Pan

Noted. I don't have any big plans for Restaurant Week, but I do like to know these things for reference.

Yeah, but your mother threw it away? That must have burned you up! And did she realize how much money she was throwing away?!

I agree with Asimov on the Tagliatelle col Cinghiale, which I noticed I mentioned in the post that started this thread. I also believe I remember a Tortellini con Ragu' d'Agnello that was excellent (it was something with Ragu' d'Agnello, anyway), but I can't confirm that immediately because I can't find a menu. [Edited to add that I've always liked their whole fish secondi.] As an appetizer (or contorno, if you like), the Carcioffi alla Giudia is a bit oily but I always find it pleasant to eat. Sam, I've been going to Col Legno for many years. I really am not sure how long ago I first went there. Il Bagatto and Lavagna are more exciting, but they're also more expensive, and at Il Bagatto in particular, it can be impossible to get a table in a timely fashion, even with reservations. What I love about Col Legno is that I never have had any trouble getting a table, it's a sedate and civilized place, and it's honest cooking that's always dependable and pleasant. As long as Col Legno continues to be essentially what it is today, I will continue to appreciate its presence in my neighborhood.

Limau nipis from Malaysia! Sweet and wonderfully fragrant and soothing! (In a Google search, I wasn't able to find the English name - if any - or Latin name, but it translates as "thin lime.")

Are those Australian limes sweet?

Terrace in the Sky, right? Did it go out of business?

Thanks for your response, Mark.

When I think "cranberries," I think "Massachusetts," for whatever that's worth.

Steven, you've just established a niche that's not being covered adequately by traditional media. The New York Press or The Village Voice would be really smart if they did a series of Restaurant Week reviews. But to my knowledge, they don't. We have 'em, but they're in individual threads, not organized into a unit. For the future, what do you think of pinning a thread of Restaurant Week reviews only in the New York board or even doing some Daily Gullet features that consist of a series of Restaurant Week reviews in cities that have Restaurant Weeks?

Done. Reserved for 5 on Friday, January 30 at 1 P.M. under my name. See you there! If anyone's schedule changes, please let me know so that I can inform the restaurant.

Nice to see you here again, Mark. In Japan, is much farmed fish and seafood consumed?

Marian Burros gave this place a good writeup in "Diner's Journal" in the January 9, 2004 New York Times (link here; you may have to scroll down as appropriate). What do you think of it?

Col Legno, a neighborhood restaurant I have appreciated for a long time, was given a mixed but respectful review by Eric Asimov in today's New York Times (link to the review here; you may have to scroll down to the appropriate spot). Your thoughts, everyone?

In today's New York Times, David Karp discusses some exotic limes that are sold at places like Fairway and Gourmet Garage (link to the story here; you may have to scroll down to the appropriate place). Have you bought any? Also, to put this story in context, I'd be especially interested to hear from old-timers about the changing state of citrus availability in New York. My parents can remember when Florida oranges were an exotic fruit in New York. [Edit: Good story, but both of my parents refuted it today. Apparently, I was probably remembering my father say he used to read stories that referred to the scarcity of oranges in northern climes in the 19th century. My parents report that oranges were already one of the most widely available fruits year-round in New York when they were growing up in the 30s and 40s.]

NYTimes Weekly Update Wednesday, January 14, 2004 A. In today's New York Times The Other Down Under (R. W. Apple Jr.) Apple Cart Upset: Who Runs Greenmarket? (Amanda Hesser) Click here to discuss this story. Latest Green Fashions Come in Many Styles (David Karp) Click here to discuss New York-relevant aspects of this story. And if you want to order limes directly from suppliers: Sources: On the Exotic Side Bread Tribeca (Marian Burros) Click here to discuss the review or contribute your experiences. Note: Post-script: January 15, 2004 Corrections Brisket Was His Madeleine (Joan Nathan) The Chef: The Zen of Braising (Nancy Harmon Jenkins) The Minimalist: Spareribs, Unflamed (Mark Bittman) Wine Talk: Giddy Times for Champagne Makers (Frank J. Prial) Food Stuff (Florence Fabricant) Col Legno (Eric Asimov) Click here to discuss the review or contribute your experiences. Letters Corrections Recipes in today's issue: 1. Braised Lamb Shoulder 2. Chicken Paprika With Dumplings 3. Braised Spareribs With Cabbage B. In the magazine (Published: January 11, 2004) A Short-Order Revolutionary (Russell Shorto) C. Good Eating (Published: January 11, 2004) Roads Less Traveled Places covered: Bahia, Eight Mile Creek (**), Kabab King Diner, Lomzynianka, Madiba, Pamir, Tibetan Yak. D. Diner's Journal (Published: January 9, 2004) Zona Rosa (Marian Burros) Click here to discuss this informal review or contribute your experiences.

