Elissa

My favorite restaurant in Rio was Mostarda on the lagoon. All the dishes made with mustard! Plus you're close to a killing jazz club.

No one seeds the cukes too?

haven't found that pressureized steam and eggs go well.

Few things, maybe dandelions, have more nutrients that parsley. Can tabouli save the world?

a vinegar poach may be the greatest. why?

Does anyone know that restaurant down by the port where there is no menu: you walk in down some steps to a womens kitchen, have a look at what's for lunch, sit down and eat it?

the tiniest smidge of grated beets will turn anything impossibly red

thE feijoada in rio's at the copacabana palace, not so long ago redone to the tune of millions. every weekend but especially for mardi gras

aren't copper bowls made for eggs?

three minutes always good. or coddled over dandelion greens & arugula with shallots and anchovies. as in caesars: full leaves eaten with washed hands and fresh dressing. warstishire much better here than on steak. it was julia about adding raw eggs at the end to stop the cooking, i think. mme. david says scrambled ought be well beaten, taking one white out for every four, but that au contraire an omlette's eggs not beaten but stirred, "a few firm turns with two forks." she also recommends w. parsley tarragon chives and chervil. add half with s n p with raw eggs and other half when in pan. let us not forget raw: in Tampopo, one japanese mouth to another; or with in John O'Hara's BUtterfield8, to cure hangvers. mine i often scramble w onions. the spanish have the best way of flipping tortillas, the omelettes they make to last in a tapas case, inches thick oft w potatoes. let it set, then put a plate over the top of the pan, flip and slide it back on over. Bunuel said, or was it Fellini: Sex without sin is like eggs without salt. I wonder how Bunuel made his eggs in Mexico: with tomatos, onions, chilies and cilantro, mole? tomatillo sauce?

greens to live on: couve in brasil, like jamaica's calalloo. farofa is dangerously good don't dig in to the dende, palm oil though. do play elis regina and tom jobim.

I think it was Elizabeth David who recommended saving a lil bit of raw eggs to add at the end to stop the cooking. I have noticed that both duck fat and ghee make interesting alternatives to butter. Some tumeric is tasty, put in before the eggs with the fat, and even better if just after black poppy seeds have started to pop. Tumeric is also a secret cure for arthritis pain no matter where it's slipped in.

The other great meal was at Saint Sunday's Tav, the Taberna de Santo Domingo, in Ronda. Here we had a Spanish Chard with olives and cured Manchego first, then split a single menu del dia, for which I chose - may it not come as a shock - a salad and merluzo, or hake. Not more than $30.

the tomatoes were served solo, one or two small ones to a plate. i guess they were baked really to be poufy, with lil dollops of shrimp/crab creme, which collapsed a bit just as they were brought to the table, though i couldnt tell you what the name for that technique might be. they came out just before transcendental mini mousse ham soups with nut creme. when my dear vegetarian friend didnt eat that, the fried onions - neither leeks nor scallions but something akin - were sent out. certainly we did not need desert, but had petitfours served on a japanese rock garden plate that encluded a melon w/coco soup and dark choc covered tangerines. the decor is white muslin with wide white leather seats, unadorned walls, orchids. here you find as much attention to textures as in the food. the word alacrity comes to mind the lot - lunch mind you - cost 150, with three or four glasses of wine. indeed you can call this trendy but perhaps more simply great.

but of course my favorite thing at les halles was always the nicoise. is there a pissaladiere too?

Did the Brits picked up fish and chips from the ancient iberians who colonized Cornwall or when the Brits under Moore and later Wellington arrived to Conquer in 1809?

The Q has improved but may well be best avoided. However greens at Blue Smoke are burning: my standard at the Standard, w/ BS' BBQ spicedust and hot sauce, a glass of Rioja and cornbread. This could be the only jazz club in NY where one can also eat and drink. Maybe Billecart's the owners' fav w/ Q because it costs $!% a glass, but those pink bubbles taste just as good after brushing your teeth with toothpaste as with pork.

that sounds correct

InRe Kale: While the BBQ at Blue Smoke has improved it may well be best avoided. However the greens at Blue Smoke are burning, esp w/ BS' BBQ spicedust, a glass of Rioja and cornbread. A relatively sturdy standard at the Standard, a jazz club where one can also eat and drink. Billecart may be the owners' fav because it costs $!%? but those pink bubbles taste just as well after brushing teeth.

