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

[SobaAddict70]

New York Times Weekly Update (continued)

Wednesday, 26 January 2005

B. Elsewhere in today's Times...

A standard 1.5-ounce shot of Island Breeze has 48 calories, half the calories of a shot of normal rum and 70 percent fewer than some flavored drinks like Absolut Vanilla and Smirnoff Cranberry Twist. Island Breeze will also be 18 percent alcohol, instead of the normal 40 percent.

Beyond Diet Soda....Low-Calorie Rum (Melanie Warner)

For the first time, Human Rights Watch has issued a report that harshly criticizes a single industry in the United States, concluding that working conditions among the nation's meatpackers and slaughterhouses are so bad that they violate basic human rights.

Echoes Of "The Jungle" (Steven Greenhouse)

"I stopped trying to find anything because there's nothing healthy to eat around here," lamented a woman who would give her name only as Miss David and who works at Public School 25. "I was once buying coffee at the Dunkin' Donuts, and I saw a chubby young guy ordering a bacon something for breakfast. Two of them. That scared me."

When Food Itself Makes You Sick (David Gonzalez)

Now, on part of that site, on 45th Street east of Broadway, the restaurateur Shelly Fireman is opening a new restaurant, named Bond 45. It features an Italian kitchen, steaks and seafood, and its décor is meant to evoke just a little bit of the Great White Way's glory days, a touch of New York from just after Prohibition to about 1950, a remembrance of restaurants past.

Bond 45 (Mervyn Rothstein)

Where, after the application of a keen Gigondas to settle nerves frazzled by traffic, you might enjoy a perfect Provençal-style fish soup, dense with flavor, brightened by saffron, accompanied by a true, garlicky rouille, with croutons. (There is, too, a fine onion soup with Gruyère and toast.) A ridiculously flavorful crispy duck confit could follow, with a kind of pommes sarladaise - layered, yes, cooked in goose fat, no - and some mango fries that are far better than the image those words can conjure.

Choice Tables: Naples, Florida (Sam Sifton)

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NY Times Weekend Update

Friday, 28 January 2005 -- Sunday, 30 January 2005

Dining In/Dining Out Section and the Sunday Magazine

Diners may have to spend even more than that if they are in a kobe frame of mind. The final section of the menu is dedicated to kobe beef, which can be ordered for now as a skirt, hanger or strip steak, the last of which is $50. A friend and I tried it and found its flavor to be less expansively deep and rich than the flavor of kobe can be, but we appreciated its accompanying condiments, including huge pebbles of salt and an addictive wasabi butter.

Jewel Bako Robata (Frank Bruni)

Sweet Relief, one of many tsunami disaster relief efforts by New York restaurants, offers a great excuse to order dessert. From now through February, these and other participating restaurants will donate part of the proceeds from all dessert sales to CARE.

Restaurants: Sweet Relief

For more information regarding Sweet Relief, please click here.

And so it went. Sunday morning would roll around, and each of us would receive a mumbled phone call from a very hungover Alex: You, bring bread! You, haricots verts! You, wine! You, fresh sage! The meal's centerpiece -- the lamb shoulder, the Cornish hens, the poulet de Bresse -- our chef would trust to no one but himself. Dressed like a dandified gangster, he would roam the narrow streets around the Place du Temple and in his highly eccentric French discuss the freshly killed birds with the butcher.

Reacquaintances (John Burnham Schwartz)

The Arsenal (Amanda Hesser)

Recipes in today's issue:

1. Oyster Chowder

2. Whiskey Cake

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New York Times Weekly Update

Wednesday, 16 March 2005

Dining In/Dining Out Section

Cooking oysters Lowcountry-style couldn't be simpler: build a roaring fire on level ground, and set a trestle made of four cinder blocks and a sturdy sheet of scrap steel over it, to serve as an extra-large griddle. When the metal is searing hot, you literally shovel on a layer of oysters and blanket them with water-soaked burlap bags or old towels. The oysters roast and steam in their shells and acquire hints of the wood smoke that swirls in thick gusts around the enterprise. Five to 10 minutes later, you remove the towels and shovel the oysters onto a rustic table scattered with gloves and knives, so the guests can gather around to shuck and slurp down the briny treats.

Oyster Roasts -- Lowcountry Style (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

The taste for so-called "off-cuts" is neither new nor unjustified: the harder a muscle works, the better its flavor. There's a catch, of course: harder-working muscles are tough. This means they take longer cooking to become tender enough so their flavor can really be appreciated.

The Minimalist (Mark Bittman)

Recipes:

1. Boeuf Bourguignon

2. Pot Roast With Soy Or Lima Beans

3. Coconut-Braised Beef

"Mondovino," which opens in New York next Wednesday, has been a hit in France, though a much debated one, and has been screened for people in the wine business. Watching it, it's easy to detect where Mr. Nossiter stands. Like a modern Thoreau, he offers a starkly divided world in which the monolithic forces of wealth, technology and marketing are at war with a pastoral peasantry.

Wine As Documentary (Eric Asimov)

The basis of any marinade is an oil (to moisturize) and an acid (to cut through the fibers of the meat). Here I use olive oil - no need to go in for the more expensive extra-virgin variety - and lemon juice.

At Nigella's Table (Nigella Lawson)

Recipes

1. Herbed and Butterflied Leg Of Lamb

2. Eggplant and Garbanzo Stew

The amorphous clumps of sweet white lobster meat sit atop coin-shape bits of mango, which are orange and slightly acidic, and below rectangles of avocado, which are green and vaguely unctuous. The full Epicurean appeal of the dish reveals itself only upon close scrutiny. Le Bernardin is a restaurant for people who really focus on the food.

