pingarina

Thanks for pointing this out, Catew. Now that I've written letters to both Smucker's and White Lily...

Saw them in Manhattan Chinatown yesterday. Rambutan, too.

People order filet mignon simply because it has an effete-sounding French name. This gives an air of elegance to a flavorless and otherwise unattractive cut of steak. ← Fresser, I think that most people like Filet Mignon because it's very soft/easy to chew, and because of its relative lack of "beefy" flavor. Those are the very reasons that I prefer the cheaper, more "manly" cuts. Also, I'd often, but certainly not always, chose a cheap Bangladeshi take-out meal to a fancy sit-down; a street hot dog to a silly $8 panino; haimisch country-style chinese food to Shun Lee and its ilk; hearty duck thigh stew to magret de canard, etc.

Sigh...Chufi, I almost cried looking at the herring stand pictures! I love, love fresh new herring, but, alas, it's nearly impossible to get in the U.S. Like Bux, I go to Grand Central Oyster Bar in June for the new herring festival, but there's nothing like eating it on the street, all cold with chopped onion. Yum!

My husband (boyfriend at the time) and I made our first trip together from California to NYC about nine years ago. We were expected to join his family in Springfield NJ on New Year's morning for a small get-together. "Weah gonna have sloppies," says his mom. Ummm, honey, what's she talking about? "Sloppy joe's," he says. I'm thinking 'We're having sloppy joes for a holiday gathering?' She still gets them from time to time, from Tabatchniks in Union. They're good if they're really really fresh, but they always seem to have been ordered so far in advance that they're rather unappetizing, and cold, arranged in their pyramid on the tray. The family devours them like locusts, though. To each his own, I suppose.

A creamy scoop of soft chevre. A little bite of gruyere. Nap time...

Someone(s) has been leaving anti-foie gras brochures in the entrance to the museum where I work. No doubt in protest of the exhibition that my department mounted (and I prepared) centered around animal stuff - furs, skins, feathers, etc. I love animals. I eat animals (and looooove foie gras). I make mounts to display fashionable clothing made from their skin. I'm not a hypocrite, nor am I untouched by the issues of animal cruelty. I'm just a girl at the "top" of the food chain who lives in the 21st century. Just my 2 pence.

Frank's, on 10th at West 15th. Great steak, fabulous home cured salumi and prosciutto.

Last Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, just having arrived at my BF's mom's house to start the next day's dinner. Sauteed chicken livers and hearts. And the creamed spinach boil-in-a-bag stuff that I didn't know was still being produced. I....hate.....chicken livers. It's really the only thing in the world that I don't like to eat. But I just couldn't bring myself to say anything. Thank heavens for copious amounts of spinach-mush, and for the sweet relish and ketchup served on the side. I swallowed all 10 livers whole. I winced and shuddered as they went down. Feh.

Wow, never knew it had a name. Maybe it's an Eastern thing (I'm from S. Francisco). It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving, since I cook the meal and am not too hungry by serving time. Usually turkey (dark), mayonnaise, lots of salt and pepper, cranberry, with gravy and stuffing on side, always in one of my homemade rolls. Sigh...that wasn't to be this year - BF's family didn't take to freshly baked rolls. Too weird, I suppose. They were used for duck feed, while the frozen Arnold dinner rolls (really just little round hot dog buns) were given center stage. And I didn't get any leftovers to take home! It's scrambled eggs and crackers for me tonight.

Spaghetti a l'amatriciana. Put "just the right amount" of sauce on (i.e., not too much, as in Rome). Although he found it a bit unfamiliar, he inhaled the first serving, went back to the kitchen, spooned an enourmous amount of pasta onto his plate, and dropped half of a stick of butter onto the top. To each his own

I have to laugh at some of the posts regarding the eschewing of home-baked desserts. I truly was, and still am, blown away when I started going to holiday dinners at my husband's family. Aside from the fact that everything, yes EVERYthing was made ahead of time, frozen(!) and re-heated, they actually refused to believe that anyone would make a dessert at home. I still have a hard time convincing them that I do, in fact, make pastry from scratch. The fact that it is a lovely apple or cherry pie made with love and good ingredients does not entice them in the least. The purchased babka or cookies are far more familiar, and therefore more tasty. One Channuka a couple of years ago, I had some unused cake boxes on hand, and I put my usual still-warm apple pie in one, tied it with string, and made the trek out to NJ with it. No problems that time. "Oh my gaawwwwd, this is so delicious! Where did you get it?"

