Now I am not so foolish as to presume that there is any universally pleasing multigenerational meal.
But before we moved on to the excuse-generating portion of our evening ("The babysitter just called and has to leave early, so we'll just take the rest of this to go, please"), our meal took an unanticipated turn.
The new wife cooked every night, knocking herself out to make meals as pleasing as his first wife's, and every night the husband would taste them, shake his head and say, "Not as good".
("I'll have the lardo pizza value meal, please").
Aside from the lightly cooked meat, Ms. Edrington was for the most part pleased with the meal, which was prepared by George McNeill, one of the nation's 55 master chefs.
Photograph: Zoe Williams 2.37pm GMT Reader Recipe (One of our commenters has shared this recipe for a Red Lentil Tart that is sure to use up a bunch of leftover food from your cupboards. If you have a recipe for turning neglected food into a tasty meal, please share it in comments below).
1934: Lucky Chef's Horse Comes In One night, last fall, a casual customer in a small restaurant on lower Broadway was so pleased with his meal he gave the chef, William Merringer, two Irish sweep tickets for the Grand National, saying: "I hope they will bring you luck".
I'm not a perfect parent by any means – and in fact, if anyone can tell me how to get a three-year-old to sit still long enough to eat an entire meal, please let me know – but sharing the limited space of a small flat (and a bedroom) with my daughter means that I've had to get the issue of how to organize kids' stuff pretty well sorted out.
Try to look as if you are pleased with your meal, but don't try too hard.
That second night at J.D.'s showed that it was possible to have a very good meal here, as pleasing as those at its renowned sister restaurants.
