NewYorkTexan

I find myself in the unusual position of having a free day in Zürich during an upcoming business trip. Any thoughts on interesting food related shops, restaurants or places to see, taste or do? I will have my share of fine dining with colleagues and clients, so I probably interested in more casual restaurants that focus on local specialties. Places I have good things about: Schober Café Johann-Jacobs Kaffee Museum (Owen, this is your kind of museum) Confiserie Teuscher Sprüngli Chäs Vreneli AG Zeughauskeller

I will be taking a group of colleagues to Bruderholz in a few weeks and am really looking forward to it.

Mrs NYT will not be able to make it, she has a commitment with a not-for-profit I forgot about. Count me in!

I feel awful that you had a bad experience. There is no excuse for rude service any restaurant from Moonshine to places like the Yellow Rose (for the record, I have never been to that adult club/restaurant). For a similar southern comfort food menu, you can try the Roaring Fork. The prices are a little higher but the service is better and the kitchen is more consistent. The bar menu still offers best value in town but I really like the main restaurant also. I have been there twice in the past 2 weeks.

I really like Moonshine. Their web site I have been there a few times and the food has been consistently good and the prices are reasonable. Service is solid. They make their share of mistakes, but the waitstaff tries hard and are attentive. They also have the most attractive waitresses in Austin, but no need to go into that.... The corn dog shrimp is a fun appetizer to start the meal with. Usually the shrimp come out perfectly done, moist and succulent with the batter adding a nice crunch. The pork chops were ok, the Flat Iron steak was very good and Sharon really likes the trout. The Mac and Cheese side dish is excellent. The only downside to Moonshine is the noise. On weekends it can be hard to hear your dinner companions. Never had the deserts, so I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Have fun!

WOW, those fantastic pictures bring back memories. I grew up hearing about King Yum from my parents who went there almost every Friday night when they were dating. It is great to see a classic restaurant stay true to its roots. Just might have to fly back to NYC if y'all have a egullet event there.

the 17th should work for me. My work travel schedule is hard to predict. Between Sarbanes-Oxley and improvements in the capital markets, I have been incredibly busy.

Why should I break my streak of being a loser and missing these events. I will be on the east coast on the 10th.

Big fan of Good Eats and was pleasantly surprised to find you just as engaging and funny in person as on the show. During your book signing in Austin we were the ones who brought you burgers during your impressive display of signing endurance. (Did that sound as geeky as I think it did??) According to your bio, you were in the film business before changing careers and and going to culinary school. Any thoughts on doing something film related leveraging your deep food knowledge and popularity?

I strongly second the Barrio Cafe--Their web site. It gets crowded at lunch with lawyers and the Sunday Brunch is also very popular. I have heard that it is easier to get a table for dinner, but that is second hand info. The restaurant is casual and offers a creative menu that is a great value. I had the slow roasted achiote pulled pork sandwich....excellent. The seafood enchiladas where were overflowing with succulent seafood and rich decant cream sauce that had enough heat to make it interesting. The table next to us ordered the chocolate and almond sauce stuffed chocolate cake. It looked and smelled so amazing that I was tempted reach over and help myself. Only my wife's quick reflexes stopped a potentially embarrassing incident.

Using Zagat, you will miss the Austin and San Antonio markets, A few favorites that jump to mind in Austin Castle Hill Mirabelle Driskill Grill Jeffrey's I would assume that some of the resorts or better restaurants in the Hill Country would have good wine lists, but nothing comes to mind.

Unless there is a big crown over, I always have leftovers from smoking a full brisket. cubing the meat and making chili out with it. The smokiness works well with the heat of the chili.....and no, beans do not ever go near my Texas chili.

There are two “trucks” near the Cornell campus. The one on North campus is Louie’s and its menu includes everything from hamburgers, fries, hot dogs and pizza….all of the collegiate food groups. On West campus there was Johnny’s hot truck. Johnny’s only (or at least used to) sells french bread pizzas. Learning the acronyms for the many varieties of pizzas was a rite of passage in every student’s four year drinking career. Yes, the rumor is that Stouffers licensed the concept many years ago from Johnny to sell in supermarkets. Johnny has retired after 35+ years and sold the business so it will be interesting to see if the quality is still the same. During reunions, Cornell allows Johnny’s hot truck to drive up on campus and park in the middle of the Arts quad, right next to the beer tents. It really is a beautiful arrangement. Nothing like drunken alumni reliving their college years by inhaling pippin hot french bread pizzas Glad to see they are becoming more quality coffee options on campus. When I was managing the largest dining hall, we opened a small coffee house within “the Ivy Room” that offered the first espresso drinks on central campus. At least from 85-89, it was damn near impossible to get a good cup of coffee on campus.

Owen- If you are around for dinner on June 9th that would be very cool and Eva's it is. Are there any other Syracuse egulleters? re:Ithaca Gimme Coffee! is on my must go to list. That and Johnny's Hot Truck. I am not sad to hear that Auberge du Cochon Rouge closed. It was home to several first dates and no second dates. Now I can re-write history and blame the restaurant. Anyone going up to the Cornell Reunion?

