dagordon

Is it possible that white lox is just lox made from the same fish as the "white salmon" that you get in a sushi place? I suspect "fatty sturgeon" in the quote just refers to a fatty cut of sturgeon, maybe the belly? You could always call Barney Greengrass and ask, I'm sure they'd be willing to help.

Seriously, I wonder if we showed up on their front step and looked pathetic enough... ← Man, that food was just fantastic. Well done, Tatins.

I have not, but I have to say that the following is slightly irritating: the sign for the 2003 Lascombes gives a Robert Parker rating of 92-95 points. Parker did indeed give it this rating of April 2005 (the parentheses indicate a barrel tasting), but a year later he settled on 92. It's one thing if the signs were printed before or around April 2006 and they just didn't know of the most recent rating. I'd hope that the PLCB is not intentionally citing an earlier rating because it's more flattering than a more recent one. That is, consumers should be able to expect that the ratings cited on product displays are the most recent ones that were available at the time the displays were made.

According to Parker it's in early maturity -- maturity is "Drink 2007-2018" (this as of June of 2004).

They've got some tempura, that's about it in that area One thing I didn't mention is that the place is really tiny. The sushi bar seats like 4. http://www.zentocontemporary.com

Look upthread to p 53, Mike Volker thought highly of this one, enough so that I will trek to Newtown/Yardley and pick up a few on his rec ← Ah, I see... though this only further confuses me about the availability issue... so if it was already available, what's this business about holding it until Easter?

Anyone know anything about this 2002 Sequoia Grove Rutherford Reserve Cab? It got a 93 in Wine Enthusiast, can't seem to find it online for less than around $45, $24.99 through the state stores. I saw this on the Chariman's Selections Now In Stores online, and it seemed like a pretty good value, so I picked up a couple of bottles in Yardley. I had a similar problem to what Misha encountered though -- the woman at the store initially told me that while they had a bunch of bottles, they wouldn't be for sale until some time around Easter. I persisted, and she relented, though suggested she might get in trouble with her manager... Today I'm looking and the wine seems to have disappeared from the Chairman's Selection listing! (Both upcoming and now in stores.) But it's still in the inventory. Code is 11191. Anyway, anyone had this?

We just had an excellent meal at Zento, which was reviewed about a month ago by LaBan (this is how we heard of it). My plan was a tremendous success: due to the weather, for most of our meal we were the only people in the place, so we had the kitchen's undivided attention, and were treated to a fairly elaborate omakase meal. The chef said that they can never do omakase (let alone anything involved) on weekends, and depending on how busy they are not always even during the week. This was easily the best sushi-style meal we've had in the city. The restaurant's description "Contemporary Japanese Cuisine" is apt; we had a fair amount of unadorned sushi and sashimi, but at least an equal amonut of sushi and sashimi with garnish or sauce of some kind, as well as several dishes from the kitchen. From the kitchen, a highlight was pan seared scallops w/ asparagus and onion balsamic vinagerette with sea eel nigiri on the side. The eel was dusted with a yuzu and sansho powder, and the scallops were seasoned with an eight spice blend of some kind. This was awesome. A "peking duck roll" with thinly sliced cucumber serving as the wrapping and duck and foie on the inside was also damn good (though I think the cucumber, while the texture was nice, made things slighly watery). Also, seared tuna with what was described as a wasabi crust, but was not overwhelmingly wasabi at all and had various other unidentifiable goodies in it. The crust on seared tuna can often overwhelm the fish, but this didn't in the least. The dish was very tastefully done. I usually find it hard to get excited about seared tuna, but I'd get this agian. The sushi and sashimi was very, very good. The pieces were well-cut and well-sized. The needlefish, king salmon, uni, toro, baby hamachi, and two different kinds of snapper (can't remember specifics) were particularly memorable. This is a serious sushi chef. -- On a funny note: we asked whether the LaBan review had increased traffic a lot, and the (very sweet) waitress said that they'd been getting a fair amount of what she called -- and what it sounds like they call themselves -- "followers of Laban". (At one point she asked whether we too were followers.) She described these people as mostly older folks who don't eat out a great deal, but, when they do, will -- according to them -- not veer from LaBan's recomendations. Who knew? I wonder if there's a membership card.

