Ok, so we're already going to go to Katz's and to Nathan's (although, of course Nathan has been to Nathan's multiple times before but I wanted to go again). He's been to Bobby Flay's which I wanted to go to but I also wanted to take him someplace he hasn't been yet. We're planning on going to Eataly during the day so we might do lunch there if we can easily get into one of the places without waiting in long lines. And we're going to Jeng Fung (recommended by a native New Yorker) for dim sum. Also, planning to hit wichcraft, although not Tom Colicchio's prime restaurant, I know that a lot of it is hype and I know that celeb places aren't necessarily the best places to eat in the world. But we live in Houston. We have TONS of restaurants here. I mean tons. And tons of nice places too. So I have a sort of different perspective on the whole thing. I mean, we're not going to go to NY with our eyes popping out and our jaws dropping at the sight of nice restaurants. But it would be nice to eat something we can't get in Houston. Really good Italian and really good Chinese food (we have tons of both Italian and Chinese but not REALLY GOOD of either) are about the only thing we don't have an overabundance of here. And celebrity spots. So what the heck. Honestly, I'm not going in hopes of seeing someone, I probably wouldn't recognize them anyway!! LOL But just for something in the way of a different experience. I do like the idea of the circle line tour at sunset, that sounds pretty cool. I tried to talk Nathan into the seaport museum but he's not interested. And we've been to the Ground Zero display which I think is there till they build the permanent one. Very moving. And we're pretty much going to have to find a place that serves vegetarian. I don't think Ben is impressed enough with any of these "names" to eat any kind of meat, especially fish which he never liked. Which is too bad because some of these seafood places sound to die for! Currently leaning toward Lidia's place. At least I've seen her on TV (dvd) and know who she is! :)

It's amazing many of them never clean their hands after handling pork, chicken, eggs, etc. and start touching everything else. Thank you for that! Do you ever see any of them WASH their hands? Seems like they only wipe them on their aprons. I'm washing my hands every two minutes if I'm touching something sticky, greasy, or whatever. Wiping isn't the same and anything you touch afterwards is going to be sticky and gross. As far as the health of the recipes - one reason most restaurant food in a French restaurant tastes so much better than what people often do at home is because the food is swimming in butter. And it's usually good butter. But for the most part people aren't overweight because they're eating too much high-quality butter and cheese. It's because they're eating too much. Period. And substituting a low fat version of something isn't going to make all that much difference if you've been snacking all day. Just a little piece of chocolate, just a little caramel, a donut, etc. It all adds up. For those who are over 30, ever notice how kids play today? When I was small, we'd play all day long and didn't want to come home. Riding bikes, playing softball, or whatever. Today kids have play dates but the weird part is that they bring snacks! Really? There's a danger they might fall over dead of starvation? The guy who first pointed that out to me was a refugee from Somalia! He knew about hunger and thought it was so strange that American kids can't go anywhere w/out snacks in their backpacks. It doesn't matter whether the snacks are carrots or candy, the idea is that kids are always eating. I have a number of friends from Europe and elsewhere and they've all commented on that custom as it seems so strange to them. We train kids from infancy that they're never supposed to feel hunger, and then we satiate ourselves with whatever is at hand, which often as not is some prepackaged snack or fast food. I stopped watching cooking shows when they started becoming contests where people with copious tattoos were judged by illiterate non-cooks, or even worse, they were hand-held camera shots with jump-cuts that serve only to annoy because you know they're trying to make things seem a lot more exciting than they really are, so I can't say a lot about most of them except that I did like to watch Nigella. With the sound on or off; doesn't matter. Giada De Laurentiis is my new fave. But as for actual cooking skills, it's only Lidia and Jacques Pepin. Hopefully w/out his annoying daughter.

Oh, how could I forget Sara Moulton, Alton Brown and the 2 Fat Ladies! Sara comes across as sincere, down to earth and neighbor-like. I like her cooking style but not a lot of her recipes. Alton Brown and the Two Fat Ladies have very few recipes I'd want to try, but find the shows very entertaining and often informative. Dotmom, Justin Wilson was at one of the sports shows many many years back and a friend and I went to wander around and of course see his show. Well, as it turned out he had JUST left the show as we got in there and wouldn't be back for about quite a few hours. I thought he'd at least be out signing autographs or something but that wasn't the case. We wandered around and waited. Debated about how long to stay but finally gave up. That close. About the only person I've really wanted to see in person. Thought it would be interesting to talk to him a few minutes if it was allowed. Sadly he's gone, but a few of his shows are on YouTube. The ones I saw on there I remember watching. Justin's measuring salt in his hand, throw in a little extra - just shows it's not a science. I got to the point I could smell something and tell if it needed salt. Some friends laughed at me when I measured with my hand and I said If Justin can do it, so can I and they said yeah right, so I took a measuring spoon and poured it in. 1 teaspoon exactly. He also got me using fresh ground pepper on garlic bread. And it are good, I garontee! I have a couple of his cookbooks. Received them as gifts. Not that I really needed them because I copied down a lot of his recipes that interested me. I still use them as a base for others. I just modify to suit my tastes. As a cook should. And I enjoyed his speech. Sort of a Cajun Norm Crosby. And unlike so many, he poked fun at himself rather than feigning offense at every opportunity. Refreshing. And the Two Fat Ladies were fun to watch. It was so obvious they didn't get along. Not sure how they got paired up. They'd snip at each other occasionally and was entertaining. I also like the way ALton Brown interjects some humor and, like America's Test Kitchen, include some of the science and why, for example, some cookies are soft and some are crunchy. One other I forgot is Nathalie Dupree. Again, the older shows were so far superior to those of today (and Alton & 2FL are old shows IMO)

The show that runs on our PBS is from her latest cookbook; Commensense Cooking. It airs Sundays at 2pm. Lars, we also watch the woman you mentioned. At first we didn't care for her, but she's actually quite funny. As mentioned, Lidia's recipes can be detail oriented; as can Fine Cooking. (wear oven mitts when pulling the pan out of the oven), but her recipes are good.