Just made my way from Madrid to Toledo, Granada, Ronda and Seville. Write to confirm that lunch at La Broche in Madrid was delicious, texture-obsessed and dumb gorgeous as the sunset. Went with a fellow who doesnt eat red or white meats. Once the folks at La Broche figured that out, all sorts of little delights appeared, including the fried leeks app we wanted but had forgone in the name of the baby squid with chanterelles (to die for) and baby tomato souffles, the tomatoes themselves poufed! with a shrimp/crab creme. Divine cod and sea bass ensued. Started with cava, which was not really that great, then moved to Albarino: delish. The mediocre cava was likely my fault as I did not order many bottles of wine, but stuck more with glasses. Found the food in the Paradors dull, dinner and breakfasts both. We were also at the Reina Victoria in Madrid and the Alfonso XIII in Seville where breakfasts and coffees were no better. However the grimiest little tabacco shop and roadside pits have better cafe con leche than Starbucks, so one can't really complain in spite of my earnnest attempt. The Hostal Cardenal in Toledo made us not want to leave to the point that our first pass at that town's ciglos y ciglos of architecture started just after sunset, but Gracias a Dios! we found a wine bar on the way up the hill (there's a huge elevator up the mountain side these days) with several Riojas, Riberas and others by the glass. The Hecate I quite liked. I had read about the Cardenal's partridge, so ordered that for dinner but was not impressed. Fatty enuf for the big half btl of Ribera I got; half because it was all for just me, my friend still ill. (see below...) We did dig the dining room, built by a cardenal, old and cold and stone. Here for the last thousand years Moors and Jews and Catholics fought and triumphed and fell in love. The Parador in Ronda was the most fun, on the precipice of the gorge. We took breakfast on our balcony, Coconut Danones and sliced pear. The orange pink light and sense that Romans, Moors and Revolutionaries had all stompted thru made for high notes that outranked food. Seemingly thousands of Brits live here. We had driven down the coast, Granada to Motril to Marbella and north, stopping only for a lunch of grilled fish and salad on the beach. Bullfighting was invented at Ronda's ring in 1800 or so. The Alfonso XIII, built for Seville's Ibero-American fair of 1929, echoes the Alcazar Real: a Moorish royal palace down the road, built some thousand years before. It was certainly spendy, but felt like what a Moorish Poet King's room might have. Plus it put us right next to Seville's Santa Cruz barrio, where four glasses of wine and a tapas cost 8eu. At the moment that's $8.5ish, which means a night of three or four bars and probably one glass too many for two costs $25. In Santa Cruz, grilled artichokes with a bit of pesto drew us back to the same place twice. As did several bars 170-200 years old with azuelos, blue tiles, and copious bullfighters' pictures. Bocerones are the flash fried fresh anchovies that come in a mound. Don't you think flash makes it sound less evil? My tummy and thighs will all remember the dish from Seville as well as Bocaito in Madrid; and Cunina in Granada. Grilled fish and salad are to my mind ideal meals: it's just a matter of not eating them ALL: but what am i but a wasteful selfindulgent american. Saturday the 15th Seville's streets teemed with people protesting war. But I wonder: are all dry white Amontillados fortified wine? They make some people sleepy early on, but I seemed okay. Those lil glasses cut the fry thing in half straight away. By the time evening began, at 12ish, I switched to tinto, red, or sangria, which must be a native Sevilliana :Een on Valentines Day the orange trees were filled with fruit. Luckily in Seville nights don't end til morning. Unfortunate was a dinner in Madrid. After the third place we tried one night (we were likely still too early for dinner at 10) we happened upon a vegetarian restaurant. My almond soup and crudites were good, but my friend ordered a French onion soup (it had been 14 years, he said) and a veggie burger, and was sick all that night and in bed for the next two days. No importa: Espana me encanta hasta siempre.