Without the bitterness produced by hot water, cold-brewed coffee had hints of chocolate, even caramel. Which makes for a delicious iced coffee. Better yet, "cold-brewed coffee is actually dirt simple to make at home." A recipe is included with the article. Sounds like something worth trying.

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“Ratatouille” is a nearly flawless piece of popular art, as well as one of the most persuasive portraits of an artist ever committed to film. The New York Times weighs in with its review. The movie opens today and I can't wait to go back and see it again!

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This fight is not about diners enjoying unfettered access to delectable lobster rolls and Caesar salads. "It's about a violation of trust, resentment, and betrayal behind the counter and the stove at a couple of restaurants in New York." Ed Levine stops by both restaurants in oyster/lobster bar lawsuit to see what's really going on.

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For two weeks in August, Matt Reynolds will live in a tent, hit several towns a day, and eat nothing but wings. He will film a documentary as he travels across New York State to find the perfect Buffalo wing, and fittingly will end his trip in that city on the shores of Lake Erie. Whose wing will reign supreme?

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Ed's Lobster Bar is much more than a knock-off. It's an exact duplicate of Pearl. Thirty-one of the 34 dishes on his menu are simply lifted from Pearl. Serious Eats has more on the oyster bar lawsuit, including many details that don't appear in the New York Times article. Sounds like it's more of an outright copy than that article lead me to believe. Still, I fear a dangerous precedent if she succeeds with this suit.

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Restaurant concept lawsuits run amok

Since opening Pearl Oyster Bar in the West Village 10 years ago, Rebecca Charles has ruefully watched the arrival of a string of restaurants she considers “knockoffs” of her own. So "yesterday she filed suit in Federal District Court in Manhattan against the latest and, she said, the most brazen of her imitators: Ed McFarland, chef and co-owner of Ed’s Lobster Bar in SoHo and her sous-chef at Pearl for six years." She claims he copied “each and every element” of Pearl Oyster Bar, from the paint and chairs to her recipe for Caesar salad.

Guh, this stinks. One one hand, I can see how she's frustrated after pouring so much into her restaurant and watching her former employees go open similar places. But filing a lawsuit seems ridiculous to me. I'm no fan of copyrighting recipes (see Keep recipes free) and I'm not much in favor of intellectual property claims on restaurant themes either. Lobster rolls? "Packets of oyster crackers placed at each table setting?" A "white marble bar" for seafood? Have you ever been to New England or France? Rebecca Charles hardly invented these concepts ten years ago. Instead, she was free to incorporate them in her new place because they've existed for so long and been used by so many; because they haven't been copyrighted and trademarked by lawyers and corporations. These details are the essence of our seafood restaurant vernacular, that's why they resonate with so many potential customers and give her West Village restaurant an authenticity she's now trying to control. Mr. McFarland would be hard-pressed to open an authentic-seeming lobster bar without including at least some similar items.

The real problems here are a lack of originality being demonstrated by Ms. Charles' former employees, and New Yorkers' demand for faux New England seafood shack restaurants. Regarding the former, it would be nice to see chefs move on to open their own places that build on what they've learned in previous kitchens, not copy the concept outright. Regarding the latter, in the throes of summer, those unlucky souls trapped in the sweltering city can dream of coastal Maine or Cape Cod by digging into fried clams and lobster rolls right here in Manhattan. And if you've seen the lines at Pearl or Mary's Fish Camp, you know there's room in this city for a few more joints. I've always said I'd like to see Danny Meyer do a Clam Shack, and I'd like to see him do it without the fear of a lawsuit.

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From last year, but one of my favorite things I've ever written for this site: Strawberry Fields Forever, a look at my family's strawberry growing tradition. I haven't made it there yet this year so I've been forced to eat local berries. And I have to say the berries at the Greenmarket here in New York pale in comparison to my grandfather's.

