Capaneus

It loaded lickety-split on my computer, running Firefox. Dare I ask what browser you're using? Not much detail about the food, though, which is a shame. Mrbigjas, is this the place you've recommended in the past? ← I had no problem using IE on my very pokey home PC. I think it's a problem with the website, not necessarily a compatibility problem. She did talk quite a bit about the food, actually: she described the haemul panjan and the gamjatang at some length, as well as the panchan . A couple of other things get a bare mention, but keep in mind this was a sidebar, not the main Food Section article. That honor went to a paean to riesling that was, despite its evident good intentions, singularly ineffective. I usually find better value on the several themed blurbs on food, restaurants and bars that are sprinkled through the following five pages than I get from the main articles' two pages. I think others may as well, since I noticed the Weekly taking some steps in that direction.

Thanks for posting this. I suppose we've all been in wait-and-see mode. I don't expect these changes to be catastrophic - I'm pretty sure they were in the pipeline during Chairman Newman's tenure. It's going to be next Holiday season before the impact of the Recent Events is fully felt, I think. I do have to wonder about the PLCB's penchant for secrecy in its operations. Who are they keeping the information from? The competition?

I thought they had more hits than that: the pork and peanut and the chives dumplings, the turnip cakes, the baked deserty stuff in the last picture. I thought only the more popular steamed stuff suffered, and I do believe that was because they had piles of it sitting on one cart most of the time we were there. And my search for decent sticky rice continues. I'm in the "Let's try a Sunday camp". And Jeff, you are a proud, proud man: where's the picture of the turnip cake, huh? Couldn't do it, could ya?

20th and Sansom. Thanks for the photo Phil ← The space that used to be Crimson Moon, right?

Yeah, membrillo seems to be the spanish word for quince. I love the fact that on the fairly small-scale map of the fruit's range on the Spanish website where I found this information, someone went to the trouble to make sure they left a teensy little blank strip on the West coast of Spain. Somehow that just figures. Since it's our goshdarn word that names the stuff, internationally...

Marmalade. From "marmelo", the Portuguese word for quince. The orange-based jam you're familiar with was concocted as a substitute when the real thing couldn't get through, during some war or other. Beautiful shots of what looks like a wonderful meal. It's good to be you, isn't it?

Out of curiosity, why would the distributors care about BYO? A bottle sold retail equals a bottle sold by a restaurant, as far as they're concerned, no? I would think the hospitality industry would be the ones with a stake in keeping their markups. I quite enjoyed the article, but then it's pretty much the way I've felt all along, so it was easy to.

I think a distinction needs to be made there: I don't think there is anything wrong with criticism (blogging being one form, for lack of better term) that restricts itself to the positive. Everytime a critic pans a small place struggling to find an audience, I wonder whether the review space wouldn't be better used pointing readers to the places the critic likes. And in that sense, I have no problem with the concept of a website like uwishunu.com. The key, though, is that the criticism needs to be unswervingly honest: the temptation will be to move from highlighting the positive to obscuring the negative, from pointing out the great places to papering over the inconvenient flaws. And then we're in the realm of shilling, and that I find offensive. I would like to believe that these sites can stay on the right side of that divide, but I'm afraid that it will be very hard for the bureaucrats that ultimately hold the power to even understand the distinction, much less cleave to the ruthless honesty an enterprise like that would require. Having said which, thanks for the pointers, I'll need to check these folks out.

That's also the case with Vetri's if you look at it closely: slight variations on peasant food, done with superior ingredients and flawless technique - at fine dining prices. And, before V. leaves hobnail footprints all over my rear end, entirely worth every one of the (many) pennies I've spent there on a couple of occasions. As far as I can tell, not having been there, Osteria applies the same equation to food of less involved preparation, served in a much higher-volume space. From the reports, it seems like they have hit the mark again. But you'll have to forget those comparisons: the food here should meet higher standards than other iterations of, say, the margherita that you might find around town. I know it's not easy to do. I have a bit of trouble with that one myself. And for what it's worth, "everyday restaurant" means different things to different people. But from early reports on the crowds, Vetri and Benjamin seem to have accurately judged their market.

Hi Mike: I like those too, I still have bottles of #1 to #4. Do you know if I need to think about drinking these or will they keep a while? They are stored properly. ← I last opened a bottle of the Cosentino 6-8 months ago, and thought then it needed a couple of years to come together. Opinions differed, as I recall.

online at philly.com Some of it comes down to personal taste: he thought "the miso-caramel-glazed apple wedges crusted in crushed wasabi peas tasted like a sake-bar snack fantasy gone awry." But I really like them... He didn't care for the tallegio/polenta/corn thing, one of my favorite dishes there. Conversely, he loved the curry banana, which I did too, but I know at least one of us in this forum just hated. But the tone was overall pretty positive, I hope it gets some more folks in there. ← See, I thought it was a fairly down review. Not a beating - more of a slip-slow-poison-in-food sort of malfeasance: everytime he named a positive, there was a "but" there to kill the buzz, or a separate negative to darken the mood. By the time I got to the end of the review, I felt I'd read about a distinctly lesser restaurant than he claimed to be describing, but it took me a couple of reads to figure out why. Or maybe I'm overprocessing again. Hope most people just focus on the positives.