Le Bernardin (Frank Bruni)

Sidebar: If you navigate your web browser to the article's web page, you can hear an online audio presentation given by Frank Bruni, the main restaurant critic for the Times. Please click on the box entitled "Le Bernardin Gets Four Stars" to begin the presentation.

Click here to contribute your experiences.

Click here for discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's performance as the Times' restaurant critic.

Archived discussion for the "Bruni and Beyond: 2004" thread can be found by clicking here.

In the morning and afternoon that means an Irish breakfast ($10): eggs, scrambled or fried, with baked beans, breakfast sausage, creamy blood sausage, crisp rashers and sliced potatoes, all fried. A dish of eggs with smoked Irish salmon ($10) is almost identical to the Irish breakfast, with a mound of moistly scrambled eggs and salmon flecked green with sliced scallions standing in for the fried meat assortment.

St. Dymphna's (Peter Meehan)

Staff Sgt. Jesus Camacho, the Army's reigning king of sugar sculpture, recently finished a tour of duty in Afghanistan. Last Wednesday, the 6-foot-2, 220-pound sergeant spent 90 minutes creating an undersea tableau: a lobster on a bed of coral, near a green wine bottle with a message curled inside, all made from sugar. In Afghanistan, he was responsible for feeding 500 soldiers a day. "There's no time to practice sugar when you're deployed," he said. "But at night I would read Pastry magazine."

The Charge of the Culinary Brigade (Julia Moskin)

Bits and Pieces (Florence Fabricant)

Whole Foods announced that it planned to open a supermarket on 14th Street opposite the Union Square Greenmarket, some farmers in the Greenmarket said they feared that the store, which champions fresh organic produce, would steer customers away.

Whole Foods vs. The Greenmarket (Florence Fabricant)

Recipes in this week's update not included above:

1. Oven-Roasted Oysters

2. Sour Orange Mignonette

3. Chili Dogs

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New York Times Weekend Update

Friday, 18 March 2005 -- Sunday, 20 March 2005

Dining In/Dining Out and the Sunday Magazine

Donde Augusto should be your first meal in Chile. The exhaustive, inconsistent menu is a thrilling introduction to the possibilities of an isolated country that's more than 2,600 miles long but has only 15 million people -- an enviable ratio of coastline to citizens. By lunch-time, every one of the hundreds of tables is filled with locals adding pebre, a spicy salsa, to their bowls of almejas, just-shucked clams tossed with oil and onion. And because it's Chile, a country that's been making wine since the 1500's, this market restaurant with waxy paper napkins has a list 80 bottles long.

The Vineyards of Chile (Oliver Schawner-Albright)

Xingria" blurs ethnic boundaries to try what the menu describes as "a Far Eastern version of the classic sangria," containing sake and cranberry juice, among other ingredients. The "electric karma" - vodka, sweet ginger purée, pineapple juice - comes in a ceramic Buddha with an open belly button that permits the insertion of a straw.

Xing (Frank Bruni)

Click here to contribute your experiences.

Click here for related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's performance as main restaurant critic for the New York Times.

''Here's a coherent muscle,'' she said as she sliced the leg of lamb cleanly in half. ''I'm going to do one with a Moroccan rub and one with zaatar,'' the Middle Eastern mixture of crushed sumac, sesame seed and thyme. The Moroccan rub was smoky and red because of the paprika and smelled lusciously of cumin. ''Now make sure you get it in all the cracks,'' she said, finding fissures to rub.

When Girl Meets Grill (Jonathan Reynolds)

Recipes in this issue:

1. Moroccan Lamb

2. Cacao Polenta Cookies

3. Blood Oranges With Pomegranate Molasses

Restaurants: Easter Hams

Wine Under $20 (Howard G. Goldberg)

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New York Times Weekend Update

Friday, 25 March 2005 -- Sunday, 27 March 2005

A. Dining In/Dining Out Section and the Sunday Magazine

Dan Tana's is a rare place, regulars say, where generations mingle, where people go to go; not to be seen. "It's one of my very favorite restaurants," said Sumner M. Redstone, the chairman of Viacom and therefore Mr. Grey's boss's boss. Mr. Redstone goes to Tana's, as some of the regulars call it, as much as three times a week when he's in Los Angeles. He was, in fact, just about to dig into some takeout the restaurant had sent over. "I take everyone there and they all fall in love with it," he said. "It's the first restaurant I took my wife Paula to."

Dan Tana (Hooman Majd)

"Even during the worst periods of terror, when things were really falling apart, people still went out," said Eran Shroitman, Orca's Cordon Bleu-trained chef. "So one attack, while tragic, has only a limited affect on business. We were full that night - and all the week after."

Restaurant Scene In Tel Aviv (David Kaufman)

Although there are 250 olive varieties from which oil is pressed, most Spanish oils come from four types: picual, cornicabra, hojiblanca and arbequina, each with its own distinct flavor. All are available at the store. But don't ask Mr. Rodrigo which variety to drizzle over your endive salad.

"That depends so much on one's taste," he said. "All I can tell you is which oils are strong, soft, bitter, fruity or sweet."

