Boris_A

Maybe you want to visit this helpful webpage and check for restaurants with two ore more stars (Gaumenspiel is two star rated, for example) in Wien or Niederösterreich. There must be 50 adresses and phone numbers and if you're not afraid of asking all of them, there's a good chance to find at least one opened on christmas. If not, I fear there's nothing left than accepting your fate. Good luck and merry christmas, anyway

I seriously doubt that a protection mechanism is really triggering creativity or, more precisely, important progress. (At least not in the fields of art). Usually, it promotes a lot of transaction costs. (Computer) Software industry, for example, was highly productive and innovative with only poor protection of IP. My intuitive conclusion is that when you're introducing rigid protection mechanism you encourage laywers to work at the expense of directly productive people.

With similar crafts like fashion or (furniture) design, it's working the same way. As long as the imitation has some (very) minor details changed and the original brand or creators name is not cited, it's fully legal and accepted. I really don't see why cooking should be treated differently.

A quite fragmented, transnational culture. Some background here: history. Fanatastic architecture of solid wood buildings, BTW. They mastered up to 3 stories. By seasonal humidity such a house can shrink or grow by up to 6 inches, hence windows need to be "floating" mounted. After googling with "Walser-Küche", I found this page.. Some ingredients are not easy to catch: For example, "Biascht" is the second or third milk of a cow after the birth of a calf. Very creamy and almost yellow. The only literature I found is mentioned there: "Adam Ortwin: Walser Kost für Leib und Seel', Kempten, 1988" Try more with "Walser Rezepte". German language mandatory, of course. Happy skiing!

The dominating principle is the protection of a locality, of the name of an origin. Two centuries ago, "Tokay" was a generic name for sweet wines, just like "Champagne" for sparklers. Back then the producers tried to take profit of the excellent reputation of the sweet wines produced in Hungary.

Some fruit brandies are made by maceration of unfermented fruits in alcohol and distilling afterwards (strawberries and other berries, for example), others are macerated and fermented (by adding yeast) and distilling of the mash (plum, apricots, apple, pear). BTR, I'd try a vieille prune or a reine claude (both are plum variants) made by an Alsatian household producer like Massenez or Léon Beyer (I think both are exported to the US) to become familiar with quality plum brandy. Mostly because their French (and German and Swiss) clients are a relatively demanding customership. I think the eastern stuff is still too irregular, but I had some nice, smooth Barazc (apricot brandy) from Hungary some times ago.

The "bis" or he "tris" (two or three different kinds of tortellini or gnocchi) is not that uncommon in modern Italian restaurant cuisine. I'd place the salad usually before primo and never after secondo. In winter time, add some (moderatly crunchy) cooked vegetables. Because salad (thanks to vinegar) is a natural enemy of wine, I usually place it in the pause between the white and red. ← Too extensive use of tomato? I fully agree. Subtleness is everything. I'ts not pizza cooking, after all.

BTW, back in the times of 1870, during the risorgimento when Italy was created as we know it today, the Piemontese were convinced that Torino is going to be the capital of Italy, as the Kings of the new Italy were of the "Savoya" family and Turin was their place. The famous hazelnuts are called "Tondo Gentile" and come from the region around Cortemilia in the Alta Langhe. They cost about $40 per kg when toasted and peeled. Great stuff indeed.

I made them several times, and I placed them between antipasto and secondo. For me, thy are not really a starter and they are too much stand-alone (taste wise) for being a contorno. I'd call them a light primo. No flour at all? Seems a bit risky business for me. I always added a tiny bit (1-2-3 spoon) for "glueing" the dough together. Anyway, try boiling one ot two samples before you start with the whole batch. If they fall apart add some flour. BTW, kudos for your home-curing of bresaola! I wish we had the opportunity once travelling together up the Valtellino from Chiavenna to Bormio and tasting here and there the bresaola from different village butchers. Great bresaola, great cheese, great wine and terrific landsacpe there.

