Orik

The recipe I've used mostly: 3/4 cup of thin bulgur, soaked in water and strained 1 cup very finely chopped flat leaf parsley 1/3 cup very finely chopped peppermint 1 medium tomato, chopped very thin juice from 2 lemons 1/4 cup olive oil (prefereably of a robust olive varietal) salt and pepper mix everything and adjust seasoning. It's very hard to speak of "authentic" tabouleh, but this results in something very similar to what you may get in the middle east.

And that is just why I suggested a formula... you can draw various dishes on an axis and see what's really interesting from a preparation/composition perspective and whether that correlates to it belonging to "haute cuisine" vs "cheap eats"...dimensions may be added if you wish to make the analysis more complete (e.g. plot dishes in ingredients/prep time/complexity space). Seriously though, I find that metadiscussions require a precise definition of the discussion under discussion, otherwise they are...well...very murky and not useful at all. Call in Wittgenstein.

So many responses...so little time... If I understand what Steve P. is saying, some foods are simple to prepare and therefore are not very interesting to discuss (e.g. olive oil, tomato paste from tuscany, falafel, steak). Foods merit discussion in proportion to the complexity of preparation, the number of ingredients and their uniqueness (some seem to focus more on technique while others think the ingredients are key). Naturally, there is some correlation between the interest generating factors and the price, but that correlation (as many have stated), is very partial. So, we may come up with a formula: I(dish) = A*NumberOfIngredients + B*NumberOfUniqueIngredients + C*StepsInPreparation + D*SpecialToolsForPreparation + E*VeryLongSteps Where I is the level of interest in discussing a dish. Let's say we set A=1, B=4, C=1, D=4, E=4 How does steak score? Assuming beef+salt+pepper+oil or clarified butter and three steps (put on fire, flip, put on fire some more, let rest) I(steak)=1*4+4*0+1*3+4*0+4*0=7 How about chicken soup? Falafel? Shawarma? caviar? Olive oil? Tomato paste? timpano? wild hare served in three services (or lobster in four?) should the factors be modified or is a nonlinear combination called for? Of tangential interest to me is the question of why the failure rate in the simplest of dishes is so high, but that's off topic.

That the chicken served in a great restaurant should be of {local parallel of Bresse AOC} and that it should be prepared with great care and skill is obvious. However, I view this as one building block in the composition of a great dish (not in the case of chicken, as I disclosed before) and not as an end in itself.

i'm sorry to hear that. especially considering that you feel that way about this particular restaurant, one which many would argue is one of the most outstanding in NYC, if not the country. I've even seen people claim that it is the best restaurant in the world. It is definitely a good restaurant that accomodates a wide range of dining experiences and makes an honest attempt at professional service, but there was nothing in the tasting menu yesterday that was "outstanding".

i'm always curious as to why people make this connection. I think after people hear often enough how a restaurant is just a business meant to pack as many of them into the least possible time-space and serve them food at 3 to 4 times the food cost, they start making this connection. If I would believe our server was doing much more than just reading a script and that given the choice he would actually like to have the soft shell crabs over anything else in the menu, I might have thought the crabs were astonighingly good, but cynical old me can't believe this was the case.

We had dinner at GT tonight. Thought it was nice, but certainly not matching the accolades. Service, while being better trained than most, was still as clueless as it ususally is in new york. They managed to bring us the check before the dessert ("50 people asked for the tasting at the same time, you see, I'm embarrased, folks"), the wine just after the appetizer and the petits fours never came. Soft shell crabs were obviously not selling very well, leading to a long lecture about their greatness as appetizers and/or entrees. As for the food, I would probably like their fresh bacon served with a sauce and side made for blue hill's pork belly and their langoustine sauced by pierre gagnaire or any serious french chef and not swimming in watercress juice. It may be a trait of the new american kitchen, but the proteins were all around excellent and well prepared while sauces and sides seemed mediore at best. The espresso was good, a rarity. Finally, after our bottle of mineral water was depleted, our water glasses were filled once again. I apologize to whoever paid for the water we got.

In the midwest, I've witnessed similar responses to the mention of chicken liver. Is it possible that olive trees are actually poultry? I like my oil souri (syrian), nyons to eat straight and kalamata for cooking. I also like the souri olives prepared the traditional way, where they are hit with a heavy object prior to curing. One of my favorite dishes in the whole wide world is a fillet of red mullet served on squid ink pasta (that is, pasta that was drenched in squid ink) and tapenade in the Mul Yam restaurant in Tel-Aviv. Another unexpectedly lovely dish I've had was pigeon with foie gras and black olives (I forget which varietal) in Bordewijk, Amsterdam. I sometimes wander what the chinese would have done with olives... And now I think I'll go get me some olives, still over an hour before dinner...

Babbo. The concensus about the food is as broad as can be, but there are also inordinately many reports about horrid service leading to lousy dining experiences. (I am probably less forgiving than many egulleteers when it comes to that). http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?s=...t=6636&hl=babbo

Back in the winter of 2000/1, we made a 9pm reservation at one our favorite restaurants. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the host who told us that our table was ready, but that we might want to wait at the bar for 20 minutes or so, as it was adjacent that of a 'very critical and unpleasant couple'. The only open table for two was near that of Tim and Nina Zagat.

