Letters

The last time we went to Vincent's with a guest from out of town, the service was deplorable, from getting almost every order incorrect to the extended time to get our meal.

A Veal Dilemma

Secret ingredients: I read with interest Robb Walsh's article concerning the "substitution" of pork for veal at Italian restaurants around Houston ["The Cow Says Oink," January 22, 2004]. The premise of the article appears to be that this matter is noteworthy because Jews and Muslims who keep kosher are being deceived into eating pork.

The veal dish described at Carrabba's containing veal, prosciutto and fontina cheese would be a big no-no for those keeping kosher even without the prosciutto, since mixing dairy and meat is just as bad as eating pork and shellfish. Those who mix their dairy and meats are sort of like vegetarians who chow down on shrimp dim sum every Sunday after being told repeatedly that pork fat is regularly used as a binder for that shrimp paste in the dumplings, or on the shrimp toast or the stuffed crab legs.

If you don't cook it yourself, you really never know exactly what you're getting.

Robert M. Rosenberg
Wilton Manors, Florida

Hip-hop Houston

Same old music: The Nightfly says, "In a refreshing downtown hot-spot twist, the speakers are blaring out old-timey country instead of the usual hodgepodge of spaced-out house and trance" ["Grace Under Pressure," by Brian McManus, March 17].

I don't know what clubs you've been hanging out at, but there's nothing but hip-hop being played in Houston, except at Clark's, SB and Joia. Nice to see you're in touch with the music scene.

Raymond Moore
Houston

Band Aid

On the lookout for Los Skarnales: I'm not that connected to the music scene, but I can't wait to hear Los Skarnales [Rotation, by John Nova Lomax, April 7]. Thanks for a thoroughly enjoyable read and a tip about what seems like a great band.

John Preston
Houston

The April 21 article "High-Caliber Kids" called Ted Nugent a Southern rocker. While he is a redneck rocker, he is not, alas, from or of the South. He hails from Detroit.

Also, an inadvertently deleted word caused the April 7 feature "Exposed Nerve" to misstate the number of Americans living with depression that's resistant to drugs and electroshock therapy. The correct number is 4.4 million.

The Press regrets its shaky hold on geography and arithmetic in these stories.