markk
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Posts posted by markk
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In that personal tastes vary anyway, this is really something that you'll have to learn by trial and error. Most people have a large collection of bottles, because for one it's rare that you'll hit the one you like on the first try, and for another, you'll need to learn by comparison. It's an expensive hobby but then, so is wine collecting.
I don't know where you live, but if you have a restaurant with a nice cognac collection, you could always pay them a visit at the bar and experiment by the glass.
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Maybe this is the 'AH HA' moment. When a touch is used to manipulate, not just to make a bit of a connection.
I have a sincere question: do Europeans touch more?
Somehow, I just can't imagine this debate being held in Italy.
I've never been touched by an Italian I didn't know; certainly not by a waiter. I don't think my experience is unusual, but I suppose it could be.
At the end of a really enjoyable dinner in a really nice place in Frascati (perhaps the only place), I asked the waiter if I could perhaps steal a copy of the (large and formidable) menu. I must have asked nicely, because not only did he hand me one, he pulled out my sweater a little bit and slid it in till it was hidden and nestled against my stomach and chest.
Though you might want to refer to my post #30 above.
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Used them many times and very happy with the result. Saves lots of time and mess. That having been said I absolutely agree that the texture is significantly different. Personally, I love the wonton texture. A true Italian would strongly disagree I am sure! So quick and easy you have nothing to lose in trying.
DITTO - my sentiments exactly.
Plus, there are a lot of times when a filling presents itself and you don't feel like making and rolling out pasta dough.
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Apparently you'd all make superb police sketch artists - you've got me down perfectly. Except for the pregnant part - I only look like I am.
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My response to this may veer into slightly off-topic areas momentarily, but this is a strange question for me to answer.
You see, the thing is that I am the most touched person on the planet - and almost entirely by other men. There are no situations in life for me in which people do not touch me. Once I point this out to friends and they know to watch for it, they are astounded.
But in any typical day, I will have my back or shoulders not just touched, but "rubbed" or massaged by all sorts of people I encounter, and there have even been situations in which people (men, straight men) have rubbed, tickled, or patted my belly. People I know only in passing; My doormen; People I meet on the street; People I stop to ask questions of.
So it's not at all unusual for me to find the waiter leaning on my shoulders while he talks to our table, or for him to rub my back or shoulders as he passes by.
I've given up trying to figure out why this is, and I no longer have a reaction to it other than to wonder, "why me?"
For what it's worth, I neither look (in any way) like Brad Pitt or Tom Selleck.
But for me, the ship has sailed on how I feel. It's something I've come to accept as a way of life.
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I actually know a family that held their Bar Mitzvah reception as a dim sum event at a Chinese restaurant in Montclair whose specialty was shrimp and pork dumplings, but I'd imagine that's not what you're looking for to celebrate your son's entrance as an adult into the Jewish religion. (I don't know if their rabbi attended, but I sincerely hope he didn't.)
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I have to say that if what we're discussing is actually the price of a cup of tea, then I think that it's a pretty ridiculous discussion. I occasionally bring my own tea bags to a restaurant. I order tea, and ask the server not to put the bag in (the cup or the pot), and when the tea service gets left at the table, I brew what I've brought. And I pay whatever their charge is for tea. And if it's a selection of teas that's brought, I'll choose one, and use my own teabag when the server leaves.
If they can possibly have a complaint or problem with this, I really don't care.
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just cooked up a duck breast.
I keep overcooking them.
I think the breasts I am using are much smaller than what markk uses. Gonna need to adjust some more next time.I only make "magret" - that is to say, the breasts of the Moulard duck, which are much larger than what you're undoubtedly getting, which are most likely Pekins (or even Muscovy) - and I'm lucky because I can buy the magrets packaged by D'Artagnan at my local supermarket (though they ship them by mail order from their site).
Still, I'd say that you want to crisp the skin side in a pan, flip it to give a little heat to the other side, and let it rest and cook through in a warm place, like an oven that's been turned off for ten or fifteen minutes - all the while, going much less time than I do for the larger breasts. But oven cooking is absolutely not needed in case you're doing that. I don't even do that with the magrets.
