Le Bernardin VIP

I am trying to figure out how to become a Le Bernardin VIP so that I too can get baby eels.  Unfortunately, I suspect it involves eating at one of New York's most expensive restaurants a couple of times a week for a long time, so I'll just content myself with looking from afar.  They do look like pastas, though! 

Malaysian curry

We're off to a wedding in another state today, which will be a lot of fun.  Yesterday, though, I tried to imitate my favorite dish at our local, everyday Thai restaurant, the inimitable Bangkok Tasty.   I used a simple combination of red curry paste, sauteed briefly in oil, and then combined with fish sauce, lime, green beans, coriander, coconut milk, bean sprouts, sugar, and firm tofu.  It was, indeed, tasty, but next time I would greatly reduce the sugar and up the curry paste, and add cauliflower.  Nonetheless, once you get through chopping the ingredients, a wonderfully quick dinner for a night you really need to spend packing, but did not.

El Bulli taking the piss?

I followed Tyler Cowen's link to a well blogged visit to El Bulli, probably the most famous restaurant in the world today.   I'm sure the food is actually good - too many people say so to be wrong.  But looking at the pictures, I just can't get away from the feeling that they're taking the piss, just a little bit.   On the other hand, the restaurant does look beautiful. 

Pizza hut pasta

I don't really know how to explain Pizza Hut's new pastas, which I learned about via Instapundit via the Speculist. I don't understand the business plan (why would I buy frozen pasta from Pizza Hut rather than, say, Stoffer's?), I don't understand the market, and I don't understand why I would want to eat a beef pasta listing so many foul ingredients as this one.

Un-force fed foie gras

Michael Ruhlman writes about a new foie gras from Spain that isn't force fed, as is traditional foie gras, but relies on the goose's natural inclination to gorge itself. I'm skeptical, not only because Gordon Ramsay appears to have rejected it as inferior (and though Ramsay's television persona is something of a joke, he is a very serious, very great chef), but because I had a version of what I believe to be a humanely raised foie gras at the wonderful L'eau a la bouche outside Montreal last year. While it was delicious, and to me tasted better objectively than real foie gras, it wasn't foie gras. It was very fatty, unctuous, liver, and there's a big difference between the two.

Word of the Day

"Pellucid", meaning transparently clear, from Justice Stevens' otherwise puzzling opinion in today's Baze v. Reese, upholding Kentucky's method of execution.

UPDATE: As in, it is pellucidly clear that most TV chefs have research staffs find them other people's recipes for use in their shows.

"My" special risotto, says she

The interesting part about the Cindy McCain mini-recipe kerfuffle (in which it was discovered that recipes listed as the McCain's personal home cooking were actually drawn verbatim from Food Network) is that every single current Food Network TV chef does much the same thing, and I've long found it highly obnoxious. "Oomph", groans Giada, as she decorously slithers her "favorite" lasagne into her mouth, or such and such dish like "her mother used to make". The number of Rachel Ray's dishes that she claims she "usually" makes in X or Y fashion are legion. And I won't even get into the pastiche clown, Guy Fieri.

In reality, no one has a ready repertoire of favorite dishes which they've served multiple times in the past vast enough to cover 3 dishes a day for even 30 episodes a year. My own grandmother, for example, a highly talented cook who fed a family all three meals every single day for 40 years, can count perhaps 10 dishes that would qualify as "favorites", or specialties, or about which she can claim with any plausibility "I usually serve it this or that way". She knows of, and can probably execute, any number of other dishes, but those are always in the context of having learned them from some woman in the past, or once having been served it at dinner. In the same way, listen carefully to Batali or Pepin on TV. Very rarely does either use the Food TV code. Rather, they learned the dish in Amalfi, or know puff pastry to be made in this way, or once ate it and remember the flavor vividly. There is none of the forced, fake, intimacy of Rachel Ray's apparently bachannalian home feasts, at which we are to suppose she serves 14 dishes a night to an army of hungry omnivores. Of course, professional chefs have a much larger mental library to work from than the rest of us. But that is obviously not what they're invoking on TV.

None of this is to say that there's no value in Food Network, or that I hate the hosts. There is, and I don't. But it is rich of someone to complain on Rachel Ray's behalf that Cindy McCain['s intern] stole her recipes as her own.

A quick weekday dinner salad

For most of 2007, I spent every day and much of every night in the office. The economy was piping hot, and legal practice for a corporate lawyer in New York was an unending stream of deals and transactions. In those circumstances, even the quickest home meals were impossible. The best I could do was order hummous, or taboule, or the like, from some of the middle eastern restaurants here in New York, and lose myself for a moment or two in nostalgia for home.

But the economy has slowed down, and my life is much better. I don't mean to downplay the wretched effects of economic stress on many people, but I have enjoyed very much coming home before midnight, the opportunity to see my girlfriend for more than snatched meals outside my office, the chance to breath some fresh, non-air conditioned air. And, of course, to cook during the week.

