VivreManger

I still like in Herrel's: Harvard Square and Brighton (on Brighton Ave. near Pho Pasteur)

Zhug, in contrast to all the harisa I have tried, can be green as well as red. The green color and distinctive taste comes from the addition of coriander to the pepper, garlic, oil mixture. I don't have any red shug -- pronounced s-hug -- handy, but I think that has coriander as well, but not as much. One supplier is Sabra Salads: www.sabrasalads.com I often see their products in kosher markets so it should be widely available in NYC. I often add it to hummus and as a condiment with falafel.

Keep up the search and thanks for the report. For what it is worth, several years' ago I bought a package of cryovaced confit -- six legs and thighs -- from John Dewar's, a good butcher in Newton, certainly one of the best in the Boston area. I prepared them carefully and truly enjoyed them. They were imported from Canada. More recently I returned for another go at confit de canard. The old brand was no longer in stock. A new Canadian supplier had replaced them. The new brand was more convenient, two legs to the package, but much inferior. The original had a crispy salty quality that returned with the cooking. Using the same technique for the second, yielded disappointing results. Perhaps one of the Canadian board might give me the names of the confit suppliers and I could remind the people at Dewar's who did them well.

Wednesday evening -- the start of the cold spell -- was a great night for a choucroute bite, a better day for a cassoulet, but we had driven in from Massachusetts for dinner at Boulet and neither, as I well knew, would be on the menu. Because of an accident on the Sawmill River Parkway, we were delayed, and instead of parking the car at our midtown hotel and taking a taxi, we had to drive directly downtown. Driving uptown afterwards meant drinking less at dinner. We were quickly seated in the white not red room, on the right as you enter, not on the left -- similarly designed to the room on other side. By 7:45 the restaurant was less than half-filled on our side, perhaps slightly more crowded on the other. Since the place was not packed, it was agreeably quiet. My wife's back gives her trouble so we had to shuffle the seating until we found a chair hard enough. I wound up on the banquette, against the window, where a cold draft alternated with periods of heat, not the most comfortable of spots, I gradually realized. But I did not succumb to the chills. The table was decorated with a low vase of roses, a lovely touch. The amuse bouche consisted of a cool glass with -- I believe -- mackerel cucumber foam on top and an avocado puree on the bottom with wasabi, yogurt, and apple somewhere in the middle and sweet corn kernels inside a tuile on the side plate. I am not a great fan of mackerel, much preferring cucumber and avocado. The fish flavor kept slipping in and out of the palate creating a scarlet pimpernel sensation -- is it here, is it there, is it everywhere? Ultimately it was intriguing, but not enthralling. The apple yogurt combination reminded me of the pre-dessert at GR RHR, not exactly the high point of that particular meal. Given the weather, I would have preferred something warmer, perhaps a cup of hot vegetable chicken broth. Thee tree-star Gordon Ramsay Royal Hospital Road in London truffled -- and unfortunately also over salted -- their chicken stock as the amuse at the lunch I had on a far warmer day so David Boulet should not have feared losing chef face by doing something similar. For starters my wife had the terrine of eggplant, bell pepper, with a layer of chevre. This cheese, BTW missing from the menu's description, was more prominent than the announced Italian parsley sauce. I had the grilled Portuguese sardine with marinated hon shimeji and cremini mushrooms, soy, yuzu and citrus marinade. Both of us were pleased. While I too enjoyed the eggplant, it reminded me of a very well-made ratatouille, well-done, but nothing exceptional. The chevre addition did give it an unusual taste, worth noting as an addition for other dishes. The sardine may have been the single best item of the first two courses. Well-grilled fish is one of the under appreciated elements of cuisine and these pieces of sardine were beautifully grilled. The outer flesh was slightly crispy. The flesh below was yielding and moist. The sardine combined the charred taste of the grill, with the robust oily fishiness of the sea more agreeably than in the mackerel amuse. The fungi and citrus marinade were an effective counterpoint to the fish taste. I did not sense the soy as strongly as the mushrooms and the citrus marinade, which was muted and contributed to but did not overwhelm the other flavors. For mains my wife had the King salmon with a citrus sauce topped with clementine. I had the black sea bass with scallops, jasmine rice and bouillabaise sauce. The salmon dish did not really work. The clementine overwhelmed the other tastes. The first bites of my dish were superb. The sauce was excellent, essence of bouillabaisse, a favorite -- at least as good as one can find it this side of the Atlantic. The slow-cooked tomato, bass, and scallop combination worked well together. The fish was black sea bass, not the over-fished and over-served oily variety aka Patagonian tooth-fish. Black sea bass is closer in texture and flavor to cod than to the non-black bass, if I am not mistaken. However as I ate more of the dish my appreciation slightly decreased. The later scallop slices, rather than the fish itself, seemed a bit overcooked. These slices had that