K_A_S

I'm with those who would prefer that the server not pour the wine and will (politely) stop a server who reaches for my wine bottle. I understand why they do it, since some patrons like to have wine poured for them and since many restaurants try to push the wine sales, but I'd prefer to exercise some control over my wine intake, and I'm not a fan of "hovering" waitstaff. The way I see it, the more things they have to do at my table, the more time they have to spend at my table, and I go out to dinner to spend time with my dinner companions and not so much with the servers, however interesting, polite, etc. they may be. As for the rest of the complaints about service, I tend to be like one of the posters above, who mentioned that sometimes taking a break from eating out serves as a good antidote to consistent disappointment. I, too, find that if I eat out too much, I start to get a little... not exactly cranky (ahem... cough...), but let's say a bit more demanding in my expectations and a little less forgiving when they are not met. Just my two cents, for what they're worth...

Just as a point of comparison, whenever you look at various dietary publications that count calories or health guidelines that discuss a "serving" of wine, they always count 4 oz. as one serving of wine. Not that restaurants EVER follow the actual recommended portions for either food or drink...

Put me in the camp with the folks who see two examples of bad behavoir: (1) I almost don't even know where to start with the 3-year old issues. I'm not sure that it's appropriate to take a 3-year old to a fine dining establishment to begin with, as it is the truly rare 3-year old who can manage that level of social behavoir, especially at the end of a tiring day. I don't think that it's fair to anyone -- the child, the restaurant staff, or potential customers in the restaurant. I'd recommend a babysitter, a different type of restaurant, or if one really wants to eat at a certain fine dining establishment, maybe lunch or a very early dinner would make more sense. If we set aside this issue, that still leaves us with parents who wore their child out, knowing that they had dinner reservations later in the day, and then waited until the time of the reservation to notice that their child was tired and called the restaurant. As someone mentioned above, would the parents have done the same if they had purchased tickets for a show, or might they have thought ahead and planned a bit better; at the very least, it must have been obvious at some point earlier than the time of the reservation that the child wouldn't be up for it. So, yeah, to my mind it was poor behavoir to call and cancel at the last second. (2) That said, the person at the restaurant had no reason to react as he did. Sure, the customer stiffed them, but chewing out customers is simply no way to run a business. It's not only rude, it's also unprofessional. OK, there's my two cents...

One of my personal faves is a place that offered "vegetarian chile con carne." I've also seen plenty of the already mentioned shrimp scampi and things served "with au jus."

As I read the "supertaster" discussion, I noted what seems like some confusion here between taste (the five tastes that taste buds allow one to distinguish: salty, sweet, bitter, sour and umami) and flavor (our experience of food beyond those basic categories, which relies on smell, among other things). While I've not done research in the field, it certainly strikes me as plausible that there may well be people who are supertasters and not particularly good at distinguishing flavors, and vice versa, given that these categories, while related, are indeed different. And I would expect that this site would be the place to find plenty of folks who might not be supertasters (i.e., having to do with number of taste buds) but do have well developed palates (i.e., can distinguish between flavors). Or maybe I'm just wacky...

Add a pro vote for the burger: I ate there the other day, and the burger was actually quite good. On the downside, the "special" fries were stone cold, and when they brought me some warm ones (after explaining to me that the first batch were so cold because they had to be tossed in the special sauce), they were terrible. TOTAL: 1 thumb up for a tasty burger 1 thumb down for nasty fries (and maybe a pinky down for really lame service)

I finally had dinner at Mamma 'Zu recently, and it was quite good. We started off with some very tasty antipasti (roasted red peppers with fresh mozzarella and an arugula salad with shaved parmesan) before splitting some pasta (a la carbonara) and an amazing merguez with beans and polenta main course. For dessert, we split a heavily boozed tiramisu. It was all well prepared and tasty; my only complaint, which isn't really a complaint, is that I was completely unprepared for the portions, which were enormous. We ended up bringing almost all of the main home, which wasn't a terribly bad thing, of course. Although everyone had warned me about their legendary bad service, I had quite the opposite experience. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that our service was great, with the exception of not being able to pay with plastic (for which I was forewarned and thus prepared).

