I am thrilled to stumble upon this post, written by my high school sweetheart who for some reason lives on the other side of the continent.

I lived a block from Yonah Schimmel's in the early '70s. Had I known these cheese bagels existed, I'd have tried them. Now I know, and try them I will.

Thanks, sweetheart!

These are terrific suggestions. Thank you both very, very much for your help.

Would appreciate a recommendation for buying dried herbs and spices in Manhattan. While I do most of my grocery shopping at Fairway, I've been disappointed with the potency and freshness of spices I've purchased there. Dried herbs, in particular, often taste tired -- as if they'd languished too long in the warehouse before hitting the shelves.

Thanks for the help!

Thanks for chiming in, everyone. Your ideas are appreciated and very helpful!

This soba salad recipe on Epicurious looks simple and good:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/foo...

Can someone recommend a decent vegan egg substitute for the raw egg called for in the recipe?

Thanks kindly for your help.

Forewarned is forearmed. Thanks!

Streit's! In the '70s, I lived a couple of blocks from the factory on the Lower East Side. One afternoon, one of the managers invited me in to watch matzohs rolling off the conveyor belt and getting stacked. I was thrilled. The old factory has been there since 1925, and stepping inside feels like time travel.

Their website offers spelt, whole wheat, and regular matzoh mix. Am guessing you recommend the regular "Matzo Ball Mix"?

http://streitsmatzos.elsstore.com/vie...

Thanks again for all the great tips.

Gah....my kingdom for a decent-sized freezer!

I certainly plan on adding chopped herbs to my matzoh balls. Thanks for the seltzer tip, Diane!

Good to know. Thanks.

Twice a week!? Matzoh ball hero!

Would love to go the freezer route. Unfortunately, I have a lilliputian NYC refrigerator with a freezer compartment the size of a deck of cards.

The vegetable container with grid is a great tip.

How do you crumble your matzohs? The recipes I've earmarked recommend a plastic bag and a rolling pin, but I'm wondering if I could give the matzohs a spin in the food processor....

You've all made my day. Thanks kindly for your help.

I'm not too experienced in the kitchen, and am particularly bad at timing. A 15-minute gap between the vegetables and the entree doesn't matter when I'm by myself, but when cooking for friends, it's nice to have everything ready at approximately the same time.

So.....matzoh balls! Am happy to hear that they can be prepared ahead of time. One less thing to mess up at the last minute.

Thanks again for your help.

Am working up the courage to make matzoh ball soup for the first time. Can matzoh balls be made a day in advance, then heated up in simmering soup the following day?

If so, should I drain them before refrigerating, or store them in the poaching liquid?

Thanks for your help!

New Orleanian living in NYC here.

I've never seen a muffuletta loaf in a NYC bakery, and am guessing that local NOLA-style restaurants either substitute other breads for their muff loaves, or bake their own. A New Orleans muffuletta is a BIG sandwich -- 9 or 10 inches in diameter.

I think a fluffy focaccia (around 2 inches high) split horizontally is one substitute that might work nicely. But I wouldn't sweat the bread too much. As long as your filling ingredients are solid, I doubt you'll hear any complaints!

If you're feeling ambitious, you could try baking your own bread. Here's one recipe:

http://www.nolacuisine.com/2005/08/21/muffuletta-bread-recipe/

And Chuck Taggert has a good recipe for the all-important olive salad:

http://www.gumbopages.com/food/samwic...

Good luck!

Haven't visited the city in years, but was a great fan of Rio Mar under Chef Garcia.

I happen to be a flan fanatic. If the restaurant has kept Chef Garcia's flan on the menu, I can honestly say it's the best flan I've ever had in my life!

As a native New Orleanian living in New York, I see Manhattan becoming simultaneously trendier and more homogenized with every passing year. So I do fear for New Orleans. (There are days when I think homogenization is the future of the world, and am glad I won't be here to see it.)

Without changing a thing on the menu, I think Brennan's may need to step up its game since, from what I can gather, the kitchen has gotten sloppy. A restaurant needn't be "innovative" if the food and service are solid.

Lorna Sass is the queen. I've had great luck with the recipes in "Great Vegetarian Cooking Under Pressure."

Agree with you that pressure cooking is like something from the future....or magic! Been using my Kuhn Rikon twice a week since 1995.

While I've owned and tossed a lot of silly appliances over the years, my pressure cooker is forever.

Ha! My thought exactly.

: )

There's an otherwise middling restaurant in the Quarter that boils baby potatoes and seafood together to good effect. The potatoes, which soak up the crab boil seasoning, are delicious. If I ever attempt boiled peanuts at home, I'll certainly add a bit of crab boil to the water.

Chili peppers and star anise sound great to me as well.

Thanks, Jen. As someone who grew up in New Orleans, I can tell you that boiled peanuts would be a curiosity to many, if not most New Orleanians as well! They were a revelation to me when I first sampled them in Charleston, SC at age 47. "Where have these been all my life?" was my thought at the time.

Do the Chinese boil peanuts with spices of any kind? The ones I had in Charleston were mildly peppery.

@Jen223:

Forgive the brief tangent, but can you recall where, in New Orleans, you encountered boiled peanuts? I love them, but have only had them in the Carolinas, never in NOLA. If they're showing up in NOLA, it's a new thing.

Exactly. I don't think "life-changing" is too strong a term.

: )

@Pan:

Not sure why you're having trouble with that link. Try again, because I'm getting through with no problems on the first click.

The company seems to go by two names these days: "Caribbean Cake Connoisseurs" (the original name) and "The Black Cake Company."

This is really a topic for a different thread, but the best fruitcake I've ever had (and unlike anything I'd hitherto associated with fruitcake) was a Caribbean Black Cake from Caribbean Cake Connoisseurs:

http://www.rumcake.com/

Dark, complex, velvety and sublime. It's more than I can afford this year, but I can't imagine any fruitcake lover not flipping over this cake.

@UES Mayor:

Dark or light fruitcake? Do you have a preference? I like the dark ones.

Fruitcake gotsta be booze-soaked!

Thus far, I've been pretty unimaginative about which boozes I choose to soak with. I usually go with brandy or bourbon, but one of the best fruitcakes I ever had was soaked in Grand Marnier.

Thanks so much for all the great suggestions, Kathryn. Sounds like I'm spoiled for choices.

: )

Happy holidays to you!

Am not ashamed to admit that I really love it. Can anyone recommend a good fruitcake, available locally? In years past, I've ordered my fruitcakes from out-of-state monasteries and/or bakeries, but this year would prefer to shop in NYC, if only to save on shipping charges.

Thanks for your help!

No only do I love the idea of "Thai-inspired toppings" at Thanksgiving, but I celebrated Thanksgiving at a Korean restaurant.

: )

Ina's butternut squash soup sounds fantastic.

Vegan Dad is great

Appreciate the heads-up! Actually, according to the website it's:

Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 am - 2:00 pm
Thursday - Saturday 5:30 pm - 9:00 pm
Closed Sunday-Monday

Since my last visit (2004) they've added a day off, and I've a feeling the hours have changed too. Could've sworn we stopped in mid-afternoon. We had the whole restaurant to ourselves!