Stone

Ditto. Surprisingly good wings.

Ha ha! Great suggestion, Stone!! Thanks, everyone. I'll report next week. On ice cream, that is... I had a friend who used to . . . dance . . . at Mitchell brothers. Once I brought home some Mitchells ice cream and she thought it would be hilarious if the club got a little freezer case to sell pints of ice cream. Hmm, I wonder what the flavors would be? Red Cherry Temptation? Banana Fan Dance? Marshmallow Cream Pie

Didn't the menu give an exhaustive description of the dessert, including all ingredients, their source, growing method, and credentials of the unionized labor that produced them? After all, at Gary Danko, the menu doesn't just say, "chicken."

Where is Kiss? I've never heard of it. I like Chaya Brasserie. But i guess it's not really Japanese.

Friscans love Mitchells. I never thought it was so great. It didn't have the creamy texture I like. I little too crystalline. Try Polly Anns and go to Mitchell Brothers instead.

"$40 a pound? Look at all that fat in it." The steak was good. Having cut in half the original hunk o meat, it wasn't a wonderful mouthful of meat. On the other hand, the texture was noticeably different. It was . . . , well, not silky, not smooth. But something like that. Can't say that I noticed the dry-aged mineral flavor, but that could be the limits of my preparation method. Was it worth $40 a pound? I'm not sure any steak could be.

From the mid-west. That's all I got.

Now that you're sitting on your fat book advance, you let me know when you're ready to splurge. I'll walk up with a couple.

A friend got a new Lodge preseasoned skillet. I decided to run around the corner and pick up to steaks from Lobel's. I pointed to two, big, thick, beautifully marbled steaks sitting in the counter, and the fella heave-ho'd them up on a piece of paper. "Do I want to ask how much they are?" "No. At least sit down first." "Should I wait until tomorrow for my paycheck?" "They'll be under $40." I laughed. But twenty bucks for a steak like that wasn't bad. Oh what a silly boy I am. $98.75. For two steaks. Over $40/pound. I cringed. "Umm, sorry. I just can't spend that much for a steak. Just can't do it." "No problem. I'll cut one in half. It'll still be great." It doesn't look as pretty. But I'm sure it will taste nice. I just hope I don't fuck it up.

You need to clip the "oht" like the first syllable in Otto. The last syllable must be pronounced "le" not "le". Remember this is not a romance language. Frankly, I don't think there are many American tongues and glottises that can pronounce the word properly. (Mark -- I didn't mean to sound as snappy as I did.)

This is sick. Do these idiots realize they're eating at McDonalds? A little Extra to what Extra said. Chipotle is pretty authentic. At least its burritos are when compared to other burritos I've had all around SF. If you want to argue that SF burritos (El Toro, Farolito, etc.) aren't authentic, go ahead, but do it yourself. And Chipotle is pretty good. They're spice and serve respectable portions of meat and stuff. And for the most part, they use traditional ingredients. They certainly don't bastardize the stuff like other chains. And their quality is heads and shoulders above Taco Bell and it's ilk. The biggest difference between Chipolte and the other "traditional" burrito joints I frequented in SF is character. Most SF burrito joints are . . . dumps. There's some merit in that, but many people obviously prefer to eat at the "upscale" Chipotle. I guess they think the food is safer. Here's a thread on Chipotle.

Yes, like most of my attempts to mimic any Asian foods, there is a missing secret ingredient to this. (Of course, I rarely use actual Chinese roast pork, and probably don't use as much oil as most Asian restaurants use in their noodle dishes.)

Stove Top does not suck.

I went to a restaurant supply store in the Bowery years ago looking for a Wustoff, Henkels or something of that ilk. The guy told me I was wasting my money. He sold me a 10" no name chef's knife for about $30 that kept a great edge for about 4 years with no sharpening and only minimal steeling. It wasn't as pretty as brand name, but I had no problems with it.

Soba -- I tried a simple puree of roasted cauliflower recently. I think you need to be careful that it doesn't get too brown. Mine did, and the end result didn't look nearly as good as it tasted.

They look like mints. There are some interesting legal issues with that contest, however. A lot of state attorneys general were investigating companies that ran sweepstakes where the odds of anyone winning was impossible. For example, if McDonalds claimed that it would give away $1 million to someone who got a certain game piece, but then shipped the winning game piece to the McDonalds in Ulan Bator. I think some legislation was passed to deal with the problem. Six winning bags in 100 million? What are the odds that anyone will get one and know what it is?

I'd kill for old NY pizza! Have you been to DiFara's? Whoops, wrong thread. She's never been to Difaras. She's never been near Difara's. She doesn't know who makes the pizza on saturdays. She doesn't know where they import their mozzerella from. But we probably should have a thread about the declining quality of NY pizza. I'm seeing more and more Sbarros. Rays (of any incarnation) are becoming massive blocks of dense dough and tasteless cheese. It's a shonder.

Oh ma' darlin'.

It's been a long time, I could be mistaken.

I always thought the UWS was more expensive because there was less inventory than the UES, which for the most part has larger, taller buildings. And because the UES is filled with arrogant rich people and post-college frat parties. But that's just an observation. (On an aside, I know work at 81st and Madison, and I've never seen so many bad face-lifts in my life.)

I just got a small jar. Powdered, not brick. What do I use it with? The one time I had botarga, it was sprinkled over a pasta dish. I think it was pappardelle with a ragu.

Well, that stuff was all atmospherics. I can't even say that I have a strong opinion about H&H v. Tal.

Well that explains a lot, doesn't it?

For those of you who don't know, the historical stereotype is that the "West Side Jew" was the poorer immigrant from Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia, Etc.), and the "East Side Jew" was the more affluent immigrant, mostly from Germany. (O.k., I don't mean to start a discussion on that, so if you disagree, let's not fight, it's not important.) I was in Tal Bagels (86th & 3rd) yesterday morning waiting in a long line to pick up some bagels to bring to friends in Westchester. My sister went to grab two little pints of orange juice from the cooler, no doubt at $5.75 each. I said, "why don't we just pick up the orange juice in Ardsley. We can get more for cheaper. And why don't we just buy the bagels up there, so we don't have to wait in this line." "But these bagels are soooo much better," she said. "Ahh, nice to see you've become the UES snob you detest. You grew up on Ardsley bagels. And if you want good bagels, why don't we go down the street to H&H." "These are much better than H&H," she said. "They're lighter, and not so chewy." "That's a roll," I said, "not a bagel. And what the hell is a 'flat bagel.' I'm sure they didn't have those in the shtetl." "What's a shtetl?" my goyisha sister asked. Then the guy standing in front of us chimed in, "Tal is much better. H&H are for people who like heavy bricks." I was going to pull Marshall McLuhan out of my pocket, but I just sighed, "ooh, you East Side Jews. Shouldn't you be sitting in front of the tree opening your Christmas presents this morning?" Then I proceeded to order a cinnamon raisin bagel with strawberry cream cheese, and we all had a hearty ho ho ho. So, which is better Tal or H&H? (I'm sure this has been discussed before, but I couldn't find it.)

I think the New World Restaurant Group is the comination of New World Coffee and Manhattan Bagels. (I don't think this Manhattan Bagels is related to the Manhattan Bagels in SF, though, but I'm not sure.) I wouldn't expect much from them by way of either.