mikerock

thanks guys. la lupanar was exactly what i was looking for mike

hey y'all. i'm looking for a byob similar in theory to these (prune and ivo & lulu) great establishments. location isn't super important, but manhattan or brooklyn would be best. thanks a bunch for the interest/help mike

i went about 2 weeks ago and had a great time. i tried 2 of their panninis (proscuitto and mortadella) and thought the mortadella was fabulous. although it was on a tues night, the place wasn't very busy and it took forever to get the sandwich. they also have a great (but small) beer list which i think goes with hams and cheeses much better than wine. i def reccomend it.

market bistro/restaurant 821 @ 821 market st. in willmington. you can check their menu out at their website, plus i've been there w vegetarians and as long as you let them know when you make the res, they will make entrees for you if there's nothing available

everytime i walk past this menu it screams "confusion!" at me. the menu before was much more interesting than your average bar, but it was still grounded in some type of ideal. this thing is just crazy now, though.

i had my first experience at tartine last night and was very happy. in the online reviews it said it was a byo (always a plus because that meansd a trip to moore bros.) but when i got there they had 6 bottles on their list? either way they were more than happy to open my bottle (graves chinon 2002). i started out w the pate maison. kind of like a country pate. it was way too cold though and i didn't get to appreciate how good it was until the end. very simple and a little hard but a very nice pork flavor and some very good cornichons. i really wanted the steak frites (i was a vegetarian for 7 horrid years and have a compulsion to get steak very often) but i felt i had to get the frog legs cooked by a 75 year old frenchman. i hate to complain about portion size, but there were so many frog legs. swimming in a superb garlic/parsley butter and tomato confit. they were absolutely divine and even better when i was urged to give into my animal side by the chef who instructed me to use my fingers. to end the simple meal an excellent simple dessert, a square of puff pastry topped w red wine poached apples and dressed w an otherworldly creme anglaise. there were absolutely no people in there and he mentioned 2x how slow their weekdays are. so you guys have to get there and makes sure his place stays open. and go on a weeknight and enjoy the solitude. the address is mentioned above, but just in case it's on the s.east corner of 4th and bainbridge. one more thing, they had poularsky on the menu. which is a russian dish of fine chopped chicken that is put back together w mustard and cream and then sauteed. it is very good and very uncommon. that alone is worth the trip the rest of the menu (hopefuly my memory is correct) apps: onion soup haricot vert vin greens slade lentil salad w dijon vin and some tomato thing (sorry) ent: mussels (they were out when i was ther so i din't ask for any details) st. peter's saute (talapia) pork chop dijon steak frite poularsky frogs legs and one more thing (again, my apologies)

the website for kettle lakes is www.kettlelakes.com. if you are familiar with tully or rt 81 it shares a parking lot with the hotel and a bank just off 81 exit if you are going north and off the exit and under the bridge if you are going south

do you just mean frou frou drinks in big glasses or any drinks in big glasses? because i def hav an affinity for unhealthy sized manhattans

the old kuhn rikon peeler with the big hole in the handle. i'm still using my old dull one because i can't hold the new ones the way i'm used to

all my fine dinning excursions in pittsburgh were pretty bad. but casual dinning is great. i love sausages and find this to be an amazing sausage town. much better than i get in philly. i went to a sandwich shop where you could get a fried egg on any of their sandwhiches (not an amazing feat but they actualy had it on the menu) and they also had a specialty sandwich with fries on it. if this sounds familiar and you know the name please let me know

