weinoo

I think farmed mussels are a pretty safe bet. They should be in a bag with a harvest date on them. If they're recently harvested and closed up tight, then no problema.

Trust me, I don't go upstairs either.

Not only is Birch & Barley our fave, it just won Eater's 2011 Restaurant of the Year Award...click.

I find that how I add them to the pot of boiling water makes a difference. So, I add them similar to how I would add polenta to boiling water, letting them run through my hands and making sure they hit the water individually. Then, stir fairly often. But, as Sam says above, there will always be a few "nesters."

Pay attention to what you're doing . I have developed a new strategy over the past couple of years...I think what got me started with it was the gigantic - azation of the modern bagel. So, I put them on the board horizontally, then cut them through on their diameter. I now have two perfect half bagels. These get cut in half by putting the now-flat surface of the half bagel on the board, and slicing down with my good bread knife. But, pay attention.

Today's paper offers us the third restaurant review (in this run as interim critic) from Eric Asimov, the NY Times' chief wine writer, and the creator of the Times' $25 and under column. The review is a 2 star review of the restaurant Rouge et Blanc. I like this guy's reviews of NYC restaurants perhaps more than any other reviewer I've read over the years. No pretension, no bullshit, and I actually understand what the heck he's writing about. Makes me wonder why he doesn't get the job permanently (well, perhaps he doesn't want it). You?

That's a great start, ambra . As is our general style, we're looking for food that "Romans" might be going out to lunch or dinner for. I'm pretty set on knowing the standards; I'm just wondering if there's anything new that's got people talking.

That's good, but a lunch at Jamonisimo is something different altogether...

What must we not miss? What should we avoid?

Anything relatively new and exciting...we're going to be in Rome for a week in the not-too-distant future.

They did respond to my emails when I was writing to the chef. But, just call them when you get to town; I don't think reservations will be that difficult to come by.

But he's a personal chef to "celebrities!"

Probably the same tool who, upon said tool's appearance I turned to my wife and said; "Won't make it through the first episode." Looks like it's going to take 2 episodes just to get to the real first episode. Which means we'll only have to see 1, 649 ads for "The Real Housewives of xxx" throughout the whole season.

What happens when one of your favorite chefs, whose restaurants you’ve greatly enjoyed in the past, becomes more and more successful? And by successful I mean keeps opening restaurants all over the damn place. Well, I guess on the one hand you can be happy for that chef’s success and be excited to try all of those restaurants. I mean, there is a chef or two here in New York who have gone on to fame and fortune and I’m pretty happy to be eating in most, if not all, of their establishments. But what about the other side of the coin, where as your favorite chef opens a new restaurant, one or more of the previously opened ones turns out to be not so good? Okay, the chef I’m referring to is José Andrés. You probably know José; a great cook whose food I've always admired, wildly popular, got a bunch of TV shows, Spain’s greatest ambassador, etc., etc. He has that great accent. He’s a partner (in Think Food Group) and ostensibly the Big Kahuna Chef of close to a dozen restaurants. He made his bones working in some of Spain’s top kitchens, including that of Ferran Adrià, of…well, you know…that Ferran Adrià. And then when he embarked to the United States, rather than heading for New York City and all of it’s potential fame and glory, he headed for Washington, D. C. - and whatever it is you go there for. In José's case, it was to open restaurants. Jaleo, Café Atlantico, Zaytinya - all good, if not great restaurants, as a matter of fact. Highly touted restaurants, which gave him and his partners the ability to open more restaurants. These were and are fun, happening places with good food, good times and fairly gentle prices. Then there were more – Oyamel, another location or two of Jaleo, minibar by José Andrés, a restaurant or two in Vegas, one or two in Los Angeles – you get the picture. Just last weekend, I was excited to try a restaurant of Jose’s that has been open for a while now – Oyamel, in D. C. Even though I’d be warned off by a friend who knows his food, I was curious ( said friend said it sucked, btw). But it’s José's place, after all, so off we went. Now, to say I was put off a little by being seated in the bar area, even though I had made a reservation weeks earlier, would be putting it mildly. My mood was made (slightly) worse when my protestations fell of deaf ears, as we were told by one of the 3 or 4 hostetts that it would be another hour’s wait to sit somewhere else (like perhaps in the restaurant), and that they didn’t consider our table to be in the bar area, even though, ummm, it was in the fucking bar area. I don’t know about you, but sitting in the bar area of a popular restaurant on a Friday night isn’t my idea of fun. Because sooner or later someone’s ass is gonna be about an inch from my guacamole, and at $13.50 an order, I prefer my guac sans ass, especially when it’s the ass of some annoying tourist. Be that as it may, I guess all would have been forgiven if the food knocked me out; that way I could prove my friend wrong, which is always fun. It didn’t…as a matter of fact, other than a really nice fresh hearts of palm and avocado salad, nothing was that exciting - not even the ass guac (okay, the chips and salsa were fine). Then it struck me; my last meal at Zaytinya, a place I’ve blogged and raved about in the past, wasn’t that great either. I mean, sure, it was ok and all, but it lacked a certain zing that I recalled from previous meals. These were both meals, that once were finished and we walked outside, I said to Significant Eater: “We don’t have to go there again!” So perhaps there are two lessons to be learned. One is for José and that is - don’t forget about all your other restaurants when you’re running around the world opening new ones and flogging yourself on TV. And the second is for me and that is, listen to (some of) your knowledgeable food friends – they (sometimes) know of what they speak.

