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

Bits and Pieces: Calamata-Feta Mustard, Morimoto Soba Ale, Three-Course Cocktails, Bamboo Rice, and Focaccia Col Formaggio (Florence Fabricant)

Green Table could offer no better advertisement for its catering business than its superb mezze plate..., which would make perfect bites for any cocktail reception. One night it included tiny cubes of apples, beets and ginger, cool and refreshing on an endive leaf; a dollop of rich foie gras perched on a juicy, acidic apple slice; a tantalizing brioche crouton topped with North American caviar and crème fraîche; and a savory little spanakopita.

A Good Excuse to Visit Chelsea Market: Green Table (Eric Asimov)

Off the Menu: ChikaLicious, New Openings, and Hue (pronounced "whey") (Florence Fabricant)

Recipes:

1. Grilled Bluefish With Chourico and Clams

2. Pasta With Mint and Parmesan

A bit short on the recipes, eh?

Soba

Edited July 30, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

SobaAddict70 · August 3, 2003

DIGEST: NYTimes Weekend Report

Adventurous palates will jump for innovations like plantain and goat cheese pancakes, the side dish that comes with tamarind-glazed sirloin steak, or chicken and squash blossom enchiladas in pumpkin-seed sauce.

Mexican cuisine for the new century at Sueños (William Grimes)

The cocktail is as basic as a bet: liquor and soda, tequila and Mexican Squirt, which is a grapefruit soda. Squirt is a sweeter, tarter version of citrus sodas like Fresca.

Sidebar: Mexican Margaritas

The pousada's caprese salad, tangy with sun-dried tomato pesto, became a favorite: served with a basket of focaccia and olive bread, it almost made a meal.

Destination: Rio's Riviera (Susan Stellin)

James Beard served figs alongside crisp bacon, and in Eric Ripert's latest cookbook, ''A Return to Cooking,'' there's a recipe for figs wrapped in bacon and baked and accompanied by a shallot confit. Inspired by two different Jeremiah Tower recipes, I made a relish out of the figs I toted home from George's trees and served it with some thick pan-fried pork chops.

Figs in Season (Julia Reed)

Recipes:

1. Fig and Almond Tart

2. Fig Relish

3. Judy Reed's Fig Preserves

Have a good week folks,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · August 7, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

But the mantra of the environmentalists — to think globally and buy locally — applies to fish as much as it does to anything else. No factory trawler the length of a football field takes to the sea to haul bluefish or fluke by the ton, as happens with some catches in international waters.

Global Fish, Local Fish (Florence Fabricant)

For winemakers, though, what's happened already has bordered on the miraculous. In the hilly vineyards of Piedmont, Barolo and Barbaresco, producers reserve their best south-facing slopes — the ones where the snow melts first — for nebbiolo vines, so that the grapes can absorb every last bit of sunshine in their annual battle to ripen. Each year, historically, was a roll of the dice. Maybe, just maybe, the weather would warm enough and the rains would hold off. But after a few below-average years in the early 90's, 1995 was very good, and '96 was great. So were '97 and '98, all the way through 2001. Nobody in Piedmont could recall anything like it.

A Grape For All Seasons (Eric Asimov)

The front door to Candle 79 was built on a diagonal, which means it is slanted in Ms. Wendell's parlance, and she says that is no laughing matter.

Vegan Ghostbusters (Alex Wichtel)

Chinese Inspiration, British Execution (Nigella Lawson)

Shavings of tuna bottarga, salty and penetrating, act as a catalyst for a salad of oranges, sliced onion and Sicilian tomatoes. Little squares of raw tuna, halibut and salmon, arranged in a checkerboard pattern, get minimal handling — a drizzling of extra virgin olive oils scented with dill.

In Ms. Fada, San Domenico has a more than worthy successor to a long list of distinguished chefs. She doesn't need to live up to the restaurant. The restaurant needs to live up to her.

If Only It Weren't For The Service -- Shortcomings at San Domenico (William Grimes)

The arepas are superb, with a subtle corn flavor that is amplified by the various fillings. Almost all the combinations I've tried are excellent, like reina pepiada..., a chicken-and-avocado salad that is a Venezuelan classic, and guasacaca..., a sort of Venezuelan guacamole made with avocados, lemon juice and olive oil.

Caracas Arepa Bar (Eric Asimov)

Bits and Pieces: Lemon Cucumbers, Soda Seltzer, Beer Holders, Openings and Closings, Food As Art (Florence Fabricant)

A broad satisfied smile crossed Mr. White's face. The sandwiches, the exquisite pastries and the hundreds of other reasonably priced delectables in lovely arrangements in display cases and on the counters at the vast food hall were vivid proof of a point that he has been trying to impress on me for some time: If you look around, you can eat as cheaply in Tokyo as any in other major world city.

$300 Melons in Tokyo (Joe Sharkey)

Best NY Wine of 2003 (Howard G. Goldberg)

Gastronomic Repasts in Bath, England (Jacqueline Friedrich)

Recipe: Tomato and Bread Soup

Letters

Correction

Recipes in today's section:

1. Pineapple and Molasses Spareribs

2. Ginger Semifreddo

3. Weakfish Grilled Over Basil

4. Blackfish Stewed With Corn

5. Flounder in Saor

6. Skewered Chicken Thighs in Peanut Sauce

Enjoy,

Soba

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PS. Nonstop work today, so sorry for the late appearance of today's Digest.

SobaAddict70 · August 10, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 8 August 2003 -- Sunday, 10 August 2003

A perfect case in point was an appetizer of nearly raw rolls of blue fin tuna wrapped in paper-thin slices of bacon and quickly seared. The tuna sat on a "slaw" of seaweed, carrots and onions, dressed with sesame oil and vinegar, and was served with a subtle orange-miso sauce so delicious the chef ought to sell it by the jar.

In the morning the hot Virginia summer sun lit up every corner of the three-story inn, which is nestled between two churches in a spit of a town that ends almost as soon as it begins. Hope and Glory, a hideaway with seven guest rooms and six cottages on two and a half acres, likes to advertise itself as one of the most romantic inns in the country.

Quaint Charm and Romance at Hope and Glory Inn (Adam Nagourney)

It was a visit to Patsy's on West 56th Street near Eighth Avenue that inspired my search for the city's other red sauce restaurants. Patsy's offers a glimpse into what I imagined to be my family's past, a time when Italian restaurants, like Italian-Americans, were making their way into mainstream culture. Opened in 1944 by Pasquale Scognamillo (his son, Joe, now runs the restaurant, and his grandson Sal is the head chef), Patsy's was the place Frank Sinatra held court and the Yankees celebrated their World Series victories back when baseball players lived middle-class lives. After one victory, Sinatra picked up the check for the entire team.

A Tour of New York City's Red-Sauce Restaurants (Mark Rotella)

Critics say Mr. Parker's taste is that of an American educated with California's best wines. Those are more powerful wines, "rounder," and easier to drink in their younger years, many French wine enthusiasts say, unlike wine with more tannic acid, which are better after 10 years.

Wine Chauvinism (Craig S. Smith)

Visiting El Bulli for the first time last fall, I discovered what they were talking about. Adrià was celebrating his 20th anniversary at the restaurant with a seasonlong retrospective of his greatest hits. The menu included 30 tapas-size dishes, each identified by the date of its introduction. Indicative of Adrià's accelerating creativity, most were from the previous three years. Welcoming cocktails of a frozen whisky sour and a foam mojito were accompanied by popcorn that had been powdered and reconstituted as kernels and a tempura of rose petals.

