slkinsey

That guy's a hack.

So half-bottles aren't simply whole bottles that were opened and divided in half at the restaurant. As they say, you learn a new thing every day... Right. A half-bottle, in this case, is a bottle that is one-half the size of a full bottle. Landmarc is kind of a special case. They don't sell wine by the glass, but instead offer many wines by the half-bottle with by-the-glass prices. This works brilliantly for them, but I'm not sure how well it would work for everyone.

Franny's sounds awesome. I definitely would like to check it out. I read things like this, and it's like they're speaking my language. Witness the profusion of slkinsey buzz-phrases: Damn, that piques my interest... JosephB? What are you doing this weekend?

It absolutely does make a difference, but there is room for quite a bit of variability. You want a cup that is right around 2 ounces, assuming a one ounce shot but leaving room for a double ristretto at around 1.5 ounces if you prefer. The cup should have thick walls that will retain heat when the cup is preheated (a cold cup can substantially lower the temperature of a shot).

I wish they had lunch on weekends.

Amy, I don't think you're going to get a definitive answer to this that will satisfy you. She is discussed here because people have strong reactions to her work, and because she is in an unusually high-profile position. There is little doubt in my mind that Bruni will receive plenty of scrutiny and disection in these forums as well. That's what we do here... we talk about things in the food world that interest us.

Sam, that's so sweet. It's like in the music business. If someone comes out on the stage and has something to say that I don't particularly like, that's better than having someone come out who I don't much care about one way or the other. If you look at some of the greatest singers in opera -- take Placido Domingo for example: plenty of people love his work, but you might be surprised at how many virulent detractors he has (a lot). Amanda Hesser, I think, has a place in food writing... maybe a significant one. I'm not sure that place is in reviewing, but I do think it's interesting how much stronger our reactions have been to her reviews than Grimes' reviews, and I think this might reflect, at least partially, a certain lack of "something to say" on his part. Given the choice between someone who has something to say that I don't agree with and someone with not so much to say... I prefer the former.

Anna N is correct. The chunk of aluminum works because aluminum is a very good conductor of heat.

Diamond does have outstanding thermal conductivity... around three times better than copper. So, as soon as you can find me a nice thick frypan made out of pure diamond, we'll talk. Otherwise, you're talking about aluminum with some diamond dust on it. I'm not an expert on Asian cookware, so someone may correct me on this. Most woks these days are made of relatively thin carbon steel. This seems to be the standard configuration. Does this mean that woks made out of other materials are not technically woks? I have no idea. My operating assumption is that everything wok-shaped is a wok, and that iron was probably the original wok material anyway. Carbon steel woks may be useful on a home stove for many applications like steaming, deep frying, stewing, etc. However, the real problem comes when one wants to stir fry -- which is the purpose for which most people buy a wok. The shape of the wok (very inefficient from from a heat standpoint over a home stove) and the power of the typical home stove (pathetically underpowered compared to a restaurant wok burner) make a particularly unfelicitous combination when it comes to stir frying at home. The wok never gets very hot and loses what little heat it has accumulated very quickly. The only way to work around this is to cook in very small batches. A heavy cast iron wok deals with the heat problem by providing a massive heat capacity. Once that baby sits on the burner for a while and soaks up lots of heat, it will stay hot for a long time. For me, this makes the cast iron wok better for the home user who would like to stir fry -- even better would be a cast iron wok with a flat bottom for better heat transfer from the burner. All that said, I firmly believe that stir frying is much better done by the home cook in a sauté pan with a nice thick bottom (and yes, I've done side-by-side testing -- the sauté pan produced markedly better results). In fact, sautéing and stir frying are more or less the same thing. There was an article in the NY Times food section last week about a Vietnamese restauranteur named Charles Phan, featuring his recipe for "shaking beef" adapted to the home kitchen. One of the things I noticed was that the pictures accompanying the article showed the chef using a heavy frypan and not a wok as he would in the restaurant.

One thing you can say about Amanda Hesser, at least, is that she inspires strong reactions from readers who care about the subject material. This, in my mind, is an incredible positive whether one agrees with her assessments or not.

