SethG

The sanctimony seems to come with the baby territory. But please, don't start a thread about the superior taste of infant formula! The fallout would be tremendous; eGullet might never recover.

A recent article in the NY Times suggested that global warming might be behind the string of great years European vineyards have enjoyed recently, and quotes in the article from wine producers revealed that they are quietly thrilled about this development. Whether or not global warming is really the cause, can you tell us what effect the recent string of hot years has had on your wine, and on California wine in general? Is a warming trend good for some grapes traditionally grown in sunny climes, but bad for others traditionally grown in less tropical heat? Good for Syrah, bad for Pinot Noir? Thanks for your participation in this Q & A!

Back up a few posts. Tommy & I are talking about a bar a few blocks from Daisy May's, where I actually ate my Daisy May ribs last week.

Thank you, Tad/Vikram. That sounds fantastic.

Sunday night: We had a friend over for dinner. I braised a boned leg of lamb, stuffed with garlic, parsley and rosemary, with great northern beans added for the last half hour. It all came out nice and buttery. I also made a simple pasta to go with, sauced with Pecorino/Romano cheese and leftover pancetta from my Mamster embossed chicken the other day, and sauteed spinach.

I was informed this weekend by my fellow Daisy May's eater that the bar we stumbled into to eat our ribs was actually.... a gay bar. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I said I hadn't noticed. "Didn't you see the rainbow flag, etc.?" he asked. I guess I wasn't paying attention. The place was almost empty. I was focused on the beans. So now you know, if for some reason you care. Next time I go to Daisy May's, I'll most likely return there. As I said before, they were almost empty at lunchtime, they seemed happy to have us eat there, and the drafts were cheap.

Also, I want to try out some Thanksgiving sides next week with the turkey. I don't want to change the focus of this thread, but I wonder if anyone can post a few good links to lists of Thanksgiving side dish recipes. Previous eGullet threads on this subject have included testimonials to members' own menus but precious few actual recipes.

I miss the Berghoff. It's been many years. Thanks for reminding me of it.

Okay, looks like I'm making my Thompson's Turkey on Saturday, Oct. 4. I will post pictures. Any last-minute tips?

I almost started this exact thread a week ago, then searched the archives and found at least one thread in which everyone said how disgusting baby food is. So I held my tongue. But now I can come clean. I have eaten lots of jarred baby food since we had a baby. Yes, the meats are revolting. But, especially in the organic lines (Gerber's Tender Harvest, Nature's Best, and there's another good one I can't remember now), the fruits taste fine. Pears, apples, peaches. All pretty tasty. And the sweet potatoes and squashes aren't bad either. I don't think I ever popped open a jar because I really wanted it, but there were definitely times when I was feeding my daughter and said to her "You gonna finish that?" As a father, I've had many opportunities to drink breast milk too, but that's another story. Okay, sickos, I'll tell you. You're SUPPOSED to taste it before you feed it to your child. You take it out of the freezer, thaw it out, and taste it to make sure it hasn't spoiled. Then you let your child drink it.

Jinmyo, thanks for the advice re: Thompson. I've been reading it for a while, and I do feel I've learned a lot without ever cooking from the book. But many of the dishes sound delicious, and the pictures are incredible. I went one for two the other night (I guess it was really one for three, since one dish was never completed), and with better planning in the future, I gotta believe there's a lot of great meals in there. Wednesday night: Mamster's Pancetta Embossed Chicken. I didn't take a picture, but I know you'll believe me when I say it looked just like Helenas' version did back on August 21, right here on the dinner thread. I don't have her romantic lighting, however, so a picture wouldn't have done mine justice! Thanks for the recipe, Mamster. It was great, and so easy. I also made Jack Bishop's Tomato and Mozarella Tart with Basil-Garlic Crust. I admit I peeked at the recipe in a bookstore before I made it. It too was very good and very easy. And some asparagus, with Julia Child's lemon-butter sauce.

I saw that recipe; now I have to try it. You're six steps ahead of me as usual, Kristin!

