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I like a good cucumber sliced by itself, but one of my favorite things to do with it (though I haven't made it myself in some time) is uborkasalata (Hungarian cucumber salad). I prefer not to include any sour cream. The recipe I've used is from Gundel's cookbook, but I don't have it handy (it's up at my parents' place). This looks like a decent recipe, though I'd let the cucumbers stand longer than 5 minutes and I'd definitely include the onions: Hungarian Cucumber Salad Experiment with sugar amounts. You may find that just a pinch is enough to give the dish a perfect sweet/sour/salty/paprika taste. I'd say the black (or, if you prefer, white) pepper is optional, but the paprika is de rigueur for this Hungarian salad.

Am I crazy to think that if he really hated Bouley, he would have given the restaurant 2 stars? Also, is this false? Was he publicly questioned about this? Also, this is the context: Wasn't Mr. Bouley's being questioned at least arguably part of what threw the venture off track? On a personal note, if I were you, I'd be pretty pissed, too. But I'm not you. Was it former House Speaker Tip O'Neill who used to say "Where you stand depends on where you sit"?

I think it's fine for a critic to give some historical perspective in a review.

I think you should go above Canal to Congee Village. It's got a full bar and the food is excellent (whether it's the "best in Chinatown" is really hard to say, and I haven't eaten at every restaurant in Chinatown).

I'm enjoying this blog very much, Boris. In a typical week, how often do you eat out versus eating in?

I think he's doing a great job! Best main Times critic there's been in quite some time.

I'm glad you liked the post and the pictures. I've had the digital camera since October or so, but I've used it primarily to photograph cityscape. Most of the photos I've taken inside restaurants were too dark and needed to be retouched significantly (more lightness and contrast, mostly, plus resizing, of course), but when they're too glary, it's almost a total loss. I'll surely take pictures of a meal again some time, but it sure does take some time to edit and upload the pictures.

You can check stuff across the street at Stan's. Presumably, that's what the suits do with their laptops, if they can't bring them into the Stadium.

I had a very disappointing meal at Bouley, yet I found the review a little mean in parts. The opening two paragraphs were painful to read. But Bruni had important things to say, and as he has in every review so far, he said them effectively. Jinmyo is right: This guy is no shrinking violet, and restaurants are going to have to put on their thinking caps and bust their asses to meet his high standards. And I think that's great!

I more or less agree with you, Robyn.