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New menu items at Ssäm Bar

Jason and I popped into Momofuku Ssäm Bar last night for an early dinner. We hadn't been in a few weeks, and it turns out during our time away, the menu's been updated with lots of new items and some old stand-byes received new treatment. My favorite sea scallops are now served with the crunchy seaweed that usually accompanies the cured hamachi, and are layered over a lemon puree and accompanied by pickled cherries. We had local sugar snap peas sprinkled with ham bits and softened onions, floating in a ham broth. Jason pointed out it was a nice play on the flavors of split pea soup, delicious!

On the meat side of the menu, we tried roasted lamb belly from Four Story Hill Farm, PA on a bed of wilted swiss chard. When our server placed it in front of us, I had a whiff of doughnuts. Doughnuts? Closer sniffing revealed it to be a cinnamony smell, maybe the lamb had a bit of cinnamon rub? Regardless, it was moist and sweet, with a thick layer of fat. No one does belly and fat like the Chang crew! We also ordered a Chicken Ballontine, which was beautifully executed and each bite revealed the essence of chicken. It was nice to see such a traditional preparation on the menu, and so well done.

Our final new menu item was the Crispy Pig's Head, also from Four Story Hill Farm. Oh my! If it weren't for a staff recommendation from our man Cory, I would have been too scared to try this, but it was amazing. Deep fried, it arrived looking like a fish stick, only larger. But a single bite revealed a creamy, gelatinous interior melting with tender pork meat and, you guessed it, more fat! The accompanying spicy mustard sauce and lettuce cleansed just the right amount of grease from the tongue, leaving me sighing with delight after each bite.

For dessert we had strawberry shortcake with local berries and fresh whipped cream. The shortcakes were perfect: crumbly without being dry, and had a nice sweetness to them. The strawberries were left whole, and weren't doused in sugar like in many places, so the sweet of the dessert actually came more from the shortcake, and the berries and cream countered it a bit. This morning I was thinking about stopping in again tonight, just for dessert!

I love Ssäm Bar, but with any place you frequent, you can sometimes tire of even the best food. It was so exciting to see all the new stuff on the menu and realize it's better than ever over there. Now the only question is when will my arteries be able stand a return trip!

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If a person chooses to live an ethical lifestyle it’s not enough to be vegan, they need to absent themselves from capitalism. The Times looks inside the freegan movement, perhaps best know for its advocacy of food scavenging from dumpsters. But it's much more than scoring free food, it's an attempt to remove as much as oneself from the system as possible. "[F]reegans...believe that the production and transport of every product contributes to economic and social injustice."

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I've been eating a lot of cherries lately, and was wondering what health benefits, if any, I was accruing. This nutritional summary for sherries, sweet, raw is amazingly comprehensive! I can't believe I haven't been to NutrionData before. It's going to be my source from now on whenever I need any info about an ingredient. And it turns out those cherries are a good source of vitamin C and fiber, which is what I'd suspected.

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Jay Vogler of Charlotte's Pizza on Earth retrieves a "China Blue" from the depths of his wood-fired oven, its top roiling from the 700-degree heat, edges erupting into dark-brown blisters. An article about the popularity of pizza in Vermont includes a look at my uncle Jay and his pizza operation! If you're ever in the Burlington area, you should definitely stop by the farm on a pizza night and check it out. The pies are delicious. I even worked one night with him, when his regular partner was sick. He made the pies, I managed the oven. It didn't take long to get a hang of using the long wooden peel to move the pies around the wood-burning oven. And it was lots of fun.

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Chef’s Story is a new 26-part television series of interviews and cooking segments with today’s most renowned chefs. The show is hosted by Dorothy Hamilton, founder and CEO of The French Culinary Institute. I caught the episode with Daniel Boulud the other day and it was great. First he talked about his experiences growing up, working in various famous French kitchens, etc. and then he cooked for a bit. I don't know what was more enjoyable, listening to him talk about working with chefs like Roger Vergé and Georges Blanc or watching him dice leeks. Knife skills like his are a joy to behold.

