I don't pretend to know how Amanda Hesser got to be a restaurant critic, since I would totally recognize her on the street and I imagine so would anyone who even thought about working in a restaurant in New York.

And y'all know I'm a fan.

But.... This Wednesday, I thought her review was- odd. I mean, first she calls salmon with lentils a cliche- perhaps, but it was a cliche she herself was all too happy to introduce. (I mean, I've made her salmon with lentils from Cooking For Mr. Latte. A gazillion times.) And then it ends with this bizarre paragraph about not needing asparagus foam every night. I get that she was saying the restaurant was nice to have in its normalcy, but- I don't know. Maybe Manhattan is different from LA, but out here, we still have plenty of good restaurants that don't serve foam of any sort. It seemed like an odd reference, is all.

And then there was this whole bit about the No Substitutions being a reminder that eating out is about trust and easing up on control- which seemed odd, because, well- I always got the impression she was a bit of a control freak.

I wish she'd go back to writing about cooking.