Busboy

Anything to keep them from making any more movies...

Anything to keep them from making any more movies...

Though food and wine writers -- and just us afficiandos -- can use the occasional reminder that any obsession can be carried to the point of parody, especially if you're running with the uninitiated or just the uninterested. There are friends with whom I would never talk politics, and those with whom I would never talk food. If we can't take a joke... I missed that episode, but I'd bet that any writer who could create a riff on artisinal cheese and import regs is a total foodie him or herself.

You did better than my first try. Years ago a bunch of went down to the waterfront in DC to pick up crabs, oysters, shrimp, whitefish and anything we could think of to make "the great seafood feast." My friend lived in a group house with a kitchen the size of an efficiency apartment; years later, after renovation I went through it on an open house -- a couch and TV, two refiridgerators and a waterfall had been installed. Ten or so of us got to work on the various purchases, and it soon emerged that none of us had ever opened an oyster. We'd bought shuckers at the wharf, we just couldn't seem to get them ti work. Soon enough, inexperience combined with beer to creat a steady stream of wounded, as would-be watermen one after the next found the shuckers losing purchase on the shell and burying themselves in the palms of their hands. Fortunately, we were using blunt-ended style shuckers (part of the problem, in retrospect, but safer in the hands of rookies) and the wounds were not deep. And with beer to kill the pain and cleanse the wounds (what a magical bevarage!) we kept to the task. The oysters were fresh, feast was great, I still have my scar, and my tools and technique are considerably improved. Ability to shuck an oyster is considered an exotic skill in some circles. Now that you've made it through your first experience, I advise you to practice as often as possible -- awing your friends and, of course, delighting your taste buds.

My suspicion is much of this has to do with dining and food knowledge becoming fashionable in the international monied class. An alignment of social and economic forces (fewer and later kids, growing incomes among college-educated types, less time and knowledge for cooking, etc) has unleashed a cadre of "fine diners" on the restaurant world who bring serious cash and a reasonably adventurous palate to the table, but relatively less real knowledge of or desire for truly memorable cooking. In the U.S., especially, they know much more about food that their parents did, but it isn't of primary importance to them. In France, I can't judge -- maybe it's part of their love/hate relationship with the U.S. or a fashionable desire to be more "global." The thing that joins them, though, is that they are in search of an experience, rather than a meal -- something new, something odd, something outrageous. And, because they have cash, restaurants cater to them: spending zillions on design; attempting to lure celebreties and beautiful people; turning chefs into celebrities; fusing, deconstrucing and foaming the hell out of whatevers on the plate. The upside is that it gives chefs a lot more leeway to experiment and change. The downside is that it promotes novelty for novelty's sake or, worse, subverts the cooking in favor of the "scene." And, oh yeah, it drives up the price of a decent meal by driving demand for hip ingredients, jacking up rents, squeezing smaller restaurants out, and putting the bottom line in the hands of investors.

The cookbook has disappeared, so the recipe is not exact, but Patrick O'Connel at the Inn at Little Washington sweats chopped garlic in butter, adds and brings to a boil a mixture of roughly euqal parts (guestimating here) cream, milk and water to a boil, with a couple of bay leaves and a dash of hot sauce. I'll defere to those above who knew the proper liquid-polenta ration, I just guess, but 5:1 sounds about right. He then adds polenta and a roughly equal portion of grated parmesan reggiano. Excellent stuff, and looks great served in the cast iron skillet you made it up in. If you put in a little less liquid, and make it in advance and let it solidigy, it's great fried up just before dinner, and either way makes an excellent brekfast, again, fried up just before serving.

