ludja

I agree with Smithy, these look perfectly fabulous, anisette! I do have a (perhaps silly) question. Did you start with the recommended 17 x 11 inch jelly roll pan to bake the nut layer and did you get 8 slices out of the final recipe? By reading the recipe, I think one would end up with 8 slices, 2 3/4 inches long and about 1 1/2 inches wide. These aren't very large dimensions but of course the pastry is 6 layers thick along with the filling. Anway, just just curious about your comments; I would reallly like to make these sometime! It's funny sometimes how these recipes get translated. "Esterhazyschnitten" sounds a lot nicer than his suggested "Nut Meringue Slices". I'd probably translate them as "Esterhazy Slices" or "Esterhazy Pastry" instead. Afterall, a "Paris Brest" is not usuallly translated as a "cream puff ring". (It *is* a type of cream puff ring, but that just does not exactly capture what it is!) Thank you very much for sharing your experience with this; it certainly prompts me to try them sooner! edited to add: Thanks for your tip regarding the flour for strudel, maftoul. I've been *afraid* to switch to from King Arthur's unbleached flour for strudel but it's great to know that the Gold Medal Organic Unbleached flour will work as well in case I can't get ahold of the King Arthur. There are flours that definately do not have the proper gluten for strudel dough and trying to use one of those can be a frustrating exercise!

I wast there about four years ago, but one great, lower priced place is Cafe Santo Spirito/Borgo Antico on the Piazzo Santo Spirito. Great pizza and other dishes. (Cross Ponte Santa Trinita to the south side of the Arno and to Santo Spirito plaza) My favorite ice cream place which I've mentioned on a few other threads was Carabe (Via Ricassoli 60R, north of hte Duomo) We really enjoyed eating at the trattoria Da Il Latini for traditional Tuscan food. I remember the prices as very reasonable but if you're on a stufent budget this may work as a reasonable "nicer" meal. Via dei Palchetti 4, just off Via del Mora) northwest of Ponte Santa Trinita. Go to the Mercato Centrale (the main market) east of the railroad station. There are a bunch of stalls selling food ready to eat on the ground floor. For lunch I always had good luck buying a panino from almost any random place and wound up getting an excellent sandwich. We didin't get to this place but I had researched it as a less ezpensive option. Trattoria La Casalinga Also in Oltramo (between Pitti Palace and the river) neighborhood trattoria with Tuscan food Via del Michelozzo 9r Have a good time and let us know where you end up eating. It would be great to have more budget recommendations for this thread!

Two birthday celebrations between myself and another couple who enjoy French food and wine seemed like a good opportunity to cook a joint meal from Paul Wolfert's "The Cooking of Southwest France". Here is the menu and a few photos from the dinner. Other photos and detailed descriptions of the dishes are in this post on the thread dedicated to cooking from the book: click Goat cheese and truffled tapanade pastries Artichoke hearts stuffed w artichoke relish and reggiano parmigiano Cremant:de Bourgogne Bailly-Lapierre (sparkling Rose) (These hors d'oeuvres were the only items not from the book.) Torchon of Foie Gras with Toasted Brioche 2001 Sauternes Chateau Raymond-Lafon Salmon Rillettes with Salade Frisee and Toasted Bread 2005 Coteaux du Languedoc Ermitage du Pic S'Loup (white) Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce Chicken Thighs with Pineau de Charentes Casserole of Duck Breasts with Potatoes as in Bigorre 2003 Bandol Domaine de Terre Brune (Provence) 2004 Irouleguy Arretxea Therese et Michel Riouspeyrous (French Basque) 2004 Collioure La Pinede Domaine de la Tour Vieille (Languedoc) Spiced Red Wine Sorbet with Raspberries Gateau Basque 2004 Collioure et Banyuls Vendanges Domain de la Tour Vielle, (red dessert wine from Languedoc) We were able to find two wines that Paula Wolfert specifically mentioned in the book—a full-bodied red from Irouleguy (French Basque) and the Banyuls red dessert wine produced in the Lanquedoc. Other wines were from Languedoc and other points south—Burgundy, Provence and Bordeaux. Credit for procuring the wines goes to knowledgeable and generous friends with a little help from Kermit Lynch’s wine shop in Berkeley. Pineau de Charentes was used to make the wonderful chicken dish. I tasted a bit from the bottle as well; this is a very interesting fortified wine. Goat cheese and truffled tapanade pastries (Gateau Basque in the foreground) ,,, Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce It was a wonderful and despite the amount of great wine we drank-memorable-dinner!

