Schneier

There are about a zillion casoulet varients like this. They all sound tasty.

I've only been there twice, but I haven't found any clunkers on the menu. Have fun. Bruce

I like names that have nothing to do with gender: Rural - Urban Local - Express Real - Imaginary Regular - Extra-Crispy Bruce

Interesting. Bruce

I agree with you. I didn't think he's take the job. (Now the path is clear for me...) Bruce

I leave one tip and let them split it by whatever formula they have decided to use. B

There was a Starbucks around the corner of my Paresian hotel last week, on Blvd. L'Opera in the 4th. It was crowded whenever I walted by. B

The brought both together. One of us would get the menu item, and the other would get the a la carte item. Karen and I are experienced plate traders, so we managed just fine. Bruce

I can't find my notes about my Restaurant Els meal, but I it was delicious. Good service, prety restaurant--all around good place to eat. Bruce

Restaurant 1: La Reclusiere is in Condreau, south of Lyon on the Rhone. I don't know if it's in any guidebook. We went there on the recommendation of a hotel proprietor. It's a pretty and elegant restaurant, set back from the street. They also have rooms upstairs; if I go back to the Marché aux Vins I will consider staying here as well. Le persillé de pintade at foir gras de canard au vinaigre Balsamique A nice terrine of Guinea fowl and foie gras, along with a small bitter-green salad. Very tasty. Le filet de rascasse grillé sur un lit d'épinards et haricots Tarbais, jus de poisson corsé Fish filet with spinach and white beans and a delicious fish sauce. L'oie en civet au vin rouge poêlée de pommes de terre et champignons Goose in an onion and wine sauce, potatoes and mushrooms. Probably the best dish of the night. Everything tasted well together and just worked. Le plateau de fromages I like French cheese plates. All good cheeses, all the time. La poêlée de poire et raisins, compotée de poire au vin rouge at glace au marc de raisin Tart fruit and accompaniments. That menu was cheap at 44 euros, but we bought a lot of wine to go with it. The final cost was 78 euros. Restaurant 2: Maison Boire is just South of Lyon. It's too new to be rated anywhere, but the chef has a strong pedigree and comes well recommended. There were fifteen of us at this dinner, and we all had the same thing. Crème de haricots coco en cocotte aux pistaches and noisettes concassées, fines tranches d'Iberico Bellota The bean soup was good, and the nuts added. But the ham was confusing. It came as a little pile on the side of the soup. Was I supposed to add the ham to the soup? That didn't work very well. Was I supposed to eat it with the soup, after the soup? No one figured it out. Homard du Maine juste saisi, coeur d'artichauts et de laiture; émulsion froide è l'huile de truffle noire A perfect dish. Leaving the amusing notion of having imported Maine lobster in France, nothing was wrong with this dish. The lobster and artichoke hearts were delicious, and the cream and the black truffles made it all even better. Pavé de Sandre de rivière poêlé, Gâteau moelleux d'escargots de Condrieu, sauce lie de vin Côte-Rôtie Not very good. Sandre is a piece of fish, and that was fine. But the snail cake and the wine sauce didn't do very well with the rest of the dish. Suprême de perdreaux gris rôtie en cocotte, tartine de salmis et raisins au marc, châtaignes, poires et figues mijotées ensemble, jus de caffre infusé au poirve Sarawak. Disaster of the night. Perdreaux is young partridge; it took a while to figure that out. There was some kind of terrine of pears, figs, chesnuts, and bread, which just didn't work. And a sauce which we couldn't translate, but didn't work either. Le plateau de fromages Dessert was a choice of a flourless chocolate cake, which was okay, and an apple dessert, which was delicious. The apple sorbet tasted like frozen applesauce. Yum. One possible explanation of this meal was that the chef was not in the kitchen that night. But still; these are all things on their standard menu. Bruce

