Reader mail

Happy Friday.

Eric and I scanned our past reviews from 2007 and we picked our favorite dishes. It was supposed to be a Top 10 List. But we each had six, so we have a Top 12 List in 55 Hours today. Click here for the story.

Now, onto the questions. Remember. Every Friday. You ask. We answer. (You can send in questions earlier...)


Do you happen to have the recipe for the Better Cheddar Spread sold at Back Burner To Go or the Pumpkin Mushroom Soup from the same location? Thank you. Ellen

Hi Ellen. Oh, that Better Cheddar spread at the Back Burner to Go! It's served at almost every party I go in Hockessin and I never get tired of it. For what I can tell, the chunky, smoky-tasting spread is made from shredded (smoked?) cheddar, chopped nuts (walnuts, I believe), chopped scallions and it's binded together with (I believe) mayonnaise. Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe, but I will pass along your request to our food columnist Nancy Coale Zippe who tracks down recipes. Keep reading Second Helpings and I'll post the recipe if we get it. As for the pumpkin mushroom soup, I did find a version that is similar to the one at the Back Burner. I posted it last month on Second Helpings - it's comes from The News Journal archives - and here it is again:


Pumpkin mushroom soup
1/2 pound sliced fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons oil or butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon curry powder or cumin
3 cups homemade chicken stock
1 pound can of pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
1 tablespoon honey
Dash nutmeg
Salt and pepper
1 cup heavy cream
Saute mushrooms and onion in oil or butter. Stir in flour and curry. Gradually add the broth, then the pumpkin, honey and seasonings to taste. Stir while cooking 15 minutes. Add cream and heat through without boiling. Top with a dollop of sour cream if desired. Makes 6 servings.


Hi Patricia,
I really love your reviews and I need a recommendation for an upper end restaurant in the Wilmington Area that serves lunch.
This is a post holiday Lunch and I just want to splurge a bit. We have been to Conley-Wards and Harry’s Savoy Grill and both are fine but always on the lookout for something new. So anything along that line of restaurant that serves lunch would be great.
Thank you,
Tom Crew
Sr. Quality Assurance Analyst

Hi Tom. Have you tried Restaurant 821, 821 N. Market Street Wilmington, 652-8821? Lunch Hours are Monday - Friday from 11:30am to 2:00pm. Or what about Eclipse Bistro, 1020 N. Union St., Wilmington; 658-1588. Eric Ruth gave the restaurant a 3 1/2 star rating (very good to extraordinary) on Dec. 6. He wrote: "Food this dependably appealing probably deserves a more regal setting, but the classy, cozy room serves Eclipse's style well."
The Hotel DuPont's Green Room is always a place to splurge, but while the room is, hands-down, the most stately and beautiful in Delaware, my experience has been that the service doesn't always match the surroundings.
Deep Blue Bar & Grill is another place to consider. I had a so-so lunch there recently, but my lunch companions loved it.

No love for New Year's Eve

I'm trying to muster some enthusiasm for New Year's Eve, but my zeal for this holiday is almost zero. Never been a big fan of confetti throwing, noise makers and smooches from sloppy drunk strangers. I adore a good party but Dec. 31 always seems like everyone tries way too hard to have a good time.

But it is a holiday that celebrates Champagne, one of my favorite beverages, so while I won't wear a paper tiara, I will have a glass of bubbly.

Haven't yet nailed down plans - isn't it always that way? - but if we don't head out, I'm thinking about a Chinese "banquet" with friends and family. Black bean stir-fry clams, shrimp toasts, and maybe sticky ribs and duck. Or perhaps a make-your-own taco bar complete with slow-roasted pork, corn tortillas and plenty of guacamole.

In my glass, it will likely be Schramsberg Mirabelle - a lovely California sparkler - or maybe something simple like Castell Roig, a Spanish cava.

What are you doing?

More momofuku

It's the time of year for The Best Eats of 2007 Lists. (Eric and I have one coming out this Friday in 55 Hours.)

