markk
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Posts posted by markk
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Though I haven't been in over a year, I have had many enjoyable meals at Coq au Vin in the past. It's traditional French food, not innovative in any way, but it always used to be quite good. If you're there for two months, you might want to check it out. It's small and charming.
And I would suggest that you not overlook the Orlando branch of Texas de Brazil for a very enjoyable meal (despite the horrendous upsell that sometimes happens at their restaurants). And speaking of horrendous upsell, you can get utterly delicious steaks at Vito's Chop House and Charley's Steakhouse (same owner), though, as it was commented on another Orlando dining website, many people use the wording "we left in tears" to describe the experience; but if you go in forewarned and don't pay any attention to it, you can get a magnificent steak at either place. And since Orlando once used to be famous cattle country, it's an authentic experience, perhaps wiser than looking for water in the desert.
It is possible to get good food at the Emeril's there, but it's hit and miss. You will get a tasting menu. You might ask if Chef Bernard (the Culinary Director of the group) is going to be there if and when you think of going. That will definitely increase your chances of a very good meal. You won't get molecular or highly innovative, but if he's on the premises, you may get a deliciously executed tasting menu.
I know you're looking for innovative, but I really don't think you're going to get it. In fact, I think you'll be lucky if you just get good really good food.
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I spend a couple of weeks each year in Orlando, and I don't think that you're going to find what you're looking for.
A comprehnsive list of restaurants (with reviews) can be found at the Orland Sentinel's Dining section.
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When I took "cooking", we were taught to be mindful of things that can catch on fire when you bend over a stove. I assume that's why you'd put your long hair up in a kitchen with gas burners. (Also, no undone shirt cuffs, sweaters with baggy arms and cuffs, etc.)
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Now I'm having trouble picturing it. How long is it?
Would you be able to jury-rig the means to steam it on a platter with soy sauce, ginger, and scallions? Perhaps get two stockpots boiling, put the platter on top of them, and tent the whole mechanism in silver foil?
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Although I'm somewhat hesitant to rekindle this discussion, it occurs to me that eGullet has been recognized as a significant resource in the food and dining world, and will someday probably occupy an imporant historical place in it, and I wanted to correct an erroneous, categorigal statement that was posted earlier in the thread, namely:
"A wine corkage fee exists to allow a customer to bring a special wine, not to bring what they like, because they don't like what's on your list."
Let history note that this statement is untrue. The wine corkage fee exists (when it is offered) to allow customers to bring any wine that they choose to bring. (Many restaurants stipulate that you may not bring a wine that's on their list, though others allow it but offer a lesser fee if you bring a wine that is not. And of course some don't offer one at all.)
However, any other interpretation of a 'corkage fee' is simply personal conjecture.
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Oooh! Really nice Pesto lasagna, and confit mushrooms pizza, and can I have a copy of the chicken skin photo for my wall?
For Valentine's dinner, I made Moulard duck breast, white beans with garlic sausage, fresh thyme, and tomato, and duck confit.
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Similarly, Hungry Hunter's Steakhouse on the westcoast... This was 30 years ago and I loved it
I was about to ask "Can I have been to a Hungry Hunter in San Diego in 1994, or am I confusing it with something else?" and then I googled, and it's there, now called Hunter's Steakhouse, part of a chain that owns Hungry Hunter, Mountan Jack's Steakhouse, The Cliff House, Carvers Steaks & Chops, and The Whaling Company.
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This is part of a seeming trend to call things which have perfectly serviceable English names by foreign ones. Other examples: arugula (rocket), cilantro (coriander).
And we refer to French Cuisine, when of course we mean the French Kitchen (cuisine fr. = kitchen eng.), though we do say the American Kitchen when we refer to the collective American cooking, and French people are saying exactly the same. (I know, O.T.)
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Casual Thai is owned by the same owners as Hoboken Cottage, Precious, Robongi (and for a brief stint, Iluzion).
Though they don't own all those any more, those places are all characterized by overly sweet, highly 'yuppified' food. (I didn't mean that to be offensive to anyone. It's not just "Americanized", as is standardly applied to "Chinese" food, but somehow "yuppified"; to me, it's all sugar-sweet slop that's served in tiny portions and plated to look like it came from a starred chef.)
I haven't had Casual Thai in a few years for that reason, and perhaps it has changed.
Sri Thai is much better on some nights, but still doesn't hold a candle to Wondee in Hackensack.
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My experiences at Babbo have been about a "star" better on a weeknight than on a weekend.
The meal I posted about was on a weeknight. Oy.
The fact that the menu hasn't changed substantially in quite a while may well have inspired the kitchen to phone-it-in. It shouln't be that way in such a place, though. In a three star restaurant, the dishes should come out twinkling every time.