Pushing the Culinary Envelope (Arthur Lubow)

But it was an obsession with cleanliness, rather than convenience, that inspired Joseph Fedele, the founder of FreshDirect, to start his firm. Mr. Fedele, who says he helped found the Uptown Fairway (he and Fairway's management cannot agree on what his title was, but more on that later), said he was appalled by the lack of refrigeration for perishable items in grocery stores, and the fact that shoppers, store clerks and anyone else could paw through every apple display and olive bin, leaving germs behind.

FreshDirect -- Where Freshness Rules The Roost (Jennifer Steinhauer)

The best dessert is dense Greek yogurt, served in a martini glass and sprinkled with raspberries, blackberries and strawberries. A drizzling of herb-scented honey and a few candied walnuts add an extra little sweetness.

A Greek Restaurant That Strives For A Little More Elevation Among The Pantheon Of Greek Restaurants (William Grimes)

Restaurant Capsules: Steak, Steak And More Steak

Wine Under $20

Have a good week, folks.

Soba

SobaAddict70 · August 11, 2003

NYTimes DIGEST Supplement

Monday, 11 August 2003

Juan Luna, a Mexican immigrant, opened Tulcingo Travel on Roosevelt Avenue in 1996 after he saw a growing need for a package service between Puebla State and New York. His couriers deliver the packages to five offices in the Puebla region, and sometimes directly to a person's home, with the help of his brother, who manages the business from Mexico.

Food Gift Packages -- When Sparing No Expense Is The Solution To Homesickness (Andrea Elliott)

Just a little something I noticed.

Soba

Edited August 11, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

SobaAddict70 · August 14, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 13 August 2003

Stock made by simmering oxtails and marrow bones for 24 hours, along with onions, star anise, ginger and cinnamon bark, was bubbling away in a cauldron perched on a charcoal stove. Bowls of various meats — cooked chicken, giblets, paper-thin raw sirloin, pig hearts — awaited our inspection. We chose beef.
If you choose chicken, you will be eating pho ga; if you choose beef, you will be eating pho bo. I don't imagine for a minute that you'll choose pig hearts.

On eGullet, It's Larb. In Hanoi, It's Pho. (R.W. Apple, Jr.)

When it seemed that grilling could go no further, Mr. Tower served grilled California goat cheese, and then turned the journalists into his abject slaves with dessert, a mixture of grilled tropical fruit and raspberries in passion fruit syrup.

The High Priest Of Reinvention: Jeremiah Tower And "California Dish" (William Grimes)

Ms. Powell has surfaced on Ms. Child's radar screen. "I've heard of her," Ms. Child said. "I haven't seen any of her stuff." It took Ms. Child, Ms. Beck and Ms. Bertholle nearly eight years to complete the manuscript and recipe testing. "Simca and I did most of them, and Louisette sort of commented on them," she added. (Simca is Simone Beck.)

13 Days -- The Julie/Julia Project (Amanda Hesser)

The restaurant may not have tongue in almond sauce, but it serves a first-rate morcilla, or blood sausage, uncompromisingly rich, with a black, fluffy interior. Sweet simmered onions make the ideal complement. Veal sweetbreads, very lightly breaded, are grilled just past the point of translucency, as they should be, so they retain flavor and a certain creamy consistency in the interior.

The Argentine Peter Luger (William Grimes)

Falling-off-the-bone lamb..., with apricots, prunes and almonds, is like an enormous helping of dessert. Tender duck with roasted pears and figs...achieves much better balance, while chicken...offsets the sweetness of preserved lemon with olives.

East Sixth Street's Newest Entrant (Eric Asimov)

Squid A La Plancha (Mark Bittman)

"If more people ate pork chops," Mr. Schlesinger said, "things would be better in the world."

Did Someone Say Pork? (Sam Sifton)

Florence Fabricant Q&A

Bits And Pieces: Toma Bellas, Gourmet Fruit Syrups, South Carolina Stone Crabs, Curry Truffles, and Chefly Migrations (Florence Fabricant)

For his ribs, Mr. Norstein uses a dry rub of brown sugar, garlic salt, granulated onion, cumin, paprika and chili powder. The results are juicy and very smoky, with a gorgeous brownish black caramelized exterior. Mr. Norstein's sauce, made with apricots, black vinegar and red pepper, is perfectly fine but absolutely unnecessary.

Memphis-Style BBQ In Pawling, N.Y. (Ed Levine)

Correction

Recipes:

1. Grilled Pork Chops With Glazed Peaches

2. Grilled Squid Salad

Maybe we should invite Mr. Norstein over to the NJ pig pickin', eh?

Soba

SobaAddict70 · August 18, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 15 August 2003 -- Sunday, 17 August 2003

Yes, I know it's late by a couple of days. Sorry for the tardiness, I had a few things to take care of courtesy of the blackout and recovery effort. :angry:

On with the report.

Soba

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As recently as last year, the breakup of her marriage to the renowned plastic surgeon Daniel Baker (usually referred to in print as ''the Park Avenue plastic surgeon'' and the only one Howard Stern recommends for your face) was chronicled in the tabloids. ''Dan is the best plastic surgeon in the city,'' she says in mock complaint. ''The worst thing about the divorce is now that I'm 49 and could use one, I can't go to him for a face lift.'' Has she had one yet? ''No, I swear it, I haven't,'' she says, tugging at her neck and chin in proof.

Adventures in Gastronomy with Nina Griscom (Jonathan Reynolds)

Recipe:

1. Nina Griscom's Haricots Verts

Restaurant Capsules: Small Plates and Tiny Bites

When I first visited Poland in 1976, at the height of the Communist era, the Rynek looked new and slightly phony, like a film set. It had been rebuilt as a single unit, with no interstices between houses. Somehow over the interval of 27 years, the square has grown into its skin. Once a market place, the Rynek today is an immensely lively center, dense with flower stalls and the umbrellas of outdoor cafes and bistros. In summer old folk come in from the farms in their Sunday best, to eat their sandwiches and enjoy the strumming of strolling groups of musicians.

Destination: Warsaw, Poland (Alistair Horne)

Appetizers can be as plain as grilled Portuguese sardines or grilled shrimp sprinkled with coarse sea salt. Pan-roasted quail with port and figs is as far as the kitchen wants to push things, but it manages to keep the interest level high.

Mediterranean Fusion In Park Slope (William Grimes)

Most ludicrous has been the combat between Daniel Boulud and the Old Homestead to dethrone the ''21'' Club's claim of the most expensive burger in town. Back in the day (a different day, or a different back) the burger at ''21'' used to run you $21, and you paid it because it was outrageous and you liked the place (and the burger was great). But a couple of years ago, Boulud, at his DB Bistro Moderne, created a tower of ground meat and charged $27 for it because it included foie gras. Much press was made of this, though neither the burger nor the foie was improved.

When Hot Dogs Become Gourmet (Jonathan Reynolds)

Recipes:

1. Choucroute-Style Sauerkraut -- Adapted from La Coupole, Paris

2. Hot Dog Buns -- Adapted from Daniel Boulud's ''Daniel's Dish''

SobaAddict70 · August 20, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 20 August 2003

Although bulletin boards on Web sites like Chowhound and Citysearch offer mind-boggling numbers of recommendations, the best inside sources generally come by word of mouth. (Mr. Miano was introduced to the joys of Zankou Chicken by his employer, Paul Weitz, director of the 2002 film "About a Boy." )

True food fans will seek out those little-known places frequented by locals, whose presence both attests to the authenticity of the cuisine and provides a fashionably anti-hip atmosphere. Such is the scene at Palms Thai in Hollywood, for example, where an Asian Elvis impersonator, with jeweled belts and mutton-chop sideburns, sings karaoke while Thai families shovel down tom kha gai at long banquet tables.