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Deborah Coleman/Pixar
Over the weekend there was a sneak preview of Ratatouille in New York City and my husband and I were lucky enough to snag tickets. Oh how I wish it were out already in the theater, because then I could go see it again! I think it's my favorite Pixar film yet, and if you have any interest in food, or France, or animation, I think you'll agree. Jason's written an excellent review on his site to which there's very little I can add. As usual, Pixar's loaded its film with commentary on contemporary culture. There's some great stuff on chefs as brands and the nature of criticism. And for those of us in NYC, rats in the restaurant kitchen couldn't be a more current topic. Ratatouille opens June 29.

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Put your fresh salad greens in a big plastic bag, gather up the neck, blow a little air (a.k.a carbon dioxide) inside, then seal it up quick. Apparently this trick will keep your greens "bright, firm, and flavorful for at least a week."

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Food history presents a complicated buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts. The Food Timeline sorts it out with its listing of when foods first appeared and where. Maple syrup arrived on the Western culinary scene in the seventeenth century when Pilgrims made contact with Native Americans, who'd been sugaring for some time. Though the chicken-fried steak the concept dates to 1824, "the 'chicken-fried'" moniker seems to be a mid-20th century invention." Fascinating list of food, I could click these links all day. [via Rebecca]

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I love making reservations online via OpenTable but the other end, however, is where the service has real benefit. "The reservations that pop up on the restaurants’ computer screens, especially those made by regulars, are accompanied by an important tidbit or two." Like a note regarding the regular who brings a woman who's not his wife: "make sure the man’s wife has not booked a separate table for the same day." I've loved OpenTable since it first launched, I'm happy to hear it's really succeeding now.

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It's hot outside, which means it's time to start drinking Vietnamese Iced Coffee, or ca phe sua da. If you've never had it before, you're in for a treat. It tastes like drinking melted coffee ice cream! I've got the little coffee brewing cup that I purchased in Saigon, so I need to get to the store today for coffee beans and condensed milk. How had I forgotten about this treat until now?!

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Replate: To place unwanted leftovers, typically in a doggie bag, on top of the nearest trash can so they don't go to waste. A website to raise awareness of the concept and the term.

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How did ethics become a staple of contemporary food writing? An examination of the many recent food books, such as The Omnivore’s Dilemma, from the Columbia Journalism Review. "Are, then, these debates about the ethics and politics of food largely a pastime of a tiny elite–grist for editors’ dinner parties but of tiny relevance to most consumers, who rush to the nearest market and grab what they need?" Or do they indicate a profound change underway in America around what we grow and consume? [thanks Kathleen!]

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Ratatouille isn't the first movie Thomas Keller's been involved with. He advised on Adam Sandler's Spanglish and created this special BLT Fried Egg-and-Cheese Sandwich for the film. It sounds delicious, and apparently is one of Keller's favorite snacks.

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Some of the tastiest ingredients are born of tech-minded innovators. Dan Barber in the July Food & Wine examines how farmers are using technology to improve crops through the use of tools like ultrasound, limited genetic modification, and refractometers. Winemakers use refractometers to measure Brix, the sugar content of a fruit or vegetable. Now farmers are checking the Brix of carrots to ensure maximum sweetness before harvest. Sounds like a great blending of the best of modernity with quality-control: no frankenfruit, but also no insistence that the old way is the best way.

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There's an interview with Alinea's Grant Achatz in July's Chicago Magazine in which we learn his favorite movie hero is "Mr. Incredible," he drinks several cans of Diet Coke a day, he doesn't sleep much, and most importantly his favorite blogs are: kottke.org, chicagoist.com and megnut.com! Megnut.com!! Can you believe it? I'm flattered and honored, and now I feel like I really should be doing a better job of posting!

