Orik

A difficult question. I would say - - A shot of soup as an amuse (although tonight, for the first time, we were served solid amuses) - The salmon belly crudo - Poached foie gras with (?) - A light cream soup (cream of mushrooms or cream of fennel?) - The poached duck - A dish composed of a single lamb chop (medium-rare) and another part of lamb slow cooked one way or another - Fruit soup with fromage blanc sorbet As you can conclude from the list above, BH seems to have 'Signature Templates' rather than signature dishes.

Marginally on topic - I had it in the back of my mind that I've seen a super-priced burger offered before and I just remembered where it was: Note that these are the 1977 prices. I don't remember if when I ate there in 1997 the grand burger cost $250 or $1000, but judging by the quality of their steaks it may very well be a great burger. cabrales -- I'm curious - you've wondered elsewhere about (undue) focus on pricing and yet it seems that you do not see the problematic or amusing aspects of price focused PR. As mentioned earlier on this thread, some hangovers ago, I see nothing wrong (or right) with the pricing of any dish, yet I would prefer it to be advertised for its gastronomic merits rather than its price point. (although such advertising would undubtedly end up on page 76 of Saveur, not page 1 of the times).

I thought the Flushing Woo Chon was better than any Korean I've had in Manhattan (haven't been tp their branch here though). Of the Manhattan Ktown restaurants, I've enjoyed Kun Jip (sp?) on 32nd street and Han Bat.

And what if it was about some joint in Ogonquit that served scalloped pizzas? Would we spend 104 posts discussing how to pronounce Ogonquit? Only if the owner would insist on using the !Ora pronounciation.

And if it was called "Calle Alley"? This example is somewhat problematic, as double-l can take on quite a few pronounciations depending on where you're from. I've heard Paella being called Pa-el-la, Pa-e-ia and Pa-e-ja.

Nina is right, as inidicated in the mp3. You just can't say it using American vowels, while some British accents support it nicely. Please watch the following episode of 'Standard Deviants' if and when it is aired and practice your Otto, Vito and risotto http://www.standarddeviants.com/pls/brain/...p_subject_id=16

I also remember plans for him to open a restaurant with Michael Ginor (Unico?). edit: As reported on USA today 1/6/00: "Nuevo Latino pioneer Douglas Rodriguez has left award-winning Patria to join Hudson Valley Foie Gras' Michael Ginor in Unico, a Latin American grill, scheduled for early February. (29 E. 32nd St.; 212-725-4900)"

Examples of adverse selection: - A newspaper article tells you that 5% of 1999 Sumaru SUVs are lemons. You buy 20 of them from current owners and it turns out that 15% are actually lemons. [1] - People who face greater risks are more likely to buy life insurance. - Positive reviews are likely to increase sales, therefore making the reviewed item more popular, causing more people to read the reviews, making the reviewer more popular. [1] This also has an element of moral hazard, as some owners may knowingly hide facts known to them, rather than just being predisposed their under-performing veichle without knowing it has serious problems.

Andy, I did not mean to doubt your honesty or impartiality in any way, nor do I think the principals of this site would knowingly skew results for their own benefit. However, in similar settings that I've had the chance to analyze in the past, adverse selection comes about almost unknowingly.

It is a very good book and truely does inspire, but it is not without its faults. I'll list some problems with specific recipes when I'm near my copy. Also, I do not care for reviews that are so closely coupled with invitations to buy the reviewed item. This can predispose the reviewer to write positively if they are not independent, or it can lead to editorial adverse selection. http://www.timeoutny.com/eatout/349/349.eat.feat.html edit: typo

The best Indian food I've had in Israel was at the home of an Indian co-worker from Tamil Nadu, so the high-tech industry did have an effect, at least for me As far as the success of Indian food in Israel, I would say that: - Many (most?) Israelis, like GC's lovely wife, grew up in spice averse homes. Some of them convert, but many just refuse to try dishes that are hot and spicy. Moreover, very few Israelis would accept vegetarian food as their dinner, so dosa is also out of the question. - The kosher issue is not significant, as the cross section of kosher eaters and potential Indian food eaters is tiny. My opinion on the effects of kosherization in the real world is well known, so I won't argue about it with FG. - In a recent survey, held among 385 participants (mostly yuppies and students), the question posed was "what's your favorite cuisine?". Indian tied with Japanese at 5% (see boaziko, not that many people like sushi after all), while Italian scored 28%. Does anyone know what the results would be like in the US? NYC? I'm not sure that for a country with such a small Indian community 5% is bad. - In my opinion, the omnipresent Mrs. Pushkarna dropped the ball. Her 'Tandoori' chain gradually stopped serving the excellent tandoori fare that was served there initially and now (last ate there 4 years ago) serves mediocre food at Diwan prices (high for the Israeli market). - You have to keep in mind that even if you pick a more popular cuisine (say, chinese, coming in at 17% in the above survey), there may be only a handfull, if any, good restaurants serving it there.