dried, slightly recooked aftertaste that not good scallops in an inferior restaurant sometimes have. I wonder if the dish could be improved if the slices were flashed fried with a touch of butter and olive oil in a very hot skillet, then the pan residues could have been reduced quickly with a bit of the bouillabaisse sauce before this was added to the sauce for the fish. Rather than cooking the scallops with the fish which I think is now done, they could be added after so each would be prepared separately to reflect their different thicknesses and cooking times. As the dish is now prepared the scallops do not really create the "Scallop Crust" the menu description offers. Although I usually love rice of all descriptions, the jasmine rice under the fish with its hint of coconut or vanilla or both, although pleasant enough started to remind me a bit of rice pudding. None of these objections of course prevented me from finishing the dish, but it did ever so slightly diminish delight. As we were eating our mains, the fingerling mashed potatoes arrived, a starch I did prefer to the rice. The mashed had a consistency that reminded me of the Auvergne speciality, aligote, but without the cheese. Heretically, I must confess this an easier way to eat the dish. The bread service was very good. As I recall, six or seven types were offered: Apple-biscuits, a pleasant combination, a standard issue white bread whose details escape me, and then a proffered tray of breads with, respectively, pistachio, walnut, raisin, olive, or garlic. I happily tried the olive and garlic. My one complaint there was that after I finished my main course, but still had some bread left, the staff were a bit too eager to remove my bread plate before I was finished with it. At this point, my wife was ready to order dessert and I offered to help, our common practice. In general I prefer not to eat dessert immediately after my main course, but prefer to wait a bit, to allow the gentlemen to retire to the sitting room for cigars and brandy, before returning to the ladies for the brandied flaming bread pudding. However I forgot that we were at Bouley where no main can pass without immediately being followed by multiple attacks of sugar. In fact we ordered and were charged for only one dessert, but we got the standard sweet feast. By my count we each had four dessert courses, each of which had multiple components. First was a pre-dessert of strawberries, yogurt, and Campari sugar. Three of the tastes I could immediately identify, but primed as I was to find the Campari, it still eludes me. You may remember the amuse here began with a bit of yogurt. GR RHR also offers a pre-dessert of yogurt with fruit. By now I am finding the idea a bit boring, particularly since my standard breakfast is yogurt, fruits of the season, a bit of preserves, and flakes of dry cereal. Still it was cool -- given the evening perhaps a bit too cool -- and refreshing. Certainly it cleansed the palate of all that preceded. After considerable temptation, my wife succumbed to the Sweet Pleasures, described on the website as "Fine Leaves of Milk Chocolate with Milk Chocolate Ganache and Chantilly Light Crisp Praliné on a Toasted Hazelnut Dacquoise", four separate items, but when they arrived they must have proliferated to at least one or two more. In my sugar-high clouded memory, I think there was also a rich chocolate fudgies cake and, perhaps, one or two other bits and pieces. Unordered there arrived a dessert of my own, "Raspberry Cloud with Yogurt Caramel Crisp, Rose Petal Ice Cream Amaretto Toffee Sauce and Apricot Anglaise". I am not sure the amaretto and apricot anglaise were on my plate, but the cloud and ice cream definitely were. The raspberry cloud is in fact a frozen raspberry mousse, with a delightful consistency, a kind of slightly crystalized pudding. The rose petal ice cream subtly complemented the raspberry mouse. At some point there was a blood orange sauce, but I can't remember if it was on my plate or my wife's. It went well on whosever plate it was. These two main dessert courses were followed by another light post-dessert, a parfait of white chocolate mousse, strawberries and cream. My wife was starting to wave the white flag so she called me into to rescue her, but I too was almost at my end. The truth is that I am not a fan of white chocolate, which has all the fattening disadvantages of real chocolate without the high. But she did recover as soon as the mignardises arrived. The plate consisted of one finger nailed sized portion each of: tuille, truffle, sable breton, almond cookie, butter cookie, and mini fruit tart. I might have missed one or two items. She is more of a fan of butter-nut cookies then I and she pronounced them perfection. Who am I to disagree? Because of the change in driving plans I drank much less wine that I would have expected. We each had one glass. The Mrs. had a very good pinot grigio whose name escapes me. Perhaps someone could help me out the name since it definitely is worth ordering again. She enjoyed it very much. Normally I find pinot grigio much too steely. I don't like drinking razor blades. But this one was far more full-bodied and smoother than normal without becoming a chardonnay. I had the A to Z Pinot Noir, a very pleasant, if not exceptional, wine. The water service was amusing. Very shortly after being seated an eager young man asked if we would like to order some, Evian being the beverage on offer. I asked if they had Badoit, which they did not. Instead we were offered "Nappe ??", an Italian sparkling water similar to San Pellegrino which we did