Vadouvan

If a sushi bar was using real wasabi you would know. Real wasabi is grated to order on a papanese grater similar to the one used for ginger. There is no reason to pregrate fresh wasabi.

Laban gave it 1 bell, hit or miss-ish. The daily news reviews laughable and second worst to the south philly review since Sono Motoyama left. That being said, AParis is a good chef but that location is indeed challenging.

Hey didnt Laban throw it under the bus a few months ago ? Not that I am a Laban follower but prior to that review, the food seemed a mish man of asian fusion, has the menu changed ? Sandwich sounds good...... They should name that street sandwich alley....

Awesome. I Imagine if it was anything like Marigold's brunch, it should be the best brunch in the city.....

Interestingly the price is hovering between $35 and $155. http://www.wine-searcher.com/find/pichon+l...erring_site=WJO I would probably buy it at Morrell's since they store wine properly...

The market seems to be hopping.. Good stuff. http://www.phillystylemag.com/blog.cfm/blog/809.htm

http://www.phillystylemag.com/blog.cfm/blog/790.htm

The dish sounds interesting but Toro is very perishable, that being said there still is no excuse for sketchy fish. "Tapas" restaurants basically get a "get out of jail free card" and the evolution of the public's perception of Tinto will be interesting. For example say a place like Tria or Tinto serves completely commercial cured meats while Osteria cures it's own which by the way is a thousand times better. I wonder if people realise that quality/flavor/price relationship........

Jeez fabio, that must be the longest post ever.... A few points service wise, going on day one usually results in these kinds of experiences, the servers probably have no clue yet. Foodwise, Indeed your ealy report isnt encouraging, It disappoints me that the phrase "Kobe Beef" would be on the menu of a restaurant that is billed as a tapas bar, seems completely trendy.There is almost nothing Basque on that Foobooz menu. By Raw vetresca, do you mean that they have a raw tuna belly dish and is it similar in freshness to typical O-toro/Chu-toro experiences in japanese restaurants ? Regarding tasting menus, there is no reason for a chefs tasting menu at a tapas restaurant, that is the point of tapas.

Fabio Welcome to e-gullet. Rule number 1. Use the thread that was started already to discuss a restaurant, I am not chastising you but it gets confusing when there is more than one thread about the same restaurant. A quick topic search can find the old tinto thread which was just started a week ago. Hopefully Katie can consolidate both threads... again.....welcome. great post.

Um...isnt 2001 Pichon a little too young to drink ? Has anyone had it ?

Ok It's been open long enough. After extensive mathematics and 15 meals..... Time for the Laban Prediction Index. 0 Bells 1 Million To 1 1 Bell 50,000 To 1 2 Bells 75 To 1 3 Bells Most Likely Ding ,ding,ding,ding (lights flashing) 4 Bells 5 to 1

Andrew, what days of the week is that $30 special valid ?

David It sounds like a "Sushi of Gari" type place which is quite good. Does the menu cover any reditions of Japanese hot fod / classics Shabu-shabu, Hamachi kama, Nikku Jaga, tempura ect ?

Hmmmm What do you think Watson ?

You know I was just thinking about that, I dont know I would say he hated it, I have met Paul a few times and he seems a rather restrained individual, some people are Mary poppins, he's not. I think the Mouse poop tangent was done for humor, I seriously doubt that a respected food writer and critic in cunjunction with a widely acclaimed talented chef would get on the internet and say that they had a pasta made with flour from which they sieved out mouse Poo at the same time when rodent consciousness is on the front burner in NYC restaurants and NY diners. I simply have to believe that these caliber of people are much more sophisticated than that.... I think it's Paul's british humor. Interestingly though, I loved the Idea that the said pasta had corn and some type of cured meat. Chef's always harp about how you should never cook corn in the winter but I have always thought it was perfectly OK to use corn from Florida in March. Just my two cents.

I dont prefreeze oil, first I use a Berkel Machine with ridiculous pressure and unless you are "Confit"-ing the stuff in the bag, you dont need that much oil. http://www.berkel.com/spec_sheets/350.pdf I also use a slant tray in the machine so that liquids will stay in the bag. Prefreezing the oil or duck fat is probably neccessary for a non comercial quality vaccum machine. I remove the garlic but I leave the thyme and Laurel. The embedding issue is irrelevant, searing at the end eliminates any surface issues.

Yes that is Sumi, actually I am using B-T I got from Japan. Burns slightly cleaner and hotter..... Thanks for the correction, now I wont have to edit it.... Have you grilled anything with the stuff you got Bill ?

So here is the meat in natural and artificial light, it's a lovely 70 degrees on the east coast today. Whole Foods Incandescent. Flannery Incandescent. Whole Foods Natural. Flannery Natural. Vaccum Marinated: Grill/Konro : http://www.korin.com/product.php?pid=419&df=korin Bincho-Tan: I would reccomend you do this outside your house on a nice day, the weather is just perfect today, what good timing. Charcoal creates carbon monoxide when it burns.

