Had my secong meal at Applebee's (in MA) this year and while it gets no stars its not as bad as I thought it would be.

I had to eat there cause it was late and was close to the hospital my mom is in, she has been not great lately (doesnt eat well and every once in a while wrestle's with a 1.75L plastic bottle of distilled grain) plus was stung by a wasp Saturday to which she is very allergic. She wandered up to the Emergency Room, screamed to everyone about angels and started talking to my deseased father before passing out cold on the floor.

The hospital is very close and before they expanded many years ago, deer roamed between it and my house. There is a stream between us that had crayfish when I was very young, I sadly never ate them, just liked to play with them. Back in the day the bigger streams had Horned Pout (Catfish).

Now we have Applebee's, Longhorn, one very polluted stream and the best hospital for miles around.

the market had Dragon Beans and Cranberry Beans....YAHOO

mint?

Last nite at wd~50 was the best meal to date there, the two new main dishes go right to the top of the charts (Super Yum Yum Deluxe)....there is a Skate with Corn and Huitlacoche with two Art Nouveau looking spash's of what I assume is creamed corn and an oil, its clean, beautiful, screams summer sweetness....a new Lamb with Arugula, Goat Cheese and a stewed(??) fruit (sadly i cant remember what it is exactly but the taste is still rattling round in my brain), all 4 of these on a fork and it explodes gamey earthy flavor, clear yet rich, matched with a wine from Bea was a home run.....the White Gaspacho keeps getting better to me and I cant imagine someone makes a better example anywhere in NYC (USA??), one I had a famous 3* restaurant was water to this magic summer elixer, such a cool texture, longest finish in the soup bizzness, flavors coming in from all sides, 100 Million Points....a new Shrimp dish is also super cool and not to be missed.....we were too stuffed for Mr Awesome's dessert's but he sent out a masterpiece of diced mango, arugula ice, pumpkin seed, coco foam, we had room for that.....one of the greatest if not the greatest meal I have ever had in NYC

Con Ed gives you money

mickey hart interveiw on wnyc today (soon, leonard lopate show). it's taped from a few weeks ago.

annie hall (b)lite

three of the best dishes from Jean George were:

lobster scented with mace, fresh lychees and celery hearts in a ice wine verjus dressing

peekytoe crab and english pea fondue, rhubarb gelee, shiso puree

foie gras brulee, slow roasted strawberries and aged balsamic

the world as blog

the more one cooks the more one understands the cost of fine dining in people hours and product cost (never mine rent and hopefully profit).....i cant cook great but i have a small group of dishes that i can cook well, but just a few do i feel are my own, some are great adaptions.....last two weeks i have a new dish that rocks!! make a rich herb risotto (rice quality and stock quality are tres inportant) i use basil, chocolate mint and lots of parsley, and on top i shave 1 and 1/2 ears of corn (per plate) and ricotta salata (SP? hard riccota) thats it, its so yummy....another new easy dish for summer i made up and is only 8 items is a pasta sauce of oil, butter, salt, cook down a ton of sweet onion, add a ton of sweet cherry tomato, at the end add 6+ ears of shaven corn, last stir in some fresh basil = 7 items, cook some top end egg pappardelle (rustichella d'abruzzo is awesome brand) add to sauce el dente and yahoo to summer....

We finally made it to the food stall at Red Hook soccer fields, very cool, we wernt too hungry so we had a queso arepa(sp?) side of slaw-ish cabbage, jugo de pina and will come back starved soon.....

did anyone see the giant rubik's cube at astor place?

2003 Top Eats

Globe All
Passadis Del Pep (Barcelona) 4*
Varoulko (Athens) 4*
Slanted Door (SF) 3*
Carballeira (Lleida, Spain) 3*
Uglesich's (New Orleans) 3*
#9 Park (Boston) 3*
El Torreone (Torrisellas, Spain) 2*
Asados Nazareno (Roa, Spain) 2*
Frankie & Johnny's (New Orleans) 2*
O Loutros Fish Taverna (Thessaloniki, Greece) 2*
Botafumeiro (Barcelona) 2*

Loc All
wd50 4*
Kai 4*
Wallse 4*
Jean George 4*
Al Di La 3*
Locanda Vini Olii 3*
Fleur de Sel 3*
66 3*
Grand Sichuan Int Midtown 3*
Gramercy Tavern 3*
Bao Noodles 3*

Went to Jean George last night for what is probly my 5th or 6th meal since they opened, everyone has been 4* to me, we did both tasting menu's (we tried 12+ dishes) and tasted all 16 desserts, I was also happy as the wine list had many items to pick from in my price range, overall it was expensive of course but its like seeing the Stones play at the Garden every few years, and like Keith, Jean George still rocks!!

Lunch at WP, the list is growing and the food is good.....

Wallse thursday nite was awesome, now 4* IMO....
Tasting menu was 2 soup shots, f gras with cherry (gift from chef, best in recent memory, blows away same from cafe boulud), bluefish with heirloom tomato, bass with corn etc, wiener snitzel (awesome), a duck rolled in cabbage (awesome), chesse....

Eating By #'s 2003
Grand Sichuan Int Midtown 14Times
wd~50 12 Times
Wash Park 10 Times
66 5 Times
The Minnow 5 Times
Kai 3 Times

John Zoller alphamega series

linkdup

gitcherwaron

day 1: aol weblogs

sadly last night at Cafe Boulud was less exciting in a big way (we heard that if the chef cooked special for us we would have rocked, he offered we were tired so passed) from the time before, the time before was awesome....2* now

p.s. the wine list is very difficult

One for the Redwoods

I've often thought I would get healthier by eating more fruit if only the fruit would meet me halfway and be at least somewhat delicious. There's a pretty successful organic farm in these parts (Rappahannock/Culpepper counties Va.), Sunnyside Farms(?) , and they're producing some nice stuff. Pick of the week--Asian Pears.

Satellite photos before and after (during) the blackout.

Blackout history project (via TPM)

"Even if within two hours it was pretty clear, for a president to say something, it's got to be more than pretty clear, it's got to be 100 percent certain," said one Republican with strong ties to the White House."