Andrew Fenton

My guess is that Spengler overlooked the displays of Riunite wine in Italian wine shops. (Andrew, back me up here. You can't tell me that this product is produced for export to the US only. BTW, "Riunite" translates into English as "United"--that's right, you're drinking United Wine! Sounds like a conglomerate, doesn't it?) I don't know about Riunite, but of course there's plenty of crap wine in Europe. Though it's crappy in its own special way. While there's bad industrial wine for sale at the supermarket, there's also bad artisanal wine: the owner of the corner vegetable market has a brother-in-law with a vineyard, and sells his lousy wine for 3 euros a bottle. Still, it is fair to say that on the whole, it's easier and cheaper to get good wine in Italy than it is in the US.

Yep, if the food is good and I'm not famished, I don't have a problem with waiting...

In the first case, I'd say that culture trumps religion; that's also true for a Jewish deli. I don't think that there's such a thing as "American vegetarian culture". In the second case... is there such a case? If it exists, it'd be worth thinking about. I probably wouldn't seek out a Pastafarian restaurant, either, unless I'd heard that it was really really good. And I like spaghetti. I don't think we disagree here...

dagnabit, I am buying these tomorrow, or will die trying. Pasta con le sarde or bust!

That's the conventional wisdom, to be sure. But it seems not to be true: as this article in the Willamette Weekly discusses, Starbucks has increased the market for independent coffeehouses:

Only 147 euros! Such a deal... Agreed that most US apricots are lousy. Though I did get some really good ones from my local farmers' market last week. If they have them again this week (and even if they don't), I'll ask about the variety.

Indeed. I thought it was mildly funny. But this sort of thing is really easy to write: just come up with a list of a half-dozen ridiculous & overgeneralized attributes of a given country, add a generous dose of snark, and act as if you've discovered a national character. Still, one point should be addressed: If the author had actually traveled for many years in Italy, he no doubt would have noticed the caffe latte. Not the same as the Starbucks version (needless to say, it's better), but it's mainly milk. And lots of Italians drink it.

I think there's a difference between an ethnic restaurant (including barbecue) and a vegetarian restaurant. The one is rooted in a culture; the other is rooted in an ethical decision. I'm interested in exploring various cultures through food. I'm not so interested in making a moral statement by what I put on my plate. Others differ; that's fine with me. Maybe a better analogy would be the "fresh, local, sustainable" movement in food. Taste plays a big part there, but it's also an ethical decision. I'm also broadly sympathetic to it, and I think it's an interesting challenge to explore the possibilties of local foods. If a restaurant decides to explore the possibilities of a vegetable-based menu (as it sounds like Blue Sage does), well, groovy. Of course: the proof of the pudding's in the eating. That's true whether it's a chocolate tofu pudding, or foie gras custard with Sauternes gelee...

Excellent photgraphs, the produce is just amazing isn't it? Indeed, and so cheap! After a year of spending 40 cents (or less) on an artichoke, it breaks my heart to see them at the supermarket for $1.50...

Really? That's excellent. How do they compare to suppli/arancini? What are they filled with? I may just have to go pick up some of those...

Again, I just don't know if I agree. I mean, if you're not in a hurry or starving and there's a nice bar across the street-- let's call it "The New Wave Cafe"-- an hour's wait isn't so bad. If there's an hour wait at Chloe, you go walk around Old City, maybe go shopping for used books or CDs or something. What's the matter with that? Ideally, then, the Cheesecake Factory would call your cell (as PF Changs does); in the meantime, you go wander around the mall and buy a few pairs of Dockers or go to Spencer Gifts or whatever. Of course, I suspect that most of these restaurants aren't in a hurry to adopt the cell-phone practice: better to keep the folks at the bar, drinking. But that's something else....

Because I'm a wide-eyed naïf (seriously, that cloud of dust around me? It's from the turnip truck I just fell off of), can I ask: you mean that spaghetti is cheap? It's not cheaper than rice (the side dish I'd have expected); or is it?

You like the Cheesecake Factory, you wait at the Cheesecake Factory. I mean, I don't see any difference between waiting there and waiting at Dmitri's, or Chloe, or Melograno, all of which I've done. I wouldn't wait at the Cheesecake Factory, but then, I've eaten there, and wouldn't want to return. Even if there wasn't a line.

Evidently the sort of people who like to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. No doubt many of them would find throwing down $100 for dinner at Studiokitchen to be incomprehensible and ridiculous...