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Deborah Coleman/Pixar
Although the story line has its charms, the precisely rendered detail of a professional kitchen will appeal to the food-obsessed. A fascinating look behind the creation of Pixar's upcoming Ratatouille. "The Pixar crew took cooking classes, ate at notable restaurants in Paris and worked alongside Mr. Keller at the French Laundry in Yountville, Calif." Thomas Keller and other chefs also advised on the dishes prepared in the movie, and many of the scenes are based on famous Paris restaurants. I can't wait to see this!

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The New York Times has more information on the nonorganic/organic issue with Nonorganic Exceptions Ruffle Enthusiasts of Organic Food. Here's an interesting bit: "John Foraker, chief executive of Annie’s Homegrown, argued that nonorganic annatto was a crucial ingredient in the company’s macaroni and cheese. 'Making orange colored macaroni and cheese is an important element of our offering. Without annatto, our macaroni-and-cheese products would be white.'” So? So your organic mac-n-cheese is white. And your non-organic mac-n-cheese can be day-glo orange like your competitors. I don't buy any of the excuses the industry is trotting out. Not enough organic hops? Grow more organic hops, don't change the rules to allow organic beer to be brewed with nonorganic hops.

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Enjoying the Tavern Room

Jason and I wandered over to Gramercy Tavern last night for an early dinner. Though we used to eat in the tavern room (the front room where entrees are less expensive and they don't take reservations) every few months, for some reason we hadn't been over there since last fall. Encouraged by Frank Bruni's recent three star re-review, The Constant Comfort of an Old Friend, I was looking forward to our meal. And I wasn't disappointed. I had an excellent appetizer: a soft shell crab accompanied by yellow and green beans, pickled rhubarb, and micro greens. For my main course I had bacon-wrapped trout with lentils. Both were super yummy, especially the crab. Jason had asparagus soup to start and a giant meatball that was filled with oozy cheese. Also super good.

But it wasn't just the food, or the service, or the vibe (which always strikes me as the perfect balance between casual and upscale), it's also the quality for the price. My crab app was $12. I can't think of anyplace else where you can get an appetizer that good, of that quality, prepared with such attention to detail and served in such a setting, for that price. I'm glad we went because it reminded me how much I like eating there. We'll have to return again soon.

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Students from a business-statistics class at Seattle University conclude farmers’ markets are a better deal than supermarkets. I have a feeling that's not true in my part of Manhattan, but maybe I should try out a little experiment and see. There are four supermarkets within walking distance of the Union Square Greenmarket. It wouldn't be hard to do some sleuthing.

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The USDA is considering a list of 38 nonorganic ingredients that will be permitted in organic foods. "The list includes 19 food colorings, two starches, casings for sausages and hot dogs, fish oil, chipotle chili pepper, gelatin and a host of obscure ingredients (one, for instance, is a 'bulking agent' and sweetener with the tongue-twisting name of fructooligosaccharides)." I don't understand how this is even an issue. You either grow it by the rules, or it's not organic. Or is this some Orwellian thing, Organic is Nonorganic?

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Showcase the surprisingly versatile strawberry in a pasta dish. This is a recipe for Sfoglia’s Spaghetti with Strawberries, a savory meal made with the berry. It sounds good, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around any savory strawberry concoction.

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Whenever I take a pig, lamb, or cow to butcher or sale at the sale barn I am supposed to pay a tax that goes to fund one of the industry “check-off” programs. The author is referring to the National Pork Board and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the folks that tell you pork is the other white meat and beef is what's for dinner. "I don’t believe that farmers like myself should be compelled by the government to pay for advertising an industry that goes against our principles and basic beliefs about farming. I don’t want every sale of an animal from my farm to go toward promoting the very factory farming system that I am trying to be an alternative to." [via The Ethicurian]

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Illustration by Nick Dewar for the New York Times
Sushi began as a way of preserving old fish. "Rice farmers in Southeast Asia would pack fish in jars with cooked rice to preserve it." It didn't used to be about eating raw fish. Good information on the history of sushi in Jay McInerney’s book review of the two new sushi books on the market.