i started drinking early on and will omit all my getting plastered on the way to school trips. but the most fun i've ever had getting completely drunk was a couple years ago. i was 21 and cooking at avery nice rest in central new york. we did a lot of paired wine diners and the such so i accompanied the maitre'd down to nyc for a wine tasting at the marriot marquis. the day started out with a tutored 5 yr vertical tasting of joseph drouhin. then we went to lunch at the morel wine bar and , for some reason, paid for wine and food. then went back to catch the start of the grand tasting. like i said, i was quite the drinker already and my partner in crime was just as able bodied (and 7 years older). we reallyheld our own there for about 3 hours. then the first real mistake of the day. the tasting was taking place on a circular walkway above the hotel bar. my partner noticed some people enjoying a martini and insisted that we "take a break" and have a drink. a cople manhattans and were back in business things at the tasting now started to get a little weird. we were talking too much. way too much. i scared the hell out of the wine guys from nobu (you can picture a drunk, bearded 6'3" 180lb white guy towering over two innocent japaneese guys yelling "your place is awesome. i mean it guys, fuckin' awesome." as the tasting started winding down our wine rep found us and invited us out to dinner. this is where the story turns regrettable. as we're walking down the street to meet him at his hotel we pass a beer store selling all sorts of little gems unavailable back home. it being 5:00 and our return flight home some 15 hours away i thaught it a perfect time to buy 3 six packs worth od single bottles and lug them around. we climb into the cab and are whisked away to none other than grammercy tavern. as we pull up a horible feeling starts to well from within. not because i'm going to throw up. but because i'm about to waste a free dinner at one of ny's best. i'd had probably 70 or so "tastes" that day. my favs at the time were big reds and icewines so my mouth was shot. i was starting to get that almost stimulate feeling from the booze and was in no mood to relax and take in the meal. and i was going from lucid but poor decision making intoxicated to drunk. i did what all of us would do in that situation. i grabed a bottle of beer out of my bag and started drinking. this did set off some alarms with the waitstaff, but to their credit instead of freaking out the brought me a glass and poured my beer into it and let me go. i won't get into the food of the night cause i can't remember. i know i had sturgeon and spinach. not really sure what else. in fact that is where the night kind of winds down. i have interspersed memories of drinking more of my beer with some bouncers on the street, eating caviar and potato chips at a russian bar called KGB (it was on the menu not some white trash thing i made up) and being coerced into a tequilla bar. the night rounded up nicely i suppose as i was woken from my sleep under a luggage rack at jfk by the very early morning cleaning crew and told i wasn't allowed to sleep there. all my beer was gone and i was put in charge of waking my now comatose partner from his sleep on an abandoned reception desk nearby. all in all it was a great time and i didn't throw up. but i've made myself go back to grammercy and craft (and spend way too much) to make up for the lost opportunity

i would love these to be "in": ballotines gravies with interesting roux (bacon fat, foie gras fat, rendered avacado fat) trotters sherbets i would love to say goodbye to: seared foie gras vegetable confit (isn't confit cooked in it's own fat?) all those other artfully missused culinary terms to make a menu seem more interesting

for me it was always bacon (except for those horrid vegetarian years) and still is. but since my move to philly i have been trying to make up lost time with scrapple scrapple (1/2" slice floured, seared and baked) 2 poached eggs bagel (spread w bacon fat and broiled) sarraccha (sp?) club soda on my day off i like to substitute victory prim pils or pilsner urquel for the club soda. not because of some jones for booze but because it makes me feel like a bad kid and the pils tastes greatw the spicy sarraccha and the peppery scrapple. also if i have people over i like to do a london broil (large group) or hanger steak (small) and the make a pan gravy with a little bacon fat roux

snl also had the cookie dough energy drink. my favorite visual is will farell sitting in a soccer goal while slowly pouring cookie dough all over his head. there was also a great moment on the kids in the hall where dave foley is watching bruce mcculloch eat soup. the soup is delicious, but dave won't reveal the secret ingredient until one more bite, one more, one more and the the scene is quiclky cut off as dave says "i made it with my..." i hate to be anal, but the kramer handsome cab story has been refrenced a couple times and the word beefaroni keeps being mentioned. but it was actualy #10 cans of beefareen-o. "fit for king and queen-o"

the marinade for torchon is 1T sugar, 2Tkosher salt, 1t Pink salt (optional) pepper to your taste and armagnac or cognac (just enough to coat the liver 2-3T). it isimportant to soak the liver in milk overnight to draw out the blood. this is especially important for cold presentations as they are not usually cooked very long. then place in marinade for a night on the third day wrap your liver up into a torchon (long tube) and poach for about 45-60 secs. if you don't have an interesting stock or wine to poach in, i would reccomend wrapping the torchon in plastic wrap and just poaching in water as for freezing, once it's thawed you cannot freeze it again so if it is/was already frozen, you must deal with it all at once. for searing, cut 3/4"-1" crosswise slices. make sur to score (xxxx) one side and sear on that side first.

