weinoo

Not so much about safety as it is about taste, something I would think Mr. Hennes would be aware of. Because my drink is 33% water, I only use filtered water to make my ice. And if your water sucks, you should be using spring water to make your ice.

So basically you're about 50/50 on the list. Obviously, as a parent, I think that changes the whole discussion for you. In your shoes, I believe the only changes I'd make for my kid would be with apples and potatoes, making sure they are organic, because they do seem to be the 2 produce products that are treated with tons of crap. I also pop popcorn in a pot, with oil - Orville rocks. My biggest, latest worry is whatever the stuff is in the cans that leaches into the product - especially in canned tomatoes, and since I don't like the Pomi product that much, I'm kind of at a loss. Unless I can find an acceptable jarred version that doesn't cost triple. From my years in northern California, I believe artichokes are another veg that gets a lot of "treatment," and because of their structure they seem to retain a great deal of pesticides/fungicides/whatever. Finding organic artichokes, however, is practically impossible.

I love these trays, but they are most definitely a bit of a pain in the ass to get the cubes out of.

"Genetically modifying" food by taking a cutting off of one plant and grafting it onto another is a totally different thing than genetically modifying a plant's genes via chemical and other methodologies. Humans have been smoking tobacco for as long as there has been agriculture. Doesn't mean it's good for you. andiesenji said it all much better than I can hope to.

Actually, I find the people who are not at least willing to listen to what other points of view there are to have the smallest brains. Possibly from ingesting all those chemicals.

It so happens we do have a dedicated watermelon knife! We also eat an abnormal amount of watermelon. As watermelon season will soon be upon us, I'll be sure to report on the efficacy of this product. It actually looks as if this knife contains the various treatments Sam refers to in his post (in addition to its non-stick properties). It has holes in the blade, which minimize drag, and it has a Granton edge.

I have to start off this post by mentioning that there's no way I can be totally objective about the food here simply because I'm acquainted with one of the owners, due to the fact that he ran the front of the house at a favorite local restaurant of ours for many years - Schiller's Liquor Bar. And believe me when I say that running the door and managing the throngs that descended upon Schiller's in its hey-day (which isn't necessarily over, btw) was/is no easy task - and this guy is one of the best I've ever seen at it. So now Dean Jankelowitz and his wife Maya have opened their own little place, only a stone's throw from where they evidently first met (Balthazar) . When we arrived we were greeted like old friends, which is always nice. And it's even nicer on a warm March night, when the front of the restaurant is thrown open to what remains a pretty classic NYC street corner, Lafayette and Spring. Right across from a beautifully renovated pocket park, I imagine they qvelled a little when they first arrived at the location. I don't think people are going to be making any special trips from out of town for the menu at JWF. And I doubt that that's what the owners envision; instead, they've opened what they hope becomes a place where neighborhood regulars come by a couple of times a week, maybe for breakfast, perhaps a quick lunch or even a more leisurely dinner - though that's when you're likely to see the crowds build - and Dean working the front once again. After all, most neighborhood restaurants rely on regulars and their repeat business; that'll keep them around longer than the hot flash places, and it's an old McNally touch. Might as well learn from the best, right? One of the first things we noticed when we looked at our menus: no pork. You read that right - no pork. Now we're not talking kosher or vegetarian here, just a decision to not prepare swine in their kitchen and a little different than, say, every other restaurant in town with the obligatory pork belly. I've seen the food here being described as South African Israeli Jewish grandmother cuisine...okay, whatever you say. I'll just start by saying you can't go wrong if you start your dinner with the fish balls. Not your mama's fish balls (if your mama is Chinese, that is), these 5 hot little orbs have the smoky flavor of, yes, smoked whitefish, which is combined with hake, egg whites and a bit of carrot before being coated with panko and double fried to make them extra crispy on the outside and nice and moist on the inside. I've eaten my fair share of "fish balls;" after all, we practically live in Chinatown...these are so much better... Another unique appetizer that immediately caught our attention was the peri-peri giblets, something you don't see on a lot of menus around town. These tender giblets are marinated in a mix of peri peri peppers, garlic, onion, citrus and an assortment of herbs and spices, before being cooked into submission. Nice that they're served with a couple of slices of toasted baguette, to mop up every last drop of the sauce. Matzo Ball soup was one of those dishes that had us wondering how much we liked it...or did we? The soup itself was tasty, but you know how it is with matzo balls. Maybe they were good, maybe they weren't; we all have our standards when it comes to matzo balls, as the age-old Seder argument attests. As a matter of fact, I don't even know if I like mine... Significant Eater veered slightly from her "I gotta have a burger" order to the Prego Roll, which is a skirt steak sandwich served on a garlic buttered roll. It's a little harder to chew but the beefiness of the perfectly cooked skirt made up for the extra effort. Served with a mountain of fries - all fluff on the inside and crispy outside. Once again, if you worked at Balthazar or Schiller's you have to know what good fries are; these are cut slightly different, (a little thicker) but the cooking is right. And in a perfect world, I'd love a squeeze bottle of mustard to go with my fries... I order the whole grilled fish for my main course. This practically bigger than my plate dorade was simple and cooked right, nosing out the bit of couscous served with it. At $23, there's plenty to share. The by the glass and carafe wine list short and to the point...5 wines from 5 countries. There are 7 or 8 beers to choose from, the draughts offered by the pint and by the half - thank you; and why don't more places offer the half pint? The coffee is Stumptown - same as I serve in my own kitchen. So with tasty food like this, and warm friendly service, what could be better? Only one thing - I wish it was in my neighborhood. But I imagine we'll often take the walk west - we have a lot more of the menu to explore.

