hollywood

If it doesn't come in a bottle and cost $200 or more, I don't want any part of it.

This is probably irrational but No, I wouldn't spend $500 on a bottle. My rationale would be I'd rather spend it on a good meal or two and wine rather than just a bottle.

It's hypothetical, but if money were not an issue, I think I'd drink better wine more often. And hopefully acquire more insight so as to select what's good regardless of price or sommelier recs. So, should I go buy a lotto ticket or spend the dollar on a slightly better wine?

The art analogy is an intriguing one. In a sense for non New Yorkers and non Parisians, the cost does vary based on quality. We've got to pony up for transportation to get to that great art. There's a difference in what's bearable going retail and at a restaurant, particularly a good restaurant. I find it hard to justify more than $50 retail, but at a restaurant on a special occasion, $100 or so seems acceptable. Even accepting bargain hunting, something seems awry in eating 3 star cuisine and drinking plonk. Strangely though, I don't mind the reverse: eating ordinary food with better (maybe not the best) wine. In fact, I think it provides a perverse pleasure. Of course the ultimate is a marriage of the best of both food and vino. It's symbiotic.

Herewith a sale. No Pradas though. http://www.shoes.com/

Nice writeup, Steve. Now, if we could just get Jason to tell us about Lotus of Siam and Rosemary's......

Steve, Thanks for the truth. I have a gut feeling you are correct.

I ask this not to quibble but solely out of curiosity: how do people know things will improve with bottle age? Is this optimism? Experience? Hype? I'm just amazed how often expensive wines drunk young are said to be going to improve with age. Now that I think of it, I can't remember a writer ever saying, ya better drink this now cuz it's going to hell in a year or two.

Don't know the answers but I'm wondering if these are farm raised abalone (there's at least one abalone farm in Baja) or if they are captured in the wild?

You didn't, Steve. At least I don't think you did. Previously on this thread that was the question. I thought you were trying to answer it. Guess not.

Huh? Run that by me again. Why does the wine cost more at the winery than at the local store?

The language has already been subverted with no credit due to me. You can either go with the flow or you can be one of the lone people in the crowd who keeps trying to make the point revolve around language while others are using it in the context of taste. At some point if the use I am describing becomes prevelant, it will become a definition listed in the OED. But I wonder why that surprises anybody since I am sure that many words or terms have come to be defined as a product of how people use them? And that is true even if that is somewhat different from the original definition. Not sure if your post is artisanal, but I find myself agreeing with your pragmatic approach--this time.

Isn't the big problem at the chains when they mix meat and fat from different suppliers? Thus, the end product could be a burger with US, Argentine and Aussie beef/fat in it. Even if 2 out of 3 are safe, there's always #3. Sort of a world burger.

I am an artisan, and have been for over thirty years. I would never describe my work as artisanal. This is pure hype, pure bullshit, dreamed up by marketing. Is there a difference between an artisan and an artist? If so, please explain.

For a more comprehensive nationwide burger discussion.... http://forums.egullet.org/ibf/index.php?ac...=0entry156593

I don't get it either. Maybe they claim it's to cover the overhead of running the tasting room, tour, etc. Still, why should it cost more at the winery than it frequently does at a local wine seller's store?

If you can afford it, some 1999 (or earlier) Leonetti Merlot.

Hope your New Orleans episode is better than Emeril's.

This is consistent with his grating/prepping the wasabi on the spot.

Nice reductio ad absurdum, however, I think you are supposed to have a slice of water chestnut in any and all versions. But you're right, it's about the bacon.

BTW, how were Lotus of Siam, Rosemary's, etc.?

Can't answer your question directly but I've had mock rumaki with black olives standing in for the chicken liver.

As I recall, the bellinis at Harry's are pink in color. How do they do that? Grenadine?

You're confused. Toomuch/not enough Britney.