markk

It's a very extensive wine list, by the way. (Two dining secrets there: they have a new cut of meat which they call the "whole sirloin", very different from their "top sirloin", and they don't always parade it around, but you can request it, and it's quite delicious. Also, they do have horseradish which they can serve you from the kitchen, which goes very nicely with some of the meats.)

I actually eat at the Texas de Brazil in Miami all the time, most recently three times in September during my last trip down there. It's a most enjoyable place. They have quite a number of red wines by the glass, and they will be very happy to let you taste each of them. That's probably a great way to start, to see what direction you want to go in, and of course, you can stick with glasses (they're quite generous), or each person can have glasses of the wine he or she prefers; or, the taste of the various wines could steer you toward the kind of wine you might want by the bottle. A lot of the servers there tend to push the much more expensive bottles somewhat aggressively, a practice I really dislike, but there's a new Wine Director as of this past September, who is really knowledgeable and really nice - but I forgot his name. Still, I think that if you start by tasting the many glass wines and discuss what you like about them with the wine person who is on, you should do fine.

I should search for the appropriate thread, but last night I saw an episode of Gourmet's Diary of an Epicure, a visit to a family in Rome for a "Home Cooking" meal, and a visit to the kitchen of a B&B kitchen in the countryside way south of Rome (with some fabulous foods being cooked) - what a difference in shows! In this episode, the program host, an American food writer, spoke Italian and could translate what the people were saying and converse with them directly, and it was a different universe from "Local Flavor" altogether, and a very intelligent, interesting show!

DITTO.

Most frozen food scares me. I wish I weren't that way, but I am. I do make Golden's frozen Potato Pancakes, though. And I do keep a good supply of Trader Joe's "Tarte d'Alsace" which is a thin crust topped with Creme Fraiche, Onions, and Bacon (like a 'Tarte Flambee') - which is superb. And, a company in NJ called White Toque has some frozen pastries from France, such as Tarte Tatin, with crusts so delicious, you'd think you were in France. But the number of unnatural ingredients in most frozen foods scares me away - wish it weren't so, though. I used to keep a stash of White Castles in the freezer (they're exempt from any nutritional rules, of course), but I stopped because they always gave me the talking ones, the ones that would call out from the freezer in the middle of the night. (edited to add the White Castle comment)

Here's one I don't get (maybe somebody could explain it to me). There's a local place that fits the above description, and if you're lingering there at closing, you see them cleaning and sanitizing every inch of the restaurant and the open kitchen. And the food's great. And the people who own it and work there are extremely friendly. So when you arrive (even in the middle of cold and flu season), the owner if he's there, and several of the wait staff greet you warmly and shake your hand. Then they turn around and pick up dishes from the counter that leads from the open kitchen, placing their thumbs squarely on the tops of the plates, and serve them (passing along to the diners any germs that you had on your hands if you had a cold or the flu and sneezed or blew your nose before you shook their hand). How would they not realize this? Certainly, they're clean and sanitation-savvy!

Well, I've come to like it when servers ask how everything is after they've seen that you've dug into what they have served. It takes the burden off me (the diner) to have to speak up if something is not quite right, which is pleasanter that way. Sometimes they ask so they can correct, and sometimes they ask as a mere formality, of course. But now that I think about it, I can't recall if/that they ask after each course in France, but I do know that they always ask how everything was at the end. So thinking that it's okay at this point in the tread to drift a teeny bit... A few years ago I had a most disappointing and mediocre meal at the 3-star Auberge de L'Ill in Alsace (France). The food was mediocre at best, nothing hideous (well, some off tastes in the lobster concoction), but otherwise nothing better than you'd get in Business Class on an airplane - truly disappointing food (perhaps my own fault for going, but that's another topic). And the service was rude and unfriendly, very atypical for France, and especially for that region. (Only the sommelier was nice, and helpful, and we drank great.) So we finished our meal, and left. On the way out, it was clearly one of the family who got our coats, and asked, "How was everything?". I replied "disappointing, very disappointing" - I said it nicely, but those were my words. "Oh", she asked, surprised, "do you mean the food or the service?" "Both", I replied. Then she asked, "When you say disappointing, do you mean that you expected it to be great and it was not?" And I replied "Yes, exactly." To which she said, "I'm sorry about that. Would like copies of the menu to take with you?"

_________________________ CRISCO Nutrition Facts Serving Size 1 Tablespoon Calories 110 Calories from Fat 110 Amount Per Serving Total Fat 12g Saturated Fat 3g Trans Fat 0g Polyunsaturated Fat 6g Monounsaturated Fat3g Cholesterol 0mg Sodium 0mg Total Carbohydrate 0g Protein 0g Ingredients SOYBEAN OIL, SUNFLOWER OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS). I think that's the "new" Crisco (without transfats) - the company that makes Crisco is still making the "old original" (with transfats) too. I thought that too, but their site lists only this Crisco. Still, what I meant by posting that is that whether or not they've removed the trans fats, there's still a lot of saturated fat, and of course the answer is that you have to read the nutritional labels; then you can make an informed decision based on your own dietary needs. The key word being "choice", the very thing that Panter wants to take away from us.

