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"Fred motherfucking Astaire, beeyatch!" Best. Line. Ever.

Paris Hilton comes to mind instantly, unfortunately. ← Yes, that's the one I blanked on, thank you. How could I forget that? Whenever I need a laugh I just picture Paris being cut into four pieces, with each piece moving around on its own.

Just watched the Iceland episode this weekend. I thought it was the funniest of the three episodes so far, especially the Viking feast (Freebird!). Anyway, I couldn't help thinking that the lawyers at the Travel Channel must go nuts every time they screen an episode. I don't think fewer than 3 celebs get openly mocked/insulted by Tony in every episode. By my count, here's who Tony's gotten so far: Rocco Sarah Jessica Parker Tom Cruise Now I'm blanking. Help me out, I know there's more.

Yeah, the Chicago-style dog and deep dish pizza have been mentioned by several on the Trib's website. As a native of NJ, however, I can't agree with either. I like my hot dogs fried and my pizza thin and floppy.

The Chicago Tribune is accepting nominations for the "7 Wonders of Chicago", more details here. So I was thinking, given the quality and quantity of food in this town, an eating establishment has to make the list. But, the question is, which way do you approach the question... Charlie Trotters for its contribution to elevating American cuisine? The Wiener Circle for, well, helping drunk people get abused? The Burghoff? Morton's? Alinea? What do you all think? What Chicago restaurant/establishment would qualify as a "wonder" of Chicago?

Although this is primarily a VERY long recap of the final episode, the author was a diner at Ralph's "Italian Steakhouse" on the final night of the competiition. If you scroll about halfway down the page you'll get to his take on Ralph's food. Article here

I would sometimes frequent a place where you could bring your own steak and they would cook it, give you a salad and some french fries for $3. But back to the topic at hand. What may be more important than a potential mate's taste in restaurants is how they behave IN a restaurant. Once I asked a girl out to sushi. She said she loved sushi and couldn't wait. When she ordered at the restaurant I believe she got 3 cucumber rolls. That was it. That was the last time we saw each other.

At some point, didn't Macaroni Grill have "italian nachos"? I know it's not fast food, but it's close, and it too makes my head hurt.

Congratulations to Chef Bowles and his team. In his re-review of Avenues in today's Chicago Tribune, Phil Vettel upgrades Avenues from 3.5 to 4 stars. Well deserved, IMO. Congrats and keep up the fantastic work!

As someone living in middle America, who used to live in New Jersey: 1. Middle America does, in fact, pay attention to and love Tony Bourdain. I spent a good chunk of a wedding last week discussing Cook's Tour with someone. 2. Why do you care what we think? There are more of us than there are of you 3. I'm sure the whole Soprano's thing is just a comedic device and nothing that is meant to be offensive. Weren't there a couple of Apocolypse Now references in Cook's Tour? I think SE Asia has more to offer than what was depicted in that movie. NJ is a great place. People shouldn't get so defensive. Sit back, enjoy the show, and have a sense of humor about yourselves for goodness sake.

Well, this isn't about the burger but I didn't want to start a new thread. Ron - feel free to move me if necessary. I got back from a 5 day business trip to Orlando yesterday and was dying for a good, but not fancy meal. I've been wanting to go to Sweets and Savories for a long time and last night presented itself as a perfect opportunity. First of all, they are no longer BYOB (although there is still no corkage fee for now, but I'm not sure how long that will last). There is a full bar with a small but respectable wine list. We went with a pretty nice bottle of white burgundy (can't remember the vineyard) for $40 and it was very good. For food, we didn't even get a menu. We went with the 7 course tasting menu, but requested no meat (the girlfriend was not in a meat eating mood last night). To the best of my recollection we had: Foie gras, 2 ways. One was a mouse with a bit of honey, the other was seared with a banana chutney. This was the exception to the no meat request. Curried potato vichyssoise. Mussels in a tomato/lobster broth Poached salmon in a lobster/lemon butter sauce with lentils and vegetables. Pan roasted halibut with mashed potatoes and spicy tomato chutney Mixed green salary with strawberries and outstanding Indiana goat cheese Medley of desserts which included chocolate ganache, key lime tart and sticky toffee bread pudding At $50 per person this is the biggest steal in the city. This was an outstanding dinner and the restaurant is wonderfully decorated. We had one pretty funny service blip. After the salmon was cleared, one of the waitresses came by with a plate of 2 chocolate truffles and the check. She thanked us for coming and told us to come back soon. At this point my girlfriend and I looked at each other and started counting on our fingers how many courses we thought we had. Luckily one of the other waiters came by and sorted out the situation. Since we were about half a bottle of wine in to the meal, this was funnier than it was aggravating. Overall a great experience and one that I would highly recommend.

Just wanted to report back now that I'm back from Orlando. Thank you all for your suggestions. The company wound up taking us out to bluezoo one night. We sat in the private room and were offered a very limited menu (2 apps, 1 salad, 3 mains, 1 dessert). I had the scallop and braised short rib appetizer and for my main I had the seared tuna wrapped in nori. The scallop was very good, but the tuna was terrible. Slightly overdone, very dry, virtually no flavor. Overall a disappointing meal, but that probably had to do with the limited menu more than anything else. The one night we were able to get away we wound up at Fulton's Crab House at Downtown Disney. FYI - They have an alternate wine list if you ask for it. We started with a dozen assorted oysters which was very good. Then everybody had the alaskan king crab/lobster tail combo. The crab was a bit dry, but the lobster tail was very good. All in all, ok but not great food. If nothing else, it was good to get away from mass-produced hotel food at least a couple of times. Next time I'm going to suck it up, bring a jacket, and go to Victoria and Albert's.