Are these the bright green ones that also come in a red variety? If so these are my favorite as well. My MIL always brings me some back from her hometown Naples. Great now I'm craving them. Yes. They come in red, black and green, I think depending on their ripeness.

Does anyone else soak olives before eating them?

I was told by a friend who grew up in Modena that they use dried porcini powder in a whole bunch of different dishes.

Oh, and I wanted to add that I always rinse olives; sometimes I soak them. And then, if I have the time (and they're not going into a Martini), I'll marinate them in some olive oil, herbs, maybe a hint of orange rind, etc.

I like that too. Usually it's a "Spanish" olive, which by itself isn't that great.

So today I was snacking on some assorted olives, which I often do, seeing as how healthy they are . There were about 5 or 6 different olives in the batch; some sweet and fruity, some dry and funky - you get the picture. I think I've decided that my favorite olive is the Cerignola - especially the green ones. Might be because they're huge, but probably more so because they're so damn tasty. Do you have a favorite olive? And why?

This past weekend, I made a soup. I think soup can be categorized into any number of styles; thick soups, broths, vegetables, creams, and on and on. In the thick soup category, I place soups such as those made with grains like barley. The soup I made this weekend was based on a mix of grains and pulses from Umbria - there were lentils, barley and spelt in the package, which I picked up on sale at Eataly. Now, here's the conundrum. When I make a soup like this, I usually add the recommended amount of liquid, in this case a mix of stock and water. And then I add more. And the soup just absorbs every last drop. And then I add more liquid and the soup absorbs that. So, do you ever stop adding liquid or do you keep adding liquid to make it a soup? Otherwise, it's just a bowl of grains, isn't it?

I, too, use the mushroom soaking water from reconstituting dried mushrooms, along with chicken stock. However, I have never simmered a chicken stock for 12 hours; more likely, 4 - 6 hours is my goal.

I'm not exactly sure how this fits into someone's "budget," but Sobaya, one of my favorite Japanese restaurants in the east village, does a lunch box set for $17 (as well as other lunch specials). It's a generous amount of food, and yesterday's box included a piece of grilled salmon, assorted pickles and vegetables, salad, a "mini-chirashi," 2 large tempura shrimp and a heap of soba noodles (or, one could have ordered udon as well).

Sorry. $23... .

I use mini-hot dogs (Nathan's preferred) or hot dogs cut up into quarters, for dunking into cheese fondue.