chopjwu12

Did you know that trader joes is owned by two german brothers who never come out and live in secret. they are in the top ten most wealthy people in the world. The story behind it is that one of the brothers was kidnapped or almost kidnapped i cant quite remmeber. but since that they have lived in hiding almost so it doesn't happen again. I saw a whole story on it when the 10 richest people in the world poll came out.

Hello all i am looking for people who live in portugal and spain. I want to talk to as many people as possible to find out where to go, where to stay and all that good stuff. Mrs chloe has been helping me a bit with northern portugal(i promise i will write you asap im sorry for the delay) but i want to know as many people as possible. Im heading there for my honeymoon from august 5th to around september 20th. So i really want to get to know people who know the countries. I do have lots of family in central portugal and i visit preety often so i know a bit about some things. Its the rest im going to need help with. So if anyone would be so kind as to respond i would greatly apreciate it.

Canard now that was a good one.

yeah thats right about the way to cook hard boiled eggs. But i think teh time is actually 18 to 20 minutes for a fully cooked yolk. Im going to run some tests and find out though.

if there is anything else other then small flower thing your glasses your plate and your silverware on the table then there is just to much shit. Thats the sighn of a poorly run restaurant. Take my place for instance when you sit down you have a small flower thing with a small flame thing for light. You have plate setting in front of you along with your tools and your bread plate. your glasses are there there as well. But after you have ordered your wine and what not alot of the stuff is removed. Anything not needing to be there. But there is plenty of room in my mind because i ate there before i worked there and that thought never run my mind. But again i say this a poorly run restaurant will let the shit build up.

So any word on this yet?

My two friends who have eaten there have to different opinions. One went to the special invite only party and said it was really good. The other went on a normal day and said the bbq was ok not the best but the atmosphere was retarted. He said you dont go to a BBQ joint to pull apart ribs and suck on them while sitting next to a very well dressed lady with pearls trying to eat BBQ. So two very different opinions.

i have to agree all my cheese is bought at murry's. They have had such a great selection and i think the prices are more then fare. My restaurant gets all our cheeses from them and to my knowledge have never had a problem. They have even had the only bluecheese i will eat, Blue de termignon. Do you know how hard it is to come by that stuff? Besides the ryland inn its the only place i have ever been able to get it, and i have asked everywhere. I don't know much about dipalos.

i have to say that stainless is ok and that i never had a problem. The green can be one of two things. Ive seen it in a reaction with alluminum pots when the eggs have been cooked to long. But in the case of the improperly cooked hardboiled egg that suzanne described that is a sulfer ring. There is sulfer in eggyolks. So when they are over cooked teh sulfer rises to the surface of the yolk.

i guess its all about where you dine. Because when i dine out i dont get all that extra crap on my table.

LoL ok you got me on that one!! But this is how the kitchen i sset up. There is a garde manger cook and then a hot apps guy. But when it comes to entrees its like this. You have a entremed(sp) who cooks all the vegetables and sides for the entrees. Then there is the leader of the line who cooks all the protiens. Its a french style kitchen. So basically if the place does 200 people the entremed and the protien guy cook for all 200. What they do that i never did was when the veg and fish are done they hand their pans to the chef across the line. So the chef and i think the chef de cuisine plate up all the dishes. I thought that was kind of wierd but it works and makes it alot easier on the cooks.

Im glad someone posted about this because i was goign to anyway. I want to let everyone know that my good friend joe who is formerly of daniel, cafe boulud, the tasting room, and now is at oceana. He is the fish cook there and i want to congradulate him on a job well done. He is extremely happy and releived that they got three stars. This means many good things for him and the restaurant. They are also going to be in art culinares next issue so keep your eyes out for them. He told me what a strange feeling it was cooking for Mr. Grimes. But he felt he did his job to the best of jis ability and obviously he did. Again i want to congradulate him and the rest of the staff of oceana on a job well done. He met cornelius at daniel and the chef called him over for his help at his new adventure. They have a solid staff and i imagione great things are soon to come.

yeah maybe they sat at the bar or something. i guess it would have been nice to call during the day sunday and asked but still it sounded wierd to me is all. Thanks for moving the thread by the way. I did a search for the babbo thtread and for some reason couldn't find it. So thanks to whoever did the job for me.

I thought the order in which the dishes was a little funny. I thought the taglitelli in the first course was rather heavy for a first course. But i think the rest went in preety good order. It sounds to me from reading around that babbo might lack one think that makes a great restaurant great, CONSISTENCY. I understand under the preasure of doing like 200 covers its tough but you have to find a way. My bolognese was very good and not dry at all. I would have to eat there again and not the pasta tasting this time. But i forgot the worst thing of the night. I dont know how i forgot to mention this but i did. This was liek a stab in the back or something. So we are all standing in murrys getting soem great cheese. I notice the couple behind has the zagat and they are looking at babbo. The they started talkign about the restaurant and wondering if they had any reservations open. I laughed to myself because i a person who called a week early could only get a 10:30. He gets on the phone and calls. They tell him that they probably have a table because they save sometables open for people who want to walk in. So basically these people who decide to call the day of get an earlier reservation then me who called a week ago. I was furious. I dont understand the philosophy behind that. Lets screw a COOK of all people especially a cook who is going to tell everyone on egullet this story and give an earlier reservation to a couple wondering around NY with a zagat. Man that chaffed my ass something awfull. Does that make sence to anyone?