The Anti-Olive Garden (Janelle Brown)

There is one chef, Ferran Adrià, who really understands this principle. Mr. Adrià's restaurant, El Bulli, is perched on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, where summers are very hot. One of his best-known dishes is a pea and mint soup. The soup is very good, but pea soup alone was not going to make him famous. Mr. Adrià uses temperature to raise the bar. The soup is served in a small glass; it begins hot, but as you drink it, it somehow becomes cooler and ends cold.

Temperature: When Chefs Play With Their Food (Amanda Hesser)

Champagne sauce has the deceptive tensile strength of a spider web. Sweet and slightly piquant, it stands up to a muscular slab of wild salmon coated in a hot horseradish crust. Perhaps most impressive is the featherweight fines herbes jus pooled around slices of pink Muscovy duck baked in a clay papillote. As with the seared foie gras, Mr. Kreuther reveals the flavor of his main ingredients without resorting to the usual syrups and fruit sauces. He has a talent for confounding expectations.

Atelier (William Grimes)

To this end, a meal might begin with a refreshingly tingly plate of pickled cabbage...that recalls the numbing pleasures of Sichuan cuisine. It might move into a creation of shredded pressed tofu with dried ham, shrimp and chicken in a soft, milky bath...that would not have been out of place at a Hong Kong banquet celebrating the end of British rule.

Hong Kong Newcomer In Old-Style Chinatown (Dining editor Sam Sifton sitting in for a vacationing Eric Asimov)

A vegwich needs well-placed accents, and that is where tomatoes, onions and peppers come in: raw, roasted or grilled. If the tomatoes are just passable, a slow oven and a roasting rack will bring out their best. Crisp, sweet summer onions like Vidalia or Walla Walla should be raw and just sliced; common storage onions need to be softened with heat.

Vegwiches: It's What's For Dinner (Kay Rentschler)

At My Table (Nigella Lawson)

Bits and Pieces: Yak Cheese, Grandma's Desserts, Tupelo Honey, Vegemite on Brioche and Openings Galore (Florence Fabricant)

The base is a bacon-studded potato cake, the topping grated cheese and egg. Those are the only ingredients.

The Minimalist: Atkins' Dieters, Stay Away! (Mark Bittman)

The Latest Offering From Craft: Corn Risotto (Laurie Woolever)

The Chinese Pret-A-Manger (Susan Saulny)

Recipe: Lobster Salad with Avocado and Hearts of Palm

Recipes in today's section:

1. Summer Meatballs

2. Strawberry Pavlova

3. Roast Lamb with Basil-Anchovy Sauce

4. Zucchini Soup

5. Tomato and Potato Tart

6. Shredded Potato Cake with Egg, Cheese and Bacon

7. Vegetarian Dagwood

8. Sauerkraut, Beet and Cucumber Roll-up with Walnuts

9. Classic Margarita

Cheers,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · August 25, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 22 August 2003 -- Sunday, 24 August 2003

The Sau Voi classic is pâté, ham, turkey, cucumber, carrots and hot sauces on warm, crunchy French bread. On the menu, a customer also finds dozens of other selections: shrimp fried noodles ($2), coconut jam sandwiches ($2.50) and shredded green papaya with shrimp and fish sauce ($2).

Entrees are divided into grilled and nongrilled dishes. Either way Mr. Silverman's love of the Greenmarket shines through, in rack of lamb with a salad of fava beans, arugula and melted pecorino, and grilled lobster tails with corn, wax beans and cherry tomatoes.

Diner's Journal: Lever House Restaurant (William Grimes)

The courtroom battle over direct shipping may wind up in the Supreme Court. Several challenges to the shipping laws have already gone to federal appeals courts — and resulted in contradictory decisions. The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago determined in 2001 that Indiana's laws prohibiting direct shipping were constitutional. But other appellate courts decided this year that laws in North Carolina and Texas were not.

When Conservatives Clash Over Wine (Eryn Brown)

Restaurant Capsules: Mediterranean Manhattan

However, my very favorite new iceberg salad is found in ''The Gift of Southern Cooking,'' by Edna Lewis and Scott Peacock. With the B.L.T. salad, the duo has achieved the impossible -- they've created something even more perfect than a B.L.T. The salad is the sandwich in a bowl: a head of iceberg, about eight slices of toasted white bread, 10 or 12 slices of crispy bacon and four tomatoes, all cut into one-inch pieces, and tossed with mayonnaise, salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. The toast and the bacon should still be warm, the tomatoes should be really ripe and the mayo should be homemade, with a whisk, so that it is loose enough to work.

Revenge of the Iceberg Lettuces (Julia Reed)

Recipes:

1. Iceberg With Smoked-Bacon-and-Buttermilk Dressing (Adapted from Robert Carter, Peninsula Grill)

2. Buttermilk Herb Dressing

3. Thousand Island Dressing

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Have a good week, folks.

Soba

SobaAddict70 · August 28, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 27 August 2003

She set the bowl down and left them on the grill for a minute more, then transferred them carefully to white ceramic plates. She asked us to spoon over each of the oysters a warm lemon-chive beurre blanc from a ceramic crock, a sauce she had prepared that morning by whisking butter, pat by pat, into a tablespoon of a syrupy reduction of white wine, red-wine vinegar and chopped shallots.
"Butter sauce on anything tastes good," she said, and set more shucked oysters on the grill, and covered them with the bowl. "Old shoes even."

The Chef: Rebecca Charles (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

But nothing, for me, matched the shrimp with tamarind sauce. The pulp inside the tamarind pods, which look like giant brown beans, had been sweetened just enough to balance its sourness, and gobs of black pepper added a contrasting punch. The combination was fabulous. I thought of semisweet chocolate, but Betsey put the matter much more aptly. "Spice candy," she said.
The plates and cutlery were good-looking and the service was charming. The only jarring note, at least to us, was the flag that we could see out the window — a yellow star on a red field. Just then, it was hard to believe we were in a Communist nation.

Rising Culinary Dragon: Vietnam (R.W. Apple, Jr.)

Most pears ripen in fall and winter, but Bartlett is the pear of summer, juicy and sweet, with a distinctive musky aroma. Unlike most varieties, it announces its readiness by changing from light green to bright lemon yellow, just as its white, fine-grained flesh turns tender and melting. Although not as sugary and spicy as Seckel, or as luscious as Comice, Bartlett greatly surpasses D'Anjou, the most common fresh pear, in eating quality.

Pears, Glorious Pears (David Karp)

A more ambitious dish, duck cooked three ways, lets the kitchen show off without recourse to truffles. It consists of a seared breast, a leg cooked as a confit and liver turned into a rich spread smeared on toast. Roasted nectarines, sweetly tart, set off the meat perfectly.

A Bounty of Truffles (William Grimes)

But really, how bad can a lobster roll be, so long as the mayonnaise is fresh, the count on the lobster high and the hot dog bun toasted and warm? It's a sweet little sandwich, and those who find themselves in the neighborhood would not be wasting time to walk a few blocks to consume it. (The crab version, a little less sweet, with slightly more heft to it, is also fine.)

