mojoman

Hello Pille, I dated a woman (American) who lived in Tallin for a few years. She said the Estonian diet is very pork heavy. Will we be seeing some interesting pork dishes this week?

My comments after the dinner are posted in bold above. The decor is modern but nothing to get excited about. The service was OUTSTANDING. I had ordered flowers for my GF and they brought us immediately to the correct table. In all aspects, the service was terrific. The food was good but there was no dish that I'd specifically return for or try to make myself. We shared the wine flight. I can barely tell a red from a white so take this with a big grain of salt but I thought the wines went really well. Total bill including tax/tip = $480.

Il Pizzico is great for the pasta. The other dishes...meh. It's always crowded on Friday and Saturday nights...no rezzies so get there early or be prepared to wait. What else? Notte Bianche...very average. Al Tiramisu...ditto While it sounds kinds stupid to go all the way out to Rockville/G'burg for great pasta, give Il Pizzico a try.

Won't cut a tomato after a few months? What else did you use it for? ← Just some veggies and cooked meat/steak. Very light use too so I'm pretty disappointed since the Japanese knives are supposed to keep and edge for a long time.

For sammies with slices of bread that are roughly square (e.g. Wonder Bread), I like to cut it diagnally. For sammies made with rolls or baguette, I like it cut into straight sections or whole, depending on the size of the bread. I do not like that very thin triangle that they cut Cuban sandwiches into.

I bought an 8 inch Shun Classic Chef's knife a few months ago. Caveat - Retarded Mojoman dropped the frickin knife onto my tile floor before I even used it once! The drop slightly bent the tip but I saw no other obvious damage. Anyway, the knife was nice and sharp. However, over the course of the last few months, with rather light use (used maybe twice a week), it's not super sharp anymore, It won't cut a tomato cleanly. I'm considering trading it back to my GF (who really doesn't cook). I had given her my Henkels heavy chef's knife when I bought the Shun. At least I can sharpen that puppy to a nice edge...it might need to be sharpened more often but it's old reliable for me.

Holy Shit. I've been wondering when this joint was going to open. My GF and I love the praline spread...I've been nursing this one jar we picked up in NYC. I'm going to be down for the baguettes and praline. Yeah Baby!

My last vist to Makoto was about 9 months ago. It is a unique in my experience. It's a tiny place, you sit on little wooden boxes, definitely not comfortable if you're tall or big. The service is super attentive...they have a high server to diner ratio. We split the omakase which was reasonably priced..something like $75. We then ordered a bunch of a la carte things and a fair amount of sake. The food was really good...I've never had Japanese food like that. But the portions are tiny. When all was said and done, it was $175pp out the door. My advice is to eat a little before you go, limit yourself to the omakase, and don't buy too much sake, you'll enjoy yourself a lot.

Thanks Chicagoland eGulleters. I'm still trying to decide but I'll post a report when I return in a couple of months.

Here's the menu. Chef’s Tasting Menu Moulard Duck Foie Gras Confit Toigo Farms Plum Financier and Sarawak Pepper Gastrique Sautéed Chesapeake Bay Softshell Crab with Eastern Shore White Corn Chowder and Applewood Smoked Bacon Wild Alaskan Ivory Salmon Mi Cuit with Golden Jubilee Tomato Coulis, Roasted Cherry Tomatoes, Grilled Shallot, and Bread Pudding Croutons Herb Roasted Elysian Fields Farm Lamb with CousCous, CityZen Merguez, Summer Squash, and Saffron Infused Lamb Jus Or Grilled Sirloin Of Miyazaki Wagyu Beef Baby Leek Tempura, Pickled Chanterelles, and Smoked Vegetable Gelée (USD 30 Supplement) Assorted Artisanal Cheeses From Our Trolley Pineapple Sorbet With Rum Gelée And Coconut Broth Peaches & Cream Red Ginseng Chiboust with Crème Fraiche Ice Cream and Red Garnet Peach Syrup I will post a report tomorrow.

So without doing too much further research (though that first post was so delightful that I might just have to read the entire topic now!) it looks as if regardless of whether a television production company has seen fit to choose the people they do as judges and pay them, said judges are not considered to be free of ardent commentary by those who decide to spend time watching their performance, whether the television company pays them for being Judges with a capital J or not. The next thing that worried me was whether or not indeed, these challenges were just . . . well . . . stupid. Happily I saw another thread that might have answers for these Vitally Important Questions (maybe we can call these sorts of questions which seem to keep popping up VIQ's for short. They do have the lingering aftertaste in the mind of cough-drops of the Vicks variety so I think it fits). Here is that topic for anyone still following along with my lengthy discussion of not-too-much here this morning: Top Chef - What Would You Make? That topic has a total of nine answers compared to the four hundred and seventy-six logged on to this topic, with kalypso as clear winner to my mind of the challenge and I seriously would have kalypso cook for me any day, any day at all, based on that elegant and lengthy list of ideas. So I'm going to have to continue to think that the challenges are somewhat challenging in some way until the numbers of commentators so actively and pleasingly for the most part, to my mind, engaged in trouncing Top Chef in general with a few lovely, gentle thoughts here and there dotted around like capers in a glistening sauce . . . wait what was I saying? Oh yes. When the numbers come close to equaling themselves, then I'll think the challenges are easy, even at second-hand. Entertainment it is indeed, but perhaps not in the way intended, is how I feel about Top Chef. And anyone that enters into the world of performing for television surely must know (even those who stretch out in bikinis while not sharpening their knife enough to cut an onion) that the world of dreams displayed on a flickering screen which we call television takes no prisoners. Can't wait for Wednesday. ← I don't watch ICA because I don't find it entertaining and I don't find it to be worth my time. Ergo, I don't read the ICA thread here because I don't watch the show. Why do you watch Top Chef? The amusement of reading several biting, critical posts per week is worth an hour of your time watching a bad show? I guess I value my time more than that.

