Boris_A

Eating with a teaspoon a matured "Vacherin Mont d'Or" where a cup of chasselas white wine was poured over some days ago.

Great report! The flashbacks after eating fresh truffle can be incredible. Occasionally, I had them for a week or even longer. I really wonder what's happening between the nostrils, the synapses and the memory.

Admittedly, some variants have only very small differences. Yet, many of them got own names and the Gulyàs-aficionados (much like with the different cuts of Austrian boiled beef) insist in the correct preparation of their preferred Gulyàs variant. It's maybe also worth noting that "Viennese" cuisine (during the centuries of the Austrian-Hungarian k.u.k monarchy) imported a very, very large number of Bohemian, Hungarian, Moravian, rural Austrian, etc. dishes. Therefore, many "Viennese" recipes are nothing else than blueprints of regional dishes. For example, Znaim is a small town in Moravia near the contemporary Austrian border. Enough of the nitpicking.

I just want to add that the onions oftenly get cut in half and then sliced, hence you will get onion stripes. After browning the onions, when adding and roasting the paprika powder (called "paprizieren" in German, aka "to paprizise"), heat should be lowered to carefully avoid any burnt paprika powder. "Das grosse Sacher Kochbuch" (Vienna) is naming about 25-30 different variants of Gulyàs.

I have no personal experiences around Schwyz itself. From the canonical view (Gault-Millau, Michelin, Press), Franz Wiget's "Adelboden" in Schwyz is clearly the top place there. What I was told by friends, the "Adler" in Ried-Muotathal (9.5 km to SE), it's the place I'd feel attracted. I would eat there and I would ask the chef for the best, basic inns around. Nowadays, a perfectly made, traditional dish is harder to find than anything else. Like Cézanne said: "Hurry! Everything vanishes." Let me know if at least in Schwyz there's some hope

There's an old wine merchant bonmot: When you are buying wine, serve apple pieces. When you are selling wine, serve cheese. I still prefer pieces of rather neutral bread (baguette) and a sip of water to neutralize my palate and to get rid of the tannin coating in my mouth. And most important: give your palate and your nose some rest from time to time. Otherwise, you're in danger to prefer those wines that shine in endless tasting series: after 5-10 sips, only the fruity, oaky, densly structured wines will be able to permeate the established sensoric threshold. Those might be great wines, but they are much more difficult with food or with having a relaxed quaffing with people who are not that much interested in wine itself. According to my observation, many of them like good wine, but in general, blockbusters are just too concentrated for their taste. Lucy, I think I'm going to buy a Dussert-Gerber. I know the guide, but I never used it. Sounds interesting.

It's well known. Wonderful St.-Galler-Bratwurst (the white ones) and excellent Cervelats (the brown ones). The traditional bread rolls ("Büürli") are among the best of it's kind. It's near the opera and a place for an after performance snack. Some years ago, it was really more of a stand. Compared with the sometimes grotesquely overpriced fusion here around ...

Here you'll find quite a good description about the process. Study the "fondue factoids" link at the bottom of the page. Make sure you get thoroughly matured cheese, as young cheese has rather long peptid chains and tends to remain undissolved in those lumps. Also make sure that your wine is sour enough (that's why there's some lemon juice indicated in the recipe). This is also important for the cracking of the chains. Finally, heat up slowly. The indicated "fifty/fifty" cheese mix (gruyère/vacherin fribourgeois) results in the finest version of cheese fondue, in my humble opinion.

While I wouldn't deny Matthew Grant's judgment about Zurich (the place where I live) and the price/quality ratio is maybe among the worst in this world, but the extended generalization above is going a bit too far. Switzerland (as small as it is) is a far too heterogenous construct to be considered exclusively under the admittedly poor culinary light of Zurich. But even around Zurich, you simply need some knowledge to find the (mostly) rural places, where you can get unique, regional dishes at very fair prices. Finally, there are some youngster establishments (I named two of them in my link above) which offer quite interesting neo-traditional/regional food at relatively moderate prices (at least wrt. Swiss price levels). But in general, I avoid all trendy places, as I had my share of rather horrible experiences. Matthew Grant's not to be missed Bratwurst eatery is called "Vorderer Sternen" and you'll find it in this map.

Absolutely correct. BTW, originally "Schnaps" had the same meaning as "Shot". Producers of fruit brandies are nearly as uncountable as wine producers. There are virtually thousands of microproducers, and their eau-de-vie can be quite different in characterstics. For example, if you have different pear brandies side by side, you are going to watch diverging characteristics like within a flight of cabernet sauvignon wines. Here, Craig Camp gives a en excellent introspection into the world of grappas, which is not unlike the world of fruit brandies. And like with whiskey, it just doesn't make much sense to generalize. For example, this is a list of those 23 Swiss eaux-de-vie who won 2004 a first price among the 300 bottles that joined the event. Bux: That's an interesting association. I never thought of that, but I believe I finished most of my "Metzgete" (slaughter)-meals, where freshly made blood sausage is almost mandatory, with a shot of pear brandy. Most eau-de-vie regions have in common that they are close or within wine regions, and many of them define the northern border of grape cultivating, where the supply of ripe grapes was limited. In fact, I think eaux-de-vie are a juncture between wine and spirits, and not only geographically.

