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I have no problem conceding to John, with the following parenthetically noted: 1. Dessert was not a necessary component of the meal. It was the two courses. 2. One of my "Italo-centric" friends, who shall remain nameless at this juncture, had a not very nice thing to say about the fried egg on the pasta. Poached or raw, yes. Fried, never! I think everyone is on John's bandwagon because of his booze stash... . Me too !!

I know this is incredibly trivial, but what's wrong with Miele? Do they suffer from 'Fiat curse' in the US, or something of that sort, owing to mandated import modifications? I'm curious, because in the EU they still have a reputation for reliability. Not luxury or anything, but something you can pretty much count on. You're going to have to go over to this topic, where I'm pretty sure I added my two cents.

There was indeed. But it was good old bacon.

Precise language in a restaurant maybe...at home or in a friend's kitchen, not so much.

Good morning, all. I figured after eating fairly heavily and pork-ily yesterday and the day before, I should start my day off with a somewhat healthy breakfast. Back to the oats! Untoasted, this time... And I wanted to show you one of my favorite pieces of kitchen equipment. Or at least part of it... That's the cool top shelf of our Miele dishwasher. I know some people like to dis Miele; whatever. They patented that silverware shelf, and it's a great place for lots of odds and ends and knicknacks. And, everything gets clean as a whistle. Breakfast... I'm off to share some more of my neighborhood with you. See you later.

Wow, Significant Eater said that your main course looked really good; "very French," if I recall the term correctly. OTOH, she said my risotto looked amazing, and is pissed that she didn't get any. The surprise for her is that I saved the leftover risotto, and she'll be getting risotto cakes at some point. Now, if I could only talk to the fairer half of your family and find out how well your dishes were seasoned...

As well as their profit.

Well, they're chefs so they (theoretically) should be allowed to. However, to use the term "break down" and apply it to broccoli rabe is just pretentious. As is the use of "component parts" in reference to a stalk of broccoli. I used to have to trim the artichokes when I worked at Spartina (hey, I told you I never made it too high on the totem pole ) . No one ever said to me to go "break down" a case of 'chokes. They said to go prep a case of artichokes; strangely, I knew exactly what they meant. It's time for breakfast. You'll all excuse me while I go break down an egg, fire it, and then plate.

We did actually meet in an eGullet sort of way. Way before the wave of true cocktailian bars opened here in NYC, another eGulleteer used to host a speakeasy-type every once in a while in his apartment. These were the young-turks trying out all their cocktail-making skills, some of whom went on to work in the finest cocktail bars this city has to offer. I got invited to said event and met John there (along with the host and others). As major foodie geeks, we're both pretty high on the scale; John's a grad of FCI and I one of ICE, so that was another pretty good connection. That's it in a nutshell.

I'll vote for you for those Hermes bitters and a bottle of Stagg.

I always have bacon and chicken stock. C'mon, the risotto rocked! Fried baby artichoke hearts .

LOL. Looks like you happened to have some sort of prosciutto lying around as well!

Whew. I think I got started earlier than John, the kitchen has been cleaned and here's how it began... That's the Ward 8 1/2...a Ward 8, substituting blood orange juice for the orange juice...mighty tasty. Of course, you can't prep dinner and have a drink without having some snacks... 18 month proscuitto, a bit of mortadella and some of Mario's dad's salumi, along with olives and pickled mushrooms from the Pickle Guys. Once the cooking started, it was time for a second cocktail, a nice 1794... Here are some pix of the cooking process. Risotto base... Rendering bacon... Deep frying artichoke hearts... Searing scallops. Note the standard frying pan. Get it hot, get the oil hot, leave the scallops ALONE, and they will turn over nice and easily... And here's the first course: Baby artichoke and spring onion risotto, make with Carnaroli rice and house-made chicken stock, topped with frizzled baby artichoke hearts... Followed by dry scallops, simply seared and served on a bed of bacon braised cavolo nero... As I said above, I already had dessert at lunch, so no dessert tonight. But a nightcap was in order, an Old-Fashioned, with Willett's Bourbon, gomme syrup, Boker's bitters and a blood orange slice... So how'd I do?

John has enough Picon to get through till 2015.

Here's my hand... Primi: Spring Onion and Artichoke Risotto Secondo: Simply Seared Scallops over Cavolo Nero Braised w/ Nieman-Ranch Bacon Dessert: I had that at lunch

Or a lot of rolling on the floor laughing.

I've been to the Tenement Museum a number of times. I wouldn't be surprised if I had a grandparent or two whose kitchens resembled those. It's a great visit.

C. sapidus - thanks for the props. I do have a sister in suburban DC - i.e. Maryland. But the main reason is Sig Eater's job. kathryn's advice is as reliable as you're going to get, and I do think Co Ba is about the best Vietnamese you can find. But sadly, as she says, SE Asian in Manhattan is pretty weak.

Well, the best laid plans sometimes go awry. As they did today. I was going to show you the Essex St. Market, but when I got there to meet my friends for lunch, it was closed. Tightly. Employees probably couldn't get in along with deliveries being suspect. Ah well, such is life. So we walked around the corner for lunch at one of my favorite little local joints... Which is even more fun when the people watching includes... We all shared these for a starter... Croquettes of escarole and proscuitto. With a little tomato sauce on the side to dip them in, they were a nice pairing of fat and salt along with sweet and acidic. Poifect. I followed it with.. and... And then we all had these... Everyone went in their separate directions. I decided to go here... The Pickle Guys are where you go when you want pickles and repartee. From the front looking back... Check out everything they offer... I came out with a quart of new pickles and a pint of pickled mushrooms, and then walked home from there, but figured I should stop and check in on this guy... Who must've eaten a lot last night, because he now looks like this and is literally 8 feet tall...

Oh, one last post before I race out to meet some friends for lunch. Granny cart. Often used to schlep groceries but since much of my shopping tends to be farther away than my immediate neighborhood, I don't use it for that too often. It helps to get stuff to and from my car, which is in a parking lot a couple of blocks away, or to take my laundry to and from the basement ... When my wife and I were in Paris recently, they have much cooler granny carts - they are covered. But this one is heavy duty and needs to be.

Agreed, David.

Not to my recollection. It's tough, because the livers (if they're to be kosher) have to go through an even more rigorous process I believe. Maybe I'll buy a bird for dinner tomorrow night.

Indeed it is, Shelby. As a matter of fact the two masterminds behind it, Mario Batali and Joe Bastianich were both there, sitting at a table with a guy who looked to me like the former wine guy at the original John Dory. No pix though; remember we're not supposed to be impressed. And this is a tough week for fresh, local fish. No boats going out on the east coast during these storms. They'd have to be nuts.

Back up in my bread post, I showed the steps I followed baking a multi-grain loaf from the booklet that came with my Cuisinart food processor. I stored it overnight on my counter, in one of these... That's a canvas bag that I picked up the other day at Cocktail Kingdom, when John and I visited. They're sold to be used for smashing ice and interestingly enough when I mentioned to Greg that they would be cool for bread service, he told me that a restaurant had just ordered 100 of them for that purpose. This morning, I sliced the whole loaf so I could freeze it... This bread happened to come out really nice. Check out the crumb... And, since i had some leftover fritatta, it goes nicely on toasted, homemade bread, don't you think?

Wow, cool looking device. Do you have to cut the bread into rounds?