Perdue? Tyson? You might want to read "Fast Food Nation", and then you wouldn't have to ask that question. One of the few ways to stop this nonsense over how the ducks are treated would be to compare them to how the above mentioned companies raise their chickens, honestly.

Here are two good sites for finding byo restaurants in New Jersey: http://www.byobguide.com/ http://www.byoguide.com/ (they are different!)

I'm funny in that when I hear "meat", I assume we're talking beef (I'm not being semantical, it's just an association I've always made). Sure, I love veal (chops especially) and pork (just about anything), but when you ask me about "meat", I hear "beef". And I'd have to answer: rib steaks, skirt steaks, and just about any steak cut that you can serve charred on the outside, rare on the inside, and with lots of fat. And I'm also very partial to a grilled piece of beef "flap meat". I don't let myself eat really fatty meat much any more, though. (I recently ate twice in one 'what-the-hell' week at an excellent rodizio/churrascaria on vacation, and man oh man, I was like a kid in a candy store!)

Does anybody know if an English language translation of this book has appeared anywhere? L'inspecteur se met a table by Pascal Remy THANKS !!

_________________________ CRISCO Nutrition Facts Serving Size 1 Tablespoon Calories 110 Calories from Fat 110 Amount Per Serving Total Fat 12g Saturated Fat 3g Trans Fat 0g Polyunsaturated Fat 6g Monounsaturated Fat3g Cholesterol 0mg Sodium 0mg Total Carbohydrate 0g Protein 0g Ingredients SOYBEAN OIL, SUNFLOWER OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED PALM OIL, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS). ______________________ source: http://www.crisco.com/about/prod_info.asp?...63&FlavorId=344

Personally, I hate lying, whether it's on the giving end, or the receiving end. I think that life would be somewhat less complicated if people had the decency to tell the truth; I think that a lot of harm, and needless confusion, and bad feelings come from lies. And so I just don't like being put in the position where I'm supposed to lie, as in, if the food's bad and the server asks how it is, why in the world would I have to compromise my values and say "Everything's fine"? It's unfair to me. I don't answer nastily, though, because that's disrespectful to the person who asked the question. If I'm asked, "how's the food", I'll answer "not very good, actually" but I won't say it angrily or nastily (as I stated earlier, I always know that as the customer, I have the right to send something back, so if I decide to keep it out of expediency (usually knowing I'll never return), that changes the situation; but if asked, I'll give an honest answer. For me, it's an uncomfortable situation if I have to tell a lie. I tell the truth to be true to myself, and if the person who asked the question then turns it into an ugly situation, that's his problem; at least I was true to myself. He certainly could answer, "I'm sorry to hear that" and that would be that. (Side note, since I have an extra minute on my hands and this may help clarify my feelings: I used to have a lot of friends who were opera singers and frequently found myself backstage after performances, getting introduced to the rest of the casts. If I had liked somebody's singing, I would always say so, as in "I really enjoyed your performance", or "I thought you were terrific." One day I was introduced to a cast member (who I thought had sung terribly) and after the introduction and the outstretched hands, I said "Very nice to meet you." Later my friend screamed "How could you say that? You're supposed to say 'you were terrific - I really enjoyed your performance' ". And I replied to my friend, "so that when I say it to you, you'll never know if I mean it or just say it to everybody?" He went on to say that saying "Nice to meet you" was an insult, then he thought it over and apologized, saying that come to think of it, he always appreciated how he knew he could always count on me to tell the truth. A side-side note concerns a friend whom I went to hear sing once, and wound up saying "Nice to meet you" to just about everybody she introduced me to. The last person was somebody I had thought was terrific, and I said so. My friend turned to the person and said "You have NO idea what his compliment means, trust me!") When somebody shows me their newborn baby and asks "Isn't he cute?", then I tell the little white lie. But to "how is the food that we're charging you for?" - why don't I just tell the truth?

I never lie (about anything). I try not to be unkind, but I always tell the truth about things like this. If the food's not very good, and I'm asked how it is, I say so, but I say it nicely. If it's too terrible to eat, I'll send it back and say that. But if, all things considered, I keep it, then I only say something if asked a direct question, and then I tell the truth. There's not a great point in lying. (Yes, there are cases in life when I probably will tell a white-lie, but being asked about the food I'm paying for is not one of those situations.)

