A longtime Friend of Crescat recently confided that he thought all of the posts about food on this blog were silly and pointless. But the editorial perogative is nothing if not the right to dawdle over the topics that entice one while gliding past others. So, a few miscellaneous thoughts on food that have accumulated during the press to produce my Mill Acts paper.

1: New York's Bistro du Vent, where I lunched with ex-co-blogger Raffi during the French riots, gets a write-up in the Times and I am pleased with myself (well, really with Raffi) for managing to be about a month ahead of the Times Dining Section. Frank Bruni's verdict is that "It's a somewhat unappealing setting for extremely appealing food," which is generally right up my alley. Since I care more about the quality of my food than the quality of the wallpaper, I tend to search for restaurants that have sacrificed extra spending on decor in favor of (one hopes) extra deliciousness. My only real complaint was that my side-order of pomme frites was far too small, but my annoyance at this is outweighed by the decision to have free dishes of cured olives on all of the tables (Raffi also mentions that Bruni doesn't give the sweetbreads enough credit). Now that I am boycotting midtown, I am sad that I won't be able to go back for a while.

2: After a serendipitous find in the new edition of New Haven's The Menu, I decided to make a trip with a friend to Liuzzi's Cheese, in North Haven. I went there in hopes of satisfying the complaints of Professor Gerken, who had been frustrated by the difficulty of buying high-end imported cheeses in New Haven (as compared to her Cantabridgean homeland). On this score, Liuzzi's was a little bit disappointing. But it turns out that Liuzzi's makes their own butter and ricotta and mozarella cheeses (and other fresh Italian delights), and oh, Oh, Oh!, they are good. Despite having been fresh back from Italy and a little bit pizza-ed out I couldn't resist the urge to pick up some fresh salted mozarella (the favorite of the guy at the store) and produce a pair of onion and caper pizzas with aforementioned friend, and was not disappointed. I shall have to go back soon.

[The place has also apparently had a brush with the law vis-a-vis unpasteurized cheese, on which your mileage may vary.]

3: The two best things I had to eat in Rome were a young and tender spinach risotto and a purplish dish of gnocchi with raddichio and gorgonzola. I haven't even tried to mimic the latter but have now reproduced a vague shadow of the former-- by making a plainish risotto of water and thin broth and then stirring in about a pound of pulverized spinach with the butter (instead of the cheese) at the very end. The spinach is supposed to taste nearly raw and the dish is supposed to look bright green-- to that end I think I pureed the spinach a little too long (it should be flecks, not pulp) and added a little too much butter (this should be a primo piatti, and it should be able to masquerade as a vegetable). Further experimentation must ensue.