slkinsey

Good grief. How do you get all that in your mouth? Hey! That's two different kinds of sandwich there! Only 6 ingredients each!

We don't have tuna salad sandwiches very often, but when we do I like: oil cured Italian tuna, minced onion or slivered scallions, finely diced celery, chopped pickles or capers, chopped hard cooked eggs, homemade mayonnaise (usually with lemon juice) on toasted sourdough with ruccola. We also like Italian oil cured tuna with white beans, red onion, salty black olives, parsley and spicy evoo.

That's not the way anyone does it who subscribes to the star system model. I can understand that you have other priorities in evaluating a restaurant, and I'm not saying that I disagree with them. But those priorities are not really germane to a discussion of whether or not the decor at Asiate should merit at least a one star rating in the NY Times. The assumption behind such an assertion is that the food is at least within the range of "one star quality." There are plenty of unstarred places making food in the one star range that will not earn a star primarily due to reasons not having to do with the food (decor, location, service, etc.). Similarly, one can understand that there are places that are perhaps making what one would judge "very good one star food" who will be bumped up to two stars based on decor, service, etc. The one thing that does not tend to figure into this kind of rating system is price. The reviewer might mention that a two star place is charging three star prices, but would be unlikely to bump it down to one star based on this evaluation. In my view, it goes a little something like this: Things like service, decor, etc. will figure most prominently in those "judgment call" areas.

Definitely after. You don't want to cook the prosciutto.

thanks for the link. although i just slapped the crap out of my screen. Can we kill her? She's like the mutant lovechild of Fran Drescher and Rachel Raye on crack. College students could play a drinking game by taking a shot every time she said, "that's what I'm tawkin' about!" I thought it was hilariously appropriate that Dom didn't pay any attention to her and simply went about his business as normal around her frantic histrionics.

A little something, and a little something else on Spice Market from NY Metro.

Sounds like the prices are quite reasonable, too. I have loved his other places (inclufing Vong, for the record) and will definitely check it out.

Can't wait for the day I walk in there with you two! It's hard to get anything very spicy when it's being delivered. I think they need to see in your eyes that you want it as spicy as they're willing to make it. Yea, well... let me know when you're usually free. We're there at least 3 times a month, if not more frequently.

Yea... the bones can be a real hassle with that dish. If it weren't for the fact that it's like half bone, I'd order it more often. As it is, I have it around 40% of the time. Dude, they must have dumbed it down because you ordered takeout... or maybe they know Eric Malson and me enough by now to know that we like things really spicy. Because, let me tell you, that's the hottest thing I've ever had from their menu. Definitely hotter than the braised beef fillets in red oil, and that's saying something. Asking for that dish "very spicy" -- man, I can't even imagine that. They would have to serve it with a shot of Pepto Bismol and a side of Tucks.

I was thinking in terms of whatever herbs one might put in with the item to be cooked.

Yea, I'm with tommy on that one. Esca is probably my favorite fish place in NYC. The thing with fish is that you're dealing with a very expensive, very perishable raw ingredient.

are these otherwise known as hot-cross buns? No, these are yeast risen buns where the top is cut off and the inside hollowed out. Then a filling is made with the torn up bread that was removed, sweet almonds, cream and maybe some spices. The "lid" goes back on top. I think we ate them warm, but I might not be remembering that correctly. Now that I look around the Internet, it seems that Shrove Tuesday Buns are a Scandinavian thing. My father probably picked up the idea when he was a postdoc in Upsala, and that's how it became a tradition in my family.

The Sazerac is a great drink. Interestingly (to me, anyway) it is one of the few drinks where it really does make sense to "wash" the inside of the glass with the secondary liguor (Pernod or Richard) and dump out the excess. Even that tiny bit flavors the drink nicely and anything more is too much.

Yum! It's interesting to me, however, that this "holiday" has become so associated with the New Orleans tradition in the minds of so many Americans. To me, it was always an Anglican thing -- I knew it as "Shrove Tuesday" long before I had ever heard of "Mardi Gras" -- and is associated in my mind much more with things like pancakes and Shrove Tuesday buns, etc. The idea of such foods, BTW, is that they are convenient ways for the cook to use up all the fat in the house before Lent.

We used to have Shrove Tuesday Buns when I was a kid. Might be nice to revive that tradition.

Well... it will have a different flavor is all. Sometimes you don't necessarily want that Maillard flavor, and might be going for something a little cleaner, fresher, greener. One can always, of course, brown the meat either before or after cooking sous vide.

Now that's what I'm talking about! And they said it was crazy to visit the Patsy's branches in one afternoon. Hah!

Man... chicken liver risotto! In my mind, one of the greatest things about a dish is when you find yourself slapping your forehead and thinking, "of course! why didn't I think of that?" I mean, I like dirty rice with chicken livers and gizzards... I like chicken livers... I like chicken liver ragu... I like risotto... I like risotto con ragu... so why not chicken liver risotto? This is a must-try at home.

All these places rcan stand a certain number of repeat visits, IMO. wannabechef, given your passion for pizza, we'll be very disappointed if you don't come with us for the next outing.