I spent a couple of days in Chicago at the beginning of the month, and based on all that I had heard about Quartino and a look at their website, I decided to give it a try. I have to say, I had the worst dining experience that I've had in quite some time. I only went one time (and am not keen on going back, based on that experience, so I acknowledge that it's possible that I was just terribly unlucky, although some of the problems were so basic that I have my doubts. First, the good things: the appetizers were quite good -- we opted for some taleggio, bresoala, and artichokes -- and the various condiments and sides that came with them were every bit as good. There were so many small plates that sounded good that it was difficult to decide, and I suspect that many of those we didn't order would also have been quite tasty. Unfortunately, that's were the good ends and the bad begins. To start, the place was so noisy that my dining companion and I were yelling at each other and could barely even make ourselves understood. While I have no problem with some noise and activity -- I like a lively and bustling scene as much as the next guy -- by the end of our dinner, my ears were almost ringing, and I was getting hoarse from the yelling. Given the name of the place and list of wines by the quartino, I was all the more disappointed with the wine; we tried four different wines, and they ranged from uninteresting to downright bad. If I were forced to return, I'd skip their various quartinos and head right for the bottle list, which looked fairly promising. After all the antipasti, and since our ears were beginning to ring, my friend and I decided to split a pasta dish, and being a fan of duck and a good ragu, we went for the bigoli with duck ragu, which was a disaster. The pasta was unevenly cooked, with some strands being just fine and others so undercooked as to be crunchy. By this point, I was so underwhelmed that I decided just to leave it on the plate rather than complain, and I paid the check and headed out as quickly as I could. I've read the other reviews, and it seems that my experience was unique. I'd like to think that I just stumbled in on a bad night and that normally the food, wine, and service is much better. But I must admit that I'm skeptical... On the upside, during the same visit, I had great meals at Frontera / Topo and Bin 36 and I had some great sausage and duck fat fries at Hot Doug's. I had hoped to stop by one of my old faves, Cafe Iberico, but ran out of time.

If I could piggy-back on this thread with a related question: Can anyone recommend somewhere that both has good drink selections and is cigar-friendly? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

The recipe sounds interesting and the dish would probably be tasty, but I would still prefer my trou normand the old-fashioned way. I've never had any form of a trou normand in a restaurant, but I have certainly had a little Calvados (or eau de vie or somesuch) in friends' houses. Maybe I'm just a cranky traditionalists here, but I like my Calvados in a glass, with nothing else. Now I'm getting thirsty...

I'm in agreement with the consensus here: Otto was wrong, Marissa was wrong for not speaking up earlier, and if anyone else heard what Otto said or about what Otto did and didn't speak up, he or she was wrong, too. Frankly, I was glad to see Otto finally accept responsibility for what he had done and take himself out of the competition, but it's worth mentioning that it took him quite a while to do that; he clearly was trying to weasel out of it the first time the foursome was in front of the judges (Otto: "Let's not turn this into a he said, she said situation" or some such), so I'm not willing to give him full credit for fessing up at the very end. As for Marissa, she dodged a bullet this time, since her food was terrible. Her mistake was all the more striking since it was the sort of mistake that "even a pastry student" (or something along those lines) would know better than to make. Last night's episode was one of those during which I was sorry that only one competitor gets eliminated each week; I would like to have seen both Otto and Marissa go.

Wow, I can honestly say that I wasn't really expecting to stumble upon references to The Chronicle of Higher Education on this site. Thanks for the link!

This is one of the many reasons why I am a Bourdain fan; from his writings and his U.S./Mexico border show (in which he gives credit to the people who are doing so much of the cooking in high-end restaurants they could never afford to patronize) right up through his Beirut special (where he manages to share his own traumatic experience without failing to grasp that others have it even worse), the man manages to understand the big picture, and in a serious way. My hat's off to him.

While we've only seen one show, and while we know that the editors like to stir up the drama, I'd have to say that Marcel does strike me as a pompous a$$. That said, I would agree with the comment that somebody made (maybe Chef C.) that Marcel is young. I suspect that many a 23-year old male (having been one myself) could be thusly categorized. It'll be interesting to see if he can start cranking out food that matches his self-image. As for the rest, my first impression of Ilan was that he's certainly solid, and while the little "pre-cap" vignettes suggest that he's not above talking a little smack and playing the game, I would expect him to be around for quite a while. It seems that Carlos is off to a pretty bad start, and from the comments made by so many of the other competitiors and judges, there is every reason to believe that he'll be gone soon. Otto, clearly selected to be the Dave of this season, doesn't seem to have the skills that Dave did, so his meltdowns are less likely to be tolerated over the long haul. The pastry chef -- I can't remember her name -- should be somewhat interesting, in that (despite her overly-developed sense of her attractiveness) she does bring something a little different to the game. I just wonder if sooner of later Chef C. will feel obligated to tell her that "This is Top-Chef, not Top Pastry Chef." (Anyone want to bet on how many episodes before we hear that one?) As for the mom-with-the-comfort-food Chef, it will be interesting to see if she can do the haute cuisine stuff with enough style and technique to hang around. All in all, this group of would-be Top Chefs strikes me as a fairly strong bunch, and I'll be looking forward to seeing how it all turns out. I'm also looking forward to seeing how the judging goes. Padma, despite the nod to her professional food cred (cookbooks or something, if memory serves), is obviously there as eye candy, but I think that she'll be less annoying than her predecesor (whose cred, as far as I can tell, is that she's married to somebody famous). Here's to the new season!

