pirate

On a recent trip, the sommelier at a restaurant suggested a glass of Barolo. My experience in the past has been that it would be a big heavy tannic wine and I remarked to that effect. At the sommelier's urging I wnt ahead. It was a 1999 and very good, not at all like the few barolo's I've had in the past. I commented on this to a friend who is very knowledgable in Italian wines. He said that there was a modern style of barolo producing more forward wines. I'm interested in knowing which produceers make barolo in the modern style and which do not.

I loved "Iron Chef" as a program. Listing the principal restaurants, Torakris. is a good service to Egulleteers. I attended a conference in Philadelphia for a week and started off by dining at Morimoto. I thought the food was rather mediocre compared to some of the Japanese restaurants in Los Angeles and never returned.

The one time I ate in a Japanese restaurant serving Chinese food was while attending a conference at the huge conference center in Kyoto. The restaurant was very close to the Center. The food was delicious and graciously served in elegant surroundings. But what sticks in my mind was that each dish was served in separate successive courses and in separate plates for each diner, a serving style diferent from any other restaurant serving Chinese food I've experienced. Do Japanese restaurants serving Chinese food commonly serve in this Western manner?

Three restaurants are cited in Kateigaho International that I like. They are Cam Chien Gripp\'e, Canoviano and Le Bourguignon.

I must admit I've never had good bouillabaise, even at Michelin starred restaurants. However I have had a superb Marmite Dieppoise, which is creamy and has fewer but distinct and delicious North Atlantic fish. I hope there are other Marmite Dieppoise enthusiasts.

torakris: Thanks, I brought up the richness of cream in Japan because it contibutes to the quality of the pastry and the best iced coffees. I'm considering only coffee, ice and cream. There is the delicious cafe liegois in Belgium and a frozen cappucino made with Kahlua and coffee frozen yogurt at the SFA Cafe in NYC.

One thing I noticed in Japan, in fact on my very first trip in 1990, was not just the phenomonal quality of cakes and pastry but also the cream. The heavy cream was 36% butterfat routinely and I seem to recall even 40% and fresh. Perhaps Torakris can elucidate or the other numerous connaisseurs that contribute and make this site so interesting.

Familia exists even in the USA. Given that organic-bio foodshops are more prevalent in Germany than in the USA you should have no difficulty finding something useful.

I don't agree with banning French chickens but I also don't think they are the best in the world. The best chicken I've had in the past few years has been in Japan (not imported). In fact I was rather disappointed by a poulet de Bresse (so labeled on menu) I had at Guy Savoy.

Bux: How about concerts, opera, theater, etc? Personally I wish that I had attended the full complete performance (5 hours) of Berlioz's "Les Troyens" recently performed in Paris

torakris: thanks for the information on Spoon. It's interesting that it's closed. Particuliarly since it got excellent reviews when it opened. Well the next Spoon is set for Gstaad. I wonder about the fate of some of the Roppongi Hills restaurants including L'Atelier, which was offering fixed price dinners at 6000 yen.

I believe there is a branch of SPOON (Alain Ducasse chain) in Odaiba. Am I correct?. Anyone eat there?

LBH: I am virtually always in Paris on business dining alone. For wonderful friendly service and deluxe dining on a Saturday night I would go to Guy Savoy. Otherwise for high end bistros with good but formal service, I like in the order given Relais Plaza (in the Plaza-Athenee) Benoit Garnier (across from Gare St. Lazare)

Fat guy: You sit at a counter at L"Atelier.

Torakris: It is the Shibuya store of Kinokuniya. It was very spacious and elegant and had a very fine selection of wines. It looked rather new last year when I stopped to see it. If you get the chance check it out. Le Bourguignon made the Kategeiho International list of ethnic restaurants, as I discovered when I finally got home and retrieved the winter issue yesterday. This will make it harder to get in. Two other of my favorites were also on the list. The architecture of Roppongi Hills is very notable . I particuliarly liked the terracing and stonework of the Hillside shopping area. I keep thinking that the Getty museum in Los Angeles should have been designed that way instead of having the rather routine architecture of Richard Meier.

I have been disappointed with Patricia Wells' recommendations. In October I lunched at the Winter Garden in the Meurice (under Alleno's supervision) and also at the comparable Relais Plaza of the Plaza Athenee. The latter was superior.