These two restaurants were near my hotel at Place Bellecour. Writing about Le Comptoir des Marronniers (8, rue des Maronniers, Lyon 2nd, +33 4 72 77 10 00), a French guidebook said (in French): "On a tourist street where you have to separate the sheep from the goats, this is a good choice." What do they mean by that? I know what they mean in general: separate the good from the bad. But sheep from goats? Are sheep obviously better than goats? Maybe goats are better than sheep? Are they even interchangeable? Do they both have their uses? Clearly there's some rural knowledge that I don't have. In any case, Le Comptoir des Marronniers is a nice, informal, French bistro--definitely a sheep. And it's where I had lunch today. First course: "Terrine de pot au feu a la vinaigrette d'automne et salade." It was a slice of terrine made with shredded meats, carrots, onions, and potatoes. Just like the menu said: pot au feu in terrine form. (I need to learn how to make terrines. It was served with a pile of bitter greens, and garnished with beet juice. Very tasty. Second course: "Cassolette de haricots 'come un cassoulet' au confit de canard." What's the difference between a cassoulette and a cassoulet? My waiter said it was the same thing, but my guess is that French law requires certain ingredients and preparation techniques before something can be called a cassoulet. In any case, this was very much like a cassoulet: white beans, duck confit, sausage pieces, and bread crumbs baked in a stone dish. The seasonings weren't exactly right, which is what I expect is different. Even so, it was delicious. Dessert: "Tartelette au citron meringuee <<Mere Angel>> au coulis de framboise." (I would like to know how to do accents in HTML.) Total bill, including a glass of generic Cotes du Rhone, was 26 euros. A great deal, I think. Last night I had dinner at La Tassee (20, rue de la Charite, Lyon 2nd, +33 4 72 77 79 00). I was looking for typical Lyonnais cuisine, and this one was both recommended by Michelin and close to my hotel. My first course was six cooked oysters on the half shell, served with a slice of bone marrow, and a cheese and red wine sauce. I didn't know what to expect out of this dish, but it was very tasty. The second course was a boneless leg of rabbit stuffed with foie gras and spinach. It was served in a sage and garlic sauce with potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms. Again, tasty Then came cheese. I chose a few from the cart: Pont L'Eveque, St. Marcelin, Roquefort, Comte, and a fresh sheep cheese. Dessert was a pretty pear tart, served with pear sorbet. I have nothing to complain about at either restaurant. There's an old saying that I will translate for you: "The Lyonnais eat well, but they are sad." They're said because they don't live in Paris. The more time I spend in Lyon, the more I appreciate that saying. Lyon is a nice city. It's fun to walk around in, and there are some great restaurants. But it's not Paris. Everywhere you go, it's obvious that it's not Paris. It's the first thing you notice about Lyon. It's everywhere. Some cities are their own thing, but Lyon is not Paris first; only after that is it Lyon. I would find it sad to live here. Bruce

I can't search for a string in the thread title. How do you do it? Bruce Here's how you do it: Click “Search”; click “More Options”; Search by Keywords = Ducasse; Search Where = Search titles only; click “Perform the Search.” Make sure you're searching only the New York board and search for posts on any date, not just the last 30 days. Thank you. I hoped that someone would answer that query. Bruce

I agree. I didn't find the price unreasonable, considering what we got. B

I agree; the wine pairing was a huge disappointment. But I expected the high prices (if I remember, it cost something like $125), I just expected better wines for it. I

The portions were not too large, either on the tasting menus or on the a la carte side. We were not stuffed at the end. Bruce

I can't search for a string in the thread title. How do you do it? Bruce

This is the only thread on Copenhagen in eGullet? Come on, people. I'm in Copenhagen right now. Last night I had an excellent meal at Restaurant Els. I'lll post about it in a few days. I have no idea yet where I am going to eat tonight. Bruce

I went to Benoit (in the 4th), after making and cancelling reservations at both Pierre Gagnaire and Spoon. I guess I'm a fool for tradition; Benoit is my usual first-night restaurant. I had the fish soup, served with croutons, roullade, and Parmesan cheese. And then salt- encrusted chicken. They brought it out to show me: it was a whole chicken completely encrusted in maybe half an inch of salt. The cooking technique seals in juices and flavor. I like ordering chicken in France. Chicken is so tasteless in the United States (the phrase "tastes like chicken" really means "tastes like nothing"), and this kind of dish reminds me what chicken actually tastes like. Dessert was chocolate mousse. Nothing that requires much real analysis, just good basic French cooking. And I ended up sitting next to a couple from St. Paul. On the walk home I saw my first Starbuck's in Paris. Right around the corner from my hotel. It pains me.... Bruce

