Vadouvan

Phil. A few of "us" made an unsheduled touchdown at Coquette a few days ago. Indeed the "Coquilles St Jacques" is a Scallop dish with 3 extremely large scallops sitting on a corn and clam stew.

Interesting observations Alec. There hasnt ever been a serious discusssion on E-gullet on how the language/structure/authenticity of the menu correlates to the seriousness of the food or accuracy of the cooking. They invariably get shuffled off to "I dont give a rats ass as long as the food is good". Look at Tinto, absolutely nothing on the menu is distinctly of Basque origin but everyone labels it a "Basque" restaurant, quite a stretch but people dont know and those who do dont care. The fish labeled as Turbot isnt even "Turbot". Is it packed, Yes. It is quite possible and in fact there are lots of restaurants in which the grammar is lame but the food is excellent. Now setting that aside and actually looking at the things you pointed out, french is a contextually strange language and only the most fluent or educated like Phil A will see the language problems. With servers ostensibly explaining the menu details in English, it should not be a problem. There are those however who believe and in many cases are right that it is a symptom of unpreparedness that carries over to the food and cooking. That will be left to see when the restaurant actually opens and we eat the food. The more concerning questions are the actual contents of the menu and it's lack of seasonality for one. None of the Hors D'oeuvres are hors d'oeuvres. There is no Charcuterie it seems. Why Feta cheese with tomato Salad, are there no good FRENCH cheeses ? Warm potato and chopped green salad seems redundant to lyonnaise ? Coquille St Jacques seems to be a clam dish and not a scallop dish...odd! Lamb MILANESE ? hardly seems French. Cassoulet, braised short ribs all summer ? Making all the Plats du jour for two is just wierd on so many levels, does it mean only even numbered parties can order plats do jour ? Why ?

I dont know if Rick's been given a fair chance Townsend but isnt the core of the issue the fact that market management feels that many lunchtime merchants have undervalued leases not only in the volume of sales they generate but also the fact that more than 90% of those sales are in cash which by conventional wisdom is always under-reported to the IRS, thus asking for accurate sales figures to establish what the busineses can bear in terms of leases (which is legitimate) also creates the possibility that those declared sales figures if they were accurate would cause the market management to increase the rent structure and if inaccurate would create a formal document that would be in direct conflict with official tax returns. That is the catch 22. The market can simply hire an actuarial company to figure out an estimate of sales of any merchant in the market simply by observation of volume and the cost of an average sale. If any merchat challenges the sales estimate, you could simply ask them to prove otherwise....

Agreed. Best take on the subject. Ruhlman and Bourdain. http://blog.ruhlman.com/ruhlmancom/2006/11...this_is_ge.html

Nice ! You rock Von Snack. Those sweetbreads indeed look good.

Phil The place is just odd. First off it cost 3 million and looks like that plus the marketing strategy is strange, they said they dont want drinkers to upset diners by creating the wrong atmosphere. Strange coming from a restaurant that sells 50 kinds of bottled water. Sir Bucket, strangely the original manager took over as the chef, either he learned fast or he used to be a chef, word is he came from Devon Seafood grille, not exactly reassuring eh....

According to Michael Klein.. Astral Plane owner wants $1.75 million for the place. I should buy some of whatever he is smoking. In any case that puts it in the realm of real estate development not restaurants. Anyone who had $1.75 million to buy a crappy restaurant space would clearly just build a restaurant from scratch. I doubt you will be seeing another restaurant there.

It's the natural life cycle of restaurants. there are too many restaurants doing the same thing, it's like trees in a forest. Some will fall for the others to survive. When one tree falls, sometimes many others close by do too. They exist in the same economic environment. There has been a steady increase in restaurants that is approaching critical mass for a small city That's no to say the closings are directly related but the last fiscal year hasnt been a good one in general and when there is a massive shift to a few restaurants like Osteria/Amada, some will fail. At the end, the forest will survive. it's not over yet. A restaurant named after a fish might be next.

