ludja

Sounds delicious cacao. Is it possibile to buy injera bread or did you make it yourself? (Just for search purposes, later on, is the spelling for the clay pot a "Romertopf" or is this a brand name with a different spelling? (german roots: Rome Pot) edited to add: I went back and googled "romertof" and there are some entries, looks like it may be a brand name. If you're looking for more recipes though, thr googling 'romertopf" and you'll find tons. Thanks again for sharing your chickpea "experiment"; your post and paula wolfert's championing had inspired me to read more about clay pot cookery.

I ate at La Fondue once, but it was over 10 years ago so I'm hesitant to comment on it now. I remember we had a nice time and that it was expensive on a post doc's salary but can't recall much beyond that. I've heard of a restaurant in SF called Matterhorn but have not yet been there. Withour more info, I'd probably try this over La Fondue. The last few years we've been making our own fondue with friends that have a setup during Lake Tahoe skiing weekends. My parents just gave me their 1970's fondue set, so I'm hoping to do some at home too. The price of dinner *would* probably buy a nice new one!

Thanks for the extra info.

True about Meyer lemons, as great as they are they wouldn't help for adding much tartness... Here's Bayless' rec for approximating sour orange juice: 3/4 cup fresh grapefruit juice 6 Tbs fresh lime juice 1 tsp orange zest (i.e. orange part only) Steep for several hours, strain to remove zest and use w/in one day. I can't compare it with true sour orange but it does have a nice tart taste. As above it would depend on the type of grapefruit as well; i.e. to find 'regular' grapefruit rather than super sweet Texas red...

Wait, I need help on this one, is it Blue Coor-ah-sow? or Blue Coor-ah-cow? Is it the former, as I believe there is an accent cedille on the "c"). And where is the accent? ← help

I was browsing through an old Saveur (Jan/Feb 2004) tonight and saw a recipe and reference to a Pepper Pot Dish! (It was in a story picking Philly as one of it's top 100 best things for the year, here as "Most Underrated Am. Food Town"). Anyway, the recipe is an adaptation called: "Veal Osso Buco Pepper-Pot Style". (it does have tripe in addition to the veal). The recipe is not in Saveur's on line archive. The recipe is credited from Lacroix at the Rittenhouse. Did anyone actually have pepperpot soup this past New Years?

I agree that Santa Clara doesn't have too much in the way of restaurants--although there are some good Indian restaurants if you are interested and really want something in Santa Clara... Santana Row would be fun to check out; it's an interesting 'urban planning' experiment (mix of high end retail, restaurants with apts, condos, above and flower-lined pedestrian streets) and as mentioned, Left Bank (I've only been to the Menlo Park location) should be pretty good. There's also an interesting looking Mexican restaurant there (a little more upscale than typical mex restaurants) that looks promising. If you're willing just north of Santa Clara, here are some other ideas for places to have good food and conversation: Afghani House (in Sunnyvale but close to Santa Clara border), excellent food, elegant atmosphere. Amber India in Mountain View is an elegant Indian restaurant with excellent (primarily Northern; ie. not spicy hot) Indian cuisine. (I called both of these 'elegant'; the prices are very reasonable but the atmosphere is white tablecloth, quite, etc). Hardy's Bavarian in Sunnyvale is a very nice German restaurant--which is a difficult thing to find. Very home made and authentic food. As you see, not many recs from me for Italian or French down near Santa Clara... For decent to excellent Italian or French and a bunch of other special restaurants including Cuban or Pan-Mediterranean there are a lot more choices up in Palo Alto, which is ~ a 20 min drive north from Santa Clara on the highway (101); not that much farther than to Santana Row. Let me know if you're interested for these recs if they are not too far for you and I'll gladly post them.

By the French public? Other Chefs in France? The French press? Or the group that would likely be most represented in a Museum restaurant (Louvre or not) Tourists? ← For the purposes of this discussion, the restaurant is not in the Louvre, and I'm mainly interested in the response of the French public unless it would be largely the same as that of the French press. If the response of French Chefs is not uniformly "anti outsider" that would be interesting as well. But given some of what you've said, could the cuisine be based on it merits or lack thereof primarily? If then, how would it be received? Would it just be too different from what is already there or would it be similar other cuisine in Paris?

Great link LarsTheo; I've already added it to my favorite links under, "epicure", "reference"... Will be fun to hear about your eating adventures upon your return if you have time.

If you remember, can you describe this a little more? Was it a 'plain' flavored macaron cookie with a salted caramel filling? Is the filling just caramel or is it blended with softened butter to make a caramel buttercream? Was there a little salt sprinkled on top? I've been making other macarons at home and would like to try and emulate this particular flavor. Sounds like it would be a taste paragon for me as well!