Amen to that. It's 2007. There's absolutely no excuse for their online inventory system being so wildly inaccurate. A couple of weeks ago I needed a Sauternes in a hurry and was trying to track down the 2003 Bastor-Lamontagne, which seemed like the best choice out of the very small offerings at the state stores. Online system showed that 12th and Chestnut had like 4; they can't find any. They tell me to go to 19th and Chestnut, which apparently has 14; the staff there and I spend literally 45 minutes trying to track down a bottle, with no success. Part of the problem is that it looks like store was organized by a four year old. So I get this Ch Piada Sauterns for $47 or so, as opposed to the $30 that the other would have cost. As I'm checking out I ask if they'd be willing to give me the Piada for the price of the Bastor-Manontagne, as they just wasted 45 minutes of my time (more like an hour, including the time at the 12th St store). They look at me like I had two heads and ask with disbelief, "You expect us to give you this for $30?" At that point I lose it, and launch into a tirade about the state stores, which it seems amuses some of the other customers waiting on line. Of course, any reputable wine merchant would not only have readily discounted the wine if their online inventory had been so wildly inacurrate, but would have probably offered to do so without my asking.

More thanks to V for organizing this. The Flannery strips were $29.99/lb. This compared to Lobel's almost $47/lb. As shacke said, it's not fair to compare the meat, as they weren't head-to-head, but I think it's clear that the Flannery steaks are an exceptional value. It's the overnight shipping that killed us with these (given our time constraints that was the only option); Bryan said that he normally likes to do 2 day shipping, which is far less expensive, and they've recently worked out a deal with FedEx for even cheaper 2 day shipping. He's completely confident that the steaks will arrive in perfect condition with 2 day shipping. As to the tasting, it's pretty clear now that cooking method can dramatically affect the quality of a steak. Given that most of don't have the equipment for sous vide, or a Bincho-Tan grill, it was pretty disappointing how much less enjoyable the simply pan-seared steaks were than the others. As someone mentioned at the tasting, the pan-seared Whole Foods steak wasn't bad, but the interior (non-crust) was kind of like eating nothing. (Though maybe we were getting this impression only b/c of comparisons to the other steaks.) And the sous vide and grilled Whole Foods steaks were not like eating nothing; flavor and texture were improved with the sous vide steak, and flavor with the grilled one. I should say, as shacke suggested, that the grilled steaks can't really be compared to something you'd do in your backyard... for one thing, they were perfectly cooked, but more importantly the grilled/charcoal flavor was very subtle, mildly smoky and not at all burnt tasting. It really had the effect of contributing to the flavors of the steak, as opposed to masking them. I think the sous-vide Whole Foods was probably the best of the Whole Foods steaks, though the grilled one was also very good. I can't decide whether I liked the sous vide Flannery or the grilled Flannery the best. One thing that was really interesting was that the sous vide method amplified the dry-aged flavor of the Flannery steak a great deal; it was quite pronounced, which I liked a lot. But the flavors of the grilled one were also great, in a different way. A main lesson of the tasting seems to be this: if you have a place to use it outdoors, get one of these Japanese grills. They're relatively inexpensive, and the results are impressive.

Prime, my friend (the Flannery steaks, that is)

The "boutique" steaks are from Bryan Flannery in California -- here's the website, though there's not really much on it. Thanks to shacke for turning us on to this stuff. The beef is very high level Prime from Brandt in California. Bryan, who is incidentally extremely nice to deal with, offers a choice of dry-aging times; these were aged between 35-40 days (this is what he recommends). They go all the way up to 60 days. The Flannery steaks look fantastic. And the Whole Foods steaks look pretty good too -- I suspect they will redeem Whole Foods, after their poor showing in the first tasting. These are definitely dry-aged. This is an offense to my honor. The salt you got from me is the exclusive Oshima Island Blue label salt, not the measly Red label.

That osso buco sandwich has got to be one of the best dishes in this city...

I think that's the chicken

Did we read the same review? smoked fish and eggs pork tenderloin chicken wings pan-roasted cauliflower fingerlings with gruyere broth wild mushrooms the Blackstick blue the Nevat the banana All of these are praised without mentioning negatives And his only complaint about the brussels sprouts is that foam is "cliche"; he doesn't suggest that it substantially detracted from the dish I agree with Phil's assessment.

Thanks That I knew. Not sure if you're trying to be funny. What I meant to ask was what it is about the woman that should make one not take her reviews seriously. But if this isn't the appropriate place to discuss this that's ok.

