mikeycook

This may sound stupid but I don't really know what pork belly is........... I love all things pork, tho, so I'm game ! ← Pork belly is what a slab of bacon would be if you didn't salt or smoke it. As pork belly, it is usually braised and has a texture unlike any pork you've ever had (if done correctly it literally melts in your mouth. It has become more common at some of the better Italian restaurants in NYC. Basically it's like making bacon your main course.

I've been seriously contemplating making a pork belly dish. I feel my arteries close whenever I think about it. Also, I have been making a lot of nougat recently, which I should not be eating.

Cranberry juice. In fact, if i can get some cranberry juice concentrate I'll usually spike the juice with a little kicker. Also, lots of sparkling and still water.

As a huge fan of L'Impero (and the cookbook) and, in particular, his pastas I would give it a shot. A number of the recipes are directly from the restaurant. I had the Spaghetti with Fresh Tomato Sauce and Basil on New Year's (made with the fresh pasta) and it was excellent.

Tambaqui is a Brazilian fish which lives in the Amazon River ... it is very large and meaty .. when I taught my students about fish, I bought a National Geographic videotape on unusual fish and one of them was the Tambaqui ... it leaps out of the water during high season (for the Amazon) to bite large nuts off lowhanging foliage .. and when the natives catch them and sell them, they split the fish open and count the undigested nuts .. it becomes a contest! This is such an unusual event that, even as I relate it here, I am laughing .. who knew that I would ever have the opportunity to discuss Tambaqui outside a classroom? ← Good topic. Particularly interesting for me because I am a huge Jasper White fan (Cooking from New England and Lobster at Home are two excellent cookbooks for seafood). Definitely one of the more underrated chefs around. Doesn't exactly meet the guidelines of the topic, but he definitely helped me overcome my bias about only having lobster boiled with drawn butter or baked stuffed and over the last few years I have tried a number of great lobster recipes that surpass my love of the simple boiled lobster.

I have a reservation on the 28th and am, to say the least, dismayed at the responses (which seem fairly consistent). Out of curiousity, if I were to decide to change to somewhere else, what would people recommend? I would like a good Southeast-Asian choice, but a little more upscale (I love places like Nha Trang in Chinatown, but that's not quite the thing I am looking for). What are some viable alternatives? I am less concerned with a scene than having great Southeast-Asian food in a good setting. How about any of these? Kittichai? Cendrillon? Biltmore Room?

It France, it is called Dorade or Dorade Royale. And yes, it is excellent baked as well. And called Branzino in Italy (and many U.S. markets). Personally, I have been eating more Maine Shrimp when in season, as it works well in a number of tapas recipes. Among fish, I am buying more Black Cod and more Monkfish. Starting to buy skate more as well.

That makes complete sense and if someone's name is relatively unique, they can certainly ask if you have dined before, but if someone's name is fairly common, i.e. John Smith, how can a restaurant tell the John Smiths apart? I was just looking at the signup form for Open Table and did not that phone number was part of the registration. I am guess I would assume that this is a primary key and that they could ask for a phone number and match up, but as I recall, a lot of restaurants don't even ask me for a phone number (they just ask me to call and confirm). Is there another key that I'm not thinking of? ←

I would like to commend the author on an excellent book, one of the few that provides new insight into the restaurant dining experience. I am particularly happy with the section about becoming a regular at a place, something that I have started to do (as suggested I won't tell where), but I had a question. I have made some reservations through Open Table and some not at a particular restaurant, which I have now dined at about 5 times. I know I am starting to be known at the restaurant because I called a couple of days after my last visit to schedule my next one and they indicated they remembered me from a couple of days previous. After I thought about it, though, I realized there was no obvious way for the restaurant to know that I had dined with them a few times previously by making reservations through Open Table without me telling them, as they did not take my email address or anything other information that would make me particularly identifiable (my name, John Cook, is not exactly unique.) Am I correct in thinking that or do restaurants try to reconcile Open Table with phone reservations?

I have 2 criteria: 1. If more than 1 recipe does not work for me at all, I usually give up (bitten by the snake once, etc.) 2. If I have the book for more than a year or two and I find it and decide I still don't have any interest in cooking from it, or even reading it, I ditch it.

I, for one, would be happy if they could just find a way to keep the lobsters from dying in the tanks. I miss being able to buy lobsters in Portland and Boston where they are live and fiesty, with their tails kicking hard against their bodies when you pick them up, as opposed to the ones that look like they are awaking from a thousand-year sleep. If the activists want to talk humanity, they should look at the treatment of cows and chickens. Of course, that's easy to ignore when they come pre-wrapped in plastic. Having been born in Maine and lobster being a first love, I will buy my own traps and catch them myself before I will stop eating them (even if activists chain themselves to my boat).

Personally, I would call Fleur de Sel accurately rated. Went there for my birthday last year and the food was uniformly good, although nothing leaps to mind as being spectacular. That being said, we had the tasting menu with wine and after about the 4th item the menu was a bit of a blur. Personally, I would go to Tocqueville again (which I consider underrated) before Fleur de Sel.

