melofunk

I also highly recommend wd-50 for dessert. I went a couple of weeks ago and had one of their dessert tasting menus (choice between 3 desserts or 5). I had - canteloupe sorbet with crunchy prosciutto, pinenuts and balsamic, milk and cereal (milk was a sorbet), beans and rice (rice was a sorbet), local strawberries with anise hyssop and parmesan ice cream. All the desserts were wildly creative and delicious. (I also wanted to note that since I had been to wd-50 several times before, the chef was very accomodating as to change the desserts around a little on my tasting.)

Peter, I'm sorry to hear that you were disappointed with your pre-dessert. I am the pastry cook who plated this for you that evening. You actually had a warm chocolate and goat cheese fritter with a tiny quenelle of chocolate sorbetto and fresh cherries, and I am sorry to hear that it had melted by the time it reached your table and that you were disappointed with your meal. -Melissa

Daniel, We had reservations for a Thursday evening at 7:30 p.m. It's a small space, and we probably wouldn't have been seated without a reservation. It's possible to sit at the bar and eat, but I would do this as a solo venture. Regards, Melissa

I ate there about a month ago and found the food to be excellent. We ordered the pumpkin and goat's cheese croquettes, the octopus, sweetbreads with fennel, the duck, and a most amazing chocolate cake. Everything was exceptionally tasty.

The grilled octopus is wonderful. I like the black spaghetti with rock shrimp and chorizo - it's on the hot side, the lobster spaghettini, in addition to the beef cheek ravioli and lamb's tongue salad. My favorite desserts are the chocolate cake with hazelnut gelato and the blueberry crostata with coconut gelato.

Bullfrog & Baum is the pr group for the bakery/market and I went to their tasting last evening. The pastries were wonderful...I tried the passion fruit with milk chocolate ganache macaroons, the kouing-aman, and a cannelle. One of the pastry chefs, Damien, just arrived from Paris two weeks ago where he had been working with/at Pierre Herme (and prior to that La Duree). When I complimented him on the macaroons he indicated that he may do some unusual flavored ones like olive oil or white truffle, etc. There were also a lot of different/good breads....fig, hazelnut pistachio, raisin anise, walnut plus baguettes, etc. The cellar and the upstairs will open in about a week, we were told. And the upstairs will have cooking demonstrations/education during the day and at night will serve as a cocktail lounge. One of the cocktails I tried had a scoop of vanilla ice cream with grand marnier and coconut foam. And another was a caipirinha with Madagascar mint. I don't know if the passed appetizers will be incorporated into the menu or if they were a last minute type thing, but I thought they were amazing. I tasted a crab salad sandwich on toasted brioche, a sardine entwined in a homemade potato chip, a tiny shot glass layered with prune puree, foie gras and apple foam.

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm looking forward to checking them out.

I will be in Madrid and Barcelona for vacation in a few weeks, and I'm looking for recommendations on bookstores, which have a large selection of cookbooks or are exclusively cookbook stores. Does anyone have any recommendations? And, do the stores have selections/translations in English?

This would definitely be of interest to me. A reference manual of sorts. As Michael mentioned a book that combines the various aspects that Balaguer, McGee, and Greenspan bring to their work/writings would be divine.

hmmm...what about the oven that you use? Are you using convection? Can you adjust the fan speed or check the temperature? Maybe the fan or temperature are set too high for the mini financiers? Something similar happened when I forgot to prick tart shells that I was prebaking. I think the thrust of heat from the oven coupled with the fact that the steam had nowhere to go caused the shells to have a similar "hole" (even with the bean weights). By the way, even with the holes, your financiers look tasty!

What about a book for home or pro which focuses on flavor/texture pairings? Maybe this would be part of the creative process. Culinary Artistry and In the Sweet Kitchen both have flavor pairing charts. Culinary Artistry focuses on both savory and sweet, and Daley's book contains traditional flavor pairings (Claudia Fleming's book is good for pairings too). What about new pairings? The new savory in the sweet kitchen... I also like to look at Balaguer's book for this kind of inspiration and wish there were more....roasted apples, yogurt mousse, saffron ice cream - those kinds of fun combinations.

...very intrigued by the website. You mentioned that you interviewed Chef Sam. Could you provide any further details with regards to the website?

I don't know what they used, but it sounds like a nice, light finish to the meal....not too heavy.

iheartoffal - great descriptions - your enthusiasm and enjoyment read loud and clear. I enjoyed reading that the toast oil and blood orange puree are a play on orange marmelade on toast. That's pretty cool. By the way, what did you think of the lemon curd in the lemon curd/basil dessert? I haven't tried it. When I dined there last, the waiter described it as an eggless curd (similar in concept, I guess, to the fried mayo).

There is a photo of the steak on wd's website....