If the critics think it's so bad, why keep watching?

Some of these posts are hilarious. Let's criticize Bravo or Tom Collicchio or Ted Allen. They are criticized because the challenege is stupid or the poster speculates that Collicchio couldn't have executed it better, or the judge is unqualified. 1. These challenges are stupid and irrelevant. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is TV entertainment. Bravo is a corporation, trying to generate advertising revenue. The "chefly" relevance of whether Hung can make something good from a grocery store aisle is unimportant. It makes for good television and is fun to watch. Who wants to watch some line cook bone 50 chickens then chop a crate of onions? Not me. Those are clearly "relevant" professional cooking skills though. 2. Collicchio couldn't do these challenges any better than the contestants. That's conjecture. The bottom line is that Collicchio is a successful chef and restauranteur. A poster on eGullet is more qualified to judge this than Collicchio? 3. Ted Allen is a nobody in the food world and shouldn't be so critical. That could be true. However, before asserting such, please state your qualifications as a television critic. Someone at Bravo thought Ted Allen had what it takes to be a Top Chef guest judge. Maybe that has more to do with the entertainment value then his culinary bona fides. Did anyone invite (and pay) you critique the production values of the television show? Someone thought enough of Ted Allen to pay him.

This could definitely get my post deleted because it's not food-related but I'll try anyway because the eGullet crowd, being highly sophisticated, would probably be able to advise me. I'm thinking about buying a nice, stylish, heavy winter coat while I'm there (first week of December). Is there likely to still be a good selection or is that too late? I live in a semi-cold weather city (Washington, DC) but I figure the coats will be heavier with a better selection there.

I'll be in Chicago (the Hilton downtown) December 3-5 (Monday-Wednesday). I've got a few questions: 1. Will we need reservations for Frontera Grill for lunch (3 people)? 2. Is it worth eating at Frontera Grill for both lunch and dinner (are the menus sufficiently different)? My GF's boss says he loves the place and he's pretty discriminating. It's also not super expensive so I don't have a problem eating there twice although I do if it's all the same stuff. 3. I'll be on my own for two lunches. Any must eats (Chicago dogs or Italian beef)? Can you suggest a place walking distance from the Hilton (720 S. Michigan Avenue)? 4. Any other suggestions for moderate (~$50 pp not including alcohol) dinners? My GF is German so we'd be interested in a German place or some place with local flavor. Again, walking distance from the Hilton preferred. She is not a big fan of Asian food but anything else will fly. Thanks so much. Edited to correct/clarify location

Agree. It's fascinating. Geez, you really gotta go into cooking because you love it...it doesn't pay shit. Do caterers make any more?

That's why we always tote along a small bottle of hand sanitizer, or some of those little packets of hand wipes that I lift from KFC. ← Honestly, I do too but I don't like the Purell residue. Don't store the KFC wipes in the glove box of your car. They won't be moist and soapy when you need them. Says the voice of bitter experience.

My post will speak to my anal retentiveness but I really don't go for the loaf of bread, hunk of cheese, sausage/salami, salad that is safe at room temp eaten on a plastic plate from your picnic basket. We have a picnic basket with plastic plates, utentils, glasses, etc. However, if you use the little cutting board to cut up your cheese/meat, spoon out a salad onto the plate, etc....it's a frickin mess afterward. Plus, depending on your picnic circumstances, sometimes you are cutting stuff up with your bare and UNWASHED hands. I much prefer to make great, high quality sandwiches. You might have to eat them with unwashed hands; however, you're not handling them as much as cutting up bread and cheese. I portion out salads and sides into little disposable containers. When you're done, either throw away or bring back with you but you don't have dirty plates to mess up your nice picnic basket. Dessert is usually something like a high quality cookie or brownie...nothing gloppy or wet. JMO.

There is a surreal quality to this thread...almost like Sher is putting us on. If you're an amateur and part of the party, do you really plan to pull this off?

Man, that is a complex menu. Unless you are really skilled in the kitchen and skilled in time management, I think that's a train wreck waiting to happen. All of those raviolis, caviars, and foam need to be made a la minute and a lot of that stuff needs to be finished at the last minute too. BTW, some people might take offense at your liberal use of "jap" in the descriptions.

Sounds boring. Not something I'd post on a foodie board. I'd brine the breasts and grill them. If you want to do a stewy tomatoey thing with veggies...I'd look at a ratatouille.

While I try to conduct myself as Mr. Rogov suggested, in any social interaction, both parties have an obligation to be courteous and polite. I bend over backwards to make my guests comfortable. However, this is bullshit. The OP has already noticed a similar pattern of controlling behavior and she springs this on him with 8 hours notice. Fuck her. She's being a BAAAADD guest. He might not be the greatest host not to indulge her but, in my mind, her being a bad guest way outweighs his not being an accomodating host. Let her eat the sides although you should take care not to have any visible garlic chunks in them.

Geez, a lot of thought goes into some of these comments and a lot of those thoughts are not very good. A little perspective here.....this is a reality TV show. Top Chef is not worth philosophizing (and bad philosophizing at that) over or getting one's panties in a bunch. My GF (who HATES TV) and I are enjoying the show for the entertainment value that it has.

If the customer service is so bad, you can buy the stuff at L'epicerie too. I did and was very happy with the service and products. Competition is gut.

Anyone with experience?