[Le Coucou]

Back for the first time since pre-pandemic for a light business lunch. Room, service and food very pleasing. Crepinette with chicken and foie, excellent. The gratin de fruits de mer au Champagne looked great (Google time!).

We were being non-alcoholic and some concoction featuring cucumber and mint was good too.

[the lunch thread (cont.)]

Business lunch at L'Express. Must be the first time I've been there since pre-COVID. Still miffed that they took the tablier de sapeur off the menu, but the country terrine was good. They were doing great business for a Wednesday lunchtime.

[Eater]

10 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

That might be valid if the author had demonstrated any expertise in several other kinds of food than French.

Her resume is good. The misstep as I said was not so much not knowing something basic as broadcasting that she had to Google it. How about “confit”? Should she know that without googling it? It’s French, it’s basic.

[Eater]

11 hours ago, Sneakeater said:

Tchaikovsky is actually pretty telling in this context.

I myself would say that Tchaikovsky is worse than Chuck Berry.  But that's from evaluating each them on their merits.  Not by thinking that one is automatically generically better or more important than the other.

Just because he was in the song and Chuck didn’t stop at Beethoven.

[Matthew Perry]

My daughter watched all of Friends on demand, maybe several times. She would have been about 3 years old when it stopped airing on the network.

I watched five minutes here and there because there were pretty women. I vaguely know what it was about. 

[Eater]

And Tchaikovsky can sit on it too.

[breakfast]

Today was yogurt day but I am out of yogurt. Reached for the low carb granola, then realized I am out of (nut-based) milk. Defrosted a low carb croissant, split it, did not scoop it, drizzled it with crema Centroamericana.

Need to shop.

[Eater]

9 hours ago, mongo said:

 

i dunno. it's hard to go out to eat in the u.s very often and not encounter ravioli. i don't know that i've ever seen the words chou farci on a menu (or encountered them on mouthfuls, a site that has been discussing food for 20 years).

If only we could run a search. 

[Eater]

If it's any comfort I am certain they're not getting paid very much.

The big mistake was telling people she googled it. A smart journalist would have googled it then worn it as a badge of their expertise.

[Eater]

Outrageous overstates it, I agree. I could forgive chou, but not knowing a really elementary French cooking term like farci signals certain limits on her experience. She has a good resume, but I guess she took a detour around French cooking.

https://www.stephanielynnwu.com/

I had to google plenty of terms on the menu at Chama Mama, but Georgian cooking (and cooking vocabulary) is easier missed.

[Do You Scoop A Bagel?]

I could buy keto-friendly bagels but I don't like bagels enough (and they would be expensive).

Low carb croissants, yes.

Maybe I should try scooping them.

[Do You Scoop A Bagel?]

I have never been a big fan of bagels for the same reason. But yes, eat something else or take them home and scoop them yourself. Don't make a spectacle of it.

 

[Restaurant Closings]

17 hours ago, backyardchef said:

No. Restaurants are really only good for losing money. 

I have never forgotten a comment by an acclaimed British chef I heard maybe thirty years ago. "If I'd wanted to make money, I'd have opened a sandwich bar."

(Had to look up his name: Alistair Little.)

[Eater]

Obviously should be homard chou farci.

:menu-snob:

[momofuku ko]

He was always nice to me, that's the main thing.

[You Learn Something New Every Day (cont.)]

Oh Eagle-Eye. Yes.

[Eater]

Catastrophe is the word I'd use.

[Eater]

And below that:

Quote

In most of the Spanish-speaking world the fried pig skin, chicharrones, are popular, but in the Philippines the dish is given a unique spin. Chunks of skin and fat are cut into bite-size pieces and fried in lard, creating the perfect crunch-to-squish ratio and a deep porky flavor.

That's how everyone does it.

Can I stop reading now?

[Eater]

Just below: "a whole Dover sole, and a pork shoulder"

I ate a pork shoulder once and I was stuffed, even without the whole sole.

[momofuku ko]

Batali and to a lesser extent Flay headed in this direction. But they kept their flagships going. Puck too, I guess.

[New York City Neighborhood Boundaries]

Nobody is disputing that. I am disputing that it gave its name to the neighborhood. And it's down to 3% support on the map now.

[You Learn Something New Every Day (cont.)]

Yes, I saw that.

And I have a really embarrassing one. For more than 30 years I have believed that Neneh Cherry was Don Cherry's daughter. Nope. She is African/Swedish, that part was correct, but Don Cherry was her stepfather.

[Do You Scoop A Bagel?]

Dude, really? Don't tell me how you eat your pizza, I don't need to know.

[Gigs]

Melissa Errico on Friday at 54 Below. Almost 20 years since I first saw her, talking of old.

I remember the first time I spoke to her after a set at the Oak Room. I told my wife about it, including the detail that she enthusiastically grabbed both my wrists.

Wife: "Self defense."

[New York City Neighborhood Boundaries]

Right, maybe four people responded and one lives in the building. Otherwise there would be a least a search result or two.