tommy

i guess i'm not seeing the connection between per se, daniel, ADNY, and the narrowing of choices for a large group of people. then again, i'm on top looking down.

Well, we agree on that; I just don't want us to go overboard. and dining has the power to bring people out of their shells and put them in a setting where they're behaving better than they might, say, if they're sitting at home in their underwear typing into a forum.

the symptoms are all around us from where i'm sitting. housing costs, Hummers, expensive box seats, $100 trips to the movie for a family of 4.

Totally off-topic and all, but an interesting fact I learned recently. The seven deadly sins are never mentioned in the Bible. Somebody just made them up. i can't believe that anything associated with religion is simply "made up."

perhaps they should address the problem and not the, or rather one of the, symptoms.

yeah, but breaking bread and dining are often social experiences, not solitary experiences. at least for a good portion of the population. at least i *think* that's how this tangent began.

crappy chain restaurants (olive garden, outback, etc) ain't cheap, either. i don't see anyone calling their clientele rich or privileged. i'm with fresco.

so if you're not a good person then you're not a good person. i can get behind that one. insert anything you'd like into the argument in the place of "fine dining".

suvir/hemant's new place will be at 18th and 5th, sometime in september, iirc. i got that feeling as well, and couldn't put it into words. but FG did, so i don't have to stumble through it. The night started out “normal” enough. Communal seating added a bit of that feeling that you were all there for the same reason. Being seated at a table of food writers and restaurateurs certainly reinforced that vibe. But, it didn’t hit me until danny meyer gave a nice speech. and then there was the excitment in the chefs' voices and faces, as they came out and said a few words. There was passion in the air for sure. it seemed to me to be a very very good day for "new indian cooking".

indeed eating is about the most social thing i do. the whole concept of breaking bread and whatnot. all very romantic. all very real.

right. i see no logic in brining with a salt i wouldn't use to cook. i haven't done a cost comparison, though, so i'm not sure if kosher salt is insanely more expensive than table salt. but with the amount i'm using, it doesn't amount to a whole lot of money per year.

you don't here that around here, do you? i haven't seen much of that type of thing on egullet. everyone seems to pretty much accept others' dining habits, as all dining is good dining. But it wasn't always so, as we both remember. that's no doubt for another thread, but i really don't think it was the case (i do believe that fellow liked cheap eats as well). and i don't see it as the case now.

morris county is indeed "wealthy". however, i agree that wegman's would fit into bergen. bergen, while probably not having as many super-duper-millionaires, has a high concentration of upper-middle class folk who spend gobs of money at places like wegmans (although i doubt they're the core customer base of ikea). from all reports, the issue with a bergen county wegmans is space. either they can't find a piece of land large enough, or it would be cost prohibitive. interesting comment from jon regarding wegman's apparent decline. nothing is as good as it used to be, though.

because we got a fucking ikea, that's why. how much cheap swedish furniture does one county need anyway?!?? Fucking Medium-Density Fibreboard Swedish crap! Give me my goddamn Zweigles Hotdogs!!!! (ok, I like Ikea's meatballs and buy them frozen in huge bags. So sue me.) and i'm sitting on an ikea chair. i'm beginning to think we're part of the problem. but don't tell anyone.

hmm. i didn't read "class" as socio-economic class, but rather a group of people associated by having similar traits. in this case, big-ass tight-wad complainers.

because we got a fucking ikea, that's why. how much cheap swedish furniture does one county need anyway?!??

you don't here that around here, do you? i haven't seen much of that type of thing on egullet. everyone seems to pretty much accept others' dining habits, as all dining is good dining.

another part of grimes' article is dealing with one's guilt brought on by no one but themselves. at the end of the day you as the diner have nothing to prove or explain to anyone but yourself. if you're comfortable when you sign that credit card slip, well there ya have it.

i think because it's all relative. someone spending 1k on dinner is next to meaningless when they have 7 million in the bank and 20 million in a retirement fund (assuming they're not in debt). at least to me it is. i suppose not to everyone though, which is why we're discussing this.

had he mentioned that it would have taken all of the controversy out of the article. during these types of discussions, what immediately strikes me is that $1000 on dinner to one person is the same as $100 on dinner to someone else which is the same as $20 to yet another person with less money. i don't see any moral issues with people spending money on travel, fine dining, cars, homes, or cocaine and strippers for that matter. although i might definitely take issue with people judging others based on how they spend their money.

i think iodized table salt contains something other than just salt, and i'm assuming that something is iodine in some form. i'm not sure what happens to that compound when it is put in water, however. i don't bother buying the stuff, so i just use kosher salt for everything.

we are yeah, who else would buy that meat if it were on the market and available to other restaurants and slice it up right out of the oven and dump butter on it.

no motivation for sure. what often times motivates business owners is hospitality. luger's seems pretty sure that the world is lucky they're around.

additionally, many of the cuts are misshapen. if you ask for a rarer peice, they'll cut from a thicker part of the meat. there's no doubt they get requests like this quite a bit, and they've always been very receptive to the requests in my experience.

i don't know many serious cooks who've started brining and then stopped because it was passe, or whatever word would be used to describe the backlash from a fad. as far as giving shrimp a salt water bath, i stand by that, as shrimp obviously go through some changes between the time they're in their natural habitat, and the time they get to your grill.