Shoeless Diners at Hurricane Hopeful (Sam Sifton)

Wild blueberries are smaller and noticeably tastier cousins of the marble-size behemoths grown throughout the country and sold in grocery stores. It is difficult to describe their flavor because no two handfuls taste exactly the same. Unlike cultivated blueberries, a field of the wild crop contains dozens of slightly different plant varieties, called clones, which produce distinctly shaped and flavored berries. Part of the fun is noticing how one batch is impossibly sweet, the next tart and spicy.

Blueberry Economics (Norman Vanamee)

Bits and Pieces: Kansas City-style BBQ, Brooklyn Figs, Mondo Openings, Tiger Shrimp and Flavored Soy (Florence Fabricant)

Ice Pops at Paletería La Michoacána (Melissa Clark)

Recipes in today's section:

1. Lobster Mixed Grill

2. Lemon-Chive Beurre Blanc

3. Scallop Chowder

4. Pizza Dough

5. White Pizza and Variations

Sorry for the late report folks. Busy at work and all.

Soba

SobaAddict70 · August 31, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 29 August 2003 -- Sunday, 31 August 2003

Mr. Villa brings his usual finesse to rustic dishes like strozzapretti alla carbonara, an assemblage of long, curled pasta, fresh peas and small chunks of salty pancetta. No cream is used, so the pea flavor pops out.

From Portugal to Italy -- A Makeover Martha Would Be Proud Of (William Grimes)

Restaurant Capsules: Heirloom Tomatoes

I adore buttermilk and always have, straight from the bottle or in a mound of steaming homemade biscuits or as a marinade for fried chicken, where its light acidity gouges the flesh just right. The combination of creaminess, fatlessness and a mild sourness seems particularly restorative in the depths of August. It has always reminded me of yogurt, though without the heavy texture and certainly without the promotional budget.

A Taste of Summer's End (Jonathan Reynolds)

Recipes in the Magazine's food section:

1. Buttermilk Soup With Cardamom Ice Cream

2. Tomato Tart

3. Haricots Verts Salad

Soba

Edited August 31, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

SobaAddict70 · September 3, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 3 September 2003

Starting down the road to that position will cost Mr. Stalzer $20,000 for an 11-month course. And he said that when he does embark on his career, he will be concerned about finances. "Going from a Goldman Sachs salary to a restaurant salary is like night and day," he said. "This field is nerve-racking but exciting, with everyone striving to be the best."

Drew Nieporent, a graduate of the school of hotel administration at Cornell, said he was a big believer in formal culinary education. "The school of hard knocks teaches you a lot, but the schools teach more, like managing, ordering, sanitation," he said. "I've hired many people with formal training."

From Wall Street to Line Cook -- Culinary Students and the Changing Economy (Florence Fabricant)

The tomato tart, which has a quickly made and very rich crust (easily done by hand or in the food processor), is fresh and straightforward. But it has a surprise ingredient, a hefty dose of mustard. "My family cooks a lot with mustard," she said. "We like strong flavors in everything."

Provence in Greenwich Village (Mark Bittman)

Asked repeatedly by trailing journalists whether the White House continued to serve French fries and whether Mr. Bush continues to eat them since the diplomatic rift with France over the Iraq war, Mr. Scheib answered yes and yes.
"All Americans eat French fries," he told one reporter, a bit testily. "It's America's favorite potato."
As for whether Mr. Bush has ever tried tête de veau, Mr. Scheib seasoned his response with diplomacy. "This may not be something he has had the opportunity to taste," he said.

But No Mention of French Candid Camera!?! Hmmm. (Elaine Sciolino)

If chicken tikka sounds complicated, it's because the chicken tikka that most people think of is chicken tikka masala, the pseudo-Indian dish created in Britain (and now, apparently, exported to India). Actually, it should not be disdained. But this dish is simpler and lighter. The tikka is the marinade, hot spices in cool yogurt, which tenderizes the chicken and infuses it with aromatic, mellow fire.

Nigella Does Indian (Nigella Lawson)

Caramelized black cod (otherwise known as sable and not exactly the fish you'd expect to see) does not get the kind of sweet, weighty sauce that seems to be standard for this oily fish. It comes instead with a fruity blood-orange sauce and lightly sautéed bok choy. Onions in a sweet-sour escabeche act like a condiment when paired with a gently poached striped bass, each pickled string good for an electric pulse of flavor. Nectarines add an opulent, seasonal sweetness to honey-glazed duck breast sprinkled with toasted almonds and served with roasted baby beets.

The "New AZ" re-emerges as Sage (William Grimes)

As good as the sushi can be, some of my favorite flavors at Sushi Yasu came from the more experimental cooked dishes, like two tall cups of steamed egg custard...., one flavored with shrimp, which was forgettable, and one flavored with foie gras, which was anything but, the light, delicate custard saturated with foie like an intense mousse. Bits of lobster meat perched on endive, served with grapefruit sections..., was a graceful and refreshing combination, while the full-bore flavor of thin rectangular slices of pork belly...was given the illusion of lightness by a lemony soy sauce.

Sushi Fusion In Ways Unexpected (Eric Asimov)

When dead ripe, some of the best selections of beach plums are almost as sweet as cherries, but the fruit's primary use is likely to remain for preserves. However, many of the beach plum products sold at gift shops and farm stands on Cape Cod and Long Island come from a few large private label manufacturers and, according to Dr. Uva and Mr. Smolowitz, have little or no beach plum content. Several jars sampled recently had a brown color and burnt prune flavor but no discernable beach plum taste.

Beach Plums -- Like Wild Mushrooms, Only They're Fruit (David Karp)

Bits and Pieces: Vanderbilt Punch, Iroquois Corn, Yuzu Rice Vinegar, "Caramel" the cookbook, and Openings/Closings (Florence Fabricant)

Oyster Farms in Martha's Vineyard (Joan Nathan)

The Minimalist: Szechuan Stir-Fried Chicken Skin (Mark Bittman)

Son of Malawry's Blog (Tania Ralli)

Recipe: Smoked Trout with Celery Salad

In the early weeks, classes covered topics like potatoes, organ meats, eggs and pastry dough. After the introductory classes, we cooked 50 recipes over and over in preparation for the midterm exam, which, like the final, tested our ability to cook two recipes picked out of a hat. We were marked on efficiency, speed, taste and presentation. Success at this level meant moving on to cook for the school's restaurant.

Letters

Recipes in today's section:

1. Chicken Tikka

2. Spicy Onion Relish

3. Coconut Marzipan Cake

4. Zucchini Flan with Tomato Coulis

5. Cherry Clafoutis

6. Tomato Tart

7. Soupe Au Pistou

8. Migas (Chorizo and Bread)

9. Sichuan Chicken with Chiles

Have a good week folks,

Soba

Edited September 3, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

SobaAddict70 · September 8, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 5 August 2003 -- Sunday, 7 August 2003

Sorry for the late report folks, I was away for a good part of the weekend. --Soba

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In August, French connoisseurs of chocolate definitively lost a battle against the bureaucrats of the European Union. Up to 5 percent of the cocoa butter in chocolate may be replaced by other vegetable fats — Mr. Constant refers to them as "bad margarine" — and still be called chocolate.

Chocolate Surprise, Part One (John Tagliabue)

Octopus, usually grilled with a squirt of lemon and served in a pool of olive oil, goes off in a different direction at Django, where it's marinated in lemongrass and ginger, grilled Spanish style a la plancha, and served with a potato salad dressed with bacon and paprika broth.

