Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
That better not be some high-falutin', heirloom-garlic-for-$25/lb. yupscale
market, Dan, or we may have to witness the firepower of a fully armed and
operational Juliestation.
  

    
"heirloom-garlic"?
  

    
http://www.thegarlicstore.com/index.cgi/pure_garlic_products.html
  

    

Citarella and Jefferson Market are two different places about a block
apart.  Jefferson Market has been there a long, long time.  (Actually it
used to be across the street.) Citarella is a brand-new location of
a company that has a couple of other NYC locations; it is in the space
vacated by Balducci.

In any case, if it was Julie I saw, it was on the sidewalk, not in either
store.

I don't like either of them very much but both have some good points.
  

    
Was the woman you saw muttering an uninterrupted string of expletives?
  

    


From E Ross:

> Very mundane question. How much weight did you gain? Eric must have a ter-
> rific metabolism!
  

    
Hey guys -- back from D.C.  Did manage to leave the butter at the
Shrine of Julia without being nabbed....

Stores I like: Well, it depends.  During the project I tried to make a
point to buy cheap stuff whenever I could get away with it because a)
I want to see if the recipes can speak for themselves without the
schmancy organic stuff, and b) hey.  cheap.

Eric tends to pick up our basics in little joints near his work in
Astoria.  I'll pick up the pricier items in town.  Zeytuna is this
Turkish-run place downtown, convenient to my work, with pretty good
produce etcetera.  Or I'll get off at 14th Street and go to Garden of
Eden.  

I've had brief affairs with Fairway (@ 75th St)and Whole Foods -- the
latter mostly because it started in Austin.  I went to Jefferson Market
for awhile, because the fish guy there once gave me a load of shrimp
shells and heads for free for stock, but the people there (the
customers, not the staff)  bother the shit out of me.  

I'll go by the farmer's markets at Unions Square and downtown, though
particularly at Union Square I tend to run screaming, because I hate
people, and there are too damned many of them there.

Ottomanelli's I like.  Mostly because the guys there always recognize
me, which makes me feel loved.

I HATE Dean & DeLuca and Food Emporium.  Don't much like Gourmet
Garage either.

Wow this has been long.  Sorry.

Re: the weight thing, yeah.  I don't know how much I've gained,
because I'm too scared to get on a scale, but my clothes don't fit
anymore.  Eric's do, because he's a skinny little bastard.
  

    

Julie, try Florence Prime Meat Market on Jones Street in the West Village.

Very old school, not expensive, friendly, knowledgeable, guys who know 
how to cut up animals into food.
  

    

*resisting urge to write long post on nyc food bargains*
  

    
Does Eric, the "skinny little bastard," blog? 

There were times last year when I _really_ wanted to read the
Julie/Julia/Eric blog. 
  

    
I would like to read that blog too.  Unfortunately, Eric is a little
bit allergic of attention.  Plus, my god, he's been spending all his
time washing dishes.  Maybe now that this thing's over he can do a
"Living With a Crazy Person Going Through Butter Withdrawal" sort of
thing.
  

    
Another question from the world beyond the Well . . . Pancakesdelish
writes

Q:  Now that you've proven that you can write, why not keep a blog
(not necessarily daily) of life in the big city and its outskirt, just
to keep in the habit till  you're truly discovered?
  

    

that would make her one of about a million bloggers already doing that,
though.
  

    
Exactly.  I think the problem with blogs is their tendency to devolve
into navel-gazing.  Not that the Julie/Julia Project wasn't that, but
at least there was a structure to it.  I don't want to go out there
every morning and just the sucky subway system or the latest thing
George W's done to piss me off.  If I'm going to keep a blog, it's got
to have a raison e'etre, or what's the point.

That said, I think with the blogging I've discovered a new method for
writing that's been really rewarding.  So I'd like to think of some way
to hold on to that.  I'm working on it.  
  

    


julie, when i first found your blog, i was *desperate* for photos of the
food or the process... what was behind the decision not to photograph the
project? was it merely a question of limited resources/time on your part?

(i must add that the lack of photos made the descriptions that more
important, and i appreciated that.)
  

    
There was much debate in the comments about photo logging, IIRC. At first I
wanted pictures, but in retrospect, I'm glad they weren't there - the aspic
was scary enough in ASCII.
  

    
Yeah, that was a whole big brouhaha.  Basically what happened was, I
was a technological moron who couldn't make the fucking pictures post,
and then I got input that I didn't need pictures, so that was awfully
convenient for me.

I sort of like it without pictures, but that may just be a
rationalization on my part.
  

    

i have had or have both a blog and a fotolog, and the temptation to write
less and 'let the photos talk' when possible is real. 

yeah, aspic. shudder.
y
  

    
Certainly, if photography was "What I Did", I'd have a lot more
trouble with the no-visual decision we came to.  But as it is, it made
sense for me, as a writer -- one who was coincidentally doing some at
times EXTREMELY un-photogenic things....
  

    


hahah! how many tales the kidney-splattered kitchen could've told!!
  

    
Julie, forgive me if this has been asked and answered yet, but has
anyone offered you a book deal to adapt your yearlong project?
  

    
I'm still working on that.  Trying to keep it all on the D.L. for the
moment, until something is final.  

The short answer is Yes, and I Thank My Lucky Stars.
  

    
coolio, but luck had little to do with. focus and good writing earned
you this attention. hope it goes well.
  

    

julie, were you on the receiving end of any fan attention that
felt....weird?
  

    
Um.  Hm.  Most of the fan attention has been at least just this side
of weird.  

It's all been very well-meaning and nice -- people sending me little
presents in the mail, only lovely woman lent me her tape of the last
episode of Buffy when I missed it due to cooking problems.  And then of
course there are the angels who donate money.

Once I guy sent me a like three page email about how he cooks
differently since his wife left him.  And was getting calls from a guy
with a French accent who had something VERY important to tell me about
French food.  But other than that it's all been good.

Not that it isn't weird sometimes -- these people feel that they know
me, and I don't know them from Adam.  But it's weird in a sort of
exhilarating way.