crsm
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Posts posted by crsm
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Morton's is right on Union Square and is very good. A few blocks away is Harris for steak. In the Westfield Mall is Lark Creek Steak. Quite honestly, I can't tell them apart. To me, we have good grass-fed beef at all these restaurants and they are all prepared exceptionally well, so they run a dead-heat for me.
What kind of Chinese food are you looking for? That will help determine where to send you; dim sum? Cantonese? Szechuan? XLB? We have a HUGE Chinese community with various pockets of the various regional cuisines all over the city (including in Chinatown -- which does have some very good food).
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks for the advice on steaks.
Our favourite Chinese food is Cantonese or Szechuan at a push.
Cheers!
Richard
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Forgive me if this has been covered in earlier posts but....
I'll be in SF for a few days in September and wanted recommendations on where the best place for steak is? Preferably not too difficult to get to from Union Square.
On a different topic, I've read that the best chinese isn't found in China Town...if not then where is it?
Cheers!
Richard
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Hi,
Has anyone tried the Six Tables restaurant in Summerlin, Las Vegas? If so, what are your thoughts/opinions?
Cheers!
Richard
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Le Clos St. Pierre in Le Rouret, in the hills about 25 minutes above Antibes, is among the best one stars I have ever found (and I mean EVER, over the last 25 years). I have eaten there 3 times in the last year and a half, and each time it has been outstanding. The formula is with a prix fix menu each night, with your only choice the opportunity to eliminate one plate for a very modest reduction. The price a month ago was 58 Euros for 3 plates, cheese, and dessert. Everything was done perfectly, and the service is very good.
The chef came out at the end of the meal and even denied that he had a star; this was in the context of our conversation, in French, where I told him that I detest the great majority of starred restaurants I've ever eaten in and that his was a huge exception, so much so that I'd eaten in the place 3 times in 1.5 years even though I live in the USA and seldom get down to the Cote d'Azur. He (the chef) said, "I have no stars; the only stars in my restaurant are the clients." He was so convincing that my French friend asked me on the way out to the car why I had told him the place had a star, when obviously it did not!!
This place is not to be missed, however you will need to reserve as they have been completely full each time I've eaten there, including midweek.
I completely agree. Last summer we tried most of the 1* in this area and there was nothing to touch Le Clos st Pierre. We dined there twice and would have gone a third time if they'd had a free table
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We ended up going to Al Frash in Ladypool Rd which we thought was rather good.
Cheers!
Richard
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I had lunch here last week and had the Feeling and Taste menu. Whilst the food was very good I think it was somewhat over-priced. What also left a sour taste in the mouth was being charged €17.50 for a glass of champagne which was a long way short of a reasonable measure and €12.00 for a coffee.
Cheers!
Richard
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Last time I was at Les Vapeurs, the moules à la crème were as perfect as they come. And there are plenty of moules à la crème on the Northwestern French coast, many of them remarkable, but these were tops. Fries that came on the side were just okay. The atmosphere of the place was also great and the waiters adorable.
But it was February 2009 — who knows, they may have gone downhill since then...
Besides I never said Sa.qua.na was not good (though I am increasingly tired of those restaurants that could be planted anywhere in the world), just that if someone is expecting to find a taste of the region there, even remote, deconstructed and interpreted, this is definitely not the place. I was assuming that someone asking for recommendations in Honfleur would have expected a place that fit into the larger picture.
Thanks for the advice. I probably should have said that I was mainly interested in hearing about non *'d places, because places with *'s are generally easy enough to get reviews of. Sa.qua.na does sound interesting though!
My wife went to Normandy a few years ago and thought the moules were fantastic - she's Belgian so she knows her moules! I'm sure she'd like to repeat the experience. She also raved about the fresh foie gras and calvados...... Trouble is she can't remember where she ate and of course things have probably changed in the intervening years.
Cheers!
Richard
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Anyone got any up-to-date recommendations for restaurants in or around Honfleur?
Cheers!
Richard
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Anyone got any recommendations for balti/indian restaurants in Brum?
I tried Lasan and Shimla Pinks few months ago and was sorely disappointed. I'm visiting Brum again in the next few weeks and would be grateful for other recommendations.
Cheers!
Richard
Surprised you didn't like Lasan. It's one of my favourites.
If you want Balti, you really have to go to the Balti Triangle, a few miles south of the city centre.
Of the places there, I've tried Jyoti's http://www.jyotis.co.uk/ which if you can get past the rediculous appropriation of the Jamie Oliver brand (he ate there once, and was reasonably positive about it) is a good vegetarian Indian restaurant. Certainly no bells and whistles there, but solid homely cooking.
For a very cheap and informal lunch, a meat balti at Saleem's is pretty good (Ladypool Road).
People speak highly of Al-Frash and it has won various awards http://www.alfrash.com/ but I was not 100% convinced on my visits that it was up to much.
An Indian friend of mine swears that the Haweli on Hagley Road is the best Indian restaurant in Birmingham, but the one time we had a take-away from there, I wasn't particularly convinced. It was fine. http://www.birminghamplus.com/reviews/revi...3&iid=308&uid=6
I have heard good things about Itihaas http://www.itihaas.co.uk/ but not yet been there.
Shimla Pinks I agree is pretty poor.