A Sense of Mediterranean Adventure (William Grimes)

Restaurant Capsules: Cheap Eats

The Atkins diet has triumphed, the French diet guru Michel Montignac is in resurgence and ''low carbs'' has become the mantra (or is it war cry?) of the fit and fabulous. So in a clever bit of adaptation, bread, once the benign starter to every restaurant meal, has migrated to the other, more sinful side of the menu. It has become dessert.

Chocolate Surprise, Part Two (Michael Boodro)

Recipe in today's issue: Maury Rubin's Grilled Chocolate Sandwich

Since the day it opened, 66, Jean-Georges Vongerichten's homage to Hong Kong, has been packing them in. Clearly the restaurant is feeding a hunger for more than just pea-shoot-and-tofu dumplings and green-tea icebox cake.

When Supermodels Dine Out (Michael Boodro)

Entertaining 101 (William Norwich)

New York beckons, and the crew will venture out, as a crew. Their schedules don't offer any chinks for new friends. "If you're free and you ask me to dinner, by the time I'm free, you're not available any more," said Ms. Carter, who is hoarding her spare time to work her way through the current canon of chef's cookbooks and their restaurants — Thomas Keller, Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud. She visited Mr. Batali's Babbo the other night; she'd been waiting for weeks to go.

Life Aboard A Megayacht (Penelope Green)

Edited September 8, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

SobaAddict70 · September 10, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 10 September 2003

"FOOD is the purest democracy we have," K. F. Seetoh said as we dug into breakfast bowls of bak kut teh, a peppery, restorative Teochew soup of pork ribs, mushrooms and kidneys. "Singaporeans recognize no difference between bone china and melamine."

Nosh Heaven in Singapore (R.W. Apple, Jr.)

But that is easier said than done, considering that Michelin often removes restaurants' third stars after an acclaimed chef dies or leaves. The lords of Michelin warn that keeping a third star hinges on providing splendid food and service day after day, without hitches. Losing a third star can reduce business by a third. Michelin will release its newest ratings in February.

The Michelin Road Waits For No One, Not Even Those In Mourning (Steven Greenhouse)

WHEN you are seated at Mix in New York, the restaurant in Midtown that Alain Ducasse opened on Monday, the first thing you are served is a little white Corian rack with slices of sourdough toast. Alongside, with spreaders, are little pots of butter, grape marmalade and peanut butter. Peanut butter?

The peanut butter, homemade of course, signals what Mix is about. And so does the fact that Mr. Ducasse has chosen as chef de cuisine Mr. Psaltis, 29, who first cooked in his grandfather's diner in Queens, never went to culinary school and only went to France after working for Mr. Ducasse.

Ducasse's Newest Spinoff: Where No Chef Has Gone Before: Mix (Florence Fabricant)

"Gazpachos tend to be all red," she added, picking up a paring knife to julienne the flat strips of cucumber she had cut. "They shouldn't be." With a larger chef's knife, she then made quick work dicing the long, thin rods of cucumber into tiny squares.

Not Ready For Vegetable Prime Time (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

Likewise, a pile of crisp, crunchy jicama makes a bright contrast to the rich, spicy smoked-pork stuffing in a flaky empanada. Fat fava beans add heft and an earthy flavor to the goat-cheese filling in another empanada, rescuing it from cloying creaminess. A pool of acidic tomato coulis flavored with smoky chipotle chilies offsets the blandness of the ingredients while picking up the tang in the cheese.

Sueños (William Grimes)

Like a semaphore, the brief menu hoists a motto to the top of the page: "Hot dogs, cold beer — it's not complicated." Is it a liberating credo? Or a sneer at those who would have you believe that short-order cooking is an art? I can't say I've decided, though the hot dogs are just fine. They may not have the cachet of Niman Ranch, the Black Angus of the organic set, but for what it's worth, Schnäck's menu discloses that the spicy beef frank...comes from Sabrett, and the classic beef is from Stahl-Meyer. Both hot dogs are snappy with underlying garlic and spicy flavors, served on small toasted buns — Key Foods, for all I know.

Hot Diggity Dog! (Eric Asimov)

Corn flan is just about as far as you can get from corn in its natural state, yet it somehow represents the soul of the corn, with most of the flavor and none of the crunch.

Bits and Pieces: Rainbow Carrots, Cucumber Salsa, Vesuvio Cafe, Black Cracker Jack and Openings/Closings (Florence Fabricant)

Savory Shortbreads To Go With Wine (Melissa Clark)

Corrections

Recipes in today's section:

1. Gazpacho with Lobster and Shrimp

2. Parmesan Crackers

3. New England Clam Chowder

4. Elbow Pasta With Ham

5. Corn Flan

Cheers,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · September 15, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 12 September 2003 -- Sunday, 14 September 2003

Deep-fried eel with a glossy cinnamon sauce is fabulous, and features cinnamon of such a high quality that even the uninitiated will notice. Thin, pale steamed dumplings are filled with fresh chopped vegetables or scallops, and are supremely delicate. Prawns with garlic chives and cilantro are served with glutinous rice steamed in sherry and brought on a plate set over hot coals. Some of the dishes, like lemon chicken, approach the familiar, but even that is nicely fried. Gai lan (Chinese broccoli) is perfect, "sauced" with nothing but shredded ginger.

Choice Tables: Asia By The Thames (Mark Bittman)

Winners like yellow-tomato gazpacho soup, a real zinger with sweet bits of watermelon and crab meat, seem to be offset by the very strange shrimp toast, a sort of crostini with damp shrimp sludge heavily applied.

Diner's Journal: Chic Food For Chic People (William Grimes)

And it's not that Norwegian chefs are without invention: salt-baked cod with avocado sauce, halibut with soy jus, grilled roe deer with black salsify, crispy dried ham on salad greens, gooseberry soup, delicious potato-barley-rye flatbread and the ubiquitous sour-cream porridge appear on menus in many parts of the country.

Is Norway the New Spain? (Jonathan Reynolds)

Recipes in today's issue:

1. King Crab Soup With Saffron

2. Reindeer, Venison or Beef With Mushrooms and Berry Sauce

Have a good week,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · September 18, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 17 September 2003

Daisy May's BBQ USA opened in mid-August to instant success; the pit master there, Adam Perry Lang, is already planning an expansion. The Queens barbecue legend Robert Pearson, after a decade of false starts, has entered into a partnership with the restaurateur Ken Aretsky to smoke his signature Texas-style beef briskets on the Upper East Side, in the space that formerly housed Mr. Aretsky's Butterfield 81. And at Blue Smoke, after tantalizing Manhattan with two years of up-and-down results, Danny Meyer, the owner, and his pit master, Kenny Callaghan, seem to have finally wrestled their technical problems to the mat.

"Authentic" BBQ in New York City (Julia Moskin)

"If you put a big, thick, salty slab of country ham on the plate here, people don't know what to do with it," said David Page, the chef and an owner of Home, a restaurant in the West Village in Manhattan, who toured Kentucky back roads for artisanal country ham (and bourbon) in November. "But when you shave it thin and describe it as American prosciutto, they begin to understand what it is."
Mr. Page wraps tissue-thin, uncooked slices around sweet pickled watermelon rinds: a Southern rendition of Italy's prosciutto and melon.

