shelly59

Oh, SHAME on all you mean, nasty people who pick on poor, wee little Rachel. And THIS merits an editorial in Slate?? Are they kidding? What? Slow news day in the foodie biz? Good grief. Oh, and by the way, I am not a food snob just because I am concerned about the dumbing-down of cooking programs on FN and the pandering to the viewer who, for whatever reason, is absolutely convinced that any recipe that does NOT involve a boxed mix is hopelessly out-of his/her league. And cannot be bothered to elevate her/his skills if that indeed be the case. I am concerned about the attitude that taking the preparation of food seriously is so elitist that the cutesy, twee way Rachel Ray or her even more annoying counter-part, Sandra Lee, goes about it is necessary to ameliorate the sheer horror of having to face a stove instead of the microwave or, doG forbid, something FROM ANOTHER CULTURE!!!

For what it is worth, I was more than comfortable recommending places in Paris, armed as I was with the recommendations of yourself and other Egulleters. Getting people to actually GO to the places was another story...not when there is JUST. ONE. MORE. STORE. TO. SHOP. IN. Egullet does travelers, seasoned or amateur like me, a great service. And, thanks for the terrine info, Bux. Very helpful, as usual. Have a wonderful time, Margo. I cannot wait to go back myself.

Another average girl reporting here. Just returned from 5 wonderful days in Paris, basically eating and sightseeing my way through the city. I must say at the outset that I am flummoxed by the myriad stories I am told of recent ill-treatment of acquaintances by the Parisians. The stories are detailed and, as I have no reason to doubt their veracity, puzzling. My sister and I, middle-aged, rather “rubenesque“, NOT wealthy and NOT remotely fluent in French were treated with great courtesy and kindness. I have no idea why we got on so well where others did not. But, we did. I will go back again, I will go back with my 12 year -old nephew, whom I would not knowingly expose to any meanness, and I would not hesitate to go to Paris alone. So, my point is, to anyone undecided, GO! Ignore the horror stories of your friends and neighbors. Go with an open-mind and heart and watch for the details, Paris is in the details, imho. It was all the little bits & bobs that made the trip so memorable. Anyway, on to the food highlights. The service in ALL of the below-listed places was friendly, patient and kind. Thursday night: Dinner at Mansouria - Absolutely delicious. I choose the fixed price dinner of @ 30 Euro and had the following, all of which were firsts for me and all of which I would love to replicate at home: Harira (soupe marocaine) - thick, soothing and aromatic soup made of pureed who-knows-what. Tajine de poulet, olives et citrons confits - Chicken with spices, olives and quarters of tiny lemons I assumed to be pickled or preserved in some way as their flavor was intense. Ou Assiette de pâtisseries et Thé à la menthe ou café - An assortment of little pasteries, served with hot, sweet mint tea. Friday Morning: Breakfast at Café Angelina - 226 / rue de Rivoli / 75001 Paris. - Recommended by just about everyone. And rightly so. Stunning place, so romantic and sweet. Hot Chocolate - Wow! This alone was worth the 8 hour flight J. The waitress brings a small cup, a bowl of the airiest whipped cream I have ever had and a pitcher of hot, thick, dark liquid chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the cup, crown with the whipped cream and Viola! instant nirvana. Smoked Salmon Platter with chive cream - Standard salmon dish, very good. Citron Presse - I came to really look forward to my morning citron presse. I assume it to be straight lemon juice, to which I added sugar and water to taste. Very refreshing. Late Afternoon Friday - Café George V(?)- Champs Elysees - Stopped here for a bite and to rest our feet. Not sure about the name of the place as we basically just went to the first outdoor café we saw. It had a red canvas marquee and was not far from Laduree. Pastis- Another first for me. I was the kid who traded my pastel jellybeans for the black ones every Easter, so this was yummy. I loved the strong liquorice flavor. Terrine - Yet another first. VERY delicious terrine of beef(?). Was nice with the pastis, although I am not sure that it was meant to be eaten so Rough cut beef or pork, nuts (hazelnuts?) blended with other things and molded, chilled and sliced. Excellent. Another dish I will try to make at home. Laduree 75 avenue des Champs-Elysées - Another place recommended by just about everyone. Had glace and assorted macaroons. They were very nice, though a bit sweet for me, especially the hazelnut and the candy floss. Beautiful place. Good coffee. Saturday night - Bofinger 7 rue de la Bastille, Paris - Funny, we had NO idea that this was such a chi-chi place. It just happened to be down the street from where we were staying, we wandered in with no reservations and were promptly seated upstairs. Lovely room, very warm & woody. Our waiter spoke almost no English, but was incredibly sweet and helpful. Anyway, I chose the fixed price menu, as usual. . The fixe-price came with a choice of wines and so I chose the Riesling to drink with the meal. Sorry, cannot tell you more then that, except it was really refreshing and light. Pate foie gras with cornichons, and puree of figs. - My first Pate, and I loved it. The other 2 people I was with did not get the fig or the cornichon with theirs, no idea why, but they both melded with the pate beautifully. White fish over a rough puree of artichokes and potatoes. - Not sure what the fish was, sorry, but it had a black & silver skin. Very good. Not thrilling, but good. The potato & artichoke puree was really good. Méringues with glace - very nice, as meringues go. Sunday Lunch - The Musée d'Orsay Restaurant, in the Museum. Easily the most beautiful room I have ever eaten in. And, my very first: Tartare- The waitress was VERY worried that I did not understand that I was going to get a plate of raw meat. I understood full well, and couldn’t wait. I finally was able to communicate to her that I understood what I was asking for and she gave me a big smile and came back with a gracious-plenty of tartare. It was heaped in the center of a big round white plate, with mounds of chopped shallot, cornichon ( I think) , raw egg and a pretty little service that had Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, salt & pepper. There were probably other things that I am failing to recall. I was in heaven. My sister thought I was nuts, as did the couple next to us. Poor them . Will stop talking now as I have waffled on enough . Ask anything you wish and I will try to answer it intelligently

