mags

Chinese salt-and-pepper pork made with chicken thighs, served over a romaine-and-tomato salad with a soy-and-mustard dressing. Next time the chicken needs to be in bigger chunks, and I need to not burn the Schechuan peppercorns.

There are varying degrees of vegetarianism -- and of Kashruth, for that matter. I agree that anyone following strict dietary guidelines of whatever sort should probably confine him/herself to restaurants owned and run by people who share the same principles. But many people (including all of the vegetarians and most of the observant Jews I know) are not that strict: They will eat anywhere, so long as the foods they are specifically choosing to eat are not deliberately prepared with forbidden products. The keys here are "specifically choosing" and "deliberately prepared." Short of living in a hermetically sealed bubble, most people with exclusionary dietary regimes know that they cannot prevent their innards from being contaminated with some amount or other of The Bad Stuff, and they meet their dietary guidelines by choosing to eat only those foods that have been prepared without the deliberate use of said Bad Stuff. When a restaurant lies to its customers about the process of preparation, it takes that choice away from them.

but i did state that i think it's ridiculous for a strict vegetarian, religious or not, to eat at mcdonalds and expect a 100% animal free product, consider the environment and process, so i figgered i'd defend it. but that's not what the article is about. Oy, TOMMY! Yes, McDonald's' kitchen is swimming in a haze of meat miasma, and presumably pork miasma in particular, since they use bacon in some of their stuff. Does that mean that an observant Jew, say, has no right to buy ice cream at McDonald's and assume that it will not contain lard? In fact, let's really draw out the argument. If you've got a burger joint operating on a hot day, the air around that place is going to be just DRENCHED with microscopic bits of meat-grease. If there's a vegetarian place next door, do they have the right to sneak lard into the ice cream that's served to their vegetarian clients, on the grounds that the vegetarians are, in fact, already being exposed to meat-stuff? How far up the street does the vegetarian restaurant have to be before it's required to, in fact, avoid ACTIVELY SHOVING MEAT into its nominally vegetarian products? Are vegetarians required to cross the county line before they have the right to accept a restaurant's claim of "no meat in this item" on face value?

hee hee hee We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

My impression of what the producer said about its product is that their french fries are fried in "100% vegetable oil" and I believe that statement is true, or at least that's what they fill their fryers with. The assumption that the fryers used for french fries would never be contaminated with meat products, or that the "natural flavors" contained in the french fries are vegetarian was done on the part of the consumer. I think this amounts to an egregious degree of hair-splitting. French fries are fried potatoes. A recipe for french fries -- outside the fast-food industry -- will typically involve two ingredients: potatoes and fat. Potatoes are vegetarian. If one is then told that the fat is also vegetarian, one has every right to assume that the finished product is, in fact, vegetarian. The fact that McDonald's "seasons" their fries with meat-flavoring is not something the average vegetarian should be expected to assume, any more than he/she would assume that the ice cream or green salad with vinaigrette included meat products. At what price-point, Tutor, are vegetarians permitted to believe that potatoes fried in "100% vegetable oil" are, in fact, vegetarian? Do restaurants charging less than, say, $10 a meal get a free pass on effectively lying to their customers, but more expensive restaurants are expected to tell the truth? This seems like a totally bizarre argument.

"De-boning" Drives me nuts. And it seems to have become ubiquitous over the past ten years. What ever happened to BONING the damn chicken?

FWIW, I've eaten at Trotter's three times, I have never tipped the host/hostess (nor have any of the people I've dined with), and I have never gotten anything other than perfectly pleasant service and a table when expected. And I can't imagine what your friend means by "dressing appropriately" beyond standard business casual.

I don't think it matters whether people are choosing to avoid beef products because of religious or moral beliefs or because they made a bet with their fraternity brothers that they could avoid beef products for 30 days. A corporation is obligated, it seems to me, to tell its customers the truth about its products. Doing anything else is fraud.

Me, I just can't stop thinking about the dear little bowl of melted gruyere. Gruyere right off the heat is molten. Five minutes after that it's cheese-flavored glue.

Real Noo Yawkahs don't drive. heh. i actually didn't find out that was the benefit of bagels quarters til i moved ot the south. There are no bagels in the South.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the proper way to eat a bagel? With a schmear. And, if it's Sunday, a couple nice thin slices nova from the middle, not too salty.

