weinoo

Striped bass season (local, NY at least) opened yesterday. I was hoping to go fishing with a friend out on Long Island (and he's hoping for bluefish to be running as well), but I'm gonna wait for the finger to heal.

Yeah - totally what I'm doing with the food thing...Szechuan works! I also have the problem spacing them out evenly - 4 doses means once every 6 hours...a bit of a pain in the ass to get the 4th dose in with food.

The finger looks good; each time I've changed the dressing (per doc's order) it looks better. I go today at 1 for the first follow-up. I'm bummed because the antibiotics are bugging my stomach more than usual, so I'll be whining to him about that. Yes, I eat yogurt and those other fermented products, but I'm wondering if I should invest in some probiotics (I've always felt those, along with vitamins, are your basic 21st century snake oil stuff). At one time maybe 15 years ago, there were 3 or 4 Malaysian restaurants down here, all within a 5-minute walk of one another. They were all inexpensive and decent. I don't know why they didn't survive; it was nice to have those options. We'll have to do some more exploring once we're all protected.

Ahhh, makes senses. Bourdain must've been to the OG a long time ago.

Here's something weird - I feel the exact same way about Kopitiam. Meanwhile, everyone was raving about it. I never got it, even though because I disliked it, I only got food there twice. Had you ever tried the late Overseas Asian on Canal. Ostensibly Malay, and quite good. There was also the Mouse Tail noodle place. Now, re: Public Village... Now...let's talk about bagels... And the slicing thereof. That article, while lovely, is for idiots. Mind you, @Anna N, I'm not saying YOU are. But seriously - who tries to slice a frozen bagel? Also, who makes a bagel that looks like this?????? (From that article). To continue... Really?? No shit. I've been slicing bagels the same way for over half a century, with nary an injury. Holding it in my left hand, and being careful. Once in a while, if I think I have a recalcitrant bagel, I'll start it by holding it on the cutting board horizontally, with my flat hand on top (as one might slight a genoise), and then turning it on its side to finish. There's generally a small flat spot to keep it from rolling, when doing it this way. So, no bagel guillotine for me, no fancy devices, just careful slicing with the proper knife! AND NO RAINBOW BAGELS. EVER. On to Hannah - well, I'll be nice and say the less said about Hannah's reviews, the better.

It really ought to stop.

Wasn't the first Xi'an (in Manhattan) in a little spot under-ish at the Manhattan Bridge? Or across the street from the bridge? I remember going there a long time ago, and having my face almost explode. I think it was before Bourdain?

Here's an interesting (only to me) little known fact. I recently bought a left-handed bread knife. From Amazon (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). It's a great knife, especially at that price. Anyway, when slicing bread, it appears I'm left-handed. But when slicing a bagel, I hold the bagel in my left hand and slice with my right.

Are you joking? That might be a disaster in the making, and is probably one of the more dangerous kitchen tasks for someone whose expertise lies in dealing with animate objects!

I started learning more about the Spätburgunder at Cafe Katja...good stuff. Great value here, as are many old world Rieslings. Though not necessarily the old old world stuff 😉 . I'll take a look for that book.

Interestingly, I'm sorta ambidextrous too. When I write, it's with my right hand. Knife in the left, but the fork and knife at the table are opposite. Chopsticks in left. Paring knife, if I'm holding the object to be pared in my hand, is in the right hand, with the apple let's say, in the left. I throw lefty, but when I badly played ball, batted right-handed. Weird. And @KennethT - so far, pretty much that's what I've done - can't do breakfast like that though. By the way, I tried Public Village for the first time, and it's pretty good. Same owners as Kopitiam.

I think it came from a splinter I gave myself months ago, which I thought I had removed and cleaned up pretty well. Evidently, not all that well; x-ray showed no remnants.

Yeah - if you need a good doc... 25 (or so) years and counting. Don't even remember when I first saw him what it was for. But a few trigger fingers and various other issues later...

Representing the Carolinas here. Good stuff - really like those sea island peas! (Though I'm still not convinced about Carolina gold rice.)