I just returned from Paris last night. Last Thursday we ate at Monsouria, which has been reviewed elsewhere on this website. A Morroccan restaurant, the menu had several vegetable dishes, and if what we ate was any indication of the overall quality, those dishes would be delicious. Here is a link to their website: http://www.mansouria.com/framecarte.html

Did you feel that the meal was worth the price at Les Jardins? And, if you did, would you mind recommending a few items?

Ok, great. 2 Votes for the Hotel Baudy, so it seems the Hotel Baudy will be the place to go. And we will be sure to go to the gardens behind the hotel. Thank you for that extra recommendation. :smile

Thanks for the information.

This topic is BRILLIANT!!! I leave for Paris next Tuesday for the first time ever and your musings could not have been more timely. I have been researching till my head spins. So, Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Would appreciate any suggestions (or warnings ) regarding lunch and dinner in Giverny or Vernon. We plan to be there next Friday. Sky's the limit budget-wise. Much thanks....

The entire review is here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...1.DTL&type=food The whole sequence is rather funny. Or infuriating, depending on your mood. ← Maybe if the reporter had NAMED the errant family in his review and described the adorable antics of the children The mother shouted from across the room that it was OK to give her a glass. Well, THAT pretty much says it all, to me anyway. Idiot.

It seems so odd to me that parents give no thought to their children's comfort these days, wrt eating out. WHY take a small child, with a limited attention span and even more limited palate, to a place that is going to seriously challange both? Then get all snippy or feign obliviousness to the resulting havoc? It seems cruel, at least to me. I started taking my nephew out when he was very young..about 4 years old. But is was to MCDONALD'S, not the Green Room at the Hotel DuPont. We worked our way up..once he learned how to act at a McDonald's type place, we moved up a bit..now at the age of 12 he is comfortable anywhere and knows EXACTLY how to behave. But it took work and patience and foregoing nicer places until he was ready. In my opinion, thats just how it goes... It also strikes me that behavior that would have mortified MY mom & dad is now just, whatever.. My parents were EXACTLY like yours, Kellytree, IF we went out, and we seldom did as they could afford to take 5 kids out but rarely, we were peppered with instructions on how to behave all the way in. And God HELP the one who broke any rule, cus they would pack us all up and head right back home. I have a friend who waits tables in a "family" style restaurant and her solution to bratty kids is to enlist the aid of the kitchen and bring the food to the table as fast a possible and just basically rush the offending party out the door. I watched her move a family with wandering squackers through an entire meal in 30 minutes..it was hilarious. They never knew what hit them. ETA: LOL at Fero Style