accept. Towards the very end of the meal, we had finished the bottle and, unbidden, he opened and started pouring a second bottle of it which we declined. At this point we did insist upon tap water. Since we hardly had any wine, we did not have any contact with the sommelier, but we did deal with at least four or five other servers whose precise roles I could not clearly define. There was our waiter who seemed to be in charge of the entire room, rather a large order even on a slow night. There was the water boy, very young looking. There was a 20 something fellow who offered the wine list, but did not seem to have a sommelier's authority. Then there was a jacketed gentleman, about the age of our waiter who seemed to float through the room without necessarily taking any orders, perhaps the wine was his role. Flitting through on the wings of mercury were a kitchen server or two who wandered in and out all too briefly to present and describe the chef's unbidden offerings, e.g. amuse bouche and extra desserts. We managed to hail one to try to get a slower description, but he seem to have taken a course in speed speaking so it was not easy to keep track of all the ingredients. The incomplete descriptions I am able to share here drew upon the few notes I took, in addition to checking the website and other sources. The service struck me, not surprisingly, as considerably less formal and less classically organized than comparable restaurants in Europe which I know better. By the way they passed the napkin test with flying colors. On the other hand, they seem yet to have learned my wife's favorite style of coffee, the Americano, a decaf espresso served in a standard full cup with added water. She had to explain it, twice. I am not sure how I feel about the room's head waiter. Later when push came to shove, he did respond attentively to our comments and suggestions, of which more below, but earlier I felt he was treating us with a bit of knowing, slightly condescending bemusement. His responses to our queries about how certain dishes were precisely prepared, reflected a bit of impatience -- and this was earlier in the evening when the room had not yet started to fill. We clearly were not the evening's big spenders. At least two or three of the other nearby tables were ordering either chef's choice or the tasting menu. And we ordered little wine. Furthermore my wife displayed considerably less décolletage than at least two of the other tables. When we asked if David Bouley was cooking that evening we got an oracular non-response, which might be interpreted to mean he is so good that even if he were not cooking the quality of the kitchen and staff he has created make his presence or absence immaterial. I still don't know what he meant. As I indicated at the top of this message, it was a cold evening, the start of a well-predicted visit to the northeast's deep freeze -- where is global warming now that we need it??? -- a perfect evening for a hearty soup, but only one was on offer. The Mrs. wanted to know if the cauliflower soup could be made sans foie gras -- she is not into innards -- no luck. Was any other soup possible? No. And then he added that for five years he had been trying to get David to put a soup on the menu and only recently did he finally agree to this one so the chances of getting any other were dim. After we finished eating, we did manage to make a second appointment with him, at which point he unexpectedly sat down at the empty chair next to our table and listened only to my wife's suggestions -- I decided to keep mum about the overcooked scallops. The king salmon was overwhelmed by the clementine and otherwise lacked any of the other listed citrus flavors. It was a good piece of fish, well-cooked, but lacked much distinction. Also, she -- a great lover of rabbit food -- asked, could there not be a green salad on the menu? No, in effect he explained, David would never put one on the menu since it would fail to offer an opportunity for his talents, but had you asked we could have made you one. The waiter was in fact highly opinionated and informative, with quite a bit of his own shtick, but limits to what he could actually produce. In sum, the meal and service were, on the whole, very good, but I could imagine might have been even better. I thought the desserts were the best single aspect of the meal, with the starters a close second. The desserts certainly were the most fun. One other pleasant note, which in the rushed escape from the cold we missed at our entrance, the apple orchard. The walls of the entrance anteroom to the restaurant are covered with fresh apples displayed behind narrow wood crate boards. The aroma is intoxicatingly sweet and heavy, like a crisp New England fall day at the cider mill in the orchard. But of course now we are in the dead of winter and I wondered what would they do when the apples froze -- perhaps make ice cider? Responding both to our experience that evening and other reports I have collected, I sense that David Bouley is in a bit of a rut. The menu has changed little over the last year or so. Even the so-called seasonal tasting menu gave little evidence of responding to the season's changing needs, a philosophy of cooking that might be termed anti-Alice Waters. It is as if chef and kitchen are wrapped in a time warp all of their own, with little need to take into account the cold winds swirling around them. I do know that after 11 September he was forced to respond to more than just swirling winds. Now that the towers' debris has settled, perhaps he just wants to curl up and ignore the outside.