How about "Arrosto di vitello al latte" (veal roast in milk). Simple, unusual and elegant. Alternative: "Involtini alla milanese" (stuffed veal rolls), but somewhat more complicated.

What I learned here on the homepage of a medieval guild (you might it brablefish) safron was always used as spice, dye, medicine and dope (with a dose of > 10g you're ready for the long goodbye) sametime. BTW these (trade) guilds named after safron exist in Zurich, Basel and Lucerne for ~700 years. Another remark regarding the aforementioned scaloppine Milanese: they are nothing else than the ancestors of the "Wiener Schnitzel", probably brought to Venice and the Ventian hinterland which belonged to the Austrian Empire some many years ago. Crisped Bresaola? If you ever get a chance to spot some artisanal one: yes, heresy without any doubt. As long as you do this with industrial stuff, no problemo. Another variant of Lombardian scallops: "scaloppine al limone". The mixture of butter, gravy and lemon juice is quite sophisticated. As a starter or primo, one could try "malfatti": gnocchi made of ricotta, egg, spinach and a bit flour. Very light and utterly tasty.

Today? I don't know, but around 14th century, saffron production was quite widespread even in northern Switzerland. Later it was produced in the Valais, Ticino and Grigioni and until today, there's still a village in the Valais (Mund) where saffron is produced. Hence, we can fairly assume that Saffron once was widely produced on south slopes of the alps (like in the Valtellino)

Hello Behemoth "Es guets Nöis!" from Zürich (as we say in Swiss German for "Happy New Year".) Hope we'll meet soon. Best, Boris

Not at all. But I wouldn't call it miscommunication. They are just different, you know. And of course, the Brits also think they are of a better breed. In the rest of Europe, there are not much troubles of this kind ... But that's a very subjective opinion, of course.

For Zürich, Kropf is an excellent suggestion. It's a "Bavarian beer hall" from the end of 19th century, when establishing foreign restaurants was very fashionable in European cities. For exceptionally well made, traditional Swiss cuisine, try Alpenrose (also here) near main station. Outstanding! For a cheese fondue, I recommend Le Dezaley. A bit of a stereotypic interieur, but the quality of the fondue is very good. For a bratwurst while standing, there's Vorderer Sternen. Immensly popular, and rightly so. Not to be missed: a quick beer and some Spanish tapas at Bodega Espanola. Original interieur from 1880, born in the same spirit as Kropf. If weather is fine, check for a visit to the tower of the very nearby Grossmünster church: phantanstic view all over Zürich and surrounding. Finally, if all reservations fail and timetable is constrained, you can never do a mistake with the central Zeughauskeller Of course, here you'll find a lot of fashionable, modern places, but AFAIK no one offers outstanding food you could not find anywhere else.

There's some disagree in the world of wine: It is also the defects that often give the wine its singular individiuality and character. ... despite all the techniques to make higher qualitiy, there is still a place for wines with a handful of defects that give them undeniably character as well as greatness." Robert M. Parker jr., The Wine Advocate 146 , p. 4 But I still think that Parker is biased towards "Wagner"-wines opposed to "Schubert"-wines (to use a music metaphor). Fortunatley, what wine merchants here told me, recently the public showed a lot of interest in elegant (aka "thin, watery") wines. Could be that the worst of the blockbuster fad is over now.

Given the recent changes in climate (think of 2003), there's no difficulty anymore in ripening Pinot Noir in Germany or Switzerland. The stiff pric tags are limited to a handful famous producers only. One step below, you can find very nice "Burgundian" Pinot Noirs for very, very fair prices.