Yeah! Yet another reason for me to stop by when I'm next at the RTM but then these descriptions of pastrami, corned beef and brisket sound so good...

Lots of good burritos and tacos in the Mission District-carntias and al pastor are two of my favorite meat fillings. I think there is a thread somewhere in CA forum with specific suggestions. You can't get a better deal money and flavor-wise than the huge San Francisco Mission-style burritos. Brandy Ho's Hunan in North Beach on Colombus (near the Transamerica Pyramid) is a long time and perennial favorite for me and my friends. Excellet Kung Pao chicken, Dan Dan nooldes, Smoked ham and roasated garlic, Ma Pa Tofu. Everything I've had there has been great. Per other's recommendations on the board, I'm really wanting to try Shalimar for inexpensive and excellent northern Indian food. I think there are two locations but the one I've seen is a few blocks west of Union Square in the Tendeloin. Saigon Sandwiches for Banh Mi; also in the Tenderloin but closer to Polk St. Mitchell's Ice Cream (old time ice cream shop) in the Mission. Tapas at Thirsty Bear Microbrewery near Moscone Center and the Modern Art Musuem. I haven't been here in a few years so I don't have a recent impression but it had been good for quite a few years before that. You have a couple of nice French crepe places in Philly but if you're interested in something like this check out Ti Couz in the Mission. Nice buckwheat and regular flour crepes. Nice atmosphere too. Greasy spoon breakfast with a great view: Red's Java House on the bay, nearly underneath the Bay Bridge. A little more expensive than some of the straight ethnic joints I mentioned earlier, but still a good price is Chow's. I've been to the location in the Sunset near Golden Gate Park but I believe there is a second location near the Castro.

Thanks for the good explanation. Usually when we want to use uncooked sauerkraut we purchase it in the glass jars. This avoids some of the flavor apparent in canned versions, especially if you're preparing a dish in which you don't cook the sauerkraut. A simple dish using uncooked sauerkraut is to make a salad with kidney beans (canned and rinsed are fine). Just mix the drained uncooked sauerkraut and drained kidney beans. Adjust seasoning with black pepper and if need salt. I can't remember if my Mom adds in any more vinegar or maybe a little vegetable oil. This is an easy and nice cold salad to serve with grilled sausages in the summer. It's tart and refreshinga and the beans add a nice creamy textural component. My mom has made this for years but I'm not sure if it is an Austrian or German dish or not.