The Olive Oils of Spain (Benjamin Jones)

Sur La Table has had its eye on the New York market for years, said Susan Faw, its general counsel and vice president for real estate development. Kathy Tierney, the chief executive, who joined Sur La Table in April 2004, said that her company had looked at possible store sites on both the Upper West Side and the Upper East Side, but that 75 Spring Street was its first choice, both because of the building's special features (like high ceilings and outside ironwork) and also because the company believed that SoHo - with many smaller retailers - was more consistent with its image.

Sur La Table's Manhattan Entrance (Sana Siwolop)

Restaurants: Touch of Lemon

During a recent dinner, my companions and I requested some choley bhature, hunks of fried bread to be dipped in an intricately seasoned dish of chickpeas.

Our server told us that this dish was more appropriate for breakfast and that we shouldn't have it.

We pleaded our case: he could bring it out ahead of the rest and we would treat it as a prelude to dinner, not as part of the meal.

He agreed.

Tandoori Hut (Frank Bruni)

Click here to contribute your experiences.

Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's performance and tenure as main restaurant critic for the New York Times can be found by clicking here.

The scene at d.b.a, Keller said, ''is like a Dungeons and Dragons party -- a cult following -- but the cult doesn't have a costume. It's people who like beer, but that interest comes in all different flavors.''

East Village Bar Scene (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

Sidebar: The Arsenal (Amanda Hesser)

Recipes in today's issue:

1. Asparagus Mimosa

2. Chicken With Almonds and Green Olives

3. Kumquat Syllabub

Sidebar: If you navigate your web browser to the New York Times Sunday Magazine web page, you can see a slideshow presentation concerning tattoos on chefs. Click on the link entitled "Chef d'Oeuvres" to begin the presentation.

B. Elsewhere in this weekend's Times...

Dinner is served on the veranda of a small bar. As night falls, gentle illumination is provided by wicker baskets, nestled among the tree branches, rigged with light bulbs. On a visit there in February, I had a savory Jamaican meal of grilled dolphin with peas and rice for $7, at 62.5 Jamaican dollars to the United States dollar, finished off with a strong pour of Appleton Estate rum for a little over $1.

The Real Jamaica (Alicia Ault)

This is the birthplace of maize, where people took thousands of years to domesticate its wild ancestor, where pre-Hispanic myths describe it as a gift from the gods, and where cooks prepare it in dozens of ways to be served at every meal. So the discovery of genetically modified corn in the tiny plots here set off a national furor over what many here see as an assault by American agribusiness on the crop that is at the core of Mexico's identity.

The Mexican Corn Revolution (Elisabeth Malkin)

Have a good week, folks.

Soba

[SobaAddict70]

New York Times Weekly Update

Wednesday, 13 April 2005

A. Dining In/Dining Out Section

Among pasta and rice dishes, I found little pleasure and an overly salty gumminess in the tiella Pugliese, a classic casserole with rice, potatoes and mussels. But I relished orecchiette with sweet sausage, golden slivers of fried artichoke and cherry tomatoes; bucatini with octopus in a tomato sauce enlivened by red pepper; and, perhaps best of all, caputini (like cavatelli) with eggplant and a sharp, strong version of ricotta salata.

Ama (Frank Bruni)

Click here to contribute your experiences.

Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's reviews and the star system can be found here.

Twenty-five years later, the 12 percent California wine seems as quaint as the gas-saving hatchback. Today, it's the rare bottle from California, red or white, that doesn't reach 14 percent alcohol. Many now hit 15, even 16 percent, a difference that may seem insignificant until you realize that a 15 percent bottle contains 25 percent more alcohol than one labeled 12 percent.

When Wine Became Like Spirits (Eric Asimov)

A home cook - that's me - says to 13 well-known chefs, "I may not know what I'm doing in your kitchen, but I know what I'm doing in mine, and I'll show you that simple food cooked at home can taste as good as yours."

The Minimalist (Mark Bittman)

Bonus: If you navigate your web browser to the article's web page, you can view a video presentation of Chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten (Vong, 66, Spice Market, Mercer Kitchen) and Mark Bittman, as they prepare a few fish recipes. Click on the box entitled "Mark Bittman Cooks With Jean-Georges" to begin the presentation. Note that Realplayer must be installed to enable viewing.

Recipes:

1. Sea Bass With Mushroom Beurre Noisette

2. Sesame-Crusted Fish With Butter and Ginger Sauce

Christoforos Peskias grew up in Cyprus and spent most of his professional life in Athens, leaving for short stints with Ferran Adrià in Spain and Marc Meneau and Joël Robuchon in France. When he returned to Athens in 2003 to open 48, all the trendiest restaurants here were trying to recreate the menus that were popular in Paris and New York. But while his techniques reflect the avant-garde approach he learned in Catalonia and Paris, Mr. Peskias's menu includes riffs on Greek salad and spinach pie.

A Grecian In French Clothing (Diane Kochilas)

Sidebar: If you navigate your web browser to the article's web page, you can view a photo slideshow on postmodern Athenian cuisine. Click on the box entitled "Postmodern Athens" to begin the presentation.

Recipes:

1. Squid with Tahini and Yellow Split Peas

2. Fish Fillets in Spinach and Black-Eyed Pea Broth

But while Mr. Chang put in time at ramen and soba shops in Tokyo, he says that he has "too much respect" for the tradition of ramen in Japan to try to duplicate it here. Instead he's created his own Americanized version, Momofuku ramen ($13). He makes the broth with roasted pork bones, shiitake mushrooms and bacon in place of dried bonito. ("They're both smoked, right?" was one explanation he gave for the substitution. "And who doesn't like bacon?")