I would agree with you in the sense that it would be almost impossible to underrate it (i.e. highest marks from Zagat, NYT, Michelin, etc.) My wife at here for my birthday a couple of years ago and had the tasting menu. While tasty and original, it did not make our top ten of city restaurants. I think that part of my reason for feeling this way is that I was born in Maine and raised in New England and one of the biggest draws of Le Bernardin, namely the quality and freshness of the fish, is something I have had access to all my life. While I enjoyed the tasting menu, I found that only a few of the items truly inspired me (the linguine with sea urchin was one) while several of the others, designed to showcase the taste and texture of the fish, I found less impressive. Overall I had a good experience, but I would agree that Le Bernardin is overrated given its accolades. I have been curious as to why Flay's restaurants don't get more regard. I have eaten at Mesa Grill and enjoyed it (not a top ten, but I would agree it's underrated) and it always surprises me that for all of the press Flay gets himself, his restaurants get very little.

← Here is a gentle reminder to add ONE pound to the "1/2 pounds" potatoes in the ingredients list in the Quercy recipe. It is 1 1/2 pounds in the 1983 edition but somehow got lost in 'translation.' What a bummer to happen to such a great and easy recipe! ← Glad you made mention of that. That being said, I must confess that I automatically still reach for my 1983 version unless I'm doing a new recipe.

For Christmas we went with a small plates concept and included 3 recipes from CSWF. I had done each before and they required very little prep (very helpful when making 9 dishes). They were the Potatoes in the Style of Quercy, Bacalao a-Pil-Pil, and Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce. All were well-received, but the asparagus was the biggest hit. I have made the dish about 1/2 dozen times now and it always gets a good response (especially from my taste buds). It is more than worth the price of an asparagus peeler. It's such a simple concept and people get a kick out of the fact that the peels of the asparagus make the base of the sauce. This has become on of my favorite vegetable sides to make. The book has a number of vegetable dishes that have become automatic sides, because they are both simple to make and delicious. Off the top of my head, other than the Potatoes in the Style of Quercy and the asparagus, I make the Straw Potato Cake with Braised Leeks, the Eggplant studded with Garlic, and the Celery Root Puree on a semi-regular basis as sides.

Got a bunch of cookbooks including: Scott Conant's New Italian Cooking Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing The Cook's Book La Bonne Cuisine de Madame E. Saint-Ange: The Original Companion for French Home Cooking Molto Italiano Skuse's Complete Confectionary (reissue of original) Candy (can't remember author's name, but it is from the 60s) Also got a Michelin Red Guide for New York. And my mother-in-law bought my an cobalt oval casserole from the Paul Bocuse collection. But, the best thing I got was this double-handle knife, which I will use for cutting nougat but which I believe was originally intended for cutting wheels of cheese.

I grew up in New Hampshire in the 70s and 80s where even Italian outside of spaghetti and pizza was pretty much unheard of. My list includes, in no particular order: Risotto (Lobster, Mushroom, doesn't matter -- it's all good) Polenta - Especially the creamy variety with wild mushrooms Bagels - Reason #1 why I can never leave NYC Coq au Vin Pot au Feu Cassoulet Jambalaya Gumbo Paella Pelmeni Pho Smoked Salmon and Caviar on warm Blini Almost all Italian sauces other than bolognese, marinara and alfredo I'll stop there. It probably would be easier to list my childhood comfort foods.

Sorry I didn't respond sooner, but I headed up to our house immediately after posting this and didn't have internet access. The small plates dinner was a somewhat collective effort. We had 11 guests. I made 6 dishes (1 with my wife), my mother made 2, and my wife and her mother made 1. I tried to pick wines that would cover the breadth of the dishes (we also had 2 desserts, one made by me -- chocolate souffle -- and one by my wife's uncle (Christmas pudding): - Pork Loin w/Fig Sauce - Braised Quail - Bacalao a-Pil-Pil - Lobster and Corn Chowder - Short Ribs w/Egg Noodles (Mom) - Macaroni and Cheese (Mom) - Asparagus w/Asparagus Sauce - Potatoes in the Style of Quercy - Sweet Yams (wife & MIL) All of the dishes came out well with the exception of the Bacalao, which I believe was the result of the quality of the cod filet (for some reason they salted the cod on the bone, but the best parts of the filets had been removed -- something I realized after I completed de-salting -- and I would have been better off with salted boneless filets of hake or pollock.) Oh well, too much food anyway. In any case, we actually only finished off 3 of the bottles at the meal and I drank a fourth nearly by myself. The two Kistlers are still up at the house awaiting another meal. 2003 DuMol Finn - Very drinkable now. This seemed less tannic than a lot of the Russian River pinots and less that the 2002 Finn. If I hadn't known, I might have thought it was a Carneros. The fruit flavor is very pure and this was a lovely wine to drink. Excellent accompaniment to the quail. 1996 Arrowood Syrah Sara Lee's Vineyard - This syrah is fully mature with little tannin and a pure blackberry flavor. Had another bottle a few years ago and the few extra years benefited it immensely (still too tannic the last time). Perfect compliment to the pork. 1993 Silver Oak Alexander Valley - I have had this wine many times and, while not the greatest vintage for Silver Oak, this wine has been consistently pleasing and popular whenever I have served it. Worked very well with the short ribs. 1994 M. Chapoutier Cote Rotie La Mordoree - To be honest, I have a lot more experience with Hermitage than Cote Rotie, but being a huge syrah fan I have been trying to buy some more. I purchased this wine at auction and, after the dust settled and everyone left, I sat down and drank most of this bottle myself. The wine is extremely harmonious, with blackberry, smoke, and meat flavors and a beautiful aroma. The balance of this wine is excellent and it is fully mature. In fact, drinking it transported me back to vacations in the Rhone. To me, this was the best wine of the bunch and I am thrilled to have been able to drink so much of it myself.

