Fat Guy

In my limited experience, home refrigerator aging of individual steaks does help lower the moisture content but is not truly competitive with professional aging of whole subprimals. I'd also estimate that for any significant period of aging, like 21+ days (which is difficult to do under home-refrigerator conditions with an individual steak because the steak lacks the fat-layer protection of a whole short loin and, moreover, has already been wet-aged for some time), the loss will be a lot more than 10% when you combine the moisture loss with the trimming loss. There are also some food-safety considerations when home aging beef, not that I'm bothered by them but some people might be. And, I'd hesitate to say that you can walk into any old supermarket and get Certified Angus Beef that's as well marbled as what DeBragga is selling.

The Hitachino is not currently on the menu, however to my mind the Allagash White is better.

A lot of places ship frozen, however the better places like DeBragga and Lobel's ship refrigerated.

My personal experience has been that I'm somewhat but not completely spoiled by good steaks. That is to say, I can certainly enjoy an inferior steak if it's offered at a friend's house or whatever -- especially since even average supermarket steaks in the US are pretty tasty -- but I almost never cook supermarket-level steaks myself. As a result of having higher standards for steak, I eat less steak. So when I do eat steak I like it to be good, and given the small number of times a year I eat it I don't mind paying premium prices. Of course everybody except a person with infinite money is going to have a point of diminishing returns. What I was suggesting above was that for me the $89 box of steaks is worth the premium over supermarket meat -- it's enough better to justify that to me personally -- whereas I'm not sure I'd personally find the $159.95 box to be worth the extra money. I'm sure it's better, but that's my point of diminishing returns for now. I'd also note that, to me, it seems more sensible to economize on other cuts of beef. For example you can buy totally average supermarket meat and make excellent hamburgers. You can buy the cheapo braising cuts and they come out pretty darn good. Whereas steak is a much more pure eating experience, so that's a cut where it pays to get better stuff. There are also questions of palate training and steak cookery experience. It takes some time for some people (like me) to get a good handle on the differences among different steaks (other people grasp it intuitively, it seems). And those differences can be less or more evident depending on cooking method and level of doneness. So it's not necessarily worth it for a person who can't tell the difference and wants a well-done steak anyway.

It is extremely unlikely that you're getting USDA Prime beef unless the menu specifically says the words USDA Prime. Likewise, very few if any restaurants dry age their beef without saying so prominently. So chances are that if you go to a steakhouse and neither claim is being made in writing you're getting sub-Prime, wet-aged beef. That beef can be quite expensive. Some of the better-know chain steakhouses -- the premium ones, not Outback -- do not serve Prime and do not dry age. The last such place I went to, however, was charging US$51.50 for a New York Strip that was inferior (both in terms of lack of dry aging and in terms of inferior marbling) to what DeBragga is selling. It was probably a 14-ounce steak, though, and not 12 ounces. Also, of course, the price of a steak at a steakhouse is deceptive. The steaks are essentially the loss leaders, but by the time you put together a meal with $12 potatoes and various other add-ons and upsells you're talking about $100+ per person plus tax and tip. Whereas you can do DeBragga steaks, homemade potatoes, salad, bottles of beer, and a nice dessert for more like $35 per person.

I think that, as with the Momofukus, you sort of need to acquire a little experience before you can consistently crack the Kampuchea code. Because the restaurant serves different functions for different customers, and there are definitely more and less foodie-oriented dishes being served up. It's like when you hear that somebody went into Ssam Bar, had a Ssam, and was underwhelmed, or somebody went into Noodle Bar, had a soup, and thought "eh." At Kampuchea, as at the Momofukus, if you want a high-level foodie experience you only want to get the supposedly core dishes if they're part of a more diverse spread. Which is not to say I remember (if I ever knew) what you ordered, Nathan. I'm just speaking in general. Right now I'd say the most impressive dishes from a foodie perspective are the pickle plate, duck breast, sweetbreads, monkfish liver, crabs, pork belly and mussels. If you have enough people to order more than that, then it's time to round out the meal with a shared soup, some crepes and maybe a sandwich tasting. That's if you want the kind of haute-rustic experience that the Momofukus offer. Of course if you're just in the mood for a really good bowl of soup, you can just go in and have that. But it's a totally different experience.

