NYT Articles on Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Culture (2005–2011)

[kristin_71]

What were the recipes like? I haven't seen her new book so I have nothing to base an opinion on, just the article.

[Andrew Fenton]

When I read it I thought: sounds like the rant of a literate eGullet member, a demographic of which I'm very fond. Jeez, folks, we express ourselves here about dining and cooking issues at least as vocally and personally as does Nora. Unfortunately the Times doesn't pay me for my opinion and clamor to put my stuff up on Sunday.

True, true; what you said.

As to Ephron's book: a blurb I read this afternoon said that it includes two food-related essays. One of them describes her quest for the recipe for a stuffed cabbage she ate in her youth. (If I remember correctly-- and I may not-- that essay appeared previously in the New Yorker, and it was pretty good.) Presumably that's one of the recipes that's in the book. At any rate, to echo Maggie's point, it's also exactly the sort of thing I'd expect to see in the Daily Gullet. Whether or not it's as good as TDG's material is another thing.

[Priscilla]

Leaving aside whatever anyone may think of the particular opinions expressed in the article, I feel compelled to say that Nora Ephron's food-world credibility is beyond reproach. She was pretty much one of the people driving the bandwagon.

I have always admired her righteousness, whether writing about feminism or food. (Not that she has been limited to these subjects.) She also combined the two, far too infrequent a mix, I think.

Would be very interesting to get her thoughts on the only-middle-aged-biddies-complain canard, for instance.

[Matcha Eyes]

While I respect Ephron's opinion, coming from someone that has never experienced service at one of those fine restaurants, I have to sort of disagree with her maybe. If a server were to be waiting on me hand and foot like some of the descriptions I have read, I think I would feel like a queen. I remember dining on a cruise ship once and thinking how honored I felt when they pushed my seat in for me so I wouldn't have to re-adjust my dress. For me, I consider service to be absolutely wonderful when special requests such as having something on the side be honored.

[JohnL]

Leaving aside whatever anyone may think of the particular opinions expressed in the article, I feel compelled to say that Nora Ephron's food-world credibility is beyond reproach.  She was pretty much one of the people driving the bandwagon.

I have always admired her righteousness, whether writing about feminism or food.  (Not that she has been limited to these subjects.)  She also combined the two, far too infrequent a mix, I think.

Would be very interesting to get her thoughts on the only-middle-aged-biddies-complain canard, for instance.

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"driving the bandwagon"???

I am curious as to what you mean and what those "credentials" are.

I don't think that credibility is the problem here.

The piece is curiously flat and humorless.

Thus, it comes across as whiney. That is the problem.

I don't think anyone needs credentials to complain about restaurant service

other than having dined out a few times.

If one is going to have their complaints published though it would be nice if

there was some style and humor--unless one is writing a letter to the editor.

It is possible this piece was taken out of the context

of some larger work. Otherwise it seems as if Ms Ephron is just being

humorless and self indulgent.

While her work is not my cup of tea, I do recognize that she can write

well and is capable of being charming, witty, insightful and sometimes funny.

I find none of that in her Times piece.

[jackbr4]

just as an update, she was featured in the sf chronicle sunday style section yesterday, which portrayed his as the ultimate foodie. i think her rant has spoiled me on her forever, since i was so annoyed with her, i couldn't finish reading the article. here's the link to the article

[johnder]

In today's food section of the New York times there is a pretty lengthy article on cocktails and ingredients contained in them that make people possibly stray away.

The full article is here

NOBODY likes my Pernod and pomegranate Cosmopolitan, but I do.

The name is a part of the problem. In its “Sex and the City” heyday, the Cosmopolitan implied the promise of fresh romance. Now that its promises have been exhausted, it has the bruised and slightly dented air of an ex-husband.

When I offer to make my drink for friends, they act as if I’ve reminded them of something they were trying to forget. When I reassure them it’s not really a Cosmopolitan and tell them what’s in it, things get worse.

“I just don’t see how that could be any good,” one said.