Chef José, First off, let me say muchas gracias por la conversación. In addition to the many good things that have already been said about you and your restaurants, your willingness to spend so much of your time here answering our questions is yet another tribute to your comittment to sharing your love for and through your cocina. Thank you. In the U.S., when people think of Spanish cuisine, the first thing that comes to mind is tapas. Also, even many who are a little more familiar with the richness and variety of Spanish cuisine know very little about the various regional traditions; instead, we often tend to think of Spanish cuisine as one monolithic entity and fail to grasp the ways in which la cocina gallega might be different from what one might find in Andalucía. When I speculate about the direction that Spanish cuisine in the U.S. will take in the future, I can see a couple of directions. One possibility is that tapas will remain king, but I wonder if perhaps regional cooking will come to the forefront, or if there is some other take on Spanish cuisine -- perhaps the nueva cocina -- will become the new face of Spanish cuisine in the U.S. Do you have any predictions about the direction the Spanish cuisine will take in the U.S.? If you were able to influence the U.S. eating public in any direction you chose, in which direction would you lead us? Why? Thank you again for your participation in this forum. (Edited for grammar errors.)

I enjoyed the show, too, largely because it was on the fast-paced side and struck a nice balance between being serious enough to be interesting without being so overly serious as to kill the fun. Chris, your enthusiam was great, and after watching your show, I was craving a deep-fried twinkie and some good Chinese food. To me, that's the sign of a good show, when I wish I had been part of the action. Congrats!

At the beginning of August (my last days of summer vacation before classes started up again), I spent a few days in DC and finally made it to Zaytinya. After having read so many good reviews of the place, I was looking forward to it quite a bit. Overall, though, I'd have to say that it was a fairly ho-hum dining experience. Disclaimer of sorts: I only dined at Zaytinya one time, so it's certainly within the realm of possibility that the restaurant had a bad night; we all know that reviews based on one visit are both useful and limited. First off, the setting and service: two thumbs up! It's a beautiful space, both stylish and comfortable, and the place had a great ambiance and energy. The service was really great, perfectly balanced between attentive and reserved; our server was always there when we needed him and never intruded in any way when we didn't. On to the meal itself: hit-and-miss. I should start by saying that I am a huge fan of the small plate, mezze, tapa, or whatever you want to call them; furthermore, I understand that, in some ways, making a meal of a bunch of mezze is a true challenge to any restaurant's menu in the same way that a tasting menu is: instead of trying only a couple of courses, you end up with a large pile of plates sitting on your table before it's all said and done. That said, I am happy to say that some of the mezze were fantastic: the bread, for example, is truly wonderful on its own, and it manages to take some dishes from the already good to the near sublime; that was definitely true of the mushroom mezze, which was an amazingly good dish on its own, but simply begged to be paired with some bread in order to achieve perfection. And it almost goes without saying that the Hommus, which was quite good, benefitted from such great bread. Unfortunately, some other dishes seemed almost devoid of flavor: the skordalia seemed as if someone had forgotten the garlic, while the Mavrofassoula Me Loucaniko (grilled pork and orange rind sausage with bean stew) and the Lagos Krassatos Me Fakies (braised rabbit with lentils) both managed to be cooked to perfection and surprisingly lacking in flavor. Throughout the meal, we enjoyed a nice selection of Greek wines by the glass, and our server was quite helpful in making wine suggestions (for which I was especially grateful, since I know nothing about Greek wine). The meal ended on an upnote, with both the Turkish Delight (recommended by our server) and the Turkish Coffee Chocolate being as tasty as promised; if I ever end up back at Zaytinya, I'd happily go for the Turkish Delight again. I don't live in DC, but I make a couple of trips up each year, staying a few days each time; I have an every-expanding list of restaurants that I try to hit each time, and unfortunately, Zaytinya won't be added to the list. Frankly, if I were in DC and in the mood for mezze, I'd likely go to the restaurant named Mezze in Adams Morgan, which is both less expensive and a little better (although certainly less stylish), in my experience.