First, VERY belated "Welcome to Delaware!", SWoodyWhite & family. And, I LOVE your signature quote To the point at hand: IMHO, people should be able to go about their lives in peace. Why on earth people feel the need to comment on things that are NONE of their business is beyond me, but I know from first - hand observation that they do, loudly and crassly in many instances, just pushing for a fight. So, as long as that is reality, then gay people will need places to go where they can let down their guard and relax. I will not begrudge them this.

No, the downtown Deerhead Hotdog place is gone. There is one on Maryland Avenue, and I believe that there is also another place on Lancaster Avenue (The original??)

I like this place, too. I always get my dogs covered with the sauerkraut, which is wonderful. I usually skip the fries, as the hot dog is a meal unto itself. Edited: Because spelling counts.

I am not surprised. It is just one more dumbing-down of something so that the "lowest common denominator:"is happy..the hell with everyone else. But, I guess that one cannot argue with ratings and if Food Network's audience really prefers clowning/joking/sexing-it-up in the kitchen to cooking, and big, wet kissses to the food industry over thoughtful form and content..well... I suppose that Food Network's general audience would have thought Julia Child demanding and dull .... Whatever...

So, is there a humane way to kill them, relatively speaking?

Thanks, Chris. Looking forward to reading what they have to say, or DON'T have to say

They have quite a cult following..My sister has to bring them back to Wilmington everytime she comes home from Chicago. http://www.fields.com/common/fl_frango.jsp Here is the website, perhaps you can order for expedited delivery?? Fields has wonderful customer service and if I can deliver a pleading overnight, why cannot chocolates be sent pronto as well?? Edited for grammer, or lack thereof.

Sorry to be a bore, but I feel that the behavior of the chef, as well as the bagel guy, is utterly indefensible. I have zero time for abusive people and would rather give my custom to the second-rate bagel man and the not so chi-chi restaurant then encourage such childishness. They are only creating fancy bread and bones, not performing brain surgery, fergawdsake! And it is possible to provide superb products without acting like the Emperor Nero, imho. But, that's just me. And I totally agree that Robb Walsh reacted wonderfully. And what a perfectly elegant revenge .

If you want to have some REAL fun, try eating out with a pregnant woman who thinks the "forbidden foods" thing is nuts. I was appalled at how many people thought it perfectly ok to come up to Kathe and tell her she was going to either hurt or kill her baby cus she was drinking a glass of wine or whatever. It was awful. And her baby is just FINE, thank you very much.

You are Le Viandier, by Guillaume Tirel (or Taillevent). Written in the fourteenth century, you were the first commercially successful French cookbook.

My favorite cookbook is one that was originally my great-grandmother's. It is one of those cookbooks churches used to publish, circa 1870-90 or so with an entire chapter devoted to "sick-room dainties" and another on washing and ironing. I am not being coy about the title, the poor book has been used and read to bits and the spine and front and back covers are long gone. It has my great-grandmother's and my grandmother's hand written notes/adjustments/substitutions/critiques next to many of the recipes..plus recipes clipped from newspapers from 1880 to about 1981. I have had this book since I was about 26 years old and I absolutely love it. The recipes are darn good and the household hints ain't half-bad, either!

Oops, sorry, when I think of clubs I think of food and dancing, my bad . But, thanks for all the info and tips, I really appreciate it.

I would love some recommendations for night clubs for two 30 yr old male friends who are coming over here from Scotland. Although they are a couple, the clubs needn't be "gay" just cool. They travel all over the world ( They are coming to Philly AFTER spending a week in Goa, India and the previous week in Ibiza!!!) and so are somewhat sophisticated. I do not go out much so I have't a clue... They will be staying in town... Much thanks..

I HATE those McDonalds ads so much I am boycotting the food. What insulting, stupid ads...for pete's sake, Phhthttthhh