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Dave Hatfield

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    http://www.frenchfoodfocus.com.

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    was Rural France (Requiescat in Pace)

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  1. Got it, Thanks. What are the interior dimensions? I notice they're only giving away 12" wide things even though the appliance is considerably wider. Wonder if they make a 230VAC model. Looks a useful device. Does it get hot enough for bread making? And can you add water for steam? I'm asking because I'm seriously considering having a flutter at bread making. Wonderful though the bread is here it might be nice to have something different & home made.
  2. Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly is a BV-XL?
  3. Used to go to the Italian-American friendship club on Federal Hill in Providence, R.I. It was next to the porno movie theater. Ground floor restaurant was open to 'guests' , all upper floors strictly members only. Always at least two large men in tight suits standing around the car park. Great Italian food though.
  4. I'm no kind of pastry chef or even a particularly keen pastry eater. (I tend towards the savoury rather than the sweet.), but I thought this article by the BBC would be interesting to all the eG pastry chefs. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24609525. Nice to see innovation.
  5. Smithy - I'm still amazed after all these years & I saw it first hand. I'd never seen it before, nor have I ever seen it since. Love your description of you first visit to Paris. Its a magic city and, I think, all who've been there have at least one special memory. Too bad we'd no doubt drift way off topic if we all started sharing those memories. Another time, another place; perhaps!
  6. Well, its a lousy TV night so I'll spend some time writing up another anecdote. This is a follow up to my little tale about Chez Bruno & the mother of all thunderstorms. The day after the storm Linda & I were walking along a small lane that ran by some small beached and coves. Very nice. We spotted a small beach side restaurant nothing at all pretentious, but what attracted my attention was their sign which said; "bouillabaisse avec 24 heur notice." Ah ha, our turn to buy dinner was coming up and I really wanted everyone to try a really good bouillabaisse. Nobody other than I had ever eaten one & here we were in the heart of bouillabaisse country just a bit West of Marseilles. In we went. "Can we get bouillabaisse tomorrow night?"; "Ah its difficult what with the storm the fishermen haven't been out, I'll check with my father." The young man came back & said they could do it for 2 people they thought. "Thank you, but we need it or 6 people!" Back to the kitchen he went with a stricken look on his face, he returned with his father & his brother. What ensued was classic French as Linda & I stood there & watched. Gesticulating, shouting, shrugs, walk a ways as they 'discussed' the problem. More importantly Dad was on the phone to his fishermen contacts. Eventually the answer was yes, but they couldn't get the hard shelled crabs. They'd serve some tiny inedible ones to keep the flavour right. Hand shakes all around & we were in business. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but we had a beautiful evening for whatever was going to happen. Sundown over the Med looking out of the cove. We were the only customers & were seated on a nice covered patio overlooking the small beach. Simple, but very nice as were the kirs we had as an apero. We put ourselves in their hands for the choice of wine. It was local, light, but red & served cold. Not the least expensive. The traditional first part came, the soup! And, of course, with the soup came the 'accoutrements'. The toast rounds, the peeled garlic cloves, the rouille and the shredded cheese. For those not familiar with this kind of fish soup the procedure is: Take a round of toast, rub it on one side with the garlic clove, dab on a small spoonful of rouille, gently drop it into the soup & sprinkle over a bit of the shredded cheese. Then a brief dip & into the mouth. After the first bite you'll think you've died and gone to heaven. Conversation died as everyone was too busy dabbing, rubbing & dipping to talk. We totally demolished the soup & the accoutrements. We were graciously allowed a reasonable break before THE MAIN COURSE came. All of the various kinds of fish, clams, sea snails, shrimp, mussels beautifully arrange on a huge wooden platter. Wow! Very, very impressive. Dad served us. Amazingly he was able to peel & de-vein the shrimp using a fork & a spoon; one handed! 40 years of practice I guess. He filled our plates, repeatedly. It was hard to choose between all of the different seafood varieties presented; my personal favourite was, I think, the mussels. By the time we'd demolished all the fish not to mention several bottles of wine all we had room left for was coffee. I can't remember what the bill was, but I do remember that it was modest given the quality of food & service we'd had. Dad & sons were at the door to say goodbye. Hand shakes all round. To his delight & embarrassment Linda leaned over & gave Dad a kiss on both cheeks. A truly truly memorable meal. Sometimes you just get lucky. Can anybody wonder why I love this country?
  7. Thanks for the kind comments about the blog. Flattery will get you anywhere! Two little Chez Panisse anecdotes: #1 Paying the bill. Downstairs at Chez Panisse getting ones bill at the end of a meal could be an issue. On one occasion it was late, we were tired and no staff were in sight. Eventually I got fed up with waiting & went in search of somebody, anybody who'd take my money. (We considered just getting up & leaving, but as we knew we'd want to return we didn't think that would be a good idea. I heard voices towards the back of the restaurant, following them I found a table of staff amongst the Jeremiah Tower & the lady herself, Alice. Somewhat embarrassed now I quietly asked for my bill, please. Jeremiah wasn't very pleased, but Alice come and personally presented it. #2 Nouveau Zinfandel. Chez Panisse decided to do a take on the English/French annual frenzy over the year's Nouveau Beaujolais except that they tried it with a Nouveau Zinfandel. The wine was from my acquaintance Joe Phelps. (Phelps winery & the Oakville Grocery.) A whole menu had been built around the wine. Unfortunately it was one of the worst wines I've ever tasted. What to do? The wine wasn't spoiled or corked or anything like that, it was just awful. So, quietly as I could I got the waiter over & asked for the wine list, I choose another wine & asked for the New Zif to be taken away, quietly please I didn't want to make a fuss. They quietly took it somewhere to be poured away. The meal was great. The Zinfandel was not present on the bill. Class restaurant. Its the only time I've ever sent a wine back for just being bad. Corked, yes. Spoiled, yes. Bad, just the once. I've got one more Chez Panisse type of story, but I'll save it for another day. dcarch, I've never been served or driven by a President. Sounds like a pretty neat guy.
