Dining@Large: The Comment of the Week and Exchanges of the Week - Elizabeth Large blogs about memorable meals, dining trends, comings and goings on the restaurant scene and more.

I blew it. In the excitement of Halloween (turning off all the lights and cowering in the dark), I forgot to post the Comment of the Week last night. So here we go this morning.

When you're ridiculing something, as a Serious Eats blogger was in an earlier post, you can't leave yourself open to ridicule, as Michael A. Gray so deftly demonstrated:

Somehow, I don't see myself asking the server to have the chef make whatever he or she thinks I'll love. On a busy night in a jam-packed eatery, I can't envision the waiter running back to the kitchen, catching the chef in mid-fricasee and saying "Maestro, there is a guy out there who wants you to concoct what you think he will love." And the chef, smiling pleasantly at the interruption as he watches a tureen of lobster bisque boil over, responding, "Jean-Claude, ask the gentleman to be more specific about his culinary preferences. Is he in the mood for fish, fowl or perhaps my legendary Bouef D'Avignon? With or without shallots, depending of course, on his personal taste." And the server, telling the chef, "Thank you for honoring this simple request, mon ami, rather than whacking me with the cleaver in your hand." No, the Serious Eats writer's advice notwithstanding, I think I'll continue to work from the menu.

Posted by: Michael A. Gray | October 29, 2009 7:44 AM

I want to reward elegantly written, thoughtful and provocative comments in this feature, but because I still need cheering up (still until April), I have to give a co-Comment of the Week to several exchanges on the blog that made me laugh out loud. ...

The first was under the Quiche Me, You Fool post on food-related jokes: ...

...Two carnivores were eating a clown, and one looked at the other and said, "Does this taste funny to you?"

Posted by: Dawn | October 26, 2009 1:20 PM

Cannibals, Dawn, cannibals!

;)

Posted by: sean | October 26, 2009 2:11 PM

And then, even though they are my buddies and Comment of the Week is supposed to be for those of you who don't have a broader forum to showcase your skills, as Midnight Sun Sam and Shallow Thought Wednesday John do, I just had to include Sam's review of Volt and John's reaction to it:

Shocking!

Posted by: Sam Sessa | October 26, 2009 4:27 PM

Electrifying, Sam. You've always seemed well grounded. I found your one-word review both positive and negative.

Posted by: jl | October 26, 2009 7:45 PM

And now we come to the R-rated portion of the show, so all of you under 17 years old please avert your eyes. This exchange between Corey and Trixie was under the post Why I Like Restaurants with One-Word Names:

I remember wandering around New York with my sister when I was 17 and noticing all these one-word named restaurants, and I told her, one day I'm going to open my own restaurant and it's going to be called "Boobs." Cause everyone likes boobs!

The dream is still alive.

Posted by: Corey | October 27, 2009 3:33 PM

Corey - Aren't you worried people might confuse you with Hooters?

Posted by: Trixie | October 27, 2009 3:41 PM

Trixie, no. Boobs will not be gimmicky. There will be no boob-shaped panna cottas. The food, the service, and the interior design will have nothing to do with breasticles.

If your food is good enough, over time people view your faults as lovable quirks. That is what's going to happen here.

Plus the word boobs is funnier than the word hooters, and it's not some lame, PC, indirect attempt to point to what it's trying to say. Boobs is boobs.

Posted by: Corey | October 27, 2009 4:12 PM

I forgot to mention that Boobs will be a high class dining establishment, the kind of place where they ask you what kind of water you want.

Posted by: Corey | October 27, 2009 4:14 PM