Here lies the perils of dining out on saturday night.

Posted the wrong website... http://www.cortibros.biz/tek9.asp?pg=produ...ecific=jopseol8 Al, Vaccum marination doesn't always involve a "marinade" in the classical sense like some mess of soy, mustard, wasabi ect ect. The word "marinate" is used as an adjective, the only added flavors are oil, salt, pepper, fresh laurel leaf and thyme. The vaccum is to help the flavor and salt absorbtion. That being said, yes from a comparative aspect it makes sense to keep the flavors relatively similar but the point in this case as opposed to the last tasting is to see if the steaks can be improved by the cooking method, slight adjustments are being made according to the method to compensate. In the real world sense, each cooking method is being performed as one would do it alone without comparing it to the other two. I have found that the "marination" actually improves CSV because the meat has a deeper profile than simple "Surface Seasoning" of a traditional pan sear which is quite tasty done properly. The question here is how much more tasty. Also the french bistro style traditional sear is finished (basted) in the pan with brown butter emulsified with whatever cooking juices and I usually throw in a sprig of thyme and laurel during the spoon basting process. It also becomes the resting medium. As to Timing, the bath is programmed to go to 54C, hold for 2.5hrs and go back to 53C holding temp. It also starts from refrigerated core temperature and the steaks are almost 3 inches thick with a fatcap on one side. No we are not looking for tenderisation of cartilage but the extra 30 mins wont ruin the texture.

Part 3. Steaks Revisisted After several intellectual discusions and some research on meat, DAgordon and a few others decided it would be interesting to see if the cooking method affected one's perception and enjoyment of a particular steak. The initial steak tasting used trditional cooking methods uniformly, basic pan sear to rare/med rare and 5 minute resting. The next tasting not only tests the cooking methods but also the variation in quality between a "boutique" steak and a publicly acessible steak. DAgordon procured some fancy steaks which he will expand on........David ? The publicly acessible steaks were procured from whole foods at 10th and South. Both Dry Aged New York Strips Bone Out. Each type of steak will be cooked 3 different ways. 1. Traditional pan sear, salt, pepper, rest. 2. Vaccum Marinate overnight, CSV 53C 4Hrs, QuickSear for maillard reaction, rest. 3. Grill, Oshima Sea salt, sake, Bincho-Tan Charcoal. Supplemental Info. https://www.surfasonline.com/products/23005.cfm http://www.charcoallife.com/english/bincyotan.html http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=72594

Mugsy can we love Ny without loving every restaurant in NY ? Truly I appreciate what Degustation is trying to do but I dont think diners should simply say thank you because someone is busting it out night after night, the food still has to meet thier expectations. In many ways, I can understand the fascination with the concept and it is a cool place to eat but outside of the novelty of the space, served the same exact food in a traditional restaurant setting, I suspect there would be less enthusiasm. many chef's these days strive for attention by creating dishes with names of classics that they do not in any way texturally resemble or taste like. A properly made spanish tortilla is transcedental, that quail egg potato ravioli thing was just perplexing. I can understand that people are into "deconstruction" but the achilles heel of most culinary deconstructions is that they dont reconstruct the flavor. Fatty Crab is boring ? Anything "on the plancha" is the epitomy of boring, that being said, some of the best vegetables I have had in Ny were simply plancha cooked with olive oil. The quail needed help and heat reduced vinegars taste like cough syrup.

Degustations desserts were just Ok, some of the food was good, most of the rest was OK. The Lamb belly i have to agree is bad. If restaurants were only as good as thier worst dishes, all restaurants would be bad. Fact is you can find one dish in every restaurant in New York city that is either flavorless or communicates something completely different from the customers expectations. Good or bad after all is in the eye of the beholder.... It's a good idealistic statement but meaningless in the real world.

Serpentine, to add to WKL's comment... Not only wasnt the "account" first hand, it was vague and absurd beyond any boundary of fairness. If you read upthread... I believe Sandy Smiths original quote was...... So basically someone told me they talked to two lesbians who werent happy at Osteria. Doesnt quite rise to the level of a reliable report. It also wasnt established that either Sandy's friend or the aforementioned lesbians were visitors to the city. Laziness isnt a character flaw to me, it's just a misuse of time and that's why i use it freely. I dont mean to insult anyone..... fact is there is a lot of things you can complain about in a restaurant but complaining about the location after you have been given the address isnt on the top ten list. Certainly employees should be as helpful as possible but anyone who has ever dined out know's hostesses are overwhelmed with people waiting for tables, checking coats and answering phones in the first few days of a brand new popular restaurant. Asking a hostess to go find out where the restaurant is in relation to another landmark seems pushing it to me. Poeple who are ususally that precise about where they are going seems to me can google the place and find out, it isnt like the map of the entire street grid is on the internet. Even though I replied, the finer points of who said what to who when and what gender they were adds nothing substantive to this thread.