richardv

Are these included in the price of the skillet dinner, or did you pay separately for these a la carte?

I just got the current invite and the price is now $200.

Any chance you would share that recipe with us? No need to repeat what you've told us already about the kneading and rising; just ingredients and quantities would be fine for me. BTW, I have many sizes of those specialty pain de mie loaf pans. This might be the perfect way to put them to use.

I've been an avid photographer for decades and in years past, traveled with a digital SLR, lenses, tripod - the works. I thought nothing about bringing that huge camera (by today's standards) with flash and bounce hood into any restaurant. It never caused a problem and in some cases led to making new friends. In the past couple of years I have become self-conscious about using flash and have been searching for the best low-light, small digital camera I can find.

Convection certainly but if you're serious about European/artisan breads, steam injection.

Our current 12-cup Gevalia has an even worse flaw (for me anyway): When the lid is lifted to place the filter, the condensed water and coffee residue runs from the lid back into the reservoir! In the past we've had Gevalia coffee makers that had a separate lid for the reservoir.

It drives me crazy when I find a "wood burning oven" place that can't be bothered to make their own pizza dough! They spend the money to put in a wood burning oven but go to "Restaurant Depot" to buy frozen pizza dough. Amazingly, I was at a Wolfgang Puck franchise that did the same thing. Wolfgang is famous for his pizzas, they're a big part of the menu and yet he doesn't have them make their own dough to his specifications or even ship them HIS pizza dough frozen. Crazy.

Well, I guess I should have said that bread isn't too difficult for a high calibre restaurant to make well. The breads I've tasted from 'artisan' bakeries don't compare to the breads made at most of the restaurants I worked. Then again, there aren't many great bakeries around here. I suspect restaurants buying bread has alot to do with a lack of qualified staff, not to mention space is limited in a restaurant, and there are never enough ovens in a restaurant... ← If Jean Georges wanted to make his own bread (of the same quality he is currently serving) he would need at the minimum a steam-injection oven (big investment), an area to accomodate a large mixer and cutter, a baker as well as an area cool enough to allow the slow rises necessary for the dough to develop the required character/flavor. All of that to produce a product similar to what he can buy with none of that overhead. I thought the bread he served me was perfect; petit pain ordinaire; flour, water, salt & yeast; complex flavor with perfect consistancy.

Does anybody have any experience with The Spanish Pavillion in Harrison, NJ? Thanks.

Would people be kind enough to weigh-in on DB Bistro Moderne, please? I need a place in the Theater District (right around the corner, actually), and am kind of suspicious that there's no chatter about this place on eGullet. Is it terrible? Thanks.

Well no, read his comments and you will see that he goes on to talk about "some of those people are just bit with vituperative anger and just want to rail on you ... I don't like them." Wasn't Babbo a "no cameras allowed" restaurant?

Well, Mario comments on this in a short interview posted on New York Magazine's site: Batali: It’s amazing, these fucking Websites, these blogs. [Otto co-owner] Jason Denton hasn’t even thought about this pizza restaurant that isn’t even a pizza restaurant across the street from Otto, and he’s getting quoted. I call him and say, “Lips. What are you doing?” and he’s like “I want to tell you, I’m never planning on opening a pizza restaurant … I don’t know what happened on the blog this morning.” Whatever the blog heard is now fact. Bourdain: I think it’s great. They’ve beaten down the wall, and everybody’s invited to write whatever shit they want about you. It’s democratic. Batali: I’m not so much about these blogs by anonymous people saying nasty things about you. I think it’s getting pretty stupid. If there’s something interesting, and there’s somebody editing it and taking care of it, I’m down with it. But some of those people are just bit with vituperative anger and just want to rail on you. Bourdain: It’s inevitable, it’s the tide, there’ s no fighting it. There’s a bunch of these guys that are like Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons, whipping out their fucking little cameras, and five minutes after one of them says it’s the greatest, the next will say that’s so last week. That’s inevitable. I go to all those sites and enjoy them, especially when they’re about people I don’t like. Batali: Well, I don’t like them. __________________________________________ Full Story at: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/05/batali..._much_more.html

I didn't think the question was so much about metric as it was about using weights instead of volumn measurements. The inexact use of cups and teaspoons as measurements in baking seems to be an American thing. Any baking recipe I've ever gotten from a professional baker has all ingerdients stated by weight. To me, baking is a science and the more exact the recipe, the better chance of successfully replicating the result the author intended.

