2008 replies to this topic

[oakapple]

The Daily News has revived the weekly restaurant review. Not with Danyelle, though.

[changeup]

STAR SYSTEM EXPLAINED

1-Don’t bother

2-Not bad

3-Good, not great

4-A best bet

5-Run, don’t walk!

[Lex]

Remember the glory days of Restaurant Girl? When she was writing reviews for the Daily News each week was a thrill ride. God, I miss that. Reading her reviews was like watching a drunk juggle knives. There was a sense that something bad and exciting could happen at any second.

Well there's a new girl in town, Ligaya Mishan, who writes the Times' Hungry City column. When she gets up a head of steam she sounds like RG's younger sister. Lets follow along as she reviews Amali. These quotes can best be appreciated with a little music -



OK. Now you're ready.

No one at the table notices the duck leg confit trailed by a retinue of chanterelles and peaches ...

Animated food. With cute little faces and legs. I love it.

To a crudo of black bass he brings a silky dressing of slow escalation, with sun flares of lemon and fervent chile, barely mollified by a sweet-corn purée ...

Slow escalation? Fervent chilie? This is great. Please feel free to switch the background music to "Bolero."

I've saved the best for last.

Broccoli is an upstart on Amáli’s mostly tranquil menu, an $11 side dish taking on the big-ticket items and winning. It is joined in rabble-rousing by eggplant ($14), which arrives in canted slabs arrayed like a fortress wall, with dollops of a burnt-orange-hued vinaigrette so thick and immobile, they might be mistaken in the candlelight for sea urchin.

Tranquil menu? Rabble rousing egg plant? I think I'm in love.

Here's the full review.

[oakapple]

At least she writes proper sentences and has mastered subject/verb agreement.

[Suzanne F]

Can you guess who said this?

Gritty and undercooked, the rice lacks the tumescence of properly prepared risotto. Instead of inhabiting that liminal space between fluid and solid, this dish suspends still solid rice in a thin, acerbic liquid.

(I've been going back over some old posts. This was not in one, but in something linked to.)

[Sneakeater]

RG wouldn't use "liminal".

She'd totally use "tumescent", though.

[irnscrabblechf52]

[Sneakeater]

The difference between the quote and RG's writing is that the quote doesn't commit the pathetic fallacy.

[Suzanne F]

True: animals can also be tumescent.

Grains of rice, though?

[Sneakeater]

Can't plants be tumescent? I thought it was like a basic thing they do.

[Suzanne F]

Webster 11:

Main Entry: tu·mes·cence Pronunciation Guide
Pronunciation: tü-me-sn(t)s, tyü-
Function: noun
Date: 1859
: the quality or state of being tumescent; especially : readiness for sexual activity marked especially by vascular congestion of the sex organs

Come to think of it, some of the guys I had sex with in college weren't much smarter than plants.

[Sneakeater]

Suzanne, if you think plants don't get tumescent, I'm afraid you haven't studied enough botany:

[Suzanne F]

I fear we do indeed have a replacement for RG. Please note in the octopus photo that the person pelting the tentacle with capers has better control than any ace pitcher. Pow pow pow pow pow all in a neat row.

[nuxvomica]

I fear we do indeed have a replacement for RG. Please note in the octopus photo that the person pelting the tentacle with capers has better control than any ace pitcher. Pow pow pow pow pow all in a neat row.

she reminds me more of Bruni than RG