Nope. Sorry - this one's all about Philly. Bassett's Ice Cream has been around since 1795. Breyer's Ice Cream had a factory here for over 125 years until a not-too-long-ago corporate buyout. Ice cream is sometimes called "Philadelphia style". What that means I don't know, but I know this city has a longer history with commercially available ice cream than anywhere else. There was ice cream in Philadelphia loooonng before Cheesesteaks or pretzels. Philadelphia-style ice cream is traditionally made without eggs. eta: Oops HJ beat me

Here, here. Though, I suspect that most of my aversion to first-person writing is the fault not of the form but of the writer. It seems to encourage self-indugence and imprecision, and it becomes a cheap way to make unsubstantiated predjudices sound like fact. All writers -- all people -- are fascinated with themselves, staying in the third person reminds a writer that it is his subject, not himself, that is important for the moment. Many exceptions, of course. And food writers are far from the only or the worst genre of offenders.

I have never been to Ben's Chili Bowl. I thought the exercise here was to identify a city's signature consumable, such as Philadelphia cheese steak's or San Francisco sour dough bread or Kansas City barbeque. As near as I can tell, there ain't no "Washington, DC _____ ." Certainly, the city is not known for "Ben's Chili Bowl." People don't come to town and tell the cab driver "take me to Ben's Chili Bowl." When I want chili, I go to Hard Times Cafe, or make it myself. I think one of the reasons it is so difficult to identify a DC signature dish is because so many of the people who live here come from somewhere else and leave after doing a stint with the federal government or working on the Hill. Ya been to the Tune Inn, it's only a DC institution? Ben's is vastly overrated as far as the quality of its chili, but an institution nonetheless. The DC transient thing is a cliche. What, New York isn't full of transients? Also, vaguely racist, as it ignores the generations of stable black history here. For DC's food, I'd suggest the oyster -- with an iced beer or a chilled sauvignon blanc, it goes upscale and downscale, and was historically a staple of workingclass diets here. DENVER: green chili. or steak.

Though the meal was not particularly memorable -- and the Eschezeaux served too warm -- I'll miss the restaurant in which I proposed to Mrs. Busboy lo these many years ago. Soltner dropped by to work the table just as I produced the bracelet (I still can't afford a rock, all my money goes to food...and tuition), throwing off my rhythm and causing me to mumble semi-coherently to the chef and finacee for several moments, until I got my bearings back. Au revoir...

Any gin bragging about their smoothness likely has a watered-down taste and is targeted at the vodka crowd. Real gin has a proper bite. I go with Bombay -- the traditional stuff, not that wussy Sapphire swill.

We need more on this.

The do have an unusual number of eyes.

We recently discovered that the slightly grim mercado in our neighborhood gets great fish in a couple of times a week, allegedly Thursday and Saturday, in addition to the ice-bins full very nasty stuff that kept us from buying fish there for four years. My wife went by this PM, thinking to score some yellowtail or rockfish to bake with jerk spicing and found out that all the fish were nasty. So she dropped by Whole Foods where, for the first time ever (as far as we know) they had fresh sardines, which I've been craving since a recent trip to Greece. Being the kind of people who cook on the fly, she bought the guys figuring that, between the 80 cookbooks, our own modest experence and eGullet, we'd find something to do with them. Thanks for your suggestions, all. If the supply keeps up, I'm sure we'll cook through them all (Sam, she says they're a day too late for simply marinating, my first choice). In the mean time, we'll report back.

Mrs. Busboy just scored a dozen fresh sardines. We like them. But we've never cooked them. Do they need to be boned before cooking? I can't remember the details of the few times we've eaten them. Anyone have a simple recipe? I seem to recall oregano or marjoram working well, and lemon. Any and all hints and suggestions gratefully accepted.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Jeremiah Tower has a couple of thoughts on this subject in his book, California Dish, at a significantly more elevated (though not necessarily more satifying) culinary level than has been yet reached on this string. In addition to the recipes for Mary Jane Butter – mix a handful of pot, two pounds butter and water to almost fill a saucepan; simmer, strain and chill, discarding the water and making cookies with the butter – he has one for consommé used as part of this menu: Pirozhki/ -- Vodka Wyborova Proscuitto and figs -- Niersteiner Spiegleberg Spätlese Kabinett ‘66 Consommé marijuana Roast Beef, sauce madère – Château Beychevelle ‘62 Spinach Cream puree Pommes de terre château Watercress salad vinaigrette Fraises, crème Carême -- Korbel, brut California Coffee Meringues “The consommé cleared the palate, and this one, from marijuana stems soaked in a rich chicken stock, provided another level of stimulation. But not stoned: the brew takes 45 minutes to reach the brain, by which time we were on to dessert, tasting strawberries and cream as we’d never tasted them before.”