This afternoon we had some Tunisian sandwiches, known in Israel as Fricassee (I have no idea why, they are by no means related to any fricassee I've ever seen). Tunisian sandwiches were the favorite street food of my childhood, acquired from a suspicious looking man on a street cart/tricycle who would keep them in what I would now think of as horrific sanitary conditions (think sliced eggs kept without refrigeration all day), still they never killed anyone to the best of my knowledge and tasted better than most falafel or shawarma you could find in my home town. Fricassee is prepared using deep fried rolls (5 minutes out of the oil and still very warm), stuffed with a cooked pumpkin (or acorn squash) spread known as tirshi, mixed with harissa, lemon juice and caraway, some pitted black olives, preserved lemons, hard boiled egg, boiled potato slices and tuna cooked in oil (and no, the tasteless, dry, white stuff in cans doesn't cut it). Some extra harissa is added if you're brave enough. You only realize one is enough after you've had two...

Duck seems to be a popular bird here recently. Yesterday we roasted one, stuffing it with a ground mixture of duck eggs (soft boiled), duck liver, mushrooms (sauteed in butter), breadcrumbs (panko, cheating, etc.) spiced with some thyme, salt and pepper (had no bacon, would have worked here, I think). We cooked the rest of the duck innards and its neck in 1/2 bottle of red wine and some beef stock together with garlic for about 30 minutes, strained and reduced, finally adding some truffle pate (la rustichella, favorite cheapo truffle brand) and butter. The sauce and stuffing were terrific, but next time I think I'll carve the duck, sautee the breasts, confit the legs and use the rest for stock.

And a Tunisian version: 3 potatos, boiled peeled and sliced or cubed 1 tsp of small capers, rinsed from the salt or brine 1 thinly sliced onion (or half an onion if it's large) 1 Tbsp chopped black olives 1 Tbsp finely chopped preserved lemon 1 tsp paprika 1/4 cup olive oil Mix everything but the oil, season with salt and pepper then add the oil.

Of course the one thing that makes them better is using fresh leaves vs. preserved. Other than that, I like the stuffing to be lamb/rice/pine nuts with cinnamon/cardamom/coriander. The lemon/mint variant is also very nice. I must say I've never heard of dolmas with feta, maybe I'll try that...

If anything, us evil transylvanians would serve it with hard yellow cheese, urda (ricotta) or feta...but then again we also make our noodle kuggel (sp?) spicy and use rice for the sweet kuggel. Duck fat works very well for frying this, butter is ok too.

While some alternatives do exist (I've heard of people pan-roasting or using popcorn makers), a coffee roaster is the way to go. The model I'm using (available from http://www.sweetmarias.com/ where there's detailed information on roasting alternatives) roasts 1/2 cup of beans at a time and allows you to precisely control the roast. It also does a decent job of collecting the chaf, but you'll still get some of it on your kitchen counter. Also note that every roasting cycle involves listening to what sounds like a turbo charged hair dryer for quite a few minutes. You may also want to find out just how sensitive your fire detectors are...roasting could easily trigger them. Overall it's a minor hassle and the results are great.

I'm a member of the home roasting underground (hearthware, rocky, silvia). I feel is that discussing store roasted beans is much like talking about which canned chicken stock is best - none of them comes even close to home made, except maybe a couple of high end products that will be marked up by hundreds of percentage points...

Speaking of humor and whim. I believe you once described the food at Les Halles as "whimsical". Could you elaborate on that in the context of an Entrecote and fries?

Thought I'd add two which are lesser known in the US, but certainly are the best I've seen in their category: Cresci: The Art of Leavened Dough by Iginio Massari, Achille Zoia Patisserie of Pierre Hermé (English/French Edition)

The kind people at blue ribbon serve a dish consisting of three bone segments, about 3-4 inches long and full of marrow. It is served with toast and some slow cooked meat (oxtail I think).

A quick google search came up with a couple of recipes that seem to have potential (seem to greatly resemble what our persian maid/cook used to make). adas polo havidge polo lubia This being the type of kitchen it is, it is certainly open to a lot of variation (e.g. lamb is sometimes replaced by pita, as in the recipe in persia.org), so I can hardly vouch for similarity to what your grandmother used to make.

Yes, it was a reference to that discussion, just as butter makes better, panko makes perfect.

Picholine serves a great sea urchin panna cotta as an appetizer. Blue Ribbon also have sea urchin on their raw bar on occasion, but it was far from being the best I've tasted (I believe it was in January). I believe Aquavit have (or at least had) some dishes featuring a sea urchin "sausage"

Shrimp falafel I don't have accurate quantities, but basically, for so and so falafel balls, 1 lb medium sized shrimps, peeled and deveined, chopped into small pieces (about 4mm long) chopped cilantro (about 2-3 tbsp) chopped parsley (same) ground cumin (enough to make is smell like falafel) one beaten egg bread crumbs (enough to make shrimp balls hold together). we actually used panko, even though it's cheating shape into falafel sized balls and fry until golden. I didn't add onion or garlic which are part of falafel because I felt they would overpower the shrimps. It can be interesting to try these with some ground chickpeas or fava beans thrown in for authenticity.

Japanese seven spice (Shichimi Togarashi) is available in any japanese market (and probably some supermarkets and international food markets). It is a mixture of white sesame, black sesame, citrus rind, chili flakes, nori flakes, poppy seeds and something similar to sichuan pepper (sansho). I'm sure you can make it at home if you REALLY want to One other note - go easy on the shiso - a quarter of a shredded leaf per diver scallop should be more than enough.