Wilfrid

I get the picture. I don't want fancy little tiles with deep grooves between them, right? And I also like the cheap child labour idea. Thanks again.

Rachel, the Asimov article was the one I quoted last week, which didn't have a specific address. I know I did have an address, but I am not going to find it for a while, especially as we're in the process of moving. Cabrales, I do not think removing the teeth is the issue. The question is whether the head comes off or not. And I wonder if there are legal issues in killing and cooking a guinea pig acquired from a pet shop?

Thanks for the idea. My partner looks just like she'd be quite good at tiling!

I am with you Tommy. Worrying about how much I drink does not come naturally to me, and the strain might furrow my otherwise flawless face. But NJ and London must have faced this issue. How did they cope?

Stellabella, thanks for the details. I must turn up the New York location which is lost among my papers somewhere. Bux, I think you speak a brave truth when you say that cooking is not necessarily for the pleasure of your guests. I plead guilty too. I have had a number of guests show up, waving a bottle of wine, and hoping to, er, chow down on some good home cooking, only to find they have to sit very quietly and politely at a formal table setting for several hours while I ply them a series of dishes out of nineteen fifties France. I honestly think most of them eventually enjoy the experience, but I know some of them have found it a bit startling.

This price thing is tricky. I don't wish to exclude anyone, but we have to recognise that Les Halles, which I would indeed describe as moderate, is going to cost way more than $30/$35 if we have three courses and anyone drinks anything. Tommy does have a good point in that a restaurant with a wine deal like Cite is going to avoid agonising about who drank how much of what. Are there any others like that? I know The Leopard has a similar deal, but I've never been there and hear it's a bit old and fusty.

Home improvement is something of which I am so ignorant, that this queston may be completely stupid and incoherent, so sorry in advance. I have been working on nice marble kitchen surfaces for the last couple of years. My new kitchen has very vulnarable looking surfaces, which I suspect are wooden with a pretty thin veneer of something or other synthetic. Obviously I use chopping blocks, but these surfaces are going to be chipped and scratched to hell in a matter of weeks. Obviously ripping them out is an option. I just wondered whether, as an alternative, there's any sort of covering I could apply which would make them more scratch resistant?

I asked for that. Okay, I am now switching off my PC, so you can all change the venue without me finding out. Otherwise, see you all shortly.

Can you wear your baseball cap the right way round? (Not an issue for beret wearers).

I concur with all your observations, Steve, and I too have the impression these are recent changes. I had been entertaining the possibility that I was just incapable of working the site properly, but apparently it's not just me.

Okay, no photos, no guns, no saltine crackers. That was purely theoretical. And no wooden rabbits.

Since I just accidnetally posted the same message twice, i thought I would edit this one and give you a poem: They are not long, the weeping and the laughter, Love and desire and hate. I think they have no portion in us, After we pass the gate. They are not long, the days of wine and roses. Out of a misty dream, Our path emerges for a while, Then closes, in a dream. Ernest Dowson, and long out of copyright I believe.

Well done, Tommy, although people will now be able to compare the menus and notice what thin ice I am skating on when I suggest Veritas's is simpler. never mind. Interesting to note that Renaud and Bryan both went through Bouley's kitchen. The paintings on the Fleur de Sel web-site are by Renaud himself. Listen, I said he's a good chef.

Yeah, I was considering going for a run. Or maybe taking a folk dancing lesson. Or getting the ingredients in for a good vegan meal. Or watching some re-runs of 'Upstairs Downstairs'. Or re-painting the bathroom door. Or learning how to crochet. But I guess I'll just hit the bars instead.

In fact, I readily found the Veritas dinner menu online. Its here: http://www.veritas-nyc.com/menu.htm#dinner and the same site also has Bryan's bio. He's certainly cooked in some good places. Can't find a Fleur de Sel web-site. I think the entrees on the Veritas menu bear out my point to some extent (the appetizers less so). Meat or fish with interesting but fairly straightforward vegetable accompaniments. Of course, there's scope for a wonderful sweetbread/squab cook-off between Renaud and Bryan. I would like to be a judge. "Whose cuisine reigns supereme????" :wow: Okay, enough of that.