I dont think they were gettign soda because they came and left empty handed but i could be wrong. Besides if a cook wants a soda the waiters or runners usually go and get it for them.

Hello all. Well i finally got a chance to go to babbo on sunday night. It was a late reservation 10:30 to be exact so but at least we got in. I was joined by veronica and my big brother carlos. We spent the day in the city and went to our friend joes apartment before the reservations for some cheese and wine. Good cheese, great wine, and great company what else can a man ask for. But alas it was time to go experience what everyone was talking about. We went with the pasta tasting since we all love pasta. The first dish was Black Tagliatelle with Parsnips and Pancetta the wine served was Pinot Grigio “Plus,” Bastianich 2000. My impression of this dish was ok. The pasta was great but it my opinion the dish had to much broken butter in it. So it started to get very greasy to me especially at the end of the dish. I Thought the dish was good but not great. On the other hand veronica thought this could have been the best dish we had. She felt it only became slightly greasy towards the end but it didn't look like her plate had as much butter on it as mine and my brothers. It seemed to me that hers wa probably plated first and my brothers and mine after. So we ended up getting the bottom of the pan. Again the dish was good but the broken butter made it greasy. The parsnips were very good and added a nice sweetness to the and it complimented the pancetta as well. I did enjoy the wine with this dish. The wine was very fat on the pallet but had a good amount of acidity to cut through the fat in the dish. The second course was the Fennel and Potato Ravioli with Thai Basil and Brown Butter the wine was Toscana Sauvignon “Con Vento,” Castello del Terriccio 2001. I thought this dish was ok to good i couldn't make up my mind about it. I had mixed feelings about it. From a taste point of view i thought it tasted preety good. But from a technical point of view it was short. Veronica thought the potato was over cooked because the filling was very grainy. I can agree with that but im not sure if it was the overcooked potato or if it was the fennel in the filling that made it grainy. It was hard to tell. But What i was truly dissapointed in was the lack of fennel in the dish. This dish advertised itself as fennel and potato with thai basil. But the only anis flavor from the dish was from the tarragon that was thrown on top of the dish with the one leaf of thai basil. The other thing was the thai basil. I didn't think there was a real need for it especially when its one leaf. I guess one could argue that thai basil has an anis quality to it but then why throw all that tarragon on it. If you want to compliment the fennel then you should be able to taste the fennel first. The wine was preety good with the dish as well. Again it had a good amount of acidity in it an dwas much lighter then the first but it cut through the brown butter that was used as the sauce. This dish tasted preety good but i just felt it wasn't what it was advertised as. The third dish was Garganelli with Funghi Trifolati and the wine served was Langhe Nebbiolo, Aurelio Settimo 1999. We all enjoyed this dish very much. The pasta was great and the mushrooms were very equally as good. It had a nice rich buttery sauce but wasn't overpowering. The wine was a bit earthy and complimented the mushrooms very well. Ive never had that shape of pasta and thought it was extremely interesting. It had a nice little pocket that held everything together. This dish could have been my favorite of the evening. The next dish was Alejandro's Pyramids with Butter and Thyme and the wine served was Teroldego Rotaliano, Foradori 2000. I also enjoyed this dish very much. The pyramids were stuffed with pulled short rib. The short rib was kind of sweet and hearty at the same time. The thyme went really well with this dish but i think thyme goes with everything. I dont remmeber to much about this wine for some reason. I assume it was good because i had nothing bad to say about it. My only question about this was the pasta dough. I think the dough was pot sticker dough. Thats what the waiter said at least or thast what he made it seem like. If it was then i think that would be kind of wierd to use but i couldn't tell so i guess it didn't make a difference. The next dish was Pappardelle Bolognese and wine they served was an amarone but i dont remmeber the maker but the year was 1996. Let me start by saying i love pappardelle. So i was very happy to have this dish in front of me. The pasta was cooked perfectly and it was one of the best bolognese ive ever had. Everyone at the table really enjoyed this. The wine was great. I really like amarone because i find them very easy to drink. Since im a novice in wine its a little harder for me to drink heavy big red wines. So i apreciate the balance of the amarones. The next thing we had was Apricot and Carrot "Marmellata" with Goat Milk Curd the wine served was Franciacorta Brut NV, Ca’del Bosco. This was a nice but veronica and i thought the marmellata was a little pithy. So it had a sourness to it. The goat curd was great. The wine realle refreshed the pallet. My brother didn't like this dish to much though. I thought it was preety good except for that little sourness at the end. There was a couple of difefrent desserts given to us at the end of teh meal. That was our restaurant workers perk i guess. The saffron panacotta, a chocolate cheesecake i think, and a pineapple tart. All the desserts we very good. My only issue was the saffron panacotta. Now i love saffron but if used inproperly it can be a bit much. So to me i thought the saffron was a little to strong and lingered to long on the pallet. But veronica and carlos thought i was crazy. So to each there own i guess. Side notes: We felt a little rushed for a couple of reasons. One we ha dto take the 1:37 train back to NJ. But because of our late reservattion and the want foir the kitchen staff to leave which i understand we were a little rushed by the staff. Again a 10:30 tasting menu so i can understand it. But at the same time thats part of the restaurant business. As in Most NY restaurants the coat check room sucks. Small space with shit piled up everywhere. It just feels uncomfortable standing there inches away from people eatign with a coat hanging over their heads. I felt kind of rude to the people at that table. One of the last complaints i had was the sommelier. The man was very nice and informative. But like i said it was late and my man left befor ewe were done. Our last wine was served by our waiter. If im sittign down gettign a wine tasting then your ass better be there when i get each wine. Thats your dam job. So that got under my skin a bit. I wouldn't let my staff do that. i mena if its a bottle soemones drinking then the waiter can fill the glass. But if i want to know about the wine im about to take in then the sommelier should be there. All in all it was a preety good experience. not the best in my life but good. I think it would have been better if we had gotten earlier reservations but i blame myself for that. This way we could have had more time to relax and enjoy ourselves a little more. Our table was great. It was a corner table and we all had plenty of room. I didn't get to see the upstairs at all so i have no idea what that looks like. I would have liked a kicthen tour just to see what it looks like back there. Oh another thing that i thought was wierd. Alot of cooks kept coming out in the dining room. That doesn't usually happen. So i guess its kind of wierd to see a cook wander around the dinign room unless he is out there to talk to a table. But these guys just seemed liek they we goign to the bar for something or other. It didn't bother me or anything but i just thought it was wierd because im not used to seeing that. i would go back again but im not sure if i would get the pasta tasting. I would want to try some different stuff. Maybe make up my own tasting of sorts. get a bunch of different apps and entrees. But thats what i thought of babbo. Thanks for listening!

