robert brown

Porkpa, I also like it with an Alsatian or German Munster cheese. Then you can have it late in the meal. Having a sweet wine at the start of a meal doesn't bother me a bit. Having it with foie gras should be nice. The problem in New York is finding decent foie gras and a ripe, "a point" piece of Munster. It can happen, however.

Francesco, do you know Le Calandre or Flipot. The latter is on my list for this summer. Yet, I have not set eyes on any mention of Le Calandre. It is brand new to me because I have not been planning any trip to the Veneto. I will have to look it up. I hope it's better than the meals I have had at the two other three-star restaurants.

Marcus, that was a great summation and a good explanation why we keep shifting and vacillating among the specialty food shops. FG, I was surprised by some of the foodstuffs I saw in Seattle; and this was in February of last year. It was just a cursory kind of look based on the Whole Foods and Pike's Place. You have probably spent more time looking around in Seattle than I have. What do you think?

Ajay, I have yet to find an interesting Western restaurant around Lincoln Center, not even Gabriel's which I eventually gave up on. The next time I need to eat before a concert in Lincoln Center, I will probably end up at the Shun Lee West. It's a cut or two above the typical Chinese glop. Yet, this is not my neighborhood and perhaps you will be led to something recent I don't know about or an old stand-by that is not coming to mind.

Blondie, This may seem like a conventional, pat recommendation, but I would not want to sell short the source of it: an American woman with a remarkable palate who has been living in Rome for four years and knows very well the Rome restaurant scene. I had dinner with her tonight and mentioned your post. She concurred with R.W. Apple of the New York Times and said the best meal to be had in Rome was at La Pergola on top of the Rome Hilton. It is not Roman cuisine and the chef, Hans Becker, is German. Ordinarily I would avoid such plces were I making a quick visit to a major food city, but I would give it a go now if I were in your situation. I like the modern art museum in Rome because I like post WWII Italian art: Fontana, Morandi, etc. who are well represented.

Toby, you're right about how time-consuming food shopping is, not to mention how tiring. At my house, I count a 90-minute shopping expedition equal to preparing dinner and doing the cleaning up, which is why I let my wife do it all!!!! Bux, you're right about the discovery aspect of supply, quality and price as a precrusor to sticking with a shop or taking a hiatus or permanent leave. Steve, thanks for the primer on Arthur Ave. I will make my first trip very soon and report back with my initial impressions.

Over the years, I have found myself making continuous adjustments to my food shopping. Living on the UES at 86 & Lex., I have fairly easy acces to Citarella, Eli's, Agata & Valentino, Grace's, and the three small stores run by Likitsakos. If need be I can go to Paradise Market and, for meat, to Schaller & Weber. Also Butterfield's or Gentile's (both expensive, though), not to mention Rosedale, where I suspect I will always buy my fish unless I need something on a Sunday and have to go to Citarella. For a while I had a "thing" for Balducci's and I would actually go from home all the way to the diagonally opposite part of the city, sometimes stopping at Jefferson Market and, later, Whole Food at 27th and 7th. As a fan of diPalo's, I try to go twice month for the red cow Parmesan, roasted red peppers, mozarella, ricotta, and prosciutto di Parma for sure. Their prices are extremely fair, especially for olive oil. They have by a good margin the lowest price for Badia, for example, and good, inexpensive oil from Puglia, Sicily, etc. Just to show you my current state and how opinions can change, I am off Citarella because I think they have the worst attitude in the city and, like a lot of these places, have underpaid, ignorant help that can make mistakes. I don't like chicanery with the produce such as putting it under Halogen lights, continually spraying it, and removing the withered or deteriorating parts. For a long time I was avoiding A&V. Now I have rekindled my patronage as it seems better supplied than before. The native-born Italian who owns the salon where I get my hair and nails done is very saavy about food. (He and his son also own Bacchus, a wine shop on 1st and 74th and his cousin owns Sistina). He likes A&V a lot, although he says I should go to Arthur Ave. and not always diPalo's as it takes the same amount of time to go to either (Does anyone have a comparative notion about these two locales?) I must say, however, that all the olive oil at A&V is house label, which is a glaring shortcoming. Sometimes I will get annoyed at Eli's and not go for a while. However, I noticed yesterday and recently that the produce is better. While his prices are high, I like going there because you can (but are not always supposed to) snack on nuts, munchies, and olives. If you hit it right, you can score free samples of sushi as well. In a way, I do let overall price determine where I might do the bulk of my shopping on a given day. If I need a certain amount of staples, I will go to Citarella and, maybe now, A&V, as opposed to Grace's or Eli's. A&V has a terrific loaf of Pugliese bread; but for baguettes it is still Le Pain Quotidien. What are the mental and other dynamics of your food shopping?

Steve, thanks so much for laying out the way to go about this. I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I have arrived home to find out the cheese I bought was ammoniated or that some piece of produce was rank or spoiled. Large price differentials between stores for the same packaged product is another manifestation worth paying attention to and perhaps reporting here. For whatever reason--advertising I guess-- the New York Times (speaking of New York, of course) and other publications pretty much keep their hands off retail gastronomic shops unless there is some situation that involves the breaking of a law. I hope members can make eGullet a place that can be consistently useful for food shoppers.