Yes, blueberry is completely unacceptable, but....I don't approve of cinnamon-raisin, either. That's dessert. Anything remotely sweet (fruit, chocolate chips, honey) is verboten.

They still get a lot more from a solo diner than they would if the table had stayed empty. That is the theory behind selling really cheap seats on airlines. Needless to say - the airline industry - over its entire lifetime - hasn't turned a profit. Robyn I don't think that's a meaningful analogy.

Yellow squash (and zukes, too) are infinitely tastier if you salt'em and drain'em first, or shred them and then squeeze REALLY well to get rid of the water. The texture will be a lot better, and so will the flavor.

Actually, the frat boys usually tip lousy -- at least, that's how I remember it from my waitressing days -- because they've been drunkenly knocking back the Kamikazes and Slow Comfortable Screws without paying attention to the tab, and when it arrives, it's a helluva lot higher than they expected, so they throw an extra 4 bucks on the table for the waitstaff, and go home to nurse their hangovers and lie to their wives about how much they spent. While I tip well generally, and may tip particularly well if I'm alone, I'm sure as hell not going to tip "at least 50%." I mean, there's a difference between being gracious and apologizing for taking up space. I don't feel any obligation to do the latter.

Maybe not romantic but certainly sensual: I remember the first dinner I made for a long-ago boyfriend in London. Actually, I remember what I cooked: roast chicken with lemon, grilled eggplant with pesto, tomato salad, and apricot compote with ice cream. But what I really remember is realizing that he made the same noises while eating my food that he made in bed. Some months later, he trudged six miles through the rain to bring me a six-pack of Diet Pepsi that I think he must have gotten at Harrod's or Selfridge's, since God knows no normal grocery was carrying diet sodas in those days. Now THAT was romantic.

I used to travel alone on business a lot, and it took me years to get up the courage to actually go to good restaurants on my own, rather than eating horrible room-service food. I made my debut at the Park Avenue Cafe, in Chicago, and they treated me so beautifully that they set the standard by which all others get judged. I remember specifically that when I made the reservation, they asked whether I would like a table with good light for reading (yes please), and offered to do single versions of some of the menu items that were listed as being only for two. Class act.

Would love to be there on the 21st. Medium-rare, and glad to walk the bridge (and walk off lunch!) unless it's horrible and hot and sticky. Only question: When is the GOP convention? I think we don't want to bump into that.

That may be the difference. I've only ever flown Cathay busy class. I remember the first time an editor called me and wanted me to go to Asia for a story. I said "I have two words for you: Business Class." He thought I wanted the free booze, but what I really wanted was the footrest.

Really? I was on a CX flight about 2 years ago and it was not very different than Air Canada. Of the Asian carriers, I'd say that Singapore Airlines and EVA both have CX beat on both meals and service. I've been very happy with the food on Cathay, and also on Dragon Air, which they own. But I've heard really good things about the food on Singapore Air, though I've never flown with them.

God those kids are gorgeous.

Service is fine, I guess, but hasn't left any impression. The food has been really, REALLY good. Freshly steamed dumplings, six kinds of dim sum for breakfast, menus developed by the restaurant at the Peninsula (a very good HK hotel). I also have a dim memory of a snack of delicious Thai chicken soup. At this point, I mostly don't eat on planes, because the food is so horrible (except for the stuff like Ben & Jerry's ice cream and Mrs. Field's cookies...which I don't want to be eating). Overcooked vegetables, glutinous gravy, sugary salad dressing...unless I'm going to the other side of the planet, I just don't bother. But I'm very glad Cathay is there for when I AM going to the other side of the planet.

Cathay Pacific is way better than any other carrier I've ever flown.

Rachel, I would absolutely second the suggestion that you put some buttered foil down on the part of the pan where you don't have the lasagna. Also, I would very strongly recommend that you try to squish some foil down between the edge of the pan (all the way around) and the edge of the lasagne, and use it to make a foil "wall" on the side of the pan (again all the way around). Lasagne can get pretty drippy as it cooks, and if you're using what I think of as a jelly-roll pan, you don't really have any sides to it, and the lasagne could drip over the sides. The reason the mozz is bland is that it is probably unsalted -- which doesn't taste like much. But cooking it will turn it creamy and will also brown it in bits, which will give it a pleasantly bitter taste.

I. Want. the. Tart. Also the salad. But first, the tart.