many better Italian places in the general area. Like Al di La!

Question for Ruth: You said you had signed up for a class with Wylie Dufresne. Where? When? How? Details? Thanks.

I ate at Nobu about a month ago for the 4th time. We were all disappointed. We had the least expensive omakase menu (3 people). I'd had the omakase before, at varying levels, and had always been blown away. My previous visit was at least a year ago, so I don't think that redundancy was the problem. We had too little variety (several sashimi dishes) and no real "wow" dishes. Everything was good, there was nothing wrong with anything specific, but in general it was just "OK" and didn't live up to previous experiences. I wondered if Nobu was going downhill or if it was just an off night. Plus, we didn't see any celebrities (previous visits have included great sightings, especially UMA THURMAN). Has anyone been disappointed by Nobu recently?