I am going to have to start taking notes. I did at least remember the wine this time. Okay, the degustation was $75. I think there were six or seven courses - certainly looked like a lot of food. I usually eat dessert or cheese, and I am sure the desserts have been good. The maitre d' was heartbroken when we stopped after our entree, and promised me a dessert tasting next time. We were under baby sitter time pressure, which was one reason we didn't do the tasting menu. The star thing? Reminds me that I haven't been able to find a list which shows the Times star ratings - is there one? But I did take a look at some restaurants I have been to over the last few months for purposes of comparison. Bid and Blue Hill both have two stars. Fleur de Sel is certainly of comparable quality in terms of what ends up on the plate. It is less plush than Bid, but more cosy and stylish - and a lot smaller - than Blue Hill. Veritas and Pico, I see, have three stars. In the latter case, I am quite bewildered by the rating. The former makes a good comparison, because it's five minutes walk from Fleur de Sel and is also a fairly small restaurant. The Veritas dining room is much the more elegant of the two. Service is slightly more polished at all levels at Veritas, although it's very friendly at both. The Veritas wine list is out on its own. Food. Renaud strikes me as a master of classical techniques. Moving down in terms of scale from the big La Caravelle operation to his own kitchen and small dining room means you get a highly professional and experienced chef focussing on a fairly short menu of his own design and giving each plate a lot of attention. Result: in six or seven visits, I don't think I've had a disappointing dish. His savoury sauces are deeply flavoured. The timing of his meat cooking is excllent - to be honest, I like his meat so much that I have rarely eaten fish. It is easy to under- or over-cook veal sweetbreads, but I find his version perfect. He also composes dishes which, while based on classical French cooking, have imaginative elaborations or unusual, but not wildly radical, garnishes. I first ate at Veritas very soon after it opened, and have been back four or five times. I know less about Scott Bryan's background as a chef. The Veritas menu is fairly short too. I wish I could compare examples side by side, but my impression is that the dishes are slightly simpler than at Fleur de Sel - and indeed, their role as context and background for great wine justifies that. I have had some very good meals there, and some meals which have mis-fired. I have had almost raw, runny foie gras. I have had some quite bland meat dishes which were eaten and forgotten in five minutes. Understand - I am not saying this is a bad restaurant. just slightly uneven. In summary, I am not too surprised that Veritas has one more star than Fleur de Sel - it presents itself as a much grander sort of place - but I think the distinction, on the basis of the food at least, is arguable. If I had to choose between the two as a restaurant to visit every week, I would choose Renaud's place without hesitation.

Maybe it's because I tried whipping it up to a frenzy last week, having muddled the dates. I'll be there. My current understanding is The Kettle of Fish on Christopher Street, around 7pm.

I did once open a couple of bottles of champagne which were more than ten years old, and they were flat as pancakes. But that's a different problem, I guess. Yours just tasted bad, but was still bubbly?

Well done, Stellabella. You are one up on me, and I envy you. I would also echo the question about where you managed to find this treat.

Another quick boost for this excellent little place in the Flatiron district. Small, pretty dining room in which Cyril Renaud serves French food which is elegant, but more robust and adventurous, than he used to cook at La Caravelle. We didn't have time for the long, tempting Winter Degustation menu. Need to go back for that. I didn't get anywhere near my partner's seared foie gras, served on an unusual puree of dried fruits perfumed with rosewater, or her pigeon. She, however, managed to get her fork into both my cold suckling pig terrine (the soft flesh only, suspended in a light jelly) and the sweetbread component of my veal plate. I love this dish: soft chunk of veal tenderloin, big piece of seared sweetbread, black truffle sauce, a few baby vegetables. The food bill for two was just over $100 (the foie gras pushed it up) - that was without dessert. There are moderately priced wines on the list (around $40), or you can get into expensive burgundies. I do like the 1996 Volnay 1er Cru, 'Les Taillepieds'. I haven't seen this place mentioned by anyone on egullet other than me: surely someone else has tried it?

No photos. No guns. I have a faint thumping in my head from last night's rehearsal, which involved the time-honoured combination of Sam Adams, champagne and burgundy, and an all-too-brief meeting with Tommy in a midtown dive, but I am ready to do my duty. By the way, here's a fascinating web-site which features a number of bars we should perhaps have considered: http://nycbp.com/

Oh, a restful weekend for Adam, while I am enjoined to host a dinner party every week. Have pity, Cabrales.

I looked for it under Beer, just out of pure free association really. I only wanted to check I wasn't repeating a discussion of Woodchuck, and apparently not. I love cloudy, appley ciders too - I like Normandy ciders, and I also like traditional West Country scrumpies despite their dazzling toxic properties. But then I like the light refreshing Woodchuck style for every day drinking. I have also been drinking Galician ciders which have a foot in both camps - light, gently effervescent, frothy even, yet a pungent room-full-of-apples air about them too.

Funny thing is, I know exactly where Tommy means. That fish restaurant in Waterloo. But I can't remember it's name either. Hold on, was it Livebait?

If I can be out of there by seven, then yes, damn you, a thousand times yes. I will try to send you one of those private message things.