Where is it, Orik? Here: http://newyork.citysearch.com/profile/35692970/

Please don't make any changes to the lamb chops. You can change the halibut, alter the prawns, but the chops should remain as they are

As mentioned earlier on this thread, there's roasted/toasted tahini at Whole Foods. Edit: Boaziko, how do you feel about the importation of Nablus made Tahini into the USA?

With plain water. They were skewered and placed on savoy cabbage leaves. As for the soup, I was aiming at a single complex flavor, so the mushrooms were processed with the celery, but topping with them would probably have resulted in a nicer looking dish (not a sick shade of gray, that is). Miss J -- the lovely fig syrup we used was recently purchased at 'Le Salon Saveurs' in Paris from a vendor best described as 'the fig nut' (I'll look up the actual brand when I'm at home). We used tellicherry (sp?) peppercorns and a passable balsamic vinegar (Fini, 12 years old). Now you reminded me it's been too long since I last made risotto and it's only 9am...

For a celebratory dinner yesterday: - Steamed shrimps (the really huge kind sold at wild edibles) with a quick shrimp stock/cream sauce and caviar (american, I think I'll pay extra for russian next time). - Cream of celery root with dry mushroom stock, parmesan and truffle oil. - Roast squab breast and pan fried foie gras (both from dartagnan), served on a brioche (pain q.) with a red wine/squab carcass reduction. - Vanilla ice cream with warm fig/balsamic/black pepper syrup.

Bordewijk was mentioned here before, but I thought it deserved a more detailed desctription. The restaurant is located at the edge of the Jordaan, occupying a space that is so sparsely decorated it feels temporary. Acoustics and ventilation are bad, so on crowded nights (which are just about any night) it gets loud (in European terms) and very smokey (in absolute terms). Service tends to be friendly and knowledgable, but expect long pauses (for better or worse) between dishes if the kitchen is busy. Bordewijk serves food that is basically French, but has both Mediterranean and Flemish influences, an unlikely combination that mostly works. For our meal there this time we had: Amuse - Grilled calamari with olive oil and herbs - nice but too salty 6 Oysters (fines de claires) A most generous portion (3-4oz after cooking) of roasted foie gras with truffled hollandaise sauce and 5-6 sliced of black truffle grated on top. At $22 this was the most expensive appetizer on the menu, but still it was an amazing bargain. Monkfish and scallop risotto with a scallop coral sauce. Very good risotto and sauce, adequate fish. Saddle of young venison with pumpkin and ? - reportedly good Veal kidneys and a veal liver and mashed potato kroket. Lovely. Cheeses - a small but good selection of French, Italian and Dutch cheeses. Tiny poached pears with praline ice cream. Food totalled just under $130 (all included). An average a la carte meal for two should cost about $100. Bordewijk offers a daily menu, comprising of 3,4, or 5 dishes (I think for $35, $45 and $55 approximately). Wine mark ups are relatively modest. Cafe de Klos has been a fixture of Israeli culture for as long as anyone can remember. Legend has it that the first Hebrew language guide to Amsterdam featured de Klos as serving 'the best spare ribs in the world'. This might be an overstatement, but certainly they serve a large portion of excellent ribs, very meaty, with confit like properties and a lightly charred outside. Other dishes on the menu, which is conveniently printed on the staff's shirts, are not as good (lamb chops are particularly disappointing). CdK is tiny and gets very crowded, so you should try and get there early, preferably before 6pm. $40 for bread and garlic butter, two servings of ribs, two huge baked potatoes and four kiddie sized Amstels Nam Kee Nam Kee is one of Amsterdam's oldest Chinese restaurants and appears to have inspired at least one Dutch film. We only sampled their steamed oysters (served with 'Nam Kee' sauce, based on black bean sauce), which were very nice, and an excellent duck and pickled vegetables soup. Low prices, chinatown decor, rice is not served (or offered) by default.

