ludja

Good information; thank you for posting it. I think the kudos I had been hearing for "The Old House" were due mainly to their former chef, Martin Rios. This information does make the Inn of the Anasazi restaurant newly interesting as well. From what I just googled it sounds like he moved last fall sometime. I haven't been able to find any new reviews online of the Inn of the Anasazi. Hopefully the glitches you experienced at The Old House will be ironed out after the new chef is there awhile. The menu looks interesting.

Here are the dinner menus at: Senor Lucky click The Old House as the El Dorado Hotel click We've look in at the dining room of Fuego at La Posada and it is very pretty. Here is there dinner menu: click So, as mentioned, I've not been to any of these places but am interested in comments if others have experiences to share. The Old House looks to have a special focus on seasonal ingredients. Looking over these menus reminded me that Santa Fe is a good place for game meats--elk, venison, buffalo and quail are often to be found on menus here.

Lots of excellent suggestions already on this thread! It's great to have an updated and vibrant thread on Santa Fe. (And yes, the search function on the top of page is definately the way to go. Between the "advanced" search features and also all the specific delimiters available--poster, sub-forum, thread or topic, title or not--you really can find even very specific information.) It's great to sit on the balcony at the Ore House sipping a margarita and looking over the Plaza. Another nice place for daytime drinks is the rooftop bar at La Fonda. (I also agree with others recs regarding a stay at La Fonda. I recently also had a very good lunch in the beautiful restaurant at La Fonda. I've been in some of the newer hotels (eg. Inn at Lorretto) which are great but I love the older rooms at La Fonda. The atmosphere is just great; I think it is now my favorite hotel to stay at in Santa Fe for both its ambience and location. La Fonda also has a newer section of more luxurious rooms which I've heard good things about from a friend but I've enjoyed the more "standard" rooms which have New Mexico//Spanish wooden furniture and beautiful tiled bathrooms. There are also lots of interesting B&B options in Santa Fe. One we've stayed at few times is Inn on the Paseo which is only a few blocks from the Plaza and which has free parking for guests. http://www.innonthepaseo.com/ (The B&B's fill up pretty quickly, especially the ones within walking distance of the Plaza so if your're interested you need to book well in advance; doubly so if it's during any event like the Santa Fe Wine and Chile Festival). Other nice places for drinks are the bar and attached rooms in the 19th century Staab House at La Posada (a luxury inn complex a few blocks from the Plaza.) Some nice places for a glass of wine with interesting winelists are the gorgeous courtyard at La Casa Sena (good wine shop next door) and either inside or out on the porch at El Farol on Canyon road. We recently spent a nice afternoon drinking P ortuguese and Spanish wines at El Farol along with some good hot and cold tapas. Nice fireplace and quiet lounge/bar area at the Inn at the Loretto. The Dragon Room at the Pink Adobe is fun place. We really like the bar at the old Palace which is now attached to the newer restaurant Senor Lucky. They have redone the bar to update it in some ways but the room still has some of the great 19th century bordello atmosphere. For me too, one of my favorite things about Santa Fe are the breakfasts. It is a great breakfast town—Tia Sophia’s, Café Pasqual, Harry’s Roadhouse, and The French Pastry Shop on San Francisco St outside Hotel La Fonda.. Café Pasqual and Harry’s Roadhouse are great other times of the day as well. Bobcat Bite south of town a bit is a great classic place for green chile cheeseburgers. It’s in a neat small old building out in the middle of nowhere. Make sure you get a good green chile cheeseburger sometime during your stay; it is a classic and excellent combination. There are some other well known burger joints with green chile cheeseburgers right in Santa Fe but I haven't tried them out yet. Another place for casual food like chicken fried steak and bbq is The Cowgirl Hall of Fame. It’s nice to sit outside; relaxed funky atmosphere and clientale. They have a Sunday brunch with live music outside. Il Vicino (on San Francisco St., I think) has very good pizza. It is a small local chain which started in Albuquerque. Nice thin crust, wood fired oven, good toppings. Standout salads as well. (Note, I've only been to Abq locations.) Classic NM food at La Choza (sister restaurant of The Shed which is off the Plaza..). We usually go to La Choza which is more frequented by locals and has good hot and flavorful red and green chile but I've had a nice lunch at The Shed as well which is right off the Plaza. I like Tomasita’s too; I always make sure to get a bowl of posole and some natillas for dessert. (Somehow it seems like I eat more traditional NM food down in Albuquerque…) We had a very good meal and accompanying service at Geronimo's. The service is more formal than at some Santa Fe places but I did not find it offputting or very different from many restaurants with a similar level of food in San Francisco. We also got some excellent wine recommendations from the sommelier. Check out the Farmer's Market if it still open when you're there. It's a very nice one and is a short walk from the Guadalupe District. Glad to hear the props for Ristra. I've been wanting to try it out. I haven't been to Coyote Cafe in a number of years but I want to go back again. For higher end food, I think they are still the restaurant in town that incorporates SW influences to the largest extent. Does anyone have comments on The Old House restaurant at the El Dorado Hotel? I've heard good things about it from other sources but have not seen many comments on eGullet yet. Also, the opening comments on Senor Lucky (same owners as Geronimos) were not too propitious; has anyone been there recently?