Yea, the wine list at Landmarc is so inexpensive I almost laughed when I read it. What a deal! It really is revolutionary in its own way. I especially appreciated the fact that they offer a lot of half bottles. Really, many things about Landmarc are priced extremely reasonably. Steven and I were just talking about our impressions of Landmarc yesterday. Although we both live in ostensibly less-expensive neighborhoods, none of the comparable restaurants on the UES or UWS are priced as well as Landmarc... and in most cases the food is clearly not as good. Re the substitutions thing: Pamela Murphy and I communicated briefly about it. They are naturally happy to leave something out of any order or do sauce on the side at the customer's request. So "frisee aux lardons without the lardons" or "steak frites with sauce on the side" would work just fine. They also offer just about every accompaniment on the menu as a very reasonably-priced side dish. So, the fact is that you can have just about anything they offer with just about anything else if you really must. I imagine it's more a matter of mitigating the confusion that can ensue when a table of 6 puts in special orders for everyone, and perhaps also controlling the food cost for each dish (which cost, I assume, must be smartly managed given their unusually inexpensive prices).

NoooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooo! Okay, who approved my mother for membership? What's the point of being a Site Manager if I'm not consulted on inmportant decisions like this, I ask you?

Put in some lemon juice and you'd probably have a pretty good-tasting New Orleans Sour, but it's sure not a Manhattan. As to the cherry question posed by others above... I've always preferred an orange twist myself. To me, the cherry only makes sense if the drink's going to be sweeter than I prefer it.

I wonder what the spokesman for gin.com would have to say about that. Vodka.com is a weird place. The "parent company" seems to be mostly a cybersquatter, and has been involved in several domain name litigations. Miguel Fiol is also involved in suth other ventures as happybirthday.com.

A man after my own heart! The Manhattan really is the King of Cocktails in my book. And I agree that it's best with orange bitters. My standard is Maker's Mark with Vya Sweet Vermouth at around 3:1, but it's also very good with rye whiskey, or even with Tenneseee whiskey.

Helius, Cuisinart Multiclad Stainless is a very good brand of cookware. Their product information says that it features "a core of pure aluminum bonded to a highly polished stainless interior and a professional brushed stainless exterior." I don't have the exact specifications but am led to believe that it compares favorably to All-Clad Stainless, which would put the aluminum layer at around 2 mm (this seems fairly standard on fully clad aluminum cookware). So, my first thought is that your problem is mostly one of technique. However, it is a fact that a full lining on a stockpot or rondeau isn't really a very efficient use of materials. I'd much rather have the aluminum on the bottom of the pan where it will do you some good.

Cast iron is good for steaks, but I wouldn't say it is necessarily "best" for steaks unless you want to use a method with constant extra-high heat. I like this method, but more and more I am coming around to the idea that the best way to cook steaks in a home kitchen (i.e., without a "power of the sun" broiler) is to use the French technique: brown both sides of the steak in butter on the stovetop and then finish it in a slow (~250) oven. There is no reason you'd need a cast iron pan for something like this. Anyway... regardless of the technique used, I would think you could get a very acceptable result using a stainless-lined heavy straignt gauge frypan or (less preferred) a stainless sauté pan with a thick aluminum base. Both those pans feature a nonreactive cooking surface, so there is no reason to worry about deglazing, etc. I prefer the frypan over the skillet or sauté pan because the lower, sloped sides of the frypan encourage the fast evaporation of vapors from the cooking surface, which helps in the formation of a good crust. However, if you have plenty of room around the steak (a couple of inches on each side) in the skillet or sauté pan, they will work just fine too. All that said, there are ways to deglaze and make a pan sauce using the cast iron pan without worrying too much about the rectivity. Just toss in plenty of wine, quickly scrape the pan and then pour the whole works into a nonreactive saucepan to reduce, etc. The taste might not be quite as clean as it would be using nonreactive materials throughout, but the wine spends only the briefest of moments in contact with the iron and any flavors the iron might contribute can me obscurred with a strongly flavored, reduced sauce. Another alternative would be to forego the pan sauce altogether and put a thick slice of compound butter on the steak instead (especially if it's anchovy butter!).

I thought the clam chowder recipe idea sounded very interesting. Would like to try something like it (with a few tweaks like using some pureed clams a la Psaltis/Ducasse) for a party sometime soon.

I think you're slightly mistaken about the Times coverage. The first mention was by Marian Burros in a "Diners Journal" on February 6th. It was just a 400 word entry describing the recently-opened restaurant, not a full review.