On the Blogosphere. Batali: It’s amazing, these fucking Websites, these blogs. [Otto co-owner] Jason Denton hasn’t even thought about this pizza restaurant that isn’t even a pizza restaurant across the street from Otto, and he’s getting quoted. I call him and say, “Lips. What are you doing?” and he’s like “I want to tell you, I’m never planning on opening a pizza restaurant … I don’t know what happened on the blog this morning.” Whatever the blog heard is now fact. Bourdain: I think it’s great. They’ve beaten down the wall, and everybody’s invited to write whatever shit they want about you. It’s democratic. Batali: I’m not so much about these blogs by anonymous people saying nasty things about you. I think it’s getting pretty stupid. If there’s something interesting, and there’s somebody editing it and taking care of it, I’m down with it. But some of those people are just bit with vituperative anger and just want to rail on you. Bourdain: It’s inevitable, it’s the tide, there’ s no fighting it. There’s a bunch of these guys that are like Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons, whipping out their fucking little cameras, and five minutes after one of them says it’s the greatest, the next will say that’s so last week. That’s inevitable. I go to all those sites and enjoy them, especially when they’re about people I don’t like. Batali: Well, I don’t like them. __________________________________________ Full Story at: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2007/05/batali..._much_more.html

Well, I don't know why she chose or offered what she did, but for a lot of reasons it would be wrong of me with this lady to say that I'd prefer to go to Jean Georges when that wasn't offered. (If that had been one of the offers, I'd have taken it!) I just know with this friend that among the choices she has offered, I absolutely don't have to pick the cheapest one of them. But I think I'd be really rude to ask for Jean Georges when she didn't include it.

Well, the Dining Room at The Modern it is! And the menus look great. Thanks! For another night that week, I've been given a different choice, and to avoid confusion, I posted about it here and am looking forward to your help in making that choice too. Thanks again everybody! This was perfect.

I've been invited to dinner at my choice of Jean George's Nougatine, or The Dining Room at The Modern, or The Bar Room at The Modern (three places my host from out of town wants to go) and she's left the choice to me. I'd appreciate a comparison of the restaurants and the food there, and opinions, with many thanks in advance. I don't know the reasoning behind this, though I know that the price of one vs the others is not a consideration, just the food. We'll be attending a concert at Carnegie Hall afterwards, but we can have plenty of time for dinner. Thanks for your help.

Well, that's just silly. Chilean Sea Bass, which isn't bass at all, is never billed as "Sea Bass". And I think that markk explained it thoroughly and candidly, including that it had apparently always been Sea Bass before, and that even the owner acknowledged that: So this doesn't seem to be really relevant either: I think he made his feelings pretty clear throughout: Personally, I can't imagine saying to a restaurateur "We like your food, but your hospitality and attitude aren't as nice as other places we go to, so if you want us to come back you'll have to become more gracious and develop a winning personality like they have" - how awkward would that be? It seems to me that this thread from the beginning was about an intangible part of restaurant dining that was pretty perfectly summed up by another poster:

I took a few minutes to come up to speed on this thread from the top, and, Holy Cow, Batman, Markk never said any such thing. He never said that he's "a regular". What he said was: And then in a request for further details, he said: The owner very definitely knows that we're from out of town, how long we're there for (usually a week at a time), and how many times we come in a particular week/year. (She's the only one serving customers.) And she knows that we've traveled extensively in France, and come to her place because we like the food. He also definitely never said later on that he "sees everything in a restaurant visit as simply a 'monetary transaction'". (What he said was that the corkage fee was a monetary transaction.) Those were words that you put in his mouth, and then argued with him over it, which you seem to be doing throughout the thread, twisting words, claiming they came from somebody else, then arguing with them. This is a pretty interesting discussion of the finer points of hospitality and graciousness, and while you seem to be a restaurant owner (you mention your customers asking for things) your posts on the matter are argumentative, confrontational, contrary, and really insensitive. Not to mention consistently inhospitable. One can't switch on hospitality and graciousness - they have to exist in your soul, inherently, and it would seem from your posts that they're foreign to your nature. Who in the hospitality industry would be instinctively contrary or combative with a customer who dines in a place three to four times a week, and does so at different times of the year? And for that matter, who in the hospitality industry belittles tourists? Restaurants in destination cities depend on a mix of local patrons plus a steady stream of out of towners, and are always thrilled to see people from afar who return time after time. Locals vacation elsewhere, out-of-towners come in their place, and this is the rhythm of a city's restaurant industry. It's an important part of having a broad customer base, appreciated by all restaurateurs. Personally, I don't see any reason why he should have to spend any time discussing the wine list with the owner. If they offer a corkage fee and don't care what you bring, I think what he does is the most logical thing. He drinks what he enjoys, and if the list has what it has because the other patrons enjoy it, it's a win-win situation all around.

You're welcome. If you're coming from afar, maybe you should also call ahead to see what the specials are so that there's no cause for disappointment. The regular menu is on their site at The Cup Joint and there is no "dinner" menu, it's the all-day dining that's served at night as well. Last night's specials were the sliced hangar steak sandwich with the caramelized onions and melted muenster that somebody wrote about above, and also a pulled pork special that they ran out of just before we got there, but last week they were running the gnocchi with shiitake mushrooms and spinach, which I actually was craving last night but no luck. We had the meat loaf and the salmon and they were simple and oh-so-satisfying ‘joint’ food. And btw to the question way above, yes, friends tell me this indeed used to be the spot of The Truck Stop Diner. I only knew Deno's though.

