slkinsey

Bloating is how I would describe what I do to myself every time I go to Patsy's.

I've never had a bad pie at Totonnos in Bklyn. Really? I suppose it depends on what features of a pizza one assigns the most importance. In my world, it's 80% about the crust and 20% about the other stuff. When the NY Pizza Survey went there I think we all had the impression that the pizza was a little soupy and as a result the crust was not everything it could have been. I wouldn't say that I've had a bad pizza at Totonno's, but I've certainly had pizza there that didn't strike me as exceptional in their class. It is also worthy of note that there were substantial variations in quality even among the dozen or so pizze we ordered in that one trip. More to the point, I wouldn't say that Totonno's is offering top quality ingredients in any category the way they are at places like Fornino, Una Pizza Napoletana, Franny's, et al. Whether one prefers the "new NYC school" over the "old NYC school" or even over more or less traditional pizzerie operating at a high level (e.g., Di Fara) is going to be a matter of preference and taste. Some people cannot abide paying the prices that go along with the more expensive ingredients and process of the new NYC school. Some people prefer the more doughy crust and copious toppings of the mainstream American places. And some people prefer certain venues simply because of personal fondness and loyalty. It seems to me an obvious conclusion that most of the old NYC school places are either slipping or stagnating. Are John's and Lombardi's now even good, never mind great? By far the most consistently good old NYC school place is the East Harlem Patsy's, but one cannot help wondering what they could do with higher quality toppings like they use at Grimaldi's. Part of what NY Metro seems to be suggesting, and I wonder if they don't have a point, is whether the new NYC school places are going to supplant the old NYC school places as the leading lights in NYC pizza cookery. I agree that Patsy's is excellent. I go there as often as I can. But I do think they could be a lot more excelent if so many of their toppings didn't suck. And I think they could be even more excellent than that if they offered more interesting toppings like, for example, prosciutto or fresh (actually probably frozen) artichokes like they do at Di Fara. I don't think good toppings will elevate what is at base a mediocre pizza. But I do think that good toppings can elevate what is at base an excellent pizza, and for sure I think that bad topings can drag down what started off as an excellent pizza. Thankfully, I don't think we have to worry about that. Patsy's is always going to be miles better than Ray's, Famous Ray's, Original Ray's, Famous Original Ray's, Original Famous Ray's, etc. where most of NYC buys its pizza.

I have to say that I disagree with you 100% on this one. End grain is very important for a cutting board, and this is why: with an end grain cutting board, the wood fibers part and provide a relatively soft surface for the edge of the knife. This means less wear and tear on the edge, which ultimately means longer life and better performance out of the knife. Here is a "closeup" graphic illustrating a knife on an end grain cutting board. Note how the fibers part for the edge of the knife. Here is a graphic of a knive on a "cross grain" cutting board. This is a much harder cutting surface. Note how there is nowhere for the edge to go unless it cuts through the wod fibers. Note how the very end of the edge bends against the board. I would never want to use a cutting board that wasn't end grain.

Great, I bet. They're both rich dark heavy rums.

Franny's is mentioned in a very interesting NY Metro article on the current trend towards Italian-style wood oven "artisinal" pizza in NYC (eG discussion thread here). I'm going there this evening.

There is a very interesting article in the recent NY Magazine. The jist of the article is this: The old school NYC coal-oven places have been resting on their laurels for too long, and quality is in the decline. Into this vacuum have come a number of "new NYC school" wood-burning pizzerie, serving individual pizze in the Italian style, with "artisinal" ingredients and approach. Here are some relevant quotes: Featured are small writeups of Franny's, Fornino, De Marco’s, Peperoncino, and Una Pizza Napoletana. So, have the "new NYC school" places come to the fore as the leaders in NY pizza? As a charter member of the NY Pizza Survey, I have to say that I think there is something to this. There really is no old school pizzeria in NYC that has the combination of a consistently outstanding crust and high quality ingredients the way the new places do. I love Patsy's and Grimaldi's (the best of the old-school places, in my opinion) but . . . Many of Patsy's toppings are old school in a bad way, such as their tasteless watery canned olives. And Grimaldi's crust is maddeningly inconsistent, being almost-as-good-as-Patsy's one visit and just-better-than-Ray's the next. Both these places have maybe 3 pizza configurations that can be truly outstanding. Franny's, on the other hand, hits the bull's eye every time, and with the manu changing on a weekly basis, there is no chance of getting bored.

This is a shame, then, because it implies either shoddy editing or reportage. Since when has Patsy's East Harlem not served slices? That they would say that the Coney Island Totonno's is still going strong while Patsy's East Harlem is coasting into decline is, in my opinion, patently ridiculous. Or, if it is true, then Patsy's East Harlem must have really been a lot better than Totonno's back in the day to be in decline and yet still so much better today. No argument from me with respect to Lombardi's and John's.