Some discussion of Métisse may be found here. It's never blown me away, but it's nice to have a reliable place in the 'hood.

Hi, Carp. From a pure performance standpoint, I'd definitely recommend swapping the All-Clad Stainless saute pan for an All-Clad MasterChef. MasterChef has much better specifications. Besides, Stainless and MasterChef don't look that different. That said, it would be even better if you thought you could exchange it and get something like a Sitram Catering saute pan. But that might be a little more difficult to get away with.

So... during part one of our New York City Offal Tour, JJ, Herb and I found ourselves at Landmarc on Saturday evening at around 6:00. The place was already beginning to fill up with patrons from the neighborhood, but we were able to find a comfortable table with a nice view of the room. The place is sort-of "deconstructed-chic," having been torn down to the brick walls and exposed rafters, etc. There are some pictures here that provide a nice look at the details, but don't really provide a sense of the scale of the room. The ceilings are extremely high, and contribute to an overall airy feeling. One thing we all appreciated was the sound level there. With all the exposed brick, high ceilings and other hard surfaces, you'd expect it to be cacophonous. So it was a bit of a surprise when we didn't have to shout across the table at each other. The music (old jazz, mostly) wasn't turned up too high either. Later Pamela Murphy, one of the owners, explained that they had gone to some lengths to install soundproofing and moderate the accoustics. Noisy restaurants is one of my major peeves, so this kind of detail is greatly appreciated by me. Since offal was the order of the day, we took three dishes from their "Landmarc specials" and enjoyed them very much. The chef, Marc Murphy, has a real enthusiasm for offal and had a lengthy chat with us about our trip as well as his approach to offal at Landmarc. The "Landmarc specials" section will feature a changing selection of "bistro favorites" and offal dishes. Previous offerings have included things like rognons a la moutarde (veal kidneys simmered in a mustard, paprika and cognac sauce). I'm kind of sorry we missed out on that one, because we weren't able to find any kidneys this trip. Talking to the chef about offal, I got the sense that this kind of cooking is a big part of his culinary soul. Both Marc and Pamela were disappointed that they had sold out of the previous week's house-made head cheese special. I'll definitely be checking their menu page from time to time to see what's coming up. So, the food... Boudin noir with French fries, caramelized onions and apples was great. The blood sausage was earthy, the frites were crisp... what more could you ask for? Just good, simple neighborhood food -- and priced to sell at 18 bucks. In fact, just about everything on the menu is a great bargain. My favorite was the crispy sweetbreads with horseradish and green beans. I love sweetbreads with a crisp, peppery coating and these satisfied immediately. The green beans had a little crunch to them, and the sauce was just right. All this said, we couldn't really detect much horseradish flavor in the dish. But, now that I think of it, he probably used fresh horseradish, which has a significantly more subtle flavor. Sautéed calf's liver with peas, scallions and caramelized onion whipped potatoes was also impressive, and probably the most inventive of the three. I've never had liver cooked quite this way. Rather than the usual "slice thin and sear" technique, which can be somewhat hit-or-miss, Marc had the idea to cook it in a large block instead. This made it possible to put a good crust on the liver while still keeping the center just up to medium rare. As the picture shows, Landmarc's liver has an impressive crust an makes an interesting presentation. The texture was nicely beefy, and the flavor was mild with just the slightest thread of that "liver flavor" to let you know you're eating calf's liver and not one of it's more timid cousins. Another great feature of Landmarc is the wine list. When we were first seated, our waiter told us that they didn't offer wines by the glass, but featured such a small markup as well as many half bottles that he was sure we'd find something we liked. He wasn't kidding! This has to be the one of the best-priced wine lists in the city, if not the best. Many of the wines were no more than 25% over retail. We found a half bottle of a nice Spanish red for nine dollars! That's less than many places would charge for a glass. Actually, the folks at Landmarc seem to have gone out of their way to make the pricing affordable. I think it would be easy for two people to split a half bottle, have appetizers, mains and a few desserts for 80 dollars before tip. The pricing, like many of the things about Landmarc, seems designed to attract the kind of repeat business a casual neighborhood place thrives on, and indeed most of the people there seemed to be repeat customers familiar with the restaurant. I'm not sure I agree with the poster above who suggested that there aren't enough people in TriBeCa to sustain a real neigborhood restaurant. Buster's, the sports bar across the street, is certainly not a destination spot and it was doing big business when we left. Speaking of desserts, as the Times review mentioned, they are all small and available for 3 dollars apiece -- or 15 dollars for one of everything on the dessert menu. Unlike Ms. Hesser, we thought they were worth well more than 25 cents apiece. JJ, who is a sucker for desserts with acidity, was particularly enamored of the lemon tart and berry crumble. The coffee granita and creme brulee were favorites of mine. I'm not in general a big dessert eater, so I thought it was nice to have the opportunity for a small bite of something sweet. Just about the only thing missing that I would have liked to see was a small cheese plate. By the time we left Landmarc, the dinner hour was in full swing and the place was hopping.