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Just to add something--
depending on the law in your state -- it is is many places illegal to bring your own bottle if an establishment has a liquor license-- and if a restaurant allows you to do so, the corkage fee often times makes it "legal". Check before you go.
Not applicable to this incident. That is to say, when Sneakeater raised that possibility three weeks ago, I wrote to the Florida ABC and learned that this is not the case in Florida. Had it been applicable, it certainly would've ended my 'puzzlement' and laid this to rest for me.
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And if you don't want to leave home, http://www.duckeggs.com/
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Nevertheless, I've been surprised that the 2nd fee wasnt waived, for reasons other than the volume consumed from that second bottle, which despite the answer, still seems irrelevant to me. The large meals and frequent patronage seem to me to be much more the reason to be gracious.
Well, I've forced myself to think about your question. I suppose when pressed to verbalize my gut reaction, I guess I was thinking that if the restaurant sees the corkage fee as replacing the profit it would have made on the sale of a bottle, they might presume that since I only wanted a little bit from a second bottle, I wouldn't have ordered one if I were buying them off the list (they're way more than $15 by the way). So it's that, combined heavily with the reason you give, that would make me think that a gracious restaurateur wouldn't stand on the technicality and charge a second fee.
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I ate there in mid-October '06 with some friends. It was the arrival of white truffles, and we had what would amounts to the pasta tasting menu, augmented with many additional pasta courses. In fact, here's what we had:
Fettucine with Fresh White Truffles
Black Tagliatelle with Parsnips and Pancetta
Pumpkin "Lune" with Sage and Amaretti
Garganelli with "Funghi Trifolati"
Fernando's Pyramids with "Passato di Pomodoro"
Pappardelle Bolognese
Beef Cheek Ravioli with Crushed Squab Liver and Black Truffles
Though we had a great time, and the service was perfect (although as many of the pastas arrived, we had to wait a few minutes for the cheese and grater to arrive and offer), more of the dishes tasted "phoned-in" than spectacular. The white truffles were thoroughly disappointing, and their pasta disconnected and dull. In particular, the Pyramids and the Bolgnese could actually have been served on an airplane by somebody heating the pastas and sauces and combining them. (And all four people left some of both dishes on their plates uneaten.) Only the Pumpkin Lune had any vibrancy, or sparkle. Everything else was lifeless and the pastas totally disconnected from their sauces. I think "phoned-in" describes it best. I've had these when everything sparkled.
We had many (many) bottles of very delicious and extremely reasonable wines that were suggested to us by a wonderful sommelier, and as I say we all had a great experience. Except for the disappointing food.
There were many desserts, all thoroughly enjoyable.
I hadn't posted about the meal then, but since you're asking...
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I'm just starting the process of learning to cook, but how can I cook something if I don't know how its supposed to taste like. I can make scrambled eggs, but they're probably too dry because I'm not sure what proper scrambeled eggs are supposed to taste like. When a recipe says to season to taste, I have no idea how its supposed to taste. I'm looking for some suggestions or recommendations where I can go eat to taste in the OC/LA region, places where I can find perfectly cooked scrambled eggs, medium rare steak that's seared the right amount, al dente pasta that's the right consistency, fish that's cooked where the meat flakes off, etc.. I'm not looking for anything too fancy, just the basics that will help my home cooking skills.
Bear in mind that these revelations don't come easy to people.
Lots of us didn't know what properly cooked al-dente pasta tasted like until we went to Italy for the first time and the light bulb went off in our heads and we realized "Ah, that's what they talk about!"
I understand your frustration, but this may not be as easy or quick as you think. Well, if you were to take a good cooking class, in addition to learning skills you don't care about, you might come closer to some of your answers. Otherwise, you may just have to work on it. For example, read up on the theory and techniques of scrambled eggs. One day, make a batch that's cooked for the median time. Another day, cook a batch for the longest time they suggest, and on another day, cook a batch that's at the shortest cooking time you see. The next day cook one that's even shorter (on the theory that eggs keep cooking for a minute after you plate them). Then, in all those four, see if your question isn't answered. If the really loose ones don't appeal to you more than the firm ones, it's a moot point anyway.
You could do the same thing with a "good" brand of pasta. Cook one batch to the maximum time suggested, and another a minute more, another a minute less. Then cook more batches towards the low end of the timing - one just at the lowest time, one a minute more, one a minute less.
Sure, this takes time and ingredients, but these aren't things you're going to learn quickly or easily. And then try it with fish.
People in life take a long time to realize these things. Even people in serious cooking schools take years to learn this stuff. There's really no magic bullet. But trial and error yourself may just be a lot more rewarding than chasing around to restaurants in the hopes that the time you go there, a textbook-perfect example of a particular dish will come to your table.