Now that's interesting, I've never heard of such a distilling method. I checked several net resources, and there seems to be different opinions about the production method. The Laird hompage is under construction, but in an archived page they talk about distillation as well as many other sites. I'm really curious about this product, which seems to have a century old history (1700). We have a lot of apple cultivation here, an some eau-de-vie producers make different apple spirit from different varieties.

I'm an experienced eau-de-vie consumer, and I don't touch the pear-in-the-bottle-stuff. You pay just to much for the labour intensive way (bottles on a tree) to produce this. Roughly generalized, eau-de-vie is a spirit distilled out of fruit wine as opposed to distilled cereal wine (Whisky, Vodka, ....). A second variant is grappa or marc, which is produced by distilling the fermented leftover after pressing the wine grapes. Finally, there is a technique to maish berries in pure spirit and to destillate the mix afterwards. Very good eau-de-vie is produced from very carefully selected fruits and has nothing to do with "liqueur". I've never tasted rocket fuel, but possibly the most expensive eau-de-vie might be similar in price at $100 a bottle. European eau-de-vie aficionados are prepaired to pay high prices for outstanding quality. It's mainly consumed as digestif after dinner. Most consumers prefer eau-de-vie at fridge temperatures. Some days ago, I've read here about a US vintage spirit called Applejack, which might be another example of an American eau-de-vie besides Bonny Doon's pear spirit.

As for cultural differences (Euope/North-America), my impression is that there (geographically or thematically) where the "French" cuisine is not so much accepted as the only great cuisine, I think the problem is less pronounced. Maybe due to even more conservatism, who knows. Additionally, as I pointed out, some of the great female cooks work in restaurants with (traditional) family structures (where it pays to be a bit 'nice' with each other, BTW, even when a part of the initial love is gone). edit: wanted to add that the "support" system seems not so important for me, as we find great autodidact cooks/chefs (for example Veyrat and Trama in France or Johanna Maier in Austria). As for the lionization (?), I prefer the cuisine><architecture analogy much more than the art analogy. A railway station that doesn't protect the people from wind or rain is simply flawed, regardless how "sculptural" or "innovative" or whatever it's design might be. I can't think of great dish which doesn't taste good or might be is harmful to your health, how beautiful or creative it may be arranged. Both disciplines have artistic elements, but they still need to be funtional to be truly great. Art doesn't. I think we see similar developments in architecture as well as in cuisine, where's a big appetite for ever new, fast changing and often radically different creations. Partly, these are simply easier to market, because the fleshing out of minor, less obvious differences is much more difficult to sell in the media/news business. No wonder the entertainment industry is greedy for such easily to decipher icons. Many of those spectacular creations live on the simple fact of being different and being in contrast to the tradition, the surrounding and are getting replicated regardless of purpose or context. To invent and replicate such radical creations, an inclination to pragmatism or a certain precision is an obstacle and you should also have a lot of "self-importance". Both qualities (pragmatism and self-relativity), I think, are something women are more proning to, whatever the reasons are.

Just to underline this a bit with an admitteldy somewhat grotesque exageration: Let's think of a lawyer, where you enter the office and ask for a law book and a collection of precedence cases. Or a physician, where you ask for a handbook of anatomy and a book of example cases about knee surgery. What do we expect what their reactions would be?

BTW, on two occasions, I've seen meditarrenean fishermen eating some raw tiny shrimps (gamebretti) as a snack during their work. Just like we eat some peanuts in front of the TV. I bet they don't know that their snack is on the menu list of a ***.

I've read quite a few articles about the recent development at Mondavi, but I still don't know the reason for they troubles. A shipload of debts, I presume?

Daniel, in an earlier post I tried to show that this cirsumstance unfortunately doesn't necessarily mean that these women are less proned to dismiss the due credit to the work of women. In my example, sadly au contraire.

What chefs, that's the question here. Bocuse was considerably more famous than Chapel. (And let's ask Robert Brown about their status regarding the art of coooking, as I'm not an eye witness and Chapel is dead now. I'm sure he has an answer). Bocuse was the prototype of the modern chef engaged in many, partly industrial activities and a predecessor in this regard of, for example, Ducasse. There are really considerable differences. For example, Chapel, the teacher of the most famous cooks of the present, refers in his book to two absolutely unknown cooks, but doesn't write a single word about the superstar chef Point, where he worked as a disciple. A matter of character, I think. Therefore, I believe we have to make a distinction between en vogue great chefs who are acting along present paradigms, and great chefs who are going their way, rather unimpressed by media hype and circus and are doing a unspecatcular, yet very precise work. The second kind is much harder to detect, but surely not because they weren't great cooks (or chefs). If this my thesis is correct, then it's maybe worthwhile to examine whether there are mechanisms which promotes much more male chefs within the first category.