New York Times today calls Momofuku Ssam Bar one of the best places to eat in 2007. I was there back in May and have to agree with critic Frank Bruni on this one. (Though now, we'll probably never be able to get in there again.)

Here's what I had to say about Momofuku after my visit.

Red velvet cake

Hope everyone had a great Christmas. I spent so much time in my kitchen the past several weeks - making everything from chocolate peppermint cheesecake to mulled cider to beef tenderloin - that, whew! I'm more than ready to let someone else do the cooking and cleaning up.

Had a few phone calls about the story on red velvet cake story that ran this past Saturday. One caller said that her aunt used beet juice to achieve the cake's sassy red hue instead of food coloring.

Here's an email about a new cupcake shop that offers red velvet cupcakes:

Hi Pat,

I would like to comment on your Red Velvet Article. GREAT JOB! If you are not familiar with Cupcake Heaven, we are a new store in the Fairfax Shopping Center. We serve Red Velvet cupcakes and we can not keep them in the cases. They go out the door as fast as we make them. Cupcakes solve the problem that you mentioned with a typical size cake, if an allergy is present the flavor can be avoided.. They can be mixed and assorted so that everyone can have their own favorite flavor. If you never have experienced a Cupcake Heaven Cupcake, please stop by or check our website: www.cupcakeheavencupcakes.com. Thank you and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year! Drew Hurst

Now the bad news: Unfortunately, the recipe for red velvet cake omitted the amount of butter in the cake. Ugh. And oops!

Here's the corrected version:

RED VELVET CAKE
From "Southern Cakes" (Chronicle Books, $19.95) by Nancie McDermott.
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk (or stir 1 tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice into 1 cup of milk; let stand for 10 minutes)
2 tablespoons cocoa
One 1-ounce bottle (2 tablespoons) red food coloring

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened.
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon cider vinegar or white vinegar
Preheat oven to 350. Grease two 9-inch cake pans generously, and line with waxed paper or kitchen parchment. Grease paper and flour the pans. Prepare three separate mixtures for batter. Combine the flour and salt in a medium bowl and use a fork to mix well. Stir vanilla into the buttermilk. Combine cocoa and red food coloring in a small bowl, mashing and stirring together to make a thick, smooth paste. In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer at low speed for 1 minute, until creamy and soft. Add sugar, and then beat well for 3 to 4 minutes, stopping to scrape the bowl now and then. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each one, until the mixture is creamy, fluffy and smooth. Scrape cocoa-food coloring paste into batter and mix in. Add a third of flour mixture and then half the milk, beating at low speed, and mixing only enough to make flour or liquid disappear into batter. Mix in another third of the flour, the rest of the milk and then the last of the flour in the same way. In a small bowl, combine baking soda and vinegar and stir well. Use a wooden spoon or spatula to quickly mix this last mixture into the red batter, folding it in gently by hand. Scrape batter into the prepared pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, until layers spring back when touched lightly in the center and are just beginning to pull away from sides of pans. Cool cakes in pans on wire racks or folded kitchen towel for 15 minutes. Then turn them out on racks or on plates, remove the paper and turn top side up to cool completely.
COCONUT PECAN ICING
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
1 cup finely chopped pecans or walnuts
To make the icing, combine the milk and flour in a small or medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, whisking or stirring often, until the mixture thickens almost to a paste, 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and scrape it into a small bowl to cool completely. Meanwhile, beat the butter with a mixer at high speed until light and fluffy. Add the sugar in thirds, beating well each time, until the mixture is creamy and fairly smooth. Add the cooled milk-and-flour mixture and beat for 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides now and then, to combine everything well. Using a large spoon or your spatula, stir in the vanilla, coconut and pecans, mixing to combine everything well into a thick, fluffy, nubby icing. To complete the cake, place one layer, top side down on a cake stand or a serving plate, and spread icing on the top. Place the second layer, right side up, on top. Frost the sides and then the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more to help the icing set. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Happy holidays

Enjoy the holiday and eat something worth talking about. I'm off for a few days, so let me give you an early gift.