Don't let my experience dissuade you, Ian. I think much of the trouble may have come from my choice of coconut milk. You seem more experienced with Thai cooking than I am, so I'm sure you know there are numerous fresh, canned and frozen options. When I've made curries in the past, I've had better luck with the frozen milk than the canned-- the frozen stuff thaws in an afternoon to a thicker milk that's got a richer, more fresh-feeling texture than the canned. This time I went with a frozen milk I hadn't used before, and it was really very thick when it thawed out. At the time, I thought this was good, but once I'd made the dish I realized it threw everything out of whack. And the chiles were the result of a bad judgment call. I finally used up one of those big bags of dried Thai red chiles, and instead of getting another one, I used some dried red chiles I got at a local spice store the other day. They just weren't all that hot.

It seemed to me like a recipe for spam e-mail/snail mail. Did you have to provide an e-mail address, or just your home address?

During a recent visit to a local wine shop in Brooklyn I was given a free 30-page booklet made by Sopexa USA, which has been the official promoter of French wine in the U.S.A. since the 1960s. The booklet is a somewhat informative and somewhat curious tutorial for beginners on how wine is made and categorized in France. I'm keeping the booklet because the descriptions of varieties of grapes, regions and labeling have already proven useful to me as a reference. But I wonder, does anyone actually do the quiz at the back and send off for a diploma? These booklets must be expensive to give away. Does anyone know, is this a new offensive to recover business lost since all that Iraq stuff happened in the Spring?

I'm in the same predicament-- last night was the first time I cooked from the book. The question that began this thread arose from the Kaffir Lime Juice Dressing with Grilled Prawns recipe on page 218. Although I had some difficulty shelling my shrimp after they were cooked, I thought the dish was great. Next time I'd probably just poach the shrimp. But if you have a grill, you might want to go for it. I used the broiler in my oven, which may have contributed to my difficulties. I also made the Red Duck Curry, from page 312. This I had less success with. I discussed this a bit on the dinner thread. (Scroll down the page-- it's an entry from late last night.) I don't think I'd make it again. Even if I got my paste hotter, I didn't find the duck/coconut combination as appealing as I thought I would, and my wife pronounced it "gross."

The recipe did call for Kaffir lime juice. But it also said ordinary lime juice would suffice. So that's what I used. And tangerine juice. And it was very tasty.

FoodMan: Just wanted to tell you your dinners from over the weekend look great. You got sort of buried by Jackal10's extravaganza! Anyway, Tuesday dinner: I got David Thompson's "Thai Food," and after brooding over it for while I decided to make some stuff from it tonight. I planned on a Kaffir Lime Juice Dressing with Grilled Prawns (really a shrimp salad with a citrus dressing, and lots of raw shallots, lemongrass, chiles, cilantro, and mint); a sweet pork relish to accompany the salad; and Red Duck Curry, with rice. Well, I was too ambitious. I hadn't planned on it taking me so long to devein the shrimp, then after I cooked them (with the shells on, as directed), I found that it was extremely difficult, and time-consuming, to get the shells off. Then, as I tried to whip up the curry paste quickly, I realized that several of the ingredients were supposed to be roasted/toasted, individually, then ground before being put in the blender. Which took a long time. And then the goddam blender was simply inadequate to the task of creating a paste, so I had to scrape the ingredients out of the blender and into my spice/coffee grinder (good for coffee with a hint of coriander flavor). So it was getting very late and my very pregnant wife couldn't wait any longer for dinner, so I stopped everything in the middle, and just finished the duck curry so we could eat. And it wasn't good. My dried red peppers just aren't hot for some reason, but that was only part of the problem. It was bland all around. Nothing really broke through the coconut flavor very well, and after I took the trouble to make my own curry paste, this was a big letdown. (Maybe next time I'll add some lemon pith.) So then I trudged back in the kitchen and finished preparing the shrimp salad, which took me all of five minutes, and it was great. So many ingredients, but a unified, balanced whole, as Thompson's always saying. I highly recommend it. It's on page 218. Maybe I'll make the pork tomorrow. Edit: er-- I mean I recommend it highly.

Ian: Do you actually find kaffir limes in Chi-town? You are very fortunate. I don't think any of the Thai stores in Manhattan's Chinatown sell them. They sell Kaffir lime leaves, but ordinary western whole limes, at least that's what I found today. Suzanne: your advice came late for my dinner tonight, but I'll take a look for the future. I got the impression that Thompson wants you to use fresh, not bottled, juice, but I'm not sure if he really says this. I'll have to check tomorrow. The tangerine juice worked very well with the dish, in any event. Bloviatrix: is the etrog citron the same as the "asian" citron, which is actually a green bitter orange? I have no idea myself. Thanks everyone for your input.