Wow, that's spooky! No, I definitely don't remember that.

from robyn: It's only a particular subset of New Yorkers who are willing to put up with that. I'm not and never have been. Such places aren't worth going to, wherever they are. Why blame New Yorkers for them? It's the responsibility of the ownership and managers. I really have to wonder, based on this post and your last post about the reaction you say you experienced to the 9/11/01 atrocities in New York, whether you don't have some funny stereotypical attitudes about New Yorkers that may be partly responsible for your perception of them. It seems like I've had that experience all three times I've eaten at restaurants awarded 4 stars by different New York Times critics, though at least the third time, the service was pretty good. I don't have such trouble at good restaurants that aren't supposedly 4-star, however, or if I do, quite rarely. However, I've never had that experience in Paris, so far. I can remember one time when a restaurant tried to charge me for wine when I hadn't had any (which is a simple game of "cheat the tourist," and it didn't work), but that's it.

I like your trinity best of the three.

Glad you liked it.

I'd love to go to Amma! No buffet, of course, stuff made to order. So is that 5? Shall I try for 1 P.M.?

But how good will your food be if you go for those prix fixe deals? I ask that keeping in mind both my disappointment at Bouley last Good Friday and comments by various people that people ordering relatively inexpensive prix fixe meals at places that typically charge over $100 a head for tasting menus are often given short shrift.