Momofuku Noodle Bar (Peter Meehan)

Local vendors can do much better. Harry's Berries, a farm in Oxnard, grows Seascape and Gaviota, two University of California varieties with good flavor that are a bit too soft and low-yielding for commercial growers. The owners pick the berries fully red and sell them at a premium, $4 a pint, at 24 Southern California farmers' markets. When everything goes right, the berries are quite sweet and richly flavored.

Strawberry Fields Forever (David Karp)

If meat is involved, you can find me sous-ing it in flavor-enhancing tenderizing liquids before grilling, broiling, baking or roasting it. This is not mere habit. The more you do to the meat before you cook it, the less you have to do during or after.

At My Table (Nigella Lawson)

Recipes:

1. Maple Chicken 'n' Ribs

2. Cappucino Walnut Cookies

Bits and Pieces (Florence Fabricant)

One of New York City's leading cheese stores said it was tightening its oversight of domestic cheesemakers after federal inspectors in Massachusetts found listeria in a sample of blue cheese made there.

Tainted Cheese (Dana Bowen)

Letters to the Editor

Correction

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New York Times Weekly Update (continued)

Wednesday, 13 April 2005

B. Elsewhere in today's Times....

"The 21-year-old drinking age is bad social policy and terrible law," Mr. McCardell wrote, saying it had led to binge drinking by teenagers. "Our latter-day prohibitionists have driven drinking behind closed doors and underground."

If Drinking Were Legal At Eighteen? (Pam Belluck)

A septuagenarian ushers you to one of her stools, so low it barely hovers over the ground, offering a freshly griddled rice cake and a bowl of spiced fish sauce to dunk it in. The man crouching next to you translates a bit and mentions that he has a sister in Louisiana. It's unlike any place you've ever been or any breakfast you've ever eaten, and it's divine. So you move on to the next sidewalk chef, eagerly anticipating whatever new experience she has to offer.

A Vietnamese Odyssey (Taylor Holliday)

Sidebar: If you navigate your browser to the article's web page, you can view a photo slideshow of Vietnamese specialties. Click on the box entitled "Culinary Odyssey Through Vietnam" to begin the presentation.

Meat and milk from cloned animals are essentially identical to those from animals that reproduced normally, a new study says.

The findings should ease safety concerns about eating cloned animals, said Dr. Xiangzhong Yang of the Center for Regenerative Biology at the University of Connecticut, an author of the study, which is to be published Tuesday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dolly For Dinner (Associated Press)

Reichl's acute self-satisfaction can, at times, cloy to the point where you're tempted to grab her by that lustrous mane and whirl her into Alice Waters's wood-burning pizza oven. But the flip side of all that onanistic mmm-ing and ahh-ing is a genuinely infectious enthusiasm; when she discovers the ideal soba noodles -- which, upon being slurped up, ''vibrated as if playing inaudible music'' in her mouth -- you want to be right there with her in the Japanese noodle parlor, exchanging sultry glances over the steaming broth.

The Restaurant Queen (David Kamp)

Click here for related discussion or to contribute your opinion.

The spring collections are appearing in the next few weeks. Gone like a closet sweep will be the brown ciders, spices and citruses of winter (for 2004 to 2005 kumquat was the new blood orange which was the new pomegranate) to make way in the liquor cabinet for the sorrel greens and rhubarb pinks of this spring. Look for cocktails that will be brighter or lighter in color, less alcoholic and more casual and appropriate to outdoor drinking. The grasshopper, a pastel "lady's cocktail" popular in the 1950's, is back, lined up last week on the bar at Lever House Restaurant like Kate Spade handbags.

The New "In" Things (William L. Hamilton)

Recipes:

1. Mela Primavera Adapted from Fiamma

2. Rhubarb Cosmopolitan Adapted from Blue Hill at Stone Barns

Soba

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New York Times Weekly Update

Wednesday, 27 April 2005 and Thursday, 28 April 2005

Dining In/Dining Out Section

"The government is putting its thumb on every part of citizens' lives, and it shouldn't be telling anyone how dim sum should be served," said Wong Yuen, a retired mechanic and truck driver who says he has eaten dim sum every morning for the last two decades. "People can make their own decisions. If it's unhealthy, they can eat less. They don't need the government to tell them."

The Sky Is Falling, The Sky Is Falling!!! (Keith Bradsher)

Howard Johnson's was my American apprenticeship, and it was a long one, nearly 10 years, mostly spent in the company's Queens Village commissary. Mr. Johnson gave me and Pierre carte blanche, and we experimented with different types of stews, like beef burgundy, and dishes like scallops in mushroom sauce. I became comfortable using 1,000-gallon pots and operating enormous machines.

The Long Goodbye (Jacques Pépin)

Click here for related discussion.

Diane Stemple is a clinical psychologist. But each Thursday she steps away from her practice in Port Washington, N.Y., to work at the counter at Murray's Cheese shop in Greenwich Village.

When the restaurant Artisanal opened four years ago with a list of 200 cheeses, Dr. Stemple worked there as an intern. "I was the weird woman from the suburbs who wanted to work in cheese," she said.

Cheese, Glorious Cheese! (Dana Bowen)

Sidebar: If you point your browser to the article's web page, you can see a photographic slideshow on the allure of cheese. Click on the box entitled "An Obsession Realized" to begin the presentation.

Click here for to discuss the article.

