Mistinguett

What is the name of the place with montaditos/grilled cheese sandwiches, and the lobster eggs benedict, please?

Leaving NY next week for a couple of days in Las Vegas, through Escalante to SLC for another couple of days, and then to Reno-San Francisco-LA-San Diego for another week ( but that belongs to another board). I searched and read the past postings but there's not a lot of recent info on SLC. We're looking for off the beaten path, $-$$, any cuisine. Made a note on Elko NV for basque- any specific recommendations? It might work great for lunch on our way to Reno. Thank you in advance.

Thank you so much for your input, it definitely gives me some direction. And your blogs are fabulous. Way above my level of expertise, but inspiring and wonderful. I'll have to start experimenting as soon as I narrow down a few definitive flavors. It looks like the bacon is a bit too complicated for me if I'd go after the foie gras recipe... not sure we'll want to go for that, I'll have to discuss it with my friend. Maybe I'll give a try to a sprinkling of bacon fat-maltodextrin mixture, see what comes out. I'm still open to advice and ideas though

I'm helping a friend planning a large outdoor weddding party for next spring, and one idea was having a cotton candy machine. I was wondering if I could make savory cotton candy and that's how I discovered this thread and it's been helpful. My mind is racing right now, dreaming delicious clouds of all sorts of flavored cotton candy. With the little read I had on commercial cotton candy machines I learned that if you use your own flavors they shouldn't be gum or starch based. How else can I flavor the sugar? Haven't thought a lot of flavors but bacon cotton candy was one, and I'm planning on trying to flavor the sugar with real fried bacon (vanilla like - stupid idea? or should I ground the bacon and mix with sugar?) All experimenting will be done on a cheap machine, so I don't really care if I ruin it. I care about messing up the big machine and the party, though. I also found very interesting the use of palm sugar in Kerry Beal's post #192 here: Could this be flavored in any way? Also love the idea of maple sugar. I'm intrigued, please tell me more - I understand you sprinkled the flavors on the cotton candy. Proportions? any source for the yuzu, soy and mushroom powders? The lassi is a fabulous idea, also! Can't wait to try.

This recipe gives the best cheesecake I've ever had. It created many addicts among the people I made it for. I'm forever grateful to Alinka. I have yet to love a bought cheesecake, and living in NY I have tried a lot of them.

But we do have it in Manhattan, only one location. It's in NYU dining hall at 5 University Pl.

Bryan, I'll add my thanks for this fantastic, mind-blowing pictorial. I confess that your pictures from Sushi Dai brought tears to my eyes - I found them absolutely beautiful. I mean, all your pictures are fabulous but that sushi!! just delightful. I was expecting to see some poh piah in Singapore. Maybe just wishful thinking, it was my favorite snack there, couldn't pass a stall that made it without getting another one (and the poh piah available in NYC is nothing like the one in Singapore). Lovely trip, thank you again for sharing. Oh, and I very much appreciate that you mention the prices. Extremely helpful for anyone who would plan a trip like yours.

I think they're called "unborn eggs". I love them.

Some companies have employees cafeterias with cold and hot buffets - Saks and Google are 2 examples.

It should be totally fine. I've kept batter for a couple of days in the fridge.

Did you try Bed, Bath and Beyond?

I was wondering myself about this. For me is not only a matter of expense but also of storage space. The question that ensues is: would aluminum foil pans work? I know that I wouldn't get smooth sides, but if covered in frosting I don't see a problem there.

So this is what I got for Cluj: - Chios restaurant - I was told they have great "mici". I took a look at the menu and the cabbage rolls sound good, too. - Hanul Dacilor- excelent Romanian food -Str. Constantin Brancusi Nr. 86 A, ph.# 0723/280401 - website in Romanian only, unfortunately, but maybe the pictures help - Agape restaurant is a very casual, self-serve buffet kind of place, and I'm told they have great Hungarian food - str. Iuliu Maniu nr. 6 - Deja Vu - international, Ion Ghica Nr. 2 Apparently Cluj has a love for Italian (or something like it, I hear). This restaurant was highly recommended though, as very special and with the supreme argument that all Italian ex-pats eat there. So here it goes and I'll leave it up to you if you want to go for Italian food - Club Italia - 21 Decembrie 1989 nr. 152 Or, if you feel adventurous, you could have game (although they have a tamer menu also) at Hunter Prince. Bear paw? I hope you'll have a great week-end and I would love to hear from you (as I need to check on how accurate my sources are )

From sources I trust, I'd say in Bucharest go to "Upstairs" - you'll need a very short cab ride as it's across the street from a mall. Strada Brânduşelor 2-4 - call for reservations at 021-528.19.02. See review here. "Caru' cu Bere" (see the menu in pdf) - one of my fav places in Bucharest, superb old building, great location, and for the last couple of years I hear their food improved tremendously . Atmosphere can't be beat, location is perfect - just steps away from Calea Victoriei, and right across the street is one of the oldest (if not THE oldest) little church in town, Stavropoleos Church. If you decide to go in, don't miss the charming little courtyard (to the right of the street entrance) that holds some very old artifacts (it will take you a whole five minutes to visit the entire place). Casa Jienilor, strada Făinari (Calea Moşilor), reservations at 021-212.19.51 - another short cab trip, but solid romanian food. Bistro Villacrosse - another very good location, in the passage with the same name on Calea Victoriei. And I have more where this came from - a blog (in romanian unfortunately) of a friend that has been reviewing a lot of restaurants in Bucharest. Let me know if I should go on - although I don't expect you'll be spending a lot of time in Bucharest. In Moldavia I don't have any specific addresses to send you to, but if you see a place that says "Pensiune" go for it. It's usually home-cooked food, and usually very good. I hope this helps, let me know if you have more q's. Kellytree, so sorry I can't help with Cluj. I'm investigating though, how soon do you go?