Great start, Justin. I'm looking forward to seeing what happens through this journey. What are your expectations in terms of personal/professional growth through this series of meals?

rm has a nice web site that features, among other things, a page with pfds of all their major reviews.

This might depend on which Patsy's one is talking about. As eGS members in the know are aware, there is a big difference between the real Patsy's in East Harlem and the imposters using the same name. At one point I was told that the other Patsy's restaurants aren't even "branches" in the sense of being under the same ownership and management as the original -- they only licensed the name. Anyway... the East Harlem Patsy's does serve slices. As far as I know, the imposters do not.

Now that I think about it, it might be on the same side as Big Wong. I know I'm not being very helpful. But I also imagine there are better places for dim sum... and I want to hear about them.

More likely I didn't read carefully. We certainly seem to be on the same page.

I'll definitely be checking Fairway and Whole Foods here in NYC. How long does the season last?

Muuuuuuust fiiiiiiiind bergamooooooooooots.

Very interesting, Myers. And it makes a lot more sense when you see it as "rumfustian" rather than "rum fustian." Some interesting information here, including the following:

With the inclusion of copious amounts of dark rum, it sounds not all that different from egg nog. Back in the old days, it was relatively common to make alcoholic libations that included eggs. After being mixed, the drinks would then be warmed/thickened via the insersion of a hot loggerhead (an iron tool consisting of a long handle terminating in a ball or bulb that is heated and used to melt tar or to heat liquids).

Jo-Mel's post got me wondering about dim sum in Chinatown. What are the best places? Any favorites? Expensive? Cheap? Carts? No carts? I've often ended up at a small, narrow place -- the name of which I've never known -- more or less across the street from Big Wong on Mott. There is a neon sign in the window that says "Dim Sum" and they come around with carts. On Saturday late mornings, it always seems to be about 2:1 Chinese:tourists/shoppers. Generally a little funkier and downscale than Dim Sum A Go Go, but feels more "authentic" to me. What are your favorites?

At the macelleria, kidney = rognone At the ospedale, kidney = rene I am not aware of any cured sausage made with kidneys.

Many of us are familiar with the Twentieth Century Cocktail, which is made with gin, Lillet blonde, lemon juice and white crème de cacao. It's an interesting drink because it starts out as a nice lemony gin sour, but then has the unexpected cacao finish. Anyway... a while back I was over at Fat Guy's place and we were poking around in his liquor cabinet trying to think of something to mix up. I noticed that he had some nice dark rum, Cointreau and plenty of limes, and thought they had the makings of a good cocktail. He had some white crème de cacao, and I thought it might be fun to put in a dash of that as well. Well, I was right. Turns out it's pretty good. After some experimentation, I've settled on the following: 1.5 oz : Myer's Original Dark rum (or other Jamaican dark rum) 1.0 oz : Cointreau 0.5 oz : fresh lime juice 0.25 oz : white crème de cacao Shake well with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. I haven't thought of a good garnish yet. Ordinarily I wouldn't have a drink with 1.25 ounces of modifiers to only 1.5 ounces of the base spirit, but Myer's has a very full and rich flavor that has no trouble making its presence felt. In taste, the drink has much in common with the Twentieth Century Cocktail: it starts off as a dark rum sour, and then has a somewhat unexpected cacao finish. Rum and cacao isn't nearly as unexpected as gin and cacao, of course, but it's the general idea. I decided to call it the Eighteenth Century Cocktail to pay homage to the Twentieth Century Cocktail, and because rum was the liquor of the 18th century. Give it a try.

Thanks for the suggestion! I actually have one, but I normally just grab a towel (and my handles DO get hot...I guess it might be a difference of cooking style, size of flame on your stove, etc.), but I was just mentioning my desire for stainless steel handles just as a wish for at least one of the copper manufacturers to make 2.5mm stainless handle copper cookware. Also, I definitely think handles are a consideration when purchasing cookware, and people tend to forget them sometimes....performance isn't everything! Heavy copper pots need a heavy solid metal handle to balance the pot and to provide strength when the pot is lifted because, well, heavy copper is heavy. Hollow stainless "stay cool" type handles such as those on All-Clad, Calphalon, etc. would tend to break over time due to metal fatigue. So, for heavy copper cookware it is solid metal or nothing. Believe me, you'd figure out you don't want an "All-Clad style" handle on heavy copper the minute you picked up a heavy, full pan and bent or broke off the handle. I addressed this question (in a response to you, as it turns out ) in the Q&A thread for my eGCI cookware class here. So interested parties can see more detailed information there. There are two good reasons why copper pans do not typically have solid stainless steel handles. First and foremost, stainless is a lot more expensive to use. It adds something like forty-five to sixty dollars (US) to the price of the piece compared to iron. Think about that for a minute: instead of that eleven inch sauté pan costing $235 with an iron handle, it would cost almost three hundred bucks with a stainless steel handle. This is simply more than the majority of customers would pay to have a stainless handle. Mauviel tries to hide this cost by only offering a stainless handle on the 2.0 mm line. But if you compare the prices, you will see that a 2.0 mm stainless lined copper frypan costs more than the same frypan in 2.5 mm stainless lined copper with an iron handle. Given this cost, I don't see how a stainless handle would be a money maker. Second, it is not the case that a stainless handle would not get hot, only that it would take longer than iron. And, once hot, a stainless handle would take longer to cool down. If you have a heavy copper sauté pan with a solid stainless handle on high heat for 30 minutes, or if you take a heavy copper frypan with a solid stainless handle out of the oven and put it on the counter, the handle is going to be plenty hot. The danger now is that you may think, "the handle is stainless so I can pick it up with my hands." I've done that, so take my word for it: If you are going to use heavy copper cookware, you are going to have solid metal handles. Get into the habit of using a towel on the handle when it gets hot.