I have found that white wine is almost always a better bet than red, especially whites with lots of lively acidity, like chenin blanc, sauvignon blanc and riesling, which can stand up to dominating cheese flavors. Yet exceptions always pop up. Recently I tried a beautifully floral 2002 gewürztraminer, a famously low-acid grape, which went nicely with a fruity aged mimolette.

The Pour (Eric Asimov)

Four days a week, but especially on Saturdays, several thousand tourists, chefs and Bay Area cooks pour into what many consider to be the best of the 3,700 farmers' markets in America. The market fills the outdoor spaces around a freshly renovated Beaux Arts building that for more than a century has punctuated the eastern end of San Francisco.

Where Alice Waters Would Be Proud (Kim Severson)

As if to prove his point, Mr. Danko, whose restaurant bears his name, presented me with a recipe that only a chef could love: sautéed duck breast with herb paste, served with a pancake of duck confit, potatoes and spices; duck cracklings; quenelles of freshly made apricot jam; and a sauce that could best be described as essence of duck.

The Minimalist (Mark Bittman)

Bonus: If you navigate your browser to the article's web page, you can view an online video presentation on Mark Bittman's experience with Chef Gary Danko, of the restaurant Gary Danko, located in San Francisco. Click on the box entitled "Mark Bittman Cooks For Gary Danko" to begin the presentation.

Without benefit of advertising, word of Uglesich's big, tan, glistening oysters, its sweet, plump crawfish balls, its searing shrimp Uggie and its overstuffed yet feather-light po' boys spread across the city and then across the country. It mattered not to most people that it took no credit cards and served neither dessert nor coffee.

An Oysterless Future (R.W. Apple, Jr.)

Click here to discuss the article.

The secret to Florent's enduring success is its integrity, which has now brought it full circle. After years when it was a naughty urban adventure and years when it felt like a tired cliché, it is once again what it was always meant to be: a simultaneously sensible and kooky bistro with onion soup and escargots, boudin noir and burgers, crème caramel and chocolate mousse, at reasonable prices that underscore its welcoming way. Florent is open to all and it is open all the time.

Florent (Frank Bruni)

Click here to contribute your experiences.

Click here for related discussion regarding Frank Bruni's performance as main restaurant critic for the New York Times.

The sweetness of the snapper motivated my friends and me to ask our server, who said she was from Bangkok, what the Thais working at the restaurant especially liked on the menu. She pointed to wok basil with beef ($10) and then, sensing we wanted something more, asked, "You want it Thai style?" We said yes and then asked what, exactly, that meant.

Land Thai Kitchen (Peter Meehan)

Bits and Pieces (Florence Fabricant)

So, with Freudian intensity, producers are finally delving into the female psyche. Women have a more sophisticated palate, said Barton O'Brien, whose O'Brien Family Vineyard makes Seduction, a Napa Valley red, described as "a voluptuous wine with sensual flavors and a velvet kiss" on the label. "Women are into mouth feel and a long finish," he said. In other words, seduction.

Wine For Women (Patricia Leigh Brown)

Recipes in this week's update:

1. The Minimalist's Crisp Braised Duck Legs With Aromatic Vegetables

2. Lemon Herb Duck Breast

3. Duck Legs Confit

4. Confit Spice

5. Duck Confit and Potato Hash

[SobaAddict70]

New York Times Wednesday Update

Wednesday, 29 June 2005

I've been rather lax in updating the Update for quite a bit now, but things should be better in the immediate future. Those of you who read this DIGEST (no names necessary ) will be seeing this thread updated on a more frequent basis.

As usual, today's Update will be broken into two sections, the Dining In/Dining Out section and the rest of the Times. (Weekend Updates are usually broken into three or more sections: Dining In/Dining Out; Travel and the Sunday Magazine; and Elsewhere in the Times.) Due to the quote tag limit per post, you may see today's update divided into two or more posts.

All articles in section A can be found via the New York Times Dining In/Dining Out home page.

Articles referenced in section B can be found in Wednesday's edition of the Times.

Soba

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A. Dining In/Dining Out Section

On Memorial Day, a char-grilled American beef burger can bring patriotic tears to the eye. But by the Fourth of July, the pleasure of plain meat may pale, even for me. That's when mixtures that are highly seasoned but still simple come into play. They are the far-flung ancestors of burgers, sometimes shaped into balls or around skewers, but bearing unmistakable family traits of tenderness, juice and spice. In the grilling traditions of countries like Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia, ground meat, spices and aromatics bloom together over hot coals.

Burgers Without Borders (Julia Moskin)

Our mother nearly vindicated the pasta salad in our eyes in 1986, about the time she discovered the vibrant flavor of fresh basil. She lightened fusilli spirals with a Mediterranean combination of diced tomato, ribbons of basil leaves and salty cubes of feta cheese, and dressed it with a garlicky vinaigrette.

No Longer A Wet Noodle (Matt Lee and Ted Lee)

In a similar vein he includes among the starters a baby lamb chop Milanese, which is encrusted with mustard and panko and skirted with baked tomatoes, olives and capers.

The Red Cat (Frank Bruni)

Click here to contribute your experiences.

Related discussion regarding Mr. Bruni's style as the New York Times restaurant critic and the star system can be found here.

Visit after visit, it became clear that Ms. Wayte is a sort of soup genius. A bowl of cumin- and cardamom-scented lentils, topped with green onions and cilantro yogurt, tasted like a puréed falafel sandwich. Its sweetness, the server revealed, came from reconstituted dried apricots. White gazpacho, a smooth blend of almonds, bread and young green garlic, contained halved grapes and a thread of young olive oil ($6).

