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@DocChuck re: Walmart. You say things went downhill when Walmart moved in to serve the Chicagoans and Californinans, but is Walmart not from NW Arkansas, where you are from? How far did they have to move in order to move into your town? I ask because I have been watching my favorite childhood eateries slowly close in my old town, years after Walmart moved in. Some lost business, but many are simply retiring, moving away, etc... I'm pretty sure people who were lucky enough (and willing) to experience Chicago's and California's amazing restaurants weren't clamoring for Walmart's frozen food section in its stead.

An Italian sub, overflowing with tasty cured meats, provolone, pickled hot peppers, fresh lettuce tomato onion, and oil and vinegar on a chewy sub roll, preferably with semolina flour all over the outside that will get on everything and make a big delicious mess while I try to eat it. With a small bag of chips on the side.

Banh mi is a close second.

I had the unfortunate problem of being discovered as I was doing a review recently. Now, I'm not famous, but I just came with the tools of the trade (camera, notepad) and was just a little less discreet than I should've been. Suddenly I was being treated like a rock star. And that bothered me, because in writing a review, it's just not fair to review an experience that is so different from the typical diner's.

That said, there are other ways to get the rock star treatment. After a meal at 1789 in DC much like your first at Le Cirque, I was so underwhelmed I wrote a letter to the management, and received an offer to make things right. Unfortunately I couldn't take them up on it because it was literally one of my last days in DC before moving to New York. But I assumed that meant I wouldn't be shunted into a table in the boonies, barely waited on and have my entree come out before my wine was served, like the first time.

I would've been fine getting special treatment after writing a letter, a private interaction between customer and business. But the fact that as a food blogger you got it, makes me wary. For instance, you say now " I wrote a post on my website titled (perhaps inappropriately) Only a Jerk Would Eat at Le Cirque." But dude, that's what you're known for! I love that you come up with these great titles and descriptions. And it sounds like you were treated like a sucker the first time you ate there, so why not give them hell for it? As an individual and a family, I'm sure you appreciated the opportunity to have the star treatment. But as a food writer, you can't let that treatment make you suddenly decide you were too hard on the restaurant the first time, especially when you say the food wasn't much better the second time around. If you're going to take that meal on the house, you have to be doubly sure you are not going to be cutting the place any slack, and definitely not recanting what you've already written.

Regardless of my opinion, well done. I appreciated the enlightening and well written essay.

Yes, it found its way to the free table at my job, and a bunch of us cracked it open and tasted it. It was really, really, not very good. The only thing I can figure is it was skunked or the people making it have no idea what beer is. For example, that it doesn't come in champagne bottles.

Sandro, how awful! As I'll probably be moving soon, you can bet my pan is going to be on the top of the packing list. And Serious Eater-- civil war era pans??! Wow! That's incredible. Imagine what foods have graced those surfaces over the years... mmm....

Thanks FKC. Your recipe sounds scrumptious, and you can't go wrong with a broil. I don't know if I've ever had Borsari salt. What's it like? Oh, but one thing-- I'm not sure if it's paranoia, but I tend not to salt steaks before cooking. I feel like that draws out moisture. Instead I like to salt the meat once it's been served. I really don't know if it makes a difference in moisture, but you can taste more of the (especially gourmet) salt.

You say the pizza at the chains is decent but not great, but you don't mention the quality of the food at the indie chains. Which do you like the best?

Also, a spotless looking kitchen can be a sanitary disaster while a grubby kitchen, if the food is held at the right temperatures and the areas that need to be clean are clean, can be totally safe.

Also, if you live in New York, you can check any restaurant's Health Dept. score online.

Kudos on the study. I would reason that you get to know your pan over time and how much heat it will take to get up to cooking temperature.

To me, if I can cook an egg on medium low rather than medium high, that's a good thing in terms of taste and energy consumption (maybe not for one egg, but for 1000 eggs...) Plus the Bowery pan heats quick--better in a restaurant kitchen than waiting around for butter to melt.

If you have the budget, it'd be interesting to get a super fancy chef's frying pan (like say, a Sur la table model) for like $80. Something a restaurant would never use but a kitchen dandy might convince themselves is the only pan their maid should ever use to cook an egg.

A third to what onthestereo said. A pulled pork sandwich with that soft, vinegary taste, a touch of sauce, and of course a heap of the side of coleslaw dumped right on top is quite simply heaven on a bun. But KC-style ribs simply cannot be beat.

Best burrito and best Mexican food in New York. El Maguey y La Tuna on Houston Between Attorney and whatever's east of Attorney. This isn't a burrito shack, but I just think they do a damn good job. Stick with their more traditional Mexican dishes for the best experience, although I hear that their Tex-Mex dishes (quesadillas, fajitas, etc) are starting to get better. They also stock Mexican Coke. This isn't quite a burrito, but I think the best dollar value on the menu is Tacos al Pastor, which is Mexico City's most popular street food for a reason. Enjoy!

This unanswerable question's answer is Calvin Trillin. A man who lures his daughter back from California with bagels, who enlists his wife's Chinese students to decipher the Chinatown menus, who refuses to ever dine at "le maison de la casa house", who taught us how to pack a proper airplane meal, is a man who deserves his place in the Pantheon. He discovered American cuisine while it was learning to crawl. Nothing has been the same since.

In a time when food writing is bursting with more talent than the '27 Yankees, we must honor the Ur-men: Ruth. Escoffier. Trillin.

I "really" can't "imagine" using "Zagat" for any "useful information" these days.

There are so many other "good" guides for "food" on the "internet" that Zagat seems like a "relic" of "outdated" reviews and meaningless "ratings."

For those of us who like to read "coherent sentences" uncluttered with "cliched superlatives" or "total inaccuracies" it's much easier to turn to sites like Chowhound, Gayot, New York Magazine, Village Voice, and the dozens of individual food bloggers, all of which usually provide much better information than that archaic little book.