I think it's worth comparing them because, at least the way I'm judging the buzz, there has long been conventional foodie wisdom floating around out there that says Ssam Bar is better. I think that conventional wisdom may be wrong, thus the comparison. I think it's virtually impossible to debate that Noodle Bar has improved. I'll be totally shocked if anybody mounts the opposite claim. I won't be at all surprised if lots of folks challenge the claim that Ssam Bar has slipped, but I feel pretty strongly that it has and I have enough data points to be quite confident of the claim. I'm certainly not saying the slippage has been dramatic. I doubt anybody who has dined at the restaurant less than 10 or 20 times would much notice (whereas those who dine there 10 or 20 times a month are seeing category of performance that probably hasn't slipped). But from my perspective as an infrequent regular it has been enough to warrant saying something about it.

It was $159 plus tax and tip for a larger meal than most people would order. That included several fruit juices and cocktails. It may or may not have also included a comped dish or two but I didn't take a careful inventory of the itemized bill. I think Kampuchea only seems expensive if you hold it up to cheap Chinatown Southeast Asian places for comparison. If you make your frame of reference the Momofukus then no, it's not expensive at all. (I think many of the dishes are a bit less expensive than loosely comparable Momofuku dishes, while the soups are more expensive but also more significant.) And I believe the latter is the appropriate frame of reference, because of the quality of ingredients and the proficiency of the kitchen.

Ever since the first time we did back-to-back comparisons of Ssam Bar and Noodle Bar, my wife has been of the opinion that Noodle Bar is the better restaurant. I think that position grows more compelling with each passing day. My take is that Ssam Bar peaked some time this past summer or fall. I have enjoyed my last several meals at Ssam Bar a bit less than the best meals I've had there, in part because the service has slipped, in part because the kitchen has been less consistently excellent at execution, and in part because I keep seeing new preparations that aren't as good as the old preparations (something one has to expect in the name of innovation, but it seems to be happening more lately). Meanwhile, Noodle Bar has steadily improved and, in its new location, has taken a substantial step forward. The big, beautiful kitchen has raised the standard of execution and the cooks' abilities to be ambitious. And service at Noodle Bar today is very engaging and informed -- reminiscent of the way Ssam Bar service was when I fell in love with the place (whereas lately I've found it to border on inattentive). The overall style of food at Noodle Bar is more rustic than at Ssam Bar -- I guess I'd say the center of gravity is more rustic -- however if you examine the full range then much of the cooking at Noodle Bar reveals itself as being fully as sophisticated as the best cooking at Ssam Bar. Tonight, for example, we tried the cured Arctic char with dill tofu and rye "flatbread." This is a whimsical, haute take on lox with cream cheese, or maybe smoked salmon with Russian-style black bread. The thin slices of Arctic char are lox-like in appearance, except they have the beautiful orange-ish color of char rather than the deep pink of smoked salmon. The whipped tofu with dill is a vivid avocado green. And the rye "flatbreads" are more like bread puffs. I thought it was a visually arresting presentation, and more importantly it was delicious. It had been awhile since I had the grits at Noodle Bar. The current preparation comes with two huge Mayan prawns, an egg and country ham. It's a triumph. The friends we had with us are food people from the South (one of them a chef), and they were shocked -- they wouldn't come right out and say the grits preparation they were eating in New York City was better than any they'd encountered in the South, but it was clearly what they were thinking. The sweetbreads with sweet chili sauce are abundant and irresistible. The kimchi stew is just an amazing dish, one I could repeat frequently (some people do -- apparently there's a customer who has it several times a week). The steamed buns with shiitakes are so good it's almost tempting to order them instead of the pork buns. But ordering both works too. The pickles are great (though as I pointed out on another topic the pickle plate at Kampuchea is, I think, even better). The current ice cream is Cracker Jack, but they'd run out. Somebody else please taste it and report back. Given the way the trend has been playing out, I can't help but think that Noodle Bar is still improving -- that its cooks have even more up their sleeves. I'm going to be keeping a closer eye on Noodle Bar because I think I'll be choosing it over Ssam Bar more than I have in the past.

From my perspective as a food geek, there's more information I'd like to see on the DeBragga website. As I mentioned above, I didn't even learn that the meat I bought was Certified Angus Beef until after it arrived. To me, not listing that information online is underselling the product. Of course we could debate whether the CAB program means anything, but still it's a selling point for a lot of people. The amount of aging would also have been nice to know about, though I'm actually surprised to learn that it was aged 28+ days. I suppose there's only so much I'm able to divine from tasting -- I'd have guessed less.