Another interesting passage:

According to every bartender I know, the quickest way to scare off thirsty customers turns out to be using one of the most common ingredients of all: the egg. Customers seem to think raw eggs are slimy, or unhealthy, or something consumed in liquid form only by boxers in B movies. Jose Miranda, a mixologist at WD-50 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, gets puzzled looks whenever he drops an egg yolk into his Malta Fizz. “That’s the part people don’t understand,” Mr. Miranda said. “It’s like, ‘Egg yolk in a cocktail?’

In addition to the article there is a photo shoot of a few cocktails, along with their recipes, that is here.

Of all the drinks, the Horseradish Margarita sounds the most appealing to me at the moment. Of course it is 10:30 in the morning. Do I have a problem?

Horseradish Pomegranate Margarita

Adapted from Ryan Magarian

1/3 cup fresh horseradish, peeled and chopped

1 cup silver (blanco) tequila

½ ounce Cointreau

¾ ounce fresh lime juice

½ ounce pomegranate juice

¼ ounce simple syrup.

[thirtyoneknots]

I can sort of see why that's what you're craving, but I've got bad news:

I don't think the whole cup of tequila goes in the drink.

Hope I didn't ruin it for you :-P

-Andy

[johnder]

Lol, yah. I guess leaving the preparation out of the recipe quote makes a difference. I didn't want to post the whole recipe verbatim. Needless to say you infuse the tequilla with the horseradish and use only 1.5 oz in the final drink. Although using one cup could be an interesting twist.

[ludja]

In Germany and Austria the Christmas season is still just that--a whole season that starts with the four weeks of preparation during Advent and extends to the Twelfth Night after Christmas on Jan 6 (Epiphany/Three Kings Day).

It is already the second week of Advent this year, but I ran across a very nice article that Mimi Sheraton wrote a number of years ago for the NY Times regarding a visit to Munich during the Advent season. click

(The article is available via a free online registration with the NY Times.)

In the quote below she describes some of the food available at the Christkindlmarkt (Christchild Markets) which are an old (some dating back 600 years) and continuing tradition in many German and Austrian towns and cities during the four week Advent season before Christmas. The article is full of other extensive descriptions of sweet and savory food popular during this time.

Superb, ready-made sweets can be found not only at this market but in the many confectioners' shops around town. The flat, dark, ginger-and-honey lebkuchen, laced with sugar frosting, and the crisply white, anise-scented springerle cookies are in spicy abundance, as are peppernuts (pfeffernusse) and loaves of yeasty stollen flecked with currants, nuts and jewels of candied fruits, and darkly moist birnenbrot, a sumptuous fruit bread based on dried pears. Among the more engaging offerings are the zwetschgenmandl (or zwetschgenmannchen, as they are also called), little figures of men and women made out of prunes, with painted walnut heads, dressed in folk or modern costume. These are amusing under Christmas trees or as place markers for holiday tables. A personal favorite among German Christmas candies is the marzipan-herz, a flat heart of baked almond paste. Decorated with candied citron, angelica and cherries and fitted into a gilded heart-shaped box, it is a sort of Yuletide valentine that I remember from childhood, when our German housekeeper gave me one each year.

At home, in the US. one custom we've brought over from Austria and maintained is an Advent wreath on the dining room table. Our is a metal ring to which we fashion a wreath made out of fresh evergreen and berries. It also has holders for four candles (we use red) of which one is lit during each Sunday dinner of Advent, in addition to the candle(s) from the previous week.

Edited December 11, 2006 by ludja (log)

[Behemoth]

I've been told the Mittelalterlichermarkt off of Odeonsplatz is really interesting and a little less crowded. I will be there next week, my first Christmas in South Germany. Even North Germans celebrate Christmas beautifully, I imagine in Bavaria it is even more so.

[Carrot Top]

The only thing that can top the Christmas markets in Vienna is the midnight mass at St. Stephens Church. The choir, all boys, must be angels in those moments.

A traditional seven-course Christmas Day dinner that *must* be eaten, every course, brings one back to earth in a solidly satisfying way.

