Alex

The one and only French restaurant just closed after 25 years. The chef owner (michel) has packed up and returned to France - I am relatively new to Windsor so I am indeed sad about the void now left. The only good thing about him closing shop was that I inherited his remaining stock of duck fat (due to my continuing praise of his confit de canard) Sorry, weaver, that you weren't able to get more specific info. I'm fairly new to eG and just saw your post today. I haven't lived in the Detroit area for about 15 years, but I do go back there from time to time to visit my chiropractor and spend time with an old friend. The Windsor dining scene has always been a major draw. As far as Italian restaurants go, I remember LaGuardia fondly, but it's been a while... As for French restaurants -- gourmande, it looks like La Cuisine is still in business. maggiethecat, I'm an immense fan of Mason Girardot Alan Manor and highly recommend it for your next trip across the border. The Mini Restaurant has great Vietnamese food. Here's the Detroit Free Press guide to Windsor restaurants.

Rich, it sounds like you're from the Philly area. Is Bell's sold by you? (I'm in Grand Rapids, MI.) Bell's Oberon is a great summer brew. I usually drink it after a game, on tap at my most-frequented softball bar. It's $9.50 a pitcher -- twice as much as, but infinitely better than, the Coors Light inexplicably preferred by the rest of my normally rational team.

I've also found a second KitchenAid bowl to be very useful. You can get them on eBay all the time; just make sure you get the right size for the mixer. I also use my seven-speed KitchenAid hand mixer for jobs that are too small for its big sibling. If you can find one at a big discount I'd recommend it. $250 sounds like a really good deal.

Good luck with your new food quests. One request: If you see that t-shirt again, could you beg, borrow, or steal it and send it to me?

Two very good fruity summer whites, both about $8: 2001 Picpoul de Pinet Coteaux de Languedoc 2002 Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc/Viognier Spanish reds are a terrific bargain now. I'm fond of the tempranillo-based Gotim Bru. Looks like I'm going to have find that Casa Castillo. I emphatically second the Chateau Pesquie.

I was hoping for some more suggestions based on personal experience, not merely a listing of restaurants. The Bridgestreet Cafe looks cute, but it is 32 miles from Asheville and I doubt we will want to drive that far seeing as we will have been hiking all day. Oops. Sorry. I've enjoyed Bistro 1896. It's downtown right on Pack Square.

Check out this. And this. And this.

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, in The Splendid Table, has the easiest recipe for polenta I've seen -- no major stirring, and just as good as the stirred variety. She recommends a cornmeal/water ratio of 1:3. I've found that that produces a very thick mush; 1:4 works better for me. Maybe it depends on the cornmeal. Use 1 cup cornmeal, 4 cups boiling water, and ½ teaspoon salt. Get a double boiler situation set up. Put the salt and water in the top part of the boiler. Gradually whisk in the cornmeal. Cook, covered, for about 1½ hours, stirring a few times. (She recommends a rubber spatula to take care of the stickies.) To serve by itself as the luscious mush, stir in unsalted butter, grated parm-reg or dry jack cheese, and/or truffle oil and eat tout suite. It's heaven with fresh corn kernels added for the last five minutes or so of cooking. I love it as a base for ratatouille (Cook's Illustrated recipe) and goat cheese, whether mushy or fried. By far the best polenta I've ever made was with cornmeal from Zingerman's.

I haven't seen the new national edition yet, but I suspect you're referring to Bern's in Tampa, one of the best steak houses in the country. It has an immense wine list and perfect steaks. (See David Rosengarten's new book.) Maybe it isn't quite 3rd in DC, but does anyone have any thoughts about Yanyu?

5 blocks! Quel wimps! Chicago is a wonderful place for a vacation. I live just a 3-hour drive/4-hour train ride away but still don't get there nearly as much as I'd like. Summer is especially wonderful, with outdoor concerts, dancing, etc. There often are good air fares, both regular and weekend "e-savers," from Newark and Philadelphia. I was tickled to read a post from someone who knows, and knows how to use, "enervated." (Imho, it's one of English's great underused words.) Hope you have a great time. Keep us posted (literally!) on how it went, ok?

Unfortunately, Frontera Grill/Topolobampo is not open on Sunday or Monday. Any chance of talking your meeting companions into going there on Tuesday? I emphatically second Carema's recommendation of Cafe Spiaggia (for lunch or diner).