Torakris: Thanks for getting the name. Since I wasn't buying I didn't check prices. The department stores are much bigger and much more complete. I recall that the Tokyu department store in Shibuya uphill by Bunkamura (spelling?) had a rather fancy Kinokuniya (spelling?) store. It's not the store at the JR station. Have you been there?

In the Roppongi Hills complex there is a two story food store with the name that starts Foo-D ... (not a misprint). That's as much of the name as I remember. In any case I checked it out and was amazed by the array of products. One would never see the "in" water of France "Wattswiller" in the USA and there it was. A nice selection of products from Peck in Milan (from which city I had departed). Loads of other interesting products and clearly carefully selected. Yes Torakris the carrots are enormous by American standards. I did not go to Robuchon's Atelier. Alas I ate at Robuchon's three star place in Paris while still extant and was disappointed. I can't remember the name but in Omote-Sando (Sinbad is correct about spelling) near the new Prado store there is a Japanese seafood restaurant on a corner and down a flight of stairs from the street at which I had a nice lunch at a reasonable price. A few slices of sahimi, rice, grilled red snapper, miso, tea and white sesame ice cream plus a glass of beer on tap for a bit over 3200 yen including service and tax. Some English spoken. The longest lines were for the shop "Le chocolat de H" in Roppongi Hills.

I stayed the first week of December at the new Grand Hyatt in the recently opened 4 billion dollar Ropongi Hills development. The hotel itself is great with very well equipped rooms. The Grand Club served very nice breakfasts and also small dishes with wines in the evening. Admittance is a premium over the regular room rate. There are several restaurants in the hotel. I tried three of them. The Oak Door was attractive especially the stonework. They did simple grilled and roasted dishes, salads, sandwiches etc. The food was decent. There was a Japanese restaurant which was very nicely designed especially the massive polished stone counter. Very good service and good enough food. The third was the French Kitchen purportedly a brasserie. This was the one place in the hotel where the interior decor failed. The food and service were poor for Japan. Not more than 300 meters from the hotel is the restaurant Le Bourguignon which is small (I counted 20 seats) but nicely decorated like a French country inn. The food is pretty much prepared to order. Food prices comparable to the French Kitchen, but wine prices are a third less. Excellent service and English spoken. I think it would get a Michelin star.I again had excellent sashimi and sushi at Kyubey in the Ginza. Ekki the restaurant in the Four Seasons Maranouchi which I wrote about last year was a disappointment this time except for one dish with caviar and sea urchin mousse. Alas a Japanes restaurant I wanted to eat at was fully booked for the week. Roppongi Hills is magnificent and worth a visit. Shopping is interesting but it's not competitive with the nearby Omotesando area, which is getting a massive development where those dingy apartments were near Harajuko. Also not competitive with the Ginza.

I have mentioned my two meals at Cracco-Peck over Thanksgiving on another thread. Cracco-Peck service was outstanding and I tried in that earlier comment to express that it was not just the technical perfection of the service but the feeling that the honor of the restaurant was at stake. I was happy to be informed that the restaurant has been promoted to two stars which it certainly desrerves. One of my editors in California told me he had eaten there in September and also rated the the service outstanding. We also both agreed that the selection of wines by the glass at Cracco-Peck was far superior to any of the 3 stars in Paris. Somehow a thread on the Euro-Dollar problem has vanished. In reply tp Craig Camp's comment let me say that now is the time for Italians (hopefully egulleteers) to buy a house in Chapel Hill and for Peck to buy A Southern Season. The latter especially.

Patricia Wells had an article about the restaurant in last weekend's International Herald-Tribune.

There is always speculation in currencies and currently it is bearish on the dollar . Most big banks and brokerages are betting against the dollar and brokerages on Wall Street are betting against the dollar and profiting handsomely. As am I although i wish I had not taken some dollar profits too soon. Just as the overvaluation of the dollar didn't last neither will the undervaluation.

I did a search on the web and found the patisserie "Qu'il fait bon", referred to above.Their website is primarily Japanese but there are pictures and some French. The Aoyama store is the one with which I'm aquainted . Small. No smoking. website: http://www.quil-fait-bon.com/top/top.html

The quality level of pastry in Tokyo is certainly the equal of any place in the world. Apart from the department stores, I don't remember the name but there is shop with excellent offerings, especially with fruit. It is on the street parallel to Omotesando, one iblock north and just east of Aoyama. They have a branch in Daikanyama and I believe originated someplace in the Kansai region. Probably Torakris knows the name, which is a phrase.

It's been several years but I've twice enjoyed Le Palanquin in the 6th near San Sulpice.