alacarte

popovers are awesome, and really easy. the catch is that they are best served hot hot hot -- once they cool off, they aren't nearly as good.

You guys must have been the inspiration for this NY Mag piece on the world's "tastiest, nastiest food": goat's heads, cockscomb and tripe, oh my

anything that brings more people to the MOMA is a good thing. I'm really looking forward to the museum re-opening in Manhattan. I'm delighted that they are planning to harmonize the restaurant space with the architecture of the overall museum.

Thanks Jan. I used Reynolds too. Maybe the parchment was too wet (does that make sense?), or the oven temp was too high -- you know how ovens can vary, and 400 degrees already was on the high side....though mine tends to range on the low side.

I'm delighted to read about yorkshirepud's victory with the apple tart. It looks great. I thawed my pastry dough and made the apricot danishes over the weekend. Nearly set my *&%^#$#@! oven on fire -- I must have used too much egg wash, and it wet the parchment paper and started smoking in the oven. Nobody should have to use their smoke alarm as their oven timer!! Is anyone else having trouble with using parchment paper? Am I handling it badly or using a sub-par brand? Though after all that, the danishes didn't burn.

I'd be in for the glazed mini-rounds

Two more (semi-random) thoughts on this topic: 1. Think about how many cookbooks you've seen co-written by chefs and non-chef writers. Many chefs, while excellent cooks and recipe designers, are not good writers or interested in writing in general. Meanwhile, it can be helpful to have a non-chef writer on such a project because he/she will recognize what needs to be translated or simplified for a home cook. But that doesn't mean that the non-chef writer can be entirely inexperienced with cooking -- you need to know the language in order to translate. 2. As a writer, I find that I'm at a disadvantage in getting assignments sometimes because I don't have a professional cooking degree or prior experience working as a food professional. For example, Fine Cooking mag won't even consider non-food professionals for assignments.

word. I think I need to make this my new signature.

We need a food historian to help solve the why-separate-dessert-menu dilemma. For no legitimate reason, I suspect that this is a French menu convention that was adopted by American haute-cuisineries. Can any well-traveled souls out there dispute or confirm how dessert vs. dinner menus are handled in France, and for how long the two menus have been divided? As for why a separate wine menu...I'm guessing that it's because some restaurants have such substantial wine offerings that it merits a book of its own. Can anyone offer facts? I'm speculating here.

Lotus eaters?

there's truth to saying that you should write about what you want to know as well as what you know. so no, I don't think all writers need to cook. many food writers who cover restaurants do so because they are interested in the personalities of chefs and restaurateurs, the business aspects, and the dining experience (read: eating and presentation, not cooking) rather than the food prep skills. that said, food writers who write about cooking and individual ingredients should know how to cook.

maybe it's so you won't look at the dinner menu a second time as you're perusing dessert -- and regret that you didn't order this entree or that appetizer

Motown, esp. Aretha, baby!!! unless I'm baking -- then it's time to break out the classical music

anyone want to tackle the difference between food writing and food reporting?

GO MONICA GO!

I would love to try something in the genoise family next. Though I have to finish up the danish recipe first!

I wish Saveur would update its website content more often. Or ever. Much as I love the magazine, it's disheartening to click through to the "Fare" section and read the note at the bottom --

Jan, your danish braid is beautiful. Nice job with the "food styling" too -- love the doily. I did the danish pastry over the weekend -- it will have to remain in the freezer until I have time to bake it next weekend. Maybe I'll bring it to my folks for mothers day if the timing works out right. This is my first experiment from the BWJ book -- I've mostly been following from the sidelines until now. I have to say that the instructions are very easy to follow so far, even for something as complex as pastry dough. If I could change anything about the book, it would be to cross-index the recipes with the dough recipes. For example, next to the recipe for the pastry dough, it would be nice to have a small box with the page numbers for the full pastry recipes, rather than making me hunt for it.

and wash it all down with a Maccabee beer!

I can't see the photos either. I think one of the evening's highlights was when Stone asked the waiter how freshly-killed the "freshly-killed chicken" was, and whether he could come into the kitchen and see the formerly live poultry. The waiter declined to give the kitchen tour.

How was it? In a word: SPICY!!! Those dan dan noodles really have a kick. good company too. Joe, you & Donna were missed. Sorry you couldn't make it.

Is it really OK to leave the bottle at room temp for a month or so? Won't it start to grow fungus or something?

If you haven't already seen this essay from the LA Times Magazine on the Mahattan, I recommend it. It's extremely well-written and I learned a lot about the cocktail to boot. Make Mine a Manhattan

I was so disappointed to discover that the mullet is a type of fish. When you said "mullet-tossing," I had visions of tossing local dudes with mullet hair-dos in the air. I guess the Florabama version is fun too.

Welcome JanKK! Danish pastries sound good to me too. I didn't make the nan bread (would you believe the grocery store was out of yeast??? Outrageous!!!) but I wanted to highlight the nan recipe instructions: it was encouraging that the instructions included an alternate method for baking if you don't own baking tiles, peels, and other fancy baking equipment. (Invert a baking pan on the center oven tray.) For a novice home baker like me, this is valuable info to have.