I think we're close to a decision...a house in Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire: mid-July through mid-October. Bruce

I didn't find a thread for ADNY reviews, so I'm starting one. Bruce ********* Karen has wanted to go to Alain Ducasse since it opened a few years ago. I was more ambivalent: the most expensive restaurant in New York, a Paris chef with a whole lot of celebrity taking New York by storm, all sorts of silly showmanship, and initial reviews that weren’t as fantastic as they should have been. But it’s been a few years, and both the restaurant and I softened. I had a free Saturday night in New York, and Karen was coming with. So I made a reservation. In summary, it was the most fun I’ve had in a top tier restaurant in a long time. The waitstaff was charming, friendly, and personable without being overbearing. The service, even through some slow spots at the end of the meal, absolutely sparkled. They suggested that one of us order a la carte when we both ordered the tasting menu--so we could try more dishes--even though the suggestion resulted in fewer courses overall and a cheaper bill. I’m so used to restaurants that require everyone at the table to order the tasting menu that I didn’t even ask. When we asked to split a wine paring, they offered to pour it in two different glasses. We had entertaining little conversations with the staff throughout the dinner, including our query about whether “civet sauce” was really made from executed Chinese cats, and how Alain Ducasse New York compared with the Paris version. They gave us as many cheeses as we wanted, but not before informing us sadly, but with a twinkle, that we could only choose one. We got an extra dessert. We got lollypops. (Well, everyone got lollypops.) The menu wasn’t large. There was a winter tasting menu. There was a black truffle tasting menu. If you ordered a la carte, there were three appetizers, three fish dishes, and four meat/poultry dishes to choose from. And six different desserts. A bunch of years ago we ate at Alain Ducasse in Paris, and we had the black truffle menu. We also had the black and white truffle menu at the French Laundry last month. And frankly, at this point, we think truffle menus are silly, pretentious, and over-rated. So we chose the winter menu. And then three dishes from the a la carte side. And we ordered a single wine pairing to go with the winter menu. (I can’t find my notes on the amuse bouches. We had a gougere, and then something else. But I can’t remember what it was, but I remember liking it.) Winter Menu: Course 1: “Winter vegetable ‘pot-au-feu’ style.” Delicious. A pile of carrots, squash, potatoes, and (I think) turnips in a rich and flavorful sauce, with some black truffle shavings on top. A perfect dish. 2001 Domaine Ferrer-Ribiere, “L’Empreinte du Temps,” Vielles Vignes, Vin du Pays Catalan, France. Pretty wine. Good match. Course 2: “Hand made broccoli ravioli, served in a ‘gourmet clam’ jus, crushed lemon confit.” I really liked the medley of flavors, here. The ravioli was filled with what looked like egg yolk. The clam sauce had lots of little shrimp in it, and was surrounded by a lemon broccoli foam. And black pepper on top. The lemon flavor kind of got lost in the black pepper, but on reflection I think that’s a good thing. The lemon worked better as a back note. 2002 Abbazia Di Novacella, Kerner, Alto Adige, Italy. Okay wine. Light and interesting. I didn’t think it went with the food at all, though. Course 3: “Wild sturgeon cooked ‘au plat,’ grapefruit/avocado/espelette pepper balsamic reduction.” One of the best courses of the night: fish topped with alternating slices of grapefruit and avocado. It was simple, and surprising and ideal. Delicious sauce, and lots of perfectly diced carrots, onion, and avocado. There’s someone in the kitchen who can dice things into absolutely square sixteenth-of-an-inch cubes. I wonder what he gets paid? 2001 Cru, “Clone 667,” Pinot Noir, North Fork of Long Island, New York. I thought this wine was too oaky, and too strong with the fish. Course 4: “”Veal ‘Tournedos,’ melting potatoes, braised Boston lettuce, roasting jus.” What the description doesn’t say is that the Boston lettuce is stuffed with perfectly diced carrots, onions, and sweetbreads,” and then formed into perfectly round balls. Beautiful and delicious. 1998 Alion, “Ribera del Duero,” Spain. Best wine of the night. Complex but not overbearing, good match with the food. That was the tasting menu. From the a la carte side, we had three courses. Course 1: “’Vol au vent’ traditional, chicken quenelle/lobster/country ham, veloue sauce.” Think of a chicken and mushroom--several different mushrooms--stew served in a puff pastry. Very tasty, but this one had needless tableside prep. The puff pastry came on a plate, and the insides in a pot and on a portable stove. Silly, especially since the resultant dish wasn’t piping hot. In fact, if I had one complaint about the meal overall, it’s that the food didn’t come out of the kitchen as hot as I would have liked it. Course 2: “Medallions of Maine lobster, served in a civet sauce.” The sauce is an onion and wine sauce, BTW. The sauce was delicious, and a perfect accompaniment to the lobster. And it came with perfectly round balls of Swiss chard stuffed with lobster. These looked like Brussels sprouts. There’s someone in the kitchen that can make perfectly round balls out of cooked leaves. I wonder what he gets paid? Course 3: “Roasted suckling pig, tomato/Paris mushroom, spinach, truffle herb condiment.” Another beautiful and delicious dish. It was a layer cake: chopped mushrooms on the bottom, spinach in the middle, and slices of pork on top. And it came with an absolutely amazing baked apple stuffed with pig shoulder. We liked to think of it as the inversion of the classic apple-in-mouth pig. And we like a chef with a sense of humor about his food. The winter menu came with a cheese course, which we split. The waitstaff was happy to give us an extra plate, and as many cheeses as we wanted to sample. We chose several strong soft cheeses like Forme d’Ambert, Pont l’Eveque and Epoisse. Everything was delicious, though the Epoisse was just a few days short of perfectly ripe. And we both got our choice of dessert. Dessert 1: “Sliced apple cooked “tartin,” vanilla ice cream.” The tart was a standard French preparation, and very good. The ice cream was a sandwich-like square below the tart, also very good. Dessert 2: “Warm souflee of Ruby red grapefruit, sorbet and granite citrus zest.” Last year I ate dinner at Le Cirque. The person I was with ordered the grapefruit souffle, and it was delicious. This time I ordered it, and again it was delicious--a perfect souffle in citrus. It came with a scoop of grapefruit sorbet, which was just about as perfect as a sorbet could be. 2000 Bura, Plavac Mali, “Peljesac Peninsula, Croatia. Good dessert wine; nothing special. After all that (and after what felt like a too-long wait: we get antsy at the end of a long meal) we got some chocolates, and then a slice of almond tart each, and then our choice of treats from the sweets trolly. And finally, at the door, in a gift bag, a wrapped brioche to eat the next morning. It was a really good meal. Everything was perfectly prepared and perfectly presented. Nothing knocked my socks off, but nothing was a clunker, either. The wine paring wasn’t that impressive, though, and certainly not worth the price. I would definitely go back. Bruce