Click http://www.cookingconcepts.com/ENG/superbag.html

Duuuuuude ! Why ship cheese across the country in july when you can buy the same exact cheeses in San Francisco and have it delivered ? http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/cowgirl_creamery.php Alternately I have ordered cheese and had it delivered to LA intact from Formaggio Kitchen, bot places have way better selections that Dibruno. http://www.formaggio-kitchen.com/shop/index.php?cPath=21 Either would be a huge improvement over having the cheese shipped from philly but if at all possible, do the ferry building.

I guess that says it all. I'm out.

That's cute, and you wonder why I dont reply to your PM's....... The Philadelphia city line is the Philadelphia Line. Excuse me but when you live in St Davids, Ardmore,Rosemont and Villanova, who do you send the check for your real estate taxes ?

and the RW Apple award goes to mainline magazine ? if I didnt know better I would think it was a brochure for the American cosmetic surgery association.

Why ? Because you no longer work for them and are working for a competing publication .....

Philadelphia Holly.......

So why is it being repeated, is a second mention of the same sentence a more convincing argument ? The original quote isnt an indictment of journalism, it's about the philly weekly. E-gullet was created for "opinions". The fact that anyone's opinions do not mirror yours isnt a prerequisite of fact. "Facts" exist on different levels. The sun is hot in july is an "undisputed fact". It very hard to become a food writer is not an "undisputed fact". Jeez Rich...can this discussions go on without being sublimated into folks spinning things into personal offenses ? It ruins the board. You write for a MAINLINE publication, last time I checked Philadelphia stopped around lancaster and cityline aves where the mainline apparently starts? The thread says "Philadelphia food media". AND the original point I made is this... I am not attacking journalism as a whole. Chill out. The issue of editorial and advertising isnt at all the issue, it's about content. Both are under the same banner of newspaper. It has a uniform voice which is the amalgalm of it's contents. Edited to add: Philly Mag and STYLE also have good food writers.

Taking this too seriously, I am not suggesting anyone quits, all I am saying is the reviews are meaningless, they arent about food or the restaurant, it's just stylized writing that should be seen as the garbage it is. It OBVIOUSLY isnt hard to break into print as a food critic excluding Laban, Henri, Keyser,Nichols,Motoyama who moved to France, the rest is fluff.

That's just Clintonian hair splitting. It's BS. It's not about if I find the content objectionable or not, for the record I couldnt care less, my point is FOOD critics tend to stray by becoming SOCIAL critics. You go to a restaurant to review the food not the patrons. This tendency of projected inferiority complex that makes food writers describe people they dont know as "Philistines" simply because they may be having trendy cocktails is absurd. I am simply pointing out that if you want to make social statements on refinement, you might not want to write for a newspaper with a substantial investment in pornography.

Sorry but that's ridiculous, nobody peddles porn "grudgingly" while they are being paid pant-loads of money to do so. Fact is if they are going to call restaurant patrons philistines, maybe the ought to read the contents of thier own paper before trying to make any intellectual or social statements.

Good point Holly, perhaps the Philly weekly editors should not hire people with an obvious bias to review places they are biased against, I mean why not hire a vegetarian to review a steak house. Distinguishing between "poisinous" and "poisin-like" is pointless, both are useless pejoratives. Point ultimately is this, why should a newspaper that prides itself on filling it's last 10 pages of classifieds with advertisements for the services of strippers, transvestite prostitutes, call girls and gigolos and lets not forget "massage" spas make any social statements on refinement by callling people who eat bullshit appetizers and $10 cocktails Philistines ????? The pot isnt just calling the kettle black, the pot IS the new black.

How about that lame review of 707 in the philly weekly. The reviewer say's a food item has an aftertaste of "poison". Really ? He's been fed arsenic or polonium before. Why dont they just keep Kirsten Henri istead of hiring these B team amateurs ?

It isnt even a food site at all.

Recently tried the oceannaire. Food and service were a parody. Truly not at all good.