I visited Kampuchea tonight with a group of friends as part of a multi-restaurant tour of the city. We sandwiched it between the wine bar at Adour and Momofuku Noodle Bar. Held up against two of the best kitchens in town, Kampuchea fared exceptionally well. Two of the four members of our group (all with experienced-enough palates to have an opinion worth considering) felt Kampuchea was the best of the three. For example we were able to do a same-day comparison of the Kampuchea pickle plate and the Momofuku Noodle Bar pickle plate. Kampuchea's pickle plate is more interesting, assertive and generous. Particularly noteworthy are the new lime pickles: thin slices of lime pickled with hot chilies. We tried a few dishes we hadn't tasted before. There's now an amazing blue-crab preparation. The crabs are bisected and sauteed with rum, which reduces to create a deeply caramelized, sticky sauce. They're messy eating, but rewarding. The monkfish liver is superb, served with macerated spicy pears. And the house-cured duck breast, thinly sliced, is paired with a green papaya salad that's unlike anything I've seen in Thai and Vietnamese restaurants: the papaya is shaved into wide, thin ribbons (rather than shredded). We also had some old favorites, like the tamarind baby back ribs, the spicy and sour mussels with okra and tomatillos, and the num pang (sandwich) tasting plate. I've been to Kampuchea enough times now to be able to say with confidence that the restaurant is serving many dishes that are on par with what the Momofukus are offering. Yet, Kampuchea still has never been reviewed in the New York Times.

I have no basis yet for agreeing or disagreeing with Frank Bruni's review, because I still haven't booked a meal in Adour's main dining room. I have, however, acquired some experience with the "Wine Library," about which he wrote: I suppose it's true that the place has "limited utility," but then again so does every restaurant in the universe. What utility the wine bar at Adour does have, however, is valuable to those who have bothered to pursue it. I doubt Frank Bruni tried very hard to get a seat at the wine bar. I've had good luck just showing up before the place opens and claiming the first available seats. Hardly a complex strategy. For example, tonight we were showing some friends from Florida around town. They wanted to do a "food crawl," and I figured Adour would be a great place to start. So we assembled in the lobby of the St. Regis at 5:20pm and the four of us stood right in front of the doors to Adour. At 5:30pm, the doors opened and we claimed the four seats at the wine bar. No problem. The woman handling the wine bar told us that the 5:30pm strategy is one of a few that people more enterprising than Frank Bruni have developed to get seats at the wine bar. Apparently there is a predictable lull right around 8pm, almost without fail. So showing up around 7:30pm and being willing to wait for a seat to open up is likely to be effective. Also, towards the end of service the wine bar's seats are, we were told, usually empty. And some folks apparently just show up and are willing to wait -- given that the wine bar's seats are often occupied by people waiting for tables in the dining room, rarely does it take more than a little while for a couple of seats to open up. Any of the above takes less time than, say, waiting the 45 minutes you often have to wait for a table at 'inoteca. Most importantly, the small amount of effort we invested in getting those four seats yielded great rewards. That little wine bar is one of the most special places in New York City. While part of me finds it infuriating that they didn't build a much larger bar, that inner voice is silent when I'm ensconced there with good friends. It's so much more exclusive than mega restaurants like the 12-seat Momofuku Ko. And the food and wine experience at the Adour wine bar is exceptional. The scallops with truffles are some of the best morsels being served anywhere, as are those little cubes of pork belly topped with blood sausage. We had a new dish last night as well: a small rectangular brick of slow-cooked, rare salmon with a citrusy nage poured by the server. We also tried the lobster-salad appetizer from the main dining room menu -- I'm not sure what the actual policy is on getting those dishes at the bar but I've seen them served to a few customers now. Wine service is getting even more engaging and attentive as the restaurant matures. Our server recommended some excellent pairings, and it seems the wines listed on the by-the-glass list are only a starting point -- they have several other bottles in reserve for by-the-glass service.

We were walking up from the Lower East Side, and as we passed Noodle Bar at around 9:30pm we saw four empty seats at the table in the way back. So we grabbed that table and never made it to Ssam Bar. I have to say, I enjoyed this meal at Noodle Bar more than my last three or four meals at Ssam Bar. I'll post about the specifics of the meal on the Noodle Bar topic, but Noodle Bar has improved in its new location with its bigger kitchen, and Ssam Bar has I think seen a slight -- very slight, but noticeable -- decline in quality over the past few months. Service at Ssam Bar has also slid, whereas at Noodle Bar it's now quite strong. The food at Noodle Bar is on the whole more rustic than at Ssam Bar, but I think if you go dish for dish and do some comparisons Noodle Bar comes out on top in several places.