We never got the results of the Katz's -- Schwartz's shootout. I hope nobody clogged their arteries too much to write. As posted elsewhere, I did Katz's last week and did Schwartz's and a a few other places in Montreal last summer, as well as Langer's in LA in December. My conclusion is that Schwartz's Montreal smoked meat is the tastiest and Langer's is the most tender. I find that the preparation of pastrami as opposed to smoked meat lacks the spicy zest of the Montreal product. Although I asked the counterman at Katz's for medium fatty and although they charge extra for lean, my sandwich was still much too lean for my taste. I asked for it to be cut from the plate and he didn't seem to know what I was talking about. Maybe I should know the word in Spanish. But even if he had been moister and more tender, the comparative inadequacy of the spicing makes pastrami less tasty than smoked meat.

As promised, here is the last part of my pastry report, this on Ceci-Cela Pâtisserie 55 Spring St Bet. Lafayette/Mulberry (212) 274-9179 My original itinerary had not included Ceci Cela. From 2nd Avenue I had been planning to take the F train to Lafayette and change to the Lexington Ave. line Uptown to get to Payard. However I discovered that you can't get there from here. I would have to get out, add a fare and cross to the Uptown entrance. Rather than waste my two bucks on Lafayette St. I decided to go down one stop to Spring on the 6 train and check out the Spring St. Ceci Cela which is right next to the station entrance. I was very glad I did. Ceci Cela is what I would call, to paraphrase Pan, a very good ordinary patisserie -- it is a concept I do accept. I simply don't consider the tartes sampled from Pain Quotidien to have reached that level. CC is the kind of reliable unpretentious purveyor that you can usually find in a Paris neighborhood. Not everything is great, but the standard is high and the price-quality ratio is good. The pastries are a little more than half the price of the uptown shops and the size is almost as large. Everything looked good. Of what I tried -- raspberry with brandied cherries, apple, creme brulee, and cherry flan -- the raspberry cherry tart was the best, the apple the least successful. I also bought some eclairs and a strawberry tarte, but I gave those away without a taste. The pastry dough is neither too hard or thick -- like that in Pain Quotidien and Payard -- nor too soft with the risk of sogginess -- like that of Petrossian. Instead it is of the typical classic French style. The strawberry tart had a rich eggy custard. The raspberry-cherry had a layer of nuts as well. I also very much preferred the atmosphere to any of the other places, narrow and tight as it was. Locals were coming in and out, to be greeted with a familiar word of welcome. But a stranger was also quickly made welcome as well. The Frenchman -- owner, employee?? -- who was running the counter had an easy friendly manner. Although the quality is not as high as the Bontè of yesteryear, the atmosphere was similar. Ceci Cela does not have the precious pretentious quality of the mid-town and uptown patisserie, nor the corporate multi-outlet enforced good behavior of the multi-branch Le Pain Quotidien -- 6 in Manhattan and 3 in LA. I believe CC has two branches downtown and I can well understand the preference for this branch. The other, which I happened to drive by a day earlier, is much less intime. By the way I did not try the croissant or brioche. In general, the best croissant I have had over the last year or so, between sampling in Paris, Montreal, and New York, has to be at Duc de Lorraine in Montreal.