Just saw a sign for Masamoto, an Asian grill and sushi bar at 1810 Wilmington Pike (U.S. 202) in Glen Mills, Pa. Phone number is (610) 358-5538. It's in the Keystone Plaza, same shopping center as Pescatore's Italian seafood restaurant, not far from the Delaware state line.

Didn't eat there - yet. But I did glance in the dining room - it looks pretty spartan - and picked up a menu. Prices look good - tuna and avocado roll is $5, sushi and sashimi per piece is between $1.50 to $3. Entrees include mango shrimp $15; green Thai curry, $11. Sushi bar lunch with soup and salad is $9 inclues 4 pieces of sushi and California roll.

Christmas lows and highs

I'm getting ready for work and I'm in a great mood. Finally finished writing Christmas cards, have made (somewhat) of a dent in my shopping and I feel slightly ahead of the game at work. I dial around the radio for uplifting holiday cheer to hum along to and what do I hear? No, "Jingle Bell Rock." No Barenaked Ladies singing "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen." No Springsteen and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." Nope, I hear what has to be the most DEPRESSING Christmas song of all time. It's about some poor kid who has scraped up all of his pennies to buy shoes for his dying mother. I got sucked in listening and soon I was in tears. Poof! there went the great mood. I just did a google search and found out this song, "The Christmas Shoes" came out 7 years ago (!) and even inspired a CBS TV movie starring Rob Lowe and Kimberly Williams. Sorry, not watching that one. Nor am I ever listening to that song. Ever. Again. Brian Setzer Orchestra - stat!

On a much, much more uplifting note, check out my story today on the 30th anniversary of La Casa Pasta.

I admire anyone who runs a business - and 30 years in the restaurant industry deserves a standing ovation.

Congrats to Giuseppe and Anna Martuscelli. I loved the story from their son Gianmarco that the family's first year in business they didn't have one customer on New Year's Eve.

They hung in there and three decades later Anna is still working the front of the house and Giuseppe is supervising the kitchen.

New restaurant in Old New Castle

Just got back from lunch at Prince on Delaware, a new restaurant at 124 Delaware St. in Old New Castle.
Very quaint, almost precious, eatery with gleaming wooden floors, salmon hued walls, Oriental rugs and modern, white chairs.
It's in the site of a former ice cream shop. Though the atmosphere seems pretty fancy, the lunch prices were reasonable. Dishes have a Southern twist and most everything is $10 and under. There's a separate "executive lunch" menu that supposedly has larger portions that are more entree oriented. I ordered Prince's World Famous Fried Chicken ($9) off the "regular" lunch menu. It was a large portion - thigh, breast, wing and leg - and came with a salad. (Just one thought: how can a new restaurant offer "world famous" fried chicken?) Quibble aside, it was excellent with crackly, crispy skin and moist meat. My dining buddy had a good shrimp and sausage quiche.
I want to go back for dinner. The half roasted chicken with mole sauce ($19) sounds intriguing. Prince also offers Sunday brunch.

More Italian hoagies

Last week, I reviewed Timmy D's, an Italian hoagie shop on Lincoln Street in Wilmington. NJ reader Andy Miller - whom I met while writing a story about the outstanding farm table dinners at Talula's Table in Kennett Square, Pa. - wanted to point out another place nearby. Here's his email:

Dear Patricia,

After reading your article on Timmy D's I felt compelled to write you a brief note and urge you to visit Gaudiello's Italian Hoagies and Steaks located in the back of Trolley Square [shopping center] near the Chinese take out restaurant.

This husband and wife team are the real deal. They slice the steak fresh for every sandwich and their Italian subs are loaded with the best real Italian meats. They also offer homemade Italian hot peppers which are incredible (really hot but very flavorful).

I am writing you because they have been in the "bad" location for about a year (?) and I don't know if they have found a following and I would hate to lose them.
Although I also enjoy great food and wine (I met you the night you observed our group at Talula's Table) I also am quite the connoisseur of great steaks and subs and these two really are the best I have ever had.