Now, why would people spell "Philippines" with a "PH" and two "Ps" and then make "Filipino" with an "F" and one "P"? It's... it's... it's like people from a country called the United States calling themselves Americ-- D'oh!

My friends report that the 110th Street West Side Market is boarded up. The scuttlebut is that Columbia is knocking down the building for housing of some kind.

Well... a good time was had by all yesterday. By following Herb's "walk everywhere you go" philosophy, we were able to consume an alarming amount of offal yesterday. There were some great discoveries and a few disappointments. All in all, a very fun time: Our first stop was La Focacceria at 128 First Avenue near St. Mark's for a vestedda or two. A vestedda (strangely listed on the menu as "vesteddi" which is a plural form, and the wrong one at that) is basically spleen on a roll. Thin slices of beef spleen are reheated in simmering lard along with slices ricotta, then stuffed into a seeded roll and topped with shredded caciocavallo, a salty, firm cheese. The result: delicious! And the whole thing only costs around three bucks. The earthy but mild spleen along with the creamy, bland ricotta, the sharp caciocavallo and the lard soaking into the seeded bun worked perfectly. If I lived in the neighborhood, I'd have one of these at least once a week. Traditionally, a vestedda includes not only spleen, but lung as well. According to the owner, La Focacceria made them with lung 40 years ago but something having to do with Nixon that I couldn't quite get a handle on put a stop to that. Next, we went over to Elvie's Turo-Turo, a place just up First Avenue at 13th Street serving Philippino food. We had gone there expecting to eat some duck embryo... but, alas, they were fresh out of them. Presumably there had been a run on duck embryos earlier. Who knew? So, after perusing the counter and chatting with the counter man, we got a serving of something that was described to me as "pork heart." This unfortunately turned out to be paksiw na pata, aka "pork hocks in vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, garlic and pepper with dried lily flower." Not exactly offal... Fortunately, it turned out to be delicious and we... er.. forced ourselves to eat it. After eating that, we went back to the counter where we were able to get some kare-kare, which is oxtail, beef tripe and vegetables in peanut sauce with shrimp paste on the side. This was good, but we all felt that the peanut sauce was lacking something to make it more interesting, and the tripe was perhaps too tender. Tripe is a difficult thing to cook just right, I think. You don't want it to be crunchy, but on the other hand you don't want it to be mushy either. Something that is tender but stands up to the tooth is what I generally prefer... not easy to do in a steam table operation lime Elvie's. None of this stood in the way of our enjoyment, however, and Elvies is definitely a cool place to check out. All the dishes are $4.25 with rice. We then decided to walk over to the West side, towards La Luncheonette. On the way, we came upon the Chelsea Market. Having been there recently with JosephB, I knew that the Lobster Place had amazing deals on oysters. We couldn't resist. They were selling Kumamoto oysters (my favorite) for $1.10 apice, and Hood Canals and Fanny Bays for 80 cents apiece. We got a half-dozen each of Kumamotos and Fanny Bays. They shucked them right there, and we got them back on ice in styrofoam trays. Delicious! Oysters aren't strictly speaking offal, but considering that one eats the entire animal, there has to be some oyster pancreas or liver or something like that in there. Right? Anyway, raw oysters at the Lobster Place is one of the great undiscovered deals in the City. Our next stop was La Luncheonette on Tenth Avenue at 18th Street for calf's brains. Yes, that's right... braaaaaaaaaains. La Luncheonette is a fun, funky little place. Although the food didn't thrill me, I have heard many positive things about their dishes that don't feature glands. First we had sweetbreads vinaigrette, an unexpected offal bonus on the menu. I love sweetbreads, and this was a good dish... but it didn't transport me the way sweetbreads often can. Cooking glands to just the right degree of doneness is crucial, and in the case of sweetbreads, overcooking can often lead to a slight chalky aftertaste as was the case at La Luncheonette. "Vinaigrette" also led me to expect something other than the thick, creamy dressing that adorned these room-temperature bits of thymus. This is not to say that it wasn't good, but it wasn't something that blew me away. After that came the main event: cervelles au beurre noir, aka "calf's brains in black butter." This was a serious, old-school preparation. Just brains, black butter and capers. It was