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At Per Se, the importance of staff meal takes on an almost religious intensity. "The fascination was simply in seeing how ingredients were alchemized, how that same English cucumber, vacuumed, compressed and barely recognizable in a Sunday-night salad, became the dice in a fine, simple yogurt sauce Monday afternoon for a North African family meal of lamb and falafel." I loved staff meal when I worked in a restaurant. We were always trying to one-up each other with what we could come up with based on left-overs and what we could use. Stuff like fish was off-limits because of its cost, so it forced everyone to be creative, but also experimental.

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Coffee troubles

It's getting hot out, and you know what that means? Time to order iced coffee drinks from the local barista. Sadly though, the state of coffee ordering has gotten so complex for me that the addition of "iced" seems to throw my whole order into doubt. I switched to decaf ages ago. I used to order soy milk, now I usually get cow's milk, but never skim. And I mostly order small drinks, though sometimes medium. And I never know in what order to place all the different variables. Today I tried for "small decaf iced latte" and when the women said something about milk, I assumed she asked if I wanted whole milk, so I said yes. Two seconds later, I was served an iced coffee.

"Oh, sorry. I wanted a latte," I said, "An decaf latte."

It seemed to be corrected and one women went to make it while the other began to ring me up.

"Iced medium latte," she said.

Apparently at this coffee shop, latte = coffee and decaf = medium. Or maybe I was just mumbly? I'm not anymore, now I'm all ZIPPY! From what seems to be a medium NOT DECAF iced latte!!

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Dinner party anxiety

People don’t want to be associated with the wrong kind of olive oil, points out the New York Times, in one of those articles that makes New Yorkers seem like crazy people. Ah, the stress of throwing a dinner party when you're a lunatic foodie! I avoid this problem by throwing low-key dinner parties and not freaking out, amazingly enough. What I do is plan a menu that can more or less entirely be prepared in advance, say a roast or a tart for a main course. When my guests arrive, we enjoy hors d'oeuvres and appertifs in the living room. They always looks a little anxious when I hang out with them, instead of dashing around the kitchen. Then after a while I say, "Is everyone ready to eat?" and I usually dress the salad (vinaigrette and salad already made in advance too), pull whatever's in the oven out of the oven, and voila! Dinner is served.

Sometimes at this point I have a dessert that's made and that goes into the oven to bake while we eat. Sometimes it's already prepared or doesn't need anything more than a simple assembly. It's amazing how nicely this whole approach to dinner parties can be. I still of course obsess over the menu, and buy high quality ingredients. But for me the fun is having people over, and enjoying their company. I don't care if I'm associated with the wrong kind of olive oil. I care that my friends head home happy and contented after a nice evening.

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My extensive experience in making Paneer compelled me to try something different, that is, making Paneer out of my own breast milk. Woman attempts to make "human cheese" with her supply of frozen breast milk. Passed its "three months drinkability period" but not yet expired, she thought it would be fun to try. Alas, it doesn't work because human breast milk doesn't contain enough protein to curdle. Even if it had worked, who'd eat the cheese? [via BoingBoing]

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Per Se’s summery Wagyu-steak salad keeps appearing on the frequently-changing menu. It's made with Japanese Wagyu, "graded A5, one of the very highest grades," watercress, vinaigrette made with rendered Wagyu fat, carrots, chive blossoms, radishes, and spiced peanuts. Mmmm, looks and sounds fantastic. I could go for that for dinner tonight!

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The authors of two new sushi books separate the facts from the fishy. Time Out New York summarizes all you need to know about eating sushi, or as they put it, "must-have intel for your next fish-and-rice repast."

