slkinsey

Was just talking about these in another thread. I've always known them as "Shrove Tuesday Buns." My father says he learned about them when he was a postdoc in Upsala, that they are traditional for Shrove Tuesday but eaten throughout lent in Scandinavia. The way I always had them was with hot milk poured over the filling before the cream was put on top. Thanks for telling us about Ulrika's! I, too, love herring in all its glorious forms, so I'll definitely want to check this out. By the way, Ulrika's has a web site. According to the site, they won "Best Herring in New York" from the NY Press in the annual "Best of Manhattan" survey. They even have recipes for some of their dishes, including the award winning "herring kiss."

The advantages, as I see them, are that it seems to season more quickly, and that it is more "nonstick-like" than rough cast iron. I hadn't considered the cleaning element, but it might make a difference. I assume they machine the pans on a lathe. Given the low cost of cast iron, it might be interesting (and affordable) to buy three similar skillets and compare regular cast iron, pre-seasoned regular cast iron and polished cast iron. Anyone up for it?

Wagner kind of fell off the map for a while in terms of cast iron cookware, but now they seem to be back. One of their most interesting products is the polished cast iron skillet. This is where they start off with a regular cast iron pan and then machine the inner surface so it is smooth instead of rough like most cast iron. I actually prefer this to regular cast iron and encourage anyone interested in acquiring some cast iron to consider it strongly.

I will never eat maccheroni and cheese from a box. I will never eat at a fast food or major chain restaurant in Manhattan. I will never, ever try to keep up with JJ, Soba or Eric Malson in an all-you-can-eat restaurant.

Mottmott, the Italian word for "square" is quadrato. When one takes tagliatelli (a fresh strand pasta ~1/4 inch wide) and cuts it across the strand to make little squares, the result is a soup pasta called quadrucci. I suppose this shape could be sauced like as normal pasta, but it wouldn't be a traditional use.

Okay... seriously. We need to get together a GSIM feast of Biblical proportions.

We pretty much always have the beef tendon, and it's rare that we don't order the kung bao chicken. Another great appetizer is the cured pork with garlic shoots, and I am very fond of the Sichuan pickled cabbage with red oil. We get those a lot. We also get the spicy double cooked pork fairly often, and the sour string beans. These are all "GSIM classics" as far as I am concerned. There are other good dishes there, the crispy quail, the tea smoked duck... things like that. They're good, but not in the same category, IMO. The real secret to GSIM, I think, is to make sure you go in a group -- four at a minimum, and six or eight is probably better. That way you can have several of the greatest hits dishes and branch out to several others.

rgruby, his flagship restaurant, Jean-Georges, is still one of the top places in the City. Man... he has got one of the all time worst web sites in the business. Flash crap that takes forever to load, and there's no option to skip it.

Well, that could be an element of it, marthapook. But, that said, there is no indication that Alain Ducasse is having trouble keeping things fresh and current at his various AD/XX, Spoon and Mix places.

Once again, you have crystallized my thoughts most eloquently. There really isn't much of a point in comparing a place like Vong to "authentic" Asian restaurants, because I don't think it is designed to immitate them or compete with them. It's interesting that you say you've grown tired of it. I feel much the same way. I don't think it's the case that the food isn't still at the same high level, but I wonder if this kind of overtly Asian-influenced neo-French fusion food isn't becoming a little passé or at least a little less exciting. There was just a big article about the influence of Japanese cooking in NYC. Does that mean it's jumped the shark? Or do you maybe think the quality and inventiveness have gone down now that J-G isn't spending so much attention on Vong any more? Admin: I think I'm gonna split this off.