^Some comments on the dishes: Looking back through the thread, I think we made two dishes from the book that haven't been mentioned yet, the salmon rillettes and the red wine sorbet. Salmon Rillettes with Salade Frisee and Toasted Bread This was delcious and easy to make. In the book Paula suggests serving this as part of a collection of small dishes--(tomato and artichoke salad, tapanade and toasted bread.) I think this would be great but we served it more simply this time with some vinaigrette-dressed frisee greens and toasted bread. While simpler, you still get the nice acidic and bitter counterpoint from the greens and the textural contrast from the bread. I over processed the mix a bit despite Paula's instructions to maintain more of the texture of the salmon. To achieve this, next time I would probably whirl the butter in the processor (plastic blades) first to make sure it was very much softened, then add in 1/2 of the cooked salmon and 1/2 of the smoked salmon. Follow this with the egg,oil, etc. I would then just stir in the remaining flaked salmons. Be careful with the nutmeg! It adds a key flavor note but you need very little. I proceeded very cautiiously and did not need to add more than one scraping of fresh nutmeg. Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce I enjoyed this dish very much per Mickeycooks earlier descriptions in the thread. It's an interesting sauce b/c there is no egg in it and the pureed asparagus peels add a nice vegetal note to the sauce. I used Plugra butter. The only tricky part for me was in pureeing the peels. The recipe suggests pureeing them without any additional liquid and this was difficult in the regular size blender. We switched to a small pureeing device hooked up to Braun stick blender and it worked better. I added a little of the butter (to be used in sauce) melted and this helped to puree the peels along with stopping frequently to push material off the sides. I had my food mill all ready to go also but I wonder if I would have "lost" a lot of material over the relatively large surface of the food mill... I'm curious to see you handled this, mikeycook, because I did like the dish but this aspect was kind of a pain. Any other comments or suggestions are welcome as well! If I could find an easier way to puree the peels I would like to try the variant dish Paula Wolfert suggests in serving the sauce with a vegetable mix of asparagus tips, baby carrots, mushrooms and turnips. Chicken Thighs with Pineau de Charentes This was so delicious and may have been my favorite of the evening although how to pick... I wasn't there for the prep of this dish but I think it was prepared a few hours ahead and then gently reheated before serving. We had some simply boiled new potatoes with this dish. The sauce is intensely flavored. Thanks also to Swisskaese who I think was one of the testers of the recipe! Casserole of Duck Breasts with Potatoes as in Bigorre This was delicious as well. The savory potato cake with Ventreche (we used pancetta) and onions was a luscious accompaniement to the duck. The texture of the duck was excellent. One ambigious instruction is in the intial stages in sauteeing the onions and pancetta. The recipe instructs you to cover the dish and cook until the onions are silky and the pancetta (ventreche) is crisp. The pancetta did not crispy being covered (I would not have expected it to...) but we just proceed along and the potato cake was very good! Spiced Red Wine Sorbet with Raspberries I really enjoyed this as an interestingly refreshing sorbet. Some thought the raspberry flavor predominated over that of the wine but I thought the wine added an interesting flavor. The spice notes from simmering a cinnamon stick and a whole clove in the simple syrup are nice. I *might* try to decrease their effect a little bit, maybe by removing the spices a bit earlier in the process. The final texture of the sorbet was nice as well. Gateau Basque We had tasted this recipe prepared previously courtesy of Judy Rodger's staff at Zuni Cafe at the cookbook dinner there a year and a half ago. It was every bit as delicious this time as well. The crust is just perfect in texture (not greasy or heavy) and the Basque spice mixture really adds a wonderful flavor to both the dough and to the pastry cream. We folded some more of the mixture into some creme fraiche we served alongside. They served cherry preserves alongside the dish at Zuni and Chufi mentioned she made a fresh cherry compote with it. I'd like to do something like this as well somtime. **One procedural note to add for the Gateau Basque. My friend was making this for the second time. The dough is sticky and crumbly as part of its nature but she found that rolling the dough between cling plastic wrap worked better than the suggested waxed paper. Maybe there were some other differences but she said she would use Saran wrap next time. Thanks to Paula Wolfert for this wondeful book and to all the eGullet members that helped to test recipes!

