Ruth

We ate our strips last night - grilled and very rare. They were exquisitely memorable. Unfortunately I cannot see myself paying Lobel's prices on a regular basis, but it will be some time before I have the courage to try a steak from my regular butcher (Florence) again although I always found their meat very good.

I totally agree as to Akelare. Subijana is an excellent and very creative chef. If I were forced to choose between Akelare and Arzak - both superb - I would take Akelare. Others to consider are Fagollare and Kaia, in Getaria about twenty minutes west of San Sebastian right on the coast. The quality of their grilled wild turbot is incomparable and well worth the trip. The new Basque restaurants, wonderful as they are, all have a similar approach. Lunch at Kaia on say your second or third day would give you a refreshing interlude.

Thanks for the info. I just registered and ordered 2 New York bone-in strips for delivery on Tuesday. It's a long time since I bought meat from Lobel's and look forward to comparing it with the steaks I buy from the Florence market.

I cannot believe that the broccoli will not become soft and lose color to boot if it is covered. I would prefer it seasoned, tossed with evoo and roasted in a 500° oven for about ten minutes. That is the method I use for asparagus and cauliflower; they retain their personality when cooked this way.

We were unable to get a table at Sandoval's restaurant (El Bohio) this spring even e-mailing three weeks in advance! There is another young chef, Francis Paniego, who serves incredibly exciting food at his restaurant Echaurren in the tiny village of Escaray in Rioja. He too does not miss a beat in his twelve course tasting menu. His style is similar to that of Ferran Adria but his dishes are totally his own. Try it Tony if you get to that area. I am sure you will agree. I have said it before on this board and I repeat - Spain is currently the most inspiring food destination in Europe.

I found some excellent lychees, sweet and with very small seeds, on a street stand in the Brooklyn Chinatown yesterday. They were going for $5.00 for two lbs and I decided to make a sorbet. Not that easy to extract all the juice as there is a tough brown skin between the seed and the flesh which must be eliminated. All I added was lemon juice, a little sugar and some alcohol to prevent it from getting to hard in the freezer. Came out beautifully. I only wish I had a better juice extractor as there was more waste than I would have liked.

Someone, I know, is going to crucify me for this but it really worked well. A few days ago I had visitors at very short notice and a cook-out seemed the only option. I was planning halibut, veal ribs and spareribs on my gas grill (medium sized Weber) and was not in the mood to tend to the ribs over indirect heat while preparing hors d'oeuvres and appetizers in the early afternoon. I seasoned the ribs with s&p and various spices and then cooked them sous vide at 170° for an hour. They emerged tender, juicy and flavorful and all I had to do prior to serving was to grill and glaze them along with the veal ribs. I am sure this method will work just as well with baby backs

No experience with the Sharp but I did spend three years looking for a decent countertop convection oven. Two years ago I made the mistake of settling for the Cuisinart convection toaster oven. Actually it worked well and the convection feature could be turned on or off. However, the plastic veneer started cracking almost from day one. I returned it once and was sent a new unit which also started to crack after two or three months. Then I saw the CADCO. This is an all stainless steel commercial convection oven that comes in two sizes and is generally sold by restaurant suppliers. Check out www.chefscatalog.com which discounts both units about 30%. I bought the smaller unit and am more than delighted. I would recommend the larger for anyone with the space and budget only because really large gratin pans, for example, will not fit into the smaller one.

Hear hear! Of course you should make your own if you use them so often. Buying the legs would cost you half of what you pay for the confit. Every good chef's cook book will give you the technique.

If you ever make a borscht - or any other sour soup - add some chopped lovage at the end of the cooking. It is a perfect marriage. Lovage is extraordinarily hardy. We have four plants in our Brooklyn backyard that have come back every spring for 25 years or more even after tough winters when all the other perennials died.

Even that would not work. Last year one of our freezers broke down. My husband rushed out to buy a new one - twice the size. Within a month it was crammed. I always say I would like to have an additional refrigerator for fruit and vegetables. We always have a whole drawer full of oranges or grapefruit for our morning juice. We are ridiculously acquisitive with vegetables, buying whenever we see something fresh - which of course is self-defeating because many of them are no longer so fresh when we get around to eating them. But this would not solve the problem. It all boils down to a general theory -the quantity of food we buy increases in proportion to refrigerator and freezer capacity

I have read and chewed over every post here and the subject is truly fascinating, on some points depressing but sometimes inspiring. I shall never forget returning to Paris in the mid-eighties after a long hiatus. New York had been a gastronomic desert when I first arrived in '62. Not only was there a dearth of decent restaurants at any price, but it was impossible to find good bread, butter, fish, poultry or vegetables. Only the beef was respectable. By the mid-eighties New York was well on its way to becoming the "food capital" of the world. None the less I had always been a francophile, Escoffier was still my god and I was looking forward to being in Paris again. We spent the first day walking around the city and examining the menus posted in the windows of the starred restaurants. It took me a few hours to realize that not only were the menus of the three star restaurants all almost identical but that they had not changed in twenty years. After a few days I came to the conclusion that while execution was invariably exemplary (I cannot remember a single dish that was not perfectly prepared), the concepts were totally unexciting and I was looking forward to being back in New York where even Chinatown and already taken its own great leap forward. The French think of themselves as very conservative diners and may not want to admit even to themselves that they are getting a little bored with their own cuisine. Chefs are reluctant to experiment (except for the likes of Pierre Gagnaire and Marc Veyrat who rely mainly on a tourist clientele). Claude Troisgros felt that he would never be successful in Lyons because he likes to include a few Brazilian spices in his otherwise traditional haute cuisine. To the best of my knowledge no-one has had the courage to "deconstruct" French cuisine in the manner of so many of the successful young Spanish chefs. That could be really exciting and inspiring and might possibly help to create a rebirth.