Yesterday, a minor medical procedure was performed. I had noticed a finger starting to hurt 5 or 6 days ago. Then swelling, redness and heat, along with throbbing pain (fingers have a lot of nerve!), meant a call and plea to get in to see a favorite doc STAT - my hand guy (who is awesome). Now, you know when a doc says "this is going to hurt a lot" (ahem @Kerry Beal), it's really going to hurt. (Actually, I call the hand doc my favorite torturer.) I looked at the needle (this was no regular needle)...then a brave face, a look away, et voilà... Antibiotics, wound care 4x a day, etc. etc. Felt so much better within 3 or 4 hours. And a revisit tomorrow to hopefully hear him say: "looks good." All fine and dandy, except...that's my dominant hand. The one which holds a knife and does a lot of other stuff in the kitchen. I mean, it's not all bad when seeing this doc, as he's right around the block from the classic... Known for, among other things, pie... Blueberry crumble and apple pies help with the pain. And that shop is right across the street from Tal Bagels. For the one-handed drive home, an everything with a schmear made the drive easier. A good (though large) bagel, needing no toasting when nice and fresh, as this one was. So...not wanting to deal with lunch, a quick walk over to Scarr's... Really made Significant Eater happy (and me too). Shit, there was even a Diet Coke! Now, back to the kitchen, coping and dealing. An early delivery yesterday included a pound of wild shrimp, and when shrimp show up, the faster they are cooked, the better right? Kinda easy (though cleaning them was a pain in the ass), and then a quick salad topped with a few of those poached shrimp made an easy enough, nine-fingered dinner... The céleri rémoulade had already been made, and the pickled turnip was a purchased product. A nice baguette rounded it all out. So - how do you cope?

If anyone thought there were only internecine fights over pizza in NYC... The True Story Of The Lower East Side Pickle Wars Probably just one of the true stories, as is always the case. @Margaret Pilgrim might like this! The Great Lower East Side Pickle War

And a fishmonger who knows what he or she is doing.

Heineken? Anything imported? Of course, the last time I was at Citi Field in 2019 (RIP Shea), a standard beer was like $11 and a premium more like $15. But LaFrieda, Chang, Meyer/Shake Shack, etc. all represent at Citi.

I stopped in at the Pickle Guys yesterday, for only the 2nd time in a year. Dinner last night was a roasted duck leg, RG beans, rice, and these vegetables... Half sours and pickled turnips. A bissel more about the pickle guys...

Pickles were once available on practically every block in my neighborhood...back in the day. Even though I've never heard it referred to thusly, what the hell... THE SWEET AND SOUR HISTORY OF NYC’S PICKLE ALLEY Despite the obvious mistakes in editing and accuracy, still a fun read. (No, Russ & Daughters is not a deli).

@paul o' vendange Speaking of Riesling, as we were in the dinner thread, it's possibly my favorite wine (I do love pinot as well, and a big soft spot for gamay). So I wanted to learn some more about it. Hence... These are really (well, the one on the left certainly) geeky.

Rifling through the freezer yesterday (guess the inventory list never really got made), I came upon a couple of cubes of last summer's pesto. So... Pasta al Pesto. I always freeze pesto (when freezing it) without the cheese. Then, before plating, I mix the pasta in a bowl with the pesto, pasta water, and cheese, until it tastes good. A little sprinkle after plating can't hurt. Brussels with bacon alongside. Breaking all rules (many drink non-Chard white with pesto, to complement the herb)... At least it's northern Italian!

Possibly our favorite grape to drink. I'd say lemon, stone, herby, nice and juicy, it makes your mouth water! For the "cellar" (okay, I don't have a cellar; for the apartment) I order from Chambers St. Wines. They have a pretty nice selection of rieslings. All natural /organic blah blah stuff. Do you order from D'artagnan at all? Their Rohan duck is great for roasting, and they sell the other 3 popular breeds. The legs I get from Moulards come from Hudson Valley.

New Mexico never fails to...be a little, just a little...different.

Also great that it's one of those dishes that doesn't necessarily suffer from taking it home and reheating it; some might think it even gets better. Cafe Katja's wine list has some hidden gems; you just need to ask for the separate list. As a matter of fact, pre and (hopefully) post-pandemic, the wine tasting dinners are fun to attend, tasting wines we don't really see much of here. And there's always more than enough food.