Please give them a try (and a mention!).

Andy Miller

P.S. I am just a loyal customer with no other interest than protecting my source of cheese steaks!

Is change good?

The New York Times reports today that the Food Network is changing gears with its programming. The canning of programs like "Emeril Live" and "Molto Mario" is just the beginning. (The photo above, taken by NJ photographer Jennifer Corbett, was at one of the last tapings of "Emeril Live." )

Do you care? I dunno, I find myself watching the network less and less these days. I like the people who show us how they cook - Bobby Flay made a really awesome prime rib with thyme jus and gingerbread trifle that I'll plan to make this Christmas. And I'll always tune in to Ina Garten. But I can't stomach the Guy Fieris and Sandra Lees.

Reader mail

Happy Friday. It wasn't a good day yesterday in baseball - OK, not surprised to hear Lenny Dykstra was named in the Mitchell Report. But now when I look at a photo on my desk of the Dude raising his hands in the air after the Phils became the 1993 National League Champs, it bums me out a little.

Looking for a good sandwich to eat tonight while watching the UD game (GO HENS!) or maybe after holiday shopping? Go to Timmy D's deli in Little Italy. Here's my review.

Let's get to today's questions. Seems like a few people don't want to cook at home and are wondering where to find a Feast of the Seven Fishes dinner on Christmas Eve and what's open on Christmas Day.

Hi! Just wondering if you have any info on which restaurants in the area will be open for dinner on Christmas Day. Thanks!

Finding a restaurant open on Christmas Day can be a little like trying to score a parking spot in Dewey Beach on Fourth of July weekend. It's not necessarily futile, but be prepared for a long search.
Victoria's Restaurant (227-0615) in the Boardwalk Plaza Hotel in Rehoboth Beach offers a buffet from noon until 7:30 p.m. in the restaurant and pub. Reservations are required and limited seats remain. Cost is $39.95 for adults; $17.95 for children 6 to 17; and $9.95 for children 5 and younger. The Green Room (594-3154) at Wilmington's Hotel du Pont is usually booked, though it may not hurt to call and see if you can snag a last-minute cancellation.)
Opentable.com, an Internet reservations site, lists no Delaware restaurants open on Christmas Day. All is not lost. Some Asian restaurants and diners also keep their doors swinging open throughout the day.

Here are some Delaware dining possibilities for Christmas Day:
- Bamboo House, 721 College Square Shopping Center, Newark; 368-9933. Chinese restaurant with some Japanese dishes and sushi. Regular hours
- Bear Diner, 603 Pulaski Highway (U.S. 40), 322-6242. 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Christmas specials and regular menu; a $6.95 breakfast buffet is from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Hilton Wilmington-Christiana, 100 Continental Drive, Stanton; 781-7000. Breakfast buffet, $14.95, only from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. First come, first served. Reservations required for large parties.

- Hunan Restaurant, 1812 Marsh Road, Branmar Plaza; Brandywine Hundred; 475-8300. Asian restaurant offering Chinese, Malaysian, Vietnamese and Thai cuisine. Open 11 a.m to 10:30 p.m. China Royal, Plaza III Shopping Center on Marsh Road, Brandywine Hundred; 475-3686. Noon to 9:30 p.m. Chinese restaurant specializing in seafood dishes. Regular menu.
- Golden Dove, 1101 N. Du Pont Highway, New Castle; 322-1180. Open 24 hours.

- Golden Castle Diner, 2722 Concord Pike, Talleyville; 478-7701. Open 24 hours.
- Grand East Buffet, 2072 Naamans Road, Talleyville; 475-9100. 11:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; all-you-can-eat Asian food buffet.
- Middletown Family Restaurant & Diner, 5240 Summit Bridge Road, Middletown; 376-1227. Open 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Full menu.

