Comments on: nyc 2.08 part 2

By: yveala

yveala — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:30:47 +0000

you could probably do a blog just about ethel and jewish moms…i’d definately lend you mine for as long as you’d like

By: countrymouse

countrymouse — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 04:44:37 +0000

A favorite haunt while in Seattle is located under the market in a grotto seemingly carved into the earth.
“Il Bistro” has been there forever. I go there to drink Poire Williams, and grappa. The brandy burns my sinuses, and the grappa, my throat.
The memory of these sensations don’t erase those I felt in my stomach while reading of the above mentioned meatish slabs. Ha! ;P

By: melissa

melissa — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:48:15 +0000

“we�re ny jews. she�s 73 and my mother. if you have any questions, you just couldn�t understand. it�s a comedy routine at best and a near murder scene – well, too often. somehow we get through it reasonably unscathed.”

oh my god hahahaha aaaaah claudia. that is so me and my mom/my sister and my mom. and my mom’s mom? don’t get me started.

did you ever see that frasier episode where he’s dating the jewish girl (amy brenneman) and she and her mother have this horrible argument right in front of him and then just as quickly make up and he’s all confused? HAHAHAHA!

By: ponyboat

ponyboat — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 01:53:56 +0000

This is why I love you. I laughed so hard I scared the dogs! Your mom is my mom, but so much nicer. Mine wouldn’t have bothered trying.

By: TaratheFoodie

TaratheFoodie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:29:12 +0000

Oh my God, I could read about your mom for hours – that was hilarious!!! I also used the accent in my head as I read it and I was laughing out loud. I could just picture her in the store getting all pissed off because she couldn’t find the “marzini” tomatoes. Reminds me of my mom (she’s not jewish OR from NY) and how she would be totally lost trying to shop for ingredients that I use every day. She tells me I cook “weird stuff”. I always ask her if I can bring something when she invites me to her house for dinner and she’ll say “well cook something normal ok?” haha…

By: minimally invasive

minimally invasive — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:09:42 +0000

A few things:

1. Thanks for the kind words…and the traffic!
2. I will DIE if you do NOT bring your mother to dinner next time; she sounds like the best kind of nuts. My mom would’ve been duking it out in the aisles of Fairway.
3. Is it wrong to crave eau de vie at 9am? I think I have a problem.
4. Thank you for not using the Giada-head pic. Seriously.

By: Lesley

Lesley — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 14:04:32 +0000

Oh, the orange torta makes me ache. Ooooohhh.

By: Annie

Annie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:45:59 +0000

Oh claudia, you are my sister – we have the same mother who is 73 and Jewish (although my mom is quite a cook and knows from San Marzanos) and they are extremists and they have the same big cabinet of Blue Willow dishes near the dining room table and they both have slivovitz in their genes. I loved this post from the rug (which reminds me, unaccountable of those hard Christmas candies that have flowers in the middle) to the coversation with mom from the Fairway to dinner and the anxiety of thinking you might have to have a cheese plate instead of “real dessert.” (By the way, my dad often has a Perfect Manhattan, and I love them with all my heart. I would like a Manhattan in Manhattan).

By: democommie

democommie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 12:40:37 +0000

Lauren:

Sardines are delicious, if you have them the right way. I’ve had fritos boquerones which are small, whole deepfired sardines in the spanish style. They are delicious. The french and the english do a similar treatment (and I’m betting every country that has access to shoals of these little guys does something similar. Of course, I like sardines out of the can, as long as they are the good ones–and, yes, there are lots of not so good ones out there. I don’t keep track of brands, but I try to buy a can or two that comes from a place that has some relationship with the brand name. “King Olaf”, for instance, from Korea would not instill confidence…

By: Lauren

Lauren — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:36:12 +0000

This entire post is best if you can insert the stereotypical nyc jewish grandma accent during the Ethel speak portions. Love it! I just gotta say, sardines are bad and scary things. The rest sounds good though. So far Otto is still my food lust pick.

By: democommie

democommie — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 04:33:02 +0000

Claudia:

I went to the USOswego Big Band dance and it was the usual hurly burly of seniors who are reliving their youth when there was a USO canteen in Oswego (big USN presence on the Great Lakes back then) and they had bands from NYC up here to play. I’m glad I’ve learned to like swing and big band. I can’t imagine standing around some disco when I’m 75 (nor could I imagine it at age 35).

Did your pear eau de vie come in a bottle with the pear inside? Both the french and the Oregon distillations are bottled that way I think. I actually have a bottle of slivovitz that a friend brought me (he thought it was grape brandy), it’s fine but I like armagnac better.

Boy, that food looks delish. I never eat in hyper expensive restaurants (full disclosure, I almost never eat in moderately priced restaurants, either) but that food looks just too yummy.

Someone commented, on your previous post, that there is such a thing as food porn, I agree, but this is not it. This is food erotica. Food porn is McDonald’s or the like’s advertising. Promises of wonderful satiety, but that’s all it is, just a promise–the reality is guilty, but not particularly pleasurable. This food you show us, otoh, that looks like love on a plate.