How will you know that you got the right one? You'll have to compare what you're eating with all the descriptions of how it's supposed to be. If the light bulb doesn't go off, and the al-dente pasta or the runny egg doesn't appeal to you more than the ones you're used to, it's not going to make a difference anyway then.
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I read the first post. Several times. I understand why you asked your question. My question is - why does it matter to your question whether you drink 1/2 a glass out of it, or the entire second bottle?
Its obvious very clear, and a key part of your question, to you - because you repeat it in many of your posts. But its not clear to me. I'd appreciate an explanation in words of one syllable, because I dont get it. I'm not arguing with you by asking a rhetorical question. I simply do not understand why you, Markk, think that is relevant.
This is how it appears to me: When that second bottle is opened, the restaurant staff still need to pull the cork (and provide clean glasses, but as you note elsewhere, they dont. Even if you change kinds of wine?! )
The question is about hospitality and graciousness. A restaurant has the option of charging a corkage fee. That represents their loss of the margin on a bottle of wine in stock. When a patron -- and a regular at that -- opens a second bottle of wine, the house has lost nothing. The patron who prefers his or her own wine to the house list isn't going to have a last minute change of heart and order a house wine. And if that patron only has a glass or two from that bottle and sends the rest back to the kitchen in a gesture of good will, then the host has the option of a) being a good host and foregoing the second corkage fee or b) being an insensitive host and scrounging everything he or she can from the obviously unvalued customer.
The argument about glassware is asinine. If I have water throughout dinner and order coffee with my dessert, should the house charge me $15 dollars because I have added to their dishwashing costs? No. Nor are a waiter's time and the rental fees on a double kicker wine pull worth a second corkage fee. It is gouging pure and simple. Technically defensible, but only to a host who doesn't value his or her customers.
Chad
Edited to Add: Markk, the question you have been very gently working your way around is, "Was I treated badly?" You have been very circumspect and non-judgmental in what you have posted. The answer is yes, you were treated badly. You deserved better. You didn't ask for any special treatment, but given your regular patronage, it is completely understandable that you might feel -- well, I can't presume to know how you felt. I can tell you that I would feel puzzled and frankly a little hurt/offended/indignant that I was so little valued. I certainly wouldn't be going back anytime soon.
I'm glad you posted that.
How I felt, frankly, was "puzzled", more and more each time it happened.
I really am intrigued by the complexities of hospitality.
I have been comped for no reason (as I explained in that post), and I was highly intrigued, and still puzzled by that one.
I've been in other situations where I've been comped when three of us showed up late at a restaurant for some very expensive desserts and a lot of wine, and though I have my own very eleborate theories, it's always been something that's intrigued me.
This was the opposite, and it inrigued me as well. I've known restaurant owners who are incredibly charming and gracious, and aside from that they are really nice, loving people, I think there's an art to it as well, to wit the many legendary front of house people in the restaurant industry. Again, this place proved with time that they were the opposite.
Of course, as it was fifteen dollars, I wasn't going to get upset over that, especially on vacation. At that price, it really was was just the idea of it. The reason I wasn't judgmental is that I knew that on a technicality (as some people have pointed out), they were right. Of course, what this was about, and you sensed it correctly, is that I don't feel that things having to do with hospitality are necessarily black and white.
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we do have some nz and australian wines on our wine list as well as the wines of nicolas joly, weinbach, rossignol trapet aong many others because we are not narrow minded.
thanks for worrying about our markup but we know what it should be to both stay in business and thrive AND attract a happy crowd of patrons because of our fair prices.
ask your dry cleaner if you can use your own chemicals in his/her machine next time you want to clean your suit and email methe answer...
Well, that's a silly analogy. Corkage Fees, when restaurants elect to have them, are a very standard thing in the restaurant business. I only questioned the bragging about an eighty-dollar one, on a thread that wasn't even about that. And I assumed that it'd be equal to the standard markup on a bottle of wine in the restaurant, more or less. Perhaps I'm wrong. Anyway, this thread concerned a restaurant that has a 12 bottle list, and by nobody's standards a good one, and it wasn't questioning the amount of a corkage fee at all.
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I like butter plus apricot jam, topped with a slice of prosciutto, though that technically may be outside of what you're asking.
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I read the first post. Several times. I understand why you asked your question. My question is - why does it matter to your question whether you drink 1/2 a glass out of it, or the entire second bottle?
Its obvious very clear, and a key part of your question, to you - because you repeat it in many of your posts. But its not clear to me. I'd appreciate an explanation in words of one syllable, because I dont get it. I'm not arguing with you by asking a rhetorical question. I simply do not understand why you, Markk, think that is relevant.