Once you get the hang of it, it'll be a snap. My chief complaint with restaurants is that the duck breast always comes overcooked - always - and I'm getting pretty fed up with that.
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Just curious on everyone's thoughts on this....
Is it right for a local/regional newspaper to give a bad review to a restaurant who has probably bought hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of advertising over the years?
Yes!
Those hundreds or thousands of dollars buy advertising space, not good reviews, and the contract for the purchase of that advertising space should not be construed by the purchaser to have any effect whatsoever on editorial content in the paper.
In the same way we, as restaurant professionals, might overlook a customers' actions at times, or comp something to say thanks, shouldn't there be some kind of loyalty?Not in the field of journalism. Once a newspaper compromises its integrity, it may as well cease publication. And to expect a newspaper to alter or drop a bad review because of advertising money spent is wrong, and unethical.
If you're the restaurateur who got a bad review after spending advertising money with a paper, you've just given away a tremendous character flaw in yourself.
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THANK YOU !!!
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Unrelated, I used to attend the annual Verdi Voce Contest in Busseto evey year in the 70's, and boy did the local bars and trattorie make some fantastic lasagne. I went back some years later to find the great trattoria gone, and boy was I sad! Though she'd never get there from Bologna for dinner and back.
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Diana might be worth a visit at lunch. Their lasagna Bolognese has been praised elsewhere and they have a neat trick of crumbling hard boiled egg yolks over it. But it's a pretty formal place and you'll need to dress accordingly, or at least not in jeans and hiking boots the way these two turiste were when they went . . .
Indeed
Also had some whipped mortadella to start. Pretty nice little lunch.
I think I'd love for her to go there, but for a lot of reasons I think it's outside her budget (I know it is) and I don't know how comfortable she'd be eating there, so I was hoping for a similar lasagne in a simpler, cheaper settting - she's a poor 20 year old college student getting clobbered by the dollar as it is and more comfortable in simpler places - but THANK YOU for thinking of that !!!!!!!!!!!
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I'm looking for recommendations for a restaurant/trattoria that serves the traditional cuisine of Bologna, where a first-time visitor could sample Lasagne al Bolognese.
Of course, it wouldn't specifically have to be the Lasagne, but I'm remember the dishes I used to eat there in years past...
and it certainly wouldn't have to be a place with fancy tablecloths - simple and less expensive would be great - it's a college student spending her spring semester in Florence and planning a trip to Bologna.
Many thanks !!!!!!!!
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I realized that I have a whopper of a neurosis to do with ordering food, and just wondered if anybody could top it.
I love "White Castle" hamburgers, but not when they're cooled-down; I only like them steaming hot. But because they're such tiny little things, they cool-down fairly quickly.
If you order them inside, they pick them off the grill and call your number.
But I've learned the hard way over the last 40 years that if you order a bunch of hamburgers at the drive through, and there's even one car ahead of you, he will invariably have ordered onion rings, or the fried chicken sandwich, which they have to cook to order. But when you pull up to the order board to order through the microphone/speaker thing, that doesn't stop them from filling your order from the grill, and letting the bag sit and get cold while they wait for the other guy's chicken or onion rings to cook.
So over the years I've learned that if there's even one car ahead of me, I don't place my order. I hold up my cell phone and pretend to be on it, and tell the person who keeps yelling "may I take your order?" that I need a minute or two. And only when I see that all the cars ahead of me have been served and pulled away, do I place my order.
I don't dare ask if anybody else does this (I don't think there's a padded cell that would hold two of us), but I wonder if anybody has any similar neuroses to share?
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Two come to my mind, though only one's a neurosis; the other's an oddity.
I too had a friend (who used to eat my cooking regularly) who would cry if the foods on his plate touched or "co-mingled". Sadly for him, my idea of a meal is a main course with many complementary sides, served on what I call dinner plates though others call serving platters, and by design, things co-mingle. One particularly successful night I served a pork roast with 5 sides, and his wife exclaimed "wow - not only does each side go with the roast, they go with each other no matter what combination you take!"
He wept.