This is strictly Sichuan. Barbara Tropp went there a year or two before she died and some of the recipes she learned there were printed in the June 2000 issue of Goumet. The ma-po tofu is the best version of this classic I have ever made. Chinese cuisine is so regional that it would be hard, if not impossible, at this stage, to have a professional school devoted to the cuisines as a whole. Remember there was a huge hiatus during the Mao régime when fine food was virtually outlawed. Before and since Chinese chefs generally learn through the apprentice system as they did, and sometimes still do, in France. I recently heard of a gentleman being virtually thrown out of a restaurant in Taiwan for asking for the chef's recipe for tea-smoked duck. The chef said it was outrageous that someone should ask to be handed the recipe he had spent twenty years in perfecting.

Bux virtually every restaurant in Spain now has foie gras on the menu, far more so than in France, and the starred restaurant in Roses - La Llar - is excellent with truly Spanish cuisine at a very high level. The only French touch is a great cheese platter. Their torta del Casar is to die for. I would recommend it to Tony .

The Benriner is great for slicing, but the French mandolines (I prefer the Matfer, less cumbersome than the Braun) are indispensable for gaufrettes and better for juliennes as the blades are stronger. One important question: Why soak the potatoes in port? Doesn't it make them too sweet? I read the article over my juice and coffee breakfast and felt like taking the next plane to share your leftovers.

Your wok will not be totally seasoned top-to-bottom until you have used it several times. A wok needs several applications of very high heat to acquire a real patina. Once you have it continue cleaning it with a stainless steel pad. Never use soap and put it back on the burner for a minute or so to complete the drying. I like to rub my woks with a paper towel dipped in oil before storing them. Interestingly enough Cook's Illustrated, in its latest issue, recommends a grill brush with stainless steel pads for barbecue grills (the Grill Wizard). When I ordered this brush its inventor recommended cleaning a very dirty cast iron grill with a pumice before using the brush. I have not tried this yet, but if it works well with cast iron it should do the same for a steel wok.

There was an article in a recent issue of Saveur in which they say that the pimientos are now being grown in the US although, in my view, there is no place like Padrón itself to eat them. Calvin Trillin had a long story in Saveur, I believe, years ago. He was invited to Padrón for the annual pimiento festival and was trying to get some seeds to bring back to the US. I don't know if he eventually succeeded. A reasonable substitute would be not-too-hot jalapeños. The Japanese markets do have a pepper which is similar to the Padrón, the same thin skin and similar shape and size. Try Katagiri (E.59th) or Sunrise (3rd Ave at 9th Street).

I don't think the replies would be very different if the question were posed on a dedicated wine board. Food and wine are inseparable. Every wine lover can remember occasions when a moderately priced bottle gave greater pleasure than a super expensive cult wine. I once took part in a blind tasting of highly rated Australian shiraz wines. Several of the under $100 wines had more body and fruit and were therefore more enjoyable than the Grange. A great wine does not have to cost $1000. Restaurants are a different matter. The experience of eating at one of the world's restaurants is incomparable and unforgettable (even when it is disappointing) although it is sometimes sad to have to order a so-so wine because the wine one would really like to drink would triple the cost of the meal.

NYC We can enjoy Asian food with beer but for all else it's wine every night whether at home or out. We have our little ritual at home. Husband asks me in the morning what I'll be cooking and then goes down to the cellar to pick a wine.

I own a Cuisinart and a Braun. Both are good and come with little chopper attachments. The top of the line Braun is a little more powerful than the Cuisinart but the chopper attachment works better on the Cuisinart. I use an immersion blender almost daily and rarely use a regular blender any more

It's what you use for the frying. I used a mixture of lard and duck fat to pan fry some chicken legs and thighs last night (I never fry the breasts). I brined them and coated them with flour seasoned with salt, peppr and Spanish smoked paprika. They emerged crisp, flavorful and virtually greaseless.

I cannot recall ever having met a well-made Chinese dumpling I did not like. Favorites? Yes, the soup dumplings, particularly the shrimp ball soup dumplings I had in Shanghai and have found nowhere else, but also chive dumplings with that special kick that makes them unique.

I bought some wild asparagus at the Union Square greenmarket on Wednesday. . It was very thin and although I always peel cultivated asparagus this certainly did not need peeling . I just brushed it with olive oil and put it in a 500° oven for about four minutes. It was superb.

I have had the original Polder probe for a few years now without real problems. However, when temperature is of the essence I never rely on a single thermometer and always do a double check with my super reliable Thermapen instant read. The new Polder does sound interesting as it reads the oven temperature as well as that of the food, but pretty useless if 400°F is the maximum it can take. Has anyone else tried it?

Grate it, salt it and let stand for half an hour. Squeeze it as dry as possible (the juices can irritate the stomach) and dress with EVOO. It goes well with olives and black or rye bread