Number 12. Bruce ******* Dining South: Spice Thai can warm a cold night Karen Cooper and Bruce Schneier, Special to the Star Tribune Published January 21, 2004 January is the perfect time of year to enliven your taste buds and warm up with the light, flavorful and exotic cuisine of Thailand. Central to Thai cooking is a complex union of flavor provided by ginger, lemongrass, garlic, cumin, basil, mint, lime, tumeric and more. And don't forget the chilies. Thai chefs have produced some of the most astoundingly hot foods we have ever tried (and failed) to eat. Happily, Spice Thai, newly opened in Savage, is serving wonderful, aromatic food that is hot enough to warm you up but not melt you down. We love Thai soups and how they symbolize the harmonies and balances of Thai cooking. Thai food is all about balance of tastes. Tom Yum soup is a distinctive hot-and-sour soup with huge shrimps and mushrooms, seasoned with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, and galangal (similar to ginger), and mixed with the sour note of fresh lime and the sweet note of palm sugar. The combination is pungent and perfect on cold nights. None of the appetizers inspired us, but Spice Thai offers wonderful, interesting salads. The seafood salad came with shrimp, scallops and squid, seasoned with chili, lime juice, anchovy paste and cilantro. Other salads are served over greens, or are made with thin silver noodles. We recommend at least one salad for the table. Thai cooking generally uses meat as an accent rather than as the central ingredient. Curries and stir-fried dishes are meant to flavor rice. These are eaten with a spoon or fork, not chopsticks. We found that Spice Thai has modified tradition for Western, and Midwestern, tastes. There's enough meat in the entrees to satisfy Western appetites, and nothing is too spicy. Dishes can be ordered at five different spice levels. We found both mild and medium to be very bland and hot to be mildly spicy. It wasn't until we got a dish at Thai hot that some of us were impressed. With most of the entrees, you will select your preparation separate from your protein. Pad Holy Basil, for example, is sauted Thai basil, onion, garlic, chili and vegetables, and can be made with beef, chicken, pork, shrimp, squid or tofu. Closer to Minnesota's heart might be Chu Chee, which is lightly fried walleye fillet in a red curry coconut sauce. Spice Thai offers five curries. We liked the Gaeng Panang, a brown curry with coconut milk, ground peanut and kaffir lime leaves. Order with your choice of meat or tofu. Pad Thai is the national dish of Thailand. It's a rice noodle dish with egg, scallions, tofu, peanuts, lime and a distinctive sauce. Even better was the Pork Noodle dish, seasoned with garlic, sprouts, onions and a traditional Thai sauce. For dessert, order the sweet sticky rice with coconut cream and fresh mango. Or with coconut and egg custard. The sweets are a little better in Thai cookery than they are in most Asian cuisines. Karen Cooper and Bruce Schneier are constantly on the lookout for good places to eat. If you have a favorite restaurant south of the Minnesota River, please write us at diningsouth@startribune.com.

