04/28/08

The Director’s Cut: Eating on the Sly

One of the more painful aspects of a writer’s life is that we must succumb to our editors, who are irritating people in general, but also totally obsessed with micromanaging notions regarding story length. Apparently (or so I’ve been told), there are a finite number of pages in each issue, so when we proudly hand in our 10,000-word, opus-like articles, these editor types are less than pleased. Rather than fall onto grateful knees, the reaction we fully expect, they have the nerve to send our work back—often accompanied by a miffy note requiring us to cut our perfection down to 1500 words, max. Then begins the painful process of elimination, which often feels like a dirty-knifed,...

04/21/08

The Customer Is Frequently Wrong

We once had a long, drawn-out argument with another foodie about the notion that the customer is always right. He opined that diners should be served whatever they desire at a restaurant, including (but not limited to) substituted sides; sauce on the side; steamed, plain chicken breast; well done steaks; ketchup for their kobe; and pasta lubed with butter instead of its intended sauce. His argument ran that if the diner was willing to pay for the meal, he should get whatever he wants.

This attitude annoys us, and, in fact, just revisiting his rhetoric gets us all heated up. Our feeling is that chefs are artists-- actual food designers-- who are crafting an edible experience for their guests....

04/14/08

Gyros at Twenty Paces: The Greek Takeout Duel

We've been reading a lot on Chowhound.com about Santorini, the new Greek restaurant in Sleepy Hollow that’s challenging Lefteris Gyro’s primacy in Westchester’s Greek restaurant market. If you believe the posts on that site (most notably here and here), you’d think that Santorini is the best thing to hit Greek food since sheep on a stick. In fact, there have been so many unqualified raves about the joint that even the

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04/07/08

Hometowns, History and Burgers: AJ’s

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04/01/08

Harbinge Eating, the Hunted and Gathered Trio

har•bin•ger (häŕ bin jər) n 1. One that announces or foreshadows the approach of someone or something; a forerunner; herald. 2. A person sent in advance of troops, a royal train, etc., to provide or secure lodgings and other accommodations.

Or so says our Webster’s College Dictionary when we look up the word “harbinge”—which actually doesn’t exist. Apparently, the announcer is a real thing but the announcement is not, which is just the sort of fickleness that we expect from the English language. After all, we’ve all seen sturdy, brand-new buildings, but we have never viewed a crepit one. No—according to Webster’s, we have not.

The reason we needed the...