Southern Prosciutto Di Parma? (Dana Bowen)

Most people think of juice as wholesome, healthy, and certainly harmless, and some juices — particularly orange and grapefruit — have a fair number of vitamins and nutrients. But other than the three vitamins and one mineral that have been added to Snapple juice blends, critics say there is little nutritional difference between them and non-caffeinated sodas.

Snapple: False Advertising (Marian Burros)

A classic salad of sliced prosciutto, melon and figs, with a few shavings of Parmesan cheese, could serve as a model for midprice Italian restaurants all over town. All the right flavors and textures were present and accounted for.

The Real Restaurant (William Grimes)

About the only thing wrong with the burrito was the firm, rubbery flour tortilla, which posed a sturdy shield between mouth and the succulent innards. Surprisingly, Chipotle had an answer, a tortilla-less burrito, which it calls the burrito bol. It's served in a bowl, naturally, and you won't miss the tortilla a bit unless you're trying to eat it on the subway.

When McDonald's Meets Burritoville (Eric Asimov)

I had dinner with an Italian friend recently, and she served up the tenderest, juiciest little lamb cutlets, sharp with lemon, sweet with oregano, infused with the warmth of garlic and chili and dotted with olives. I had to follow suit.

At My Table (Nigella Lawson)

Recipes:

1. Lamb Chops With Black Olives

2. Italian Roast Potatoes

3. Peaches in Amaretto Caramel

When her daughters were growing up, the family ate rice at least twice a week, sometimes with chicken and pork, usually with plantains. When the girls came home from school asking for spaghetti with tomato sauce, Mrs. Vizueta made an Ecuadorean version, tallarín, using chicken rubbed with two whole heads of garlic, cilantro, green peppers and Parmesan cheese.

The Andes in New Jersey (Joan Nathan)

Recipes:

1. Chicken With Garlic and Spaghetti

2. Fish Casserole With Green Plantains, Peanut Butter and Cilantro (Casuela)

The Minimalist: Mark Bittman

Recipe:

1. Veal Stew With Pineapple and Tomato

Recipe: Chili for Chili Dogs

Ducks and Geese Have Recruited Terrorists, Part The Second (Patricia Leigh Brown)

Correction

Cheers,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · September 25, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 24 September 2003

Most ominous, they left behind a videotape, taken through a window, showing Mr. Manrique and his family, including his 2-year-old son, playing in the house. Vandals also struck at the home of Mr. Manrique's French-born partner, Didier Jaubert, 46. Sonoma Saveurs is owned by the two men, their wives and Guillermo Gonzalez, 51, and his wife, Junny, who also own Sonoma Foie Gras, the only foie gras maker in the Western United States. On Aug. 12, the activists attacked the cafe with spray paint and flooded the premises — to symbolize, they said on a Web site, the damage done to ducks' digestive systems by forcibly swelling their livers.

The mangosteen — a tropical fruit about the size of a tangerine, whose leathery maroon shell surrounds moist, fragrant, snow-white segments of ambrosial flesh — can't get a visa.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Throw Us A Mangosteen! (R.W. Apple, Jr.)

Lucy Long, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green University in Ohio, had told me that tailgating was male-dominated. "It's a chance to show off," she said, "through the money spent purchasing expensive gourmet food or through culinary prowess." But there at the wheel of the seventh van in the line was Deborah Davis, who with her husband, Richard, heads a competitive barbecue team called Butt Head Barbecue. They had begun their preparations the night before, as I learned during a visit to their farm in Adrian, Mo. The Davises, both 49, have devoted a room of their modern barn to a well-equipped kitchen whose décor of football helmets, autographed pictures and banners makes it look like a shrine to the Chiefs and the University of Missouri football team.

Autumn Rituals: Tailgaiting (Peter Kaminsky)

The Chef (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

Pickled herring was definitely not a Pavillon recipe," said Roger Fessaguet, a chef at Le Pavillon and later the owner and chef of La Caravelle.

Family Memoirs (Joan Nathan)

All ingredients at Café des Artistes are guaranteed not to shock, although roasted chicken does manage an exotic side trip. It comes with fluffy basmati rice and a Middle Eastern blend of almonds, dried cherries and dried apricots. Basil-infused Sauternes sauce drapes a succulent lobster, removed from the shell, like perfumed silk.

Reinvention Or Reinvigoration? (William Grimes)

I loved an appetizer of steak tartare, served molded into two pristine red eggs, flavored with Worcestershire and cornichons rather than the traditional capers. I also loved a hunk of Spanish mackerel under an umbrella of sesame sauce, not visually arresting but delicious.

French Renegade In Red Hook (Eric Asimov)

Bread TriBeCa serves fat dollops of sublime pesto with taglierini, a medium-size ribbon pasta.
Mr. Natali is not sharing the recipe. He works by eye (to measure) and finger (to taste). Only he and his mother know the exact proportions. But as long as he stays local, that will be enough.

Pesto Alla Genoa

Chimay Grand Reserve, in a magnificent 750-milliliter bottle, is a dense coppery brew with a thick creamy head, faintly sweet with an elegant smoothness. There is also the bolder Duvel, and the almost ciderlike Liefmans Goudenband. The list, including Corsendonk and Orval Trappist Ale, goes on. Of 70 beers served, 22 are Belgian.

Tommy's Idea of Heaven (John Carpenter)

Every six weeks Don Luria invites four or five middle schoolers to dine with him and his wife at Cafe Terracotta, their restaurant in Tucson, as part of a program called Kids Dine Out. Most youngsters, he said, have eaten only in fast-food or chain restaurants, but at Cafe Terracotta they sample unfamiliar foods like calamari and duck, are encouraged to ask questions about the menu and learn basic restaurant etiquette. "The kids' eyes totally open up," Mr. Luria said.

The Anti-Olive Garden Project (Catherine C. Robbins)

Mr. Stillman, one of the great promoters in the restaurant business, is also a shrewd observer of the wine scene. He has been plugging American wines since he opened the first Smith & Wollensky in New York in 1977. "No one had California wines on their lists in those days," he said. "And they thought I was crazy to put them on mine." Actually, there were other American wine pioneers then, but not many.

Long Forgotten Love Affair: Manhattan's Chinatown (Eric Asimov)

Recipes in today's section:

1. Pork (or Chicken) Stewed in Milk

2. Blackberry Nectarine Crisp

3. Pearl Nathan's Chicken Soup

4. Matzo Balls

5. Gremlin Grill's Prime Rib

6. Greek Seasoning Blend

Cheers,

Soba

Suzanne F · September 26, 2003

Since Soba is away:

Friday, September 26, 2003

Diner's Journal: The Biltmore Room

Gary Robins makes a habit of turning up unexpectedly in the oddest places. When last spotted, he was turning out highly imaginative Asian-influenced cuisine at Mi, a restaurant that looked like a glorified sushi diner. He disappeared as mysteriously as he had arrived. Now, almost two years later, he resurfaces at the Biltmore Room, an elegant outsider on a scruffy block.

This is one of the most thoroughly positive DJ's I can remember seeing: every dish mentioned is good, some are superb. Not a single negative anywhere (could that be why there's no mention of the service?).

(link to follow)

Edited September 26, 2003 by Suzanne F (log)

Suzanne F · September 29, 2003

Here, at last, is the link for Diner's Journal on the Biltmore Room.

SobaAddict70 · October 2, 2003

Thanks for covering things, Suzanne.

