Vinotas

Oh, twist my arm... And I should be able to eat very well, I was just informed that the lift will be out of service for my roof-top apartment during my stay. Yipee.

Thanks everyone! I've been to the Raspail market and loved it when I rented a place on Rue de Sevre a few years ago. The Bon Marche, despite its name, is way too expensive, though the wine store has some bargains sometimes. Oh, any nice sushi joints nearby? Cheers!

I was there on Monday night and had the Benton's and the Cinema Highball. Both were lovely, and service as usual was awesome. Oh, and the Chang Dog is as good as ever (tater tots were so-so). Keep up the good work! Cheers!

I have to be in Paris in mid-February and decided to make a week of it, renting an apartment near Montparnasse (across the street actually). Since I will cook most evenings, I am wondering: -are there any good markets (street or store) nearby? (I arrive on a Sunday, so anything open that day would be nice) -any good wine bars or restaurants ideal for lunches/small meals? -any interesting wine stores? -any good cheese stores? (I know Quatrehomme isn't too far) I usually stay up near the Arc de Triomphe and know the Poncelet market and the area around Ternes really well. But this time I wanted to change things around a bit and see a different part of Paris. Merci in advance! Cheers!

Eating alone in the tapas bars is a bit intimidating, I must admit. I brought along a magazine and some work and would read while eating/drinking whenever I was at a bar with seats. In the end, I found if I just barged my way into tapas bars and began ordering small dishes on my own I was fine. I found a very friendly tapas bar near where you are staying, but the name escapes me, sorry. I just remember it was something "Gonzalez". My report is here: www.vinotas.blogspot.com BTW, you are close to Bar Venencia, the oldest Sherry bar in Madrid, on Calle Echegaray. Stop in early and get a glass with some almonds or Jamon, it's delicious. Cheers!

I just got 28.49lbs of Benton's Bacon to do this infusion. ← Wow! I am supposed to swing by tonight and will make sure I sample this beauty! Everything is better with bacon! Cheers!

We had a lovely meal there the other night with some fantastic wines. Wine notes can be found HERE. The food was excellent, I must say, and not over-salted or over-cooked either. We started with a variety of oysters, of which the Kumamotos were just fantastic, and some Jamon Iberico. While the Jamon was delicious, I am not sure if it was the Spanish Jamon or some American version. In any case, it was quite good. Next came our main courses, all of which were steaks. My rib-eye was cooked just right (very, very rare, almost black and blue). The sides were, to put it mildly, fantastic: mashed potatoes were creamy yet not too heavy, and potato gratin was cheesily good. The two types of mushrooms were earthy and hearty, perfect foils for some of our wines. At this point we were stuffed and opted out of dessert or cheeses. Service was top-notch, professional and warm, the staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome. They could not have been more gracious considering we had brought our own wines. I should also mention we decided to sit in the lounge, where it was quieter and less hectic than in the main room. Cheers!

Spain is not know for Pinot Noir for one simple reason: climate. It's just too hot to make a good Pinot. PN is a delicate grape and needs specific growing conditions or it just turns into grape jelly juice (as it does, frankly, in most of CA, where alcohol levels in PN are pushing 16-17%!). Thin-skinned and finicky, it tends to burn easily in the high levels of sunlight and heat Spain gets. I know it is used in certain Cavas, but that's about it except for the rare bottlings which you seem to have found. Cheers!

As someone who travels between the US and France a LOT, I can attest to the fact that portions are smaller in France, in general. Now, there are exceptions, of course, but I have to say that after having similar meals on both sides of the pond, I almost never feel uncomfortably stuffed in France. Granted, that just means I need to watch what I eat no matter where I am, but I find that, again in general, I am less full after meals in France than in the US. In addition, I do feel that ingredients in France tend to be "healthier" and more "natural" than in the US. After long periods in France, I can't help noticing how sweet and salty foods seem in the US. And not to get into too many disgusting details, but I do find that I am much more easily bloated after meals in the US than in France, for some reason. So I don't think France is becoming super-sized, as there is a culture of healthy appreciation for food as opposed to viewing food as fuel. The US is changing, thank God, but it's a slow process. There are still too many crappy McDo's and Applebees all over the place (even, God help us, in NYC now!). Cheers!

The first one that comes to mind, especially in this season, is the Nutcracker. Great list though, looking forward to trying many of them soon. Cheers!

Brought back a few weeks ago from Madrid, just something to tide us over before our dinner of 28-day dry-aged boneless sirloin, potato-garlic gratin and sauteed Bok Choy. Cheers!

I've never asked, but I am sure Florence Market would be able to supply you with bones. Please let us know where you source them from, I have a recipe for bone marrow that I've been dying to make. Cheers!

