at the sign of The Pink Pig

DuMont: A Brooklyn Canteen

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 26, 2012]

Why review DuMont?  It's been around, under the same ownership, for ten years.  Surely everyone has made up their minds about it, or its siblings, Dressler and DuMont Burger.

Quite right. I had no intention of reviewing it, but other plans were canceledor fell through, and sometimes you end up just where you didn't expect to be.  Not that it wasn't interesting.

Dining In The Dark: Tournesol, Walter Foods

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 26, 2012]

I don't think there's a trend towards dimmer lighting in restaurants.  It has always been with us.  No reservations and cash only are emerging threats to the spirit of hospitality, but peering through the gloom to discern what's on the plate is a time-honored component of cozy, "romantic" dining.

Coincidence then, I suppose, that I've recently eaten at restaurants where photography is impossible -- I mean, even more impossible that the murky pictures I've recently published.

London In A Day: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  November 26, 2012]

That was a trip I look back on with little pleasure.  Flying to London for a meeting, with a work colleague who determined we needed to come back the same day.  We flew out overnight from JFK.

From the airport direct to the meeting, working through lunch, then into a cab and back to the airport.  We were home, of course, that same evening, thanks to the time difference.

The Cheese: Saintalin

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 19, 2012]

Not much information out there about this specimen I ran down at Murray's (it's not on their website).

Cow's milk, washed rind, I believe from the Auvergne.  A cousin of Saint-Nectaire perhaps.

The End Of Lespinasse: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  November 19, 2012]

A busy week of eating out, made forever memorable by my second -- and last -- dinner at Lespinasse.  A 1997 meal there, prepared by Gray Kuntz, remains one of my most memorable dining experiences in New York.  The 2002 dinner was memorable too.  But not in a good way.

The week started out in humbler fashion, with chicken salad at Eisenberg's sandwich shop.

The Pines: Another American Bistro

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 12, 2012]

Continuing what appears to be an indefatigable trend, add The Pines to the growing list of true American bistros.  It's a good addition too.

Note the lack of pretension -- this is basically a saloon -- the spontaneous cooking from seasonal ingredients, the cocktails, the combination of the casual with the serious. This is how we eat now.

Working On The Blue Collar Burger

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  November 12, 2012]

Blue Collar Burger shares much in common with nearby Lake Trout. They each try very hard indeed to be regular Joe joints. Lake Trout is firmly rooted in a dream of working class Baltimore.

Blue Collar Burger, like the Bruce Springsteen of burger bars, clings to a dream of working class...anywhere.

Relaxing, And Jarnac: Ten Years Ago

Not muchto say about the first week of so of November, 2002. On the cultural front, two visits to view Käthe Kollwitz's infinitely compassionate woodcuts at the Galerie St Etienne, A.M. Penck at Michael Werner, Any Ziering's touching tribute Derrida at the Film Forum, and the bold but entertaining Frida at the Angelica.

Is it really ten years since Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina were yelling at each other?

Nothing More Obvious Than An Obama Win

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid:  November 6, 2012]

Barack Obama will win today's Presidential election.  Given the speed at which Ohio counts votes, it could still be a long night, but the outcome is in little doubt.  Just because an election is close, doesn't mean it's unpredictable.

Despite the nation's travails, this shouldn't come as a surprise, although doubtless it will to some. A Presidential election is precisely not a referendum on the incumbent's performance; the mid-terms were, and the Democrats performed poorly.  A Presidential election is a choice between alternatives.

And just look at the alternative. A Republican candidate rejected by his own party in 2008; accepted this turn around only because Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were even more clearly unelectable; and who has presided over a woeful campaign, as bad as John Kerry's.

Hatches Battened, Mainbrace Spliced

I don't think it needs much explaining why I haven't dined out much over the last week.

But all is well, all is dry, and all is safe.  Eating duties will be resumed shortly.  Meantime, please bury your face in a heap of ribs and chicken from Manna's.