Pan

I agree that it's good not to have the woman's face in the shot of the strawberries. I'm glad my comments are of some use to you.

I love the photos of the sesame noodle salad, the chanterelles, the yogurt pops (great composition!), the red sauce with the egg and the steam coming up in front of the pan handle (Babbo's eggs), the glass of white wine with asparagus soup and toast, the stacked up cinammon rolls, the spoonful of ice cream, the goat cheese ice cream with a tongue of it facing us, and the mint iced tea, and there are great things about some of the rest of the photos (e.g., the beautiful arrangement of the red onions in the salad and crisp focus in the foreground of "21 Steps"; the beauty of the rhubard scone cake and interesting interplay of diagonal planes in the photo; the colorful fingernails and vivid strawberries in another photo). The question I'd ask you is what effect you're trying for when the subject of your photo is cut off or cropped. For example, in the photo with the painted fingernails and strawberries, I'd like it better if the woman's left hand were fully visible. The composition of the rustic cherry pie photo is interesting but seems tense to me. I look at the composition of photos with the same eye I use to look at compositions in paintings, so I find compositions like the goat cheese ice cream sandwich tense and lopsided, much as I would if it were a painting of an incomplete circle of one color on a background of another (the composition actually reminds of the Legers). The lopsidedness is intentional, but do you intend tension? To me, a harmonious composition has a feeling of completeness, which is why I find the photo of Babbo's eggs so appealing. The pan is cut off, but the composition is balanced, with fascinating interplay between the center line and the sides, and between the light and dark areas of the photo. I only wish I were 1/5 as good a photographer as you, but if my reactions were of any use to you at all, that would make me happy.

Yep! As for how I shave a chive, I don't!

I'm not Gifted Gourmet, but haimish means homey or warm and fuzzy. It comes from the German word Heim, which means home. ← Danke,Swisskaese and for correcting my spelling, too![...] ← Don't worry too much about transliteration of Yiddish words. The "correct" spelling is in Hebrew letters.

This place? Cuba Cafe 200 8th Avenue New York, NY 10011 (212) 633-1570

He called them calf kidneys, that's all. Of course I know that calf and veal are the same, when talking about meat.

Go to Arturo's. Their clam pizza kicks ass!

And you think my children have an unusual culinary upbringing! ← My brother and I did, too. But the calf kidneys were a special treat every few months.

Fattening him up, eh? Seriously, it's nice that eGullet can sometimes function as a matchmaker for amazing cooks like you two. I think that helps fulfill the Mission Statement, because you make great food together, and I'm sure you talk about food a lot in your quiet times together. Ain't that the truth? So, what's the next magical creation from you?

I don't remember whether my father soaked them (if so, briefly, I would think), but he certainly washed them carefully. He did not boil them, but cooked them up in a pan on the stove.

Are there good recipes for veal kidneys? Heck yeah! I can't give you amounts, but my father used to flambee them with brandy, and we would have them on toast. One of my favorite food memories from childhood!

There is no way to reasonably generalize about "Mainland Chinese food" and then differentiate that generalization from Taiwanese food, I don't think. I figure that, irrespective of political considerations regarding what Taiwanese identity does or should consist of, it makes much more sense to consider Taiwanese food essentially as another regional Chinese cuisine. And then, there are things one could say about it. I've had some Taiwanese cuisine here in New York, and what I've had included thick and thinner soups and various dishes over rice, plus of course boba tea. What I noticed in the Taiwanese restaurant I've been to most often is that they like to have dishes that feature pig intestine or seafood with preserved vegetables, have a love of sausages, and a fair number of their dishes have a good deal of mustard or/and mustard greens or/and hot pepper. But I have yet to visit Taiwan, so I don't really put much stock in my superficial impressions of what one or two versions of Taiwanese food in diaspora are. We have Taiwanese members who will probably chime in with a fuller and more accurate picture of what the cuisine is like there.

Just plain unadulterated turmeric will do that.

I think if you're in a part of the world where parsnips are unavailable and you can get sweet (not bitter) daikon (like in Malaysia), you could make a good chicken soup with daikon. I do remember Malaysian chicken soup made with daikon, though it also used other items not in Eastern European Jewish chicken soup, like star anise. But anyway, if you only substitute daikon for parsnip, it won't taste the same, but it still could be good.

For those of you who don't have truffle salt, white truffle cream, or truffle oil, you can do the trick I used to do when slapping up a quick breakfast in grad school: Use extra virgin olive oil to fry the eggs, and add enough sherry so that there is still a bit of alcohol taste when you put the eggs on top of your toast. I always did my best to have the whites be fully done but the yolks runny. Good, inexpensive quick breakfast with a little gourmet touch.

Mary, have you looked through any of the previous threads covering food in Shanghai? If not, look through those search results for more suggestions.

If you're suggesting oyster sauce may not have existed 50 years ago, I've got news for you. My parents told me about the time when my father was in the army (this would have been in 1953 or '54) and they were living off-base by Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks. They were so far from anywhere that they might have found oyster sauce that they made their own from scratch. When they were done, it tasted just like the oyster sauce they got in a jar back in Brooklyn.

You mean like this? Quinces, What to make with them

My favorite sour cherry things: Cold sour cherry soup and sour cherry strudel, both of which I consider Hungarian or at least ate in Hungary. I don't have recipes, though.

So we went to Cafe Mogador and had a really good brunch. I had the Moroccan Eggs, poached eggs on spicy tomato sauce, which came with good home fries with peel on them, and some pita. She had the omelette with goat cheese and spicy tomato-pepper sauce, which also came with a small fresh-squeezed orange juice, home fries, mesclun, and toast. I ordered a large orange juice, which was excellent - not watery, with a good quantity of pulp, and made from high-quality oranges. We shared an appetizer portion of hummus and a side order of one merguez sausage, both of which were good. With two Americanos (for her), the total was $41 including tip. One faux pas was the waitress bringing the check when we hadn't asked for it. "I guess we're not getting dessert," I said. But overall, a very good experience. FYI, brunch started at 9 A.M. The Moroccan Eggs are on the breakfast menu.

I'm reviving this thread because I'm having brunch with a friend tomorrow in this area. We're looking for a place that has good omelettes and is fairly inexpensive (I think that would be less than $20 at most). We're thinking Imagine, the successor to Miracle Grill on 1st Av. just south of 7th St. Have any of you had brunch there or looked at their brunch menu? Also, any other suggestions? Cafe Mogador, perhaps? When do they open on Sundays? I had a good breakfast at Teresa's today (Swiss cheese, spinach, fried onions, and tomato omelette, with rye toast and fresh orange juice), but my friend nixed it as an option for tomorrow.

I was reading the WikiTravel article on South Korea and came across a somewhat opinionated but, it seemed to me, worthwhile survey of Korean food and drink. (Remember, anyone can edit WikiTravel articles, so if you feel you can improve the article, by all means, go ahead.) But I'm sure there are better summaries elsewhere on the net. What's your favorite place to look for this kind of only moderately detailed information in narrative form at your fingertips?

It is an excellent all-round Korean restaurant. I really should go back soon; it's been too long.

Looks like tom yam gai. Did it taste like tom yam goong except with chicken instead of shrimps?

Yes, and I found it very easily via the Search button near the upper righthand corner of the screen (search term: Jardin; titles only, New York forum only): Le Jardin Bistro, Still worth a visit?