This just in from George Faison, one of the owners of DeBragga.com:

Ssam Bar experts: what's the typical ebb and flow of the crowd on a weeknight like tonight? I know very early and very late are the best bets for a short wait, but let's say those aren't options. Would 8pm, 9pm or 10pm be best?

Based on flavor I concluded the same thing, however I should have the actual answer soon.

Beats me.

We recently found ourselves visiting friends down south and we wanted to cook them a nice dinner. The meat supply in Gastonia, NC, not being quite on par with that in New York City, we decided to order steaks from DeBragga.com. DeBragga's website offers a tremendous variety of steaks, not just in terms of cuts but also in terms of the various other specifications. What we finally settled on was DRY AGED HAND SELECT NEW YORK STRIP STEAKS-12OZ 4PK. The box of four steaks was US$89.95. With shipping to North Carolina the grand total came to $109.90. If you've ordered from some of the online meat purveyors, you'll find that these prices are quite good for dry-aged steaks, and the shipping is especially gentle. Given that they ship in foam coolers with gel-ice packs, and via FedEx, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they're actually losing money on shipping and handling. What I ordered are not the absolute best steaks you can get from DeBragga. There is also an option for USDA Prime dry aged. A box of four of the same size steaks (12 oz. each) would have cost $159.95 plus shipping had I ordered prime. In addition, 16 oz. strips are available. I find that a 12-ounce steak is quite enough. I don't know if the 16 oz. strips are cut thicker than the 12 oz. or if they're just butchered from the larger end of the short loin. Though it is not specified, I assume the less expensive dry-aged steaks I got were USDA Choice and very high Choice at that. In addition, though it is not mentioned on the website, the actual labels on the individual vacuum pouches that the steaks come in say that it's Certified Angus Beef. This is what the steaks look like ready to grill, after being rubbed with salt, pepper and olive oil: You can see that the marbling is excellent, much better than what I normally associate with anything less than USDA Prime. Here are the steaks after being grilled to medium rare: I was very impressed with these steaks. They had the mineral flavor of good dry-aged beef and they were tender yet firm (the best dry-aged steaks juxtapose those two seemingly contradictory attributes to reach something like the texture of a stick of cold butter). I thought they were better than what you get at all but the absolute best steakhouses. In other words, most cities don't have a steakhouse serving steaks this good, and cities like New York have a few such places but the prices are going to be quite high compared to the approximately $27 per steak you're paying with DeBragga.com. By way of comparison, I've had the steaks from Lobel's. The same size and cut would cost $156.98 plus shipping from Lobel's (that would be for Prime, the only choice with Lobel's). The Lobel's Prime steaks are slightly better than the DeBragga non-Prime, but not by a whole lot. So I think this is a situation where there are diminishing returns to going with the next level up of meat. Were I to try to improve the DeBragga steaks I got I'd dry age them longer and cut them thicker. The former would give a bit more of the flavor I look for in a dry-aged steak and the latter would probably not be possible. The geometry of cutting steaks means there's a limit to how thick you can cut a 12-ounce strip. And of course the steaks aren't thin -- you can see the photos -- but I like them even thicker! All in all, a very positive first experience with DeBragga.com.

I've read in a couple of places that the chef from Chatterbox left and opened a stall in a hawker center. If so, then surely that stall has some good chicken rice. Does anybody have the details?

A couple of recent articles about wine bars, one from the New York Times and the other from the Wall Street Journal: Eric Asimov did a piece titled "Wine Bars Grow Up and Squeeze In." It's a sweeping examination of the New York wine-bar scene, well worth reading if you're interested in this subject. In addition to discussing quite a few wine bars, Asimov reports on the economic and cultural aspects of the phenomenon. This quote from Paul Grieco of Terroir sums up the economics pretty well: Another story, in the Wall Street Journal (by the Journal's wine-columnist team) focuses on Washington, DC, but contains a lot of general observations and advice about wine bars as well. The story is here. Moderately worth reading. The wine bars story I did for Crain's is, unfortunately, not available for free online.

Well, they didn't do it at the Essex House so they won't likely do it at Benoit. At the Essex House they used the excellent blue-foot chickens as an alternative. There are a lot of good chickens available in the US, including some that are -- as I understand it -- genetically identical to Bresse chickens. But I believe the headline chicken dish at Benoit is roast chicken and frites in the style of L'Amis Louis. In my experience the Bresse chickens don't show their superiority in that sort of preparation. You need to do the Georges Blanc fricassee. That's when it might be theoretically worth schlepping an AOC chicken over from France. To get back to the creativity point, Benoit was a restaurant long before Ducasse took it over -- it opened around the turn of the century (19th to 20th, that is). Ducasse's mission at Benoit has not been to create new dishes. It has been to revive the classics of the past century. He contributes management, Ducasse-trained cooks, and technical expertise. As for the dishes from the Paris branch that Nathan listed, I think some of those are probably seasonal specials and I imagine the New York restaurant will play around with all sorts of specials and stick with whatever sells.