- Nirvana Fine Indian Cuisine, 1601 Concord Pike, Independence Mall Shopping Center, Brandywine Hundred; 652-3846. Open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.
- Palace of Asia, 3421 Kirkwood Highway, near Del. 41, Prices Corner; 994-9200. Open 4 to 10 p.m. Indian restaurant with ornate dining rooms.

- Park West Diner (formerly Charley's), 1705 Pulaski Highway, White Clay Shopping Center, Bear; 836-4936. 6 a.m. to around 8 p.m. Regular menu and Christmas specials.

We're looking for a restaurant in Wilmington that serves the traditional Italian Christmas Eve dinner. In the past, I think I've read articles of yours naming one or two restaurants that serve the dinner. Can you make a recommendation? Thanks. Stephanie Doyle.

I think you're referring to the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Some restaurants offer them earlier in Delaware, but Soffritto Italian Grill's , 1130 Kirkwood Highway, Newark, 455-1101, has one on Christmas Eve. Reservations are required, seating starts at noon and the last seating is at 9 p.m.

Visions of butter dancing through her head

Paula Deen kind of reminds me of a saucy, PG-13 version of Mrs. Claus. However, she keeps it clean during a USA Today Q&A about Christmas.

One of the butter loving lady's pearls of wisdom?

"You never want to try out a new recipe on Christmas Day."

Got that, y'all?

Send it back or sit in silence?

Here's a dilemma: So, I'm out at a local restaurant recently with my boss who's treating me and my co-workers to a holiday lunch. The restaurant was busy, but not crazy busy - meaning there wasn't a line at the door and not every table was filled.
My boss, the first one there, orders apps for the table and then we ordered our lunch entrees. The entrees took a while, but since we're chatting, the delay wasn't so bothersome. My grilled salmon came and when I took a bite, I noticed it was dry and had an unpleasant, bitter taste. I flipped the fish over - and it was burned. I'm talking charred crispy black.
This was a dish that never, ever, should have left the kitchen.
It was a bummer and I showed it to a colleague sitting next to me. (He was delighted with his meal as was the rest of the party at the table.) We actual laughed that it was quite obvious that I was getting no preferential treatment. A manager came over to the table to ask how everything was. For a moment, I debated whether to say something. We were in a celebratory mood and sending something back could have put a damper on the festivities. But serving a customer this entree was, in my opinion, unacceptable. I showed him my fish and he made a joke that "I don't think you ordered it blackened" and whisked it away. An order of two jumbo shrimp was brought while I waited for a replacement.
My meal finally came when everyone was nearly finished. To be honest, I no longer felt like eating the fish and it was awkward to have a full plate of food when the rest of the table was through with their meal. Then, I tried to hurry through it because everyone else was ready to move on to coffee and dessert.
While I did my duty as a food writer and pointed out a problem, do you think there are times when you SHOULDN'T send back a dish?
I remember once during a business meeting at a restaurant I was served rare tuna that was FROZEN in the middle. I didn't say anything - just took a few bites and moved food around my plate. Why? We were in the middle of an important conversation. I'm quite certain that complaining about my food and sending it back in mid-conversation would have changed the dynamic of an important dinner.

Frozen flops

I'm never going to turn down a dinner from Thomas Keller or Daniel Boulud, widely considered two of the country's best chefs.
So I was really looking forward to trying Cuisine Solution's FiveLeaf line of gourmet frozen dinners created by celebrity chefs. Here's my story.
The meals sounded really promising - Cornish hens with truffle jus, braised beef short ribs with red wine sauce and poached lobster tails with orzo and lobster sauce with mascarpone cheese.
But the meals are expensive (between $35 to $65) and disappointing. In my opinion, Boulud's was the best and my least favorite was Keller's lobster and runny "mac and cheese."
I'm guessing these meals are aimed at the gourmet cooking for dummies crowd - you just boil water or turn on the stove.
My advice: If you really want a Keller or Boulud meal, go visit one of their restaurants or buy one of their cookbooks.

No loafing around

My mother always complains about Delaware bread. She grew up in South Philly, city of the crusty loaf, and, for years, she was convinced no one could produce bread like the bakers in her hometown.

