ulterior epicure

Voila et voici. You just summed up my take-away from The Mansion under Tesar.

I don't think he would have shot you. Maimed, perhaps.

It's opened. Has anyone been?

The following is an excerpt from my (long-overdue) blog post about my lunch at The Mansion on Turtle Creek. You can read the entire post and see the photos on the ulterior epicure.

I saw a clip of it burning on television.

Ramsay and Wareing aren't the only ones duking it out over the split.

Was it Boudin Blanc or Boudin Noir? ← Ha! I only wish! Boudin blanc.

Oh, it's back! I had the boudin last year around this time. It is very stellar.

Yasuda serves great otoro. I think most people on here take issue with the quantity, not quality of it. ← Exactly, which is why I took issue with JWangSDC's comment, initially. He has since clarified that point.

Congrats JWest. Just don't forget all us little people!

Gordon Ramsay at RHR reclaims its No. 1 spot on Zagat London (not that anyone cares). But this makes me want to know who Bruce is. *Heading over to Chez Bruce thread now.*

← Or Chris Goodney, who took the rest of the momofuku ko photos in that set.

I wish my palate could experience a palette of Japanese flavors too!

I have never had Kuruma's toro, but I can't imagine it being so good that Yasuda's "sucks" by comparison. In the grand scheme of things, I'm hesitant to say that anything at Yasuda "sucks." I have had Yasuda's toro and I found it perfectly respectable.

And it doesn't sound like they need to.

It might be later, but November and early December are the key period. If you see any "lièvre en cabessol" being served (not very likely in Paris because it is a Périgord recipe), go for it because it is the ancient, original version of lièvre à la royale. ← Qu'est ce que c'est, "lièvre en cabessol"? Google was most unhelpful.

Oh, do report back. Let us know if the Beef on Weck is still in play.

It's been about a week since the re-opening of this Brookside cafe under new management (the former owners of the now-defunct Circe on 39th St.). Has anyone been? Any changes to the menu? Is the Beef on Weck still available at lunch?

Following quickly on the heels of the Gourmet love-fest on Paris, Food + Wine features three Paris wine bars: Alfred 52 rue de Richelieu 1er Arr. Cavestève 15 rue de Longchamp 16eme Arr. Racines 8 Passage de Panoramas 2eme Arr.

i didn't know they did this, i remember bourdain going to french laundry on tv with a table of 4 (naturally all well known) but all getting a completely different tasting menu which i thought was cool. ← I find it terribly distracting. Inevitably, you end up envying half of the courses my dinner mate(s) get, and they, likewise. I'd rather be able to eat and discuss collectively without having to be passing dishes around and feeling like you got the corner of something which was already smaller than your thumb.

It was me. p.s. What do you mean by "'new' Giuseppe?" ← The restaurant openned up with a different giuseppe as the chef, and I was not a fan. I have to say a know a lot of people that are addicted to the mac and cheese there...me being on of them...i consider it mac and cheese elevated....not my favorite...if i want straight mac and cheese.... Stanley's is superb..and recently i have started to really like the Fifty/50 with the protein added to it...pork or chicken. ← I'm confident that Tentori was the chef when I was there (although, as I mentioned earlier, he wasn't in that evening). I guess I'm a glutton: when I order mac and cheese, what I'm really wanting is mac and CHEESE - tunnels of it. There was barely any cheese in Tentori's version. Breadcrumbs, yes. Edamame, yes. Pasta, sort of. Cheese, hardly.

It was me. Some things were good, but overall, I was really deflated. Plating was sloppy, fish was overcooked, and many items (especially a chicken main course) were over-seasoned. A lot of things just didn't make sense to me, like: The bowl of "Macaroni and Cheese with Edamame" was a bit too far removed from anything remotely like macaroni and cheese to be called macaroni and cheese. I understand that chefs are trying to be witty, but I do think there needs to some grounding at a certain level. Maybe I'm a bit dense, but this reference was a little too hard for me to get: it looked like a bowl of spaetzle with edamame. I mean, if "macaroni and cheese" is about pasta and cheese, then he could have also called this side dish "pasta primavera," or "spaetzle and beans." But nomenclature aside, I didn't find anything particularly appealing about the Macaroni and Cheese with Edamame. As a side dish, I liked the Minted Cucumbers much better. On the the bright side, the best thing I had that evening was the toasted oatmeal ice cream that the Pastry Chef Elizbeth Dahl served on the ice cream trio. The "Toasted Tarragon Cake" was also lovely (there's a variation on this olive oil cake in one of the major food magazines this month; I forgot which one). The (gigantic) "Sesame Macaron" on the other hand, was nightmarishly chewy. I guess that sums up my one dinner at boka (this was a few months ago): hits and miss, the misses being complete misses and the hits being just above competency level. I know that sounds harsh, but I'll be the first to recognize that every restaurant has a bad night and I might have just visited at the wrong time. As an aside, I do know for certain that Tentori was not in that evening; not that it should matter. p.s. What do you mean by "'new' Giuseppe?"

Can you please clarify what you mean by this?

orenlund, I'm sorry to hear you were so disappointed. We had some waiting at our dinner, too, but nowhere nearly as long as you experienced. Here is an excerpt from my review at the ulterior epicure (picture there, too):

I don't understand this statement. Individual tasting menus as opposed to what? ← as in everyone at the table has different preparations of each dish so the "main course" might be squab for one person, veal for another etc etc no two dishes are replicated at the table ← And that's the standard m.o. at RHR?