Hmmm... interesting points, Pan. Perhaps this needs its own thread. I always felt that Vongerichten's best food was when he was doing what I felt was fundamentally Western food but with Asian influences. This is what I mostly felt about the menu at Vong, which features dishes like spiced cod fish with curried artichokes; salmon with lentil crust, orange-ginger sauce, wilted endive and sweet potatoes; steamed black bass, cardamon sauce, cabbage and watercress; lobster with thai herb; beef short ribs braised with tamarind, mashed potatoes; crisp squab with egg noodle pancake, honey-ginger glazed pearl onions and so on. None of these dishes strike me as pale immitations of traditional dishes one might get in Chinatown (although maybe 3 or 4 dishes do, like "crab spring rolls with tamarind dipping sauce"). Also, I don't think one is likely to get something like "monkfish baked with special spices & seeds, potatoes & asparagus" or "warm asparagus salad with avocado and enoki mushrooms" at Sripraphai. If something there vaguely resembles a dish from Vong, I doubt that it involves ingredients at the same level of quality. Who knows, though, I might be wrong. Of course, part of what makes something like "quail rubbed with Thai spices" cost fourteen dollars at Vong while "crispy quail" costs eleven dollars at Grand Sichuan is decor, service, location, etc. But, considering all that, three dollars is not a big difference.

It's interesting to me that J-G's last two places, 66 and now Spice Market, have not generally been met with a great deal of enthusiasm for the food. Kind of striking considering that his flagship place, Jean-Georges, was the hottest fine dining ticket in town not too long ago and it seemed like the chef could do no wrong. Is it possible that the chef has lost his magic touch? Maybe his style of cuisine is no longer hip and current? Or maybe his empire has become too vast, too fast? I fear that this last one may happen to Batali, whose restaurants seem to be growing in number at an alarming rate. Admin: This thread is a fork in the discussion about Spice Market that was inspired by Bond Girl's interesting review there.

Dude, you totally have to come next time. Your presence alone means we could have ordered like three more things!

It struck me that there are no pictures for the vicarious GSIM fans. So, naturally, taking one for the team I steeled my nerves and ate there tonight with Eric Malson, bergerka and a friend: First were the dan dan noodles. This is beore they are all mixed together, after which they are kind of brownish. Then we had the Preserved Trunip (sic) Sichuan Style. Spicy, crunchy and pleasantly rubbery. One of our favorites, Beef Tendon with Hot and Pepper Sauce. Everyone should try this dish. Stir fried pea shoots. Fat Guy turned me on to these, and they're awesome! House Cured Pork with Stick Rice Cake. This was incredibly porky and a nicely mild contrast to the spicy dishes. House Bean Curd with Spicy Sauce (Ma Po Tofu). Soft tofu isn't really my thing, but I have to admit this is good stuff! Freshly Killed Kung Bao Chicken. The one. The only. Accept no substitutes. Braised Beef Fillets with Chili Sauce. One of the hottest things on the menu. That light brown lump in the middle of the bowl is a big knob of minced garlic. Tasty! We finished almost everything

Jenny, why not start a thread on the undiscovered gems of Northeastern PA?

Mmmmm... delicious, delicious cochineal.

Most vodka (as far as I know) is filtered through activated charcoal (which I believe is made from wood) and sometimes quartz. I'd be interested to hear otherwise. Maybe I'm wrong.

Jeez... I wasn't aware that a lot of vodka was made from meat.

Good point about the shitty oil. But I don't think adding oil to water-packed tuna would quite be a stand in for "tuna packed in high quality olive oil." There's something about actually canning the tuna together with the oil (preferable olive, of course) that greatly affects the quality of the tuna.

There's a thread going on Bouchon here from some time ago. Maybe one of the SW&W mods can merge 'em up.

I'm with tommy on this one. Warm tuna salad? Oog.

Um... no, there isn't. There's a little place called Napoli that I believe has permanent rights to that title. On the other hand, I suppose it depends on the basis they are using for making that claim. Most pizzerie per capita? Who knows.

Oh, I don't know Dean... by then we'll probably be down to evaluating the differences between Ray's, Famous Ray's, Original Ray's, Famous Original Ray's, Original Famous Ray's and Seriously We're Not Kidding This Is the Real Original Ray's Everyone Has Been Talking About.

No reason to use expensive sea salt when it will be dissolved in liquid. The perceived difference between types of edible salt has >90% to do with the shape of the salt crystals. Edit: Exactly what Paula says. No reason not to use the cheapo sea salt, but every reason not to use fleur de sel or something like that.

Inspired by this thread, tonight I turned this: Into this: