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Lucky I'm a nice guy. Next time I won't hold back! Nick

Re Teaneck/Hoboken. A nod is as good as a wink, methinks. Depending on where in Edgewater you reside. Hoboken may even be closer. Nick

Azucar 10 Dempsy Avenue 201-886-0747 Azucar is also decidedly cigar friendly, for those of you for whom such things matter. Nick

...make mashed potatoes in a robotcoupe at high speed. 'Lessen somebody needs to repaper their kitchen.

The Cheesecake Factory! Is there another phrase that brings hoary froth to the lips of serious diners, cooks, and Chef’s? Another institution more culpable for the rape and molestation of American cookery? Is there a chain more responsible for the insidious Marriottization of the American palate? Completely embracing the ignoble ‘Dark Side’ of ‘hashing it out’ thereby offering insult to the entire concept of ‘Restaurant’! Swooping in with the promise of large portions and first come first served egalitarian appeal (reservations are for snobs, poseurs, and elitists), seducing Chef’s and Maitre’d’s with offers of 401k plans, and profit sharing equity plans. Purchasing their culinary souls with promises of company provided BMWs. Décor embodying 3d actualizations of ‘Legend of Zelda’ screenshots. Waitstaff tricked out in virginal white, referencing a sterility of imagination that permeate the menus and food. Cathedrals to the glory of the Fifth Deadly Sin, religiously transforming ‘dining room’ into ‘trough’! Just a draft folks. Just in case I was a little too subtle, let me make myself clear…I truly hate this place! Nick

edit: Note to self: read through entire thread before posting

How do you know foy is a restaurant owner? I've heard of Dennis Foy, who owned several restaurants, but not John. Also, when you say several are taste deprived, is this because they don't agree with your taste or do you not like their writing? I'm curious because I've gone to restaurants based on a reviewers recommendations and I have not always agreed with them but at the same time I didn't think them taste deprived. I chalked it up to differences in personal preference unless the service was awful and the food had serioius problems. John Foy was involved with Tarragon Tree in Chatham NJ. He was the Chef/owner of Sonoma grill in E Rutherford. To the best of my knowledge he no longer owns a restaurant. Nick

Even crazier Paul. At last count 11! Nick

Finally! Morton's has been opening since the flood! Huge fight taking place over who gets to control the company. Maybe that caused the delay. Nick

SK said: I used to think that as long as a reviewer wasn't using their position to gain advantage for their interests it would be okay (say not writing a review for a restaurant you were working for). But as I read this it's obvious that conflicts of interest can be turned to advantage in many other ways. With your example I agree that the reviewer should recuse himself from writing restaurant criticism. Nick

THE HEART by Stephen Crane In the desert I saw a creature, naked, bestial Who, squatting upon the ground, Held his heart in his hands, And ate of it. I said, "Is it good, friend?" "It is bitter---bitter," he answered; "But I like it Because it is bitter, And because it is my heart." Nick

Fat-Guy, A resounding yes on the second point (agenda free). Some of these guys can be downright mean and nasty. You sometimes wonder whether thay want to jump up from the table and go back and show the chef how it should be done! You want to see poorly written? Travel back through the various reviews. Perhaps poorly written, but it was focused. I'm happy for that. Maybe making the point about chefs as critics Foy may have much wine expertise, but he was the Chef at 'Tarragon Tree' and the original incarnation of 'Sonoma Grill'. He's pretty well known locally. That being the case perhaps writing under a nome de plume would be in order. Especially since I hear he's still doing local restaurant consulting work on the side. . FINALLY!!, SOMEONE HEARS ME . Seriously it comes through on the review pages that some people doing the writing are there for the expense account meal and wouldn't know Beluga from Bordelaise if it rose up and bit 'em on the arse. May be two or three, but 10/11?? I don't think it helps the sections credibility. Thanx for your respnse FG and others Nick

Here's the link to John Foy's review of 'The Restaurant' The Restaurant This is all I ask. A focused and staight forward critique of a New Jersey restaurant. No showing off, no pedantry. Impressions of the food, service and wine. Nice Going! Could we have something similar every week? Quibbles? Again, with all the references to the chef (the Chef this..and the Chef that...), perhaps a name? Thanks John. Thanks Pat. Nick

Hey!, my friends call me Nick Nick

SP said: I guess that’s my point. The food or dish stripped of the social constructs and the conventional wisdom of what the individual person expects to taste good. Good food, and here I mean complete dishes and not individual ingredients (those may very well be an acquired taste), is not an acquired taste. Now I’m using the word taste in a quite literal sense here. I like your goujonette/foie gras analogy, as it’s pretty accessible. If you took a person and deprived them of all senses save the sense of taste and then fed them the fish/foie gras, I think you would get a much more favorable response than if you put it on a plate and tried to feed it to that person after offering a description of the dish and then displaying the dish for that same person to eat. Using this example, the dish is inherently delicious. It is the individual’s food prejudice baggage that determines what is an acquired taste and what is not. It is the fact that a food or dish is inherently delicious that allows it to become an acquired taste at all. Hence my argument that all good food is indeed obviously delicious. That statement should change. I guess our social constructs and prejudices about certain foods keep those foods from being ‘obviously delicious’. But they still taste good! I don’t have much problem with the food being cerebral. Your lolly example is a good one. My argument would stem from the premise that one should start from the point that the dish is ‘obviously delicious’. Then go ahead and get cerebral, get very cerebral. It still has to taste good lest no one will ever acquire enough of a taste for it to appreciate the intellectual aspects. I think there may be a line that can be crossed here. Too cerebral/ not enough pleasing flavor may well result in an increasingly Pyrrhic culinary victory (lobster with blueberry sauce, anyone?). Valiant yes, but without the taste factor ultimately a failure. Nick

Thanks for the 411, Paul. The only thing I knew about her was the very brief bio that the Times printed alongside her debut piece. I still think that I saw a mention of culinary school there, but perhaps it was a senior moment on my part. Nick

SP said on July 16: Sorry to jump in late, but this statement seems so damned provocative . I feel you very slyly sucker me into something here: Music..foreign film..hmmm, yeah sure, uh-huh. "Egalitarian"...yup, ok.... BANG!!!: "But not all good food is obvious and runs the gamut from being purposely cerebral to needing to acquire a taste for it." I'm tempted to let the statement hang there for a while. It's late and I'd like to come back to this. Let me say that this statement moves food and cooking into he realm of performance art (liebrandt aside). I'm not comfortable with this. All good food should indeed be 'obviously delicious', in fact it should be painfully 'obviously delicious'. In fact all good food IS 'obviously delicious'. It may be cerebral, but it to be good it must also be inherently delicious. I'll stop here and continue when there are less cobwebs. Nick

Nick Yeah, I waded through all 7 pages. Thanx Jin. All I needed was the first page and your last post.

The last time I ran skate it was Fed Exed from Maine (maybe RI). Stuff was impeccable. Compared to what the commercial venders scrounge from the market there was no comparison. This stuff had legs too! It arrived via Fed Ex late Friday afternoon, by Sunday there was no discernible oder or degradation. Nick

Not grilled, griddled Essentially fried on a flat top or plancha. Nick

Well if you toss it in your stock whilst cooking a minestrone, it will only make it better. Recipes...RECIPES!...We don't need no steenking recipes. Nick

Thanks BD. I was starting to scratch my head over that one and was about to ask Sandra for a reference. My experience was yours. Delivered on wedsnday, I thought it was very fresh. A faint ammonia smell developed by friday, which told me that the fish was older than I thought when recieved on Weds. By Saturday it smelled like a Kitty Litter box. The smell did NOT disappear. Tough to tell on receipt as I take the fish peeled. I have since switched venders and no longer have any problems with skate quality. Nick

Tommy, My saucier worked for Joel, and thought he was a very good cook. Take it for what it's worth. I've never eaten there and my saucier never has either. Yeah he worked there, but that's not the same Nick

Steve I might also say, speaking for the professional, that he/she usually has a much greater developed technique, and once shown some of those dishes and ingredients will usually come up with an original and interesting way of marrying his technical skills to the demands of the ingredient(s). Having said that, I'd like to travel further down this slope by saying that I think the whole magilla works best when the two seemingly disparate types work side by side, with the resultant sum becoming much greater than the individual 'parts'. Franey/Claibourne and Pepin/Child are two pair that immediatly come to mind. Once again you take the words from my mouth. Well, not really. But you did snatch some snippets of thought, not quite formed concepts, and just starting to congeal ideas that were beginning to coalesce within the confines of my skull and set them to readibilty:smile:. Nick

Jinmyo asked: No potao crust, Jin. But sounds like an excellent suggestion. My fax from Pierless (excellent fishmonger who deserves at least half the credit I get) said Daurade Royale. I couldn't reference it in any of my fish books (McClane, etc). So I went online and found some Michelin starred restaurants websites with recipes in french! When I explored some of the more non-food technical sites, I found it was also refered to as Bream. This I've heard of but not cooked (...I thought). When the photos came up I said "Aha!", a Porgy! This I know. So I dealt with it in the same way I might deal with Porgies that I'd caught myself off Montauk. Cathyl asked: The sauce is merely light brown caramel shot with mignonette pepper. It is kept warm in a squeeze bottle and drizzled over the plate at service. The Torchon recipe was inspired by a similar one in Michael Ginor's book. I love peaches with Foie Gras. Don't be surprised to see them next week. Lizziee asked: You score points for guessing the negamaki(2) and major points for the sardines(1). Foie Gras usually sells well in this club. Calves Liver also tends to sell well. The membership is aware of my fanaticism about sourcing the freshest fish that I am able to. Hence they will usually order whatever fish that I have available. Curiously, no one ordered the Char sans prosciutto. Now That's unusual! BTW the main course dog was the onglette(2). Cabrales asked: Stone Crabs are currently quite out of season in Fla. These were touted as the same species. Probably not exactly, but from the looks and taste of them, taxonomically pretty close. The shells were brown colored rather than the cream color one usually associates with this crab. I was told that these claws came from Baja Mexico. My fishmonger (True World) told me that he trusted the source and since our relationship is very good, I saw no reason not to take him at his word. Re: mustard sauce. The menu was pretty dificult to source, prepare and execute. I just wanted to save some agro by giving the members something they'd be familiar with (all seem to be winter regulars at Joe's ). If I tried to get cute with the dish, I'd find myself serving the mustard sauce anyway. Personally, I'm at a loss trying to understand the fascination with Stone Crabs. This creature is screaming for somebody to serve it in a new and interesting way. Tommy asked: All of the above, Tommy. Plus fish fumet galangal, and holy basil. The shrimp were split down the back, deveined and sauteed in the shell in a light sesame oil mix. The seasoned broth was poured over the shrimp and they were quickly cooked. A scoop of jasmine rice (cooked in coconut milk) was placed in a bowl. The broth poured about the rice. The shrimp stacked atop the rice and a mix of Holy Basil, Cilantro and Scallion slivers was sprinkled over the lot. A lot of thanks to all who asked questions. Your questions and comments were most welcome. I had much fun replying to everyone. Thanks Nick