Two birthdays in the past week and some friends who love French food and wine seemed like a good combination to steer us towards planning a menu from the book! My humble contributions were the salmon rillettes and the asparagus with asparagus sauce. We had a lot of fun and the dishes were excellent. It was a long, leisurely meal; we took some time out to finish preparing the asparagus and duck dishes after the rillettes. I'll add some specific comments on the dishes in a separate post. Here was the menu: Goat cheese and truffled tapanade pastries Artichoke hearts stuffed w artichoke relish and reggiano parmigiano Cremant:de Bourgogne Bailly-Lapierre (sparkling Rose) (These hors d'oeuvres were the only items not from the book.) Torchon of Foie Gras with Toasted Brioche 2001 Sauternes Chateau Raymond-Lafon Salmon Rillettes with Salade Frisee and Toasted Bread 2005 Coteaux du Languedoc Ermitage du Pic S'Loup (white) Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce Chicken Thighs with Pineau de Charentes Casserole of Duck Breasts with Potatoes as in Bigorre 2003 Bandol Domaine de Terre Brune (Provence) 2004 Irouleguy Arretxea Therese et Michel Riouspeyrous (French Basque) 2004 Collioure La Pinede Domaine de la Tour Vieille (Languedoc) Spiced Red Wine Sorbet with Raspberries Gateau Basque 2004 Collioure et Banyuls Vendanges Domain de la Tour Vielle, (red dessert wine from Languedoc) We were able to find two wines that Paula Wolfert specifically mentioned in the book—a full-bodied red from Irouleguy (French Basque) and the Banyuls red dessert wine produced in the Lanquedoc. Other wines were from Languedoc and other points south—Burgundy, Provence and Bordeaux. Credit for procuring the wines goes to knowledgeable and generous friends with a little help from Kermit Lynch’s wine shop in Berkeley. Pineau de Charentes was used to make the wonderful chicken dish. I tasted a bit from the bottle as well; this is a very interesting fortified wine. Goat cheese and truffled tapanade pastries (Gateau Basque in the foreground) Artichoke hearts stuffed w artichoke relish and reggiano parmigiano (A crock of Salmon Rillettes sealed with clarified butter is in the background) Torchon of Foie Gras with Toasted Brioche Salmon Rillettes with Salade Frisee and Toasted Bread Asparagus with Asparagus Sauce Chicken Thighs with Pineau de Charentes Casserole of Duck Breasts with Potatoes as in Bigorre Spiced Red Wine Sorbet with Raspberries Gateau Basque with Creme Fraiche flavored with Aromatic Basque Mixture

That is nice to know that the kolachy and strudel dough recipes are solid. Thanks, maftoul! I had a good kolachy family recipe from a friend but I'm not sure I still have it. Do you mind sharing which flours have been successful for the strudel dough? Rodgers only specifies "unbleached" but we've gravtiated towards and stayed with King Arthur's Unbleached Flour. Other regular flours did not work for us but maybe simple getting unbleached flour is sufficient.

I came oh, so close to buying this cookbbook when it first came out. It was featured on "The Splendid Table" one week, with loving detail of the interior and ambience of Austria's kaffehausen, and information enough about the recipes to set me drooling. In my mind's eye I could see myself, lingering (in such a setting one lingers, one does not dawdle) with a friend over fine layers of pastry, as distinguished souls strolled by for their own tables. Or relaxing over a book I'd brought from my graduate class in 18th-century European art. I was going to get that book, and create a little kaffehaus ambience of my own in my good cheerful home. Then I looked around me. I rarely bake, save for the occasional foray into bread baking or the safe batch of chocolate chip cookies for the office. My husband doesn't eat desserts. My expanding backside tells me I should eat them less. I decided against the purchase. Thank you for starting this thread. I look forward to more posts, so I can vicariously cook and feast from this book: sin without the wages, so to speak. ← Thanks for the wonderful post, smithy! The evocation of the graceful Kaffehaus's in Vienna, Prague and Budapest and elswhere in Central Europe do add a lot to the enjoyment for me as well. Yeah, it can get harder regarding desserts depending on all sorts of factors. My sister developed lactose intolerance as an adult, on older relative has Type II diabetes and another needs to nix gluten. It makes it more diffcult to have Austrian desserts when I go back home now...

The way to drink espresso... no cardboard cups! I hadn't had that many Poruguese wines besides vinho verde but recently I started tasting some great red wines from Portugal made with the same grapes used for Porto. I think the wines were from Dao or Douro. Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us, therese!

If possible I'd wait until the kitchen/painting were more complete before making a decision in order to get a better feel for how it fits in. From what I can tell right now I think it looks great... I like the darker bands and it seems like it will really contribute to the retro feel you are going for.

Here's the link to Chefs Aki Kamozawa's and H. Alexander Talbot's wonderful blog: click Unfortunately they and their supremely creative cooking are no longer in Colorado or at Keyah Grande in Pagosa Springs.