Yvonne, I wonder if you have opened a Pandora's Box. I wish more people would make these kinds of posts wherever they meet inferior anything, be it in Soho, UES, lower 6th Ave, etc. (Praise would be great, too). Perhaps Steve Shaw can alert us to any pitfalls or give us advice about members who wish to make eGullet serve an ombudsman kind of role in terms of food shopping.

The Genevea airport is compact and well-organized. An escalator connects the arrivals and the departures areas. French Customs is easy-going. Are you flying Sleazyjet? Check-in is in the French sector departure area. Their ticket counter (but not check-in) is all the way at the other end from the entry to the France sector--walk left at the top of the escalator to their counter. All the banks are Swiss, so you would take a double hit changing Pounds or French francs into Euros. What else? Don't buy caviar as it probably is not really fresh. The French sector departure lounge is small; not a lot of magazines to choose from and just a bar-snack bar, no restaurant.

Dear Vivremanger, The only potential hang-up at Cointrin is waiting on line to buy your ticket into town. There are credit card machines, but they can be unreliable. If you want to chance it, go on board without a ticket. The ride into town is quick. You can always play dumb or tell the conductor the ticket line wasn't moving. The last time no one collected tickets both coming and going. Turn left after exiting Customs for the train station.

I was disappointed in the lunch I had at the Champs-Elysee branch. This was in late June and I forgot what we had. But we felt ripped off: that much I can remember.

Jaybee, Martell's is a typical Third Ave. bar-restaurant with a bar scene and mediocre pub food. Don't get too excited.

I thought the enterprise had integrity. That's the impression they try to make. Which comes first, the cheeses or the store?

Ann, that was a marvelous piece of culinary writing. It really got to the essence of the aspects of the meal you wished to describe. Welcome aboard and keep on chuggin'.

Lesley, what's an hour between friends? Locals have steered me away from L'Univers for value for money reasons primarily. But with Chantecler open, I think anyone who wanted to dine in the restaurant with the highest profile in Nice, especially when just about every other interesting restaurant was closed, it's a no-brainer with all due respects to Menton 1. If you are going to go down with the ship, at least make it a luxurious one. Regardless, there will be dishes among the more than a dozen that you will find interesting.

I did not like Esca and Cafe Boulud enough to have returned. Right now I am touting Babbo, Jewel Bako and Ouest, all of which have been discussed extensively on eGullet. Ouest is the most New Yorkish of the three, obviously, and seems to fit your criteria well. It is not unusal or personal to any great degree; just comfortable, honest and generous. Other than a longish wait between the appetizers and main courses, service was fine. I am looking to go back.

Lesley, my wife and I would narrow it down to between La Petite Maison and La Terre des Truffes. While Alain Lorca at Chanteclair is an interesting blend of himself and Adria, we found our dinner there not clearly focused and “hit and miss”. Some of it was interesting playing around with Nicoise cuisine and the rest, as we were to find out a week later, Adria inspirations without the whole Adria “gestalt.” La Merenda disappointed us last visit four years ago and we have not returned since. La Petite Maison is the reference for Nicoise cuisine in a Nice restaurant. La Terre des Truffes is an ingenious example of restaurant creation. Neither restaurant has much charm, though La Petite Maison is lively and rather bustling. I recall the welcome and the service being more cold and snooty than it is now, and seems now more even-handed between the regulars and the tourists. La Terre des Truffes is small and elegant in a club kind of way; chrome and wood paneling. The menu at La Terre des Truffes is limited; five or six permanent dishes and three or four daily specials. Now is a good time to go with both white truffles of Alba and Truffes de Perigord in season. Prices are really reasonable for what you get, which are modest ingredients richly prepared with generous helpings of truffles. Of course they offer that which carries truffles the best: scrambled eggs; thick slices of potatoes in a cream sauce (our favorite dish); a warm salad of egg, ham, and lettuce; gnocchi with cream sauce; and a good “moelleux” of chocolate a la Michel Bras. (“Moelleux”, one of the more difficult words for Anglos to pronounce, need not be if you think of the classic Jewish joke about Moishe the Moyel + “euze”). My wife finds that everyone we bring to La Terre des Truffes really loves it, as they have never encountered a restaurant quite like it. For a one-shot meal in Nice, she recommends that, as would I especially given the time of year. But a culinary professional such as you and your husband are, you may want to make a little survey of a classic, less-idiosyncratic cuisine. (Is there anyway you can have lunch at La Petite Maison and dinner at Les Terre des Truffes?) If so, I would each order one of the two assorted appetizer plates at La Petite Maison—the Nicoise appetizers and the seafood appetizers. Both are varied and plentiful, with just about every component delicious: the red peppers in oil and garlic, the petits farcies, amazing fried calamari, beignets, raw artichokes, etc. Main courses are less consistent. JD (London)’s wife had a risotto with summer truffles a few months ago that was very good (as much as I have a thing against summer truffles) and my wife usually sticks to pasta. Some of the offerings in the appetizer plates appear as main courses, so pay attention. Don’t miss the “gratin de fruits rouge” or any gratin made with berries. This is as good an example of this ubiquitous dish as I have ever had. Give it some time to cool. It arrives too hot to put in your mouth. La Petite Maison is very popular. You must really book a bit in advance. La Terre des Truffes can get “complet” quickly given its small size. Is it just the two of you dining in Nice? I ask because La Terre des Truffes is ideal for sharing dishes among three or four people because the portions are copious. We always order four dishes for four people, for example, and pass them around. Because of the appetizer dishes at La Petite Maison, two people can taste much of the repertoire. The wine choice at La Petite Maison is significantly larger than that of La Terre des Truffes, although both establishments stick mainly or entirely, respectively, to bottles of the Southeast. Let us know what you decide and how it unfolds. Have fun.