Weekday dinners need not be complicated, or time consuming. The last thing many people want to do after coming come from work is to wait for a stew to thicken. With spring finally here, furthermore, the vegetables are improving every day. With that in mind, dinner last night was this grilled goat cheese (from Vermont's Coach farms), atop a salad of tangy, spicy, dandelion leaves and thinly sliced apple, just to soften the sometimes astringent dandelions the tiniest bit. No, it's not fancy, but it'll do.

PS - I often get into arguments with other people who have long running issues with weight over whether one can plausibly eat, say, a 4 oz. chunk of goat's cheese healthily. All I have to say is that a 4 oz. goat's cheese like the above has about 250 calories, has great "mouth feel" (to use one of the worst food industry phrases) and "umami" up the wazoo. I'll take that over a frozen diet dinner any day of the week.

A worthy pro-bono project

I had never before heard of the Farm to Consumer Legal Defense Fund, but now that I have, I'm enthused. Among other things, they're engaged in defending small farmers from the ravages of New York and California's state agricultural regulators, who are (as are all American agricultural regulators) evangelical about rubbing out raw milk. Especially interesting is the saga of Meadowsweet Farms, which apparently distributes raw milk and other dairy products through an LLC into which someone wishing to enjoy good food contributes capital. The profits produced by the cows fed by the capital contributions happen to be sweet dairy goodness. Unfortunately, Meadowsweet is under withering attack from the government, which is attempting to prove that it is illegally "selling" raw milk. A fascinating situation, and a worthy pro-bono project for any (ahem) lawyer.

Commodity Prices force school lunch cuts

The Washington Post reports the disturbing news that rising commodity prices are causing bad changes in school lunch programs. The really disturbing part of all this are the choices the schools are making to react. One school district has replaced "healthier options" (presumably milk) with Yoo-hoo. Another school has removed tomato slices (inappropriate given the season anyway) and replaced them with celery. And yet another came up with limiting fruit to twice a week.

I realize that the budgets are stretched. But it seems obvious to me at least that part of this has just got to be incompetence. Not because they're out of money, but because the apparent solutions have such deleterious effects that they're clearly worse than the disease.

Melton Mowbray gets PGI status

A very old interest of mine, the Melton Mowbray pork pie, has finally won European PGI protection. The real story here, as I first discussed about four years ago, is that the proposed geographical indication essentially shut one of two main competitors out of the market. It was a business ploy rather than some sort of artisanal impulse towards tradition. With the competitor now apparently safely situated in the protected area, all is apparently well.

Buyer Uncertainty

Via Larry Ribstein, I see this paper on "Buyer Uncertainty and Two-Part Pricing: Theory with Evidence from Outsourcing and New York Restaurants".

I have not throughly studied the economic theory as yet, but there is definitely something wrong with the empirics here, apparently because the authors didn't think enough about how people order in restaurants.

The idea is this: the researchers noticed that appetizers, desserts, and soups cost more (6-20% more) in comparison to main dishes at restaurants categorized as "romantic" in Zagat's guides than at restaurants categorized as "business dining". From this fact, the researchers extract the theory that restaurants are responding to a sort of uncertainty. Because couples on a "first date" don't know whether they are going to like each other, the authors argue, first date restaurants price "ancillary courses" more aggresively than the obligatory main course, because by the time the couple decides to order an ancillary, they'll have decided they like each other or not, and will thus be willing to pay a premium.

I can't even count the number of things wrong with these empirics when you look at them through the lens of New York restaurants.

1. The ancillary courses used as examples are totally disimiliar - one orders soups and appetizers before or at the same time as the main course, and only dessert afterward. The fact that the empirical results are the same across all three strikes me as fishy. I suppose one might argue that by the time the couples gets to the restaurant they know whether they like each other or not, but in New York you often meet your date at the table.

2. Business meals are often also highly uncertain affairs. You might be making a pitch for a client, or meeting an adversary for some hard words. If it goes badly, shazam! Just a main dish.

3. There are deep structural differences between business dining and dates. One of the most obvious is that business is typically done at lunch, and dating at night. And it is almost certainly much more common to have just a dish at lunch than at dinner, so restaurants might respond to that by attempting to extract more value from the main dish, and then discount the ancillaries to lure lunchers into buying additional courses.

A cool note on Pate au choux

Listening to Colameco's food talk show on the radio this morning, his guest (the pastry chef at Gotham Bar & Grill) mentions that a great way to know whether a choux pastry has been beaten sufficiently (a choux pastry is made by boiling water or milk, adding butter, then flour, then cooking the newly formed ball until it dries over the heat, and then beating yolks into the mixture) is that it falls off, rather than sticks to, the Kitchen-Aid paddle or whisk.

Thoughts for the Day

1. The increase in the number and sophistication of food blogs since I was last writing actively in 2005 is staggering.

1a. I have no value add in the world of (a) describe recipe (b) take picture of recipe. I'll still do that, because I enjoy it, but there are people who are better at both elements than I am.