$25 and Under: 202 (Dana Bowen)

Dressing The Bun: Why Stop At Yellow? (Marian Burros)

Bits and Pieces (Florence Fabricant)

The English ales tend to be subtle, earthy and understated, reflecting the characters of the hops, that mysterious ingredient derived from the cones of flowering plants related to the nettle. Hops play no role in the fermentation, which is the province of water, grain and yeast. Instead, the hops, which are added at varying times in the brewing process, infuse the beer with bitterness and aromatics. There are innumerable varieties of hops, each with different qualities to contribute.

Ales of the Times (Eric Asimov)

Sidebar: Click here to listen to an online audio presentation given by Eric Asimov, Florence Fabricant, Joe Carroll, the owner of the bar Spuyten Duyvil in Brooklyn, and Paul Sullivan, a writer and home brewer on a selection of pale ales.

The Minimalist (Mark Bittman)

I got a kick out of "Camp Cooking: 100 Years" from the National Museum of Forest Service History (Gibbs Smith, $9.95), a spiral-bound book produced by the Forest Service. Its 192 pages are filled with historic accounts and vintage black-and-white photographs of Forest Service personnel exploring wilderness areas, camping out and even eating after fighting fires. They called rattlesnake meat "desert whitefish." It's a book I wish I had when I camped in the bottom of the Grand Canyon a few years ago.

A Little Guidance, A Lot of Nostalgia (Florence Fabricant)

I turned the salmon into cakes with crabmeat and potatoes, tossed in some chilies, mustard seeds and ginger, dipped them in seasoned flour and crunchy panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) and fried them to a gorgeous golden-brown, almost the color of the ales themselves. The best jumbo lump crabmeat is not necessary because it gets mashed up with the other ingredients; a cheaper grade worked fine.

Pairings (Florence Fabricant)

Letters

Recipes in today's section:

1. Syrian Beef Kebabs

2. Lemony Cucumber Salad

3. Vietnamese Pork Kebabs

4. Nuoc Cham

5. Pakistani Seekh Kebabs

6. Cilantro Mint Chutney

7. Adana Kebabs

8. Cucumber Yogurt Mint Salad

9. Rice Noodle Salad with Tuna and Snow Peas

10. Orecchiette Salad

11. Orzo Salad

[SobaAddict70]

Wednesday Update (continued)

Wednesday, 29 June 2005

B. Elsewhere in today's Times...

The inability to placate sugar producers, who are angry that the agreement would allow slightly higher imports, raises doubts about Mr. Bush's ability to push the trade deal through Congress. The president's problems, some lawmakers said, say as much about the weak support for trade agreements as it does about the strength of the sugar lobby.

Sugar Prices Are Barrier To Securing Trade Pact (Edmund L. Andrews)

A year and a half after the collapse of the Italian food company Parmalat, a judge in Milan has convicted and sentenced 11 people on charges of market manipulation, obstructing a regulatory investigation and falsifying audits.

Judge In Italy Sentences 11 In Collapse of Parmalat (Eric Sylvers)

The six-page paper, called "Analyzing a Bioterror Attack on the Food Supply: The Case of Botulinum Toxin in Milk," was submitted to The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this spring and approved for publication the week of May 30.

Paper Describes Potential Poisoning of Milk (Scott Shane)

Witnesses and relatives said that Alberto had recently become excited about the spot's great crabbing but was unaware of another aspect of equal renown: its mucky bottom sucks in feet like quicksand.

Crabs Beckon, But Danger Lurks In The Mud (Corey Kilgannon)

Weight-loss camps usually run for three weeks, six weeks or eight week sessions, and they cost about $7,500 for the entire summer - about $1,500 more than nonspecialized camps. Campers get about 1,500 calories a day, and campers generally spend three to four hours a day doing some kind of physical activity, as well other activities like drama or arts and crafts. There are weekly weigh-ins and regular classes in nutrition and cooking.

For Overweight Children, Are Fat Camps A Solution? (Abby Ellin)

Note: This article was published on Tuesday, 28 June 2005.

Hunched over a plate of fried pork tacos as he slurped a Pepsi, Carlos Uribe Nieto admitted defeat in his lifelong battle against weight. Even when he has managed to shed 100 pounds, they soon piled back on.

"There are men who are womanizers," said Mr. Uribe, 54, balancing his frame on a slender chair at a market stall where mounds of meat sweated fat under bare bulbs. "There are men who are drunks - and then there are men who are gluttons."

Mexico Confronts Sudden Surge In Obesity (Elisabeth Malkin)

In its first major move toward entering the obesity therapy market, Medtronic plans to announce today that it will acquire Transneuronix, a start-up company that is developing an implantable stomach pacemaker.

Medtronic To Acquire A Treatment For Obesity (Barnaby J. Feder)

Researchers have found that the most important factor in the amount children eat is the amount put in front of them. The more they see, the more they eat.

Vital Signs (Nicholas Bakalar)

The occasion on Thursday was the last performance at the club for a lunch-hour theater series called "Food for Thought." Needing more space, the series will open its 12th season in September at the theater next door, the Players. For more than four of its five years, "Food for Thought" has used the jewel-box mansion arts club to showcase one-act readings, coupled with a buffet lunch before the show or paired (once a month) with an evening cocktail hour.