Here's a hypothetical question for people familiar with Chez Panisse (through eating there and/or her cookbooks) and the Paris dining scene. If Alice Waters had opened a restaurant at the Louvre very much in the spirit of her restaurants and books, how do you think the food would have been received? Would it be thought of as something 'novel' or different (in a good or bad way) or would it be similar to other offerings or trends already available in Paris? edited to add: Thanks for the information Margaret; it was difficult to find much on the topic on the net.

some of these special smells and descriptors could arise from brettanomyces or "brett" as it is ?affectionately? known... oh, and in case you don't read the article, another adjective they use is: "bandaid box"...

I agree!

I really like good olives with salmon. Based on a dish from Chez Panisse Menus this is good for more mild tasting spring salmon. You poach the salmon in a classic court bouillon (water, white wine, lemon, onion, carrots, celery, herbs). Serve poached salmon with a knob of green olive butter and a black olive butter melting on top. Excellent.

My only info is coming from Bayless' book; he seems to imply that in the area of Oaxaca some things that we call quesadilla might be called empanada there sometimes... but then in his actual recipes he calls the essentially dry-griddled ones, "quesadilla asadas" and the shallow/deep fried ones, "quesadilla fritas". In any case, what was new to me in this thread was the idea of using fresh masa dough to make a grilled/griddled quesadilla.

ga-vertz-trah-mee-ner Just how it's spelled... ← This is the correct pronunciation--and with the accent on "vurtz" as bottomlesspit indicated. My mom (a native German speaker) often answers my pronunciation questions with "just the way it's spelled"

Is the historical Cross St Market (Federal District) open on Sunday's? It's nice to stop there at the seafood bar in back (Nick's?) for oysters on the half shell at great prices... If they're open on Sunday; they'll be open at 4:00.

Yes, while I was in France a gentian cordial was the local specialty liquor in the rural, mountainous area I was in. Most houses make some of their own, and every shop in the region sold it’s own variety. I am not a fan, but I don't generally like herb-flavored liqueurs. It was a very bitter, medicinal flavor in a lurid greenish-yellow sweetened liquid. ← Thanks lindycat and hersch, it does sound potentially 'challenging' but I guess it will just be something I try out least once sometime!

Thanks LarsTheo... It sounds great, like there would be a great chicken flavor to the dish. I haven't used achiote paste yet, which I guess is a typical Yucatan ingredient. I don’t know that much about Yucatan cooking but flavors/foods I associate with the area are: achiote citrus (orange and lime), habanero chiles raw onions? fish

Wait, I need help on this one, is it Blue Coor-ah-sow? or Blue Coor-ah-cow? (I think it's the former, as I believe there is an accent cedille on the "c"). And where is the accent? Ok, one I hear people pronouncing wth uncertainty is the Austrian wine grape: Gruner Veltliner (umlaut over the "u"): Grew'-ner Felt'-lean-er (accent on first syallable of each word) (I can't think of a good phonetic way to depict the umlaut "u"; but it would be similar to the vowels in "foot")

As Melkor showed and Krys mentioned, citrus is in full swing right now. If you haven't tried Meyer Lemons, make sure you do so! Don't know what your facilities wll be-- but any dessert that features lemons would be nice, lemon-syrup soaked cake, lemon mousse, etc., candied lemon zest, lemon tart... If you have space, these are easy to bring back as well. Other interesting citrus items that should be available: blood oranges, (nice in a sweet salad or savory Sicilian-inspired salad), kumquats and tangerines (tangerine mousse is wonderful). Nice dates should also be available. April brings rhurbarb and strawberries as well, but it's a litlle early for them now...

Wow, that recipe is really wild! Have you actually made these? If so, what have you served them on? (grated, I guess) Welcome to egullet by the way, looking forward to hearing more about your interest in chocolate!

The chickpea, chorizo and pototo dish looks fantastic. Sounds like a perfect cold weather dish. I'm going to try it soon! Interesting that you can't get chocolate chips easily there (nowadays). Are chocolate chip cookies sold in any bakeries there? (I know it's an 'import', but wonder on the inroads, in general, of chocolate chip cookies there. I didn't notice them in my last visit to Amsterdam but wasn't on the lookout either).

I hope you do get some ideas from other folks Andy. My recent SF experiences (in the last year) has been with more "tried and true" favorites rather than some of the new and up and coming chefs--hence, I have no advice to post... I did see the recent Chron article, but again, alas, have no personal commentary to add... Hope the Manresa plans hold.

cool johnnyd, as a born and raised New Englander (and shrimp lover) I've been following this thread with much interest...and dreaming of fresh shrimp out here. Hope you do get to visit and report on the shrimp auction in person. (Actually, I don't know if we can get fresh shrilmp out here; I need to check it out... )