small h

Irving Plaza. But I hope it's Pier 17.

In which Robert Sietsema recognizes that maybe some of the wine is stored at another location.

That is certainly a strong possibility.

In an effort to create fewer leftovers, I have tragically created more. My stuffing strata is too big to eat all at once! Made a big dent in the blue cheese dressing, though, with the buffalo shrimp, and that’s not nothing.

I'm trying to avoid the stuff I actually should be doing. Please assist me in this, won't you?

I'm trying to come up with a possible train of thought for whomever created the sign/menu. I'm not trying to argue that s/he has a case.

Yes, there's a lot of cross-over, obviously. My point was that Creole at least might be Black and thus connected to Harlem, whereas Cajun is likely not.

Creole at least has some African input.

It was implied. This is obviously the best quote I'm gonna read today. Or maybe all week.

I just figured no one could agree on the best route. "The traffic's gonna be insane through the Negev." "Yeah, but there's construction on the Sinai, and two lanes are closed."

Y'know, now that you mention it...

Or actually means Creole, not Cajun.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. The first episode was a lot of fun! And a little confusing for me - it jumps back and forth through time, and look, it's John Goodman! and then it's like he was never there at all.

This has happened to me. i don't have much sense of direction.

I love gin lemonade, but I felt like I'd had gin for about 184 nights in a row and was trying to mix it up. The recipe instructions were to roast the lemons for 20:00 (this is not long enough) and to muddle every damn thing together including all the liquid. That way lies madness. Also, too much sugar, because everything has too much sugar.

Oh, and later, fig and olive, just like the ladies-who-lunch cafe.

Back to small cooking! And figuring out how to make leftovers interesting. First try: Dal with mustard greens from the balcony, chopped red pepper and sour cream. Celery with blue cheese dressing, which we have about a gallon of. You'd think by now I could scale a damn recipe. And the last of the Beaujolais Nouveau. I remember when it was like $7/bottle! Times have changed

Vodka lemonade with roasted lemon and bay leaf. I went from a recipe, and it is not a good recipe, and when I make this again, I will fix it.

Main course, Dungeness crabs from Aquabest. I made an elaborate spice bag, added lemon and cayenne to the water, and the result tasted like...crab. Oh, well. Some of the sides: spaghetti squash, potato-flavored mashed butter, and my very first stuffing! It was too salty. But otherwise pretty good.

Aw, that's too bad. Who else are you expecting?

Thank you. signed, a former (and maybe future) standardized test tutor

I read this as you just sent him an email about something he wrote two months ago.

Yeah, I was sure I'd read your posts on it, but unfortunately they're gone now. Something compelled me to ask whether they'd be open Christmas Eve. (Probably.) The place feels somehow celebratory.

It is entirely possible that this place was mentioned in the before times, but I wanted to give it a little shout-out in the now times. We had a spur of the moment early dinner at Maison Harlem after an event at The Apollo. It’s a very cute neighborhood place; the menus are attached to double album covers, there’s a lot of collage-y stuff on the bathroom walls, the floor’s a little cracked and beaten up, you get the idea. The menu’s straightforward bistro French - think L’Express or French Roast or Lucien or Village (if your memory's that long), and what we had was pretty solid: Tagliatelle with seafood in a saffron cream sauce for him, dorade with sauce vierge, asparagus and fingerling potatoes for me. Reasonable prices and good service, too.