The one variety of mushrooms that taste terrible. I'd just choke them down separately and wash them back with beer. It's pretty likely they'll screw up the taste of anything that's being eaten for pleasure, may as well just disguise them as best you can with something cheap, and save the truffles for when you're hungry afterwards. It's likely that anything that's been lying around since Jerry was on stage would have lost a lot of its punch, but best of luck!

Haven;t been to El Chalan in years. I remember mostly the pisco sours and the friend of a friend with one pinky fingernail grown long... Supposed to be decent.

Bag Blackie's -- it hasn't been a restaurant to be reckoned with since the early 70's. Childe Harold is a drinks-only place, the food is edible but not something to seek out. Likewise, Zorba's is pretty generic, though not bad. I'd go there for a cheap gyro, but I wouldn't go far out of my way for it. Other good bars in that area are the Lucky Bar (hip dive) on Connecticut Avenue at N St, and The Fox and Hounds, a (dive dive) on 17th at Q (same block as Sushi Taro). If you like Kozy Corner (a fine but unexceptional diner), try Trio's, next to the Fox, for quality club sandwiches, wine by the glass, real milk shakes and long-neck Buds'. If you want to get to BdC, avoid 7-9 if possible. The waits can be long and the service a parody of Gallic indifference. Since you're working the show, that will likely not be a problem. I note that neither you nor slbunge have considered Ethiopian. I'd recommend that you give it a try, as DC has some great Ethiopian places, including Addis Ababa and Dukem. Both are located in nightclub districts, so you can try something different while stumbling from hipster hangout to jazz club.

I can't believe I missed two posts. I guess I'm not spending enough of my workday on eGullet.

"The subtext of both the Adrià and the mass-market approach to food is the notion that eating has become boring and that for food to be interesting, it needs to be hypermanipulated. This is obviously the philosophy being peddled by mass-market food producers who would encourage us to snack ourselves to obesity with technological marvels like McGriddles (pancake sandwiches with the syrup "baked right in"), Dippin' Dots ice cream, and Hot Pockets. And even though Adrià and his tech-y ilk use exquisite ingredients (organic vegetables, fish that were swimming just hours before dinner), they are also deploying junk-food tactics without questioning where this industrial food aesthetic might be taking us. " Interesting take -- and a bit of light on why I (and others, perhaps) are both seduced and repelled by the Adria approach. Here's the link.

It may dull the finish, if that matters. But this stuff is amazing. I have hard water and orange tile stains, purple sink stains and a general nightmare. Bleach made it worse and everything else did a lot of nothing. Except Barkeepers Friend. It really is amazing and I hope no one gets on to tell me it's an enviromental disaster, source of illness or employs slave labor. I love this product! It's also the single greatest way to get the stains off your non-stainless chefs' knives and clean up the copper pots if, say, you're mom's visiting or you had too much coffee that morning.

Mrs. Busboy cooked an excellent red beans and rice from Paul Prudhomme's book, if you can get ahold of that. Probably be helpful on a number of other fronts, if you've got a real Cajun jones going on, as well.

A stain? Or actual crusties? If it's a stain, why bother? It's like trying to get paint off your work clothes -- far more effort than it's worth. It doesn't effect the performance and stains, dinks, scratches etc. are a more or less inevitable biproduct of an active culiary life. Kind of a "red badge of courage." As for crusties, soaking a pan in the sink, with a snow-drift of dishwashing detergent actually resting on the charred scum usually works. After a while, possibly days. Another trick is to fill the pan with water and put some dishwashing soap in it and boil for a while. Obviously, these are not solutions that work on cast iron or anything delicate, but they're pretty effective on stainless and heavy aluminum.

Entemenns chocolate chip cookies. The chewy ones.