Franny’s b r o o k ly n , n y Franny’s has been described do much other than cook someto me as the Chez Panisse of thing to doneness. A boiled egg Brooklyn. Falling short as any is not a meal, but with some pickOf f t h e Me n u comparison like this would, it still led radishes and a few olives, on reverberates with a chord of truth. a little salad of chopped greens, it Pork Chilaquiles Food prepared as simply as posbecomes one. sible, with a mandate to allow the I ate the s’more right out of the Hard-boiled Eggs ingredients to speak in their purwood oven but the cook who made with Spicy Pickles est voice. Cooking at home can the marshmallow fluff from scratch S’mores get bogged down in “the dish.” assured me that a gas stove burner It is a different kind of cook that does the trick just fine, as it does Suggested wine: looks in the refrigerator for the in his girlfriend’s apartment. I left Channing Daughters makings of a meal, notices the Franny’s feeling sure that no desVino Bianco 2008 asparagus, and thinks, Oh, asparsert would ever go without a dolagus, first green thing of the year, lop of fluff again, not on my watch. tonight is your night. Chef John Adler’s sister is The family meal at Franny’s is unfussy and delia friend of mine and she told me with sibling pride cious in the way their menu items are. Chef John Adler that a diner had come to Franny’s once and the wrangled the kitchen together for this meal. “We like server noticed he hadn’t ordered anything. The man to braise meat because we can put it in on very low said he had been battling a serious illness and it had heat in the oven when we leave for the night and it’s restricted his diet to nearly nothing. He was used to ready the next day. That way we don’t have to give up it, he assured the server, and he would just eat somethe oven for prep.” This chilaquiles dish, which I put thing at home. The server insisted on getting his in both the homey and hangover-cure categories, is short list of “cans” and long list of “can’ts” and took beer-braised pork. “We had some beer left that wasn’t them to John. Despite a fever pitch in the kitchen, he getting used, so I put that in, and it was so good.” stopped to make a meal of simple ingredients so the The eggs and pickles are another lesson in readiman could eat with his family. It is the kind of kitchen ness. If you have some jars of things always in your that can look in the walk-in and give some special cupboard and refrigerator, then you don’t need to ingredient its night.
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