Right on! Now you'll be on the Northern Tools mailing list too and you get the catalogue in the mail. Ahhhhh. Tool catalogues ... they almost make me wish I was a guy ... Actually, I doubt I'll ever be buying from them again. When I submitted my order I had them ship to my day-job work address, because I don't have anyone at home in the afternoon to sign for packages. So... when I finally get an email confirmation from them, the address is wrong. It had the correct street address, but did not include the name of the business. As I work in a large office tower with dozens of businesses and thousands of employees, this is a problem. So, I emailed them saying that I didn't understand why they had omitted that part of the address and asking that they correcthe delivery address immediately. I even attached a saved html file of the web page confirmation I got upon completing my order, which displayed the correct full delivery address. Some 4 days later, they sent me a reply email saying "we shipped it to the address you submitted" -- arguing with me about the address rather than just making the change. I had to get the tracking number off their web site and call UPS myself to have the address modified after the first delivery attempt failed. Then, the meat receiving tray was seriously dented (who cares, of course, but I paid for it) and the sausage stuffer attachments were cracked. I plan to have both replaced, but I dread dealing with their crappy customer service people again.

You haven't been to Patsy's in East Harlem, I gather? That is the place which is generally regarded as the clear #1 (although we will naturally make up our own minds). Of course, the beauty of the whole thing is that we'll never all agree on what we like best. For example, as much as he enjoyed Grimaldi's and can appreciate some of the unique effects, Pan still prefers Di Fara. And why not? Di Fara is a great pizzeria. What's not to like? As I remember them, Arturo's and especially John's are both pretty lame, but I do hear good things about Nick's. Needless to say, all these places will be visited. The Big 5 are the Big 5 by virtue of their reputations, pedigrees and histories. I don't think Nick's is quite there yet. This doesn't mean, of course, that it might not be better than some of the Big 5 pizzerie. We might have an eGullet 5 by the time we're finished. That's for us to discover! I hope that you are sufficiently motivated by your fondness for Nick's to leads us on an excursion out there in the future.

Best rendition of the dish I've tried. Did you have any sesame buns with the pork? Of course. I say: jow-zee with more or less equal stress.

Hey, I thought you were getting the one with the reverse switch???? That one is just like mine. Cool, innit? Nope. Decided on raw power. Your description of how it handles chicken bones tipped the balance. Serious piece of machinery. I am already casting about for other things to grind. Ground up some chuck steak with some pancetta and made killer hamburgers the other night.

What more can be said about the excellence of this place that hasn't already been said? Went there last PM with bergerka, Eric_Malson and a non-eGullet friend we're luring over to the dark side. Now... I've been to C46 around four times. Couple times with Jason and FG and a couple times with FG. Not all that many times. And yet, the minute I walked into the place Cecil walked right up to me, said,"how are you, I haven't seen you here in a while" and took us right to the nice big table where we always seem to sit. As always, we were offered recommendations and sampled dishes not on the regular menu. Now, that's customer relations. There are plenty of "white tablecloth" places in Manhattan that could learn a lot from Cecil. Since there were only four of us, we didn't get a chance to sample too many different things, and since it was the first time there for two of us, we wanted to have some of the "greatest hits" dishes. We started off with the spicy capsicum noodles. Delicious, slippery and nicely spicy. I hadn't really had any spicy food at C46 before, and this did not disappoint. Then we had both kinds of soup dumplings (pork and crab & pork). Our friend, who is a regular at Joe's Shanghai in Elmhurst, declared C46's version an overall winner, although he liked the broth at Joe's a little better. Is the Elmhurst Joe's significantly less expensive than the one in Chinatown? Interestingly, he said that the soup dumplings were a little less expensive at Joe's Shanghai, which struck me as interesting because I am almost positive this is not the case where the Chinatown branch is concerned. They were, as always, excellent. We also got the "eGullet special," a nice platter of jiaozi and a saucer of raw garlic. These are great. Not to be missed. Should be on the menu. Next we had the fish (flounder?) wrapped in tofu skin and fried, on Cecil's recommendation. Some of you who were at the Chinese New Year's party might remember this. I wasn't there, so this dish was a revelation. So light and crunchy. Perfect with a little vinegar. After that came some pork anc cabbage stifried with rice cakes and some Sichuan peppercorn. I love this one. Simple and always delicious. Finally we had the ruby roast pork. What a great dish! We finished the whole thing easily between the four of us. Definitely one of the best Shanghaiese places around.

The observed difference in the crust is 90% due to the difference in temperature, if not more. Grimaldi's says that their oven is at 850F, and I have to believe that it's even higher than that in early on in the cycle. Before they started doing pizze, they roasted an entire full sheet pan of red peppers stacked upright (around 2 cases of peppers) in around 2 minutes. You can see the peppers in my one shot of the oven: In contrast, this brand new stainless gas-fired oven specifies a thermostat that goes up to a maximum of 650F, which means that the temperature is never expected to actually go that high. Given the age and general decrepitude of Di Fara's oven, and the time it takes to bake a pizza (which is longer than it takes me to do in my "Crapmaster 5000" residential stove), I would imagine the oven temperature there is closer to 500F. There are certainly some small differences in the dough between the two pizzerie, undoubtedly optimized for the resources and philosophies of the respective pizzaioli. But fundamentally, they are starting with fairly similar doughs and I think the Di Fara dough would be very different were it baked in Grimaldi's oven.