Wrt. the concerns of supporting terrorism by dining in a basque restaurant or tapa inn which pays the "protection money": I believe it's not so easy to to consume a pizza in Naples, where the owner doesn't pay the "pizzo" (protection money) to one of the families of the Camorra (Mafia) there. Estimations say that about 50-70% of all shops, restaurants, pizzerias, whatever pay the pizzo. Usually, the sum is small and never that important as discussed here, but nevertheless .... I' don't think anyone who's consuming a pizza or any other dish in Naples should feel guilty about supporting organised crime.

Or could it be that the sommeliers think that "these foreigners" are questioning their capabilities and ultimately their role? Of course, this is a prejudice of their part, but on a subjective level, there are no prejudices. I have some knowledge about wines, but in the presence of a French sommelier in a French restaurant, reading the wine list seemed always a bit like one of "these" formalities to me. I use to entrust his recommendations and I'm using the list rather as a price guide and as a an aide to discuss two or three of his proposals. Just my $ 0.02

I agree, Miguel. I think it's not ours to judge the risks - imagined or not - others should be willing to take. I applaude everyone who sticks out his neck, though. (as I applauded those who blew up Carrero Blanco) Basta ya!

I'm familiar with this not so rare practice in the Piedmont, where in many restaurants the courses use to be announced verbally and sometimes the supply of certain ingredients (baby goat, wild porcini mushrooms for example) is just not enough to accomodate all guests. And even then I ask somtimes for "fuorilistino" (not uncommon in Italy, a "not-on-the-list", though they haven't a list anyway there ) which is sometimes a "leftover" dish cooked for the owner family. But I've never experienced being served with an "irregular" course (not to mention without being asked or at least being explained the reasons and having a choice). So I agree, what you experienced there is bad manners.

Years ago, I had courses in paedagogics. There are some quite known experiments in this field, where you distribute a certain number of essays (written by male and female pupils) to male and female teachers to give marks. Then you exchange the names on the essays (where the pupil's name was "Peter", there's now "Barbara") and you do the same again with exactly the same essays. The alleged "female" essays get consistently and significantly lower rated. Unfortunately, female teachers are more influenced by the "gender" of the pupil and tend to rate the "female" essays even lower. So maybe influential female gastro critics wouldn't be of much help here to compensate the discussed problem. I'm not sure, but I think the majority of the restaurants run by great female chefs I talked about (Italy, Austria) are family enterprises, where the woman is in the kitchen and the husband is occupied in the guest room. Quite often, she does the buying of ingredients for the kitchen and he's occupied with the supply of wine and cheese. A question of balance, it seems, and not simply "role exchange".

Hello Swisskaese! Then you know it all. The grotto, the polenta, the wild porcinis and the glas of merlot del Ticino. My mother lived there in Vico Morcote (just above Morcote at the tip of the Luganese "peninsula"), if you know that place. She ran a tiny osteria there for a while, the "Böcc" in Vico. Salutoni!

Opposed to the art of preparing potato gnocchis, this Roman version is just the right thing for cooks who want to achieve max pleasure with minimal effort. (The potato gnocchis are a science for itself, at least for me (potato type, flour type and such things. I enjoyed such airy, fluffy, melting potato gnocchis in the Piedmont, that I stopped to make them. It was too embarrassing). As I said, a polenta made by wheat grit (?)/seminola (?). Exactly the same blues like like the polenta but with 1 cup of seminola instead of cornmeal, but then I choose 2 cups of pure chicken stock instead of water (and let's not forget the cup of milk). And this time stirred (seriously ), because it's done in 20 minutes and you don't need that much strength. And it should be not that thick/firm. When finished, let it cool for three minutes (to avoid coagulating of the egg) and add an egg and 2 oz. of parmigiano. Skim (?) it on a flat baking plate, an inch thick, maybe a bit less. Let it cool and put it in the fridge if you dont' use it within 2-3 hours. Cut it in rectangles (maybe 2 x 1 inch or somewhat smaller). That's the Gnocchis. Now prepare crunchy, fried sage together with a bit finely chopped garlic in some foamy, slightly hazelnut browned butter. I'm very cautious and I do the garlic separately to avoid any brown or even burnt garlic. Now layer your Gnocchis in a gratin mould and then layer some butter flakes with some parmigiano (but not too rich!) and some sage/galic mix and then again a layer of gnocchis and so on, maybe for three or four tiers. I do it rather pyramidal to attain more surface, because now I place it in the oven at gratin heat and keep it there for 30-40 minutes until there's some golden browning. Serve. More than once when a brought this thing to a party, the mould was virtually looted within minutes and I should have brought along printed recipes. If people have only a slight inclination for Italian food, they simply cannot resist.