Back to a north american keyboard: It wasn't a bad meal at all, just worse than it used to be. The value/money became much worse, generating a distinctive feeling of being had. This was highlighted by a $64 cream of mushroom (champignons) with peanuts and parmesan foam, which was nothing more than the name implies. As for seasonality, there is a wide variety of winter vegetables available in French markets, some (carrots, beets) were utilized in dishes offered but not sampled. I thought the fact that they serve a cold tomato soup (although it was very good) is just another indication of how contrived this veggie stunt really is. Anyway, although satisfaction from a meal is an elusive concept, I would say that we felt as satisfied after eating the appetizer at PG as we did after the entire meal at Arpege. More on that meal in another thread. A few more points of comparison: (before/after) The egg was served with every meal. [a] The egg is only served as part of the tasting menu. The tasting menu was offered at around $200 and contained many of the dishes currently in the tasting menu (egg, avocado, lobster, dessert were the same). The overall number of dishes was about the same. [a] The tasting menu is offered at $300 with the food cost probably 30-40% lower (scallops became vegetables, duck became a chicken, truffles removed from lobster dish) aperitifs were priced at around $15, often comped [a] aperitifs were priced at around $28 mentioned again due to how severe this was: lovely cheese cart with well ripened cheeses [a] cheese tray that looks like it was purchased at the neighborhood fromagier the same day

just a quick note as the French keyboard layout is killing me From the perspective of someone who used to dine at Arpege very often before Passard made his veggie declaration, dinner there was a mixed experience (although food-wise everything was very good to excellent), certainly not one that made me want to go back there any time soon. Things that were disturbing (in no particular order): - Prices went up 50% (for the same dishes - one note on this - the lobster in yellow wine used to be served with truffle shavings, this is no longer the case) - Arpege used to have a very good cheese cart - this time we were served under-ripe cheeses of shameful quality from a limited selection. - Except for the tomato soup with mustard ice cream, none of the dishes showed a particularly successful treatment of vegetables - A previously featured dish of cream of truffles with parmesan was replaced with a dish of onion gratin with parmesan. While you could claim that an onion is more of a vegetable than a truffle, a second soup offered was a cream of mushroom, so I tend to think there are other reasons for this change. In short, you get a lot less for a lot more and there is nothing very interesting (to me) about the new offerings there.

Passard was serving cream of mushroom with peanuts and parmesan. Turn out was relatively low (I would guestimate around 100 people overall) and for the most part consisted of elderly French ladies who happened to be doing their shopping. This was a true bargain, as the same soup (with parmesan foam instead of shredded cheese) was served to us the night before for the modest price of €64. I'm not quite sure how cream of mushroom celebrates vegetables, but I guess there has to be some logic behind it...

Associated supermarkets carry at least one brand of pasteurized milk by the gallon, so does amish market. Cream is more difficult, mostly it requires a trip to a ronnybrook location, but occasionally I have found it at the amish market as well. Stillwater - upper mid-western 'burb where you can get truffled carpaccio, foie gras in alexis bailey ice wine and all the antiques you'll ever want.

The ronnybrook cf is not bad (does anyone know where I can get it in midtown?), I use it to finish my ragu and other dishes where that last touch of dairy/creamy/acid is called for. I haven't really tried other US brands (other than whatever was available in Minnesotan supermarkets, which wasn't great). When plain cf or flavored cf is called for in a recipe, I often make it at home, adding the spices to the mixture before letting it rest. Home made cf can be whipped (although it never becomes as light as whipped cream), not sure about commercial products.

And if you want to make something very similar to creme fraiche, you can do it like this: http://www.ochef.com/206.htm Generally speaking, you should avoid using ultra-pasturized milk for any kind of cheese/cream making, but plain old pasturized milk or cream should result in decent creme fraiche and clotted cream.

Like so: http://drinc.ucdavis.edu/html/man/man-2.shtml

It says: (according to tommy) Cassoulet is not really a recipe, it's a way to argue among neighboring villages in Gascony. Recipes vary, some calling for lamb or bread crumbs and others strictly frowning on such additions. Our recipe abides by the tradition of Auch, the capital of the region. It is a stew of white Coco Tarbais beans, garlic and duck sausages, duck leg confit and carrots - certainly no lamb or bread crumbs here!" Which does not change the fact that it is very poor. Edit: Steve P -- just wanted to note that while the overall experience was not bad, there are many places I would return to before Dartagnan.