I just read at the Cook's Thesaurus that tangerines are a variety of mandarin orange. My mind is blown. I had no idea that I'd been eating mandarin oranges all my life. I should have no trouble finding some fresh tangarines. But please, someone, tell me I'm not making a huge mistake. If a recipe says "mandarin juice," it's really acceptable to squeeze a fresh tangerine?

I want to make a dish from David Thompson's "Thai Food" that calls for a couple tablespoons of asian citron juice. The recipe also says you can use mandarin juice. I've had no luck finding fresh citrons or mandarin oranges in Manhattan's chinatown. What should I use instead? A little orange juice? Isn't "mandarin juice" orange juice? Your thoughts, please. I have a couple hours to think about this.

Lady T? I thought you were next?

I checked out Daisy May's today with a friend, for lunch. I am no barbecue expert (a situation I must rectify), but I'll give you my impression of the place. We split an order of the dry rub pork ribs and the Kansas City sweet pork ribs. We enjoyed both. I thought they must have toned down the dry rub as Fat Guy predicted because "assertive" is not a word I would choose to describe it. I thought it was tasty but almost restrained. I preferred the sweet ribs, which to my inexperienced palate were almost ideal. The show was totally stolen by the beans, however, which as others have posted were truly exquisite. And we liked the peaches in Bourbon. We were in and out of there in less than ten minutes. There was a short line, but I think the NY Times article rush has already come and gone. We tried to sit at the bar at the Landmark Tavern across the street, but we were told there that we couldn't bring in our own food. Bad business decision, if you ask me. We ended up instead at a place on the east side of 9th Ave, just south of 46th (or was it 45th?) called, I think, the 9th Avenue Saloon. The place was uncrowded, they welcomed our business, and they have cheap drafts.

I have to say that I'm a little shocked at the indignance with which many people on this thread have denounced this woman, both for her behavior and her parenting skills. As far as her behavior is concerned, I think the restaurant was certainly within its rights to refuse to heat up a product containing chicken. But was it an outrageous request for this woman to have made? It may have been thoughtless when you consider that the restaurant wants to keep meat outside its doors. But it's hardly cause for the consternation we've seen from some of the posters here. We have heard the restaurant claim that she became abusive when her request was denied, and that this is why she was asked to leave. Tanabutler is right-- we don't know what happened there. The restaurant has given its side of the story, but isn't this always the claim when it's a "he said, she said" sort of situation? Both sides claim the other was rude, raised his or her voice, and used offensive language. It's an easy way to avoid discussing whether one's position was actually correct on the merits. I'm not saying it didn't happen-- I'm just pointing out that it may or may not be true. Even if she was rude, need she have been removed from the premises? It seems like a pretty harsh punishment to me, especially since it seems like everyone calmed down enough so that she could finish what was on her plate before she left. As for her parenting, the critiques of this woman are, frankly, completely uncalled for. Many parents eschew jarred baby food under all circumstances, and bully for you if you are one of these parents, but the majority of parents make use of jars at one time or another, and at restaurants especially the jars come in pretty handy. It is neither outside the mainstream nor bad parenting to feed an 11-month old child chicken from a jar. Although most kids that age have some teeth, they still chew with their gums and are unable to break down chunks of meat. Many pediatricians advise parents to feed their kids of that age jarred meats or pureed meats, even if the kids are primarily eating finger foods, so that they will get the protein without risking a choking hazard.

Thanks, Kristin. I may get to give that tart a try before the season is over. Saturday night we had some friends over. We had tomato salad (what else?); Alsatian onion and bacon tart (from the October Bon Appetit); sauteed duck breast, over mixed greens; and for dessert, sour cream coffee cake with pears and pecans (also from the October Bon Appetit), and a few different Ben & Jerry's flavors. Everything was good, but the onion and bacon tart was a real highlight. It was much tastier than I anticipated-- but if you're thinking about making it, out there, whoever you are, you might want to make a little more dough than the recipe calls for. I used one 12 x 18 cookie sheet instead of two 10 x 16 sheets, anticipating that I'd have a good bit of dough left over. Not so. I could barely stretch the dough to cover the cookie sheet. I cut back proportionately on the other ingredients, but not the dough. And it came out thin and fully cooked and everything. But I'm no baker. Better rollers than I might have no trouble filling two 10 x 16 sheets with the amount of dough called for in the recipe.