La Niña

Sour Cream Pound Cake 1/2 lb (2 sticks) unsalted butter (no substitutes) 3 c sugar, sifted 6 egg yolks 3 c flour, sifted 1 c sour cream 1/2 tsp baking soda 4 tsp vanilla zest of one lemon 6 egg whites, stiffly beaten Ganache 1 c heavy cream 8 oz good quality chocolate 1 tsp kirsch or cointreau Beat butter, sugar, egg yolks until creamy. Sift flour with baking soda Alternate adding flour mixture and sour cream to butter mixture, mixing thoroughly in between Add vanilla and lemon zest, mix thoroughly. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in 10" tube pan (greased and floured) at 300 degrees for 1 1/2 hr. - exactly. Cool slightly, and turn out on rack. (I usually use a non-stick bundt pan - works like a charm) I glaze mine with a chocolate ganache - Let the ganache cool a bit, and dribble it on top and let it flow down the sides of the cake. Keywords: Dessert, Cake ( RG416 )

How about it, Stevealeh?

You're hanging out with the wrong rich people.

Jonathan, that's a silly thing to say. A foolish generalization. Having or not having money has nothing to do with taste. Money simply affords one the opportunity to experience a broader range of things.

What are the differences you speak of between these audiences?

From the Babbo website: ...at Babbo we cook as an Italian might in the Mid-Atlantic/Hudson Valley region. At Babbo you will rarely find your favorite regional classics as you have eaten them in osterie, trattorie and ristoranti throughout Italy. What you will find is delicious simple food that hopefully tastes as good as you remember from your last visit to Italy because we strive in the Italian fashion to shorten the time and distance any ingredient spends from the soil, or the water, or the air, to the plate. We import pasta, Parmigiano Reggiano, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and Prosciutto San Daniele because they are so distinct and virtually indispensable to the creation of a great Italian meal. We fervently believe in the inherent quality, freshness and greatness of our regions ingredients purchased from local, predominantly organic, farmers and friends, many of them from forgotten or heirloom varietals. We are proud to make most of our salumi, including guanciale, pancetta, lardo, coppa and soppressata. Our cheeses come from all over Italy, with one great exception from the Hudson Valley. Our desserts are like none you have ever eaten in Italy, yet they feel and taste totally Italian. Our wine list is one hundred percent Italian in celebration of the quality and diversity of Italian grape varietals and vinification. Like most Italian restaurateurs, we love where we live and live to celebrate both our location and our ingredients, from the land, air and sea. Babbo is our interpretation [my emphasis] of the best we have come to know in the Italian culture of family where it is best and most often celebrated, at the dinner table."

But you still haven't answered his question.

I really liked that dish too.

Yes, the food at Bread Bar was more enjoyable than the food at Diwan.

Do you mean that the Indian diners at Tabla don't eat "real" Indian food too? All I know is that the seven people at Tabla would call their meal Indian. Saying that Tabla isn't an Indian restaurant is like saying that Nobu isn't Japanese, or that Patria isn't Latin. I Danny Meyer: "Tabla is a very American restaurant. We're using American ingredients, and Western culinary technique, but we're seasoning with Indian spices." Also found: "Cardoz emphasizes that rather than experimenting with Indian food, he is embellishing American and French dishes with Indian spices. Tabla certainly has echoes of India in its food, with its Indian seasonings, its bread bar and tandoori ovens. The desserts too are not Indian, but have a whiff of Indian spices."

Frankly, my dear...

gjohnson, I disagree about the butter and the cream on a larger scale - cumin is a bigger, bolder flavor than butter or cream. Butter and cream can be more about texture and mouth feel than flavor. Indian spices TASTE bigger than everything else, including the ingredients they're surrounding. French cooking (good French cooking - I'm not talking about lousy French cooking) - has to work to keep a balance, whereas Indian cooking, by its nature, has bold, big spicy flavors in the front, right away. It's easier. And that's why it costs less. But if you're just going to make light of my comments in order to be obnoxious, I see no reason to participate here.