I think Mr. LaBan is perfectly aware of the humor involved in the whole song-and-dance. Showing up for a public appearance in a transparently silly costume looks that way to me, anyway. I expect that for working occasions he goes the Ruth Reichl way, and uses more realistic disguises.

Yes. Although Herb has no obligation to pay this unless it was something he specifically agreed to, and should certainly challenge the charge with his credit card company.

It's been a while, I hope he's still there, but the chicken and falafel pitas from the guy on the NE corner of 20th and Market didst rock. The falafel truck at 15th and JFK wasn't half bad either.

Hi Gabe Try Assouline & Ting. Jim ← Interesting thought... I wouldn't have considered A&T for this sort of dry goods, but on reflection they're as likely as anyone... Gabe, have you tried DiBruno's? What about the lil' grocery attached to Fork? Just throwing names out, right now, waiting for the more acquisitionally adept to pitch in.

If this were feasible, it would be in place - somewhere, in some way. I imagine the illwill this would generate would more than outstrip the drop in no-shows.

Meh. For there to be a market for the reservations, there has to be a scarcity in place prior to these bottom-feeders stepping in. Otherwise, demand wouldn't exist. So a casual occasional user like myself will see no change in circumstances from any of this. The fake names... That just tells me something about how their interaction with the restaurants is going. The industry is clearly not terribly happy with them, though I'm having some trouble understanding the whys and wherefores of that reaction too. Yes, I get "subversion of their reservation system", which translates to me to "Vee haff ze classical trainink und vee are zee kontroll freaks und you vill do as you're told because it is the Keller/Bocuse/whoever Expericence and it is GUT for you!" What I finally don't get is exactly what harm is being done. And of course, being an unpleasant cuss, it occurs to me that this all happens in the context of a multi-tiered reservation system already being run by restaurants, who have always favored people-who-aren't-me with special access. I know schadenfreude isn't nice, but it really can be pleasant, in carefully-controlled doses.

Heh. Here I go again, I suppose. Why exactly is this especially offensive? Given that its existence presupposes I wouldn't have been able to get a reservation for one of these restaurants on short notice anyway, it's taking nothing away from me. If (not really able to imagine it, but...) I decide to pay for it, it does provide me an alternative I wouldn't have had otherwise. What am I meant to be angry about again? Now, I can understand why restaurateurs would be fuming, but that's a different issue, surely.

Purdy pitchure. Keep hangin' wif the Dinin' Man, you might get some skills yet, youngster! On prices... Plenty to disagree about on general principles, but prices at Osteria seem about where I'd expect them to be. A couple of things might be a bit off, like the arancini, but they opened a few days ago, prices will shift up and down. Given the price structure, I think we'll see the pastas bumped up a couple of dollars early in the game. As usual for me, my assessment on "affordability" will depend in large measure on what kind of wine list they come up with. I hope Marc (and Jeff Benjamin? Is he in on this one?) find room for a few values in there.

I would, but their wine list is extortionate.

Huh. Well, what are the rest of the prices like? I was wondering why we weren't getting any in the early posts... And what are folks drinking with all this? Barbaresco and Barolo for $15 and $18 per glass isn't crazy pricing, depending on the bottle, but not to offer a dolcetto or some other inexpensive red alternative strikes me as odd. What does the rest of the list look like?

No, you're right there. Almost by definition, they have to be wines with a very large production. There has to be enough surplus to press the vintner to slash prices, and the PLCB would have no reason to buy unless it can be fairly widely available throughout the system. Having said that, there's been a couple of oddballs: a pouilly-fume, a fortified Zinfandel...

It's not your grandmother's Merlot, that's for sure. No anodyne little easy-drinking sippy-sippy bottle here. So far I've opened one of a half-case I picked up in the last go-round, and it really is a knock-your-socks-off wine. The nose was restrained, blackberry and chocolate mostly. In the mouth... the first impression is almost like a mouthfull of nettles, the tannin rasps so clearly, but then the fruit hits you, and it's beautiful, all dark fruit, chocolate and leather. The extraction is extraordinary, the wine so dense it's chunky-chewy, but it still feels perfectly in balance, if a bit backward. It's a great wine, but I think it may be much better in five to ten years. If you're going to drink it soon, you'll need to pour it with very rich food, to give all those sharp edges something to play with. Organ meats, or a well-marbled full-flavored steak. Venison seems like a no-brainer, but it can be lean, and that wouldn't be ideal.

Found canned loquats. Yech-ptooie-ptoo is too kind, but manners prevent profanity. I suspected it might be the case: the flavor is so delicate, the canning itself is enough to ruin the fruit. All you can taste is syrup. Though I wouldn't expect loquats canned without syrup to be any better. And now to wait for Spring.

$95 entrees, if you please - after add-ons which sound fairly hard-sold. And no, it's far from a positive review. Just a hair short of outright demolition, in my opinion. Made much worse by the fact that the gentleman can actually write. One of the best-written reviews I've read in a while, LaBan and assorted NY rags included. Almost makes me want to visit the place so I can get a bead on his judgement. Almost. edited to ask whether anybody else is having a dickens of a time accessing citipaper.net.