I took her to Black Lab bread at 812 N. Union Street in Wilmington. Now, she's changed her mind. (Though, she will never, ever, turn down a loaf of bread from Sarcone's in Philadelphia's Italian Market.)

For nearly two years, Black Lab has occupied the site of the old DiFonzo Bakery. Head baker/owner is Barry Ciarrocchi, whose first cousin is KYW-TV news anchor Pat Ciarrocchi. Barry comes from a family that owns mushroom businesses in southern Chester County. He has a master's degree in plant pathology from Penn State University, but baking bread has always been his true love. The name of the business, Black Lab Breads, "goes back to my college days when I was working in labs," he said. Ciarrocchi, long interested in chemistry, said it took him several years to perfect the art of making bread. "It was always seemed like some black art."

I don't love the bakery's name - when I hear black lab I think of a big dog not a mysterious, mystical laboratory - but I do love this bread. Black Lab is a funny place. The bread sells so fast that the cases aren't always filled. Sometimes the service is downright neighborly -they recently gave my favorite 4-year-old a free roll to munch one when she told me, quite loudly, that she was hungry. Yet, sometimes it can be on the surly side. The day before Thanksgiving, we picked up pre-ordered rolls and there was no smile or "have a nice holiday" thank you. Whatever. It doesn't bother me - not when the bread is as good as this.

Holiday party food

Went to a holiday party this weekend and brought along one of my favorite finger food munchies, Vietnamese crab-shrimp toasts, from Tom Douglas's fabulous "I Love Crab Cakes!" cookbook. The snacks are similar to the toasts that you get off dim sum carts. People always go bonkers over them. You'll have to make a stop at an Asian grocer for fish sauce (I like the 3-crabs brand) and sambal, which is a spicy, red garlic and chili sauce, if you don't have any in the pantry.
Here's the recipe. (NOTE: I sometimes briefly saute chopped garlic and ginger, let it cool and then add it to the shrimp/crab mixture before frying. But it's not necessary. Also, the toasts are best served immediately, but will keep in a low oven for about an hour.)


VIETNAMESE CRAB-SHRIMP TOASTS
6 ounces peeled raw shrimp
6 ounces crabmeat, drained, picked clean of shell and lightly squeezed if wet
1 tablespoon picked cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce
1 teaspoon minced shallots
14 slices French baguette, cut crosswise, each slice about 1/2 inch thick and 2 3/4 inches long
Peanut or canola oil
Lime dipping sauce (recipe follows)
4 to 6 lime wedges
Put the shrimp in the bowl of a food processor and process until as smooth as possible. Add the crabmeat, cilantro, fish sauce and shallots. Pulse until well-combined. Transfer to a bowl and use a rubber spatula to fold the mixture together several times. Place a heaping tablespoon of the crab mixture on top of one of the baguette slices and use a butter knife to spread it in an even layer to the edges of the bread. Repeat with the remaining baguette slices, using up all of the crab mixture.
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large, nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot (a cube of bread will turn golden within 30 seconds), add as many toasts as will comfortably fit in the pan, crab side down. Fry until the crab mixture is golden brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Using metal tongs, turn the toasts to fry the undersides to a light golden brown, less than 1 minute. Remove the toasts from the pan, drain on paper towels and keep warm in the oven. Continue until all toasts are fried. Cut toasts on the diagonal and serve with lime dipping sauce and lime wedges. Makes 14 or more toasts or 4 to 6 appetizer servings.

LIME DIPPING SAUCE
3 tablespoons Asian fish sauce
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh squeeze lime juice
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons sambal or Asian chili-garlic sauce
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon minced fresh Thai basil or regular basil
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and stir.

All aboard

Choo-choos and chow is the theme of my story today in 55 Hours.