  8. Great pics! I particularly liked the one of the tray comfit with the turkey cuisse next to it. Yummy stuff. Next trip buy stuff & come to our house to cook/eat it; we're not a million miles from the more Northern end of the canal. Free wine available!
  9. My ignorance of sous vide is nearly total, but I'm willing to learn. Thus, my question is why would you bother to make scrambled eggs via sous vide rather than the more conventional way in a pan? What are the advantages? The draw back seems to be that it takes a long time. I seek enlightenment.
  10. Cheffriis - If you cook as well as you write I'll pop over for a meal. I've always wanted to visit New Zealand again anyway.
  11. Smithy We just got back from dinner & read your post . We're still sitting here laughing. Great post. Thanks!
  12. I'm starting this topic because as I did my recent food blog I realised that there were quite a few food anecdotes & mini-stories that I didn't have the time or space to include. It occurred to me that many Gulleteers must have their own anecdotes & stories they might like to share. I hope so anyway. Given the vast experience and wide range of geography and tastes represented I'm sure there's some great stories out there just waiting to be written. Don't be shy! Anything goes so long as its food related and doesn't violate Society rules. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I'll start things off with a French tale, what else could it be from me? This occurred a number of years ago while we were on vacation in the South of France with friends plus my sister & brother in law. We'd set up a common pool of money to cover expense except that each couple could choose & pay for one dinner each week. My sister in law had read about a restaurant called Chez Bruno. It sounded a nice country place that specialised in wild mushrooms & truffles. So I called and made a reservation. Since were going to be sightseeing in that area in any case I said lets stop by & make sure our reservation was OK. (My French wan't that great at the time.) We knew we were in trouble as we pulled into the parking lot & had a young man in uniform with epaulettes open our car door for us. As Linda & I walked to the entrance we passed several baskets of wild mushrooms, cepes mainly, on one side & a large basket of truffles on the other. I'm talking multiple thousands of dollars. Our reservation was OK, but Linda noticed that the place was filled with very smartly dressed French couples. Back at the car she, quickly followed by the other ladies, said; "No way are we going into that restaurant dressed like this" Like this being shorts & casual tops. No problem said I we have plenty of time to go back to the gite & change. Hah! We ran into the most severe thunderstorm I've ever seen, 20 km/hour on the free-way We then had to cross Toulon with the storm still raging during rush hour. We gave the ladies a 15 minute turn around time while we guys studied the map. Amazingly the ladies managed their turn around. I asked Leo to drive while I navigated a route we'd plotted avoiding the main part of Toulon. It worked, sort of. At one point going up a steep hill with several inches of water cascading down the road the guy 2 cars ahead of us stalled. The quick thinking French driver ahead of us immediately mounted the side walk & went around. It shouted go Leo, go & we did. ​We were nearly an hour late for our reservation, but the restaurant didn't turn a hair. We had an aperitif and Bruno himself came around to announce the evening's menu. (Bruno is roughly 6' 3" & 300 pounds) He recited the menu which included mushrooms or truffles or both in every course except dessert. This being all in French my friend Leo said; "can you repeat all of that in English?" Ha! Ha! says Bruno & stalks off. We had salad with truffles, fish with cepes, beef with both, a truffle infused cheese & I can't remember the dessert. Truly a memorable meal. As far as I know the restaurant is still going strong. Must go back when the weather's better. edited to correct typos
  13. Like others I'm torn between my favourite market season. Like Shel_B I can go to a different market every day; well in my case except Tuesday. In spring its seeing the new local produce start to appear, in summer its seeing lots of good stuff & the tourists oohing & awing, this time of year its the end of summer vegetables plus in early crop apples and in winter its the local gossip. Right now is probable the best from a cooking point of view, but I'm still torn.
  14. Yet another interesting question. First you must bear in mind that a large proportion of the Chefs in Paris come from the SW of France. There are considerable differences between 'town' and country. Although many of the bistro dishes are fundamentally the same they will be more refined in Paris and, many times, have an innovative twist to them. This is, I think, because of two major things, Competition & price. Paris abounds in restaurants so you have to be good to survive thus innovation. Country folks have less money & tend to want what they're familiar with thus lower prices and not much innovation. Many of our local restaurants only serve lunch (except on Sunday) & cater for the 'artisans' many of whom are buying lunch with vouchers paid for by their employers, thus the price has to fit those amounts. Vouchers in Paris have a higher monetary value. At the higher end of the market as one gets into Michelin listed places the differences tend to disappear. The quality of food & service are similar, but the prices somewhat less in the country places. For instance our favourite Le Vieux Pont is a Michelin one star where we can get the full menu for 49€. A similar meal at a Paris one star would be quite a bit more. Higher overheads & larger clientèle. Hey, you've had to suffer a week of my dismal photography. I'm sure you pictures will be better. A final final thought. I'm going to start a new thread I'll call "Food Anecdotes". This will be open to any member to post a short food story whether it be a restaurant experience, a cooking triumph or disaster or whatever else you'd like to share pertaining to food & cooking. I'll start it off with stories I didn't have time and/or space for on this blog, but I'd really really like to hear everyone else's anecdotes.
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