1b. My value add in this market (to the extent I have one) is in depth of knowledge, and lively but formal, writing. Target is Steingarten rather than, say, Clotilde. Which is to say, in the things I used to write on the old Crescat Sententia. Whether that effort is popular or not, I don't know/care.

2. Aran has made a beautiful Japanese inflected opera. If I had to make a criticism (and I would probably be better off not), I would say the layers of cake are thicker, and the layers of cream thinner, than I would like. But it is beautiful nonetheless.

Colameco has a radio show?

One of the least appreciated food personalities in New York, Mike Colameco, apparently has a radio show! It's wonderful, and it's archived.

Queso Fresco

To jump onto an old soapbox of mine, Belle of John & Belle draws our attention to the success of a small cheese maker in Mexico with microfinance. I don't really have much of an opinion about the main issue of "for-profit" lenders getting into the microfinance business, but I do want to note that our own FDA thinks that Alejandra Abúndez's cheeses (among others) are unsafe to eat (see the bottom of the handout). Forget whether she'll survive paying 90% interest - at least Mexico lets her try.

Weekend Meal

Possibly my favorite way with fish (other, of course, than the fryer, but I'm not supposed to admit that, I think) is to cook it in pappillote - that is to say, in a parchment paper envelope. The fish steams perfectly, seemingly without effort, a ready made sauce is made from the lemon and olive oil one uses to dress the fish and vegetables, and clean-up is almost instantaneous. The actual mix of fish, veg, and accompaniments are entirely up to you and what's available at the fishmonger, of course, but in this case I used some nice grouper, small sweet peppers, bok choi, and dandelion leaves. Some potatoes cut into thick coins and then baked for an hour for a golden, dark, crust were the perfect side dish.

Wedding Cake

In the comments below there is a brief discussion of wedding cake. In fact, I was supposed to think about the issue, and come up with cakes other than the traditional tiered cake, and other than my initial thoughts of Opera and Sachertorte.

I've thought about it, and am sad to report that I have no new ideas.

I guess the initial point is that I think that traditional wedding cakes are just awful, a pointless combination of airy fluff and American style buttercream. I have never eaten such a cake other than because I had to. I realize that you can't stack too many other kinds of cakes to make the spectacular displays brides expect, but I have to confess that every time I've seen some bride to-be gushing about the cake on one of those wedding shows my sister makes me watch when we're together, I really don't understand what they're talking about. Yes, it's a chocolate/yellow butter cake with [Put in your UNIQUE cream here]. Like a Duncan Hines. Yes, even the one from Soutine's. Woot.

So, what to do? You want something festive and different. So out go the brownies, the cookies (except as additions, where they are very nice to have) pies, quickbreads, and tarts. I'm not sure which of the canonical French cakes, traditionally served individually, one can have, except that I could imagine a very large Paris-Brest working. I also played with the thought of a dense, raisin-rich, carrot cake, which I think would be very nice, though I suppose some people might well complain. But in the end, if it was me, and if I was stuck in New York, I think I would call Payard and talk them into making a very large Opera.


UPDATE: Ah. You don't have to talk them into doing anything. They offer Opera for up to 100 people.

The Modern World

In honor of the various articles about annoying iphone users

My girlfriend and I were supposed to meet some friends at Luca Lounge on Friday night, putatively at 13th Street and B Avenue here in Manhattan. Stupidly, I didn't call to make sure they were open. It wouldn't have mattered, because they were. Just, no longer at 13th Street and B Avenue, but elsewhere entirely.

By the time we found out, I was already at Union Square, a shortish walk to Luca Lounge, and our guests were on their way. So as I walked along 14th Street towards Avenue B in the desperate knowledge that we might end up at the local taco place, I pulled out my iphone and logged onto chowhound. A search for "Avenue B" turned up Back Forty, one of the leading "back to the farm" restaurants in New York. Google maps told me it was less than half a mile away from where Luca Lounge used to be, so I called my girlfriend, who was still on the train in Astoria, to redirect her, had her check in with her friends, called the restaurant from the imbedded link in the post discussing Back Forty at chowhound to discover that they don't accept reservations, and then opened the menu to figure out what to get. I did all of this before I got to Avenue A. I got to the restaurant, realized I had to wait because everyone else was late, watched a couple of politics related youtubes, and then had dinner. I took a picture of the place with the phone's camera, and then spent the trip home drafting a blog post about the dinner I just had.

Is all this a good thing? I have no idea. But there's no doubt that even five years ago, we would have been left with our guests standing like idiots in front of the closed restaurant, with no idea where to eat, our night would have been ruined, and everyone would have felt awful. Instead, we had fun. At least this time, technology was a net positive.

Parts of me that I don't like much

I got into the elevator here at work yesterday, and pressed the button to head down to the lobby for lunch. Two girls jumped in just as the door was closing and pushed the button for our top floor. Whoops! They were headed the wrong way. I was just about to tell them about their mistake when I heard:

"I just can't eat pigs, you know? I don't mind eating cows, but pigs, you know, are smart and stuff".

And I shut my mouth.