Lo Zingarelli says: sugo 1. Liquid squeezed from fruit or vegetables: the sugo of orange. Synonym: succo. 2. Liquid more or less thick and with pleasant flavor produced during the cooking of food, specifically of meat: the sugo of the roast. 3. (absolute) condiment prepared with oil, butter, tomato, onion, aromatic herbs: make the sugo for the dry pasta. 4. (figurative) Substance, essence, fundamental idea. My experience is that spremuta (literally "squeezed") is much more likely to be used to describe a raw juice than sugo. For example, one is more likely to see "spremuta d'arancia" than "sugo d'arancia," and if I saw something described as "sugo di zucchini" I would assume it was a cooked zucchini sauce rather than zucchini juice. Lo Zingarelli says: ragù [fr. ragoût, from ragoûter 'to wake up the appetite', composed of ra and goût 'taste'; 1669] Condiment, specifically for pastasciutta, obtained by making fry at low temperature (soffriggere), in a chopped vegetable mixture (battuto) of onion, celery, and carrot, some beef generally ground, and then cooking on a slow fire and at length after having added tomato. And for whatever it's worth, Lo Zingarelli also says: salsa [from latin salsa(m), f. substantive of salsus 'salty'; 1289] Condiment more or less thick or creamy, prepared separately to add flavor to certain foods: salsa of tomato, green, piquant, white, tartar, mayonnaise | salsa dolce, preserve of tomato sweetened with sugar, diluted with vinegar and flavored (aromatizzata) with spices and herbs. | sugo, intingolo Lo Zingarelli is generally accepted as the definitive Italian dictionary, but as with most culinary terms in a regular non-culinary dictionary (especially in Italy where there are so many regional differences in usage, etc.), it is by no means the last word in this particular case. Does add some interesting data, though, I think. NB. Translations from Lo Zing' are mine, so to the extent that there are mistakes, it's my fault.

In stainless lined heavy copper, it's nice to have the following 11 inch curved sauteuse evasée (called saucière by Falk) Large sauté pan (although this is also good in heavy stainless with a fat aluminum base, and having an aluminum disk bottom sauté pan might provide extra versatility if you already have an eleven inch heavy copper curved sauteuse evasée) Frypans in vasious sizes Saucepans and saucepan-sized (regular) sauteuses evasée in the sizes appropriate for making sauces and reductions (i.e., not in the larger sizes used for steaming, boiling water and reheating soups, etc.) I'd be tempted to get the 16 x 10 "gratin pan" as well, since it looks quite versatile. If one had inherited enough money so that price was truly no object, I'd probably have the same pan in a few different designs (e.g., a large stainless lined heavy copper sauté pan as well as a large aluminum bottom sauté pan -- you never know when you're going to want to use two, right?)

My advice: Don't buy a lid. What's the advantage of having a stainless steel lined copper lid? For much less money, just pick up an appropriately-sized stainless steel lid.

Yep, just like everything in Italy. I've spent more time in Le Marche than anywhere else (Rossini festival in Pesaro), and they actually use both words, which is perhaps where my own regional bias comes in. My recollection is that sugo is mostly liquid with some small pieces of stuff in it, and that ragù is small pieces of stuff with some liquid in it. But, of course, this probably changes a hundred kilometers in either direction...

To be honest, I am still inclined to believe it is largely psychosomatic. But I intend to pick up some bottles of Jade's absinthe as an xmas present and try it out for myself. If there is one thing that never ceases to amaze, it is the college-age American male's willingness to spend big bucks and/or drink horrible-tasting beverages if he thinks there is something in there that will produce a "special high." In my opinion, this is absolutely the worst reason to buy absinthe (or any alcoholic beverage).