chefzadi

In answer to the question- I actually prefer to read reviews that offer as little personal preferences about food as possible. Everybody's palate is different. Reviewers also get spread too thin sometimes, they are expected to review cuisines that they are not familiar with. The types of reviews I enjoy provide alot of physical descriptions. Parking situation, decor, service, menus, presentation, etc... So that I can make up my own mind. I don't like Indian food, so it would unfair for me to review an Indian restaurant by saying I disliked the dishes. I could though comment on the types of the ingredients, the methods of preparation, whether or not it was freshly made, etc... I think it's absolutely neccessary for the review to take the restaurant's context into consideration. You can't criticize a small operation that can only charge $7.95 for half roast (even whole for that matter) chicken for not using Volaille de Bresse.

Before you try the recipe I suggest that you take a look at Mabellines experience with his boeuf bourguignon recipe.

A page http://chinese-school.netfirms.com/Muslims.html from the Los Angeles Chinese learning center.

My wife doesn't know the history of metal chopsticks in Korea, but they have been used for quite sometime. They are ubiquitous in fact. Metal or silver. My wife's parents insist on using silver. Sometimes the spoons have Chinese characters engraved on them. The handles often have decorative inlays or sometimes real gold accents. There are smaller silver spoon and chopstick sets that are given to children on their first birthdays. These can be quite expensive and they are handed down.

Sometimes..I, too, wish I could be that crazy chef... Uh...but I don't smoke... and uh. I'm not French... I have the carbon steel Sabatier...and, well, uh, we have an open kitchen. So people see me all the time! Hahaha ← I have to admit the French accent goes along way in buffering customer complaints, Lack of English language skills help also.

I had never heard of "adding" to a customer's food untill I came to the States. I've never seen it. My wife told me about it. But in the restaurants that I've worked in the States, the path from the kitchen to the dining area was pretty well lit and visible. It would have been difficult for the servers to "do" anything to the food without getting easily caught by someone else. Maybe this sort of stuff happens more at the chain restaurants or lower end places. I'm just guessing here. I've never worked at one and hardly ever dine at them (I mean chain restaurants. I like a good mom and pop place). Again I'm guessing, the high volume and lower average cover, maybe teenagers dining out. A long long time ago my wife and I ended up at a chain restaurant in downtown LA at around 2:30 AM. The customer base there and the FOH... ummm I could see how things could get ugly. Also female waitstaff probably have to put up with a lot more than men. Customers trying to cop a feel. I can see how that could get be extremely upsetting. Some of the complaints on these websites seem more like hyperbolic rants, a game of one upmanship, tall tales, rare incidences gathered together giving the misleading appearance of deep and wide spread problems between servers and customers. In the reports of scuffles and fights between servers and customers, there is a third player Management. I made the joke about me coming out of the kitchen with a cigarette and a sabatier knife. But the idea was that if a customer was difficult I would go out to the dining room to deal with them as diplomatically as possible and the servers also felt better because of my support. So if anybody reading this is in restaurant management try this approach rather than pounding the Wal Mart philosophy of "the customer is always right."

Many bowls, at least here in the west, have been designed to accomidate this with holes or grooves to hold your chopsticks. Does anyone use hashi rests on a regular basis? I have several porcelain sets in the shapes of fish and birds that I usually reserve for formal dinners. I don't use them outside of formal dinners because, honestly, I can't be bothered. ← We have those too, Korean celadon. We don't use them because our toddler would hurl them across the room.

Sesame seed candy? Is there a Chinese version?

My in laws gave us a set of engraved, lacquer inlayed silver Korean style chopsticks (does this make sense in English? As wedding gifts. they gave us miniatures for the kids later) My wife is adept at using every manner of chopsticks. I find the Japanese ones the easiest to use.

Behemoth- By the way you have a fine had with your food. I like it.

The funny thing is I'm never 100% sure it is the traditional thing or whether it was a little touch added by my mom. Though I think I've seen other people do that shape. I personally like the added texture. I also need to try the baking step. You know come to think of it, it is the exact fold they use on Korean kimchee mandu. Heh. ← Ha ha! Tortellini or mandu, the same shape! It's whole family event at my wife's family's home. They sit around the table making them. Hundreds!

← You can leave something for the kitchen to enjoy later. Really though beverages are so cheap on the wholesale level that the house should be providing something to the BOH every night.

I know exactly what you're talking about. If you want to leave a tip give it to someone else in the restaurant. Or if you want to give it to her directly tell her it's for her staff. She will accept it in this case.

Hiroyuki-san I showed my wife your post and she feels the same way. I think that chopsticks ad an extenstion of ones fingers, sort of like knives are an extension of a chef's hand. What would we do without them? After using chopsticks I find them to be not only the best utensil for eating certain types of food, but even when I'm cooking I want/need to use them.

Hashi. Stuck in rice. Fork. Stuck in potato. If we do this, it doesn't much matter where we are, we're a doof and take that with us until we learn to look up and see what's around us. ← Universals in regards to manners? Maybe I'm missing something in your statement. I've said several times a genius in one cuisine is an ape in another. We're all doofs in one context or another.

Fine dining French restaurant... The servers take the orders then present the check at the end of meal. True they also field all the questions asked by the customer, according to my training literature. At times they play the diplomat. Mostly it's the expediters, bussers and the kitchen crew who do the grunt work. In the restaurants where I worked as chef, not too many, actually no complaints about "forced" tip pooling. Because the tips were GOOD. Yes I know there are other restaurant models where servers do the "grunt" stuff. I'm just presenting one model. EDIT: The servers offered before being asked or required.

They do seem to have a lot of money saved! I've noticed that too.

How OTHER parts of the world work.

http://www.alain-ducasse.com/public/cest_a..._aulyonnais.htm Here's the website.

Oops I just noticed my spelling error. What was I thinking. LOL!

My in laws will making mandu gook. Korean dumpling and rice cake soup garnished with eggs and roasted seaweed. A similar question is in the Chinese forum. But since it's celebrated by other Asians who follow(ed) the moon calender I thought I would post it here. (or does break some egullet posting rule?)

Ben- My MIL still has a bottle of the traditional Kanjang (you can call it Korean soy sauce, but it's very different from commercial varieties) that she made over 30 years ago when she first immigrated to the States. She saves it for very special occassions. I think that is the oldest homemade sauce I have ever tried.

Yes, same principle. That's why I could understand a week. Thanks for the explanation.

When I was Chef the joke was that if a customer was rude the FOH should tell me so that I could go into the dining room with a cigarette dangling from my mouth, a pure carbon steel sabatier in one hand and play the role of mad/ranting French chef.

When I first met my wife she took me to a couple of Chinese Islamic restaurants around Los Angeles. This was when I was first trying different "ethnic" foods for the first time in my life really so I was in bit of a daze during at both restaurants. Now it's almost 8 years later. I recall the the steamed bread with scallions and sesame seeds. What are the other specialties?