alacarte

While you're at it, maybe you can also design the perfect bra for the female cook. (edit: you'll need to page ahead a bit to get to that part of the discussion)

Katherine, that sounds horrendous. We may need a thread devoted just to office-food disasters!

I have good menu-planning intentions, but they never work out. **Either someone has to work late, in which case the menu gets deferred a night, or **We're too tired to cook, or **One of the ingredients goes bad, or **We wait until the last minute to shop to avoid ingredients going bad but a key ingredient has sold out, or is unavailable. take-out is key in my life.

Can you recommend some alternative aromatic vegetables to use? Would fennel or mushrooms work?

your ferrets must be the best-fed in the city!

Actually, the exact opposite it correct. NYC has some of the softest water in the US. OK, I get 10 demerits for lousy reportage. Thanks for the fact checking!

I suspect a lot of that is psychological. A cake -- even a slice of cake -- is "big." A cookie is "little," and it disappears quickly, innocuously, fingers not fork. It's irrelevant that a few cookies equal a slice of cake. People still feel more virtuous that way.

I find that very hard to believe. Bialys are available all over the DC area. If this was an exhibit down on the mall, like for the Folklife Festival, then she was talking to tourists - most likely from the Midwest (not that there's anything wrong with being from the Midwest. ) or from other countries. Yes, she did say it was held on the mall.

Please reconsider, unless you will enjoy tapping on a laptop from the seclusion of the nearest lavatory. You'll be spending a lot of time there.

oh, that's a winner!

And by the way, Bux, we are hereby revoking your official status as a New Yorker. You may claim Canadian citizenship going forward.

WHAAT?!?!? Sacrilege, utter sacrilege. Well, I'm told that the quality of bagels has much to do with the water in which they are boiled -- NY water has high mineral content compared to most areas, and that's why NY bagels kick butt compared to most other places. I have no knowledge of the properties of Montreal water. I attended a presentation a year or so ago given by Annie Hauck-Lawson, who curated a food exhibit called "The New York Food Story" for the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. The exhibit included most of the ethnic cuisines (Chinese, Italian, Polish, etc.) found in NY, and included an exhibit on bagel-making to represent Jewish food and culture. She said that she brought vats of New York water with her to D.C., to ensure that the bagels would taste like bagels should. P.S. The hit of the exhibit were bialys -- apparently few D.C. area attendees had ever heard of them, let alone sampled them!

It was the best of bacon, it was the worst of bacon, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of bacon, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Bacon, it was the spring of bacon, it was the winter of despair.... well, you get the picture. (with apologies to Dickens.)

CNBC just ran a piece on how NY bars are serving tobacco-infused liquor to help compensate for the smoking ban.

dessert at home is usually something convenient - cookies, ice cream, or something that comes in a box (i.e. Twinkies or chocolates) or a delivery bag (i.e. a slice of apple pie). that is, unless a Baking Bug hits. then I'm likely to spend an entire weekend immersed in cookbooks, baking this and that. A few weeks ago it was toffee-lace cookies and lemon squares. Usually the Baking Bug hits on a dreary weekend, when it's too rainy or cold to go out & play. come Monday, I drag my goodies to the office, for the sake of my girlish figure.

I have nothing to add on why Lebanese cuisine has become ubiquitous -- but I'm glad that it is, and that it's become available outside of the middle east. I've never been to Lebanon, but had the pleasure of trying Lebanese food for the first time during a recent trip to the UK. I had a wonderful white fish served in a tahini-like sauce with diced red peppers and hot green peppers, like jalapenos. Never had anything like that before, and truly enjoyed it. What would that sauce be called?

More on Ms. Dragonwagon. This place is like her summer camp.

I'm really disappointed with the peaches this year.

I like this idea, it should be fun to read. And if anyone says anything too unkind, he/she should beware...they might be the next victim!

good topic, fresco. pasta salad, with spiral pasta, frozen mixed vegetables & canned kidney beans. total fallback food, no creativity required.

Sure beats drinking solids.

speak softly & carry a rasher of bacon.

Boston Globe -- 7/30/03 Globe staff writer Alison Arnett on how Boston-area patrons are clamoring for more late-night dining options in Boston, driven by trend-setter Franklin Café, which serves until 1:30 a.m. Never too late Where the party never stops Andrea Pyenson on “Entertaining for a Veggie Planet,” written by Didi Emmons, co-owner of Veggie Planet restaurant in Harvard Square's Club Passim. Recipes include blueberry cardamom coffeecake, mango slaw, hip dip (a spicy edamame and cilantro puree), and watermelon lassi. A world of entertaining with veggies Writes wine correspondent Stephen Meuse: “The days when pink wines got no more respect than pink flamingoes is now well behind us. A younger, savvier generation knows these wines are crisp, dry, and uncomplicated. As late summer turns up the heat and humidity, roses have no peer.” In the pink Sheryl Julian lauds Glad Press ‘n Seal. Galen Moore loves the golden saffron pasta at Capone Food in Somerville.

I think it was appropriate to offer chocolate at the end of the exhibit. I took my 3-year-old niece to the exhibit. Long before the end, she was asking for chocolate anyway. I was jonesing for a piece myself. Then we went to see the dinosaurs. If it had been an exhibit about different kinds of oatmeal, we would have gladly bellied up to an oatmeal bar for a sampler too.

Thanks for the striking photos and explanation. I have never been anyplace that emphasized design to this extreme. However, a few places that rely on the creation of "atmosphere" to maximize the overall experience come to mind: Le Cirque & Osteria, with the circus theme; Cafe Nicholson, which has only a handful of tables & limited menu items, but has a room full of Spanish tile and a table full of knickknacks taking center stage. Both have a transporting quality. But I think I'd feel manipulated --in a negative sense-- by a restaurant that used gimmicks like atomizer sprays. It would cross the line from being an interesting dining experience to being in a gastronomic amusement park. It would be fun once or twice, but not someplace I'd want to visit on a regular basis.