MikeHartnett

Rowntree's Fruit Pastilles, Aero Bars, British chocolate/candy of nearly any kind. Notice a trend here? British candy trumps all!

Made the roasted rice cakes yesterday. Really good. I'm a big fan of the Korean Red Dragon sauce. Going to try the Pork Belly Ssam tonight.

I just remembered my unfortunate trip to Dress It in the Omni Royal. What a terrible place. Their deal is "gourmet" burgers, and you get the distinct pleasure of checking off your options on little sheets of paper, which the "waiter" delivers to the kitchen so you can wait for a really long time. Then you get a jumbo mediocre burger, and also you get guilted into tipping the "waiter" who did what you could have done, but slower. Which is to say that I hope this place is different. In a good way. ETA: I just googled it and found this: http://www.charcoalburgerbar.com/ Related?

Got mine today. Won't get a chance to really get into it until this weekend, but so far it looks great. The writing in Meehan's preface is pretty terrible, but things look up from there.

Has any info come out about the menu? What makes them "gourmet?"

To be more precise, and prevent my innocuous posts from being unnecessarily dissected, I will try this again. What I meant was: based on my relevant experience with Thompson's Thai Food, I am surprised that his book would fail to be substantively valuable. Thai Food is the most used book in my kitchen, and the effort and research obviously put into it leads me to believe that Thompson would not trend toward style over substance. I, having never been to Nahm, know next to nothing about his involvement or how that relates to his general attitudes toward style or substance. My post merely reflects my personal feeling of surprise at this reaction to his new book. I apologize for apparently conveying the belief that I was well-enough versed in all aspects of Thompson personal and professional endeavors to have an opinion on this matter.

I'm really surprised at all the negative reactions. David Thompson seems like the last person to put style over substance. I'm really curious about this now...

Moderator's note: This topic is devoted to cooking with David Chang's Momofuku cookbook -- CA] Mine's in the mail... Has anyone had a chance to look at it yet? Thoughts?

I realized afterwards that I would have liked that to come across differently. Too tired to fix it last night. What I meant is that I feel as though people do not expect cutting edge, pushing the envelope stuff when they come here. They may come for Galatoire's, Commander's, etc., but I don't imagine they plan such visits because a cutting edge chef is operating on all cylinders in such a place. Right or wrong, I get the sense that New Orleans is a food destination as a unit, and not because of individual chefs or restaurants.

My feelings on this have a lot to do with recent shifts in my personal attitude toward restaurants. I look at that list and it's all I can do to stay awake. Also, upon reading Mr. Anderson's explanation of the list, I have no clear idea what he intends the list to represent. He admits it would look a lot different if he were to choose his personal favorites, and he states that "[t]hey are all white-tablecloth restaurants fulfilling high ambitions. They all either are owned by or employ a chef who is proving his or her mettle with cooking that reinforces New Orleans' reputation as a restaurant destination." This, to me, possesses a crucial flaw: New Orleans is not really a highbrow restaurant destination. Tourists (and locals) care more about where they're going to grab a po boy for lunch than celebrity chefs and temples of gastronomy. Thus, the top 10 list isn't really representative of New Orleans food. If it described itself as a top ten white table cloth list, that would seem more appropriate. As it stands, it misses the mark for me.

I'm with you on this one. I've never had a "deconstructed" dish that was just piles of components. And obviously, I've had the Oysters Rockefeller at MiLa, and they are fantastic. I dare Ms. Goldstein not to like them.

Chris: the page you linked to says it comes out next Monday. I'm not sure if there's conflicting info somewhere else... That said, this better come out in the U.S., like, now.

I find it interesting that everyone seems to be making the point that it's stupid to publish two magazines "about the same thing." Does this mean that you've never purchased a copy of each magazine in the same month? I think the magazines have different audiences, or at the very least, they cover different topics. I think it's a bit simplistic to say that publishing two magazines about food is overkill. Is Toyota being stupid by selling a Highlander and a 4Runner, or Gatorade by selling both berry and orange flavors?

As far as I know, he's still there. Bar Uncommon is the name of the bar. I would strongly advise going during the week, as Mr. McMillian gets a bit cranky when kids come in on the weekends.

A big 'hell yes' to this, although I've only had it with the pepper and bacon. Cheese sounds interesting though.

Agreed.

I won't pretend to know of any sources claiming this, but I think a lot of this comes from the recent bunch of "Prohibition" themed bars, like PDT, Violet Hour, etc. The newspapers get wind of these places and run with it. Also, I think it's sort of folk legend that because alcohol was illicitly produced during Prohibition, it tasted like crap, and therefore it became necessary to create cocktails to mask the awful flavor of the booze.

Bought the book, and it certainly does. Delicious.

I just saw those the other day. Thinking about picking them up tonight and trying them in a Fernet Flip.

Sorry if I just missed this upthread, but which book are you referring to?

There was heat. I can assure you.

At this time of year, I'd guess they would be happy with you showing up. As long as it isn't 7 p.m. on Saturday night, I think you'll be ok.

That would be a Boulevardier, provided one agrees that PeM can be subbed in for sweet vermouth without it becoming a new drink. ← Maybe so, but I think that the Punt e Mes deserves at least special mention, if not a new name. It was fantastic.

An unnamed Negroni variation at Cure in New Orleans, by Maks Pazuniak: Equal parts: Rittenhouse Bonded, Punt e Mes, Campari with an orange twist. Fantastic. Just had that "something" when everything combined...

Toby, if you wouldn't mind, what are the rest of the specs on the Tongue in Cheek? ← Tongue in Cheek 2 oz Weller Special Reserve Bourbon .75 oz Fresh Lemon Juice .75 oz Simple Syrup .75 oz Carpano Antica Sweet Vermouth 1 dash Angostura Bitters 1 Strawberry (Cut in half) Top: Soda Glass: Collins Ice: Shard Garnish: Mint Sprig Under the Shard, Mint Sprig on top of Drink Shake briefly. Strain. We tried shaking the mint in the cocktail, and also throwing it in after shaking and giving it a swirl. It works best to just put it on the bottom of the glass under the ice. This is one of those drinks that on paper looks Meh. Then when you taste it it rocks your world. So simple & elegant. My hat off to Jane. Cheers, Toby ← thanks.