Thanks for the reminder of that thread. I had looked through Jose Andres' cookbook before, and I have to admit, the idea of a potato chip tortilla made me want to put the book down almost immediately Some of the recipes that you and others made, though, have got me thinking that it might be worth another look. As for the frittate/tortilla comparison, from all that I can gather, there don't seem to be any significant differences in the preparation (any differences having to do with how long one keeps the heat on high strike me as fairly minor, especially since I know people who, when making tortilla, opt for keeping the heat high and some who lower the heat), although there will of course be some differences in the ingredients that one might include. Thanks again for the response!

I regularly make an ultra-traditional tortilla espanola (I teach Spanish, and most of my colleagues have also spent time in Spain and are tapas junkies), but I've also had plenty of variations on the potato/onion theme in Spain, so I certainly don't feel obliged to make only the potato/onion variety for myself. I am curious, though, never having had frittata in Italy: can anyone tell me if the Spanish tortillas and Italian frittate (sp?) are different in any significant way?

Thanks for the tip! I'll add it to my list of places to check out in Richmond.

I can't believe that this discussion has come down to name-calling ("snobs!") and defending against being called names ("I'm not a snob!"). Give me a break: I suspect that every person here has at some point been to one of the chains, and since the professed charm of the chain is that there are never any surprises and a meal at one of the restaurants in the chain will predictibly taste like a meal at any other, a meal at one of them is pretty much going to be like a meal at any of them (by design). Further, I would truly be amazed to find that those "defending" the quality of Applebee's and taking those who criticize Applebee's to task for snobism would actually opt for dinner at Applebee's over other restaurants in the same price range in their area. Dinner at Applebee's is not much less than some finer dining options, if you get some wine with your TF super chicken, and I would be hard pressed to imagine that most eGer's would ask to be taken out to Applebee's for a special meal than to a similarly priced restaurant. Can you say "disingenuous?" I knew you could...

From what I've seen of TF, it sounds like Applebee's is a fine enough fit: it's not like the guy was doing la nueva cocina, classical French a l'Escoffier, or cutting-edge cuisine of any sort. There are a few FN stars that I could imagine working with Applebee's/Chili's/Cheddar's/TGIF/Ruby Tuesday's (can you really tell me that there's much of a difference between them all?) because that's already the sorts of stuff they do...

Now that I've had a chance to read the piece, I guess my comment would be that the author really needs to work on his... umm... anger issues. I realize that he probably thinks that he's being amusing with his over-the-top rant, but he ends up sounding more pitiful than funny, at least to me. I think that one could write a parody of Rachel Ray, or better yet, a Saturday Night Live skewering a la Ackroyd on Julia Child, but this article simply ain't it. On Ray-hating (or Springer-hating, Stern-hating, etc.): I don't get the whole "I watch X because it's fun to diss him/her" phenomenon; I guess that my life is stressful enough to not to want to add to it by watching or listening to things that are going to raise my blood pressure, and I feel secure enough as a person not to need to look down on other people to feel better about myself.

I don't know who the CT-based writer is, but it does sound like someone who has a pretty big axe to grind, given that he seems to take a swipe or two at just about everyone. My take on Rachel Ray: if I were her PR person, I'd be worried about over-exposure, since she has so many shows on. The fact of the matter is, as some have already observed, she offers up something very useful to lots of folks who have kitchen-phobia: she presents fairly straight-forward and quick-to-prepare food for people who may not have highly developed kitchen skills. Not everyone who watches FN is a chef or chef wannabe -- there are simply too few shows that assume that level of knowledge or interest on FN -- and many watch it precisely because they think of cooking as a spectator sport (as opposed to a common, if enjoyable, routine activity). The 30-minute meal show is, to my mind, brilliant in terms of its accessibility to those not used to cooking without offering up the sort of lame recipes and half-baked (pardon the pun) meals one finds on the semi-prepared meals show (where I saw the hostess go through what must have been 6 or 7 tubs of Cool Whip, with slight additions like a bit of vanilla extract serving as the "home-made touch"). She teaches people who don't know much about cooking to make real food and without too much fuss. That said, she's a bit too perky for me, but that's just my personal taste. For me, the only non-stop chatter I'm interested in when watching a cooking show is non-stop food-related information, not blathering about the host or hostesses' trip to Canada before his or her wedding. I don't love her, but I sure don't hate her. Now the semi-homemade show is another thing...

Thanks for the comments and for the welcome. I moved to Farmville about a year ago, and I have been able to find a lot of things that I didn't expect to find here, but still... I thank my stars that Philip is in town, and I'd be happier if the PE Bean hadn't closed.