bloviatrix

In the past two weeks, Blovie and I have eaten out twice. New Year's Eve we went to Il Patrizio which is dairy Italian. It's owned by the same people who own Haikara. I hadn't been there in several years since my last experience was pretty awful. But they've completely changed their menu and they're now making their own pastas. The food was actually pretty good. I had deep-fried artichokes as an appetizer and a papperdelle with wild mushrooms for a main. At this point I can't remember what everyone else ordered, but I tried two other appetizers and one other main. For dessert, Blovie and I split the ricottta cheesecake, which was light and lemony. This past week we finally got to The Box Tree, which is now the fanciest and most upscale kosher place in NY. Basically, they took the old Box Tree, which had years of labor troubles, and kashered the kitchen. They made no changes to the dining rooms. It's a lovely, elegant, old world place. There are less than 100 seats, but they're further divided into many small dining rooms, each with no more than 6 tables, for a very intimate feel. After our meal, the maitre d' offered to take us on a tour of the dining rooms. We had eaten in the Tiffany room, which has two stained glass windows made by L.C. Tiffany and a gold leaf ceiling. The bar area and upstairs are meant to feel like a belle epoque treehouse. And one room is a miniature of the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. When inside the restaurant, you forget that the bustling streets of NY are just outside. It's really like another world. The service was excellent. But my one complaint is that they tacked on a service charge of 18% which wasn't stated anywhere. The food was kind of old fashioned. I hoped that maybe the menu would have some interesting dishes, but they stuck with the duck l'orange, dover sole, steak au poivre, etc. I hope that as time goes on, the menu will be further expanded. For appetizers I ordered the salmon and tuna tatare with guacamole, Blovie ordered the sweetbreads. Both were good. I particularly liked the presentation of the sweetbreads as they plated them at the table out of a copper saucier. For mains, I had the duck l'orange on bok choy. I liked the contrast of the rich, sweet duck and the bitterness of the greens. Blovie went with the steak au poivre which came perfectly cooked - nice and rare. Unlike many kosher places, they have a PC on staff. Blovie has a molten chocolate cake with vanilla "ice cream" - he didn't let me try any. I ordered the beingets and fritters. The beingets were flavored with orange blossom water. They were light. And there were two types of fritters - banana and pineapple. As an accompaniment was pineapple sorbet. This is place that we will go to for special occasions. I hope to dine at The Branch, which has more casual dining in the bar area for lunch. Some of their offerings look yummy. For those of you who entertain, this is a good place to take people who keep kosher. Many of the patrons were in mixed groups.

Why on earth do you have that stuff?

I think alcohol has no place at business events particularly when clients are involved. I base this on my own experiences. The two that stick out most vividly are: Event 1: Business lunch. Me and a colleague were hosting. My co-worker drank an enormous amount and started telling very inappropriate stories. This led to him asking people personal questions such what type of underwear did they wear. At the end of the 4 hour lunch, the drinks portion of the bill was more than twice the food. And my colleague kissed me on lips without my consent. Event 2: Holiday party. A co-worker drank more than he could handle and vomited into the lap of client. It was disgusting and embarrassing. In both cases the need to go into crisis mode was a direct result of drinking. The perpetrators were oblivious to the problems they caused and were completely unapologetic. (The guy who kissed me had the nerve to tell me I should "lighten up.") As such, my rule of thumb is to stick with iced tea. This way I have a drink, but I'm in total control all times.

Forgive me, I grew up Methodist. What's all this about fish in the bathtub?? First, I must say that one of my favorite books as a kid was The Carp in The Bathtub. To explain the fish in the bathtub....as my mom tells it, every year before Rosh Hashana and Passover my great-grandmother (who lived with my mom's family) would make gefilte fish. A dead fish wouldn't do. Rather, Bubbe went to the fish market and selected a live fish which she brought home and dumped into the bathtub where she would proceed to fatten it up further. Once she was satisfied with the fish's weight gain, she would kill and gut it. And then turn it into gefilte fish. Now, since the fish would reside in the tub for a week or two, my mom and her sisters would develop an attachment to the fish (they didn't have pets), so the slaughter was quite traumatic. My father tells a similar story about his mom. Nowadays people either buy fish filets and grind it themselves, or cheat at buy pre-made frozen loaves which are boiled with aromatics. If they're really lazy, they buy it in a jar.