No cream. My recipe (combined from two or three books) is roughly: 2 oz pancetta 1 carot 1 celery 1 onion 1 laurel 2 sp butter - make a well glazed sofritto. Add 7 oz ground beef (purists insist in finely cut and chopped meat) 1 tsp flour 5 oz broth - and cook for 30-50 min. During the last minutes, one can add 1 oz chicken liver to enhance the meaty flavour of the ragù. I think this recipe is well within the Italian idea of concentrating rather pure or enhanced flavours in a sauce (Napolitanian tomato sauce, pesto all' Genovese) and to serve this in rather small amounts (my recipe is serving 4-6 persons) with the noodles. I had a lot of ragù in Piemonte as an immensly popular sauce with tajerin (noodels), and it was always brownish/greyish in colour and definitely never red by a noticable amount of tomatos.

After doing some research years ago and googling a bit now, there seem to be four incompatible theories (even in Bologna) about the amount of tomatos used for a "real" ragù Bolognese: a) tomatos (canned or fresh) are admissible b) (fresh) tomatos are admissible during season only c) passata di pomodoro (tomato paste) is used in tiny amounts only (1-3 teaspoon in a reasonable amount of ragù mainly for colourization d) there's no tomato at all in a "real" ragù Bolognese Personally, I prefer c), cooked on the "dry", very "meaty" side. The d) fraction calls all other ragùs as "ground meat sauce with tomato". Some recipes call for beef chopped manually by knive, just like carne crudo all' Albese (raw meat Alba style).

Actually, I wanted to say that I think some of these VT and SGN dessert wines are as muscular as Caterpillar bulldozers.

Some of the Alsatians Vendange Tardive or Sélection des Grains Nobles are rather a vinous Caterpillar than a "Little black dress or just an accessory", IMHO. They belong to the greatest wines I ever tasted.

Ciao! We should differentiate. Sassicaia is produced in quite large amounts, like a mid-size bordelais chateaux. Brunello production grew by factors over the last 20 years. In Valtellino, this is just impossible. There's no way to enlarge production capacity due to extremely limited growing possibilities. OTOH, in the south, there are still huge reserves of land that could be cultivated. The Italian demand is already strong enough. I just don't see any need to promote such limited specialties heavily outside Italy. A caring wine lover, curious about interesting products and alternatives, will find it's way to Valtellino anyway. Another example: I dont' mind it the majority want's to pay high prices for real Champagne from big houses. Like the old (Italian) Seneca said: most of the people wants to walk only on well paved ways. Why do we want to show the masses all of the lesser obvious, beautiful pathes in the hinterland and the underwood? Most of the time it would be just wasted labour.

I don't deplore this fact. If you've seen the size and the steepness of the best Valtellino vineyards, a bigger worldwide demand for this wine would be catastrophic for it's availabilty (or prices). I've friends living in the Valtellino, and these people like to be able to afford their "own" wine.

For Vienna, there are a lot of good hints here around. Dont' miss gelato in Vienna. There are many "Eissalon" (ice saloon) run by Italian expats (somtimes over generations). Two sure bets are: - "Eissalon am Schwedenplatz", Schwedenplatz (in the center, 1st district) - "Zanoni & Facincani, Währinger Gürtel, 3, 1180 Vienna" (18th district) Dürnstein (in the Wachau) is very beautiful, very small and very touristy, which is always a bit problematic for true local food (they fill their tables anyway). "Nikolaihof" is not only a real top producer of Austrian wine, but runs an excellent, traditional restaurant as well: - Nikolaihof, Nikolaigasse 3, Mautern (just over the Danube), Antoher very good, generation-old name (in Krems, though, 10 miles) is: - Gasthaus Jell, Hoher Markt 8-9, 3500 Krems The Wachau (that beautiful Danube valley) is full of Heurigens. I know that the locals prefer the ones on the "other", less idyllic side of the Danube in Mautern, Rossatz, etc.

Never heard of a Slow Food in Vienna, sorry. If you search with "Vienna" among topic titles, you'll get a lot of suggestions. If you're capable of reading some German language, have a look at the Speisinger Online Community, probably the best place for current infos about restaurant in Vienna.