Actually Petrossian offers two kinds of packages, the clear acetate which is quite elegant and the normal hard paper box. Soggy phyllo dough means that their pastries do not have a long shelf-life, but at least they are better to begin with.

Although I usually quick fry okra to eliminate the slime, what's wrong with a little slime now and then. It is an interesting texture, particularly when part of a stew.

As I indicated earlier in Manger Munches Manhattan, I wanted to offer a report on patisseries and other sites sampled on my visit. Payard, disappointing. Petrossian, good. Ceci Cela, very good, a very nice surprise. Pain Quotidien, mixed First to dispense with the one not in the running: Pain Quotidien. As the name suggests it is a bakery not a patisserie, but since one of its branches is across the street from Petrossian and a few minutes from where we were staying I thought it worth trying. Their bread is respectable. Pain poilaine it is not, but they bake an honest loaf. The baguette was rustic, chewy, and tasty. The large wheat round bread is a substantial piece of gluten with good hearty wholewheat flavor. I have yet to sample the multi-grain, but it smells good. Their croissant is better than the supermarket variety, and is comparable to the sub-standard issue all too common in Paris, but it does not match what a croissant should be, a flaky, light buttery, brief crumbling communion with warm and wonderful wheat in a field of sunshine. The contrast between the outer dark crunchy crust and the inner yielding white dough should have been more elaborate. They make a so-called Belgian brownie that is bigger and better than the standard supermarket issue, but nothing spectacular. On the other hand their pastries are horrid. I bought two tarts: one lemon and once caramel creme brulee. The base of crust might as well have been cardboard. It was nearly hard as a rock. The toppings were even worse. The so-called creme brulee tasted like a layer of cookless -- the kind kids whip up in the kitchen -- butterscotch pudding on top of a thin layer of vanilla pudding. However I can recommend them for one virtue, a virtue that flows from their vice. Since they are not a patisserie, they know how to pack their product to go. In striking contrast to Payard, the villain of the piece, they know that not all their customers transport their products home on a gyroscopically and aerodynamically balanced pastry conveyor mounted on a special platform of their chauffeured Rolls. PQ offers small hard plastic containers that snap shut and neatly hold the pastry in place. Better to buy them than the pastry they hold. I should have realized what Payard was like when I called them early in the day to place my order. I explained that I would be carrying the pastries home a distance and I wanted to pack them carefully. I suggested that each tart could be placed in a small box all its own and that would minimize damage. They evinced no idea of what I was talking about. In Paris, I take that reaction for granted since one shops at the neighborhood patisserie -- as one should -- and the walk home is only a few feet away. But in mobile car-driven America, I would expect a different response. Their reaction actually encouraged me to expect something as good as Paris, one explanation of their cluelessness. When I picked up my order that evening the tartes were all crowded into one weak large fancy yellow Payard box, more decorative than effective. I suggested that they could put some bakery tissue paper between each of the half dozen or so pieces so they would not move so much. Two responses: the paper would itself acquire the adjoining pastries and why don't I buy one more so there would be less free space. Of course I should have said better the paper than the pastry. I don't really care for chocolate berry melange mousse, but a bit of berry mousse on its own wrapping paper can always be licked off. By the time I got around to ordering, the Louvre -- various mousses in dark chocolate -- was gone, but I did try a Japonais, Manhasset, Chocolate chiboust tart, two NY, NY, and a chocolate mousse in a tin cup to fill the box. I also picked up a few macarons, rose and chocolate. Payard love mousses and I do too, but they are not Bouley mousse makers. I tried the cassis mousse in the Manhasset, the chocolate mousse in the Japonais and in the Notre Dame. None of these were bad, but none of them puts Payard in the major pastry league. Their problem is that for all their mousse might, they don't know how to make pastry dough. The sable Breton in the Manhasset Cassis mousse was as hard and tasty as a rock, a horrid contrast to the delicate cookie at Bouley the night before. The sweet dough in the Chocolate Chiboust Tart made the cookie at the base of the chocolate bas relief in Lu's Le Petit Ecolier, seem like a gossamer fairy delicacy. The pastry is not well-baked. I wonder if they share recipes with Pain Quotidien. As for the macarons, their center was dry and tasteless. I expect the best French patisserie in New York to be inferior to those in Paris, but at least they should be comparable. The divide in quality between Pierre Herme and Payard is far greater than the ocean between them. Payard could not survive in Paris. As I was getting ready to pay, I did notice they had a tarte tatin for sale, but I had already bought enough and the apples on this tarte were far too pale and insufficiently carmelized to tempt me. For your convenience here is what appears on their website. Japonais Milk Chocolate Mousse, Yuzu Citrus Cream, Sacher Biscuit Louvre, Hazelnut Mousse, Milk Chocolate Mousse, Hazelnut Dacquoise Covered in Dark Chocolate. Manhasset Cassis Mousse, Passion Fruit Cream with a Sable Breton NY, NY Lemon Sponge, Berry Syrup, Fresh Berries and a Cream Cheese Mousse with a Manhattan Skyline Silk Screen -- incidentally the twin towers till stand. Notre Dame, Chocolate Biscuit, Chocolate Mousse and Vanilla Bavarois. Saint-Honore, Pastry Filled with Sweetened Whipped Cream and Dipped in Caramel Paris Brest, Choux Pastry Filled with Praliné Cream. Mont Blanc, Sweet Dough, Chestnut Cream, Meringue, Whipped Cream, Chesnut Vermicelles and Candied Chestnuts. Chocolate Chiboust Tart Sweet Dough, Caramel Ganache, Candied Nuts and Chocolate Chiboust Cream. I know Petrossian as a purveyor of caviar and smoked salmon and I was surprised by the suggestion that I try their pastry. Their website lists none and when I appeared at their shop in the morning none were yet on display. Sight unseen and on blind trust I ordered a few. Quickly I realized I was dealing with a staff very different from Payard. One pastry I intended for a friend with a very rare digestive disorder that restricts her diet. One of the few fruits she can eat is blueberries. When I learned they make a blueberry blackberry tarte, I asked if they could make it all blueberry. Though surprised, Gigi quickly agreed. When I returned later to pick them up, I was not disappointed. Petrossian uses as its base, fillo-like flaky dough, a mille-feuille. The result is an extremely light and delicate foil for the fruit above. I gave away three of the pastries to friends at home and so have fully tasted only the raspberry tarte, but it is a very impressive creation. Not too sweet, a slight date-like base below. I could not identify the fruit. I took a small taste of the apple in another tarte. I did not like it as much, but the dough below it seemed equally scrumptious. I also bought a fruit strudel and a savory cheese role. The strudel I have yet to try. I have had better cheese rolls. A detailed review of the last patisserie, Ceci Cela will have to wait. As a neighborhood shop, it does have an element that makes Paris patisseries so charming and appealing. The product is not as pretensious as the other two, but it is closer to what I had in mind when I posed my request. Financier Patisserie way down in Chinatown, I did not try on this trip, but DSethG's report makes it well worth a visit.