Sorry, the note about the counter was a bit of hyperbole. I am a little excited to be starting after many months of delays and anticipation. Thanks all for the well-wishes, and a special thanks to Weinoo, who recommended the appliance store. They've been amazingly helpful and are even storing a dishwasher (also Bosch) free of charge until early next year. Cheers!

...The kitchen renovation, that is. Yes, after many years of putting up with a kitchen the size of most Americans' shoe closets, I've decided to throw down the gauntlet. Time for a kitchen renovation... God help us. One of the first steps was to replace the old range, a GE model from 1995, with a brand new Bosch 700 Series Evolution Gas Range. The old model's oven died in May and so I've been pan-searing/sauteeing/boiling/steaming since then. No roasting. As someone who loves cooking, this situation was completely unacceptable. Luckily, we had a toaster oven, but man did I have to jam that roast chicken in there. When it came out, it certainly didn't look like chicken anymore... Well, after procrastinating a long time and researching a lot, I decided on the Bosch range. Whereas the old one had a hard time getting water to boil, this one can basically send the Space Shuttle into orbit with 16K BTU of power. When I first turned this on, the paint on my ceiling peeled. The next time my upstairs neighbor gets noisy, I'm turning this sucker on and letting his floor melt. I made our first meal on it tonight, a quick saute of chicken, vegetables, garlic and pasta. Easy right? Well, apparently there's a learning curve with this new-fangled thing. The chicken was over-cooked, the pasta slightly mushy, the pan handles got very hot, so I've got some adapting to do. I am worried about my next omelette. In any case, the next step(s) will be taking down the wall separating my study from the kitchen, replacing it with a peninsula with storage cabinets underneath. All the cabinets in the kitchen will be replaced by custom-made ones, and a new granite countertop is being cut as I write these words. Yay! I'll keep updating this blog with the work as it progresses (or doesn't), and I estimate we should be done in, say, 2012. Pictures can be seen on my real blog at http://vinotas.blogspot.com/ To celebrate, we opened a bottle of 2002 Jacques Frederic Mugnier Chambolle Musigny, which was, to put it mildly, lovely. Cheers!

La Grolla

As someone who loves offal, cheese and wine, I've been sitting here in NYC just dying of envy. You know it's bad when the first thing you do upon waking up, even before checking emails, is to check this thread and see how things went. What a real pleasure, thank you for sharing this experience. Cheers!

I am sitting here in NYC, drooling on my keyboard and tasting these dishes virtually. The cheeses, the wines and of course the main courses all look so amazing. Keep up the good work! Cheers!

Completely agree. I wasn't thrilled with the episode, though I did like the foie gras and the cooking parts. Those seemed more "real" to me.

I'd disagree with that assertion. Everything there is Japanese, which costs more, but you get a much higher quality. for booze, it should be cheaper than anywhere in the city. they are simply the Costco of Japanese groceries. if you buy stuff on sale and in bulk, you can save really big bucks! but even small stuff is cheap. you end up buying more there because the variety is so great. Read the 'get thee to NJ' thread for more on mitsuwa ← Then they've lowered the costs since the last time I was there, which, admittedly, was about 7 years ago, when I worked in NJ. Good to know.

Really? I didn't know it originated in Spain. My bad, I always thought it came from the South of France (I am of course biased in that direction, as you can imagine... ). Cheers!

Mitsuwa is a fantastic and enormous Japanese store on the water in Edgewater. That said, be prepared to pay through the nose for pretty much anything, though the quality will be top-notch. If you go to Astor, ask for Greg, he's been a great help in the past. Tell him I sent you. But many of the stores mentioned should be able to assist you as well. Cheers!

Ate and drank my way through Madrid a few weeks ago, and had Jamon Iberico every morning, noon and night, so pretty much at every opportunity. I even brought home about a pound of the stuff, but I don't think I paid nearly that much. In fact, I know I paid about $30 for it. Can't wait to open it... Still, I'm happy to see it's finally in the US. That stuff is proof that God exists. Cheers!

Wow, how awesome is this!!!! I am getting (second) homesick! Can't wait to virtually taste all these delicious dishes! Felicitations!

I finally posted my wine-related notes on my blog at http://vinotas.blogspot.com/, in case anyone's interested. Cheers!

I always presumed that folks who ate and liked salty foods would develop a "resistance" to it, to the point of not noticing it when it was there in abundance. But for someone like myself, who admittedly likes salty foods (not junk foods, more like salt-crusted standing rib roast, as I said in Post #1), this trendlet, as Fat Guy calls it, is becoming quite the pain in the neck. We had dinner at Les Sans Culottes on Saturday and while the pate was over-salted, the fries were under-salted. Who knew? In any case, what can we do about it? Aside from groaning and moaning on forums like this, how do we get the message across? Chefs read this and other BBs, hopefully they'll take notice and lighten the load. Cheers!