Dave Weinstein

Incidentally, I have heard back from the restaurant, and they very much did want to hear this sort of feedback.

I've written an email describing the situation to the restaurant, and stressing that I'm not looking to get something out of this. I hope it is helpful to them, as the first meal I ate there is still one of the finest meals I have ever had.

That's part of the problem. Nothing was bad. The only thing I could point to with specificity was the sometimes lengthy time between courses, but if the food had been up to the previous standards (amazing, instead of merely good), I wouldn't have cared. The problem was, at the prices the restaurant charges, good isn't enough. I just don't know how "last time was an experience, this time was a meal" can be used constructively.

Many years ago I spent a fair chunk of time on the phone with an editor at the major Houston paper (the Chronicle?), which ended up in a loop in which he would agree that I was an expert on the subject of the article, and he was not, but then immediately deny that it was possible that I had spotted a factual error in the article that he had missed. Reading articles on a subject you know well is a great way to calibrate how much trust you should give the paper...

I picked up some Bresaola from Porcella Urban Market (Seattle area) last night that just absolutely blew my mind. You could see through it (they kindly sliced it for me, as I am running with limited use of one arm right now), the flavor was clean and nuanced and absolutely incredible.

A few years ago, I went to a well known fine dining restaurant with some friends and colleagues, and had an absolutely astounding meal, easily worth the money. Within the last year, I was back in the same city, and we decided to go back to the restaurant (since our respective spouses were also with us this time). The highs were as good as the first time, but the food in general, while good, wasn't what I'd consider worth the prices they charge this time around. Nothing where a dish should have been sent back, just good not mind-blowingly good. Nonetheless, service was acceptable but not stellar (there were some very long waits between courses), and we tipped well and departed. So, the question is, if you were the restaurant in question, would you want to hear "The first time I dined there, it was an experience, the second time the food, while good, didn't justify the price to me"? (The city and restaurant have been deliberately omitted, and the time frame deliberately left vague)

My copy should be here this week... (Even working one handed, I'm a sucker for a cookbook on all things pig...)

I've been cooking for as long as I can remember. When I was a child, and we were visiting family in Manhattan, as a special treat we were given a budget (two dollars), with which we had to plan a balanced meal, walk down to Gristedes, purchase our ingredients, and then cook our dinners (and clean up afterwards). I've been married for more than 15 years, and in all the time, I've been responsible for the shopping and the cooking. Friday morning, I slipped on a patch of ice, and fell. I took most of the force on my right arm (I am right handed) rather than on my head, but in the process I injured my arm sufficiently that I will be having surgery on Monday. For the next three months or so, I will have at best minimal use of my right arm, with 6-9 months of rehabilitation afterwards. So far this week, my wife has been doing the cooking, with my occasional consulting, and this is likely to be the norm. But has anyone had any experience with one armed cooking, and if so, can you give any advice? (As a side note, once surgery happens, my typing speed is going to drop drastically as well, so my ability to respond in this thread will be minimal)

"All you can eat"

Coca-Cola marked "Kosher for Passover" will be made with sugar, not corn syrup. Just FYI.

If you're willing to drive to the wilds of the Eastside, Nana Carmela's has a bar against the (open) kitchen.

When we moved a couple of years ago, I went ahead and splurged on a French Door fridge. It's a freezer on the bottom, with two doors on the top that open into one large refridgerator compartment. Add the full sized freezer in the garage, and the spare free fridge I picked up for charcuterie a few months back, and I'm set.

So, does Andy Nusser get to call himself Top Chef (or Top Chef de Cuisine, or Top Executive Chef)?

Note that the "new" interview also continues the "official" (and false) claims that the head shaving preceeded the attack on Marcel.

← You can also make the Rusty Nail mixed 50-50 (which is my preference).

I believe you can reserve the upstairs at Nana Carmelas for special events.

Earlier I mentioned a response from Bravo about the out-of-order editing. I had called in to the after program, and asked the question during the "after after" segment (which has just been posted). However, the question and response were edited out, so I can't get a more precise wording.

So, there is an answer from Bravo as to the out-of-order airing. It is, paraphrased, "we condensed the whole night into 2 minutes, and the integrity of the story was not affected at all". I disagree, and will simply avoid any Bravo based reality programming, since I have no reason to trust what I see.

Oh, good, it's up against Top Chef. That gives me something useful to watch in that time slot, since I have no intention of watching Top Chef again.

There are reports out that the latest repeats of the episode have edited out the images (post assault) of Elia with a full head of hair. In other news, we have always been at war with Oceania.

I've been using the Boyajian expressed citrus oils for years; they are an enormously useful ingredient, especially when you want to set the flavor into a meat, rather than just in the sauce. One caveat, citrus oils are quite bitter, so you'll need to balance that out.

The thing is, I'm not sure if there is a point to continuing to watch. Either Marcel wins (which frankly should have been the case after this episode), or I'm not going to watch next season anyway. So I may just wait to find out whether or not I'm going to bother to continue as a viewer until after the show finishes this season.

And finally, we have a case of the Producers over-ruling the judges. From Tom C: "Any one of them could have spoken up and said, "This isn't cool, guys. Knock it off." But they didn't, so as far as I was concerned they were all to blame and I was ready to send the lot of them home and let Marcel win by default. For the first time all season, the Producers stepped in with a veto. Sending all of the chefs but Marcel home wasn't going to happen."

My thoughts: Both Marcel and Cliff played it too safe in the dinner (and Marcel commenting that Cliff was playing it safe was therefore ironic). Cliff screwed up; he admitted how much he screwed up, he paid the penalty, enough said. Marcel gets my respect for not running screaming for the Production Assistant and instead just getting clear of everyone (Bravo blogs have details). Sam helping Marcel plate, especially when Marcel ran into trouble, and didn't help anyone else, well done. Ilan irritates me enormously. Marcel needs to work on soft skills. People skills are vital, and he just doesn't seem to have them.

So, here is the problem. I don't have a knowledge of how the staff divides the money. I don't want to short the servers, but I already tip 20-25% of the total price, and I don't particularly want to up that to 30% or more. So while I think the income should be more fairly distributed, without knowing how any particular restaurant works, I'm looking at either spending significantly more money myself, or potentially shorting someone. As I said earlier, my ideal would be restaurants in which staff pay (including the part currently covered by the gratuity) and taxes are all included in the menu price.