Maybe the Times should do some investigative reporting on the sorry affairs of airplane dining. Dinner :angry: on my trip to SF and lunch on my return trip to NYC today consisted of a "sandwich" of either turkey pastrami or salami and flavorless sliced cheese on dry hamburger or mini-rolls with Hellman's dijonnaise and baby carrots/lemon cookies (outbound trip to SF) or Frito's corn chips/apple (return trip to NYC) along with the obligatory tin of spring water. Can we say CHEAPSKI?!? The situation almost begs for an expose of some sort. Airline food on domestic flights, never a luxury ticket item to begin with has declined in recent years...

On with the (late) report:

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 1 October 2003

Mei Lai Wah was there years ago when Chinatown was just a small clutch of narrow bends between Canal Street and Chatham Square. Chinatown's star shone brightest in the 1970's and 80's, when New York City's love affair with Chinese food was at its height. Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway nurtured their doomed love affair in "Manhattan" over Chinese takeout containers while Edward I. Koch, the noshing mayor, was an irrepressible Chinatown habitué. College students from Connecticut — I was one — used to consider it an adventure to drive down after midnight to Wo Hop or Hong Fat, places where even the greasiest moo shu pork tasted great at 3 a.m.

Ms. Lee calls this technique "a new way of cooking." But it is not. Her approach merely underlines a way of cooking that is rapidly growing in American culture. While cake mixes and convenience foods have been around for decades, it is only recently that attitudes toward using them have shifted from embarrassment to allegiance.

When Cooking Is Merely An Inconvenience (Amanda Hesser)

Probably the most classic and distinctive of the sheep's milk cheeses the Sankows produce is Farmstead, a very firm, dry, nutty raw-milk cheese aged for 10 months. There is also Cracked Peppercorn, a creamy soft cheese whose tartness mingles nicely with the snap of its peppery covering, and Summer Savory, also a soft cheese, flavored with the herb of the same name.

From Connecticut Sheep to Village Cheese Shop (Richard W. Langer)

It has yet to eclipse cabernet sauvignon or merlot in this country, but considering the vast plantings in Australia, where it is known as shiraz, new plantings in South America and South Africa, and its popularity in the newly invigorated vineyards of the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France, it is clear that in the course of two decades, syrah has become a leading — and exciting — wine grape.

Syrah's Re-Emergence (Frank J. Prial)

One of the best is cari ga xao lin, large pieces of chicken simmered in a clay pot with sweet coconut milk, long beans and eggplant, with a scattering of crisped shallots as a garnish. It is spicy, sweet and perfumey all at once. The chicken, beating the odds, comes out perfectly moist and tender. Coconut sticky rice is almost mandatory as a side dish.

Goat Cheese (On A Sushi Menu) At A Vietnamese Restaurant?!? (William Grimes)

Pier 116 excels at fried seafood, no small achievement. Most restaurants in New York that offer fried clams, even expensive specialists like the Oyster Bar at Grand Central, can't seem to do it right, offering you a tough or rubbery mess that would test even the most powerful jaws. But Pier 116 gets its fried clams...almost perfect, with delicate breading and that sort of nutlike clammy flavor that connoisseurs of fried clams often seek but rarely find.

Pier 116 (Eric Asimov)

"They have this okra-y thing going on," Mr. Smedstad said of the nopales' taste and reputation as a vegetable. Other people say they taste like green beans, but they readily absorb the flavors they are mixed with.

The Desert Okra (Mindy Sink)

Ducks and Geese Have Recruited Public Relations: Letters to the Editor

Recipe: Roasted Duck with Pepper and Chinese Spices

Recipes in today's section:

1. Crispy Orange Coconut Balls

2. Orange Coconut Truffles

3. Leg of Lamb, North Indian Style

4. Stress-Free Raspberry Jam

5. Spiced Pumpkin Chutney

6. Pickled Fennel St. Clements

Nice to be back in New York!

Cheers,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · October 5, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Thursday, 2 October 2003 -- Sunday, 5 October 2003

Ever budget-conscious, I usually ate in any of Ulan Bator's nearly identical canteens, called guanz, stuffing myself on buuz (mutton dumplings), khuushuur (deep-fried dough stuffed with mutton) or mutton soup for under a dollar. Though the city's water is rumored to be potable, I stuck to bottled.

The REAL Mongolia Travelblog (Michael Benanav)

Denver's restaurants, like the city itself, grew out of childhood long ago, though the period of awkward adolescence seemed to drag on. Situated in the high Colorado plains without much in the way of indigenous ingredients to shape the local cuisine, restaurants experimented with new identities, reaching ambitiously toward Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Choice Tables in Denver (Eric Asimov)

Three years ago, Ted Turner's effort to restore the country's bison herds was such a success that it created a problem: a glut of bison meat. So Mr. Turner has started a restaurant chain, Ted's Montana Grill, where he is turning bison into burgers and, in the process, hoping to build what he calls "another great fortune.''

The Next Big Thing In Burgerland (Geraldine Fabrikant and Stephanie Strom)

Once a restaurant has hired a correct chef, a brand-name interior designer and a theatrical floral artist, why, some owners ask, wouldn't it splurge for the right sound? "I offer every amenity in Hue," Mr. Amatullah said. "But without the music, the restaurant would be an empty shell."

Move Over Adam Tihany....Here Come The Designer DJs!!! (Glenn Collins)

If Julia Child almost single-handedly brought serious French food into American homes, and Marcella Hazan brought other-than-meatballs Italian, and Jane Grigson miraculously salvaged some British food from unpalatability, then there is no question that Madhur Jaffrey not only changed the way this country views Indian food but also affected the way restaurants do, too -- more than anyone. One of her early books, ''Indian Cooking,'' has sold more than a million copies worldwide, and an updated reissue has just appeared. Altogether, she has written 20 -- and found time to appear in more than 20 movies.

Sunday Magazine: Madhur Jaffrey (Jonathan Reynolds)

Recipes in today's issue:

1. Manjula Gokal's Gujarati Mango Soup

2. Lemony Chicken With Fresh Coriander

Cheerio,

Soba

Edited October 5, 2003 by SobaAddict70 (log)

SobaAddict70 · October 8, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 8 October 2003

This rice grows in a custom setting. The Sacramento Valley has plenty of solar radiation, low humidity to thwart disease, heavy clay soil to hold water and pure-water irrigation from mountain snow runoff. But the industry leaves nothing to chance. It supervises the development of improved varieties at the Rice Experiment Station in cooperation with the University of California at Davis (no genetically modified strains are among them), and regulates environmental issues, from air and water quality to wildlife habitats.

The California Rice Bowl (Kay Rentschler)

Mr. Flay's chili-fueled recipes were served for the first time at last night's performance, and it will be onstage until early November, when David Walzog, the executive chef at Strip House, offers a new menu. Geoffrey Zakarian of Town and Chris Gesualdi of Montrachet are scheduled to plan the food next.

The Food's The Thing (Florence Fabricant)

When the butter was frothy, Ms. Charles added the mushrooms to one pan and three chopped shallots to the other. "I sauté the mushrooms and the shallots separately because I think they retain their flavor better that way," she said. (Home cooks short on pans, however, can sauté them sequentially in the same pan, as we do in the recipe here.)

The Chef (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

The Complexity Debate (Frank J. Prial)

"The single greatest standard used in assessing the quality of wine is complexity," he also said then and, while the word is overworked by critics, it's still true. "The more times you can return to a glass of wine and find something different in it — in the bouquet, in the taste — the more complex the wine." No one has put it better.

