alacarte

Thanks for the thorough review, Mulcahy! Is Solo in the space that used to house Shallots?

I feel obligated to warn the pastry chefs on this board that PA&D features advertisers prominently in even what appears to be objective, independent articles not marked as advertorials. I wrote a free-lance article for them, and one of the stipulations was that a particular advertiser had to be mentioned in the text of the article. This isn't something I would do now, but since I was only starting out in food writing at the time, I sucked it up and did it. And to add insult to injury, I was never even paid for the article. Would never work for them again, or for their sister mag Chocolatier either. And I've heard that this is hardly an isolated incident. Writers, beware.

Anne Willan of La Varenne on Tart Tatin or at least, alterna-tatins

Blo, thanks for putting what was quickly becoming an urban myth to rest. And: EEUUUWWWW. I hate thinking about all the little things floating in our water. Dang sea monkeys.

Thanks for the kind words. And JosephB, thanks for not minding that I put you in the story. srhcb, that's an interesting link, thanks. I also recommend this one: Russian Cuisine.com If you scroll down the page, you'll see the ad that astounded me -- for a special mold designed for making pelmeni! One final thought on the pervasion of meat dumplings throughout so many cultures (pelmeni, won-tons, tortellini, etc.). My opinion is that it has much to do with the need throughout history for families to make do with little -- in particular, using inexpensive dough to s-t-r-e-t-c-h limited portions of meat to feed families. I'd love to hear other theories too, please post them here!

Great article, Andrea. More, please! Is the cheesecake photo one of your creations?

I'd also love to see the Sherry Yard recipe, or the Nigella recipe too. When I make lemon curd, many of the recipes tell you to stir the curd "until thick," or "until it holds the mark of the whisk," or something equally vague. How do you know when it's cooked long enough? I've actually gotten to the point where it curdles, which isn't so terrible except that it reduces the lemon curd quite significantly. (and if it's not supposed to curdle anyway, why call it lemon "curd"?)

Owen dear, you are going to have to compensate by identifying the superlative pizza joints in your neck of the NY woods, and organize an outing so all the metro-area New Yorkers then will have to schlep upstate to you.

thanks for the info, Lauren, and bonne journee!

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We had dinner at Amuse last night...not a good experience, I'm afraid. As we left, Mr. alacarte suggested the restaurant be re-named to "Abuse." We ordered four dishes, which arrived two at a time, in a timely fashion. (The service was prompt and friendly.) The first dishes were: Pecorino-arancini (fried brown rice and cheese balls) and marinated fluke served over grapefruit sections with ginger cracklings. Both were quite bland. The fluke was very attractive, but didn't taste like much at all. The arancini was particularly dull -- perhaps a marinara sauce for dipping would have jazzed it up sufficiently. The second two dishes were a green papaya salad and cod cakes. The papaya salad was a big, slimy slaw dish, drowning in lime juice and not much else. It had a pleasing crunch, but quickly became tired, and we left most of it untouched. The cod cakes were just little fried cod squared, with no sign of the yukon gold potatoes advertised on the menu (the cod cakes were supposed to be served on top of the potatoes. perhaps they were incorporated in the cakes, it was hard to tell), and served with a tartar sauce on the side. Did we order poorly? Perhaps. Was it Monday-night-is-the-chef's-night-off syndrome? Maybe. But the end result was that we left $65 poorer (including cocktails) and still hungry.

way to blog, Seth. looking forward to the rest of your tenure. you could always slice those radishes and make a sandwich with two slices of your lovely home-baked bread, lots of sweet butter, and a sprinkle of salt. For your pot: cassoulet?

Matzo ball soup! Udon! Wonton! Russian pelmeni soup! YUM!

enjoying this thread. drooling.

Saute well, with olive oil and garlic. Serve with pasta and shaved parmesan. Enjoy!

How do you write an article about how one "Little India" is languishing, and not mention that there's another flourishing about 20 blocks north? (Lexington and upper 20s)?

I'm encouraged by all the tales of chemo survivors. I'm so sorry for those who lost loved ones. For my MIL, she craved bread, any kind of bread, and still does to this day (her chemo was 20 yrs ago). Her main avoidance was to oil and butter, anything too greasy made her nauseous.

I think my personal favorite was Grimaldi's, followed by Patsy's, and then Totonno's. I didn't make it to DiFara's or Lombardi's. Grimaldi's also tops my list because their sausage was so outstanding. Out of these three, I preferred the Totonno's crust best, it was yeasty and chewy and tasted good -- I think I prefer less char than the rest of our taste-testers.

Brighton was fun, I enjoyed it more than the pizza. I brought back a menu from "Gina's Cafe" (Cafe Gina....Cappuccina...Cappuccino...get it?). It's located at 409 Brighton Beach Ave, if anyone else wants to go, it was right by the Brighton Beach train stop. Even the take-out menu is in Russian and English! The vodka selection is NOT on the take-out menu. I should add that we found this place because JosephB charmed all the Russian matrons walking down the street, and asked them where the good restaurants were located. All the matrons directed us back to the boardwalk, where the banquet halls are located (National, Winter Palace, Tatyana are the names I remember), but all were empty...and we were still kind of stuffed with pizza anyway...apparently the scene doesn't kick in until about 10PM or so. So we hauled ourselves back to the main drag and found Cappuccina (also recommended by one of the matrons -- PS, underneath that poufy hair and flashy gold jewelry, they were remarkably warm and welcoming, it was a bit like chatting with a relative). Another OT aside: If Cappuccina was the highlight, my personal "lowlight" was passing through the original Nathan's on Coney Island...and noting that they serve frog's legs there, with a side of french fries and corn bread. I kid you not.

excellent thread title!

Great pictures, doc! I have never seen a pink fire before. I arrived too late for the peek in the oven -- was it really that color, or was it a bit of trick photography? 900 degrees? whoa.

what is it with the connection between sports and food? at the Washington Post, food editor Jeanne Mcmanus covered sports before moving to the food beat. I don't know if she was the sports section editor, but I'd wager she was.

I'm confused -- the Totonno's link only notes restaurants on the Upper East Side and Yonkers.

this is going to seem so out of the blue, but here goes: Grapevine has it that we'd better shape up and start being nicer to AH because she's leaving the NY Times and moving to Asia, where Mr. Latte has a new job. Amanda, care to confirm/deny?

I intend to try both!