Vadouvan

Interesting you should say........ I had bacon wrapped enokis from Vernon Morales who was at Winterland restaurant in Sanfran at least a year before 2006. Quite delicious if done properly. Good work dave, I am hitting it wednesday I think. Seems like this needs some of that Bentons Bacon....eh ?

14,30 ??????? Fabio you are hilarious either you are defintely European or you work for the CIA,Mossad,KGB or MI-5..................... Good post..... a little too short......

Brik isnt an Italian product. Go to assouline.

We now interrupt our programming for a public service announcement. I CANNOT OVEREMPHASISE HOW MUCH YOU *CAN NOT* USE THAT GRILL INDOORS. SUMI CHARCOAL WHILE IT BURNS SMOKELESS CREATES CARBON MONOXIDE, A COLORLESS ODORLESS GAS WHICH WILL MAKE YOU PASS OUT EVENTUALLY, POSSIBLY DIE TOO. and now we return to Oprah....

Um.....assouline. BUT I am not sure the liberty place retail store carries it which means you would have to go get it from thier warehouse on richmond street which should be called a "wherehouse" since you cant find it ....... Maybe dibruno sells it, I recall seing some crepe-like packages in the freezer. You know you could make it, its just flour, water and a pan.......feeling ambitious ? Back in the old country.......Morocco, we call it "WARKA"..... You can make zees.... http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/womanshour/food/recipe21.shtml

Fabio No offense meant, none taken. If we didnt have strong opinions, the PA forum would be as exciting as playing boccie ball in antartica.........

Sir Big.... what do you mean by specialty products ? There are only a few things outside the scope of what dibruno carries already. I think ultimately it would have to be internet purchases from places like Latienda the specialise in a particular cuisine no ? Hey can I drop off your wine tonight ? Pm me......

Jason it's no big deal, nobody needs to "chill-out", these are passionate discussions about food and cookery and succinctly stated disagreements on the internet are not food fights. We are all adults and in most cases know each other. If this was chowhound or craigslist we might be taking it too seriously but last time I checked EG is a *serious* food discussion forum. Of course fabio can offer his opinions and he defends it very well. He is clearly someone very knowledgeable. "I dont like sweet dough" is very different from "I am on a crusade against sweet dough" which assumes that I have determined the dough is too sweet and my tastebuds are the reference standard for the entire population....which isnt true. We would also be assuming Vetri and Michaud cant tell the difference between sweet and savory which is absurd.

Like I said... Good food that is tasty and at the right temp is great. I dont think however eliminating definitions is a good idea in the long run. I despise the term "Global Tapas" in particular.

The perception of Sweetness and all the other parameters of taste are not evenly detected by human beings to the same degree of accuracy. I would put down the shield and coat of arms and chill with the crusade.

Why is it required of you to follow trends ? Lemmings are required to follow trends. Who requires that you follow trends ? Frankly where the china is made is irrelevant, my point is that Image creation that is blantantly inaccurate ought to be called out because there is nothing worse than the mis-education of the masses.If you use another country as an example, what if you opened a provencal restaurant and served Alsatian food or in America a Cajun restaurant that serves Pennsylvania dutch food ?

Few posts demand single word british answers.... Rubbish. The pizza is good, there is olive oil, cheese, suasage, cured meats... What's this nonsense about reliance on fat. Everything in Europe relies on an abundance of fat. I thought you said you were Italian, the impeachment of fat in food is a uniquely american problem and europeans just eat their pork and triple cream cheeses and wash it down with vino. That's why pork is the "other white meat" in America while the japanese and eating tons of kurobuta.

Fabio Where one grows up has little to do with the ability to cook. Fact is risotto made with chicken stock is not remotely as good as one made with broth. I find it curious that you are nitpicky about Osteria's Dough but cave-in on the subject of making a great risotto. One cant be selective about the intergrity of cookery.

Reservation issues aside, may I ask why it is being actively described as a "Basque" restaurant. Nothing anyone has described seems Basque. Certainly it may seem like a nitpicky question but I am finding that there is this general trend in the restaurant industry towards using specific ethnic assignments purely as marketing tools while not actually cooking the food of the specific region or a reasonable interpretation of it simply implying that the dining public is clueless. That being said, the food could still be delicious but really.............. this ongoing regional dishonesty trend seems like a ploy to differentiate Tinto from Amada which may seeemingly be the same restaurant. Turbot with pastis and fennel is singularly Provence/ Cote D'Azur. Serving french dishes with spanish name translations strikes me as very disingenous. If anything "Basque" French borders spain in possibly Aquitaine,Midi-Pyrenees or Languedoc....No ? A foie gras torchon ???? Pork Belly with Chorizo ???? Even Calasparra "bomba" rice is from Murcia in southeast and the basque dont do much squid ink up in the mountains ?

Risotto *does not* traditionally call for chicken stock. It calls for "meat broth" as in "Brodo" which consists of other meats. Chicken stock is the non-italian western interpretation of risotto. The problem with most broth based dishes is the default reliance on chicken stock. The same issue occurs with ramen noodles or Udon houses.

Dude are you serious ? His competitors in Milan or Turin ????? Just enjoy the damn pizza ........how can you taste nuance in the dough with the toppings ?

Great review, while I would not dispute Bigboss's original posting, things seem to have smoothed out as they always do eventually. Good stuff.

Correct. The worst days of the year to go out to dinner in descending order are..... New Years Eve Valentines Day Penn Graduation Mothers Day Book and The Cook Penn and in particular Wharton Undergrad students are notorious for multiple bookings only to cancel at the last minute in several cases without bothering to call. Book ASAP You should supply more info like how many people........? What do you mean by "American Restaurant" ?

They may not start serving lunch till 1pm, dinner would be a better bet.

my crystal ball says you may get your wish on both counts when Montrachet re-opens.

To answer everyone's questions...... Osteria does not use OO flour, they use a special Semolina they buy directly from an Italian Importer, I just ordered 4 bags today. They dont buy flour from Dibruno. As Fenton said, American obsess about the word "fresh". Most fresh pasta has to be dried somewhat before cooking. Osteria makes and extrudes it Candele and then dries it before it's cooked. No human being had the physical capacity to make "extruded pasta" It has to be made by Machine. The reason most people cannot replicate restaurant quality pasta at home is because they cook pasta and put sauce on top of it. The correct way is too cook pasta and finish it in the sauce,

First of all david you owe me a pizza, i'll pass on the wine unless it's a Moscato D'asti post pizza. First of all.. http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&sa=N...F-8&um=1&tab=wi Bucatini is nearly impossible to make by hand. Osteria has a several thousand dollar machine that makes "extruded" pasta. You cant make extruded pasta by hand with any degree ofconsistent sucess. They also made the Candele in house with the same extrusion method. To further complicate your hopeless situation of trying to make this pasta at home. Osteria alos imports it's pasta and pizza flour from Italy and that is key to the flavor and texture. Translation: Dont even go there, you cant do it. Period. So now you see why the food there can be considered a bargain for the work that goes into it. I agree with gordon a pinch of salt and perhaps mace does the trick. Unless you have 8 grand to spend..... http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...sa%3DG...forget it. Alternately, buy rustichela d'abruzzo pasta http://www.rustichella.it/English/home_eng.html great stuff.

I propose we change the subtitle of this thread from .. "Is this a joke" to "Reviews and discussion" All in agreement say aye.....

Phillymag's best new restaurant. Thoughts Pawlak ????? When's your review coming ???

It's a small town. That being said, Platt, Couzzo and Bruni have been known to review the same places in similar periods