Like many districts, New York City uses precooked hamburgers. Margie Feinberg, a spokeswoman for the city's school food service, said that that avoids the need for irradiation. Many districts around the country are also giving more training to their cafeteria workers in food preparation, storage and sanitation to prevent contamination.

No Irradiated Beef Coming Soon (Marian Burros)

Sustainable beef takes a bigger picture into account, he says, and while it is not completely organic, it is mostly so. "I can use some spray to kill weeds in the ditches," he said. He doesn't use chemically fertilized hay, but in a pinch he can buy hay from a neighbor, something he couldn't do with organic certification. He can use antibiotics, but only if an animal is sick — not as a preventative, as many ranchers do.

Sustainable Ranching (Jim Robbins)

A special appetizer one evening, a very basic, honest terrine of foie gras, came with a vibrant green-tomato chutney, well balanced between acid and sweet, that rose above its second-class condiment status and took over the plate.

Lever House (William Grimes)

Crisp slices of lamb's tongue...are musky and potent, yet well matched with nutlike cranberry beans. I love the loukaniko..., coarse, herby country sausage, sweetened with a salad of diced pear and fennel, while three little grilled shrimp...are so full of flavor that they stand up to sides of tahini and a salad of pickled cabbage studded with little bits of calamari.

Snack Taverna (Eric Asimov)

Test Kitchen: Knives (Denise Landis)

Fresh Baked Pies at Rose Orchards (Faith Middleton)

Pie by the slice was a hit almost immediately after Mrs. Rose began selling it..., perhaps because calorie-counters magically feel less guilty about a single serving, even if it is topped with ice cream. The creamery window offers soft-serve flavors like old-fashioned vanilla frozen custard and chocolate- and vanilla-twist, and milkshakes, sundaes and fruit slushes.

Letters to the Editor

Food Shuffleboard

Recipes in today's issue:

1. Scalloped Scallops

2. Harvest Rice Stuffing

3. Scattered Sushi

4. Green Tea Rice Pudding With Candied Ginger

5. Roasted Bay Scallops With Brown Butter and Shallots

Cheers,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · October 13, 2003

NYTimes Weekend Report

Friday, 10 October 2003 -- Sunday, 12 October 2003

I did learn some Spanish, but it was a very specific kind. Pañuelo, for example, means ''handkerchief,'' as in the white (blanco) one thrown out by the president of the bullfight to signal its start, or the very rare orange (naranja) one held up to save the life of an especially brave bull. Bellotas are the acorns fed to the hogs that make the most tender -- and most expensive -- pork roasts and hams. If you want a couple of olives in your martini, you must ask for aceitunas rather than olivos, which are usually olive trees. (The expression tomar el olivo means ''to take the olive tree'' -- to jump or climb it very quickly. This is also used to describe what happens when a bull goes after a banderillero and he swings himself just as quickly over the fence and out of the ring.) And if you want a drink during the bullfights, you must yell ''cerveza, por favor'' or ''whisky con hielo,'' because beer and Scotch on the rocks are the only alcohol sold in the stands.

The Rain In Spain... (Julia Reed)

Recipes in today's section:

1. Pork Loin Marinated in Paprika and Herbs

2. Pisto

The antipasti include standbys like fritto misto, arancini, and vitello tonnato, which Mr. Valenti freshens with a scattering of celery leaves, and an ingenious appetizer of roasted oysters with tomato zabaglione and flakes of crisp prosciutto.

'Cesca (William Grimes)

Columbus Day Cuisine

Have a good week folks,

Soba

SobaAddict70 · October 15, 2003

NYTimes Dining In/Dining Out Section

Wednesday, 15 October 2003

Let there be no misunderstanding by those who have never ventured to New York, or by those who have come lately, or by those who diet. The hero is a sandwich of cured Italian meats. These are layered into a forearm's length of fresh crusty bread, often with a few slices of Italian cheese and a condiment or two atop them — pepperoncini, yes; roasted peppers, yes; mayonnaise, an emphatic no. Also, perhaps, a splash of vinegar, certainly a drizzle of olive oil. Some ground pepper, a sprinkle of salt. But no more. No sun-dried tomatoes sully the interior of a true hero, no pesto, no Brie, no fancy pants ingredients at all.

The Definition Of A Hero -- An Italian Hero, That Is (Ed Levine)

Mr. Henderson has a lovely writing voice, as well, so the text, largely recipes, has a rare lyrical charm. An ingredient might be "a large knob of butter" or "a good supply of toast." Instructions for a parsley salad read, "Meanwhile, lightly chop your parsley; just enough to discipline it." In another for kidneys, Mr. Henderson writes, "Add a hearty splash of Worcester sauce and the chicken stock, and let all the ingredients get to know each other."

In London With Fergus Henderson (Amanda Hesser)

For me, the best part of entertaining is presentation," Ms. Brittain said spiritedly. She is a youthful-looking 55, and wore slim black pants and a pink paisley bow-tie blouse. Her table looked equally polished, set with beige linen place mats and matching napkins, and Christofle silver flanking the plates. She extolled the book's plan-ahead schedules and presentational tips, including one called Frosty Flowers, which was immediately evident on the circular table where she served lunch. She had frozen edible violets inside the ice cubes she placed in the water glasses, which in turn played off the centerpiece of fall flowers. She also used violets as decoration for the Denver Chocolate Sheet cake and for a strawberry dessert that was itself an echo of the spinach and strawberry salad she served as an appetizer.

Martha Stewart Is No Match For Her Creativity (Alex Wichtel)

Duck crepinette, a patty of chopped duck dotted with neat cubes of fat, looks like a fat French hamburger and the ultimate anti-spa dish. Mr. Chassagne tempers its richness with Cumberland sauce, a sort of Edwardian ketchup made with currant jelly, mustard and port. It does not make many appearances nowadays, but this is just the right spot.

Chubo (William Grimes)

Fried snapper with tamarind sauce..., is superb, the skin crackly, the meat moist and the sauce both sweet and spicy. Braised fish in slightly sweet caramel sauce...is likewise full of flavor, though it arrived not in the traditional clay pot but in a nondescript metal one.

Bao Noodles (Eric Asimov)

At My Table (Nigella Lawson)

A main course of soft-fleshed fish is offset by crunchy almonds, and a dessert of chilied and spiced chocolate offers a pleasing balance — the dark pudding after the white fish, richness following simplicity. Much as I feel you can never go very wrong making a chocolate dessert, after a meat course there is just too much brown around.

Eating Irradiated Food?!? (Marian Burros)

When the European Parliament decided last year to put a moratorium on the irradiation of almost all food, it was influenced by studies suggesting that substances formed when fat is irradiated may promote colon cancer.
But when regulators in the United States approved the irradiation of fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry and eggs, they did not consider that type of study, in which animals were fed concentrates of the substances. Irradiated food is now sold in some stores and restaurants, but it is not widely available.

This is no surprise when you taste this duck. It's a diminutive bird — just over three pounds after lunch — with a thin skin, dense sweet meat and bones that make a delicious stock. It is rich without seeming fatty and gamy but not aggressively so. It makes ordinary duck seem dull and clunky.

Duclair Ducks (Amanda Hesser)

I tried a carrot and squash soup stiffened with thick Greek yogurt. The soup was good but a chenin blanc from Long Island was like a wet rag lashing the pleasant calm of the soup. If you have a softer, more floral chenin blanc, it would be fine, even good.