I have now made the Torres recipe a number of times and it has been successful every time once I got the temperatures right, except that it still will sink slightly if left at room temperature. I am thinking about increasing the ratio of sugar syrup relative to the honey by a little, but don't want to do it so much as to drastically alter the texture or reduce the honey flavor, both of which are excellent. One of the things I have changed from the Torres recipe is the roasting of the nuts. I have found that roasting the nuts at a lower temperature for longer helps me avoid overcooking them, while allowing them to become fully roasted. I roast at 250 degrees (20 min for the pistachios and 40 minutes for the almonds), then toss them in a large bowl as quickly as possible so they cool down.

docsconz, Not to get off on a tangent too much, but I notice when people speak of the avant-garde chefs, they refer to Adria (of course), Achatz, and Dufresne (and sometimes Jose Andres), but I rarely hear Gagnaire or Blumenthal included in the list. Are they considered to be part of the avant-garde movement as the others?

I don't want you to think I didn't enjoy my meal at WD-50, because I did. However, while a few of the dishes stuck me as truly tasty (the pickled beef tongue, the pork belly), some, such as the corned duck, left my wanting. To me the corned duck is a play on a corned beef sandwich, but it does not really stretch the metaphor too much. And it basically tastes like a corned beef sandwich, with few differences from the original IMHO. That being said, perhaps my choice of dishes was to blame for my less than stellar experience and I certainly plan to go back (the foie gras with candied olives seems right up my alley). However, I think the real issue of overrated vs. underrated is one of expectations. Wylie Dufresne gets a lot of press and attention (not just on eGullet, but in national publications). Before I went, I had read numerous articles on him, spoken to friends who had eaten there, and read the available posts on eGullet. I would say that I went in with very high expectations. Maybe I was asking to much by expecting El Bulli in NY (not exactly, but the best metaphor I can come up with) and maybe that contributed to my feeling that the place is overrated (and, to be clear, I mean overrated. Not bad, merely not great.) I think that this definition of overrated explains why people who have never been to Per Se can call it overrated. They are saturated with information on Per Se and Keller and have come to believe (perhaps rightly, perhaps wrongly) that it cannot possibly live up to expectations. With L'Impero by contrast, even though I knew it had 3 stars from the NY times and had gotten good reviews on eGullet, it was a restaurant that no one I knew had been to and I couldn't have named the chef if given a list of possible names. We tried it purely on a hunch and went in with relatively low expectations which were quickly exceeded. Everyone I have taken with me since has loved it and wondered why they hadn't heard of it before. I consider it underrated even today because so few people outside of eGullet seem to know about it and even fewer have been.

Completely agree with the assessments. Got a copy for Christmas (per my request) and I love it.

I went to Fleur de Sel about a year ago and had an excellent experience. I would probably give it 2 stars (out of 4). We had the 6 course tasting menu with wine. I would not call it one of my best dining experience, probably somewhere in the middle among top places. Our service was not impeccable, but certainly a lot better than Syre received.

I can see if you feel eGulleteers have overrated L'Impero (I am probably one of them), but I think it's impossible to call it overrated in general, because no one outside of eGullet seems to have heard of it or been. I have mentioned it to a lot of people who dine out frequently in the city and are familiar with most of the top places, but it's still a restaurant a lot of people have not tried. I will agree with Bux that it's all about the food at L'Impero, as the service could be better (it is ok, but not "invisible" as it should be). Not only do I think L'Impero is underrated as a restaurant, but I think that Scott Conant is one of most (if not the most) underrated chefs in the city. By contrast, I went to WD-50 recently and believe it to be overrated. I certainly respect the creativity and it is a meal that I appreciated on an intellectual level, but from a pure taste point of view, I felt it left a lot to be desired. Wylie Dufresne gets a lot of props, from eGulleteers and others, and I feel it has more to do with the fact that his cuisine is cutting edge than with how good it tastes. Even those who praise WD-50 seem to prefer most of the other top avant-garde restaurants in other cities over it (i.e. El Bulli, Alinea, Trio, etc.) That being said, I do appreciate how active Wylie is in his own kitchen. It is interesting to watch him work while waiting for your food.

I've never tried with turkey liver, but can it be seared like a slice of foie gras, maybe with some prunes soaked in Madiera and flamed and tossed with the fat that comes out of the liver?