The second one is my partner, who when I met him ate like a picky child. No fish, no shellfish, no organ meats, nothing you touch with your hands, etc. With time, all that changed. Now his favorite foods, aside from as much foie gras as he can get, are things like duck thighs (i.e. confit) and braised or confit thighs of pigeon, pheasant, etc. Yet when we go to the Thanksgiving meal, he still takes only white meat turkey. It boggles the mind. Of course, it means I don't have to fight him for the legs or share one, but I find it mind boggling.
Out of curiosity, how old was this person?
The guy who wept was about 21 or 22; he had been eating my cooking (with food touching) for about 4 or 5 years.
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double-post
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It looks great and I intend to try it. Though I'd be a little happier if this wasn't a direct quote from their menu:
Roasted Guinea Hen
Cornbread Stuffing with Guanciale & Apples,
Haricort Vert, Carrots, Marsala Reduction
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I hope you won't find this rude or off topic, but when I lived in Mannheim in Rhineland-Pfalz, the greatest advice I was ever given in life was how close we were to Strasbourg, France, one of the great places (and greatest gastronomic regions) in the world. So since you have a car...
If you're interested in venturing that far, please pm me and I'll point you to some wonderful dining choices.
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Well, count me in as one who found it way too "infomercial-y" to take. I didn't renew my subscription. But I'm also somebody who wishes very much that he had made more seasons of "Taste".
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- While it's not classy, and I probably won't do it at more of the haute places, I may box up anything I can't eat and take it to go.
You can absolutely ask to take home anything uneaten in the classiest and most haute of places; in fact, you'll get a kick out of the "haute" ways in which they package it for you. Don't even think twice about asking.
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Bryan did a week-long liquid diet after his European crash course that I found horrifying; I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.
The week-long liquid diet after a long European binge doesn't have to be financial - when you reach the saturation point (hopefully not before the end of your trip), the point comes after all that somewhat rich food that you just can't face food any more.
I was waiting to bring up the question of whether you're up to this kind of an eating marathon, and if you have an escape plan?
This has happened to me on several trips to France, and it's bad when you have a "big" gastronomic restaurant saved for the end and realize that you just can't face any more food. In one case, I had to cancel a 3-star restaurant because the thought of eating another big meal was impossible. On another trip, I had for months carefully researched Michelin restaurants in the region where I was going, and it paid off- the meals were spectacular. Of course, I'm older than you and Bryan, but on that trip, we lasted three dinners, and then had to take a break - completely disrupting our schedule and all the carefully made reservations. Though when I was in my 20's and 30's this was never a problem, because even though I'd wake up bloated, I'd skip lunch and find that my capacity for gluttony would always return just about 2 hours before dinner- thankfully!
So in the event that your ability to eat that much food peters out, be sure you have some plans to salvage the "musts" on your list.
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You'll find hundreds of them, exactly what you're looking for, in this wonderful thread in the Food Media: Literature section-
http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...showtopic=50059
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I don't think its necessarily an example of the dumbing down of our commercial food.
I think that it is.
We live in an age of over-processed, refined foods, and I'm sure that a lot of people are scared-off by the "chew" of flank steak.
When I was a kid in the 1950's and 60's, my mother would sometimes bring back skirt steaks from the butcher that had been run through a thing that looks like a medieval torture device that perforated it. We quickly asked her not to do that, as we all preferred the chew.
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Does anybody (like Fat Guy, for example) know - or care to speculate - on if, or how Adam Platt's recent NY Mag review will have any meaning to Daniel Boulud or cause any changes to the food?
Skate in the Fridge!
in Cooking
Posted
My fish market had some beautiful skate (dressed, i.e. off the bone)
Which I dusted with Wondra flour and sauteed in olive oil with a little buter
When both sides were crisped, I removed it to a hot plate, and deglazed the pan with white wine, and added organic lemon, and capers, let it bubble for a moment, and then plated it with the sauce over it. The sides were roasted cauliflower and roasted cremini mushrooms, and though I could kill the person who plated the sides for me, I'll post the photos anyway
It was delicious, though I can only show the ones that didn't break apart when I turned them.