I don't know, Stone, I've never eaten Keller's food. But sure, it's possible.

I wouldn't bother with Manducatis, based on lots of reading and lots of conversations I've had (if you're talking about food only) - for wine, Manducatis is worth the trip. You're not going to be a regular there in one visit. And let me assure you, you will be having meals in Queens.

I love Indian food, so let's get that out of the way. I was at dinner at Bread Bar the other night (my first time there), and I've been to Diwan twice - once for the egullet banquet, and one other time. I did like the food at Bread Bar better. It was "brighter," as Toby said. The food was more fun, the food made more sense to me, the flavors were more accessible. And the quantities weren't obscene. And I liked the room and the service better. One reason people pay more for French food is because it's SUBTLE. The flavors sometime have to be discovered, worked to comprehend, and effort has to be made to appreciate the layers, the progression of flavors, the development in the mouth. Indian spices are in your face - right there on the tongue, right away. It doesn't take a lot of work to "get" an Indian dish, no matter how skilled the chef. It's the nature of the spices. I think it's the same with most spicy cuisines - the skill involved in the preparation of French food MUST be at a higher level than the spicy cuisines, because it doesn't have these bold spices to hide behind. The interesting tastes have to be milked, as it were, put forward with skill, and deliberately. That's my first thought. I'm not willing to pay lots of money to have different kinds of cumin or turmeric or coriander play big roles in food - it's too easy to do it. I pay more for French food because it IS more complex, and it requires more of my brain to appreciate it...good French cooking can't bang me over the head with spice. Good French cooking can't mask its flaws with more hot peppers. I cook more Indian food than anything else. I've been eating Indian food my whole life. I lived with an Indian for 6 years. I've spent loads of time with Indian families. It's a bold cuisine - but not worth the money that the subtlety of French cuisine provides.

yummee - it's so, so easy to make. Even the most basic recipes are better than what you get when you eat out. Here's a ridiculously easy thing to do - there's a brand of savoiardi (ladyfingers) that you can find all over the place - I forget the name now (it's an Italian import). It's a bright orange and yellow plastic package. Italian name. Anyway....get them, and follow the recipe on the package. That was one of the early tiramisu recipes I used to make before I started varying them - and it's delicious. Just be sure to let it sit in the refrigerator for a long time - all day, or overnight. And finely grate chocolate on top before you serve it - don't use powdered. Use a rectangular glass baking dish if you have one.

There are as many variations on tiramisu as there are preparers of tiramisu. It can be deadly dull, and it can be sublime.

Eddie - that's why I love the buns at Mei Lei Wah. Perfect ratio.

Must vote against them both. Mind you, I love sitting out there on the sidewalk at both of these places, but I don't think the food stacks up with the rest of your list. Felidia, however, should be on it (if it isn't already). I am DYING to get to Don Pepe's.

Oh, I thought that was the "tongue thing."

I will, I will. I've only been to St. John's once - but it's the meal I think about the most. (Thank you, Simon!)

Waahhh....I want to go, and with you, Akiko. Waaah.

Hold yer horses. I've been to Luger's a bazillion times. With plenty of people who get their steaks medium - even well done. I have never, ever experienced anything but pleasant service there - the guys are fun, respectful, playful, professional...and I have never had the sense that anybody's steak preferences were treated as anything but straightforward preference. I haven't sensed a waiter giving anybody an attitude about ordering a steak well done or mediium. I get mine rare or black and blue - and everybody gets whatever they hell they want - no problems. I love Luger's - I don't go there during peak weekend times - and I've never had anything but a great time, and never anything but a perfect steak - and my companions have felt the same, regardless of what they have ordered.

That just means you don't know a great steak from a not so great steak. What, pray tell, was "ten times more satisfying" about steak at Strip House, and what was "better" about steak at Angelo & Maxie's? Were they the same cuts? Was the quality of the meat better, in your opinion? Were they cooked differently?

Gimme a just-caught New England lobster in August, kill that sucker in some boiling water, put some lemon and some drawn butter in front of me. The end.