weinoo

For anyone who might wonder, Louisette was one of the authors of Mastering the Art!

As a once-famous chef once said: "Take it to the plate." Eel Bar Foul Witch is not so much how beautiful the food looks on the plate, but how beautiful it tastes once in the mouth!

Couple of dinners out this past weekend. Friday night - the new Ops Pizza, on 2nd Avenue in the East Village (the original is in Bushwick, Brooklyn.) Known for both their pizza and their well-curated natural wine list, it was a place i always wanted to try, but failed to get to the Brooklyn location. Now that it is within walking distance, we went on opening weekend. I always have to order a classic Margherita - and this one did not disappoint. And we had a calzone, which was fine, if not terribly exciting. We did start with (no picture) fritto misto, an excellent platter of beautifully fried shrimp, haddock and some veg. Cocktails were good, and the wine by the glass selection was fine. We'll be back for more. Saturday night was dinner at Foul Witch, which interestingly enough was borne from the loins of Roberta's, another Bushwick stalwart, which also begat the much lauded (and sadly, now closed) Blanca, as well as Heritage Radio Network. We started by sharing the excellent focaccia, along with a plate (a huge plate, I might add) of the Finocchiona. Pastas followed, with Significant Eater enjoying the wonderful Chitarra with bottarga and yours truly, the lumache pomodoro, another fine dish. We were stuffed, but able to share the roasted sea bream... No room for dessert, but we were comped two glasses of the house amaro, and left happy for the walk home. And last night, back to local fave Eel Bar, where my only picture was taken early on... Eggs mayo, white prawns, burger, half chicken and cheesecake were all consumed.

If we could only cut him in half. For good. Hopefully, you told your gastroenterologist...in addition to telling us, of course.

Exactly. As a matter of fact, at one of our favorite places where they make a good burger, it's on a brioche bun; if I order one, I ask for it on toasted rye instead.

I have an earlier Creami; the capacity of the containers is 2 cups. I just kinda eyeball things. Yesterday I prepped, but haven’t yet spun, lemon sorbet, peach sorbet (with canned peaches in light syrup), and nectarine sorbet with, well, real nectarines. Each batch prepared was slightly more than the max fill line, but don’t have a big problem with that. I enjoy using different boozes, so for the lemon I used gin, the peach bourbon, and the nectarine - Apry. I expect they’ll all be edible.

Exactly why I use an old Cook's Illustrated article and technique for my sorbets. They don't stick around long enough for me to worry about them so much. Sorbets.pdf

Oy vey. But of course, as we all know, Wolfgang Puck was the originator of the smoked salmon pizza - at Spago - 43 years ago! https://guide.michelin.com/us/en/article/features/wolfgang-puck-smoked-salmon-pizza

I quite like the Dulcinea "Tuscan" melons our TJ's offers. $3.49 or maybe $3.99. I take my time and make sure to get one that's in great shape. And I've had good luck with the nectarines from Moonlight Companies. I buy the 2 lb. bag (which is always more than 2 lbs.); it usually has 6 -7 nectarines (today's had 5 big ones), and after 36 - 48 hours on the counter they are nice, sweet and juicy. $3.99. Corn on the cob is usually nice and sweet, if I can fight off the Chinese ladies to get to the bin. $.69 an ear. Baby Watermelon is so-so, as is most watermelon these days. I suppose if I were to buy a giant one somewhere else, I'd fare better, but no way I'm lugging that upstairs. Eggs are no longer a problem, though the price is probably well over $1 more than they used to be. And I can never find that cheese @blue_dolphin mentioned above. The Le Delice de Bourgogne. As can be seen, I stick to mostly produce, eggs, occasional cheese (Feta, the idiazabal a cheddar or two (they had an interesting red cheddar from UK today)), and those chocolate bars from Belgium in the 3-packs. Most of my cheeses come from Formaggio Essex.

I'm wondering, @KennethT, if the active volcano is affecting any of your trip?

I'm allowing for the preheating of the pan.

It took that chef 5 minutes to do what Jacques does in a minute.

I'm very interested in what you think of these, once they're on your table!

I gotta side-eye some of the things called pizza in that book.

Five-egg frittata. Mushrooms, onions, jamón, dill, parsley, chives. With avocado toast.