That makes sence my friend. It just confused me is all.

Yo awbrig man after all this talk how could ya go and forget to ask CT?

I dont think you can blame an 18 year old for being a cocky little prick. I bet if we all sat back and thought about it most of us thought we ruled the world and nothing could get in our way at that age. Maybe it was just me but i think being cocky and then gettign your ass handed to you is only a part of growing up. I do have to watch the show to see what everyone is talking about. Im just speaking on personal experience.

I love ya', kid, but sometimes you are painful. duck, duck...goose! Why am i so painful? Is it my spelling problems again. Let me just defend myself by saying i am not a very good typer and especially at 2 AM when i am usually on posting. So for that i do apologise. But is it really that painful? I agree with the killing of there own food that maybe it should have its own topic. But i have killed almost every farm animal you eat and i dont feel sorry for them. Maybe its just me. Back to the foie issue. Ok if trotter is so worried about these poor little duckling why doesn't he take the matter into his own hands? Like many people have said, there are foie producers that treat the gueese/duck with respect and care. They come running for feeding time instead of being tied down with a tube down there throats. Im sure someone like him can insure that he gets the well treated foie. So what if he has to pay a bit more for it. Raise the price on them menu or charge a supplement for it. The plain and simple fact is if he really wants to he can get foie from producers that treat their animals well so he doesn't have to take it of the menu. I see a different reason for the foie ban. I dont know what it could be but there has to be one. To me if he is going to take this route with foie why doesn't he take the stand with all animals. Im sure most of the beef he serves hasn't had the life of a kobe cow.

I agree with Lreda just choose your resturant wisely. If you dont like a banquet style service and food dont go to a place like that. Go somewhere where you wont be rushed and enjoy your day. Now im not saying there is anything wrong with staying home and having a good time. But dont knock the good restaurants by catagorising them all as banquet shit holes.

ive had foie from france and from united states. The ones i have tried have been very very similar to the point that you couldn't tell the difference. Now i understand that there are the exceptions in both countries but i wont site here and believe that a country produces better foie. A person yes but not the country as a whole.

munk liver is not good. I dont like it at all. But why the hell do people think the french are the only ones that make good foie dishes. Thats just stupid. I guess my man thomas keller doesn't know his ass from his elbow ehn it comes to foie either huh!

Man i was about to get really angry!!!!!!!!!!

Wait a minute are you telling me when we went to trotters in july that my bill allready had 18% put on it before i gave another 20%?