I'll go; if it's good enough for mrbigjas, it's good enough for me... On the larger issue, of course it can be a meal without meat. But unless you have ethical or dietary reasons, there isn't any particular reason to seek out a vegan restaurant, any more than there is to seek out a restaurant that doesn't use salt, or red-colored foods, or spinach. Though... it occurs to me that there's the possibility for a cuisine that's analogous to what the Oulipo did with literature: impose artificial constraints in an attempt to stimulate creativity. Poets have always done this, but the most famous Oulipian example is George Perec's novel La Disparition (translated as A Void), written without the use of the letter "e". ... and it turns out that there's the Oucuipo, a spinoff to do just that. Though it doesn't seem to have been a very active group: this website cites pennette alla vodka senza vodka as an example of an Oucuipo-inspired dish. This sort of thing happens elsewhere, too: but offhand, I can't think of any restaurants that deliberately limit them for purely aesthetic reasons.

Huh. Well, it sounds like it's worth trying. I admit skepticism about a restaurant built on a negative concept, but sure, what the heck...

See, that's what bothered me more than the slow service. (Well, that and the cold food. There's no excuse for that). I agree that they seem to have a clientele. I'm sure that they also benefit from spillover crowds from El Vez on the corner. (In fact, that's exactly what we did: started at the Wednesday happy hour at El Vez then went to Vintage for dinner.)

I was looking through some of my Sicily photos this morning and thought I would post a couple, showing two sides (literally) of the island, and a few sweet Sicilian treats. First, Cefalu in the northwestern part of the island. There's a 12C Norman cathedral there with a really remarkable mosaic of Christ Pantocrator; diabolically balancing it is Aleister Crowley's house (which I couldn't find. dang.) And the harbor is beautiful: This was one of the best cannoli I had in Sicily. The candied fruit on the end is typical. what a great breakfast... I enjoyed the oatmeal I had this morning, but it's just not the same, somehow: Marizpan is another very Sicilian treat, one which takes advantage of all the almonds that grow there. I don't actually like it very much, but I admire the artistry that goes into making it. And I admit a fondness to food that looks like other kinds of food: (Not the greatest picture, sorry.) Fruit-shaped marzipan seems to be the most common; what I liked about this shop is that it had tons of different shapes of marzipan: here you've got fichi d'india, eggs, and panini. I think they had little marzipan steaks, too. This store is in Taormina, in the northeast. It's a really stunning city, though massively over-touristed (and sadly, as far into Sicily as a lot of people get). But the tourism means lots of window displays of, among other things, desserts: Torrone! Yum. Anyway, somebody ought to make some cool-looking marzipan this month. You know, show off your mad food-sculpting skillz...

Oh, Katie, I was just kidding. But seriously, folks, I'll be here all week. Try the barbacoa...

in part, yeah. it's kind of like a reverse hoagie or something--meat wrapping cold cuts wrapping bread (and cheese).... actually tonight we had it as leftovers, and a night in the fridge did wonders for the cohesiveness of the dish, so i'm gonna go ahead and post a pic, because i have a new camera: edited to say that you can totally see the issues here: bready filling too big, gaps in the meat wrapping, etc. what you can't see is the deliciousness. mmmmm ← Dude, that looks awesome. And you're totally right about the reverse hoagie: my first thought on seeing that photo was to wonder how the cold braciole would work on a sandwich... mmm...

The culinary high point of my trip to Tunisia this June may well have been the wonderful fruits there: peaches and watermelon were in season, and I had some truly excellent plums as well. But my favorite fruit was a sort of yellow apricot, juicier and tarter than the apricots we get in the US. It was amazing, and I wish I could get them here. At the time, I asked, and was told, the name of these apricots. But like an idiot, I didn't write it down, and naturally have forgotten. Also like an idiot, I didn't take a photo of the apricots. So I appeal to you: can anybody help me identify these apricots? What are they called?

yeah that's the ticket! rereading it, my post sounded more disappointed than i really was--it's just that it's obviously supposed to be a big presentation sort of thing, and it wasn't. Still, sounds wicked good. I need to start playing with involtini; there's something inherently dramatic about mixing different meats, which I guess is what's behind that recipe...

It sounds a little more like grattachecca (shaved ice) than granita per se. But it also sounds really good. Anyway, on the frozen dessert front, I made some granita di anguria* today, and it's superb: refreshing in this brutal heat. I have some peaches ripening, so they will be next; then it's time to scale Mt. Mandorla. Onward and upward! *That's watermelon, of course. Question for the Italophones: is there a connotative difference between anguria and cocomero? There's an etymological difference (one's from Greek, the other's from Latin), but as far as I can tell, they refer to exactly the same fruit. Is that correct?

Dough! I mean, d'oh! I always get those mixed up. Anyway, there's no doubt that the combo of that and parmesan is a wicked dairy double team. But oddly good.