I didn't see a beet burger on the menu. But I have to admit that I didn't linger over the sandwiches section. B

Wel, we're not getting the jobs of either Jeremy Iggers or Rick Nelson...so there's no room for us in the "Taste" section. If they open up another geographical section, we'll get first crack at the restaurant column. Depending on the particular suburbs that the section will serve, we may or may not take it. And dropping town to every other week was our idea. We just didn't see enough good restaurants to review. Bruce

ACME Food and Beverage Co. 110E Main St, Carrboro, North Carolina 919-929-2263 http://www.acme-carborro.com I had one dinner in the Chapel Hill area. I did my research, and the ACME Food and Beverage Company sounded the most interesting. It was selected as one of America's 50 best neighborhood restaurants, in 2002 by Bon Appetit magazine. The menu ranges from foie gras to hamburgers, oysters Rockefeller and beef bourguignonne to "Grilled Atlantic salmon with rustic tomato-rosemary sauce, oven roasted new potatoes, and grilled radicchio." I could eat here. It wasn't crowded. (To be fair, it was Monday night at 8:30 when I got there.) The restaurant was pretty, and the waitstaff competent and friendly. I basically asked what were the most interesting things on the menu, and ordered the things that intersected my list and my waiter's list. First course was a chicken confit and fresh gnocchi salad, served hot, with shiitake mushrooms, bacon, Brussels sprouts, grape tomatoes, and parmesan cheese. Really tasty, and interesting. For a second course, I ordered "Cajun-style grilled Georgia quail over maque choix grits with spicy crawfish cream." What I got was a pair of butterflied and perfectly roasted quail over a mound of creamy and spicy and delicious grits, surrounded by the promised spicy crawfish cream sauce and sprinkled with shallots. It was excellent. Dessert: "Appalachian apple and dried bing cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream." This was good very good. Hot cobbler, cold vanilla ice cream--what's not to like? This is a good restaurant. I would gladly have it in my neighborhood. Bruce

I've been to Arpege. I'm not suire I want to go again this time. B