M’s perfect roast chicken & the first asparagus of the season. It’s what’s for dinner.
NYC taxi drivers overcharged by more than $8 million
They switched the meter to double the rate, $0.80 per fifth of a mile, the rate they can charge in Westchester and Nassau Counties, but not in New York City.
Pretty sure I’m one of the poor schmucks they ripped off. There were times — always late at night, after I’d had a few — when I was sure the meter was ticking up way too quickly.
Taxi drivers tick me off.
Macaron lovers of New York City, next Saturday is your day! Get a free macaron from these fine retailers.
PS: The slogan, “Macaron — the new cupcake,” makes me gag. NOOOOOO! Cupcakes are just so … America circa the Bush years. Macarons are the exquisite marriage of centuries-old craftmanship and unusual ingredients. (Give me a free macaron and I will forgive that ridiculous motto.)
Breast milk cheese. Seriously. Created by Chef Daniel Angerer with his wife’s milk. He served it at his restaurant until the NYC Health Department shut him down.
But Gael Greene got a taste. She writes:
After tasting his wife’s milk from its natural vessel—“I was breastfed myself so I have that taste for it”—his mind went immediately to fromage. A little rennet. A clean cloth. Some aging. Simple, like any cheese. “It’s not like I was making Reblochon,” he wrote. “That would be trickier.”
His confession drew fans and bitter attacks on his blog. He was even accused of cannibalism.
That ultimate taboo in my head, the cheese arrives. I contemplate the tiny cream-colored square—doll size, barely enough to satisfy Minnie Mouse. It rides in on two house-made pickle rounds nesting on a thin slice of bread. I take… a bite. Eeeeew!
Surprise. It’s not the flavor that shocks me—indeed, it is quite bland, slightly sweet, the mild taste overwhelmed by the accompanying apricot preserves and a sprinkle of paprika. It’s the unexpected texture that’s so off-putting. Strangely soft, bouncy, like panna cotta.
Of course, Angerer’s ultimate critic is the food source itself. He wanted his wife to try her cheese, he tells me when I call him after my human lunch. “I gave her a taste but I didn’t tell her what it was.” And she liked it. “Well, we had a bottle of Riesling,” he adds, “and it worked very well with that.”
There’s room for experimentation: His wife is a vegetarian. If she ate meat, her cheese would have a different flavor, we agreed.
(Via @elizabethbard.)
New Math
A family makes a big donation, inspired by their 14-year-old daughter.
One day in 2006, Kevin and Hannah pulled up at a stoplight. To their left was a homeless man, to their right a guy in a Mercedes coupé. Hannah said, “Dad, if that man didn’t have such a nice car, then that homeless man could have a meal.” Kevin said, “Yes, but if we didn’t have such a nice car that man could have a meal.” This sank in rather more deeply than he’d intended. By dinnertime, Hannah was all worked up. She didn’t want to be a family that just talked about doing good, she said. She wanted to be a family that actually did something. Kevin and Joan explained that they did a lot: they volunteered at the food bank; they wrote big checks to charities; after Hurricane Katrina, they let a family of refugees stay in their basement. Hannah rolled her eyes. That was annoying, so Joan said, “What do you want to do, sell the house?” And Hannah said, “Yeah! That is exactly what I want to do.”
They gave $800,000, half the value of their house, to charities in Africa.
Marcel waves and sneakers casually tied around the chair … would you expect any less from La Tomasi?
Re: Joan Rivers
In high school (in Minnesota), I was voted “Most Likely to Be The Next Joan Rivers.”
Also, “Most Likely to Go to New York Only to Begin Every Sentence With ‘Well, in New York….’”
Well, in New York….
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