Sounds wild. Thanks for mentioning this, Pirate (510), and welcome!

Good luck planning the rest of your party, Zee! I think they would both be good, but just to mention that the syrup I was recommending is elderberry flower syrup. It is made from elderberry blossoms rather than the berry and the resultant syrup is a light golden color.

What??? Best, Jim ← Jimi Hendrix is to Zinfandel as ??? is to Syrah... beatuiful and instructive tasting notes, Florida Jim. I'm going to make a note of them and keep an eye out.

It's a great time of year to go; sunny crisp days and fireplaces going at night. Brilliant yellow aspens if you hit that right. You can easily find accomodations with your own kiva fireplace in the room, but if not, many restaurants and hotels have fireplaces going in their public areas. They may be scented with pinon logs which you'll also catch whiffs of as you walk around the city. Roasting green chiles and burning pinon; it's nice to go Santa Fe in the autumn just for the smells. I hesitate to be repetitious by posting hotel and restaurant recs because I've done so many times already on previous threads. I may chime in later or would be happy to answer any specific questions you have or to clarify any you might have after reading previous threads.

I've enjoyed Deborah Madison's previous books and recipes very much, so I'll definately be checking out her new one: Vegetable Soups from Deborah Madison's Kitchen (eGullet-Amazon link) On the amazon link if you look at the full section on editorial reviews an excerpt is provided from a chapter on "Light Broths and Restorative Soups" including the following recipes: Golden Broth with slivered peas, cucumber, and yellow pepper Chinese Celery and Shiitake Mushroom Broth with thin somen noodles Green Coriander and Ginger Broth with tofu Has anyone see this yet?

The sachets of vanilla sugar I've seen in Europe seem to contain about 1 Tablespoon or so. I think they are usually added in addition to the 'bulk sugar" of the recipe needed for sweetening in order provide the vanilla flavor. So--depending on how the vanilla sugar is used in the recipe you may be able to substitute some vanilla flavoring or homemade vanilla sugar. Vanilla sugar packets are usually available in some ethnic markets such as those focusing on German or Polish products.

Check out Patrick S's passionfruit chocolate ganache tartlets in the dessert thread today. They have a beautiful piece of poached apricot on top... Cream Puffs are nice and light in the summer and are easy to create a individual servings. A tangerine-flavored cream pastry/whipped cream filling could be a good variant. (I'm not sure how high the humdity is where you are because that could prove a challenge in preserving some of the crispness.)

I've actually had a very tasty version of this--rice noodles with XO sauce. This dish could be tricky to navigate for someone with shrimp or scallop allergies; it's not obvious that they are a component of the dish. Here's a definition from wikipedia and a link to recent eGullet thread discussing the components and recipes for the sauce. XO sauce from wikipedia eGullet thread on XO sauce

It seems like the disgust is more about it being from KFC than the fact that it's layered food. Hell, seems like plenty of things are layered - so the hate must be coming from somewhere else. I truly think KFC missed the boat by not including biscuits somewhere in the layering. In fact, I plan on making a thanksgiving bowl filled turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, stuffing, etc this year. What's so objectionable about that? ← This may sound trivial but its my belief that good cooking comes from the heart and attention to detail. Which very likely sets your Thanksgiving bowl apart from a mass produced soggy chicken cheap cheese imitation. ← and don't forget the mass produced "gravy" and "mashed potatoes". I have to admit, like some others, when I saw this ad on tv I thought it was another spoof along the lines of the "Taco Town" skit on SNL. To me the offensiveness stems from both the conception of the dish (i.e. the combination of ingredients that includes fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and cheese) and also the known lack of quality of the ingredient components. I love "cheap eats", homey dishes and classic diner food including items like chicken fried steak. I see a huge difference between those and this offering at KFC though. That reminds me, did that pizza ever persist, the one that has a filling of cheese product squirted into the pizza crust rim?

Thanks for your post, Patricia Bun; those combinations do sound very interesting. I've mentioned it in some other threads, but a nice non-alcoholic drink that is interesting and might also pair well with some different foods is elderberry flower syrup with club soda. It has a reallly haunting floral taste that could be somewhat reminiscent of a Gewurtztraminer or Riesling. (It's also great with champagne.) The producer I know of is D'Arbo and it's available at Whole Foods in CA anyway. If you can find the Navarro non-alcoholic grape juices whereever you are, I also agree that they are very nice. Another idea might be a nice limey non-alcoholic mojito-inspired drink--lime, some sugar syrup, mint, club soda. Or something similar with cucumber and lemon.

