Pan

About the only difference I can see is that Bruni has done some food writing, albeit only as a sidelight, but at least (arguably) enough to demonstrate an aptitude for the subject. Had Bruni written some opera articles and demonstrated aptitude for that subject, his appointment as an opera critic would be acceptable to me. The situation is also very different, because the Times has several classical music critics, and a bad review can't shut an opera production down the way a bad review can kill a restaurant. Good points, but I disagree with your conclusion. Sure, if an opera company is already committed to running a certain number of performances, they'll be run regardless of how the reviews are, but a horrible pan in the New York Times of a new opera can ruin its chances to be performed ever again.

It probably isn't, but I'm not sure your reaction would be any more justified if he had been appointed chief opera critic. Lots of people with paper qualifications for stuff have biases that distort their viewpoints and descriptive writing in very harmful ways, and some just suck for various reasons, whereas there have been reviewers who either were famous artists in other media (e.g. George Bernard Shaw, Baudelaire [i really should read more of the latter's writings about music; what a great poet!]) or just good writers with backgrounds as music listeners (e.g. Mencken) who were sincere and more or less interesting and knowledgeable reviewers. Far be it for me to be seen as pooh-poohing "book learning" completely, but it really can never logically be seen as a be-all and end-all, or even a necessary condition for good work in a field. I really think that there's way too much complaining about the guy before he's had a chance to write even one review, let alone a season's worth. Suppose I win an audition for an open flute chair in the Baltimore Symphony this summer (I might be trying out for them). Probably no-one in Baltimore except for my cousins knows who I am. Will there be a long thread of symphony orchestra fans complaining that I haven't already had a high-profile orchestral position, or will they figure that I might have won the audition on merit and wait to hear at least one concert before deciding that the orchestra committee was crazy and I have to be a buffoon? I wonder, but the bottom line is that, for better or worse, Mr. Bruni has been picked for the job. How about if we judge him in a few months based on his upcoming work and suspend criticism of his presumed lack of qualifications, which may be in part evidence of what we simply don't know about him, rather than something he actually lacks? Yeah, I know, that was a rant. Nothing personal, guy. [Note: _Not_ edited. ]

Great work, Andy!

Dodol is also Malaysian, and a Google search showed Goan, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, and Indonesian mentions of dodol on the first page. I don't think it has any chana dal in it in its Malaysian version, though. Instead, at least the most common version is made with glutinous rice flour, palm sugar, and coconut milk.

Hi, Tom. I just checked this thread again after a couple of days. That really sucks about the sprain! Unfortunately, those suckers can linger on for a long time, as you know. I hope you're lucky. Oh, I'm also sorry you ended up at TGIF that night... Your meal at Jewel Bako sounds amazing, though.

I love those! They're called ketupat, but they no longer seem to be that widely available in Malaysia nowadays. When did Malays immigrate to Sri Lanka? I know about Sri Lankan immigration to Malaya/Malaysia, but I don't have any knowledge of Malay immigration to Sri Lanka, and I don't think they taught me about it in Malay public school the two years I was in one.

But you may need to make a special trip to the bank to cash them. I wouldn't assume that travellers' checks in Euros are accepted just like cash. Maybe they are, but I'm far from sure. (Does anyone reading this thread actually know?) As for cash, I never change money; I just use the ATM at the airport. But the main thing is Buon Viaggio e Buon Divertimento!

Louisa, I really don't see how the right to lose money by refusing to fill two tables has much to do with "freedom." I guess they're free to close the restaurant, too, in that case.

It's both. Cubism was truly radical in the context of Western art.

That's what doesn't make sense to me. You'd think they'd lose money that way...

What the Hell do you think that was about?

Lemme get this straight: You seriously prefer snobby and uptight service?

Affirmative action? Huh? Whatever. But what is your advice to Mr. Bruni, as the New York Times's new restaurant critic?

The general public needs to take an art history course or read a book sometimes. It's not hard to find these things out. But actually, I liked Adria's remark, too.

That makes sense, Busboy.

That debt is common knowledge in Art History. I've certainly known about it for a really long time. "Westerners" used to call art from places like Africa and New Guinea "primitive art," and the influence of "primitive art" has long been cited as one of the major aspects of Modernism in art. If Picasso tried to suppress that debt, his efforts weren't successful for long.

Are all of us sure that's what we're talking about in this thread? I'm not sure about that. It would be interesting to talk about "evolution" in the context of great Chinese or Indian chefs, for example. Is change expected or desired in those contexts? In what ways?

I have often found that I liked dishes critics didn't like and didn't like dishes they did like, so I'm careful about not ordering something just because a critic panned it. But like Bux, I like to order specialties of the house even if I haven't liked them elsewhere. When I was at Grand Vefour, I asked for Roquefort although - or even because - I had never liked that cheese before. Sure enough, I loved the Roquefort at Grand Vefour. I figured that they would have the best example, or at least a really high-quality example of that cheese, and they did. But that seems to go beyond critics to an intuitive appraisal of what to order in a given situation. Also, I was less lucky with my main course, Tete de Veau, another specialty, which was among other things too salty for my taste. But since it was clearly a specialty of the house, I considered it worth trying. Why not? Perhaps if I win the lottery, I'll go there for lunch some other time and order something different.

In that case, DiFara's has to get four stars for pizza...

I haven't tried in many years. Back in 1991, I brought Thomas Cook Travellers' Checks in U.S. dollars. There was usually only one place I could change them: At banks, with a commission. If you take travellers' checks, consider them only as insurance in case your wallet is stolen. Use ATMs and credit cards (Visa is widely accepted as I believe I remember correctly that it's a partner of Eurocard).

Precisely. There's nothing notable, offensive, or relevant about that, is there? I don't see why someone's politics or sexual orientation are relevant in any way, shape, or form to their qualifications for the job. So why did you mention these things, in that case? And why have you mentioned Berlusconi twice? Are you suggesting that Bruni was unfair to the main media mogul in Italy who is also Prime Minister, and that, therefore, he is not to be trusted with restaurant reviews? If so, that could be relevant, albeit pretty tenuously.

Yeah, that's really annoying, and I tell waiters off when they do that, as in: "I need change for that five." "You want change?" "Yeah, if you want a decent tip."

No. Why, does it cover cheesecake?

I know some, and Asimov covered one recently: An Italian restaurant called Col Legno. It hasn't changed much at all in the 13-some-odd years it's been open, and that's just fine with me. Whatever happened to "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"?

I looked for a thread on this March 17, 2004 NY Times article on cheesecake in New York, but didn't find one. The other day, Mascarpone, my mother, my brother and I stopped by the branch of Two Little Red Hens between 85 and 86 Sts. on 2nd Av. in Manhattan. Ed Levine essentially rated their cheesecake the best traditional New York cheesecake in town. It was my first time at their Manhattan branch, but their Park Slope branch on 8th Av. is my ex-girlfriend's favorite local bakery. I don't remember ever having tried the cheesecake at the Brooklyn branch, but I've enjoyed their criossants, pains au chocolat, pains au raisin, and tarts (and some things with chocolate in them, I think). In any case, the cheesecake at the Manhattan branch was truly delicious. They use ungummy cream cheese and the crust at the base is like a good butter cookie. Slices are $4.50, and we got the last two slices of the day around 2:30 P.M. or so, I guess.