How was your meal?

Didn't mean to scare you! If you do opt for cheese you can select as few as you like so as not to over-indulge. You have to take my story with a grain of salt as my girlfriend is about 5ft tall and weighs maybe 100 lbs. I, on the other hand, am a foot taller and weigh a little more than twice as much. Needless to say, she is often full before I am.

After a bit of research I think I've got it narrowed down to 3 possibilities. I'll actually only be able to get away one night for dinner. Here are the choices: 1. Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge 2. bluezoo at the Dolphin 3. Flying Fish at the Boardwalk Thoughts?

I couldn't agree more -- although, it is a LOT of food. =R= ← That is 100% true. My girlfriend and I went for our first anniversary a few years ago. I got the Chef's Collection and I believe she had the Vegetarian. When our waiter asked us towards the end of the meal if we wanted a cheese course, being the glutton I am, I said absolutely. Well, my girlfiend nearly jumped across the table and killed me. In fact, she still tells people the story whenever they say they're going to Tru. Be prepared to be stuffed. But in a good way, of course.

I would suggest going with the Chef's Collection. Put yourselves in Rick and Gale's hands and enjoy the evening.

I'll be attending meetings for work next week, staying at the Swan. Since this thread hasn't been updated in a while, just thought I would check to see if there's anyplace I should go while at Disney. I won't have a car, so I'll pretty much be limited to places I can get to on foot or using Disney transportation. All types of food and all price ranges are in play. I'm just trying to avoid eating rubber chicken in the hotel ballroom every night.

Here's a scary thought. Alinea has gotten better. I don't mean a little better, I mean A LOT better. We went last night with my family who are in town visiting from NJ. They had eaten at Per Se not to long ago, so expectations were pretty high. The new menu items are out of this world. We did the twelve course, and 10 out of the 12 items were different from the last time we did it about 5 or 6 weeks ago. BTW, the one dish that will remain from the first menu...the hearts of palm. In addition to the butter poached lobster with raviolis that Pugman described, there were several other items that blew me away, including: Squabb with watermellon, squab confit, licorice and a foie gras sauce. The sauce was so good I wanted to just empty the bowl right into my mouth. Octopus with an eggplant panna cotta and soy foam. The cold, sweet panna cotta was an amazing combination with the salty foam. A "cheese course" of a semi-sold ball of grape juice, filled with walnut milk (how does one milk a walnut? I couldn't get the cat milking scene from "Meet the Parents" out of my head). The ball was on top of red wine gelee, maytag blue cheese and some other things I can't remember. Any minor service glitches that occurred the last time were long gone. We had a chance to talk to Chef Achatz in the kitchen briefly after the meal and he couldn't have been more gracious. Overall, I felt like the first dinner we had there was wonderful, but I didn't think the food was as "out there" as it was at Trio. Also, I felt like the flavors were more on the subtle side, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But, this time, the flavors were big and bold. I thought almost every new dish pushed the envelope. If this is Alinea at 2 months, it is scary to think about what we have to look forward to in the future.

We voted via text message and got confirmation messages back saying our votes had been received. Also, I know my mother was able to cast 10 votes on the website (thankfully for Dan and Steve).

This was the case again this year. You could not buy beverages at food stands. There weren't any lines to buy drinks today, but I could see the lines getting very long on a more crowded day since there didn't seem to be that many beverage stands there.

Well, just got back from a hot and steamy lunch at Taste. Here's what I had: Crab Legs (Grazie): At 9 tickets a bit steep but I wanted to give them a shot. Terrible idea. There is no conceivable way to eat these while walking around. While the shells were soft, they weren't pre-cracked at all. When I cracked them, the meat just stayed inside instead of sliding out. The melted butter provided an extra degree of difficulty. Skip these. Taste portion of goat was basmati rice, saffron and spices (Zam Zam Restaurant): Great item. The goat was tender and the whole dish had a great spice. The portion size was pretty large considering it was a taste portion (3 tickets). Salmon stuffed with crabmeat, served with a shrimp in a mustard sauce (The Palm): This was over at the gourmet tent. If you're there today, not a bad choice. I was disappointed that the Saloon wasn't there today as I love the Wagyu beef sliders they normally serve. Blue Raspberry Italian Ice (Mazzone's): Very refreshing, especially on a day like today. At 3 tickets for a taste portion, a nice way to finish things off. 2 bottles of water (Drink stand): Cold and wet. Included for the sake of completeness.

They also had their Lomi Salmon (diced fresh salmon, mixed with tomatoes, onions, and some other stuff), which was probably the best thing I've had at Taste. This was back when I was a regular at Hey Sushi, so I was even able to get a couple of extra portions for free (a Taste of Chicago first?). Unfortunately they didn't bring it back. I'll be going at lunch today. Has anyone found anything of note yet this year?

I have to ask...what dish is being kept?

The first step is admitting you have a problem. We'll be going back next Friday for visit number 2. Hopefully we'll be doing the Tour, but that will be up to others at the table. I'll be sure to report back anything new.