Have you had a chance to read Pollan's book yet? I found the information to be quite a bit more challenging and nuanced than you have mentioned several times in this and other threads.

Pretty... Thanks for your observation on the acidity. I have a few desserts made with orange that do suggest using some lemon juice/zest to pump up the brightness a bit.

Thank you for your wonderful and inspirational blog, mizducky, and I have to also give a big congratulations on your new journey with food and health! Any comments on the Kasekrainer sausage at the Linkery? I've heard of this Austrian sausage but have never tasted one. I googled to get more info and acutally came quickly to this post from the Linkery blog: click The Linkery looks like a pretty neat place overall. They have an extensive blog with updates on their sausages, food and other general food-related issues and a very detailed website. I think I'll check them out next time I'm in San Diego... Here is some other info on their restaurant from the blog with reflections on some of their accomplishments on the occasion of their 2nd anniversary: click

Should be interestng to see what he picks, please share the selections with us! Somehow I was thinking initially that he would be surprised with a new pie each month but it is pretty cool idea that he'll get to pick a pie that he hasn't had in a long time, one he's always dreamed of tasting or else one that he's never even thought of before. Another place to seek inspiration is from "Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie" by Ken Haedrich (2004). I took this book out of the library and though I would bookmark a few recipes to copy. I ended up bookmarking too pages many to copy! I haven't bought it yet but I've thought about it. Just the chapter on apple pies has amazing variety. Pie by Haedrich

Hey, this works out if one is doing the Durango-Ouray-Telluride-Dolores loop or if one is visiting Mesa Verde. Thanks for mentioning this! Old Germany Restaurant Lounge & Beer Garden P.O. Box 1215 • 200 S. 8th St. • Dolores, CO 81323 970-882-7549 Family owned and operated since 1986, our customers have said "this is the finest German Restaurant and Beer Garden in the Country". Open Tuesday thru Saturday 4 - 9 PM, Beer Garden open at 2 PM Tuesday thru Saturday. click Note: Not open on Sunday and Monday

Banning was good to use for the title of the thread to draw people in as Pontormo mentioned, but as pointed out by Russ, Pontormo and others this is not a "banning" issue. I think it's a great move for restaurants that have the means and desire to implement this type of strategy. The original article mentioned that Chez Panisse would typically sell 24,000 bottles of water each year. Growing up we had club soda charged in those old selzter bottles at a small independent soda producer in New Britain, CT. ("Averys"... 'Always ask for Averys'. We would drop off the crate of bottles every week and exchange for a crate of club soda to bring home. Avery's is still in business making all sorts of flavored soda with cane syrup; I'm not sure if they still re-fill seltzer bottles though. http://www.averysoda.com/about.html

Two good places in Durango: Seasons Grill http://www.seasonsofdurango.com/concept.html 764 Main Ave, Durango 970-382-9790 (new American with emphasis on grilled meats; will usually have some game on the menu; elegant/casual restaurant) and Tequila's Mexican Restaurant 948 Main Ave, Durango 970-259-7655 (great margaritas made with fresh lime juice and chile verde) There is also: Steamworks Brewing Co. 801 E 2 Ave, Durango 970-259-9200 (Burgers and beer at this brewery one block up from Main Ave:) A place we peeked into and may want to check out next time (it was closed on New Year's Day): Chez Grandmere 3 Depot Pl, Durango 970-247-7979 (tucked away off the end of Main Ave (the end w/the Durango Railrooad Depot) This had a very nice old fashioned but elegant looking interior; pretty traditional French menu; I don't know have any personal recommendations for the place) If you're not staying at the Strater Hotel (highly recommended for its incredible period furniture and interior) at least check out the lobby and other public spaces in the hotel. There are two nice places to have a drink here: the authentic western saloon from the late 1800's and "The Library". The Library also has beautiful period woodwork and turn of the century lighting, furniture, a fireplace, interior balconey area, and serves cocktails and wine in addition to beer. The saloon is more casual and rustic. (Until the last year or two they still had old wooden saloon doors at the entrance for the saloon. There is live music somtimes.) A stay at the Strater Hotel also includes a nice continental breakfast buffet with dinining in a period dining room. If you have time in your itinerary it would be wonderful to stop in at Telluride (close to Ouray). The old downtown is very nicely preserved and the mountain views from the box canyon are spectacular. Take the the free tram up to the ski resort and stop at the midway point for wine or cocktails in the restaurant there.