okay. When brains are cooked this way, they don't tend to have a great deal of flavor. Mostly it's a texture thing, and in this case the operative word is "custardy." A squeeze of juice from the lemon did wonders for the overall impact of this dish. Overall, I felt that this dish would have greatly benefitted from some contrasting texture. In general, when I am eating offal with a soft texture, I prefer to have a crispy exterior. Sweetbreads, for example, are greatly enhanced when they are coated in flour and sautéed until crisp. So, these brains were rather one-note to me. Later in the evening I discussed this dish with chef Marc Murphy at Landmarc, an offal fan and a chef with consiferable talent in preparing it. He, too, expressed a preference for contrasting textures for this kind of offal and was a little surprised that Luncheonette's preparation seemed to simply be "brains tossed into a pan of black butter and capers." He mentioned a brain recipe he had done some time ago where he had treated brains more like sweetbreads... The brains were gently cooked and allowed to cool in the cooking liquid, then they were cut into three sections, coated with brioche bread crumbs, panéed and sauced. This sounds like something I'd like to try. Strangely, I didn't feel any smarter after eating the calf's brains, although I did feel a curious desire to chew grass. After La Luncheonette, we decided to stop by Blue Ribbon on Sullivan Street between Prince and Spring to see what they had going. What they had going, as far as we were concerned, were broiled marrow bones with oxtail marmelade. The marrow was extracted from the bones and spread on the crisp toast along with the sweet oxtail "marmelade." Wash that down with a couple of beers, and what could be better? Blue Ribbon is a really nice, friendly place. No one minded that we were there only to have a couple of beers and splie an appetizer. In fact, several members of the staff stopped by to chat with us about our project and recommend places they thought we might like to see. The marrow bone dish was simple, but it's hard to describe just how great something so elemental can be. There's something about eating marrow that takes a certain part of the brain back a few million years to our ancestors sitting around a campfire, breaking open bones and sucking out the marrow. After Blue Ribbon and a short stop at Broaway Panhandler, we made out way over to Landmarc on West Broadway between Leonard and Worth. In many ways this was the star of the trip. We had the opportunity to chat with owners Marc and Pamela Murphy about their restaurant, and the approach to offal in general. The menu features a special section entitled "Landmarc specials," highlighting a selection of offal preparations which change periodically according to the season and the chef's fancy. Marc spoke with us at some length about offal and his affection for offal dishes, and the "Landmarc specials" section really reflects the chef's interest and passion for this kind of cooking -- we all regretted that they had finished out the last week's special of house-made head cheese. Any time a chef will talk with me for 15 minutes about making head cheese, I know he's my kind of guy. Certainly the offal preparations at Landmarc we tried reflect a high level of interest and proficiency in this area. We had three dishes. One was boudin noir with french fries, caramelized onions and apples. This was outstanding blood sausage, well spiced, rich and not too crumbly. Paired well with the sweetness of the apples and onions, and of course French fries are French fries -- always delicious if well executed, and these were. The whole grain mustard (something all three of us love) tied everything together. It was fun to try the different elements in various combinations (sausage with apple and mustard, sausage alone, apple with mustard, etc.). I always enjoy dishes that allow/encourage the diner to create/explore. All in all just a simple, peasant-ey dish done very well... and a bargain at 18 bucks. It's not easy to tell from the pictures, but there were two sausages on the plate. Another sausage is hidden away under the apples. Another was crispy sweetbreads with horseradish and green beans. Now, this is the way I like sweetbreads! This is one of the best sweetbread dishes I've had in the City. Small pieces of sweetbread with a crispy, peppery coating sat atop lightly crunchy green beans and surrounded by a lightly acidic sauce. I didn't taste too much horseradish, to be honest, but I don't feel like anything was missing from this dish. This is the kind of sweetbread preparation that takes me to other places. I'll have a hard time keeping myself from ordering this one again every time I'm there if it's on the menu. We also had sautÈed calf's liver with peas, scallions and