I find it surprising that the Brits should have gotten a 3-star before Italy. I suspect it is because ultimately Michelin believes that the best food is French food and the Italians, unlike the Brits, have a distinguished cuisine of their own that has no need to important much from their northwestern neighbors. Perhaps the Michelin recognition reflects however tentatively the decline of cuisine chauvinism with the rise of the European Union.

Sorry. I am digitally challenged, but verbally equal to the task of describing all three, which I will do when I can find the time. Suffice it to say that Katz's looks good. It is a bigger sandwich than Langer's and probably Schwartz's as well. It is less expensive than Langer's and more expensive than Schwartz's.

Never heard of Schwartz nor Langer; Are they in New York? Sorry for the obscure references. Langer's is the best Jewish deli in LA. Schwartz's is the legendary smoked meat emporium in Montreal.

I can't find the link easily, but in the Northwest and in the Canada forum during the summer of '03 I was involved in long and well-informed discussions of wild versus farmed as well as canned salmon. The bottom line is that canned is usually wild. In Canada where they offer many more varieties of canned salmon than in the US, it is sometimes labelled wild, but generally in the US & in Canada it is not. Curiously all the Canadian labelled salmon I bought in Quebec was actually canned in the US -- Washington State -- even if the packer was Canadian.

As promised, in the Schwartz's, Langer's, Katz's, pastrami poll, my vote goes to Schwartz's. While it is not the most tender, it has the most taste. Yesterday I ate at Katz's for the first time in nearly thirty years.