I guess you could "carve" some of the chicken meat (or simple pull it off the bone) and make wraps with it. Then the basil and mint, and what looks like cilantro, don't seem so out of place.

I'm bumping this thread from over 3 years ago because I just stumbled across this article from last week. In the article, Oliver Strand reports on one Mike White, a a barista who is documenting the so-called fall of the New York shot. Who knew that what I complained about those many years ago had a name: Now it seems... A phase?! Who are you kidding? The coffee sucked. So what you really mean is the coffee's better now. About fucking time. And yes, I'm a 5%-er. That's evidently the percentage of people who go into coffee shops and order an espresso.

The chef I spoke to said that the striped bass season for most of the fishery opens on April 15 but that there are some coming in from up north on the Hudson where the fishery opened a week or so ago. That may very well be wrong. Let me just say this about the striped bass fishery in NY State. Or rather, let the Dept. of Environmental Conservation say it: And here are the regs. The commercial season runs from July 1 - December 15th. Bottom line is restaurants should not be serving NY State wild striped bass other than from July 1st to December 15th. And if it's coming from the Hudson, don't eat it. Or at the least, don't feed it to your kids.

I agree - the holes are fine for ciabatta.

Been a few people who like the Sablefish. I love the stuff, but rarely see it fresh back here in NYC. It's a classic when it's smoked, though. These days, at Russ & Daughters, smoked sable is about the same price as smoked sturgeon. They tell me it is much harder to source and much more expensive. My guess is that's been the case ever since it became a hit at Nobu (who can forget the much ballyhooed miso marinated black cod?), and then appeared on practically every other menu in town.

In DC, a few restaurants have started serving snakehead, an invasive species that seems to have taken hold after some yutz dumped a few into a river. Supposed to be delicious.

Whatever is the localest, freshest, best looking fish in the market..with one caveat; I now only buy fish recognized as sustainable and/or wild caught. And if it's farmed, it has to be farmed properly. That is, nothing from a tank in Chinatown. If you're eating "local" wild striped bass in NYC at this time of the year, here's a tip: either it's not wild, or it's not local, as the NY State season runs from July to December. Actually, I just did a little more research - in NY State, the wild striped bass fishery is currently closed (as is the black sea bass fishery)... Commercial Fishing NY State limits

I'd be throwing it out and starting all over. Or, bring it back to where you bought it.

"Southern" Italy - Carlo Middione - The Food of Southern Italy Roman - Jo Bettoja - In a Roman Kitchen David Downie - Cooking the Roman Way Julia Della Croce - Umbria Julia Della Croce - Veneto New York - Mario Batali

On our last trip to Paris, I just had to buy this... It's really good.