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The trick with asparagus, besides just-cut freshness, is to cook them so they are somewhere between firm and limp. While it used to be overcooking that was the problem, Marian Burros argues that too often chefs today undercook asparagus. Getting it just right is certainly a matter of preference. And there's nothing like fresh asparagus cooked just right.

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In these isolated times, people yearn to break bread with neighbors. Communal tables are all the rage at Bay Area restaurants. Though the article points to NYC's Asia de Cuba as the trendsetter, I can't say communal tables are all the rage here. Of course, most tables are packed so close together in Manhattan that it seems like you're sitting with the folks next to you anyway.

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Remember I told you about Meatpaper, a cool new magazine "of art and ideas about meat" awhile back? Well subscriptions are now available The first issue will ship at the end of summer, 2007. So go sign up now!

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Photo by Peter Menzel

What's on family dinner tables in fifteen different homes around the globe? From the new book "The Hungry Planet" by photographer Peter Menzel. The above photo shows a week's worth of food for an Ecuadorian family in Tingo. A fascinating look not just at how much people eat, but what they eat. The processed food in some diets is incredible, especially in contrast with the above photo. [via Jason]

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On a fruit shortcake bender

Delicious berries awaiting conversion to strawberry shortcake.

Prompted by a tasty looking quart of strawberries I picked up at the Greenmarket on Saturday, I've been eating shortcakes with various fruit. Saturday evening I made my favorite shortcake recipe (Shortcakes for strawberries and other fruit) and had two biscuits worth of strawberries and whipped cream. I garnished with some fresh basil and that added a delightful touch. Sunday I had biscuits left, but no more strawberries, due to my greedy eating Saturday. So I took some frozen wild blueberries (usually reserved for pancakes and smoothies), thawed them and tossed them with a bit of sugar. What do you know?! Blueberry shortcake (this time garnished with fresh mint) is pretty tasty too.

So last night I was going to use some frozen peaches I had, but then I spied some California peaches in the market that seemed soft and smelled pretty good. Alas, they didn't have much flavor, even after maceration with sugar and basil for an hour. My third batch of shortcakes was a bust. The biscuits had gotten too soft and mushy, the peaches were flavorless (reminding me again why I only buy local fruit in season), and the whipped cream was good. You can't screw up whipped cream, can you?

I think I may be on the verge of a shortcake bender though. It was so good (and healthy, right? All that fruit, and the calcium from the cream?) and easy and tasty. I want some kind of fruit and shortcake dessert every night!

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More sausage makers less bakers

We need more investment bankers becoming butchers and sausage makers. I think we have enough cupcake bakers in this country. Ed Levine on the demise of family-run artisanal food shops and the rise in cupcake baking. "Every time we lose a sausage maker, a bread baker, or a mozzarella maker, we lose a little piece of our food heart and soul, our gustatory generosity of spirit. Those are precious commodities in our culture, and we should do everything we can to preserve them."

I agree, but I don't see it happening. The thing with baking cupcakes is, it's easy. You don't need to spend years learning to do it, you don't even need to go to culinary school to make cupcakes. And you can get away with selling mediocre cupcakes that people will still adore simply because they're sweet and better than store-bought. But to be a butcher? Or a sausage maker? That's so much more work, and it's not cute and pink and fun. It's back-breaking and bloody and dangerous.

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The let’s-wait-in-long-lines-for-a-cupcake trend has arrived in the West Coast. Cupcake shops are popping up all over Los Angeles, with many folks quitting their white-color jobs to open bakeries, even without food service experience. I can't say I love cupcakes enough to want to see anymore of this trend. Ice cream and pies are my passions, though shortcake (strawberry, blueberry) are high on my list these days too.

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Steve Cuozzo's got some things to say about the Shake Shack in the New York Post, a handful of which I am going to respond to. Burger blogger Adam Kuban responds to the "shacklash" with some valid points. I still [heart] the Shack, but I never go at prime time and I never wait longer than half-an-hour in line. So that's probably why I still [heart] it so much.

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