I've never been an Oreo freak. In fact, I like Hydrox cookies better. What about you, Oreos or Hydrox? I find the filling of both too sweet and grainy, though I do like the bittersweet taste of the chocolate cookies. But the Bouchon Bakery makes an amazing homemade oreo-style cookie called a (litigation-proof) TKO (Thomas Keller Oreo). The chocolate wafers are wonderful cookies in their own right. They're obviously made of excellent quality dark chocolate (Vahlrona) and plenty of butter. The filling is a revelation. According to noted cookies and 'cream maven Charlotte Druckman, the filling is made of white chocolate ganache. Keller himself confirmed that for me. This just in. What may be even better than the TKO is... More

I received the following e-mail from the folks at Wave Hill Bread: "Thanks for writing up your experience with WAVE HILL BREAD. Sorry about your diet. It may help to know that the spelt and rye we use are organic whole grains that we mill for each batch. We use very little yeast because the milling brings out the wild yeast in the hulls of the organic grains. Interesting that you found a sourdough flavor. We use a "poolish" which is made in advance for each batch every day instead of a "levain" used in sourdough bread. Our mentor, Gerard Rubaud, does make a sourdough bread. We do use rye (and also spelt), and that may be what you tasted.... More

Damn those Sterns. Why'd they have to turn me on to Wave Hill Breads? I've been doing so well on my diet by eating only whole grain bread. You may remember that last week I tried to sample Wave Hill bread, only to be turned away by a locked door and a sign telling me they close at noon. One of this blog's readers (who, it turns out, attended a talk I gave in Chicago on pizza) alerted Wave Hill's breadbaker-owners, Mitchell Rapoport and Margaret Sapir to my plight. Yesterday they delivered two loaves of the only kind of bread they currently make, Three Grain Pain de Campagne. I immediately tore off a piece and knew my diet was in... More

Today was not a good food day. I went to visit Roadfood pioneers and great writers Jane and Michael Stern at their house in Connecticut. I brought them a box of schnecken (pecan sticky buns) and a black and white cookie from Greenberg's, a classic New York Jewish bakery that is simply not very good anymore except for the schnecken and the black and white cookies. We had a blast hanging out and swapping writer war stories. When I left, Michael told me I had to go to their latest discovery, Wave Hill, a bakery that made great rustic bread. Michael said it was on the way to my final lunch destination, the new Fairfield location of the seminal New... More

All right, I've said what I had to say about looking at the Katrina carnage in New Orleans. Now I'll move on to the food. I made three new discoveries this year. Stanley! (1031 Decatur, 504-)s is a fabulous new breakfast and lunch spot on Decatur Street in the French Quarter. Great banana walnut pancakes topped by a scoop of decent vanilla ice cream and some optional Louisiana cane syrup, and an even better eggs benedict-like concoction with killer fried oyters on top. The fried oysters were so good I think I will do as my friend John T. Edge does when he goes to Stanley's, have a plate of fried oysters for breakfast. I had a disappointing, tasteless roast... More