Manger, Non Mangiare

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Mother Ruth Gotthelf's yahrzeit (anniversary of her death on the Jewish calendar) was this weekend, Saturday sundown until Sunday sundown.  Jewish days begin in the dark, following the progress of Creation.  My grandnephew Tomas shared the same recollection of my mother -- her fabulous salmon croquettes.  Whether hot or cold, they were an exquisite dish.  My niece Susan, Tomas's mother, has inherited the recipe, but so far I have not been able to enjoy her efforts.  Even without the constraints surrounding Covid-19, the fact that she is living and working in Shanghai inhibits contact. 

While my mother's salmon croquettes are my favorite individual dish, I was reminded of my single greatest meal when I read the obituary of Pierre Troisgros, a giant of French cuisine.  https://nyti.ms/3kR9SKu

In December 1972, I went on a hectic, hurried business trip to Germany.  It then took more than a dozen years before I could play the proper tourist in Europe.  In October 1985, I went to France, six months after I had visited England for a delightful week.  I had no wife, no companion; I made my own itinerary. 

After several days in Paris, I took the TGV, Train à Grande Vitesse, running at 200 mph to Lyons and then a local to Roanne, a small town in central France.  The Troisgros family had an inn on the plaza opposite the train station, which housed what was called by some “the best restaurant in the world.” I still have the menu from that night's dinner. 

 

I had a red currant salad, scrambled eggs with caviar, salmon in a sorrel sauce (labelled the "most famous dish" in the obituary), lobster poached in tomato sauce, veal kidney with sweet peppers plus cheeses and petit fours.  The fixed price dinner was 350 francs, one franc then near a post-war low of $.13, that meant $45.50 plus 15% service charge.  This was not only remarkably inexpensive, but the food was brilliant. 

Pierre Troisgros emerged during dinner to work the room, looking like the model French chef, clad in white with a stiff toque.  I rose and said in my impeccable high school French, that earned me a 71 on the statewide examination, "Mister, the food was very good."  I had another chance to speak the native tongue when the captain wheeled over a large chrome and glass wagon covered with desserts.  Asked for my preference, I didn't dilly dally.  Firmly, I spoke, "Tout" and got some of each. 

An aside to Warren Cohen: Do you still have the toques hand-painted by Michel Granger, a local artist whom I met at breakfast the next morning?  

Speaking of Warren Cohen, he is widely known, of course, as the father of another culinary star, Danny Macaroons.  https://dannymacaroons.com/ 

This morning, returning from my first visit to COSTCO in Year 1 of the Plague, I stopped at Super Nice Coffee and Bakery, 156 East 117th Street, Danny's home base, to secure some chocolate-covered macaroons.  Danny himself served me, but had not yet made the day's batch of chocolate-covered macaroons, so I had to settle for some chocolate donuts. 

. . . 

I'm still reading the weekend's newspaper and found, among other things, an interesting report about the impact of Whole Foods and Trader Joe's on neighboring residential rental properties.  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/24/realestate/whole-foods-trader-joes-higher-rent.html 

Both of them have a positive influence on rents (if you want to call higher rents positive), more so than other upscale grocers.  To my surprise, Whole Foods outpaces Trader Joe's over time in supporting higher rents, because I find Trader Joe's a better place to shop, unable to quash the memory of the store called Whole Paycheck. 

Wednesday, September 30, 2020

"Adults with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results were approximately twice as likely to have reported dining at a restaurant than were those with negative SARS-CoV-2 test results." https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6936a5.htm?s_cid=mm6936a5_x 

In other words, the thing that you probably miss most will get you so sick that you will be missing it for so much longer, if you even survive.  Bon appétit.  

Thursday, October 1, 2020 

Happy Birthday to Susan Gotthelf in Old Cathay and Mossad Moshe, whose location is often a mystery.  While a Hutzler 571 Banana Slicer might be a thoughtful gift for each of them, delivery might be a problem even for Amazon.

. . . 

Let us not talk of income taxes or debates.  Our focus is properly on the planned opening today of Pastrami Queen at 138 West 72nd Street, a location long occupied by another Kosher delicatessen.  https://www.westsiderag.com/2020/09/30/openings-closings-new-magnolia-bakery-paper-source-earth-cafe-pastrami-queen 

This spinoff of the successful enterprise on Lexington Avenue started taking shape early in the year when a cough did not clear a room or a sneeze empty a bus.  While it's far from an ideal time to open a restaurant, no doubt the pressure of the fixed costs of owning an unused space is pushing the doors open in spite of the evidence from the CDC of the perils of restaurant dining (see above).  

Well, not to worry.  As a dedicated devotee of salt and fat, I was at Pastrami Queen's front door at 12:30.  However, when I stuck my head inside, I found workmen busy with carpentry and electrical work, no end immediately in sight.  It doesn't quite amount to fake news, but more false hope.  

. . . 

Should Republicans go to college?  Reactions to this article will provide contrary answers: "Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump."  https://nyti.ms/30oXzwZ  

The referenced study examined 38 million recent English language articles about coronavirus and found that the largest source of "misinformation, conspiracy theories and falsehoods" was the President of the United States.  If a Republican does not go to college, she may reasonably claim that the subject matter is too dense for her to understand, leaving her admiration for him undisturbed.  Or, equipped with the tools of comprehension and analysis refined by a college education, she may feel qualified to pronounce this as fake news and/or the work of the deep state. 

Friday October 2, 2020

No!  Really?  Both of them?

. . .

I don't want to leave you thinking that my encounters with European restaurants over the years were all successes.  

In May 2003, just weeks before America's Favorite Epidemiologist made an honest man of me, we went to Italy, spending a few days in Florence.  We stayed in a pensione atop a building on Via de' Tornabuoni, a street that seemed to contain every fancy retailer in town.  Shopping was less important to me than eating, however, so I was pleased that Cantinetta Antinori, the well-regarded restaurant of the Antinori family, was just up the block, located on the ground floor of Palazzo Antinori.  The building dates from 1469, the Antinori vineyards from 1385.  https://cantinetta-antinori.com/en/ 

We walked in at lunchtime without a reservation, but as an American, a New York American, exuding confidence to go with my New York Rangers Stanley Cup Championship T-shirt, I anticipated a special experience.  In a way, I got it.  

Il maggiordomo walked by countless times, seating parties of various sizes who arrived before and during our vigil.  I tried to speak to him repeatedly, with and without using my hands, to no avail.  Maybe he preferred basketball, maybe he was a Montreal Canadiens fan, maybe he didn't like an oversized American tourist, without a reservation, too casually dressed to be setting foot in a building of such architectural and historic significance; I never got the chance to find out.