JosephB

Last Thursday evening at Per Se, there seemed to be an even split between men wearing ties and men not wearing ties. All the men wore jackets, which I'm sure is required.

Here's the menu that our captain, Peter, hand-wrote for us.

Hi phflour. Welcome to eGullet! If you were here we could talk about your question over lunch today! I don't know if your question has ever been asked in the baking threads, but if it hasn't you should start a discussion there. We have some very knowledgeable members when it comes to bread and pizza making.

I posted this in the NYC Pizza Survey a few weeks ago. Some of you may be interested, as I was, to know the law with respect to coal-fired ovens in NY. After a small bit of research, I found that § 27-848.04 of the NYC Admin Code. (Building Code) requires that all applications for the installation of fireplace and stove equipment must comport with the City’s Air Pollution Control Code, which prohibits at Admin. Code § 24-173 the use by any person of solid fuel in fuel burning equipment, except that solid fuel in the form of anthracite coal (bituminous coal is absolutely prohibited) can be used for fueling boilers in existence on or before May, 1968. This certainly explains why no new coal ovens can be built in NYC, but doesn’t explain how the existing coal-fired pizza ovens became grandfathered. The statute permits coal to be burned in coal-fired boilers existing before 1968, but says nothing about coal-fired ovens – a pizza oven is not a boiler. Suffice to say that there must be some administrative decision somewhere which allowed Grimaldi’s and the others to revive the old coal ovens they found.

Damn, that piques my interest... JosephB? What are you doing this weekend? I'd be there first thing tomorrow if Donna and I weren't headed for Texas this weekend. I'll have to settle for BBQ instead.

Francesco 325 Alcazar Ave. (bet. Le Jeune Rd. & Salzedo St.) Coral Gables (305) 446-1600 Outstanding Peruvian seafood in fashionable, though not touristy, Coral Gables. Moderately priced. ******************************************************* Garcia's Seafood Market and Restaurant 398 NW North River Dr. (NW 5th St. Bridge) Miami (305) 375-0765 Super casual seafood and raw bar on the Miami River. Watch tugs pull ships along the peaceful river as you slurp down oysters by the dozen, and eat freshly caught yellow tail. This place feels more like Key West than Miami. Inexpensive. P.S. Garcia's can be tricky to find. The first time we went there, someone from Garcia's came to get us from Tobacco Road (bar).

A dynasty in the making. It's a pleasure to be the first to welcome another Kinsey to eGullet. Welcome aboard!

The guys over at Slice posted a close-up photo of the inside of Grimaldi's oven, which shows a pizza cooking alongside an intensely burning pile of coal. They also suggest eG for further reading about Grimaldi's.

Welcome to eGullet Lexi! May I suggest Payard on Lexington Ave (74th St) for some fine French pastries, and Sullivan Street Bakery on, what else, Sullivan Street for excellent rustic breads. You'll obviously want to map out your course to get to as many places as possible. On the other hand, how much can one enjoyably eat in a day?

You guys are nuts.

Nina talks about how the City does not subject licensed use of greenmarket space to the competitive bidding ordinarily required by the City's procurement rules. Nina strongly suggests that the City justifies sole-source procurement of the greenmarket operator because there is no other option. She also suggests that there are in fact numerous farmer organizations qualified to bid on the license to operate the City's greenmarkets. I don't know whether a legitimate challenge could be made to the sole-source procurement of the greenmarket operator. Procurement is certainly a sensitive issue in the City. The recent Snapple deal and the Comptroller's challenge to it highlight some of the issues. Are there really plenty of farmer’s markets organizations capable of running the City's greenmarkets more effectively than the group now in place? Who are they?

Can Luke come over to play with Eubie (Hubie)?

Slice includes a link to eGullet on their homepage.

The world would be a happier place if more pizza joints would err on the side of burnt.

Uh, you'll have to ask the guys over in Philly about that. As for the NYC Pizza Survey, we're interested in visiting S.I., but first we have to go to Totonno's in Coney Island, the last of the so-called "BIG FIVE." How many of you can play hooky on Friday, 5/14, to go to Totonno's for lunch, followed by Brighten Beach for dinner? BTW, the Philly guys are itching to plan a joint outing.

In an article about the glories of sushi in the NY Times today, one of the greatest culinary analogies ever made was pronounced by Chef Seki of Sushi Seki in Manhattan: "[G]reat sushi needs great fish. But, he continued, great fish is not enough. "Sushi is so simple that each element must be perfect, and all the elements must be balanced," he said. "Like pizza." (emphasis added)

Yeah

I'm late in posting my impressions of Lombardi's because I was uninspired. Sam correctly noted that the highlight of the afternoon arrived early by way of the "Margherita light." This positive moment was fleeting however, and was soon overshadowed by the unpalatable and inexplicable "clam pie." If Lombardi's replaced the pasty-cooked red stuff they use for tomato sauce with practically unadorned San Marzano tomatoes, and found some consistency in managing the oven's heat, the pizza would be very good. For now, I would scratch it off my list. And as for being one the "BIG 5," it deserves that status as a romantic notion, and only from a distance. Thanks again for a fun afternoon on a splendid day. And thanks to Sam for expertly documenting our day.

The mozzarella-making project got off to a good start on Saturday morning. Slkinsey and I headed down to the East Village to pick up a gallon of grass-fed raw milk from a raw milk club. The plan was to use this recipe, which required a two-day process. I had everything I needed to make the cheese except the rennet, which based on sound advice I presumed I could find in the grocery store. Uh, no. After spending the better part of Saturday and Sunday morning (I gave up on the two-day plan) searching for rennet, I finally got some rennet from picaman (Thank you Jamie). By this time I was feeling a bit rushed, and I still had other errands to run. I commenced an abridged version of the same recipe. Things were going fine after the inoculation, addition of rennet, and the curd formation. I got a beautiful "break" of silky curds. I cut up the curds and set it to rest for several hours so that the acidity level would increase. The recipe called for maintaining the curds at 97 degrees, so I covered the pot with a towel and placed it near the oven exhaust, and turned on the oven to low. The recipe called for a 5-8 hour rest -- I had only three hours to spare. Then I took my pup to the park. I came back two hours later and took a peek. The milk seemed to hot. When I inserted an instant read thermometer into the liquid it read 110 degrees! I tasted the curds. They squeaked like rubber. I had killed the beautiful curds. I proceeded with the rest of the instructions in the recipe just for the heck of it. In the end, slkinsey described the thing I made as a "puck." I'll get it right next time. With the leftover whey, I made a delicious ricotta. I wish you all could have tasted it. Thank you to everyone who participated. We'll do it again soon.

I found ph paper in a health food store on the UWS. Not only is it good for making cheese, you can also test your saliva and urine with it!

You got it Pumpkin.

I had the pleasure of trying one of these last week -- yum, yum, yum!

Joe, did you find the rennet and pH paper? I'm especially curious about where one finds pH paper (other than PhD programs, ha ha ha). I haven't bought it yet, but I think pH paper is the same stuff you use to test saliva for the body's acid level. It seems to be a health store product. See here. I'm going to search for it in the morning. Rennet is easy enough to find.

In a "healthfood/breakfast joint" ?

Where are we going with this?