There are lots of good suggestions on previous threads in the CA forum re: both Sonoma and Napa restaurants and wineries. For restaurants in Sonoma, look at the thread on restaurants in the town of Sonoma and in the town of Healdsburg. Sonoma is pretty spread out geographically, so recommendations would really go hand in hand with what area of Sonoma you would be in. Typically, I wouldn't advise going to Napa and Sonoma in the same day unless you wanted to visit Carneros wineries which are located in southern Napa and Sonoma. If you do have another day or two, the town of Sonoma and Healdsburg are both quite charming with a number of restaurants and many wineries nearby.

Cannolis freshly filled with beautiful lightly sweetened ricotta and the ends dusted with dyed green peanuts instead of pistachios. This was truly a gastronomic abomination.

Thank you for a thoughtful and well written article, Chris. I also enjoy that it features one of my favorite cocktails, the, as you say, elegant and elusive to describe Sazerac.

I think one of my favorites has not been mentioned yet: Peek Frean’s Fruit Crème Cookies (vanilla layer cookie filled with a vanilla creme and a raspberry layer.) Store-bought amaretti can also be pretty good. Ooh, I just remembered Austrian Manner Wafers. I especially love the ones filled with lemon, hazelnut or raspberry. As a kid, I was also a fan of Lemon Coolers and I also liked the waffle-type cookies filled with "creme".

Does anyone know what the primary breeds of pigs are that are used to provide "regular" supermarket pork? I assume most of this comes from breeds that have been manipulated to be leaner, or, "the other white meat"? Is there a special breed designation for the leaner pork and/or are there any standards to distinquish between pig breeds in terms of 'leaness" or "fattiness". I guess what I'm wondering is if you were searching to find a source for pork that was *not* derived from breeds specifically manipulated to be leaner how would you go about it?

You can select English or French on the website petition (upper left above article) For posterity in the thread:

Last year we had a good thread going with peoples comments and notifications of new cookbooks to look out for. Cookbooks published in 2005 I thought it would be a good idea to start the thread earlier this year to catch more of the new cookbooks published in the first half of the year. A cookbook coming out in June that I'll check out is Emily Luchetti's new dessert cookbook, "Passion for Ice Cream". ($ for egullet if you order through this egullet-Amazon link) Passion for Ice Cream (Hardcover) by Emily Luchetti, Sheri Giblin Any cookbooks from this year that you've already bought or ones that you are looking forward to checking out? edited to add: Here's a link with instructions on how to construct an eGullet-Amazon link. . Click

A whole group of Italian cookbooks by Guilliano Bugialli have lovely photos of almost every dish in the book and the recipes seem to be pretty authentic as well. What are some of the good German cookbooks you have? I'd be interested to hear of some of your favorite titles. I'm guessing these will be in German, but that is ok for me.

When you have access to heat with a camping stove or fire: warm fruit compote Stew up a pot of mixed dried fruit in water and a packet of hot apple cider mix until the fruit is soft. Can add some alcohol or brown sugar for flavor at the end. Can also add some some nuts for crunch at the end. I contributed this as a group dessert at the end of the first day of a snowshoe backpacking trip. I was able to bring in some yogurt for the first day and so sweetened that and served it on top.

Something that I really don't enjoy eating on a very hot day (w/o AC) is a big bowl of pasta with hot red sauce or a ragu. I've done this once or twice and the heat emanating from the bowl persists long enough that it makes for an uncomfortable eating experience; you're hot and sweaty by the end of the meal. A nice warm weather pasta dish: toss cooked pasta with olive oil, lemon zest and juice, ham and black olives. Or, toss pasta with pesto and cooked or grilled vegetables. Let pasta cool a bit before eating...

I like this list; a welcoming host really stands out as a positive for me. It's funny that sometimes a nice welcome can almost come as a surprise! I also notice and really appreciate nice floral arrangements at restaurants. At a nicer restaurant, the table setting and its individual elements are definately something I take notice of as well. For darker restaurants, I like having a candle or some other individual lighting at the table. Someone above mentioned menu design; a great design that is also not impossible to read in low light is something I notice and that adds pleasure to the experience. Nice first post, chezruth. Welcome to eGullet....to posting anyway!

I don't make many fried things at home, so if there is an opportunity for sometihng good--like fried clams, I'll go for it. Along the same lines, cannoli must be ordered if they are on the menu at a promising place. I haven't tried cooking sweetbreads at home yet and really like them, so I'll often order those if they're offered. I also haven't cooked game often (other than buffalo) so that is another menu item I might gravitate towards. Agree with dim sum and sushi, so far no attempts to recreate that at home.