I actually think that this thread has come up with a brilliant, and practical, feasible solution to this issue. Somebody above should get the credit, but I can't figure out who. But here's what I see as the solution: Our legislators in all of the states currently involved with this (NJ, NY, IL, etc.) should be asked to ban the items 'in question' across the board. Foie Gras, foods with trans fats, and foods whose saturated fat and sodium content exceeds the RDA. Then, when the "rich" people can't get foie gras, and the "not rich" people can't get fast food (as it has been put by so many), we'll explain that the lawmakers have decided what they can and cannot eat. Maybe then we'll have go to the voting booths and decide the question, "Can the govermment legislate what you can and cannot eat?" And the question would be releant to everybody in the country.

I can't say that, because it's actually proven to be good for you, but... If you favor emotion over science, then you won't see that. I knew a woman once who was anti-fat to the extreme, and so she ate egg yolks and threw away the whites; she was convinced that "white=fat", and nothing would change her mind.

http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?srch...srcht=a&srchr=n You can find the article there; it may require a subscription as you say.

Let's not preach from ignorance on eGullet - please! As discovered by French medical researcher Serge Renaud and reported on the front page of the New York Times on November 17, 1991 ("Can Foie Gras Aid the Heart? A French Scientist Says Yes"), duck and goose fat are mono-unsaturated, like olive oil, and are beneficial to a heart-healthy diet, especially the concentrations found in foie gras. Natives of the region of Gascony, where the basic cooking lipid is duck and goose fat (as opposed to Provence where it's olive oil, and Normandy, where it's butter) were found to live well into their 90's and hundreds, all the while spreading congealed duck fat on the bread that they accompany the foie gras with, which is what led to the investigation of the composition of the fats themselves. The next time you take your Omega-3 capsules, you should eat a slice of foie gras or a duck leg confit as well. So let's end the comments that foie gras is bad for you, and talk about making it mandatory in school lunches instead.

Hudson Valley Foie Gras exists because Ariane Daguin (founder of D'Artagnan) gave them their start originally, helped and encouraged them, because she wanted a domestic source of duck and foie gras to distribute. As they are now a major producer, and as they have "foie gras" in their name, rest assured that they will be the next place put out of business by our ridiculous legislators if they are not stopped in their tracks. As I've said, I've written a stern letter to Panter, and 16 other NJ legislators, and I hope everyone else will as well. And as it's been said by many, including Bourdain, the restaurant industry in America wouldn't be what it is today if Ariane hadn't started D'Artagnan, and especially if she hadn't encouraged and supported so many small producers in America to raise all the various high-quality items that they do. Hudson Valley Foie Gras is excellent. They ship directly to the home cook and it has been wonderful. Their website is www.hudsonvalleyfoiegras.com. ←

Of course, if you're in a different state, he'll know that you don't personally have the power to vote him out of office, but he'll know from (hopefully) a lot of people around the region or the country that for one, we don't want government legislating what we can and cannot eat, and second, that we want them to collect their salaries to work on what are actually pressing problems that need legislative attention. I sent my letter to people all over the NJ state government (where of course I live) and, on a related view, even if some of them are not directly entitled to vote on this bill, they'll get the idea that I (or we) think it's a waste of time and taxpayer money.

Well, I wrote to assemblyman Pecker, and 17 other members of the NJ State Legislature.

If all I said was that the Chinese food in town was too sweet, then I must have been in a very generous mood. It's all sickeningly sweet glop. I've tried most of the places in Hoboken, with only horribility to report. Rancid fried tastes, ridiculously sweet dishes, and just overall goo. I can't even tell you any places with safe dishes to order. The "Szechuan" and "Hunan" dishes all taste like dessert no matter where you get them, and the "Cantonese" dishes are pretty much a cross between bad airline food and bad school-cafeteria food. I can name 8 restaurants off the top of my head there that these comments apply to (but I'm not going to), but you may have to do without, as I do. It got to the point that I started to do without, if the craving for Chinese food hit me and I wanted to stay local. Sorry.

Definitely not, for a couple of reasons. First, any eGullet Society member should feel free to be in favor of or opposed to this ban, or to take any position in between. We don't have an official position on this. I happen to think the ban is a very bad idea, but that's just me. Second, we aren't a political lobbying organization nor do we engage in electioneering. As a 501c3 nonprofit public charity, we don't go there. ← Aaah. I just meant to say that I am writing (as I did a while ago to Joan Voss regarding her ridiculous bill), and was hoping that other members were doing the same (don't mean that to be inciteful). And if you've written one, Fat Guy, I'd love to see it, as I do believe you're one of the more eloquent people around; however, if that falls outside the rules as you've explained them, I understand.

I'm composing my letter(s) right now to send to all these people. Are we, as gulletteers, doing this in any organized way?