Blancmange (80s new wave band) what else but .....Blancmange

Sorbet is primarily a sugar syrup and fruit. Therefore, you can find brands that are parve - Sharon's Sorbet, Cyrk, one from Seattle (can't remember the brand). Ben & Jerry's sorbet is Kof-K DE (dairy equipment) which means although the ingredients are parve, the equipment it was made on is also used make dairy products. I believe Haagen Daaz sorbet falls into the same category. Not only can dishes like pealla be served, but this also applies to the dishes. So, if I'm serving fish for the first course and meat for the second, one must use fresh plates and cutlery for the second course (although most would say that's obvious, you need to remember to change knives).

There are times when I come across a recipe and feel a need to replicate it. But, ultimately, if you rely on recipes constantly, you begin to feel hamstrung -- if you can't find a specific ingredient, you're stuck. That's why technique is so important. You know what cooking methods best suit your ingredients and you can create something based on what's on hand. It frees you.

Last night/shabbat dinner was: Mushroom-Barley Soup Chicken slathered in dijon mustard, dredged in seasoned bread crumbs and baked Kasha Varniskes Sauted Green Beans with garlic and toasted sesame oil Red Grapes Cotes du Rhone to drink Today, shabbat lunch for 3 was a hearty meal for freezing weather: Spinach salad with a tomato vinagrette Short-Ribs braised in an ancho chili coffee sauce Kasha Varniskes Savory Pumpkin Pie Chocolate Mousse Alfasi Valle de Maule Merlot '01 (Chile)

I just made some chocolate mousse for tonight. Mmmm. Chocolate.

Cucumbers

I've been using an OXO for years. Never had a problem with it.

Growing up I hated borscht. I loved the pretty magenta color and the pink it turned once the sour cream was added. But I thought it tasted nasty. Fast forward to the year 2000, I'm in London and the restaurant we were eating in served a beet salad. I tasted the beets and lo and behold - I liked them. So, I decided to add beets to my diet. And that led to my deciding to try assorted beet based recipes. This meant borscht. And I liked it.

I think you would regret not having a self cleaning oven - unless you LOVE cleaning I wouldn't even consider it an option. We currently have a non-self cleaning oven. It's a living hell. It takes the better part of a day to clean. And Blovie has burned himself using the chemicals. Oh, and the chemicals stained some tiles by the stove. I can't emphasize this enough....Get thee a self-cleaning oven!

You truly are a brave man. I did that on NYE 2000. I still haven't recovered.

Where? Price? I live in NYC, but I will travel to pick it up, Lagavullin is my favourite. Please help me out on this one, never even heard of it before. Try Park Ave. Liquors on Madison between 40th and 41st. They have an unbelievable single malt selection.

Blovie and I went out to dinner tonight. I had orange infused beignets (3), banana and pineapple fritters (2 of each) with pineapple sorbet. The plate was dressed with raspberry, strawberry and kiwi sauce. It was yummy. Blovie had a molten chocolate cake. He ate it too quickly for me to sample.

I'm not sure if my schedule next week allows me time to bake. Would it acceptable if I made sorbet?

In the '70s my mom decided to eliminate salt from cooking as well. Even though no one had high pressure, she figured she was taking "preventative" measures. Sometime in the '80s she decided to minimize the number of egg yolks to reduce cholesterol - despite no one having a cholesterol problem. Her noodle kugels stopped binding. And the textures of cakes were off.

Oh man, Holly. You've just reminded me of a place I had completely forgotten about. Those guys were masters of the deep fryer.

My mother makes a fricasse once a year for the pre-Yom Kippur meal. I hate it. Everything has an unappealing gray color. She doesn't use any seasoning. Yuck. I stopped eating it well over 20 years ago, and I still cringe.

It was so cold yesterday that I made a big pot of soup in order to warm the apartment up. For dinner we had Black bean soup with pieces of lamb sausage Baked lemon sole I sliced the tip of thumb chopping the onion so I had Blovie finish the mis -- what a sweetie.

Since you stay away from caffeine, try the Celestial Seasoning Bengal Spice. It has black pepper in it which will make you warm, plus cinnamon, cardamon, and vanilla. It's a very good winter tea.

Oops. Double-posted.

Actually, poultry was originally in the same category as fish. However, at some point, the Rabbis decided to move it over to the same category as meat in order to minimize confusion. In Judaism, there is a tradition of precendence, hence once something is decided, you can't go back.