Went to Jasper’s, Kent Rathbun's restaurant the other night after hearing good things about the place. The décor established the theme as soon as you walked through the door. A sophisticated and dramatic dining room next to a casual bar that had large Adirondack style chairs angled with a perfect view of the TVs hanging from the ceiling. The menu looked promising and we had a hard time deciding on our choices. The table shared an appetizer of Maytag Blue cheese potato chips (a.k.a. Yuppie Nachos). The chips were mostly undercooked leaving them greasy and limp. The Blue Cheese topping was good, but Maytag my ass. I went with the jambalaya……what was I thinking? The concept sucked, but the execution was not bad. The individual items were perfectly cooked, the pieces of pork were tender, the fish chunks and scallops just barely cooked through and the shrimp were moist and succulent. The meat and seafood was set on a bed of linguine (instead of rice) in a thin and tasteless broth. Try eating linguine sitting in soup……any attempt would result in me splattering anyone sitting within a three table radius. I had originally asked to substitute rice for the linguine, but the waiter said they do not do that. Another person ordered the baby-back ribs. Overcooked to the point that any attempt to pick them up left you holding a perfectly clean bone and the meat still sitting on the plate. The side dish of baked potato salad was great. The grilled pork loin looked like the best entrée on the table. Never got a chance to sample it. The waiter seemed to switch between indifference to just plain annoyed to have to wait on us. At this point we were all underwhelmed and decided to pass on dessert. We adjourned to the bar, found several of the large and extremely comfortable Adirondack chairs and watched the end of the Friends finale. Overall a mixed experience and the cost for three was a modest $120. I will probably try Jasper’s again and be a little more selective when ordering.

Next month I will have one night in Syracuse. I am thinking of going to Eva's European Sweets. Are there other suggestions that either typify Syracuse dining or serves local specialties? I will pass on Dinosaur, I get plenty of great Q here in Texas. Are there any new and interesting options in Ithaca? Heading back for Reunion next month.

Interesting article in the paper today: Statesman (scroll to the bottom)

This recipes looks good. This will test my baking skills, but it will be a excellent challenge. It calls for both powdered sugar and castor sugar. It was my understanding that powdered sugar also has cornstarch in it, where castor sugar is just superfine sugar. I assume you can not subsitutue between the two?

We ended up having the meal at Le Ciel in the private dining room. The room was incredibly ornate, with rich murals on the walls. The main dining rooms offered great views if the city. Having had several meals at Le Ciel, they have blurred into one extended fine dining experience. A few highlights included: oysters appetizer with four different sauces...lemograss foam was my favorite fillet with porcini crust roasted halibut with a tomato salad deep fried figs with ice cream. A few other places we went during our 5 days in Vienna Café Landtmann (Dr. Karl-Lueger-Ring 4) a good call for a casual lunch outside. The restaurant dates back to when Freud used to spend hours there. DO & CO (Stephansplatz) Contemporary asian cuisine with great views. I am still recovering from the sticker shock at the sushi bar Plachutta - This restaurant taught me about the wonders of Tafelspitz. BEIM CZAAK (across from the post office) a wonderful smokey bar/pub. Inexpensive with a strong selection of Austrian wines, this was a really fun place. The food was excellent. Had the Waldviertler (pork stuffed with bacon, onions, and mushrooms), a fabulous dish.

This fascinating, I did not know about the the dispute between Demel's and Hotel Sacher. I will be back in Central Europe in a few weeks and will make a special trip to try the version from Demel's. It was probably reading "The Man Who Ate Everything" on the flight over, but I am determined to replicate the authentic torte. The link above seems like a great version to try. I will also this"Chocolate Cake cookbook" version Keep the wonderful info and recipes flowing. I will try and make a few different variations to bring them to an upcoming egullet event.

After coming back from having Sacher torte, the real deal in both Salzburg and Vienna, I thought I would try and make it at home. The Sacher hotels do not sell a cookbook and would not give me a copy of the recipe. They did offer to sell me a copy of the menu for 3 Euros I know the place is somewhat of a tourist trap, but at the Salzburg location, the outdoor patio at sunset makes a wonderful backdrop for a decadent snack. Conducting a quick online search, there were several variations of the recipe. I tried this recipe The result was too light in texture and not rich enough. In hindsight, there were too many egg whites in this recipe. Does anybody have a more authentic recipe?

All of the suggestions were greatly appreciated. My wife ended up taking the bus into the city center and exploring. She stopped into a pub for lunch....but forgot the name of it.

I will complete the write up later today, but wanted to post a few pictures from a recent visit to the Viktualienmarkt in Munich. This is a food market dating back to the 1807 in the heart of Munich. This place was huge, I will check on how many acres it covered. Fairly typical arrangement with vendors grouped by food type. There were about 15-20 produce vendors the same size as this one. You work up a thirst, so of course there was a beer garden in the center of the market. I lost count of how many different vendors there were selling cured meats and sausages. It was a dazzling array of meat. Lo carb heaven. cute women having fun and handing our free samples of ham....what is not to like about this place.

Looks like the City Centre is the best option. I was trying to be lazy and research all of the possibilites in Dublin. Andy, thank you for the link---a lot of wonderful threads to go through.

She will have about 6 hours, landing in the morning and then not departing again to early afternoon. Thanks