Scotch-Brite refers to a whole line of products, some of which are formulated to be safe for non-stick and other easily scratchable surfaces. They say "NO SCRATCH" prominently on the packaging. I'm not 100% convinced by the buildup hypothesis. I'd have to get a look at the pan. Matt, I think we're going to need photos after all.

The objections based on lack of inventiveness seem off base. It's supposed to be a classic bistro-brasserie-type restaurant. For most of the 20th Century, accomplishment in cuisine was defined as faithful execution of the classics. That has changed to some extent, but it's still the standard if you're opening a restaurant with a specific classical theme. In addition, Benoit doesn't define the Ducasse brand. It is, rather, one facet of the Ducasse brand: the facet that is supposed to be a classic bistro-brasserie-type restaurant. So the appropriate standard is: does Ducasse do this type of restaurant better than the competition, therefore justifying its higher prices?

The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters is very pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s eG Scholarships awards. Four scholarships, with a total value of $20,000, have been awarded. Kathryn McNulty of Birmingham, Alabama, USA, will receive the Matthew X. Hassett Memorial Culinary Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a pre-enrolled student, currently enrolled student or career professional toward any culinary degree or certificate program at any accredited culinary school in the world. Funding for this scholarship was provided by Jim and Dora Hassett, in loving memory of their son Matt Hassett. Matt was a beloved eGullet Society volunteer and is dearly missed. Jamie Tiampo of New York, NY, USA, will receive the Brian and Thelma Moore Memorial Culinary Journalist Independent Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a career journalist to conduct independent study and research designed to further the writing of an original and innovative culinary topic. Funding for this scholarship was provided by Marlene and Don Newell in loving memory of her brother Brian Moore and mother Thelma Moore. T. Stella Bernard of Hampton, New Hampshire, USA, will receive the eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters Professional Chef Independent Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a professional chef (culinary or pastry) to conduct independent study worldwide. Grace Young of New York, NY, USA, will receive the eGullet Society Culinary Journalist Independent Study Scholarship, a $5,000 cash scholarship for a career journalist to conduct independent study and research designed to further the writing of an original and innovative culinary topic. This year’s eG Scholarships awards were made possible by the generous support of the eGullet Society’s donors and sponsors. The overwhelming majority of the funding for this year’s eG Scholarships program came from individual Society donor member and staff contributions of $50, $100 and $250. The eGullet Society is now raising funds for next year’s eG Scholarships program. Maintaining and expanding the eG Scholarships program will only be possible, however, if those who gave last year give again and if many new donors give as well. To support the eGullet Society at the $50, $100 or $250 per year level, please sign up for a Society donor membership (note: you must already be an eGullet Society member in order to upgrade to a Society donor membership; if you are not a member please join). Society donor members receive, depending on which package they select, increased personal messenger storage allotments; increased ImageGullet storage; additional features, including personal messenger with carbon copy and attachments, unlimited searching without flood control, and priority access to new features upon release; exclusive gift items; and most importantly the knowledge that they are supporting the eG Scholarships and other program services of the eGullet Society. For higher levels of support, please contact me directly: sshaw@eGullet.org or 212.828.0133. The eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters is a 501c3 not-for-profit public charity, dedicated to increasing awareness and knowledge of the arts of cooking, eating and drinking, as well as the literature of food and drink. To administer the eG Scholarships program, the eGullet Society has partnered with the Culinary Trust, also a culinary nonprofit. The Culinary Trust processes all eG Scholarships applications, assembles a panel of independent judges (no eGullet Society staff participate in the judging, nor are they eligible for eG Scholarships awards) and handles payment of the awards. eG Scholarships. Learn. Chew. Discuss.

The Grub Street blog published lengthy comments from Hesser explaining her departure and future plans. She took the buyout that the Times offered to all its newsroom staff. She's going to start an internet company called Seawinkle that has something to do with organizing information. I thought she did a very good job as editor of the magazine's food pages -- better than she did in any other capacity at the paper. To be clear, she did not edit the newspaper's Wednesday food section (Pete Wells is the current editor there) but, rather, she was responsible for the food pages in the glossy Sunday magazine.