Pan

Because it is a canvas unto itself. I offer these poor illustrations, but it makes the the point. Happy Birthday Cycle-boy and wheat to eat and a pond made of lilie pad cookies and water lilies and swans. This food makes a communication unto itself. I have done tomato logos and chalices and sheesh just lots of stuff that is food and art. In fact many of my online pictures have ulterior motives as food. And I'm not even close to the op's idea of the deep expressions communicated from the heart of a chef to the diner by what speaks from the plate. I recently made angel wing cookies for some folks going though tough times in the hospital. Is that abstract? A tasty Hallmark moment? ← Is your argument that food can be abstract or figurative? Because the examples you're presenting are not only functional as food but also figuratively representational. But even if you presented "abstract" compositions in food, the point would still be to eat them! Otherwise, they're not functional and in a real sense, no longer food.

A restaurant should refuse service in that situation, unless it chooses to engage in charity.

Solution: No free refills. We don't get them in New York. But then again, free refills is (are?) one of the things I love about California. I also agree that limiting free bread for people who didn't order much is reasonable.

But you can hold the right to refuse service for any other reason. If that was not the case Steve and Ian would have lost 54 the first month. ← Oh, I agree. You can refuse to serve someone who is dressed shabbily, smells, etc. No doubt. But they certainly can't be required to have a license for dining out, by analogy with drivers.

In a similar vein, I would simply state that while I do think that cooking is an art, it's absurd to even consider the idea that something to be eaten can be the "most abstract of all arts." Food is concrete and edible. How is that more abstract than a painting by Piet Mondrian?

Thanks for posting that beautiful story, Stevarino! On a much more prosaic note, if we are to talk about the cuisine of immigrants from Italy and their descendants, we need to bring in all other recipients of Italian immigration, including Latin America (also Australia, etc.). The Italian influence is most obvious in places like Argentina, but it's also notable that if you go to a Dominican restaurant, one of the regular items is likely to be some kind of spaghetti in red sauce. For example, El Malecon, a well-known Dominican restaurant in Manhattan, has "Spaghetti with Chicken In Red Sauce" available as one of its specials on Tuesdays.

You mean they're cultivating wild asparagus? Wouldn't that make it no longer wild?

I don't know if there's some kind of Pugliese dialect name, but the word I know is rosticceria, plural rosticcerie.

Gave it away or poured it down the drain?

Well, to be honest, Teresa was never all that friendly with me, but that wasn't the point. The point was that this was honest comfort food around the corner from me. I could get a quart of real chicken soup delivered to my apartment when I was feeling sick. But I don't really have any occasion to go to the branch in Brooklyn. It's fairly distant from MetroTech Center, isn't it? (If not, I might go there now and then for old time's sake.) Anyway, though, I never thought of Teresa's as a destination restaurant, but as a very dependable neighborhood restaurant I was happy to have, and I gave them loads and loads of business for many years. I think I'll be spending some time at Ukranian East Village now.

Mussina, I guess my feeling is that the extras (amuses, etc.) could reasonably be withheld under the circumstances you present. They are after all extras. Meanwhile, you said that the party had been there before, so they're repeat business. Did they order more last time? I think you have to hope that they enjoyed the food and the experience and will tell friends, who probably will order more than 2 mains for 4 people. I find sharing charges objectionable and kind of mean, but if sharing, I usually would share a couple of appetizers, a salad or perhaps a full portion of pasta, and then possibly one main if mains are huge, or else we'd get our own mains and pass each other a few bites of our respective dishes. A place that would charge us extra for that will not get my business. So be careful not to institute a policy that's worse than status quo. If you have to choose, a minimum charge per person (which you should waive if the total bill for a table amounts to more than the minimum per head, even if someone ordered less and tasted a bit of others' food) is much preferable to a sharing charge, in my opinion.

You're conflating two dissimilar things. Driving requires a license that ostensibly demonstrates that the driver has proven his/her skill in operating a deadly vehicle. Eating out does not require a license or any special skill, and under U.S. Civil Rights Law, denying someone the right to eat in your establishment on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, etc., is prohibited and actionable. So while I sort of get your point, your analogy is very inapt.

