Stone

Depends. How do you pronounce Ogonquit? The issue here isn't how the restaurant chooses to pronounce its name, but how Americans should pronounce an Italian word used in America.

I thought their chicken sandwiches were better than the burgers. The burgers were small and inconsistent (often dry) and overwhelmed by the toppings. Chicken has no flavor of its own, so the toppings carried the day well. Great shakes though. Have we reached the point where grown men with a degree of interest in food have never had a chicken that tastes like chicken? Alas. Pardon my hyperbole. But I've had lots of other things that taste like chicken -- gator, snake, capon, frogs legs . . . .

I didn't realize the British wanted it back.

Perhaps you can give some of the stuff back to where you took it from.

Does Ellen know? Do you snorkle? (Now we know what your punishment was.)

How do I know it would matter? Quirky? You think?

I think Cabrales just fell in love.

My guess is this isn't their thinking. They're more likely doing it because once somebody tells you how to pronounce his or her name, it's inconsiderate to pronounce it any other way. If you said you pronounced Nina as "Anya" that's how I'd pronounce your name. Would you think me wrong to do that? I once met someone named Eloise who pronounced her name "El-waaz." I didn't have the heart to tell her she was wrong.

I found that most gyro places in Boston pronounced it gyro, not jee-ro.

Remember the Saturday Night Live skit with Jimmy Smits when he went into a work room and everyone spoke everything in perfectly normal American but whenever they said a "spanish" word -- like burrito -- they said it with a horrible Spanish accent? Or t.v. news people who call France, France and Germany, Germany, but say Nicaragua and Chile with a distinctive Spanish accent? I'm curious -- when you say "chicken parmigiana" do you pronounce the "chicken" in English and the "parmigiana" in Italian?

In other words, don't even think about trying to pronounce it correctly. In other words, both "o"s are pronounced like hoe in English, but with an Italian accent.

Then, e opens it for you, I presume? The e-opener is a new on-line bottle opener offered by IBM e-business solutions.

The kind that wants to exclude the riffraff. That's the point of places like 21, Four Seasons, etc. Didn't Nelson Rockefeller have a quote about this issue? That was the author's observation, not mine.

From the article: "The burger at Union Square Cafe costs $12.50 and comes with French fries; it isn't even close to the city's most expensive. For many years that title was held by the "21" Club, with its $26 burger made with houseground top round and sirloin, which Eric Blauberg, the chef, has recently rejiggered to include duck fat and fresh thyme and marjoram. It's a flavorful burger. But really, what kind of a burger joint requires a gentleman to wear a jacket and suggests a tie?" By the way, is "California burger" now a term of art like "Chicago-style pizza" and "Califronia-style pizza"?

Does "reticent" mean "like white bread soaked in milk?"

I fucked up some dude's counter real good at a party a few months back.

As in blanked, zeroed, no score. A term, I believe from gin rummy. The big victory is to triple schneid your opponent. Also used when one says "I'm on the schneid" meaning not doing very well, busted, failed to score. I thought the term was created by Berman on ESPN. Is it in the general parlance? (Sorry to go off-topic. I'll stop.)

I don't think so. As a statistical matter, . . . It's not about statistics, you automaton. It's about chopped meat on a bun. On behalf of the huddled, sweaty masses, I ask, "is anything sacred?" That said, whenst ordering a burger, should one inquire into the the cuts of meat used (and their proportions) so as to select the proper wine?

I thought their chicken sandwiches were better than the burgers. The burgers were small and inconsistent (often dry) and overwhelmed by the toppings. Chicken has no flavor of its own, so the toppings carried the day well. Great shakes though.

I don't know about Blue Smoke, but is there anything to the feeling that the best "burger" can't be had at an upscale restaurant? It's burger for Chrissakes. Grilled chopped meat on a bun. Part of the experience is that you're eating it in a grungy bar, a greasy diner or a road side flop house. Putting on a parmesan bun, stuffing it with braised anything, flavoring it with truffles, duck fat or demi-glace, pairing it with a wine selction or any other unnecessary embellishment turns it into something else. Something good perhaps, but not a burger.

I had some friends over for the holidays. I wandered into the kitchen one morning to find him making scrambled eggs in my new Calphalon non-stick sauce pan. He was stirring the eggs and scraping them in the pan with a fork. Oy. Then I checked my other pans, a few more now have scratches in them. And he toasted all sorts of stuff in the oven without putting down tin foil. Etc. Etc. Etc.

ah. so the compaint is more that the crowd is changing, rather than the food seved? No, the crowd is not changing. I'm certain that wine and brie has been the norm at San Francisco football games forever. (You really don't get it. But that's o.k.)

But, see this is where I don't get folks...wine and Brie is good...why not? Just becasue something becomes popular, its not a reason to ditch it. Every year I am responsible for hiring a caterer for a no-holes-barred very high end horse race...the premier horse event in the tri-state area. Last year, my caterer noted that, as it was my third year choosing french cut lamb chops as one of the passed hors, and EVERYONE is choosing it...well, Lamb chops are REALLY good...make em MR, change the dipping sauce ( last year was Mediterranean) and don't mess with success. If you get a good brie, temp it right, and throw out some Carr's...hey, I'd prefer that than chunks of pepperonni and port wine cheese, or even another spinach hors in puff pastry...certainly over some caterers idea of " updated" appetizers. and Stone, this is not against you, but the idea of food becoming passe when really it deserves to be a classic. It's not a question of wine and brie becoming passe. I love wine and brie -- at dinner parties; gallery openings; intermission at the opera; baseball games and other, you know. Football tailgating is for sausage, brisket, ham, beer, beer and, if it's cold outside, wild turkey from the bottle. (Although they do serve some damn good garlic fries at the stadium. Odd, it must kill the bouquet of the pinot.)

You left out homeless shelters and old-age homes. I recently had the unfortunate pleasure of experiencing tailgating at San Francisco's Candlestick Park for a Niners game. I haven' seen that much wine and brie since, since . . . . I think the Japan discussion might veer into an interesting off-topic one . . . . My 18 year-old nephew was recently in town for 4 nights. He's from New Zealand (I'm told that good-eating in Christchurch is a step above Sizzler), and I offered to take him anywhere reasonable. He chose pizza every night, but I forced him to sample other stuff. For the most part, he appreciated it.

At risk of having this improperly veer off topic -- I've never been a fan of tasting menus. Like tapas, I find that I'm served only enough of each dish to get a taste, but never enough to truly enjoy it.