The visions of the markets with gorgeous glittering baubles in the bright cold daylight, everyone bundled in hats and heavy coats and scarves and boots, the puffs of breaths showing when anyone spoke. . . the sounds of the singing angels in the warm high-ceilinged, crowded church where one had to stare at pillars reaching daintily yet with great strength soaring upward to the artwork that filled each tiny inch of the walls, the table that sat so very firmly ready to hold course after course, wine after wine, of hot savory things to be finished at the finale with that most wonderful thing in the world - a cart full of Viennese pastries rolled to the table, served up, dolloped with cream, sidled with hot bitter coffee.

That was my one Christmas in Vienna.

[Rehovot]

Czechs also celebrate Advent and Mikulas (St. Nicholas's Day, December 5th). Mikulas is celebrated the evening before, as is Christmas; on Mikulas Eve, it's common to see an angel, a devil's helper, and St. Nicholas/Mikulas running around the town in a band. Parents hire trios of teenagers dressed like this to come scare or charm the kids into good behavior from now until Christmas. And everyone gets chocolate.

Christmas decorations popped up here, immediately after Halloween. (I don't know if this is true elsewhere, but, here, Sundays preceding Christmas are referred to as Bronze, Silver, and Gold (in that order).)

The giant market in the old town square in Prague is selling svarak/mulled wine, gingerbread, etc. There are Christmas markets all over town; my favorite is the one in Vinohrady, on Namesti Miru, in front of St. Ludmila's church; the market is much smaller in scale and attracts only a handful of people.

But the main joy for me, for the last two weeks, has been the scents in the old (not by Czech standards, but 19th-century) apartment building I live in; whenever I open our apartment's front door, and step out into the stairwell, there are marvelous scents of sugar cookies, gingerbread and vanilla rising up from the floors below. Since most of the building's inhabitants are elderly ladies, there are going to be a lot of grandkids buried under piles of Christmas cookies, I suspect.

I was in Dresden, on Saturday, and the Christmas market there is mind-boggling: gingerbread, stollen, schneeballen . There was some kind of parade of culinary professionals along the edge of the market, too, in Old Town, including the Dresden Stollen team, who were carrying a samurai-sized sword/stollen-cutting knife on a wooden display slung over their shoulders. Along with them, marched butchers and a bunch of chefs. I love a town that throws a parade for food professionals.

[rooftop1000]

Did you mean something like this??

I was in Munich just last week, here is a first teaser till after work

tracey

yes it was wonderfull

[ludja]

I've been told the Mittelalterlichermarkt off of Odeonsplatz is really interesting and a little less crowded. I will be there next week, my first Christmas in South Germany. Even North Germans celebrate Christmas beautifully, I imagine in Bavaria it is even more so.

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Have a nice time; it wold be wonderful to hear of the food you find there! I guess there might be lots of nice Gluhwein.

The only thing that can top the Christmas markets in Vienna is the midnight mass at St. Stephens Church. The choir, all boys, must be angels in those moments.

A traditional seven-course Christmas Day dinner that *must* be eaten, every course, brings one back to earth in a solidly satisfying way.

The visions of the markets with gorgeous glittering baubles in the bright cold daylight, everyone bundled in hats and heavy coats and scarves and boots, the puffs of breaths showing when anyone spoke. . . the sounds of the singing angels in the warm high-ceilinged, crowded church where one had to stare at pillars reaching daintily yet with great strength soaring upward to the artwork that filled each tiny inch of the walls, the table that sat so very firmly ready to hold course after course, wine after wine, of hot savory things to be finished at the finale with that most wonderful thing in the world - a cart full of Viennese pastries rolled to the table, served up, dolloped with cream, sidled with hot bitter coffee.

That was my one Christmas in Vienna.

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What a special experience. While I've been to Austria many times, I've not been there in the Christmas seasons yet to eat all the special foods; never mind hearing the Vienna Boys Choir in person at St. Stephans!