A Prix-Fixe For One-Acts, Sandwiches and Thoughts On Theater (Felicia R. Lee)

[SobaAddict70]

New York Times Weekend Update

Friday, 1 July 2005 -- Monday, 4 July 2005

All articles in section A can be found by accessing the NYTimes' Dining In/Dining Out home page.

A. Dining In/Dining Out Section and the Sunday Magazine

A five-herb salad with lemon oil and a shaving of pecorino cheese takes the edge off the heat, even though I lost track after parsley, dill, marjoram and chervil, while bibb greens, tender as baby's ears, are just right with toasted hazelnuts and herbs (under five, I think).

Share (Eric Asimov)

Click here to contribute your experiences at Share.

Restaurants: Union Square, Out and About

Wine Under $20 (Howard G. Goldberg)

''I became obsessed with obesity, which is becoming a problem in France,'' said Mikanowski, a bustling multitasker, who is a rosy-cheeked 47. So he devised more than 100 recipes centered on 34 fresh ingredients and photographed them with Grant Symon in his home and backyard on weekends and holidays. ''We ate the photos,'' he recalled. (When his 11-year-old daughter, Marguerite -- who learned to make chocolate cake from her father's client and friend the pastry chef Pierre Hermé -- chimed in several times that they sometimes got to order pizza, her parents pretended not to hear her. She tugged on the strings of her sneaker-length Troisgros apron in frustration.)

About Patrick Mikanowski (Christine Muhlke)

Recipes:

1. Cucumber Spaghetti, Strawberry Purée and Crushed Olives

2. Scallop Passion, Salmon Passion

3. Fromage Blanc Sorbet

B. Elsewhere in the Times....

"The only thing they have ever done for European agriculture is mad cow," Mr. Chirac joked, eliciting laughter from Mr. Schröder and Mr. Putin, the newspaper said. As for British food, Mr. Chirac apparently said, "You can't trust people who cook as badly as that."

Overheard....

"They said the cow was destroyed, but how do we know that's true?" said Barbara Brown, 54, who was packing groceries into her mother's car at a store here recently. "We've been cutting back on beef, but this has colored the issue even more."

But at a butcher shop in New York City, Al Wilson, 60, bought a pound of ground beef and planned to grill hamburgers for Independence Day. Mad cow disease, he said, is "in the back of my head, but I think the numbers are in my favor."

Mad Cow? What Mad Cow? (Associated Press)

We begin in Memphis, where - this is not a subtle film - the documentary lingers on a sign for Graceland so we don't lose our bearings. At Dyer's, the deep-fried burgers are the kind you'd envision "when you needed one the most," says Tom Robertson, the amused owner, where the same grease has been used (though strained and reheated daily) since the place opened, in 1912. When the restaurant moved from a shack, which still had two entrances from segregation days, the grease was also moved, flanked by armed guards.

Hamburger America (Virginia Heffernan)

Kevin Felker, a bartender, developed the sangrini for Pastis's summer drinks menu, based on his experience in a pastry kitchen. The foundation is a red wine reduction, similar to something you would poach fruit in for a dessert. Fruit and wine equals sangria. Mixing that with vodka makes the sangrini a novel, spirited cocktail with none of the procrastination of punch.

A Martini From The French Riviera (William L. Hamilton)

[canucklehead]

The picks up the discussion that began with NYT Articles on Food, Drink, Cooking, and Culinary Culture (2002–2005)

 

 

 

 

The NYT had a quick article about travelling to Vancouver and their food recommendations were:

Go Fish
Lift
Imperial Seafood
Cafe Artigiano
Brix Winebar for "serious oenophiles"
Les Amis du Formage
La Casa Gelato

The writer of the article was NYT Travel writer Bonnie Tsui.

Okay - at the risk of insulting certain industry - come on! Was the article completely outsourced to - ? - god, I don't know who would have given some of these recommendations. Some the recommendations are of course good (Les Amis, Artigiano, Go Fish - though I know there are disagreements even among egullet people).

Please Bonnie (or to whatever assistant is helping with compiling your list) - lurk here a little. I don't want tourists going home angry.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Mjx
Note added. (log)

[kurtisk]

Personally, I think it was nice to not see the same Top 5 that always get mentioned everywhere else. Yes, they're always mentioned for a reason, but our local dining landscape is quite rich and it's great to see others get a nod here and there. The article was heavily researched, and I think that this shows that they weren't just 'calling it in', but offering alternatives to the obvious.

Though there was a glaring omission of places on Main Street between 8th & Broadway.

heh,

k.

Edited August 30, 2005 by kurtisk (log)

[Vancitygirl]

HUGE omissions of a number of places and PLEASE - Lift???? I guess if you came to Vancouver for a great balcony view and little else. oops. Sorry. Where was Aurora, Cru, Sun Sui Wah......and so many spots. Thank you Rob. We need a real food writer with real Vancouver passion.

Jamie - can't you force those bigwig US mags and newspapers to publish some of your well thought out phrase and recommendations??

Edited August 30, 2005 by Vancitygirl (log)

[nwyles]

Hanger steak eaters of the world unite and make your voices heard !

My neighbour got some press ( Skoah Spa ) in the NYT , so I was sooooooo close. Perhaps a tiny GBP ( Gingerbread pudding ) on the pillow at the spa next time.