Yesterday I got to Katz's for the first time in over twenty years. In the Schwartz's, Langer's, Katz's, pastrami poll, my vote goes to Schwartz's. While it is not the most tender, it has the most taste. More details to follow, if I find the time.

Oh well. The choices for eating were not mine and so I could not pursue the suggestions generously offered. Many thanks for them anyway, perhaps next time. At least I can tell you what to avoid: The deli in the Shopping Center at Lyons & Glades in Boca. The waiter had shtick and a well-rehearsed routine, but they don't know how to make a hot corned beef sandwich. I asked for a bit of fat to keep the machined sliced mound of meat from disintegrating into a handful of dust. I got a handful of dust. The corned beef briskets looked good in the counter display, but they don't know how to cut the mustard. Casa D'Angelo, 1201 N. Federal Hwy.Fort Lauderdale, FL 33304-1456 954/564-1234 The first problem is their reservation system. Despite repeated calls to confirm the time, the reservation had gotten screwed up so there was a lot of hassle before we were seated. Upscale pretentious Italian. Pseudo-Tuscan. For appetizer I ordered the baby eggplant stuffed with prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella. This was the biggest baby I have ever met. I spent the whole course looking for the prosciutto, a single thin piece buried deep in the belly of the big baby eggplant. I usually eat Buffalo mozzarella uncooked, so perhaps the heat changes the taste, but the cheese was not outstanding. As a special they were offering a zuppa de pesce with pasta. The fish was lobster tail, clams, shrimp and Chilean sea bass. As an ecological and gastronomic statement, I have been swearing off seabass, but zuppe de pesce is one of my all time favorites and I could not resist. I wish I had remained true to my principles. The essence of any good zuppa de pesce I have ever had is the boulliabaise-like saffron stock, a rich combination of fish and fish bones long simmered to produce a strong and potent broth. No saffron in this dish. The fish never came together and sea bass does not work in a stew. I was sorely disappointed. The veal marsala was soft and sweet which is what my 85 year old father in law craved. So he was happy and it was his birthday. The portions are Americano gargantuana. The quality is Americano mediocritano. I wish I could have gone somewhere else. Uncle KC's on Sample corner of Lyons in Coconut Creek serves its early bird special all evening long. The place was packed with snow birds, pickingover their mushu pancakes. Undistinguished but cheap Chinese food. It is reliable and their ppan-fried dumplings are surprisingly delicate.

I am a sucker for French pastry. My favorites are tarte tatin, fruit tartes, but I am willing to try anything rich and lucious. Years ago I would swoon over the cassis cream cake at Bonte, a pastry shop on 3rd Avenue in the 70s, that is no longer. Next week I will be in Manhattan on business and along the way I am hoping to find a good place to buy some pastry. I will be around Lexington in the 20s, with stops at 2nd Avenue Deli and Katz's, then onto 7th avenue in the 50s, and finally a quick visit to Zabar's to get some smoked fish before heading back to New England. My question is geogastronomic. Given this itinerary, are there any places worth trying in these various neighborhoods? I believe that Black Hound is right near the 2nd Avenue, but while their chocolates might be worth trying, their style is not precisely what I crave. Any other suggestions?

I have been reading about 2nd Ave. Deli recently and I wonder if anyone else puts it in the Katz's league. Apparently their strength is corned beef, rather than pastrami. As for Langer's, it is not spicy and assertive enough for me, but it is quite good.

Tomorrow I am off to the Boca for a father-in-law birthday celebration, my culinary choices will be determined by multi-generational family preferences, I suspect a typical situation for Florida visits. That said, I wonder if this particular social fact limits the general culinary experience in the area. In surfing the web for restaurant ideas, I have been struck by the paucity of Florida hits and solid recommendations, a fact consistent with my own experience. I would be delighted if someone can show me I am wrong.

Actually I have just learned that Deli Cieux has closed. Details to follow. So spam and spittle may very well be all that waits there. As for the boundary question. My Montreal-born wife offers two names for the area where Snowdon Del is located. Either Snowdon or Decarie. Queen Mary and Cte. St-Luc Blvd. are key dividers. In addition rhe Decarie Expressway has constructed a physical and psychological boundary, whatever else may exist in parish, municipal, and precinct records.