Who is that?

Feeling like a shill too, but we had a very delicious tasting menu at Pif last night. Amuse: pig trotters -- we've had these fried at Pif a bunch of times, but this time they were not; this time they were in little medallions, with a gelatinous texture. Escargots au Pernod Foie torchon with pear honey Mushroom soup with truffles and sherry Tartine au maison (three crostini): anchovy w/ olive tapenade, salmon roe w/ creme fraiche, brandade w/ fried quail egg Skate in Sauce Noir (squid ink or perhaps cuttlefish ink, I can't remember which, with leeks) Steak frites w/ crumbled roquefort For dessert we had the Financier, blackberry soup with mint and mixed berries, and beignets with hot chocolate. The beignets were very disappointing -- not crispy, and too cakey. But I really can't find fault with anything else. The brandade with the quail egg was fantastic; their skate is always perfectly cooked (ok, it did need a touch more salt); the roquefort was actually not at all overwhelming in the context of the dish, and in fact the combination was excellent. The foie torchon was delicious, I should have asked where the foie was sourced from. It's impressive, given the changes in the kitchen, how consistently good the food is. It's our standard go-to place when a friend is in town, for example, and we need somewhere where a high quality meal will be guaranteed (last night, for example, we had a friend in town and were celebrating his getting a new job).

http://southphillyreview.com/view_article.php?id=5391 What a terrible review (not as in the restaurant gets rated poorly, but the review itself is just bad). Small plates food "pretentious"? As in, the size of a portion of food is pretentious? So is a giant plate of food modest? She "liked the use of frisee" in a salad?? Baby brussel sprouts in a salad showing the chef's "culinary imagination"? "I nixed fish because it is light." Fish is light? Do you mean the particular fish dish on the menu, which you don't describe, or are you really asserting: "Fish is light"? "cauliflower creama" was "creamy"? really? I could go on...

So why use prosecco at all ? We agree..... It has no flavor if you cook it. No bubbles..... and strangely..........you probably are going to think I am wierd.... BUT... looking closely at the article and the photographs of the process, something looked strange. I thought I saw a word but just to be sure, I scanned and photoshopenhanced the picture. 2nd pic down on the right, wine is being poured into the pot and you can just make up the word on the neck of the bottle........." R O E D E R E R" Roederer.......as in Louis Roederer http://www.champagne-roederer.com/ Forgive me for being nitpicky but wouldnt one at least use a "prosecco" in a "prosecco" risotto. It's not even prosecco, not that Roederer is bad......just wierd. Go get phillymag. ← everyone knows that you have to store the proseco used for proseco risotto in a roederer champagne bottle, the chemical properties of that bottle are what allow the bubbles to survive the heat. these people are obviously doing stuff that's way over your head.

Had to get it online, unfortunately -- http://www.minus8vinegar.com/ I don't remember it being as expensive as it currently is on the site, but I might be misremebering.

Like Sodium pentathol injection.... ? ← I can't write about food for s***. philadining, that guy can write, also he's got the photo skills... i can't think of any food writer who takes his/her own professional quality pictures, phil could be the first.

Picked up perhaps the prettiest piece of yellowfin I've ever seen at the Cherry Hill Wegmans yesterday... picture doesn't do it justice

Yeah, now that I've had some distance from last night's meal.. I think it's quite possible that it was the best restaurant meal I've ever had in Philly. If Osteria is able to consistently put out food of the quality that we had last night, it is going to be a very big deal.

OK. This is unbelievably exciting. We just got back from Osteria. The meal that we had was OUTSTANDING. The quality of the food was through the roof. It is absolutely scary that they've been open for, what, 4 days? We had the Lombardo pizza, the assorted salumi, the cotechino and egg and polenta, and the tripe to start. And then the candele pasta with boar and the rabbit with polenta, brown butter, and sage. And then pistachio and vanilla gelato and the tangerine "zuppa" (tiramisu) for dessert. It's going to sound repetitive but everything was, well, outstanding. The main courses were obscenely good. The texture of the candele pasta was sublime. The rabbit was reminiscent of Vetri's spit-roasted goat conceptually, with generous amounts of rabbit crispiness. The food was at least as good as Vetri's, at a fraction of the price. It was better than any meal I've had at Lupa. I'm going to stop now, out of fear that people will think that I'm affiliated with the place, which I'm not.