There's a garage right on Jefferson on the same side as the restaurant, between 8th and 9th, so if you're coming south on Jeff. it'll be on your right the block before the restaurant but I don't know how much they charge. If you were to make 2 rights (onto 8th, onto Madison) there's a gigantic Shop Rite. My trick is to buy some things in there that I need anyway, and leave them highly visible on my front seat while I go over to the restaurant, or sometimes when I leave with my purchases I ask a manager since I shopped here can I leave the car while I have dinner? They're not crowded at night and I think the answer may always be yes.

I don't know, because I've never seen or been to a Ponderosa. I peeked at a Sizzler once out of curiosity because I walked by it, and I certainly would never eat there myself! Is Ponderosa different? Is it the case that there's an extended salad bar buffet that accompanies whatever meal you buy? Many (many) years ago while in Orlando, I found the dining just dismal - in those days, what was local "upscale" cuisine was just horrible. One night in desperation I gave up (even though I was on an expense account) and went to the Golden Corral right near my hotel, and they were having prime rib that night that was perfectly good, and of course, there was a lot of green salad from the salad bar, and although I didn't eat most of what they offered on the buffet, I actually had one of the best meals I had had in Orlando at that point, although I've never been to a Golden Corral since. And also many years ago, in Mobile, Alabama, they insisted that I try a place called Barnhills Buffet, which is now a regional chain, I see. The food quality there was actually very good, and again though I didn't eat most of the things, between the baked catfish and the salad, I had a better meal than most others I had been finding. So those were the kind of places I was asking about.

We're really not talking the same language here. China 46's Sunday brunch doesn't have a salad bar, or veal parm or pasta, or peel-and-eat shrimp with coctail sauce. When I told her that we had tried one of her places and made a very happy meal out of ginger-scallion Blue Crabs, Peking Duck, and a chinese green vegetable, she actually said "they have those things?" And so based on the family dining stories I hear, I really don't think China 46 is for them. Not the least of which is that they need a place for dinners, and a place that will fill up the teenage boys at night. Now, if they lived in Las Vegas, I think they'd be in heaven. As for me, I definitely agree with the statement somewhere here that "now and then the good Chinese buffet has its place", and while I walk out of many of them, I'm still intrigued by them. And for the idea of eating a variety of things and picking "one last taste... make that two" of something that was good, I can get into them now and then. I did call it "slumming it" when I started the thread, you know, and that has its place. After all the Per Se and Babbo dinners, slumming it sometimes hits the spot, especially if you're not sure what you want to eat, and the grazing fills you up. And so when this particular friend tells me of her latest finds, I file them away check them out when I'm in the area. Incidentally, are there non-Chinese buffets in Jersey, like you find in the south? (I may be thinking heavily of Orlando.) I'm sure she would love those, but I've never heard her mention them at all, and I've never seen any either.

Really? I've walked in there several times and have walked out, not being very impressed with the offerings in the steam tables. ← Are there any that you stay and eat at? Any with particular draws of that you like for any reason?

A friend and co-worker of mine is very fond of all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets in NJ, but a lot of this may have to do with her three teenage sons (plus one daughter and one husband). It's a way for them to have enough different foods and not to go broke; apparently the husband eats only the raw seafood, the boys eat the meatier items, the daughter only the vegetable dishes, well you probably get the idea. They actually don't seem to love actual Chinese food that much and were not receptive to the description of the brunch at China 46, as much as they like finding the big, bountiful buffets. And they seem to be pretty good at it. Their favorites are the "Century Buffet" just off of Rt. 3 in Clifton, the "Dynasty Buffet" in Saddle Brook, and the "Majestic Buffet" in Wayne which apparently just received some rave review in the Star Ledger or something. I've tried these three, but for me this has to be on a night when I feel like "slumming it". The Clifton buffet was small and claustrophobic, with nothing exceptional. The Dynasty Buffet had an excellent Peking Duck, although when I attempted to eat my body-weight in it they didn't seem all that pleased; but, they also had an endless amount of ginger-and-scallion Blue Crabs (Chinatown Style) the night that I went, and I certainly had my money's worth. The Majestic Buffet was the largest, and the only one that seemed truly dirty - at least the restaurant was; we picked at the food (it was late and there was nowhere else to go) and we were quite happy that there were no ill-effects. They had a large offering of 'dim sum-like' dumplings - siu mai that were coarser and cruder than the real thing, har gao that were just not bad at all, actually, bbq pork buns, and a few other things that were eminently edible. So, I'd like to show-off to my friend and be able to tell her about any other buffets that eGullet members may know. If you do know any in northern NJ, please post !!! How she found these, I don't know. Do you all know any others ???