Sorry, I don't remember what memory is first! Hmmmm...Well, I remember that when I was little, I actually used to like Chef Boyardee, though I soon graduated to Ronzoni or Buitoni ziti with tomato and meatball sauce made by my mother from scratch from Ada Boni's recipe in Il Talismano della Cucina. But it took longer before I had my first taste of real parmesan and romano cheese, not that yucky stuff that came out of a jar or can (which I didn't think was yucky when there was nothing better to compare it to). I remember that I used to eat no part of chicken except the skin (and, I guess, the giblets). I called the skin "skinflesh" (pronounced "skinflush"). My mother used to chop up little bits of the breast, I think, and sneak it into soup I ate. It was sneaky, but I liked the soup. She was worried I wasn't getting enough nutrition. I liked milk and pronounced it "melk" until I was 7. I remember one time when I was little but I'm not sure how little. We were visiting the summer house of an artist my father knew. I drank so much milk I got an upset stomach and my crap was white for 24 hours or so. Peas! Cucumbers were my favorite green vegetable, and I liked broccoli, but I hated peas. I actually still don't love them, except if they're flash-blanched for 30 seconds or so, just cooked but not mealy. And brussels sprouts. They were so bitter! I still find them bitter. They have to be boiled to death or otherwise cooked a long time for me to like them. Pop Tarts. I forgot to mention them. I used to love Pop Tarts and eat them for breakfast most every school day. I wanted to have two but my mother wanted me to stop at one. There were also things called Breakfast Treats that I really liked. Very chocolatey. My parents decided pretty quickly that they were too rich, and stopped buying them. I also remember the lunches that my mother packed in my astronauts-themed lunchbox: A salami or peanut better and jam or cheese (cheddar, swiss, never American) sandwich, one or two little Mott's apple juice cans, some celery and carrots, an apple or pear or perhaps a peach or plum, and perhaps some cookies or a Ring-Ding. In the lunchroom, I sometimes bought a Hostess apple, cherry or - could it be? - pineapple pie. The other thing that was common for breakfast was cereal. I think I liked Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, and Rice Crispies. The meal plan was disgusting, so I got into on-campus apartments with cooking facilities in my sophomore year. I remember frying eggs in EVOO with sherry and eating them on Pepperidge Farm Branola or oat bread or toast as a quick meal. I remember my scrambled egg dishes with garlic, onions, tomatoes, basil, oregano, black pepper, cheese and wine over toast - a staple of mine in those days, really, and damned satisfying. I remember experiments of boiling chicken legs with sauteed onions, lemon juice, lemon zest, orange juice, broccoli, and sometimes ultimately adding some kind of cheese (not that great). I also remember late-night trips to a diner in White Plains, NY, and meals of overly oily but tasty sandwiches (called Balboas) and french fries at a diner about 1/2 mile outside of campus called the Hilltop, IIRC. I remember late-night shopping runs at the Pathmark in Port Chester. And I remember taking the bus into White Plains on weekends to shop at the Shop Rite where all the shopping carts had big poles on them. My favorite person growing up was my mother, and I think of that ziti with tomato sauce and meatballs, or the meat sauce. I think of many other dishes, too. Remembering my father from back then, I think of his special egg dish, also an Italian dish, very rich, with lots of butter, and eaten over toast. And I also remember his kidneys flambeed in brandy! From my grandmother on my mother's side, I remember her stuffed cabbage, with ginger snaps as her secret ingredient. The only other person I can really think of who was special to me and of whom I can remember something edible was Mrs. Freeman, my wonderful kindergarten teacher, and the milk and cookies she gave us with love every day. I take it back. I remember the mother of one of my childhood girlfriends used to take me to Burger King and McDonalds, where Keren and I would have milkshakes and share an order of fries. Or we'd go to the really cheap Chinese place that we had to walk up a flight of rickety, dimly-lit, dirty stairs to get to (it was called Harbin Inn and some of the Upper West Side of Manhattan contingent remember it). I guess we had chow mein or chop suey there. The woman I speak of was a single parent and must have had some trouble making ends meet, but she did her best and I had a lot of good times with her daughter - we had been playmates since infancy. My parents never took me to places like Burger King (the closest they got was Friendly's, when we were in Massachusetts for the summer), nor did they take me to Harbin Inn (my mother told me recently that she saw roaches there but didn't tell me because she knew I liked the place). There's also another person who should be mentioned here: Mrs. Carr, my fictive third grandmother (fictive kin=not blood relations). Mrs. Carr was a wonderful old black woman from the South who lived on 112 St. and Lenox Av. in Harlem when that was a really bad neigbhorhood. She was a poor woman, yet she got burglarized 5 times. She didn't want to leave the neighborhood, though, because she loved her friends and was a deeply religious woman who loved her local Baptist church. We finally persuaded her to take a nephew up on an offer to move in with his family in the Pittsburgh area, but sadly, she apparently died shortly thereafter (it was hard for my mother to get a definitive response, as I remember). Anyway, Mrs. Carr was an important good influence on me, and she used to bake all kinds of delicious Southern goodies, which I remember more in general than specific terms, but which I believe included sweet potato, pumpkin, and apple pies, shortbread cookies, and various kinds of delicious cakes with molasses. There's no doubt that my appreciation for Southern baked goods dates from that time.

Sorry about your misadventure tonight. One idea is that you could use the leftovers in a scrambled egg dish. I haven't made my scrambled egg dishes in a long time and have been thinking about starting again. I used to be good at them. Basically, I would start off with some chopped garlic and onions, and fry them in a frying pan with EVOO. Then I would add tomatoes and whatever green vegetables I felt like putting in (fresh basil is great but Italian parsley is also good; feel free to experiment with other greens). The next step is to add some eggs (at least two but probably three is better) and scramble them all up with the sauteed vegetables. I would add some dried oregano at some point if I didn't have fresh oregano, and a nice amount of black pepper or paprika. Then I'd add some cheese, like mozarella, parmesan, provolone. All that would be mixed up. At that point, you could add your leftover sauce, if you didn't throw it all into a bowl with the pasta. Mix all that up. Add a good helping of the wine of your choice (I used to use Sherry). Stir periodically to prevent the food from sticking to the pan. Taste and add whatever seems needed (I usually don't add salt because it's in the cheese, but you could). Eat over freshly toasted bread. Actually, my best version of this included leftovers of a Portuguese stew my mother made. I wrote down the recipe as best I could but was never able to duplicate it.

From robyn: As far as I'm concerned, you were hanging out with some weird people. I haven't known any New Yorkers who expressed those attitudes to me. Ever. Maybe a little "the chickens are coming home to roost," but none of the rest of it. I don't know anyone in New York who thinks we deserved it, and I certainly didn't know anyone who thought the atrocities were just an inconvenience. Isn't that what I said? Very well, perhaps we should get back to food now? How are your opinions about food different from those of a similarly situated New Yorker?

Why? What happens?