Pan

Thanks, Nayantara.

Thanks for the report, Josh. What would you estimate in terms of their capacity?

No. DiFara's has a gas oven, and it's a great pizzeria.

What?

Great photos, Andrea! Everything looks so attractive and delicious! Can I come to the next Oneg Shabbat?

I'm surprised I didn't participate in this thread. I have a sneaking suspicion there's another "favorite soups" thread somewhere. Anyway, I'd have to put a nice, soothing Chicken Soup (Chicken-Noodle, Matzo Ball, etc.) up there, especially one made with a whole chicken, a variety of vegetables, some fresh green herbs, and some wine. I also love Gulyasleves, Tom Yom Gung, Tom Kha Gai, really good Laksa, various kinds of Borsht, Hungarian cold sour cherry soup (with sour cream), Nicoise Soupe de Poisson, Minestrone, Ribollita, and any number of Shanghainese soups. Can you tell I love soup?

Point well taken (as are other points in your post), but in answer to this one, there definitely were Chinese restaurants better and more interesting than Ollie's on the UWS in the 70s, and most of them were inexpensive. We already had Sichuan and Hunan restaurants in the mid-to-late 70s. Now, exactly how I compare a restaurant I knew as a child with one I eat at nowadays is a different question, and one worth pondering but ultimately unanswerable.

I know about the pronunciation, but I've never seen the accent written.

A 2-star rave. I wonder if we should have a thread on Hodgson. I don't get why if she loved the "magical world of Dévi [is that accent right, by the way?]" so much and had complaints only about one thing ("The tandoor yields grilled Jamison Farm lamb chops, soft and tender [but a little too well-done for my taste]," she didn't rate the restaurant higher. I don't know enough about her reviewing to have much sense of what it would have taken for Devi to have gotten 3 stars from her, of for that matter, whether she gives 1 star to other restaurants she raves about. Thanks for the link, Andrea.

Mother's side: South Africa (her parents were from Lithuania). Father's side: What's now Ukraine (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). None, but we did have some nut and apple strudel I brought from my local Hungarian-style kosher bakery, so I guess that would figure, except that it's more typical for there to be a pumpkin pie and some other kind of pie (pecan last year; other years, apple, sweet potato, et al.)

Maybe, but I never heard of it before, either. I always thought it was just a sandwich with leftover turkey, and I would have had it on whole wheat, rye, maybe sour-dough bread, but definitely not supermarket white.

Nope, didn't know that. I don't remember Adda Boni's recipe calling for milk, and that's the one I've used when I've cooked sugo alla bolognese. Thanks for the explanation.

Brooks, at the risk of derailing this topic from what makes a hot sauce business successful, what does CDM stand for?

I'll answer perhaps a somewhat different question, but one related to these. There's no doubt that I'm more sensitive to my behavior as a customer vis a vis the waitstaff since I've been on eGullet. I tip higher, particularly when I've been in some way high-maintenance (such as by asking a few questions that the waiter had to ask the BOH and get back to me on) or the waiter has otherwise been particularly helpful.

I didn't realize either, until I took my jar of Sambal Oelek out of my refrigerator and looked at the label. I had the idea it was from Indonesia...

More vinegary and maybe more salty. I'd have to do a taste test, and I usually don't have one after the other. But they're both good condiments.

Mascarpone felt that the food was better than at Celeste.

Granted that Menupages.com doesn't always cover restaurants fully, completely accurately, or in a totally updated way, but it can at least give you some idea of what the menu and prices are like. Here's Li'l Frankie's menupages.com page.

Of course, but I'm an individual, not a large corporation. In order to control my own quality, I don't have to depend on hundreds of employees.

Yeah, I've also had good conversations with other guests. But it's not always appropriate, and people need to be sensitive to the situation.

I finally went to Bianca for the first time tonight, with my friend Mascarpone. We loved the place! It's got a heimish atmosphere, the waiter was friendly and generally very good, and the food was all great! We shared the following: Carcioffi Fritti Chicken livers with deglazed balsamic vinegar (and some sweet wine?) on crostini Tagliatelle alla Bolognese Fritto Misto Torta di Mela Cake with mascarpone cream I'm doing this from memory, which is why I'm not giving you Italian names for everything. Really, everything was terrific, and we also had some delicious Pinot Grigio by the glass that went with all our savories. It's hard to say what was particularly noteworthy. The artichokes were deep fried in olive oil and came with deep-fried parsley, which I liked very much. Despite all the oil, the dish felt light. The chicken liver dish was great and reminded me of the dish my father made with Marsala, and I mean that in a good way (my father is a very good cook). These weren't crostini with minced livers like I've gotten in Tuscany and such, but full-sized livers with crostini provided to eat them with. The Tagliatelle alla Bolognese was of course excellent and tasted a little creamy, so I asked the waiter whether there was any besciamella in the sauce, and was told there wasn't. Perhaps I was experiencing whatever fat was in the sauce, from butter or whatever. I suppose the Fritto Misto was particularly noteworthy, considering how many places make fried fish and seafood that tastes like nothing. This was a combination of calamari, shrimp, and mullet, all totally fresh-tasting, with just enough batter, fried in good extra-virgin olive oil. It was really pleasant! As for the desserts, we loved 'em both as well. The rich mascarpone cream really made the dessert I listed second, and despite all the butter in it, the Torta di Mela seemed light. This restaurant is great, and I really should have come sooner. Long may it live!

I'm surprised I never posted to this thread. As I've noted elsethread, my favorite all-purpose hot sauce is Sambal Oelek, but the best hot sauces are made in-house.

Balex, it definitely occurred to me that your wording could have to do with greater class-consciousness in Britain. So I did think of that, even though I didn't specifically comment on it.

I'm really happy your ambitious plans were satisfyingly realized! Amazing feast! And thank you for sharing it with us (if only there were teletaste...) Now, what are you going to do for Christmas?

In the staff meal thread, Get In My Belly and others have expressed their devotion to Sriracha sauce, and I've lately suggested my favorite commercial hot sauce, Sambal Oelek. Turns out, both sauces are products of Huy Fong Foods, Inc. We all have favorite hot sauces (see Your Favorite Hot Sauce?), but what I'm interested in in this thread is: What makes a hot sauce commercially sucessful? If you go to Huy Fong's website and click on "Find out about the history of the company and its vision for the future," you can access a page that gives you a somewhat promotional history of the company. Here are some excerpts: Is that in fact all it takes to succeed in the hot sauce business? McIlhenny's, the maker of Tabasco Sauce, which I figure is the most famous of all hot sauces, emphasizes selective, artisanal procedures and quality control on its History Tent Perfect Peppers page. In order to get the true flavor of the page, you really have to read the whole thing from beginning to end, but here's the conclusion: Does such a large company really adhere to such strict quality controls, and is that what accounts for its enduring reputation and market share? Please share your opinions and wisdom here.