Yes, Derek, you're out of line. And when they find out it's bullshit and complain to everyone they know, then how good is it for the restaurant?

Teresa's East Village location closed after 22 years of business on May, 31. I was unaware of its closing until I found out today. And saddest of all, I never had a chance to say goodbye. So consider this my goodbye to a dear friend: On the Death of a Beloved Restaurant I kept calling But there was no answer On September 12, 2001 the streets were closed, but you were open Even during the transit strike, you served me But no longer No more of your soup, no orders of pierogis to take out The chicken stew lunch special is unavailable The luxuriant babka French toast, past For all the times you delivered a quart of chicken soup like my father’s, The times I read a newspaper in your living room, All the people I met between your walls, The sentimental painting of Warsaw, And the time when you spilled water on my pants, too – All are but a memory

Bob, for those of us who didn't buy the WSJ, could you summarize the key points in the review? Mazel tov on the good reviews, Daniel.

I imagine there are Russian restaurants in China for non-Jews from Russia.

Of course! They can be roasted with the chicken. They could also be sauteed. I'm thinking of gizzards sauteed in a frying pan with finely chopped onions, parsley, black pepper, and sherry. Or you could flambee them with brandy, rum, or some other spirit.

I thought of that, but since I was going to Empire Szechuan after I returned from two years of fantastic Chinese food eating in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, etc., I think that my opinion of its food as excellent in the early years (and my parents' view, also after all that great Chinese food eating in Malaysia, et al.) is probably accurate. I'll take your word for it that it's possible to have a good meal at the Columbus Av. branch of Empire Szechuan, but I gave up on the 97th St. branch (which closed recently and I think was going to relocate and maybe did?) a long time ago, when their Sesame Chicken -- previously a family favorite -- finally began consistently sucking ass.

Check out this thread on Cucina Pugliese, started and with copious pictorial documentation by Stevarino.

Thank you, Chris. You have just given a very good anthropological discourse, similar to the great (ethno)musicologist John Blacking's point that even if different tribes sing certain things the same way, the music will be different because the web of social meanings invested in it will be different.

It was on the southeast corner of 97th and Broadway. In the late 70s, my family ate there frequently, and it was in those days a very good restaurant, even revelatory. Even through the mid 90s, when much of the food there was mediocre or worse, their dim sum on weekends was surprisingly acceptable for not-in-Chinatown. It took some time for the food to become inedible there. I knew Marty Reisman, by the way. He had a table tennis school and a bunch of tables on the south side of 96th St. between West End and Broadway. And finally, on Great N.Y. Noodletown, some of their noodle items are well worth ordering, for example the Ginger-Scallion Lo Mein and some of the noodle soups, though I agree with Sam that barbecued items are a specialty. Terrific writing as usual, Fat Guy. I look forward to watching the book develop and hope to give some useful suggestions.

There also used to be a branch on E. 7 St. near Av. A in Manhattan. I don't know if they were related, but the New York branch was just OK. This goes back several years.

Your bean pie looks really good! And I notice another important difference between your pie and the commercial ones sold in these parts wrapped in plastic: Butter, rather than margarine or hydrogenated vegetable oil. Also, you're making it from scratch using fresh and not canned beans, etc.

Interesting comparison there, American and Jewish cuisines as melting pots in different ways. But I think that the way you end your 2nd paragraph begs the question of whether there really is a "most formally accurate recipe" and whose Bubbe will be taken as the authority on that! Considering that no traditional dishes started life as formalized recipes, but rather, as "a little bit of this, a little bit of that," I think you may be going on a positivist wild goose chase.

I generally agree with your points about Jewish vs. non-Jewish food and also about verismo, bel canto, and cantillation (I'd also add that, as I understand, an awful lot of klezmer music was played by local Gypsies and Slavic Christians, as well as Jews -- sometimes in the same group, and playing for both Jewish and Christian celebrations -- and tunes often had words in a few different languages). But at what point does not using ingredients or techniques for religious reasons and developing other ones in place of the forbidden ingredients and techniques approximate a difference related to the availability of those ingredients and regional non-use of those techniques? I think that when it gets to the level of Calcutta Jews using eggs rather than yogurt as a thickening agent, the difference in taste and feel is substantial.