Jimmy John's on Wilmington Pike (U.S. 202) near West Chester, Pa., also known as 'the place with the electric trains," is a local treasure. Seriously, if you haven't been there before, you simply must stop in sometime. Model trains have been a part of the 67-year-old hot dog house for more than four decades. Feed the machine a quarter to watch the trains circle the tracks. Then feed yourself a hot dog with sauerkraut or be like artist Andrew Wyeth, a Jimmy John's regular, and order the cheeseburger.

Nicola's Pizza in Rehoboth Beach also has a pretty nifty train.

In other local food news, our own Eric Ruth is moonstruck at Eclipse Bistro in Wilmington and gives it a 3 1/2 star rating.

Wrap your head around this

Forget the wrap sandwich.

The Blue Pear Bistro will wrap your holiday gifts this season.

"To help alleviate holiday stress", the new restaurant is offering guests free gift wrapping. Customers can bring their unwrapped presents, dine and leave with all of their presents wrapped.

I can just hear the conversation in the dining room now: "Yes, waiter, I'll start with the onion soup and the Santa paper. Then, I'll have the barbecued beef short ribs and a big, red bow, please."

Gift wrapping hours: Monday - Thursday from 5 to 11:30 p.m. from Dec. 6 - 21; and Dec. 24 from 5 to 9 p.m. (Notice there is no gift wrapping on the weekends.)

The restaurant, next door to the Dilworthtown Inn, is located in the Village of Dilworthtown (intersection of Oakland, Brinton’s Bridge & Birmingham Roads) 275 Brinton Bridge Road, near West Chester, Pa.,

Sure, it sounds like a promotion-y, gimmick-y move, but, hey, if you're out X-mas shopping and want to drop in for a bite, it's one last holiday hassle to worry about.

Reports of its "death" greatly exaggerated

Great story today in The New York Times about the "death" of the entree.
Kim Severson writes that some restaurants are moving away from one big dish and are heading, more and more, into "smaller" plates options. It gives diners a wider variety of tastes and more sharing options.
I'm on the fence about this "trend." While I love the "tapas" way of eating, sometimes, especially when I really love a dish, I don't want to share nor do I want just a few bites of it.
And then, there's always the awkward last bite moment of sharing - who gets the remaining crumbs on a plate?
I tend to start to lose my appetite when I see too much food on a plate so maybe the boredom of one entree is just a matter of portion size.
But then I remember a few years ago, under former owner Tobias Lawry, 821 restaurant in Wilmington switched to a small plates concept and diners I heard from grumbled that the eatery was now offering less food but at the same cost.
An old Woody Allen joke about a restaurant comes to mind: "Boy, the food at this place is really terrible and such small portions."
What do you think? Should the entree be put out to pasture?

Use 'em or lose 'em

I just used a restaurant gift certificate that I received last Christmas from a family member. (Yeah, I know. Giving a food writer/restaurant critic a restaurant gift certificate is kind of like gifting a car repairman with a free oil change. But it's the thought that counts, right?)

Actually, I forgot all about the certificate until I started cleaning out a drawer and found it stuffed inside.

Six out of 10 shoppers say they intend to buy gift cards for the holidays this year, according to Consumer Reports. While this may seem to indicate that gift cards are a big hit, according to a story in The Cincinnati Enquirer, several recent surveys also revealed that up to half of gift-card recipients never spend the complete value of their cards. And sometimes they never use them at all.

Check the expiration date. Some cards may only be good for a year....

Speaking of gift cards, Domaine Hudson wine bar & eatery, 1314 N. Washington St. in Wilmington, is honoring gift cards issued by former Chef's Table at the David Finney Inn (Old New Castle, Del.) through March 31, 2008.

In November, the Washington Street eatey hired former Chef's Table owner Robert Lhulier as co-executive chef with Jason Barrowcliff.