I'm afraid I still haven't had the Indian restaurant nirvana that I was expecting when I moved to Brum. Lasans and Jyoti's probably do it for me the best.
Thanks for the info and links.
Maybe my expectations of Lasan were rather too high, or they just had a bad night. I noticed they made a big thing about healthy eating and the fact that they don't use ghee, maybe that's the reason I thought that there was something missing!
I used to go to the Royal Naim in the balti triangle but I hear that's closed down. It's difficult to get reliable reviews of other places so your views are very welcome. Most recently I've tried curry houses in Halesowen and Lye and to be honest can get a much better curry in Brussels!
Changing the type of cuisine completely I also plan to have lunch at either Turners or Purnells on this trip.
Cheers!
Richard
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Anyone got any recommendations for balti/indian restaurants in Brum?
I tried Lasan and Shimla Pinks few months ago and was sorely disappointed. I'm visiting Brum again in the next few weeks and would be grateful for other recommendations.
Cheers!
Richard
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Some up to date recommendations please
I've read through this thread as well as a few others, but many of the posts are at least several years old. We're visiting Nice (actually Villefranche) in February. We've been there before and really enjoyed our prix fix SUnday lunch at Mirazur as well as pizza on the Quai in Villefranche. We enjoy a variety of food but the one no-no for us is overally pretentious (and overally expenses) places. So we're looking at up-to-date ideas for the following on the Cote-de-Azur:
1) Friendly one star (or close to one star) attractive resto within a hour or so of Nice for lunch at 60 euro or less prix fixe.
2) Local boulubaisse or fish place with hearty simple food.
3) Same as #1 above, but in Italy,
First, You will really enjoy Mirazur. THe food is exceptional as is the service. I have friends who highly recommend Restaurant Bacon in Juan les Pin for boulubaisse.
Bacon is in Cap d'Antibes not Juan les Pin
Oops, my mistake/ Also agree that the lunch deal at Louis XV is amazing and worth every Euro.
I would also recommend lunch at Louis XV.
I was on the Cote D'Azur earlier this summer and the best meals I had (apart from the above) were at the 1* Le Clos St Pierre in Le Rouret which I guess is about 30 minutes drive from Nice.
Cheers!
Richard
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Why avoid an egg base? I almost always use egg yolks in homemade ice cream, and have never had a problem - the ice cream consistently comes out nice and creamy. The only time I experienced graininess was once or twice when the chocolate didn't emulsify properly on the last step, ie, adding the strained custard to the ganache or the chopped chocolate.
It's about flavor, not consistency. It seems there are a couple of different points of view; some people like the flavor of cooked egg yolks with chocolate, and others think it's a distraction. I'm in the second camp. Chocolate is also one of the flavors that gets muted very easily by milk fat. Because of this I use less than half as much cream in chocolate ice cream as in most other recipes. The fat in yolks may have the same effect.
In general, I use about a third as many eggs in my ice creams as most people, because I don't want to notice them. In chocolate I don't use any.
Okay, thanks, Paul. I also use a lot less cream than the recipes call for.
I was using quite a lot of cream and eggs to make my custard so my first thought was the fat content that was causing the problem. At any rate it sounds like I have some more experimentation to do with the correct chocolate, it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it.
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The cocoa butter may not be the problem but different 70% chocolates can have quite different amounts of cocoa butter depending on how much the manufacturer has added to the cocoa liquor.
This is a quote from the Callebaut web site:
" Callebaut offers a special selection of dark and white chocolates that contain less
cocoa butter and plenty of taste.
• Their lower fat content makes them ideal for flavouring ice cream: it avoids a
hard, grainy texture. So ideal for soft and smooth chocolate ice cream!"
On the 'chocolate uses' tables they tell you which of their chocolates are most suitable for making ice-cream.
The valrhona web site also notes which of their bars are suitable for ice-cream.
This may help if you can easily find any of the bars that are 'suitable'
Thanks, that's very useful advice, I'll checkout their websites.
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I believe you are supposed to use a very low cocoa butter chocolate for making ice-cream. The graininess could be the cooca butter splitting out as the ice-cream freezes.
Do you know if your chocolate has much added cocoa butter?
I was using a 70% cocoa content chocolate as I wanted a real chocolate taste.
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I've tried making chocolate ice-cream a number of times using a Magimix Gelato Chef but although the taste is good the texture always turns out to be very grainy, anybody got any idea what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance,
Richard
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I have made Indian Barfi a few times from the recipe in 1001 Cookies (Gregg R. Gillespie). I don't know how authentic it is, though, but we enjoyed it. I have sent you the recipe via pm.
Thanks very much, I'll give it a try.
I've seen quite a few recipe's on the www but they all seem to be very different and I prefer to use one that someone else has tried out.
Thanks again.
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Hi,
Has anyone made the Indian dessert Barfi? If so and it was successful could you let me have the recipe?
Cheers!
Richard
Dining in Las Vegas: Part 1
in Southwest & Western States: Dining
Posted
I too can give Le Cirque a big thumbs-up after having dined there this week. We took the pre-theatre prix fixe menu and had a superb lobster bisque followed by the signature sea bass dish and then a lovely souffle to round things off. I know I will sound patronising but this meal was better than many that I've eaten at 1* restaurants in Belgium and France. We also dined at Daniel Boulud, which whilst not bad, is not in the same league as Le Cirque.
Richard