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Tootsie Rolls and Malted Milk Balls haven't been mentioned yet. I could imagine very good artisanal takes on those. What would the creation of a simulacrum of Tootsie Rolls look like in Ling's hands?

I've found that it's standard for Italian restaurants in New York, when asked, to offer half-portions of pastas for half price if you're also ordering a secondo. I figure they'd also be happy to offer a half portion of pasta for your children, but if in doubt, you could always call ahead.

Morfudd, if you haven't already looked through the first few pages of this forum to read other threads started by people about to visit this city, I highly recommend it.

My perfect meal has to have some great mushrooms. Morels are wonderful, for example. I agree with the cheese platter. Get a variety of the highest-quality cheeses you can find, and bake some delicious breads to go with them -- maybe an olive bread and a raisin bread, but that's up to you. For dessert, there's nothing better than top-quality fresh lychees, but failing that, how about some prune armagnac ice cream? I just checked out Daniel Rogov's recipe for Bombe Monselet, and that ice cream might go well with it. Then again, maybe it would be excessive. I'd also love an ambrosial Muscat wine or really high-quality Muscat grapes. You have lots to choose from.

Enjoy your week of blogging, Janet! I love SF. Do you go to taquerias in the Mission much? That's always the first thing I want to do when I get off the plane. Ain't nothin' like it in these parts.

No. But that doesn't mean I don't sometimes give my own star ratings. In terms of the system, it's obviously my own. I sometimes think in terms of the stated categories in the Times, sometimes of Michelin. Most often, I do just what you do and enjoy the meal. If it were up to me, Spicy & Tasty would have two stars, Lupa three. Neither has any NYT stars.

In my opinion, these are all good ideas, especially the labels on grapefruits. (Not on individual grapefruits, but on the sign for all the grapefruits, showing the price: "Warning: May interact with statin drugs.") And don't forget that no-one is ever required to read labels. But while we're raising our hands, raise your hands if you ever amused yourself by reading the label on the cereal box.

One type of labels which is much more informative in Europe is mineral water labels. I always have fun reading the amounts of different ions in Italian mineral water when I'm in Italy, but the bottles that come to the US have none of that information, only 0 fat, 0 protein, 0 carbohydrates, and an amount of sodium. But there are people who need to restrict other minerals in their diets, such as potassium and phospherous. Those people aren't catered in this country's product labeling. It's probably a pretty minor issue with mineral water, but what would be the harm in letting the European-style labels be used at the discretion of the companies involved? It seems to me that Federal standards should be minimal, not maximal. Yes, specific misleading claims should remain prohibited, and some additional misleading formulations of words may need to be prohibited from time to time, but "only this and not further" doesn't seem like something worth even wasting time debating, when there are so many more important issues Congress should be spending time on.

Of course I think informed diners care. How could they not? (That's not to say they should, just that I think they [or at least some of them] do.) But I'm not trying to channel what I think diners think. I'm trying to channel what I think the reviewer might be thinking. After all, diners don't do anything as artificial as assigning stars to restaurants. ← I do react to meals as 2-star, 3-star, etc. Marc, I take your point about Morimoto, but that level of celebrity is unusual. I had never heard of Kurt Gutenbruner, and I suppose that a very large percentage of the dining public hasn't heard of him, either.

I'm from Manhattan, New York. Here are some desserts that I either remember from my childhood or think of as New York desserts now: Apple pie Carrot cake Strudels: poppy, apple, cherry Cherry pie Pound cake Rice pudding Butterscotch pudding Chocolate chip cookies Hamantashen (poppy, prune, apricot, raspberry) Black & whites Almond horns Danishes: cheese, prune, pineapple, blueberry, chocolate, cinammon (Chocolate) Layer cake Eclairs Shakes Donuts and crullers Lemon squares Neapolitan ("Italian") cheesecake Sicilian cheesecake Cannoli Baba au rhum Babka Rainbow cookies Peanut butter cookies Sugar cookies Lemon-poppy muffins I could go on. I wouldn't call all of these New York regional specialties, but I thought I'd put a fairly exhaustive list out there for you to think about. Being from the Jersey shore, you probably have a good idea of which of these are really New York things. The cheesecake, obviously, and also arguably the Jewish items. Some of the rest of these may have to do with my experience with particular bakeries and cafes or what my mother liked to bake when I was growing up. One interesting thing you could consider is to do a much better version of Hostess fruit pies. As a first-grader, I used to like their cherry and pineapple pies (with the apple pie in third place), but even at that age, I knew very well that they weren't as good as home-made. An artisanal individual pie in that shape (essentially rectangular) could be a really good thing.