to answer the other question (preperations) my favorite way to prepare foie at home is to roast it whole. there is nothing more fun (and more impressive to guests) then to bring to the table a beautifuly seared and steaming whole foie gras to the table. i roast mine in maple syrup and chantrelles and then add a little chervil at the table. the inside is almost molten foie gras. perfect to soak into brioche toasts on the side.

this may be a little late to help out with your soup, but i think i can help out. my favorite way to incorporate foie into soups is in a hubbard squash or pumpkin soup, but the following technique could be used for any idea. a little foie gras goes a long way so for 6 people i would get the (previously mentioned) portioned and frozen slices. it's about 3-4 oz. place a heavy bottomed soup pot on a med-high flame score (xxxxx) one side of the foie gras and season with kosher salt and pepper quickly sear the scored side (1 min) and then the other and remove reduce heat and use the rendered foie gras fat to sweat and saute your veg (mirepoix, shallots, garlic whatever you're using) add stock and cook as a normal soup. when your soup is all done your going to puree the seared pieces of foie (w a drink blender or immersion blender) into the soup and strain. i've done this many times at home and work and it is always beautiful. a little cream will allow the foie falvor to travel even further. the onlyreason i say to scale back on the foie is i believe that the beauty of foie gras is in large part the texture. this, sadly, is lost when put into a soup situation. hope this can help for next year's xmas

i agree with the not over ordering at a bar, but when the good dog opened they made such a big deal in their print adds, and on their chalkboard menu, that their chef was from the cia that i guess i expected them to handle calamari. in answer to katie's question, i will be working at good dog's other neighbor the striped bass. everything is looking very exciting inside

i was all set to goto one of my favorite sushi spots (shiroi hana) for lunch yesterday but was sidetracked into good dog (next door). i had a horrible squid salad. the food did not warrant sharing so as i did not not try the sandwiches my fellow diners disinterest led me to believe i was missing nothing. don't get me wrong, i think this is a great drinking bar with excellent beer and a fun wine selection (and the evening bartenders actually know about it!). plus the have industry nights for all of us hardworking (and drinking) restaurant workers.

if you haven't been to kettle lakes (in tully) then you shouldn't be discussing the best food in the area.

this place is outstanding. i went there 2x and ate of their regular menu (both times theye were out of foie gras) but all was excellent. i remember an app of lobster pot pie and i got the hanger steak with brussel sprouts and demi glace. the topper was a 7 course tasting menu in their wine celler. in addition to excellent food, on mon and tue they have 1/2 price wine night (a special menu of half priced wine by the bottle) this resulted ion a tremendous overspendin because we kept telling ouorselves it's only $40 for an $80 bottle over and over again. the food was amazing and i'll have tio consult my notes the exact details (it was in aug) but the capstone was def a whole roasted foie gras with chantrelles and figs. it looked so menacing comiong from the open kitchen to our table and dissapered almost instantly. i def recomend this place to anyone within an hour or so of willmington

i can't believe that the only disscussion of, in my opinion, the best restaurant in the city is directed at their ineptness at handling their wine service (which i strongly dissagree). i have had many wonderful times there. including a complimentary glass of gruner that led me to get a whole bottle. i've also been there sweaty, alone and straight from the kitchen and been treated just as well as with four and in my best sunday duds. that all aside the real reason we go out should be the food. my most menorable dishes were the pig trotter and pink shrimp cakes (which i got for dessert), the rabbit escabeche w/ snails, and (i hate to admit i ordered the chicken) the milk poached chicken breast w dark meat ravioli and natural jus.

i can't believe with all the mentions of the obesity episode no one mentioned dr nick's advice on weight gain... "instead of chewing on gum, chew on bacon." also the eastern european cafeteria chef's recipe for gravy "it's just brown and water" which i think may also be my mothers recipe