Margaret Pilgrim

Königsberger Klopse. German caper spiked and sauced meatballs. Noodles instead of more traditional potatoes. Quite good. The sauce is a veloute enriched with egg yolk.

Many, many thanks! Will do!

I don't see how that should come as any surprise. Look what Franco-American sells as spaghetti or Kraft sells as cheese.

This thread has struck a chord. We haven't had either braunschweiger or liverwurst in the house in probably 40 years. Maybe time for some. Can see it on fresh bread, mayo, onions, cornichons. Yes, gonna do it!

Thanks for this! i keep forgetting chicken livers as a main course. I want, need your plate!

Finally a decent tomato. Smoked pork belly braised in choucroute. Pretty good. Actually really good.

Norm, can you point us toward your recipe? Your plate is beautiful. This sounds like a lovely cold fall day soup.

Bouncing off Duvel, how about with caramelized apples and Calvados?

Yea on the first two; not so sure about the caneloni filling. I would say just about anything might work except liverwurst. 😀

Mel's, actually a block from me, was alweays more of a drive-in, something the west coast does well. it's not a diner in the east coast sense. Diners have a certain vibe that you can't create from scratch.

Remembering a fiasco early in our marriage, DO NOT PUT IT ON PIZZA!

Totally agree. FCD was a great little restaurant but a diner in name only. It is still quite viable but not the star it was under creator Cindy Pawlcyn.

By request, giant (8-12 to the pound) prawns, deep fried. Chard on the side and of course a few frites. Husband said these were the finest prawns in his memory. Huge, succulent, sweet, shattering crust. Okay!

Another diner characteristic is its club-like ambiance. You will find the same people arriving at the same time every day, at breakfast or lunch. Familiar to the staff and to friends they join in booths. Seemingly picking up conversations from the day before. We have often adopted one of these when traveling, having breakfast everyday at the Peterborough or Miss Flo diner. We were always of interest in that we were obviously not locals much less club members. Often the waitress would ask where we were from.

Husband coming home tomorrow so I'm cleaning up my act, or at least fridge. Joe's Special is a favorite of mine, but tonight it was Joe's Kitchen Sink. Beet greens, maitake mushrooms, ground beef, egg, fresh goat cheese. Looked a little pale so I added a splat of Turkish pepper relish. Rather yum!

Yup. Just peel and slice. We use a dressing of citrus + brown sugar + cumin + olive oil. S and p. I've have dinner guests call and ask for the recipe.

This is tragic. "Gravy" is simply sauce that reflects the main protein or even veg. My husband LOVES gravy so we serve it in many manifestations. Chicken schnitzel with white gravy is simply white sauce enriched with chicken broth (veloute) and a little fresh thyme. Veal marsala scrapes up veal fond, adds marsala wine and veal broth (think: packaged dry product) and a big splat of butter. Turkey, or other roast bird, is as complicated as you want to make it. You can roast odd-bits of the bird, deglaze and make broth from the drippings, or use canned or frozen bird broth from your butcher. Just thicken with a slurry of broth and flour. I use the white sauce method of heating fat (butter or roast fat) and blending in flour, heating to a froth then adding indicated broth. Whisk until smooth. My mother always strained gravy; i don't bother. Understanding basic white sauce method opens a zillion "gravy" doors. 5 minutes from thought to table.

What we often forget is that product changes. The venison your grandfather harvested may be a different animal from the one you might encounter in the same environ, i.e., changes in its eco over time, remembering that parasites and other invaders also evolve. It's important to know the current status of your animal's environment and development.

The diners I remember most are in New England. Like Miss Florence Diner near Northampton, and Peterborough Diner in New Hampshire, and of course, Moody's Diner on route 1 outside Waldoboro, ME.

And today not the cheap cut it once was.

Monkfish, asparagus, (continuing) hens-of-the-woods and vin jaune. This time without cream.

Papperdelle with hens-of-the-woods mushrooms.

This is indeed true. But i can forgive a lot if simple taste is wonderful.

My taste buds have no eyes.

Lobster and pork belly by definition qualifies as art.