This is how it appears to me: When that second bottle is opened, the restaurant staff still need to pull the cork (and provide clean glasses, but as you note elsewhere, they dont. Even if you change kinds of wine?! )
It would be a nice gesture (sorry for the second syllable there). I mean to say "gracious" gesture, as many people have called it, but I had been trying to see if I could stick to one-syllable words.) If I ran a place and a client had one glass of wine from his second(
) bottle, I would not charge another fee. As I say, I'm always intrigued by the fine points of restaurant hospitality. I would feel funny if I charged a fee in that situation. It seems really pedantic to me, and it always struck me as strange. (But then, so am I.) 
And as I said, we certainly didn't stop opening second bottles for one glass and paying the second fee, and this didn't keep us from going back. But in so many situations, the restaurant lacked grace, as I've described above and its charm faded as we found more enjoyable places (none of which involved corkage fees, btw, because they had great wines).
I'm not sure that I was able to answer your question, though, and you and I may differ on our perception of this still. That's okay with me - I didn't mean that to be nasty, I'm just saying that I don't feel that people have to agree with me on this. It was a curious situation, and I enjoyed hearing all the feedback.
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I'm looking for a place to have a nice dinner within 10 or so blocks (negotiable) of going to The Met. Any current suggestions? Price isn't a factor, in that I don't need to specify 'cheap', but we don't want to go to Picholine that early. Will I do any better than Telepan? Any current favorites? We usually do Nice Matin, but we're looking to try someplace new. Thanks.
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Would anybody be kind enough to bring me up to speed on this restaurant? I know I've read "buzz" about it and Bill Telepan recently, but I can't remember what it was. Many thanks.
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I'll buy those answers. I was just asking. As long as nobody is advocating selling an item containing trans-fats by passing it off as not, then I'm okay.
What makes me ask this is restaurants that get a request for a cup of decaffeinated coffee after they've served the last cup and the pot is empty, and they don't want to brew a whole new pot at that late hour, so they serve the customer caffeinated coffee, justifying it by thinking "he's had a few glasses of wine, he'll never notice the caffeine". I've witnessed that several times. "The customer will never know" and "he doesn't need to know the economics of brewing a whole new pot that'll go to waste for just his one cup".
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And in fact it might be fun for Bryan to go here and check out the "La Carte" link at the top of the page (not the Cafe menu at the bottom):
and here"
Mmm!
Is this what he's looking for one night? This is food he won't get in the States.
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If I thought that D'Chez Eux, A Sousceyrac, and Thoumieux were still what they used to be, I'd suggest that he go to one of those in a heartbeat! I just didn't want it to be the case that that kind of food had fallen out of favor, and that they were sold to people who don't have the same standards, or something (which I doubt), but you never know.
As far as the comment "I think you're getting too much info and are suffering from info overload", yes that's true, but also no, that's not a bad thing. Personally, I'm obsessive about researching trips in advance. I get ahold of the menu of every restaurant I'm considering, etc, and I go so far as to make reservations for every meal... but, it works out that I usually don't keep them, and wind up just following my nose and my instincts anyway, except that at that point I'm working from a very informed level. We chuckle here when we look at all the trip calendars and the penciled-in, carefully researched reservations which didn't get followed at all once we got to where we were going. Still, it's good to go in having done your research, and it can absoultely enhance the pleasure of the trip. It takes away some of the feeling of "overwhelm" when you get to a new place, and gives you a bit of a sense of perspective for first-time exploration, I find.
Smoking Coffee Beans in Pipe
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
How is it that we (Mankind) have come to know to roast coffee beans, grind them up, and use boiling water to extract their essence and drink the liquid, but we know to dry tobacco leaves, burn them rolled up in paper, and inhale the smoke? Why aren't we putting the coffee beans in a pipe and smoking them, and brewing tobacco leaves in a percolator? It can't be random.
For that matter, how did we discover in the first place that coffee contains a stimulating substance (that works best when you drink the brewed liquid of the roasted bean), and tobacco contains a calming one (that works best when you inhale the smoke)?
I have wondered this all my life. One friend once told me "trial and error", but that doesn't come close to answering it. That would imply that our ancestors took everything that grows, and experimentally ate it whole, ground it and brewed it, smoked it, etc. and kept mental notes on what effect each item had and which method worked best for delivering its substance. At some point did we roast/grind/brew/drink and dry/smoke/inhale everything on the planet? Does this mean that we applied those methods to cashew nuts, celery, grass, peaches, and said "nah, nothing from brewing or smoking them, let's keep going to see what other things will give us mind-altering properties", and eventually just settled on just brewed coffee beans and inhaled burning tobacco as major players in our daily lives?