[jamiemaw]

HUGE omissions of a number of places and PLEASE - Lift????  I guess if you came to Vancouver for a great balcony view and little else.  oops.  Sorry.  Where was Aurora, Cru, Sun Sui Wah......and so many other places.  Yes, at least the top "5" weren't there, but some of those have earned there spots.  Thank you Rob.  We need a real food writer with real Vancouver passion.

Jamie - can't you force those bigwig US mags and newspapers to publish some of your well thought out phrase and recommendations??

←

Thank you for the kind words. As a subsriber to the NYT I must admit that I get terribly frustrated with their grey and lacrimose travel section. And in the case of the single page city profiles, more so, because (and sorry, Kurtis) they are called in. Bonnie Tsui has compiled dozens of these but has continuosly failed to convince me that she's set foot in a particular city, let alone the restaurants and other attractions of which she speaks. As a result, they're often foolishly contrived overviews.

Particularly odd given the expense accounts of their standard issue, cross-dressing restaurant reviewers and travel feature writers, where one can still find occasional lapses of brilliance.

[canucklehead]

Hanger steak eaters of the world unite and make your voices heard !

My neighbour got some press ( Skoah Spa ) in the NYT , so I was sooooooo close. Perhaps a tiny GBP ( Gingerbread pudding ) on the pillow at the spa next time.

←

Agh! What a great business idea.... GBP Mooncakes @ TNT! Brilliant.

In case you have not had a Chinese mooncake - they are definitely an acquired taste. Fruitcakes are like delicate clouds in comparison. But a GBP Mooncake... well sign me up.

[*Deborah*]

I was once served an Eskimo Pie with a candle at Skoah after a Birthday facial. So you should talk to them, Neil!

[nwyles]

I was once served an Eskimo Pie with a candle at Skoah after a Birthday facial. So you should talk to them, Neil!

←

I was probably closed as we have a nice contra arrangement :

They eat and Joan goes to the spa.

Sucks for Neil !!

[gerald]

I was once served an Eskimo Pie with a candle at Skoah after a Birthday facial. So you should talk to them, Neil!

←

I was probably closed as we have a nice contra arrangement :

They eat and Joan goes to the spa.

Sucks for Neil !!

←

Neil it could be worse, it could be a birthday facial followed by an eskimo pie

[Steve Drucker]

Particularly odd given the expense accounts of their standard issue, cross-dressing restaurant reviewers and travel feature writers, where one can still find occasional lapses of brilliance.

Native NY-er, Atlanta expat, life-long NYT subscriber, semi-frequent NYC visitor and very frequent business traveler chiming in.

Pay CLOSE attention to what Eric Asimov writes, and Sam Sifton. Mr. Sifton's NYC pizza and pastrami rundowns are spot-on paragons of their type that I can vouch for personally.

Roy Apple writes beautifully composed food-centric travelogues.

Disregard ALL the rest of NYT content re chow, in both Travel and Dining, and just enjoy them for their inherent quality of rhetoric . Its far wiser I've found, to seek out cyber world chow friends' wisdom. Not foolproof, but nothing is.

Edited August 30, 2005 by Steve Drucker (log)

[Andy Lynes]

Am I allowed to plug my Food Paradise Vancouver article that appears in the August edition of olive magazine that should be available in Vancouver soon (I know you guys are a month or two behind the UK)? I know Babera Jo's stocks the magazine so keep a look out for it and you can tell me why I got it all wrong!

[mzungu]

Am I allowed to plug my Food Paradise Vancouver article that appears in the August edition of olive magazine that should be available in Vancouver soon (I know you guys are a month or two behind the UK)? I know Babera Jo's stocks the magazine so keep a look out for it and you can tell me why I got it all wrong!

←

Andy,

I've read it! Friends of mine from the UK (who met here at SFU and later got married) sent me your article. I read it first and thought it was spot on. I've seen a few articles from out-of-towners before but your little blurb on sablefish shows your attention to local details. When I saw your name, it all made sense.

Only one comment though (and this is pretty general in all tourist mags): where's the map for Vancouver's eateries? Too bad, it would be a great addition to the article. Nice to see that there was one for Istanbul...

Cheers

Carlos

[kurtisk]

Ouch! I guess I'm the optimist here.

While I'm aware that the writer in question didn't visit, she's someone who has been here in the past, and yes, it was telephone and web research. I guess I'm just content with a whole page of ink in the Sunday NYT (as a fellow subscriber to boot) and wouldn't be in the least disappointed were I to end up in Artigiano, Brix or most other places mentioned in the article. Anyone makin' the trek here isn't going to solely go by one page of newspaper ink and I'm sure that in their other research, they'll come across C, Lumiere, West & Vij's more than a handful of times and everyone can sleep better at night.

Keepin' that glass half full,

k.

PS- BTW, the current issue of the New Yorker is the Food Issue! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!

Edited August 31, 2005 by kurtisk (log)

[nwyles]

Ouch!  I guess I'm the optimist here. 

While I'm aware that the writer in question didn't visit, she's someone who has been here in the past, and yes, it was telephone and web research.  I guess I'm just content with a whole page of ink in the Sunday NYT (as a fellow subscriber to boot) and wouldn't be in the least disappointed were I to end up in Artigiano, Brix or most other places mentioned in the article.  Anyone makin' the trek here isn't going to solely go by one page of newspaper ink and I'm sure that in their other research, they'll come across C, Lumiere, West & Vij's more than a handful of times and everyone can sleep better at night.

Keepin' that glass half full,

k.

←

She must have been here at some point. My neighbours have "hosted" her a number of times, although, not recently.