A friend who may choose to identify himself and I had a lovely lunch at L'Impero today. It was the first time there for both of us. The restaurant is very relaxing and pleasant. Here is a picture of the outside of the restaurant: It is located on the ground floor of a residential building. Inside, you can see this bar: I also got a look inside the kitchen, which looked like there was a reasonable amount of space to move around, though I say that as someone who never worked in a kitchen. Our reservation was for noon, and it was nice that the restaurant opened its doors and let customers wait inside for service to begin, especially as it was at that point raining hard outside (I took the picture of the exterior after our meal was finished). The dining room feels spacious, partly because it is airy and partly because of several large mirrors. Here is how a side table looks, perfectly set and waiting for patrons: You can see just a bit of the mirror. But what of the food? It was delicious and thoroughly delightful! Some of it was unlike other Italian food I've had, and I don't know whether that reflects French influence or simply characterizes upscale restaurants in parts of northern Italy I haven't been to yet, such as Milan or Genoa. Some of it was quite recognizable as very good Italian food. But it was all very worthwhile. The amount of food may or may not look like that much for each course, but the meal was not a small one and was definitely satisfying. To begin with, we were given some bread. I got a multigrain bread (I forget the number of grains), which had a variety of seeds in it. It was nutty-tasting and just generally terrific. My friend got the Italian bread, which was less interesting but good for sopping up sauces (which I admit I did a couple of times with a slice I got later). I was intrigued by some dishes that weren't on the Restaurant Week menu and decided to spring for the $42 Summer Menu, plus a $4 supplement for my first course, which was Seared Diver Scallops with roasted sunchokes, fingerling potatoes and mustard greens: The scallops were perfectly cooked and sufficiently tender. This was probably the best scallop dish I had had since my restaurant week meal at River Cafe a few years ago. The pieces of potatoes and sunchokes were the same size, and there were more potato pieces than sunchoke pieces. The sunchoke pieces had more of the consistency of a turnip and tasted something like a turnip and something like an onion, but not really like either. You can see that the mustard greens are delicate little leaves. I really can't do the dish justice in words, but it was a winner. My friend got Fricassee of Seasonal Mushrooms in creamy polenta with truffle reduction, which was at least as good as the scallops but an entirely different dish. Which dish someone prefers is entirely a matter of preference for one type of dish over another. The mushroom/truffle taste of this appetizer was quite concentrated. Have a look: My prix fixe had one more course than my friend's - a primo piatto. And what a primo piatto it was! Duck and Foie Gras Agnolotti with moscato passito di sardegna reduction: And here's a closeup of the interior of an agnolotto: This was really fabulous! A combination of duck, foie gras, and a muscat reduction - what could be bad? I'm glad I ordered it! For his main course, my friend ordered Roasted Skate with sugar snaps, celery and caper oil. This was a great dish, and much more in a style I think of as Italian (similar to Tuscan, even) than my primo piatto: The fish was excellently browned, sprinkled with salt and pepper, and served atop perfectly fresh celery and snowpea-like snap beans, with a subtle accent of caper oil. I also ordered a fish dish, Poached Mediterranean Branzino with baby tomatoes, capers, olives and orange: The fish was poached, so it wasn't browned. Perhaps even more than in the case of the skate, this was all about the fish, with the accompaniments providing separate enjoyment. The fish was very simply cooked and was simply a lovely fish, fattier than the skate. The accompaniment was also recognizably Italian to me, as each flavor stood out on its own. The orange sections were pleasantly sour and grapefruit-like. There were two types of baby tomatoes, sweet little orange ones and tiny little plum tomatoes. The capers were used judiciously and didn't become the primary flavor of the dish. The olives were sliced small and a pleasant surprise (I had forgotten all the specifics of the dish in between ordering the dish and receiving it). Atop the dish was a subtle herb that tasted to me like a relative of wood sorrel - another ingredient which spoke for itself and was very welcome in the dish. For dessert, my dining partner ordered Orange-Mascarpone Sesame Cannoli with fresh fruit accompaniment (it's not on online menus, so I may be getting the exact name wrong): Bravo to L'Impero for doing a creative and delicious variation on a classic! That dessert is well worth ordering. I got a Rhubarb-Strawberry Crostata with Crystallized Ginger Ice Cream. At least, I think strawberries were the berry in the dessert. This dessert tasted very good, and also came with fresh mint (as did the other) and two pineapple chips: The rhubarb was crunchy, unlike in other rhubarb desserts I've had, and I liked that texture, which gave it a more vegetable-like feel than usual. The ice cream was pleasant, though I suppose it could have used more ginger to my taste. But that's merely a half-hearted nitpick. Nevertheless, in appraising this dessert, I have my only substantive criticism of the meal: The crust of the crostata was excessively hard. That didn't affect the taste, but it did make it very difficult to cut, and caused me to have some concern that once I succeeded, I might end up flinging some of its contents across the room - which fortunately didn't happen. But I think that having one such criticism of a meal is pretty damn good. One doesn't have to get 100 to get an A. I see that the New York Times awarded 3 stars to L'Impero, and I certainly agree. Their food is solidly 3-star and the ambiance is quite enjoyable; anything less than 3 stars would have been a serious injustice. When I arrived before service started, rock was playing, but while we ate, no music played, and the noise was caused only by animated conversation among groups of friends. At no time did we have any trouble hearing each other. Our waiter provided us with recommendations for our courses outside of dessert, and both of us ordered dishes he had recommended, with good results. Service in general was friendly and gracious from all concerned. I look forward to the next time.

I haven't been to Yankee Stadium yet this season, but certainly as of last season (including the post-season), you were allowed to bring in food. What you couldn't bring in were bottles - no glass.

Hang in there! We've had a thread like this before. But anyway, when I feel down, I usually eat ice cream or frozen yogurt: Chocolate, dulce de leche, sometimes rum raisin (gives me a buzz if I eat the whole pint!). If I feel really shitty, I may get a 6-pack of hard cider (I don't like beer, generally) and guzzle a couple or so. And cookies.

