Pan

I just want to say that Susan did a great job, picking wonderful bloggers for the eGullet foodblog, and it was a pleasure to work with her when we were both on staff and to continue to make suggestions and communicate with her when I was no longer on staff. The foodblog achieved a new level of sustained excellence under Susan's stewardship, and this can be maintained and built upon by those who fill her shoes. Susan also has posted a lot of great photos of meals in the Dinner thread, and I always enjoyed the views of and from the dinner table on the patio.

I like the following vegetables raw: Cucumbers Lettuce Really good tomatoes Really good arugula Really good radicchio Really fresh carrots and celery (must not have any spoiled water taste) And that's really pretty much it. And all of these vegetables can be cooked very nicely. Probably the only vegetables that I would strongly argue are better not cooked are really high-quality dark or red-leaf lettuce and really good carrots or celery. OK, probably really good arugula, too. Cucumbers are great raw but actually do quite well in Chinese stirfries. Iceberg lettuce and radicchio are both good cooked. The Cantonese make very good braised dishes with iceberg.

To quote a famous New Yorker, "Not that there's anything wrong with that..." From where I live, I can walk to any of the good-to-great restaurants in Montclair, NJ for great food at reasonable prices ($20-40/person) for everyday meals. That is why for many of us B&T folk ( groan), NYC is reserved for more special occassions for when we want to see celebrity chefs, celebrity clientele, inventive cuisine, extraordinary interior design, over-the-top experiences. If the point is have a memorable experience, then good food is just one part of the successful equation. There has to be a special reward for the effort of driving through cross-town traffic, $40 parking garage fee, etc.[...] ← You could save money by taking the bus. I've had good meals in Montclair, by the way. But I don't see the point in celebrities, either as chefs or clientele. Inventive cuisine and extraordinary interior design compute to me, but I really couldn't care less who is at the next table or who the chef is, as long as the food is great, the service is at least acceptable, and the ambiance is at least tolerable. I get the sense that there are things more important to you than the food, but moreover, that those other things are likely to make it very difficult for you to also find a restaurant with great food. But perhaps I'm repeating myself at this point, so I'll bow out.

This is powerful stuff. It looks like the book is a really good read, and I look forward to the next excerpt.

How about Two Little Red Hens between 85th and 86th Sts. on 2nd Av., for delicious American baked items?

What's "oon"? Gastro, feel better soon!

Primi are not apps; they're pasta or risotto courses or soups.

I like okra, too. There are very strong pro and con opinions about that vegetable here. I happen to hate raw broccoli and cauliflower, and I much prefer mushrooms cooked, too. It's all down to personal taste. Asparagus is good steamed but also good broiled with some balsamic vinegar!

I like brussels sprouts best when they're absolutely KILLED by boiling or when they're broiled really robustly. They are very bitter. I've found that as I've gotten older, though, I've liked them more. I used to absolutely hate them, until my father found that if he overboiled them, they were OK with me. Broccoli is good simply steamed, but if you want a delicious Italian recipe (I believe this is based on Ada Boni's Talismano della Felicita'), saute plenty of finely sliced onions in extra-virgin olive oil to caramelize, then chopped up broccoli (including the stem, sliced lengthwise and cut widthwise), add a full-bodied red wine (I believe Valpolicella was in the original recipe), then add plenty of freshly-ground pepper, and top with provolone or another good melting cheese of your choice (fior di latte is not as tasty but is OK). There are all sorts of great ways to cook cauliflower, which is one of my favorite vegetables. I'm not even going to start, except to mention that if you haven't considered cooking it in an Indian style, it's a good idea. Au gratin can be nice, too. Or, again, simply steamed -- if it's good cauliflower, the delicious sweetness will come through. I like cabbage (especially red cabbage) sauteed with onions, caraway seeds, and slices of a robust apple like Granny Smith. You can add some red wine. Perhaps ludja already mentioned this. Very good traditional Austrian recipe. Zucchini is delicious sauteed in EVOO with caramelized onions, and you can add tomatoes if you like. It's also good to make a sauce like that (with a greater amount of tomatoes if you so desire) and serve it on pasta. My favorite mushroom dish is Funghi Trifolati. You slice them up and heat them so they give up their water, then reduce the water to about nothing. Then, add the olive oil and sautee them for a while. Add plenty of lemon juice (lemon zest is also good) and plenty of pepper. Some anchovy paste is a great ingredient, too. And when it's done, have it with your zucchini or broccoli dish and some nice secondo. Make sure to use a couple of containers of mushrooms if you're buying them in the supermarket; they really reduce drastically in size when you cook the water out of them.

I want some of that, Xiao Ling!

I'm not familiar with Miami Beach, but I wonder if the two really AREN'T mutually exclusive in New York. I think the reason why I buried the mention of "great food" in my mind is that it didn't seem to me to be congruent with the rest of your criteria -- particularly if you add all of them together. I also don't think that great dining outside of New York is relevant to the mention of B&Ters and how they behave in New York. Different situation, and in many cases, different people. And by the way, there's an organization I'm part of that is based on a commonality other than food, and it seems to be full of B&Ters (from Connecticut, New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester, and indeed out of the area) whose idea of a great time in New York is to go for expensive (not necessarily good) cocktails and expensive, mediocre bar food at some hyped-up place. (One time, we scored with Chinatown Brasserie, but I was among the few who made sure to get several orders of dumplings and really cared that the food and cocktails were great.) I suspect that's a very common attitude toward a "night on the town in New York" among people who -- unlike most of the membership of eGullet -- are not connoisseurs of food or drink. If you do in fact find a place that fulfills everything on your wish list and truly has great food, I want to know the name of the place! And I sincerely wish you luck!

I'm grateful that in Malay houses, I only had to drink tea!

The food looks wonderful! It's interesting to me that there are people in Vietnam still living in thatched houses -- there were only a few of those left in the poorest state of Peninsular Malaysia in 1975, with zinc roofs taking over. How far out of Hanoi did you get in the first day?

Do you know if they're willing to serve a half-portion of a primo if you choose to have a secondo?

I wasn't sure what to say, because I didn't notice good food as one of the criteria for picking the place. Also, some of us were never B&Ters. I may not be "cool," but I'm a native Manhattanite who's never been impressed by empty hype.

Oh well, so much for that idea.

Pam, what about kosher agar-agar? That's from seaweed and wouldn't seem to present problems with kashrut, as long as it's supervised.

Which restaurants does Orhan Yegen run?

Ah Leung, I had long hoped you'd do a foodblog, because I've loved your pictorial demonstrations of Chinese home-cooked dishes. But the quality of this blog has far exceeded anything I could have imagined. You've shown sides of yourself I didn't know anything about, and ended with some deep, poetic thoughts. I thought you were a little crazy for agreeing to blog during New Year's, but thank you so much for doing so, and have a great year!

"There were many loafers" -- you mean that kind of footwear, I presume, not lazy staff members?

Wouldn't we all! So it looks like ais krim potong is a popsicle.

Great stuff, Klary. Thanks so much for sharing!

I have a friend who seems to be a supersmeller. I'm not sure it has helped her in her dating life...

Definitely underappreciated, because I've never heard of it! Where is it?

That looks great and very much like dishes I've had at Grand Sichuan here in New York.