I had dinner there about a year ago. While I had a nice chat with Ariane Daguin about "Le Grand Sud-Ouest", my meal was mediocre. Foie gras as always is problematic in the USA, even at the French Laundry which uses Hudson Valley foie gras. This is why I am anxious to find La Belle Farm foie gras that I only heard about yesterday in conjunction with Liza's post on Stone Church Farm. I don't remember the rest of my meal, but the fact that I don't says something.

There was also Giovanni Giacometti who made what poster historians consider to be the first artistic Swiss travel poster (ca. 1898). Better late than never, having missed the discussion first time around.

I deliberately omitted economic factors in my post just above, but since Bux has raised the bursting of the economic bubble, I wonder if there is an aspect that was part of the the bubble itself. I have been thinking if the quick, easy money that people were making, illusory as it may have been, created a mentality in some of the restaurant investors that also emphasized quick returns. A major result of this (and I am not sure of the degree of impatience of restaurant investors of the mid-to-late '90s) would have been a preoccupation with the bottom line that would have resulted in less "return" for the patron. Nonetheless, it appears to me that decent to very good restaurants that have something to offer and are well-managed are, in the main, getting through the economic downturn rather well.

Bux, I'm not putting L'Astrance in a class by itself. It just so happens that I could not resist tying together the straying into the area of Fascist buildings and the original topic of the thread. Sometimes I can't avois making conceptual leaps from one seemingly unrelated phenomenon to another; i.e Fascists architecture and modalities of dining. There are some examples of Totalitarian architecture I find interesting and most I don't. Call El Bulli my culinary Soviet Foreign Ministry headquarters. El Bulli is also "sine qua non"; or is it "non pareil"? Sometimes I would put my myself in the hands of a chef, but they weren't the same hands that were touching everyone else exactly the same way. And what kind of luxury is it to find a chef you would trust implicitly if you have never eaten the chef's food before, a state that characterized my first, only, and last visit to L'Astrance? Has anyone thought of the possibility that if L'Astrance revokes reservations from concierges, it may depend on who the concierge is or what hotel he works for?

I'm running, not walking, to Bouley for the Scuba Diver sea scallops and the freshly harpooned bluefin tuna. Although I always say that you can't imagine a dish based on how it appears on a menu, I thank Lizziee for taking the time to post the menus. I found them very interesting and they seemd to imply a few reasons why I only occasionally dine in the restaurants that comprise her post. Other than the above pretense, I noticed a large number of dishes that would appear to be sweet. I also was reminded by a large majority of the descriptions that all the most memorable dishes I have tasted in my life were conceived in the spirit of A+B=C. Somehow the vast majority of patrons at these New York high-end restaurants equate fussy, complicated, multi-component dishes with culinary artistry, as though if you ordered a fish with a sauce (salmon with sorrel is the reference from the last 25 years), that such a dish is bistro food. (In all fairness, however, I did see a few interesting straightforward dishes in Lizziee's post). The best meal have had in a long time in America was at Citronelle in DC. Were it not a specially-arranged one, I would have written it up. Nevertheless, one reason it was so memorable is that Michel Richard understands what great and classic dishes are made of. The dishes had an immediacy and approchabillity that this classic, veteran native French chef has never abandoned. I had a very satisfying meal the other night in my first visit to Ouest and, as always, the night before at Jewel Bako where I have been going nearly every week. I suspect that these straight-ahead, unpretentious restaurants offer the consistently best kind of dining in New York.

I seem to have been short-changed in the number of courses department. If there is one standard of generosity for some and another for others, what kind of crap is that? Nice post, Jciel. It was hardly pie in the sky (and probably on the money).

The entire Third Reich was predicated on pleasing the Fuehrer. Whether it was the Reichsparteitagsgelaende (rally grounds) in Nuremburg, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, or the EUR in Rome, the driving force was to create a "timeless" neo-Classical monumentality that evoked the supremacy of the State. I think the leader who commissioned these kind of buildings was secondary to their evocation, let alone the design approach. So as not to be completely off-topic, dining at L'Astrance is quite Totalitarian when you think about it.