On a more serious note... Copy of an E mail sent out to me today by Ariane Daguin below. Recently a group of animal rights zealots has drawn a lot of attention to foie gras in Philadelphia. They would like to see a city-wide ban, like the one in Chicago, enacted in your city. Please consider the facts about foie gras, and help to educate others. Knowledge is the only way to counter these fanatical demonstrations. When cities and states defend themselves (with public outcry and calls to the city council) against these protesters, it is possible to keep them from controlling our dinner plates. For the full text, and more information, please visit www.dartagnan.com or www.artisanfarmers.org. FOIE GRAS TRUTHS : "After being on the premises, my position changed dramatically. I did not see animals I would consider distressed, and I didn't see pain and suffering. He said, "It is more distressing to take a rectal temperature in a cat." He cautioned against "anthropomorphism, which is different from the human-animal bond." ~Statement of Dr. Robert P. Gordon, American Veterinary Medical Association Delegate, speaking to the AVMA House of Delegates following a visit to Hudson Valley Foie Gras. In both 2005 and 2006, the AVMA House of Delegates rejected calls to pass anti-foie gras resolutions. "Based on the extra physiological use of a natural fattening phenomenon, foie gras has been recognized as a non-pathological and non-harmful product. It has been shown that physiological indicators of stress, nociceptive signs and behavioral responses were hardly affected by the force-feeding procedure." ~Drs. Daniel Guemene and Gerard Guy, in "The Past, Present and Future of Force-Feeding and 'Foie Gras' Production" "The digestive tract is relatively short in birds that eat fruit, meat, and insects, and longer in those that eat seeds, other plant matter and fish. The basic oesophagus is a simple, narrow tube, which often widens into a sack-like crop, where food can be stored temporarily. The oesophagus can stretch considerably to accommodate large prey, such as when an egret swallows a large fish whole." ~The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behaviour. 2001, C. Elphick, J.Dunning Jr, D. Sibley eds.; Christopher Helm London, Chanticleer Press Ltd London, 1st ed, 588pp. The National Audubon Society states that "..birds have a remarkable ability to expand the mouth and stretch the oesophagus to swallow large prey." "Their goal is a vegan society. I believe in free speech, and in America as a tolerant society. But people who are intolerant of other's people's rights, well, that's the problem." ~Robert Uricchio, owner of La Foret in Highland Park, IL, said of anti-foie gras activists who have periodically picketed his restaurant and his house for the past two years. "If I told you ten years ago that the animal rights movement had its sights set on not just hampering, but outlawing, a specific kind of animal protein enjoyed by many people, you might not have believed me. But look what has happened in the case of foie gras. When zealots ban books because of their politics, millions of people rise up. It's a mystery to me why banning a food for political reasons isn't viewed the same way. As long as people who have enthusiastically articulated [an] anti-meat worldview continue to lead [The Humane Society of the United States], it will be impossible to convince American farmers and ranchers that HSUS doesn't intend to do them harm. They would continue to argue that farm animals have inherent 'rights' and chief among them is the right to not be eaten. I must reiterate that in the context of considering how best to raise animals for food, radical vegans in the animal-rights community are strictly outsiders. They don't deserve a place at the debating table, because their fondest wish is to destroy the table itself." ~David Martosko, Director of Research, The Center for Consumer Freedom, in his testimony before the United States Congress, May 8, 2007 "It is the silliest ordinance that was ever passed." ~Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley speaking on May 14, 2007, about the foie gras ban and predicting that the ordinance would soon be repealed. "I've gotten a few letters with people saying, 'How would you like a tube stuck down your throat?' [Well,] my throat is not like a duck's throat. If you have some tragedy like an oil spill or a fire around a wetland, they would be using an exact same feeding tube to feed those injured ducks." ~Allen Sternweiler, executive chef at Allen's - The New American Café in Chicago and plaintiff in the lawsuit to overturn Chicago's ban on constitutional grounds "[Anthony Bourdain] agree that the California and Chicago legislation that preceded it, is not really about whether breeding ducks for foie gras is humane or inhumane. Instead, they argue, it is an emblem of the potential dangers of trying to legislate something as private and personal as eating habits - and a sign of the difficulty Americans still have understanding where and how they get their food ." ~Salon.com, October 5, 2006 In 1985, D'Artagnan pioneered free range, organic, humanely raised meat, and continues that tradition today. We are proud to support the highest possible standards in animal husbandry at small, sustainable farms. We believe emphatically that foie gras meets those standards. Ariane Daguin Owner, D'Artagnan

Pointless