Sorry, I stand corrected. Snowdon it is.

The detailed plan will depend on the March weather, but I have in mind a Saturday in mid to late March. Everything is to be old-fashioned of course. The following list is a bare minimum of four with others to be added as interest and expertise determine: Schwartz's The Main Deli Cieux in NDG Snowdon Del further afield, perhaps??, Lester's, on rue Bernard, in Outremont, their standard issue and dry-aged Smoked Meat Pete, opened on Ile Perrot, a few years back, Abie's, on boulevard St-Jean, on the West Island. Back in May, Jacob Richler did an article in the National Post sampling some, but not all of these, but his test was done with meat couriered and then warmed up in Toronto -- not I believe a true test. He is going to be back in Montreal in March and I am hoping to rope him into this venture as well. Ben's should not even be imagined. It is out. On the other hand if along the way we need a break, we could stop at Coco Rico for some chicken and we might need a few beers between sandwiches.

While in La I dined at the China Islamic Restaurant in Rosemead and started to ponder why the Kosher Chinese phenomenon does not draw upon this rich authentically Han culinary tradition instead of substituting veal for pork and committing other forms of gastronomic heresy. I love lamb and Muslim Chinese cooking does too. It also features a sesame covered scallion bread that almost tastes like it emerged from the ovens of H&H. It even has the best feature of chive cheese w/o the calories. They even use lots of cabbage. True, Chinese Muslims eat shellfish so the match is not complete, but for the most part this cuisine should -- rather than Szechuan and Cantonese that are so dominant -- be the basis for Chinese food for observant Jews.

Last week I was in LA and managed half a pastrami at Langer's. I would have ordered the whole sandwich, but I had been to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles for breakfast and that cramped my style, among other parts of my body. Unfortunately my Katz's experience is decades old so that basis of comparison is denied me. However I will be in NY next month and hope to get downtown to try a pastrami sandwich. My more recent basis of comparison is Montreal smoked meat, with samples from Schwartz's, Snowdon Del and the Main, this past summer. Langer's is much less spicy and tangy than Montreal meat, hardly a surprise. It was also noticably more tender. The overall taste was excellent. The meat was flavorful and moist. As you may know in contrast to Katz's in NYC, Langer's does not have counter service, but I was able to make my preference for medium fatty, not Hollywood lean, made know through the waitress and the sandwich arrived as ordered. Some claim that Langer's is the best in North America. I would not go there, but the rye bread is good -- better than the standard issue in Montreal. The mustard choices are better. The ideal sandwich would be Montreal smoked meat spiciness with Langer's tender juiciness and superior accompaniments. On the other hand, the pickles are better in Montreal. Next month, Katz's, God willing. In March I am contemplating a smoked meat March madness marathon -- hitting all the major purveyors for a taste-out on and off the Main (Montreal talk for St. Lawrence). Anybody else interested? I would also like to try the new kid in town, Deli Cieux. Do respond if anybody else is interested in a smoked meat crawl?

To get us back on track. Last week I was in LA and managed half a pastrami at Langer's. I would have ordered the whole sandwich, but I had been to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles for breakfast and that cramped my style, among other parts of my body. Unfortunately my Katz's experience is decades old so that basis of comparison is denied me. However I will be in NY next month and hope to get downtown to try a pastrami sandwich. My more recent basis of comparison is Montreal smoked meat, with samples from Schwartz's, Snowdon Del and the Main. Langer's is much less spicy and tangy than Montreal meat, hardly a surprise. It was also noticably more tender. The overall taste was excellent. The meat was flavorful and moist. As you know Langer's does not have counter service, but I was able to make my preference for medium fatty, not Hollywood lean, made know through the waitress and the sandwich arrived as ordered. Some claim that Langer's is the best in North America. I would not go there, but the rye bread is good -- better than the standard issue in Montreal. The mustard choices are better. The ideal sandwich would be Montreal smoked meat spiciness with Langer's tender juiciness and superior accompaniments. On the other hand, the pickles are better in Montreal. Next month, Katz's, God willing. In March I am contemplating a smoked meat March madness marathon -- hitting all the major purveyors for a taste-out on and off the Main (Montreal talk for St. Lawrence). Anybody else interested?