wkl

"..............but when you start looking for $2 wine and $6.99 magnums, you should probably just be drinking flavored vodka because regardless of what you tell yourself, you just want to be drunk. " i really don't think this is a fair statement. i've run across my share of people that like to overindulge on very expensive wines, they can afford it. people love bargains, that doesn't mean they're lushes.

any stephen starr place would qualify as cool. http://www.starr-restaurant.com/ maybe pm our host katie loeb about m restaurant. the garden there would be awesome. (not sure if lunch here is an option, though) upstairs at cuba libre. others can chime in with other ideas.

i ate some of these beets last weekend, cooked by none other than mr mcduff. they were freakin' delicious, and i don't even like beets!

pif,ansil or caribou? maybe call ahead and request it at pif or ansil. i'm thinking a french place may do it.

i'll reiterate.........the eggs aren't raw. i've eaten shola's food many times and never been served a raw egg.

those eggs aren't raw. just cooked very slowly.

phil- i thought that spear atop teh fish was lovage. no ?

just curious, what vouvray producers are you considering notorious? i've met and visited a few, and found them all generous hard working people who are justifiedly proud of their wines. i am actually quite happy that the better producers are getting rewarded for their efforts.

"I'm no longer finding Loire Valley whites that are reasonably priced that are any good any more here in the East Coast." there are plenty of muscadets available on the east coast. i bought alot of 2005 from various importers. kacher,dressner,sussex, etc.

abra- i can highly reccomend the coeur de lion vsop or any of their calvados for that matter. it is an excellent line up. some of their older bottlings are superb.

and another thing............. how much you wanna bet stuie boy has downed some foie gras in his day? i've seen him out and about in a couple resto's over the years. so, he's no stranger to the dining philly scene. no i haven't seen him actually eating foie gras, but i really wonder.......... eta: if he's so worried about theses poor "ducks" (doesn't fg mostly come from geese?) why is he just now railing about it? hasn't he been writing his stupid column for, like, a zillion years?

okay, i got half way through this and got that familiar, uneasy feeling of my body preparing for my head to explode. i stopped at "I have yet to see a photo of a duck happily waddling up to a man holding a feeding tube." actually, i have seen these photos. a little research would turn them up. it's common for the geese to run to the farmer come feeding time. i'm beating a dead horse but, to decry foie gras while you are happily dining on tyson or perdue chicken is the height of ignorance. as to the chicago ban, didn't it get overtrurned? if not, the enforcement is a joke from what i hear.

is each line item a different course?

i now see the article is 4 years old.

was this a recent study? i didn't see a date in the article. i ask because i remember reading something very similiar a few years ago. there was also mention that women generally have more taste buds to detect toxins in foods in order to keep their breast milk safe.

i mistakenly froze a very good bottle of champagne the sunday afternoon of memorial day w/e. we tried it anyway, i thought it was cleary damaged and far from the quality wine i know it to be.

vouvray demi sec would work well here, i think. so would halb trocken reisling. (i am assuming the ingedients are all one dish?)

dave- is the chicken fresh or frozen?

i pretty much agree with you. however, there is a lot of good to very good vouvray, savenniers, and montlouis that can be had for $10 on the low end to mid $20's. some of the basic reislings from schonleber,keller,weegmuller,ratzenberger have crept up to $20 mark and were only about $12 a couple years ago. some of that could be the weaker dollar, but i doubt the prices will ever drop down to their previous levels, if and when the dollar strengthens. i love reisling and own quite a bit, and i still think it is one of the great price/value wines in the world, but it's not the bargain it used to be. otoh, fantastic muscadet can be had for under $15. these wines age remarkabley well and are a delight to drink young.

i can open it, but it takes awhile.

"What other varietal offers this level of quality at such "fair" prices?" chenin blanc and melon de bourgogne (loire valley versions). ssshhhhhhhhh. don't tell anyone.

"I wonder if a different President might choose to spend money on a sommelier?" probably. i don't believe the president or the first lady drink. so, my guess is very little attention, if any, is paid toward wine or liquor.

when you say "gushy" are you referring to the appearrence of the egg on pizza and with pasta? bruni did point out some shortcomings. what exactly was so gushy? we gett some positive press from one of the most inflential food critics in america (deserving or not) and we complain. 'sup wit dat?!?

"Isn't this just cut and pasted from the same topic you posted on ebob?" in fairness, this is exactly what one of my favorite posters on egullet does also. that person is florida jim. i don't see any problem with this practice.

bring lots of euros!