As a diner, I really don't give a damn who the chef is, unless I like the food (or, I suppose, if I were to know the chef). I wouldn't rate a restaurant higher or lower because a particular chef "should do better," or some other nonsense. What percentage of diners do you think really gives a damn about such things?

Presumably, also tomatoes, pumpkins and squash? Birds are not mammals. I figure that the largest land mammals in North America -- and certainly in what's now Mexico -- were bison. I do not know what the limits of the bison's range were, but I do seem to remember that they did roam around at least the northern part of Mexico as late as the 19th century if not later.

I'm sorry to see this blog end, as well. You're beautiful and your husband is handsome, so your children's looks aren't accidental. You seem to have a really nice family, and you cook well for them. I join in wishing you luck with the move, and I look forward to seeing what foodstuffs you find in your new home.

But Nathan, I still haven't finished looking through your Japan photos! I look forward to whenever I have the chance to look through some of this batch. The previews are certainly appealing. You really travel right, from my point of view, absorbing whatever you can about the place you're visiting. You are no accidental tourist.

Any unusual or rare ingredients in those special pastas?

Prune armagnac ice cream...too much to hope for.

Were the items you were served all on the menu?

UE, you might want to look at some of the more recent entries in some of the threads dedicated to restaurants mentioned in this thread. For example, here's the Fleur de Sel thread. You'll note that I was pretty underwhelmed by my experience there, but gaf found his meal there a great bargain. If I were choosing between Fleur de Sel and 11 Madison Park, I'd choose the latter without hesitation. I haven't been to Prune, Five Points, or Cookshop. I also haven't been to any of these places for brunch, so keep that in mind.

Consider Park Slope. It's got a good and interesting food scene, it's gorgeous -- especially in the gaslight section, roughly between 8th Av. and the park -- and you, your kids, and your dog will love one of the greatest city parks in the US: Prospect Park. Your commute to downtown Manhattan will be easy by subway, and you won't need to own or park a car anywhere.

I went back again for dinner tonight. There was a large party (something like 12 people), so they were slammed and service was very slow. The waitress was very apologetic, but I understood and didn't hold it against her. I have to advise you not to figure on getting a straight answer to a question about how large an appetizer is. I ordered pasembur and curry mee with young tau foo. The pasembur is an appetizer -- for two people, maybe more. I was pretty hungry tonight and actually finished both the pasembur and the curry mee, but I feel stuffed, and I in fact declined the complimentary dessert. The price was certainly right, though -- $12.20 plus tip. I have one mild criticism of the pasembur: At least today, the bean sprouts were a little old, so they were brown-tinged and tasted very earthy (the same bean sprouts, when used in curry mee, are more noticeable as a texture than a taste). I prefer fresher bean sprouts. Nevertheless, I'd order pasembur again, but not by myself if I planned on getting anything much else.

Just a parenthetical note on orthography: In Malay "ejaan baru" ("new spelling"), which I believe was introduced in the late 1960s or so, "ch" became "c", "sh" became "sy", and there were changes in some vowels before final "h" and "k". So chendol is cendol is chendol, or vice versa.

They definitely don't have to be powdered for the effect.

My "lunch" is roasted, unsalted almonds. (Actually, I've been munching on them on and off since I got up around 2 P.M. I deserved the extra sleep after a long day of teaching plus a 45-minute recital of solo flute music!) These good-quality almonds were purchased at Dowel, the recently-renovated Bangladeshi spices and sundries store on 1st Av. between 5th and 6th streets. Other recent purchases there have included organic dried Turkish apricots (tasty and, um, good for regularity ) and Bangladeshi-style sweetened orange-colored yogurt.

muichoi, point well taken, but there's a lot of room between "mild numbing effect" and "Novocaine." I haven't been to Sichuan province, but I tend not to think that Grand Sichuan's Sichuan pepper is weak.

What's a Daim cake?