If you're ever in Grand Rapids, MI (maybe during the next power grid failure ) you're welcome to join MatthewB (I assume -- I haven't asked him) and me for an A- malted at Bud's Hamburg, a little roadside shack that's stuck in a 50s time warp.

No blackout in GR -- Lansing was affected, though.

Yes to all the dates. Speaking of Hillary, I can't wait to see what happens on The Daily Show tonight.

Amen to Frontera Grill. There's a nice little bar, but the food is the main attraction. Ditto Brasserie Jo, also a short walk from HOB. Sorry, no useful info re Bin 36's specialities (although the melon and Serrano ham salad with roasted pistachios looks pretty appealing). I'm just an occasional tourist, though. I'm sure some of the Chicagoland residents or more frequent visitors to Chicago will have more and better info than I. I also suggest checking out this web guide.

Any weekend is fine; we have no travel plans until at least November.

For convenience, it's hard to beat Bin 36, on Dearborn right next to the hotel. The $10 wine flights on Sunday and Monday are a great deal.

I just tried Spring Restaurant's web site and got a screen saying I needed a user name and password. Does anyone know what gives?

To be honest, the carrot in that photograph is just a prop. I have yet to gain any sort of expertise at all with the wrist-fulcrum method. However, to answer your question:- the folks i have observed using it (with great skill and success, by the way - it's lightning fast when done right) don't seem to reach for a thinner knife, they just whack away with the same knives you see pictured in the lesson. I think the wrist fulcrum technique is one that can only be mastered after hundreds of hours doing prep, probably in a commercial kitchen. ...or in one's own kitchen, before one realized that there might be more than one way to skin (and dice) a vegetable. I now split my time between the two: wrist-fulcrum for carrots and the like, and tip-fulcrum for mincing and fine dicing. (Tip-fulcrum looks and feels cooler, too. )

Thanks, Matthew. Dave Russo is another hidden treasure. I've found that Chi-GR on Amtrak isn't bad at all -- polite passengers, clean, and usually relatively on time. There's a 10% AAA discount. BYO food, though; there's not much worth purchasing on the train.

Hi everyone. I'm new to eGullet as of yesterday. I'm thrilled...no, ecstatic...no, delirious beyond reason to hook up with other foodies and especially with those in my adopted home town of GR. For a few years back in the 90s I was the restaurant/food writer for On-The-Town, before I tired of the measly free-lance compensation and before they started doing puff-piece reviews just like the Press and GR Mag. Please count me in for this gathering. Either weekend would be ok, but I'd vote for the 3rd, simply because of the higher probability of good weather. Might I suggest Raffaela's by Pagano's for the Friday night dinner? It features a very personable CIA-trained chef (who also is a friend of mine -- we transplanted NY'ers have to stick together), excellent food, and a private room if we have enough people. Ann and I would be willing to put up a single person or a couple at our house for the weekend. -Richard-

181. 182 if you count all of the annual bound editions of Cook's Illustrated as one book. 183 if you count My Year of Meats. I think I'll stop buying at 200. (Yeah, right.)

Hello, everyone. This is my first post at eGullet. Glad to be here. As a transplanted NYer who has been living in Michigan for quite some time now (and who still fondly remembers H & H), I homed right in on this thread. I still get a kick out of how passionate many people (including me) get about bagels. For about seven years I was the restaurant critic and food writer for arts and entertainment newspapers in Detroit and Grand Rapids. By far the most critical mail I received (in fact, the most mail, period) was in response to a bagel taste-off that I organized. The criteria, much like bloviatrix's, were taste/smell, texture, and appearance. The panel included a local rabbi, a very experienced Jewish baker, a CIA grad who worked in a bagel shop in The Bronx as a teenager, and an acquaintance who grew up a few blocks from me in Queens. All the bagels were fresh that morning and were tasted blind. To my delight, the bagel from my favorite shop -- the only one approximating a NY bagel -- finished a clear first. Predictably, they're no longer in business. Most of the critical letters said that native Chicagoans didn't care for chewy bagels (if I remember correctly, they preferred big and squishy) and accused me of being a NYC chauvinist. Guilty as charged, I guess.