A is for Andouillete. Lord knows I've tried to see what people like in it. There are societies of lovers of andouillete in France, people who dine regularly on the hog-pissy-tasting stuff with gusto. I can eat just about everything but...

Hide-licious!! I'm beginning, hopefully not too late in life, to see why women have the urge to make babies. Wonderful blog. Interesting for me as my best friend and his GF lived in Tokyo for five years and had similar takes on food and mixing the cuisines.

Good smells: all the usual ones, i.e., melting butter, mushrooms and scallions sauteeing in butter, wholegrain toast with butter, cakes in the oven, freshly shaved white truffles, on and on. Ooooh, I love the scent of the air that comes out of the vent in a Parisian boulangerie. Yum! Bad smells: McDonalds, unfortunately the most popular restaurant in my neighborhood - smells like ass, alien ass. And the smell of rotten garbage in a large-scale dumpster or basement, like outside a supermarket...rotting meat, milk, moldy citrus. Heeeeave!

Well, if you put it that way, I'm all for them!

Will someone please explaiin to me the appeal of eating contests? Sick on every level. They even have their own "international federation." Ugh.

Yeah, mcdowell, that's what I'm talking about. I've read piles of food writing, but there a certain je ne sais quoi in Thorne's style. It's transporting.

I'm finally reading John & Matt Thorne's "Serious Pig." Barely finished Franzen's "The Corrections" before starting this far more satisfying book. I may cook more in winter, but all summer I dream of what I'll make on that first cool day. Something about "Serious Pig" is so cozy and soothing. I get lost just reading about the debate amongst Maine natives over which bean is the best for baking... Ahhh, I can't wait to get home to it tonight.

Joe, I recommend La Loma del Tepeyac, on Lexington between 102/103, east side of street. Very nice people, just about everything you need. Good source of fresh herbs and vegetables that you won't find in El Barrio supermarkets. If not there, there are dozens in the neighborhood, esp. around East 116th street. -Ping

A barely edible "bran" muffin and Lipton tea (2 bags) from our staff caf. Not exactly what I want right now, but after last night's martinis....whoo, baby, it's just fine! Sigh...and I was just reading the wonderful report that FG and Ellen S. did on Bobolink Farms. Yum.

While shopping at my local Mexican grocer yesterday for ingredients for a pipian rojo, I asked if she carried fresh lard. "Of course, just over there." You mean the cajeta/chicken stock-looking stuff in the plastic containers? "Si, claro." I've never purchased fresh lard. La Kennedy says to avoid the "dead white" stuff from the supermarket. I'll eventually go down to the West Village or Ninth avenue to buy some from one of the Italian butchers, but for now I'm using the home-rendered product. From what I could gather, with my broken Spanish, it's made from chicharron cooking, thus the deep golden color. I must say, it's lovely in my Pipian. It certainly adds a depth that vegetable oil probably would not. So, having never shopped for manteca in Mexico, I'd like to know if this is usually the source, and color, of the savory cooking lard there? -Lisa

Wowee Ellen, gorgeous pictures, and did you (sphewwww) put ma' mind at' ease about those chocolate .dress things. I loaned the AMNH the mannequins for the opening. and I am happy that they look, in photographs, better than life (shouldn't we all?). Well, I'll see how good, or bad. (oy, I sound like my Aunt Bea) they look afterwords.

Sandra, I detest any recipe that looks "overblown, overworked" (sorry, I don't know how to insert your message as a quote). It's my hobby, my delight to get to the root of cooking methods, to find originals. I realise that there are myriad ways of concocting drinks and food in Mexico - it's a big country with lots of diverse cultures as well as influences from many other parts of the world. I simply was throwing the question out there in an effort to compare experiences and recipes. While I do not feel the need to defend Diana K. (I haven't read Bayless yet), I must say that all of my cooking queries directed at Mexican born-and-raised friends have elicited responses in concurrence with her research. In regards to your recipe for Sangrita Guadlajara: pomegranate=la grenada (Spanish); la grenade(French). Guajolote, thanks for your response. I will be lurking on the Mexico board frequently. Drinkboy, thanks for the reminder about the Saveur bit. I haven't gottne that far down in the mail pile yet!