What city, John?

I still like Nha Trang on Centre. Love their seafood and vegetables soup (a meal in itself or share if you have company) and their salt and pepper shrimp is the best I had in the city. Their pho is decent, also.

The current issue of Saveur has a page dedicated to New Jersey and White Manna is mentioned (with a pretty enticing picture). I don't know how well they check the facts but this is what they say (for whatever is worth): "the building once belonged to a small burger chain that got its start at the 1939 world's fair; another outpost of the former franchise, called White Mana (sic), is still operating (under different ownership) in Jersey City." From the NY Times article I gather that White Mana opened in 1946.

I found it again at one of the supermarkets in Sunnyside, they had 2 pints and I got them both, of course. The flavor-finder on their website proved to be pretty much useless, it sent me all over Manhattan unsuccessfully. But anyway. It does have some crunchiness but no fudge swirl and it comes with the black top (not sure if this means limited edition or new flavor or what). Vanilla Honey Bee was mildly disappointing. Tried the Fleur de Sel Caramel and I have mixed feelings about it (I feel that there is too much contrast between a fairly bland base ice-cream and the too big pieces of chocolate hearts with caramel filling). I want to try the Acai next (0 calories!!!!???) but I'm sure that for a while the Chocolate Peanut Butter will be my favorite guilty pleasure.

New obsession - Chocolate Peanut Butter. I bought a pint a couple of days ago and looked for more today, it's all gone from 3 supermarkets in the area. When I'll find it again I'll stock up. There's a pint of Vanilla Honey Bee waiting in the freezer right now, we'll see how that goes.

How about a terrine that uses the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs? It's basically a chop of the briefly boiled organs with a lot of parsley, dill and scallions, binded by egg and ideally wrapped in caul - but puff or pie pastry will do.

Sushi-ya on 56th bet. 5th & 6th has always been my choice of Japanese in that area. While not earth shattering, it has been consistently good over the last few years and very reasonable priced.

Their Sunnyside store is much better located but the merchandise is brought in from the Ridgewood store. I haven't seen the wine salami with hazelnuts - I'll have to ask the next time I'll be in. And I agree, they have some very good stuff, I've been a customer for almost 2 decades, having lived in Ridgewood before I moved to Sunnyside.

Today at Marshall's (48th st and Northern Blvd. in Queens) I found quite a selection of Kuhn-Ricon Colori knives at $4.99 for small paring, $5.99 medium paring and $12.99 for the chef's and quite a selection of Laguiole steak knives - the ones in the box like that were $14.99 and these with the wood block set for $16.99. They say "made in France" and they look identical, down to the wood stripes on the wood block, and they come with a certificate of authenticity. I've been long looking for some at a reasonable price. $17 is a fantastic bargain. The ones in the box come in silver, black, wood or diverse colors handles, the ones with the wood block come in silver and black.

Disclaimer: I'm no expert in photography. I have the same problem as you regarding space and light. I did build one of the macro boxes but I don't have the adequate lighting for it in the available space. My next project is to built a mock Lowell Ego lightbox, we'll se how that will work. Until then, do what monavano said - this is what Picasa can do in 3 clicks (it took me longer to link the picture here than to process it). Of course you can keep playing with the software until you get the results you like best. Keep the camera on the lowest ISO and use the mini tripod, keep it on Manual w/o flash... that about it.

I forgot about this thread. I made these for Christmas. This is the sour cabbage that I get at one of the neighborhood stores. Some friends who don't find sour cabbage freeze the cabbage for a couple of days (thawing takes about the same amount of time) and swear that the texture is just like parboiled. The cabbage prepped - each leaf cut in half, the rib removed and chopped with any imperfect leaves and the core leaves. If raw cabbage is used, I'd use about 2 packages of well rinsed and drained sauerkraut. The meat, about 2 lbs, mixed with a sauteed onion and a half of raw onion, about 1/2 cup rice (I usually parboil it but it's not necessary) and seasoned with S&P, thyme, a pinch of paprika, one egg and a couple tablespoons of cold water. Forming the rolls (please excuse the beat-up chopping board, my two pretty bamboo ones were busy with other stuff). Step 1, I bring the left side over the meat, roll to the end, then push in the other end like so In a pot I layer some of the chopped cabbage seasoned with thyme and smoked bacon. The rolls are tightly layered but not crowded. The first and the last row should be chopped cabbage. Dot some fat on top - be it pork or duck, tomato sauce, and level with boiling water. It usually takes about 3 hours in a 350F oven, and I get these: