The Food Maven Diary
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Thank you all
Since I left WOR in late August, I have been so inundated with well-wishing email at Mavensmail@aol.com that I could not keep up, and have regrettably lost hundreds of your notes to internet space. I was trying to respond to everyone, but there were more than 800 notes. It just wasn't possible. Frankly, I am trying to gather an email mailing list. There used to be a way to do that on this website, but there is no longer (long story) and my webmaster and I are investigating new possibilities. In the meantime, if you were one of those well-wishers I didn't respond to personally, please forgive me and just send me an email with your name, so I can include you on the list. I promise not to sell your name or use the list in any way except to contact you personally.
A Great Dessert
Last week and this, at A la Carte, the cooking school on Long Island, I brought a little Cook at Seliano to Lynbrook. Through slides, music, maps, stories, a cooking demo and a little tasting, I try to entice a few more people to go to Italy with me. I did this delicious risotto, with mozzarella and minced prosciutto, and for dessert, I served a Bavarese di Ricotta, a ricotta-based Bavarian cream flavored with chopped toasted almonds and a tiny bit of orange liqueur. On a cookie crumb or Graham cracker crust, it's a no-bake gelatin dessert that everyone loves. At Tenuta Seliano, Cecilia serves it frequently to the guests … there's more to the story, but the point of this item is to reference it. (Just click on Bavarese di Riocotta. I have told my classes at A la Carte that I would put the recipe on my website, but it was here already. I posted it back in June. (I must be really losing it.) The recipe for the Risotto alla Salernitana is on the website as well. It was the last item posted, so it is, in fact, listed at top in the box on the right, which lists the last 10 days of diary items.
This brings me to the point of using the Food Maven site. Though hidden from immediate view, there are hundreds of recipes here, and items on all kinds of subjects. The easiest search tool is the "search engine," which is the box marked "search the web site:" at the top right corner of every page on the site. If you want to see what's here on a particular subject, just plug in a keyword and click on "search." There is also a more traditional recipe index, too: You can find it on the "navigation bar," which is the left. When you find a recipe you are interested in, click on it and you'll be taken to it. There is also an extended Maven's Diary archive. Click on that while on a diary item.
Monmouth County "Culinary Adventure"
There is one event I am doing this fall that most unfortunately was left out of the appearance schedule on this website. (And there are several new ones -- an appearance schedule update is coming next week). And it is such a worthy event, having nothing to do with promoting anything commercial. Instead, it is to help support outpatient counseling programs for adolescents in Monmouth County, New Jersey. CPC Behavioral Healthcare, which offers outpatient counseling for all ages, including family counseling, is staging the "Culinary Adventure," as they call it, on October 25 at Old Orchard Country Club in Eatontown. I will give a talk from 5:30 to about 6:30, then there is the real party, featuring specialties from 17 Monmouth County restaurants. Sample local wines, too. There will be a silent auction and a "gift auction." which is sort of like a raffle, but isn't. I suppose I'll be finding out how it works. Tickets for my talk alone are $35. Tickets for the tasting alone are $65. Tickets for the two together are $90. To secure tickets, call Donna Maritato at 732-842-2000, ext. 4273. After my talk, I will be sticking around to eat and drink and schmooze.
Emperor – No clothes
Jewel Bako, 239 E. Fifth St., gets among the highest ratings in the 2004 Zagat Survey. It is tied in second place among all Japanese restaurants with Nobu, Next Door and several other notable sushi houses, right after first place Nobu itself. Jewel Bako gets 27 for food, and 25 for both décor and service. Zagat surveyors are quoted as saying: "extraordinary," serving sushi of nearly "unparalleled" quality.
I had to see for myself.
Where do people get these opinions? Those numbers? I get better sushi and more creativity at my local sushi bar on Flatbush Ave – Geido.
Actually, I couldn't get into the main Jewel Bako. It was booked. I went instead to the satellite restaurant around the corner, which doesn't accept reservations. It's at 101 Second Ave., near Fifth Street. It cost more than $80 a person. True, we shared a small bottle of sake. True, we took the chef's multi-course combination sushi-sashimi dinner. The fish were fresh, I'll give them that. I can't say anything more complimentary. A few pieces were even special – like the some-river-or-other wild salmon – but they were very few pieces, and not composed with any special finesse. We left hungry and feeling like we were robbed.