LOL. People who want to burn the shit out of their hands and arms perhaps? And I don't get the whole no need for preheating when using a screen. That's bs. Any standard home oven (including the Crapmaster 9000) needs to be preheated for at least 30 minutes or more to get up to proper temp. I've "modified" my Bosch gas oven to where I can get the stone and walls up to around 600 F. Between playing with that and the broiler, I get a pretty nice pie in aabout 5 minutes. Perfect? No. But way better than 99% of the pizzerias even here in NYC.

I was hoping that this was the closest, but probably not. It's one of my favorite things to order in a sushi restaurant, when available. Usually, it's hamachi or salmon, and salted and broiled, practically nothing better. Also, no one wants to share it. I expect that soon we'll find fried cod's tails on the menu at fancy places around town.

This is the seasoning that I think adds the most "smoke" flavor to oven cooked ribs, and many dry rubs have paprika in them, so this doesn't push the boundary that far. That said, one of the few Alton Brown methods that I've recommended to friends over the years starts with oven braising of the dry-rubbed ribs and ends by finishing them underneath the broiler (or on a grill if one is so lucky). I much prefer St. Louis style spareribs to baby backs, however. I also find Chinese style barbecued spareribs are a wonderful thing to make in the oven. They even look like there's a smoke ring!

Don't think that can be classified as a Negroni .

I'll still deal with it, and will keep going early.

I've really become (thanks to johnder) much more apt to use M & R in my Negronis as it allows the gin flavor to shine through a bit more. Now, an Americano on the other hand...

Of course, your actual mileage may vary, but I had a pretty damn good lunch here just the other day... Lunchtime. Hunger. New York City. What are there, like a thousand places to eat? Actually, there’s probably more, especially if you count all the street meat that’s around; carts, trucks, kiosks, people selling tamales out of their granny carts, sidewalk food sold by squatting women in Chinatown - and on and on. Now compound that hunger problem with finding yourself in one of those places in New York City that sees a million people a day; people scurrying through its grand spaces, not there to eat but on their way from somewhere or to somewhere, generally in a hurry. And it happened to me last week (though I wasn’t in a hurry), when I ended up here, to visit that store at the top of the stairs… Normally, giant railroad terminals aren’t thought of as great places to eat (well, maybe in Italy, where you can often find a decent panini and a perfect espresso); they’re usually where you can grab a crappy sandwich or half-cooked hot dog, on your way, as I said, to or from somewhere. Grand Central actually has a food court in its lower level, which certainly does a booming business at lunch. But look a little further underground and you’ll stumble across this… Its official name is Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant, and it has been sitting in the lower level of Grand Central Terminal for practically 100 years, falling into decline in the late 60s to early 70’s then rescued, renovated and now once again feeding hundreds of seafood happy customers on a daily basis. Don’t forget to check out the Gustavino tiled ceiling in this landmarked building… I like to grab a seat at the counter, because that way you get fed fast and you get to watch the show… Remember, this ain’t Le Bernardin folks. So start off with a bowl of clam chowder (I like Manhattan-style)… Chock full of briny clams (get there early), slightly spicy and with a handful of those oyster crackers crushed into it, it hit the spot. Then I moved onto the real reason I was here… Perhaps the finest oyster po-boy you can find in the city, simply loaded with perfectly fried oysters, a little shredded lettuce and a swab of tartar sauce to top it all off. A squeeze of lemon brought it to perfection…under $10! Even though I like the counter at lunch, the full menu is serious. Plenty of daily/seasonal specials. And the oysters? On any given day, the blackboard menu is likely to offer up at least 2 dozen varieties… I don't get here for lunch as often as I should, but for food this good, in a beautiful and historically landmarked building, it's worth a trip. And that goes for whether you're hopping on a train or not.

A couple of things. I believe Phil's original recipe called for Beefeater. And M & R for the sweet vermouth. Served up. Was the orange peel flamed? All of these elements will make the difference from a "regular" Negroni more apparent.