Welcome back.

Welcome back.

We are back, and as you can see, we’ve done some remodeling. I can even post photos, look:

P, Secret Agent Gnocchi and Myself

And what’s more, you’ll see your comments more quickly, since I don’t have to wade through comment spam for 30 minutes every time I log in, thanks to Akismet, and other snazzy devices that I may or may not completely understand. The search feature works, the blog looks nicer and we now have the ability to post video and audio — the podcast lives! The blog is also easier for me to use, not that you care, but it means I’ll be able to upload more- and more interesting- content more regularly.

A few ghosts still haunt us:

Link and text formatting on old (2009 and earlier) entries

The old blog was entered in something called markdown syntax. This was a very fast and superior alternative to the text editor in drupal (the old content management system). Unfortunately, now that we’re in WordPress, if we load markdown, we disable other features that we really want to use, so for the time being, old posts are going to look strange and hyperlinks won’t work (although you can see the web address, you’ll just have to copy and paste it). Secret Agent Gnocchi and the Gnomes are working on this, but if this problem is going to be permanent, I will update the text in the more often-visited posts.

WordPress has human-readable URLs

When I post an entry or a photograph, it becomes an entry in a database. Drupal would just number them as they were created, so if you looked in the address bar, it might look like this: http://omnivorousfish.com/node/199. WordPress, however, takes the node’s title into consideration, and the same article’s URL becomes: http://omnivorousfish.com/gnocchi-the-finer-points/. Why do you care? Well, unless you link to or have bookmarks of any specific posts (not just omnivorousfish.com) you don’t care. If you are linked to me and I know about it, I will email you the correct links when I get around to it. If you’re looking for something you had bookmarked, the Search feature actually works now.

Comments prior to July 2009 are gone for the time being.

Yeah, we have no idea WTF happened on this one. They just disappeared. This really stinks, because a lot of the pasta posts had great dialogue in them, not to mention the fact that a lot of blogging luminaries showed up over the years to grace my little site with a comment, and now those comments are gone…and those people may not come back. I’m hoping they’re in an Uh-Huh video somewhere, and will come back in shaky pencil animation.

Older Photos are too wide for the new page format.

Again, this is a migration bug, and really a very minor one. If there’s a photo at the top of an old post, it impinges on the right block. No biggie.

Other than that, we are back on board with a new look and a new commitment to the slaughter of sacred cows in the food world. If you have any questions, please email us at make pasta at gmail dot com.

Closed for Repairs

I know there hasn’t been a ton of content lately, and that’s because for technical reasons, it’s gotten difficult to keep the lights on around here. The site is now officially Under Construction, so I’ll see you when the contractors are done with the tile.

Dallas – Big Hat, No Cattle

I’m in Dallas this week, and I have to say I haven’t eaten this much meat in a long time. Most of it, I have to say, was pretty good, though of course one stands out.

If you are in Dallas and you eat meat, you have to go to Mac’s. The owner’s father started the place in the forties, so they’ve had a little while to get it right. This place is the real, paper-napkin, formica, regular-named-earl (not kidding) deal.

3933 Main St, Dallas TX 75226

That’s all for now, I gotta pack.

Los Angeles Pizza…

…is not necessarily a contradiction in terms.

The vastly overwhelming majority of what is here is, admittedly, barely edible, and in some cases downright disgusting, but there are three places in three areas of the city where I’ve found something to keep down.

The first place could be on any corner in any town in New Jersey, Eastern PA or Southern NY. It’s called Village Pizza and it’s in downtown Larchmont. The pies are 16″, made with high-quality dry mozzarella and are an excellent example of how good [American pizza](http://omnivorousfish.com/node/334) can be. It’s a thin but bready crust, at once crispy and chewy, imminently foldable and delicious.

The sauce is a little flat, but salt is always a matter of taste. I give it 4 stars out of 5 for an American pie.

Village Pizza
131 N. Larchmont @ Beverly Blvd.
Phone: 323-465-5566

They have a Hollywood location, but I can’t vouch for it. Maybe this week…