gfweb

The Zagat/Google problem is that one cannot always tell what sort of a place is being reviewed. Is it a bistro that does mainly lunch business or Les Halles in NYC? Written reviews help with this.

Thanks, Holly. I hope it isn't an April Fool joke. Great stuff on there.

Tripadvisor is anal about reviewer identity, makes you swear that you've eaten/stayed at the place you review etc. I think its the most reliable of this unreliable group.

The problem with all of these crowd-sourced numerical reviews is that the reviewers have a huge selection bias. People who like Applebees will dine there and review it positively. Applebees can be reviewed as positively as the French Laundry, yet there is no comparison in reality. I guess I trust Tripadvisor the most, because at least there is a written review from which more can be learned.

Woof!

Thanks! Is the fennel otherwise cooked?

Tell me about the smoked fennel please.

Your step mom is kind. If you don't like lamb funk it ruins anything around it. I'm like her, lamb chops are OK, but a lamb shank is just not good to be around...recently had a potentially nice meal ruined for me because of a lamb shank to my left. You might think about seating and ventilation. I know it sounds crazy...

I think part of the issue is training or lack of it. The ones who upsell/push stuff after you've asked for the check have been instructed to do it. The ones who go and bus three tables have had no instruction at all. And not so much common sense either, after all as far as tipping is concerned, last impressions count the most.

Me too. "Check please "means I want to go now. Now. Don't up sell me dessert or brandy. Don't go do five other things. Go get the check.

I only brine fowl. Sissies are cooked sous vide.

There is no "average" eGer. With only one or two exceptions we are above average! My worry about this whole horse meat thing is that horse meat contamination is detectable, BSE infected meat probably isn't. If a horse can get in with the cow meat, how much easier would it be for a squirrely BSE cow to be snuck in?

I would say that the term corn is currently used only with beef. In antiquity, corn was the term for a granule, and it had no relation to maize. (this is why ancient English Bible translations spoke of "corn" growing in Biblical Israel long before the New World was discovered...they were referring to grain). Why corning is only applied to beef and when a similar process is done to duck it is called "duck pastrami" probably reflects that the duck dish is not only corned but smoked ala pastrami and using similar spices. Don't think I've ever heard of corned duck. Ham, in the US sense, is salt/nitrate cured and smoked; so it is more pastrami-like though with a different set of spices. Re pork smoking...(perhaps interestingly), I once rubbed a pork tenderloin with garlic and rosemary and a little salt, and then smoked it; expecting something like porchetta with a smoky note. What I got was a tenderloin that tasted just like a hot dog.

Almost off topic and trivial question...why did the sauce take two days. Is the refrigeration of the day 1 product important?

A good point. But your Texas (if I recall correctly) is much different from my Pennsylvania countryside where Mexican cooking is a newcomer and fairly undifferentiated as far as I can see. I've had a lot of Mexican food in Houston over the years. It is a very different scene indeed.

I suspect in-laws.

I hate the word "umami" too, but I love what it tastes like. For me its a back of the tongue depth of flavor.

Like any technology, GMO can be mis-applied. The trick is to understand the unintended consequences. Who knew BT corn pollen would land on milkweed leaves and kill butterfly larvae? Doesn't make GMO bad, but wisdom is needed in its application. The "nearly sterile" GMO salmon come to mind.

I'm divided on GMO. The Vit A golden rice is wonderful, but I don't like the BT corn that kills butterflies. Most of my objection though is to the sleazy Monsanto lawyers who sue any neighboring farmer if a GMO seed blows onto his property.

cilantro

Charcoal is pretty flavorless. Its smoke has flavor & what hot smoke does to meat makes flavor. I bet there's more to making this than extracting charcoal. Did the tartare taste smoky or more like meat with a char?

Big parts of the rest of the US are saturated with Mexican restaurants, mainly due to the huge numbers of Mexicans that now live here. It wouldn't surprise me to find that it is the major type of restaurant in lots of the country. But they are all the same, in my experience.... Mexican "diner-food" , a lowest common denominator. They seem popular with Mexicans in my area, so I assume that they are authentic enough, but the cuisine (cocina?) is not for me. I'd love an NYC restaurant that elevates Mexican to catch-on and spread elsewhere.

You can blend in blanched spinach to maintain the green color a while longer.

Good points. I peel toward myself. I don't do pounds and pounds often, usually only for holidays. The straight Oxo is my daily peeler. I also have a julienne peeler that is great for a quick prep for cole slaw or latkes etc.

Straight peeler for a few potatoes, Y peeler for a lot of them. My hand gets tired with the straight peeler after a while, but initially it is more comfortable.