caramelized onion whipped potatoes. In many ways, this was the most interesting dish among the three. As the chef explained, the usual preparation for calf's liver is to slice it very thin and briefly sear it. This can sometimes result in done-just-so liver, but often results in overcooked, leathery, iron-tasting meat. You know... the kind we all hate. This method also makes it impossible to develop much of a crust on the liver, because the meat would be overcooked by the time any crust was able to develop. So, instead of doing that, Marc takes a thick block of liver -- maybe an inch and a half thick and three inches to a side -- and cooks it most of the way on one side. This, he assured us, made it possible to develop a substantial crust and hit the medium-rare mark. You know what? He was exactly right. Landmarc's liver had an impressive crust and was not the slightest bit overdone. It was mild in flavor with just a thread of that "liver flavor" running through it, letting you know that this was calf's liver and not it's weaker cousin from the poultry family. It's one of the most interesting calf's liver dishes I've had (not that I've had a zillion of them, but since there is so little difference between the usual preparations there isn't often much incentive). I'll definitely be looking at the menu and heading back down to Landmarc for more intereting offal. Stuffed from our meal at Landmarc, we staggered onto the train and went North. North to Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana on Amsterdam Avenue between 107th and 108th Streets. There, we planned to get tacos with tripa (tripe), oreja (pig's ear), sesos (beef brains) and lengua (beef tongue). Unfortunately they were all out of the first three. Undaunted, we put in an order for several tacos de lengua to go. The place was hopping, and I had a chance to watch the griddle man as he prepared what must have been 40 tacos in around 10 minutes. Not an easy thing to do, considering that the griddle is tiny. Tacos in hand, we returned back to my place nearby to eat our tacos sip a few Twentieth-Century Cocktails where were were joined by bergerka and Eric Malson. The tongue was tender, and the tacos were delicious. Even bergerka, who is fairly suspicious of things like tongue meat, had to agree that they were outstanding. Does tongue qualify as "offal?" I don't know, but it certainly is good. Taqueria y Fonda is a great place, and I saw plenty of things there I wouldn't ordinarily order (vegetable tacos, for example) that I will certainly be trying in the future. They melt the cheese for the quesadillas directly on the griddle, which I think is a nice touch. Herb ate his taco with great enthusiam. Last on the schedule was a mixed grill. We originally wanted to visit La Portena or Argentine Pavillion, but as the hour was getting late we decided to walk down Amsterdam to Pampa. This was a bit of a disappointment. The food was good, but there has been serious decline in the food accompanied by a serious rise in the prices over the past several years. When Pampa first started out, they were one of the best deals in the city, they served beef from Argentina, and they served plenty of interesting things like tripe, intestines, kidneys, sweetbreads, etc. Well, hoof and mouth in Argentina put an end to the Argentine beef. Then, little by little, the interesting meats dropped off the menu. First to go was the tripe, then the kidneys, then the intestines. Finally, about 4-5 months ago, they raised their prices by around 40% and instituted a 30 dollar minimum. I still forget all the changes and go there everyu so often, but I usually regret it. This isn't to say that our meal was bad, per se, but it's not nearly as interesting (or as inexpensive) as what we could have had there a few years ago. So... having finally rid ourselves of JJ () we were Herb, bergerka, Eric Malson and myself. We had the mixed grill, which consists of skirt steak, cross-cut short ribs, choriso, blood sausage and sweetbreads (would have included intestines, tripe and kidneys back in the old days). Everything was good. Pampa has an excellent blood sausage, in particular. Looser textured and differently spiced than the sausage at Landmarc. I also ordered some extra sweetbreads. Pampa's sweetbreads can be a hit-or-miss affair, but this time they were a hit. Nicely crispy on the outside, from the grilling rather than an applied crust, cooked through just a bit more than Landmarc's but not to the point that they developed any off-flavors. Very nice with chimichurri and nice red wine. On the side we had marinated lamb's tongues. Tasty and simple. Close to midnight as we emerged from Pampa to find our way home, I reflected that Herb's secret method for eating huge amounts of food in New York really did work. Looking forward to Part 2 already!