When we dined at Chez Panisse in November, they just bring you glasses of tap water - I don't think there's even any bottled water on the menu...let's not forget the cost and damage caused by the actual manufacture and disposal of the bottle! ← From the article JosephB linked to: (The article mentions that Chez Panisse stopped serving still bottled water last summer.) Interestingly, the article mentioned that the per capita consumption of bottle water in the US last year was 26 gallons!

Thanks for the information and links to Rick Rodger's website, sarensho and Betty K. I've already added the errata to my copy of the cookbook! Here are some other recipes from the book that he has on his website: Cherry-Almond Coffee Cake (Meggyes Piskóta): click Walnut Crown Cake (Bubka): click Cookies Chocolate Almond Macaroons (Schockolade Busserln) click Thumbprint Cookies (Hussaren) click Vanilla Crescents (Vanillen Kipferl) click Ischl Tartlets (Ischler Törtchen) click Walnut Crescent Cookies from Poszony (Poszony Kipfli) click I'm kind of surprised more eGullet folk haven't cooked from the book!

"a bird without the 'party' or "celebration'"? This might be the phrase in French for a plucked bird or else it may collogquially imply a plucked bird. Anyway, it was funny to see you mention this since I was just reading a bit about "meat birds" the other week! (The Slavink looks delcious; than you for sharing it with us.) ← Ludja It's called oiseaux sans "tête" (not fête)... birds without a "head"...Cruel but that's what's it supposed to ressemble ← Well, that is certainly less of a stretch, although, like Chufi, it was funny to think of "oiseaux sans fete"!!! Anyway, this is a reminder to realize that sites on the net are more than fallible! Thanks for the first hand information.

^ Your're right in that it doesn't look like a a regular banana cake. I did photograph it in very bright light and I used the flash to illuminate the inside of the cake a bit so that may make a little lighter looking. I'd have to compare some different recipes to see how it exactly differs in ingredient ratios for flour, eggs, butter, white and brown sugar. In any case, I really do like the texture and subtle taste. A generous amount of vanilla and lemon zest also yields an interestingly different flavor. edited to add: I'm now intrigued to try some other more original Gugelhupf recipes (i.e.not with banana) that I have laying around. I think a good Gugelhupf (even one without pureed bananas) has some nice moistness but not in the manner of the American oil-based cakes. I think the oil must have been added at some point as a shortcut (don't need to cream room temperature butter), cost savings (oil is less expensive than butter) and/or as a way to minimize the chances of drying out a cake by overbaking. Tastes then changed with many preferring a moister, softer and more open crumb.

This is a just a guess, but in a recent thread on what to do with the tougher cuts from round steak I was looking at some German/Austrian recipes for "Fleischrouladen" or "meat rolls". (You have a thin, pounded piece of round steak, put a slice of bacon *inside*, a pickle, some onions, mustard, etc and then roll it up and lightly brown it followed by a long braise.) In any case, I was looking through an older all-purpose American cookbook which still has plenty of German-American recipes in it and they translated the meat Rouladen as "meat birds". I've also seen the term before in older, say, pre-1970 American cookbooks.. I though the name might have arisen because the little cooked rolls of meat look similar to what a small cooked bird would look like. (The Slavink look similar) Googling "meat bird" I found this definiition in an online food encyclopedia: click "a bird without the 'party' or "celebration'"? This might be the phrase in French for a plucked bird or else it may collogquially imply a plucked bird. Anyway, it was funny to see you mention this since I was just reading a bit about "meat birds" the other week! (The Slavink looks delcious; than you for sharing it with us.)