Easiest chocolate ice cream in the world

California pastry chef Dave Lebovitz made me a lifelong fan of his work after I paged through his wonderful "Room For Dessert" cookbook. Lebovitz is now living the sweet life in France and blogs about his activities. Check out his web site. He recently created what he calls "the easiest chocolate ice cream ever" that - wait for it, wait for it - DOESN'T require a machine. Lebovitz writes that "this dessert is the result of a happy accident. I've been working with a liquor company on developing some recipes and after a couple furious days of recipe-testing, I had a zillion containers of various odds-and-ends lying around." Here is the small batch recipe - it only makes four to six scoops, but can be doubled - along with some of Lebovitz's notes:

Dave Lebovitz's chocolate and banana ice cream
Lebovitz says the "ice cream doesn't require an ice cream-maker at all. Yes, really. So if you don't have a machine, fear not: it's simply blended up, poured in a container, and left to chill on its own in the freezer. And after four hours (no stirring required!), I dug my spoon into the most luscious, creamiest ice cream imaginable. You can easily increase this recipe to make more than it calls for. I haven't tried it with any other liquor, but for those of you who want to experiment, you do need to include a similar amount and percentage of alcohol to prevent the ice cream from freezing too hard. The banana gives the ice cream a smooth, creamy consistency and provides the sweetness, so use a nice, ripe one. I found that this keeps for weeks in the freezer and maintains it's absolutely perfect consistency. Cheers!"
2 ounces (55 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
6 tablespoons (80 ml) milk, whole or low-fat
6 tablespoons (80 ml) Baileys liquor
1 medium-sized ripe banana, peeled, and cut into chunks
1 tablespoon (15 ml) dark rum
In a small bowl set over a pan of simmering water (or in the microwave), melt the chocolate with the milk. Blend the melted chocolate the Baileys, the banana, and rum until smooth. Pour into a plastic or metal container, cover, and freeze for at least 4 hours. Makes four to six scoops.

Making a list and checking it twice.....

This is the time of year for magazine Top 10 lists, and this month Saveur picks its favorite 2007 reads about food. From memoirs to anthologies, their book choices (in alphabetical order) are:

1. 1080 Recipes by Simone and Inés Ortega (Phaidon) The “Iberian Joy of Cooking…opens this vast repository of Spanish culinary knowledge to American home cooks”.
2. Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook by Fergus Henderson and Justin Piers Gellatly (Bloomsbury USA) “Britain’s most unwavering proponent of offal…is as quirky as ever.”
3. The Calcutta Kitchen by Simon Parkes and Udit Sarkhel (Interlink) A “compendium of masterly recipes, essays, and images”, this book conjures a city’s image that “stays with you long after you’ve left the kitchen”.
4. Imbibe! by David Wondrich (Perigee) A “history of industrial-age America writ in booze, covering everything from punches, fizzes, and sours to toddies, slings, and juleps”.
5. The Oxford Companion to Italian Food by Gillian Riley (Oxford Press)
An “exhaustive, alphabetized encyclopedia on the foods and culinary traditions of Italy, from Abruzzo…to zuppa inglese”.
6. Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province by Fuchsia Dunlop (W.W. Norton) Here are “personal anecdotes, vividly recounted local legends, and journalistic reportage as preambles to the recipes, which amply describe that province’s varied cuisine”.
7. Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker Book of Food and Drink edited by David Remnick (Random House) There’s “nary a bland morsel in this collection of 80 years’ worth of food writing taken from the pages of America’s foremost magazine of letters”.
8. Stealing Buddha’s Dinner by Bich Minh Nguyen (Viking) This “gracefully written, bittersweet memoir…uses food as a narrative tool to tell a poignant story of cultural assimilation and emotional transformation”.
9. The Tenth Muse: My Life in Food by Judith Jones (Knopf) The writer “lets us peek into her authors’ lives”, depicting a “warm cosmopolitan world” that’s “a joy to inhabit”.
10. The Texas Cowboy Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh (Broadway Books) “In this smart compilation, Walsh…deconstructs popular myths about life on the range.”

Don't mess with the big cheese

Pizza lovers should check out Eric Ruth's story today about the name game showdown between Grotto Pizza and New Castle newcomer and the similarly named Grottino pizza place.
What's in name? A lot of dough, apparently.