By all means, say which book it's from. List the ingredients (ingredients lists can't be copyrighted) and paraphrase the directions. The no-no would be to copy the directions verbatim. The directions are copyrighted.

Did the olives taste good in that context?

John, I can only reiterate that the Times creates confusion because of what they say the stars mean: You can find this key at the end of every starred review. I think that Katz's might possibly get one star, if that. Does that mean that it is not "extraordinary"? It is if you want a pastrami sandwich! Similarly, what do you do with DiFara's? Give it a "Fair"? One star? Is the pizza there merely "good"? In point of fact, I think there's virtually no chance that Katz's or DiFara's would even be reviewed by Bruni, because they'd be categorized as "Under $25" restaurants which can't get stars. Does that mean they're not "good" enough? So first of all, the relative importance of food vs. ambiance and service is not explained in the New York Times' key (though Bruni has already done a fair deal to clarify how he as an individual views this). Secondly, they don't explain how price is taken into consideration. My impression is that, for the most part, the greater the price, the more likely it is that the restaurant will be highly rated. Is that just because more expensive dishes are likely to have more expensive ingredients? I hope so, because I wouldn't want to think that mere expense is a positive value for any serious diner. If it were up to me, I'd consider a high price as requiring high quality and seriously penalize restaurants that provide merely decent food at a high price and in some way give a bonus to restaurants that provide excellent food at a good value (do I hear a call for a New York Times bib gourmand?).

In Chinatown, Flushing, and the East Village, for example, restaurants that accept credit cards are more the exception than the rule.

Are you serious? Yep. When you're in New York: Cash; don't leave home without it! You don't have to worry about that if you're going to a more than moderately fancy place, though. The most nearly fancy place I can think of that doesn't accept credit cards is Frutti di Mare, which is c. $25/person for dinner, and the most expensive I can think of is Peter Luger, which isn't fancy but - well, anyone who wants can read about this legendary steakhouse in this thread, which is 13 pages long so far.

Certainly, most <$25/person places in New York don't take credit cards. I think that would be a majority or near-majority of the total number of restaurants in New York.

Obviously not, because that would mean most New York restaurants (or very nearly most) are guilty of tax evasion.

I hope Robb Walsh comments on this, but I didn't get the feeling that anyone on that panel is interested in making up some new tall tale about barbecue to satisfy their "politically correct" outlooks, whatever that means. If anything, it's the myths they seem to have disproven that were a form of manufactured "political correctness." Good historians don't try to make up fake histories to fit their viewpoints, but instead, allow the viewpoints they have coming into a study to be altered by evidence they come across. Also, Robyn, the Big Apple Barbecue Block Party didn't have panel discussions instead of barbecue, but in addition to barbecue, so had you come to it, you could have chosen to simply eat the cue and listen to music, and skip all of this "silliness."

Sounds like there's a fundamental disagreement between us on this point, Jon. I consider history very important, and yes, I do think it's important to understand that jazz fundamentally arises from a unique type of Afro-European fusion that was possible only in the U.S. (though related to other types of Afro-European fusion in the rest of the Americas) - and furthermore, to understand which elements are of African and European origin. These historical questions, though important, are of course quite different from the question of who jazz belongs to today, which I would unhesitatingly answer "Everybody." Robyn's point is very interesting. Has the tradition of barbacoa continued in Hispaniola in a way that can be clearly traced back to the style reported on by early European visitors to the island?

I agree, John. There's no mention of "parody" or "snickering" here. It's also an excellent review and I feel like from having read it, I really have some idea of how I'd strategize my ordering if I went to the place. Nice going, Mr. Cutlets!

Lemme get this straight: You tip the server on the total bill minus tax and wine, and tip the sommelier on the wine? I'm not sure how much the servers like you, in that case. And do you also tip the host(ess) and busboys separately, since they also provided you a service? How far do you go? Surely, the line chefs are providing you with a big service, as are the dishwashers, etc., and some of those folks typically aren't paid much. Where do you draw the line? [Edit: I notice Lesley posted to much the same effect while I was working on this post. One further comment, though: Dining out is not always expensive!]

And maybe the very fact that it transports you is much more important than how many stars you'd give it.