Wilfrid

Wow, almost half an hour of hot dogs! Glad to see they used a ridged griddle to get the little black lines. I broke out my Le Creuset last night for the same purpose. I'll take a photo of the dogs next time.

Not a fancy choice, Best's all-beef king size. They taste fine and they are really long. I do like a dog that is way longer than the bun.

Hot dogs tonight because I have good low-carb* hot dog buns. *Actually zero net carbs. I should eat another couple.

That first Stone Roses album was really good. I may have it on vinyl.

Cold souse on hot, crisp toast. But I did eat my greens too.

There seem to be various cocktails called that. This looks like the best bet:

@maison rustique I don't think it's behind a paywall. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/11/17/david-byrne-profile

Speaking of memories, Tom Tom Club at Summerstage...

Started reading the David Byrne profile in the New Yorker. Then a search on YouTube took me unexpectedly to 90 minutes plus of the original trio playing live in 1976. The Kitchen? Fascinating. I saw them when they first visited the UK in 1977, both at Eric's, a small club in Liverpool, and supporting The Ramones in London. I think Jerry Harrison had joined by then.

By chance, I just stumbled over a diary entry referencing my first dinner at March (August 1997). It records a lobster and black truffle "won ton" (sic). That would have been my first beggar's purse.

Realtors call it the East Village. But it's been the Lower East Side for most of its history. That's AI, I'm afraid, but it accords with my understanding.

I decided to go straight on to Ellison, Invisible Man. And while splashing out $2.50 on a Kindle copy (which really does accelerate the reading) had to be careful not to buy the one by H.G. Wells.

As a change from Hinds, I just bought a ticket for Piri & Tommy at Baby's All Right in March. First US tour.

I feel like I come on here every week to recommend another big museum show. But this is a great season and the big Lam retrospective is mindblowing. I knew the name, but I guess I've never looked at much of his work. Black-Chinese from Cuba, he lived in France and Spain for 18 years before going back to his roots. He knew Picasso, and I have to say there are many echoes of Picasso in his work -- but who knows, maybe the influence went both ways, and they certainly were both inspired by African masks. Anyway, room after room of complex compositions, a sober palette but endless inventiveness. And just when you've become accustomed to his visual vocabulary, he turns on a dime and blasts out some big abstractions. A fifty year career. Allow plenty of time for this.

Another review of immense utility.

I used to really like March and certainly remember the beggar's purses. Correct.

I have to go outside today, but it looks significantly better than yesterday. I don't know if wimpiness about the weather comes with age. I remember, as a schoolkid (and therefore before the globe got warm) trudging to school through snowstorms. Now I try to avoid drizzle.

That might be the explanation. Her absence kind of jumped out at me. I bet Mishan expensed an Uber to Jersey City.

Well done.

That has certainly been the rumor. I think I tried to go years ago but couldn't get in. But that may be a false memory.

My phone says it "feels like" 16 degrees outside. I am inside. Guess I will stay inside.

Well that was better than expected. It's a while since I've been to a big, loud brasserie in New York and it was packed for the event, mainly with industry people who knew each other. I said hello to M. Auboyneau, who ate the food himself along with a fairly large party. An amuse platter featuring a slice of pâté, champignons de paris in some kind of white sauce and leeks vinaigrette. There were choices for the other courses. I went for the boudin and the entrecôte. The first came with cooked and raw apples and a really good potato purée featuring little salt crystals (probably from the butter used). The boudin itself was the soft, slightly sweet kind; it took me back to Chez Josephine. I think the entrecôte is pretty much a signature dish for Paul Bert, served in a rich sarawak pepper sauce. I think the steak was sous vide rather than grilled, but it certainly came out as ordered. Perfect fries, as you might expect from a Frenchette kitchen. Finally, a choice of profiteroles or rice pudding. I would not normally order either, but the latter, served cold, was really very good (I didn't finish it), topped with marinated prunes and strands of bitter orange peel. These days, I think $125 for four courses of decent bistro food is very reasonable.

Is Tejal out? The stars never went away. Korai Kitchen got three.

I am curious if anyone has seen the new version of Hedda with Tessa Thompson, especially if you have a positive take on it. I found it barely watchable, but it may be because it's an example of a type of cinema I personally don't like. Worst thing was the soundtrack, like endless repeatedly drum solo clips from Nostalgia in Times Square.

Plenty of laughs there, as long as you're not Mallmann (or his executive chef). relieved, to at last find something at La Boca that was straightforwardly unobjectionable...I started to laugh, and then nearly aspirated my bite of meat and choked to death, though I can’t fault the restaurant for that.