As promised in print, here are the notes on the restaurants from my fried chicken search not prominently mentioned in either the article or my list of favorites. (I'm leaving out Ajisen, Massey's, Nate's Seafood, Plus One Chicken and...Bill Addisonhttp://www.dallasnews.com/blogs/overthetop/emailbloggers.htm?contact=Bill

The First Stage: Shock The original plan was to take Craig to see the play "Speech & Debate," which he's been eager to see, and then to dinner at Soto--a Japanese place in the West Village, praised as the...Adam Roberts

This month’s Daring Bakers challenge was hosted by Kelly of Sass and Veracity and Ben from What’s Cooking . This is one of the first challenges where I really know each of these bloggers and so I couldn’t wait to see what they would come up with to challenge us this time. I should have guessed from this pairing that we would end of with a pastry! Ben is a master at making Puff Pastry and Kelly is always coming up with great ideas of how to make the DB challenges reflect her culinary style. Therefore, it just made sense when I saw the challenge would be a Danish. On the outset, I must admit that I wasn’t too excited about the challenge, as I generally don’t like Danish. It is always so sweet and the dough is generally plasticy, wet and gummy from the filling sinking into it. But as I have come to learn with these challenges, the things we sometimes buy, often do not reflect what the original homemade variety would taste like. Once I saw that cardamom was involved in the dough recipe they had picked out for us, I began to feel slightly more relieved, as I have a huge love for this spice. Then when I read further that we could experiment with the filling I felt even better!  read more »

Alinea Alinea.
Exec chef Grant Achatz calls the food "ultra modern emotional"
The space is clean and modern, very Tribeca, with comfy seats and a spacious table.

We made reservations about two months in advance and this dinner was highly anticipated. Surprisingly, we came out with such differing opinions that we decided to write this post jointly.

Steelhead Roe
Coconut mousse (?) topped with salmon roe, encased in a candy cilantro tuile. Served on the end of a vanilla bean.  read more »

The Shake Shack Southeast corner of Madison Square Park (corner of 23rd Street and Madison Avenue; map ); shakeshacknyc.com The Short Order: One of the best burgers in the Big Apple. Inspired by West Coast-style burgers but with a unique New York spin. These days there's almost always a long, long line. The signature Shackburger is very good, but the plain cheeseburger is even better, as it allows the great flavor and texture of the sirloin-brisket beef mixture to stand alone Want Fries with That?  read more »

Kevin Pike, Director of National Sales & Marketing for Michael Skurnik Wines, paid a visit at Tria Fermentation School recently to present a double-header look at a goodly portion of the Michael Skurnik/Terry Theise Champagne portfolio. During an afternoon session, he focused on presenting the portfolio to restaurant wine buyers from the Philly area. I headed to the evening session, a public seminar geared primarily at bringing the charms of grower Champagnes to the attention of the students in attendance. Kevin Pike hard at work. The welcome wine of the evening was Henri Goutorbes Cuve Prestige Brut , a non-vintage blend of 70% Pinot Noir, 5% Pinot Meunier and 25% Chardonnay from various villages in the Valle de la Marne. Golden and dense, generous in texture and laden with hazelnut and fresh bread notes, it was a solidly centrist starting point. As guests mulled over the first of their many wines of the evening, Kevin blazed through a whirlwind overview of the Mthode Champenoise, followed by an overview of the geography and primary terroirs of the Champagne region. Following those geographic lines, the tasting portion of the seminar began in earnest with an exploration of a grower Champagne from each of the three primary terroirs being discussed. First up was Pierre Peters Cuve de Rserve Brut NV , representing the Cotes des Blancs. Typical of the Cotes and its chalk based soil, this is a Blanc de Blancs, 100% Chardonnay grown in the 100% Grand Cru villages of Oger, Avize, Cramant and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger. With 11 grams of residual sugar, this was well under the Brut cap of 15 grams but one of the most highly dosed of the wines wed taste from the Skurnik portfolio non-Brut styles aside over the course of the evening. That hint of sweetness was well masked and balanced by the wines fine acidity as well as by a hint of maturity; the cuve was based primarily on wine from the 2000 vintage and was fairly recently disgorged. Still, plenty of primary fruit emerged, with suggestions of meyer lemon, winter melon, green apples and a gooseberry twang. Ive had rough luck with Peters Champagnes over the years, encountering far too many bottles that were beat up or tired out; this was showing well. Representing the Valle de la Marne, a cool, frost prone region running from outside Chateau Thierry in the west to Epernay in the east, was the Brut Tradition NV from Gaston Chiquet . Because of its frost resistance its a late budder and an early ripener Pinot Meunier is the mainstay of the Marne. Thats reflected in Chiquets wine, made up of 45% Meunier, 20% Pinot Noir and 35% Chardonnay, with a dosage of 8.8 grams. This would be a good savory course wine, particularly with white meat and poultry courses, given its firm texture and flavors of red fruits, including fleshy red apples.  read more »

"Defeat should never be a source of discouragement, but rather a fresh stimulus." ~South Yes, it's Tuesday again, and we all know what that means. It's Tuesdays With Dorie day!!! The one day a week that I join in with a multitude of other keen bakers who are baking their way through Dorie Greenspan's cookery book, "From My Home to Yours." Each week we bake another tempting and taste bud tingling delight! This week, Mary of Starting From Scratch has chosen . . . . The Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart. Now . . . my Todd is not a lover of lemon anything (I know???  read more »

I have written previously about the Cookbook Cooking Club, our inspired idea to keep Johanna "in the loop" while she was home and looking after baby Henrik way back in the spring. I even posted a Flickr album of photos...Jeanne Horak

Drop dead gorgeousI'm dying to knowI nearly died of embarrassmentTo die forI'm dying to go on holiday, give up work, move house, get married, whatever.I don't think so.No one ever died because they were attractive.No one died because they didn't know the latest gossip.No one ever died of embarrassment.Did you die when you ate that creme brulee, chocolate cake or drank vintage champagne?.............and no one ever, ever died because they didn't go on holiday, continued to work, stayed in the same house, didn't get married, or whatever.People die from accidents, heart attacks, any number of diseases like liver disease or kidney disease. Some people die because they are born into poverty in a third world country and some people die in war. Then there are those who die from cancer.  read more »

Drop dead gorgeousI'm dying to knowI nearly died of embarrassmentTo die forI'm dying to go on holiday, give up work, move house, get married, whatever.I don't think so.No one ever died because they were attractive.No one died because they didn't know the latest gossip.No one ever died of embarrassment.Did you die when you ate that creme brulee, chocolate cake or drank vintage champagne?.............and no one ever, ever died because they didn't go on holiday, continued to work, stayed in the same house, didn't get married, or whatever.People die from accidents, heart attacks, any number of diseases like liver disease or kidney disease. Some people die because they are born into poverty in a third world country and some people die in war. Then there are those who die from cancer.  read more »