[ludja]

What lovely observations from Prague and Dresden, Rehovat. St. Nicholas Day is also celebrated in Austria. My mom has told us that when they were young they put out their shoes out on the windowsill that day to see if it would be filled with chocolates, nuta and oranges (from St. Nicholas) if they were good or if a wooden switch would be left behind by the Krampus or devil-like figure who leaves those for 'bad' children. There were people that would dress up as St. Nicholas and Krampus and also go through the neighborhoods. Some more on St. Nicholas Day here.

Love the descriptoin of the smells of Christmas baking in your building as well and the parade of Stollen makers in Dresden! I haven't tried making my own Stollen yet but need to try soon. I would like to try a Dresden Stollen with marzipan inside it.

I have to find Adam Balic's thread from last year re: his visit ot Austria during Advent and link it here. I think he had some photos of the "Schneeballen" or snowballs. As I recall, they are large fried pastries made with strips wound around so that looks like snow ball when it is powdered with sugar.

Thanks for sharing some photos from your trip, rooftop1000! Hope you come back with more of your report and experiences in Munich during advent.

Edited December 15, 2006 by ludja (log)

[ludja]

I forgot one of the most obvious food-related items of Advent--a chocolate-filled Advent calendar.

While I now use a calendar w/out choclate in it, my sister and I loved finding the little door to open during each day during Advent to find a chocolate figure inside. Of course, we had ot alternate days

[judiu]

Thank you ALL for this thread; my Christmas isn't going to be much this year, and to share others is so great! Christmas around Europe, what a thrill for an armchair traveler!

[Carrot Top]

What a special experience.  While I've been to Austria many times, I've not been there in the Christmas seasons yet to eat all the special foods; never mind hearing the Vienna Boys Choir in person at St. Stephans!

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Strangely enough, it was accidental. No plans really made, but the hotel I had chosen was in the eaves of St. Stephans. Just chose it by intuition, two weeks ahead of time. Didn't even know there would be a boys' choir but wandered over at the urging of the hotel clerk. Whew.

Yes.

All I was looking for in Vienna was a slice each of sachertorte and dobostorte. Ah, but I was surprised with so much more.

..........................................................

The day after Christmas we drove into what was a dying East Germany (this was 1989), taking as passenger a woman who wanted to cross the border but who had no transportation and the trains were not running well. She had not seen her brother or his family since their separation as children when she was sent to live with her aunt on the other side of the Wall.

That was a part of Christmas to remember too - the small coal-heated home, her reunion with her brother and his family that she had never seen - the dreadful ham they had that was the best thing that they could offer as refreshment and how they did so with deep warmth - her fourteen year old nephew who wanted to be an "astronaut" and who spoke English (translating for his parents and aunt), and the Christmas tree glass decorations, manufactured in that small East German factory town by her brother and others - given as gifts to take home.

I still have my piece of the Wall, those glass decorations, and the taste of perfect sachertorte from the Hotel Sacher mit lots of schlag, plus the view imprinted in memory of well. . .what else. . .the Lippinzauer stallions dancing on a winter's eve, swooping back through Vienna just to see them, on the way back from East Germany before going on to Czechoslovakia.

Edited December 15, 2006 by Carrot Top (log)

[rooftop1000]

Ok someone mentioned cake pans and cookie cutters I believe

T

[rooftop1000]

and bakeries too

T

[rooftop1000]

I dont think anyone mentioned department store windows or potato pancakes but...here ya go

T

[rooftop1000]

And dinner our last night, I realize that 2nd pic is kinda crummy but it is a picture of the "" English Menu for Aliens"" and I cant resist posting it

T

[legourmet]

I dont think anyone mentioned department store windows or potato pancakes but...here ya go

T

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All well known. My grand doughter spent hours in front of these department store windows to see the moving bears.

[rooftop1000]

And finally our last meal in Germany...I dont know if you can make Jaegerschnitzle look amazing in a picture but I failed.....Damn was it good though. Pork cutlet perfectly golden with a mushroom sauce and spatzle....and a platter called I believe a "hunters snack" with Leberkass, boiled bacon, sausage, roast pork and a bread dumpling.

uh oh guests are here more later

Tracey