Wilfrid

Sorry, I think my post was irrelevant if you're driving.

Yes, it was the pre-dessert. I don't know what happened, but my Beloved and I both tasted it and shrugged. No flavor. Didn't detract from the overall very good experience, though.

Best dinner I've had yet at Blue Hill on Saturday night. Peppery shot of corn soup. A tiny daub of warm goat cheese on a little tuile. Buttery salmon belly accompanied by a powerful tomato and basil terrine and an intricate white tomato jelly (like a stiff foam), topped with what seemed to be a disk of pureed yellow tomato. Very big flavors. Filet of Brook trout, stuffed with frsh herbs, on a tomato broth. Lamb chop with intensely flavored lamb canneloni. Only disappointing note was a dessert of sliced peach with a peach granite, which had no strong taste. But then a great little warm chocolate cake. Nice service. Strength to strength. And all while answering questions on eGullet with the other hand.

As I've said before, I crossed The Four Seasons off my list after a very disappointing and expensive dinner about three years ago. Reading about it in the Wine Spectator earlier this year, I saw that there has been scarcely a change in the senior staff there in decades, and that may not be a good thing. Non-trendy old style haute cuisine makes me think of the French warhorses - La Caravelle, La Cote Basque or Le Grenouille. But, if you can stand a few modernist touches in the decor, you might do best at Le Cirque.

Steve, I was answering this question of yours from July 30th, not something from months ago. This thread has been about how and why French cuisine became so successful outside its borders, and I've seen no evidence that this had anything to do with what "commoners" were eating. If you want to discuss everyday British food in the period before the First World War, that would indeed make an interesting thread. Do you want to kick off? And have you got it straight about the French aristocracy now?

Nobody got the balut? I'm disappointed.

Steve is an interesting phenomenon; an intelligent chap who seems incapable of learning new things.* Quite briefly, as it's about the twentieth time: the French aristocracy was not wiped out by the revolution. The monarchy was restored after Napoleon's reign, and France was ruled by a king or emperor right through to about 1870. If you open any page of Proust, you will meet a galaxy of wealthy nobles, and Proust was writing about French society around the turn of the (19th/20th) century. Rebecca Sprang's excellent book explains that the revolution was not an immediate spur to the development of the restaurant. The years after 1789 were characterized by austerity, and a hostility to conspicuous consumption, persisting through to the "Declaration of Pleasure" under Napoleon in 1799. And the evidence I have adduced previously on this thread suggests that the state of France after the Napoleonic wars sent very large numbers of French chefs scurrying abroad, and particularly to England, to practice their craft. Steve's opinion remains, thus, steeped in historical hogwash. And, as should be obvious, the discussion of the wars was a response to Steve's question about what happened to British cooking in the twentieth century - that, Steve, is what you asked about. Oraklet, I don't pretend to be on top of all this economic history. My understanding was that the French peasantry and urban lower classes were in desperate straits through the 1780s, leading ultimately to the revolution, and that further periods of mass poverty followed the Napoleonic wars. Contemporary artists always depict the French and scrawny and starving, the British as healthy and well-fed - but doubtless I am thinking of British artists. Industrialization in Britain happened a little later, right? *Ad hominem. Bite me .

Chopped and sprinkled over fresh peas.

Heat a glass of calvados in a microwave, then pour it into a very hot pan, justg to be really sure it catches fire. It really surely did.

Since we've had a number of very long threads on this issue, I think I'll start a poll on where people get their restaurant recommendations - because, although the discussion is interesting, I am not sure reading restaurant critics has much effect on my dining habits, let alone whether their anonymous or not. To be honest, I couldn't generally tell you whether they are purportedly "anonymous". Grimes is, is he? I emphasize "purportedly". I remember Reichl was. What about Asimov and Moira Hodgson. Am I unusual, because I just don't know?

Edit: No, you got me good. I withdraw my response.

They are tricky to re-heat too. The simple thing I do, if I do need to hold them for a while, is to whip in a bit of butter or cream (or oil, of course, if it'solive oil mash) to cheer them up before serving. The advantage of fries in such situations is that they lend themselves so perfectly to getting their second dip in the oil just before being plated.

I guess I'm just being dim, as usual, but I can't see where anonymity stands in the way of either going to a restaurant ten times or asking the kitchen to cook a special, off menu meal for you. I have done both those things, and my name isn't Ruth Reichl. I agree, anonymity is almost impossible to preserve, and I'm not convinced it adds much. I just don't see how it detracts in the ways specified.

Serendipitously, I just stumbled over a bunch of menus for state banquets hosted by Queen Victoria in 1841. You know how you do. Every single item on every single menu was utterly French. Not only written in French, I mean, but actually French dishes. So we can be confident that French was the choice of the British court by the beginning of the 1840s, at least. This was in a book by Charles Oliver, who had been on the domestic staff at the palace, and whose father had atcually served Victoria. Oliver deals with the French influx in the early ninteenth century in brief and unequivocal terms. French chefs, left with poor employment opportunities after the Napoleonic wars, moved to Britain. Careme was the great pathfinder. Fair enough, although I don't know exactly how it sits with the increasing popularity of restaurants in France, which I assumed continued through the Napoleonic period and after. Maybe there was a slow down. Ah, give me more data...

How frequently do restaurants have secret meals which they only serve to those in the know? I don't count asking a restaurant to surprise you with a tasting menu - no secret that many restaurants will do that.

I shouldn't my cafetiere (or moka pot?) on the heat without water. But I will do it again, I know I will...

I will try the pepper test. Fat Bloke, I well remember your article about making stock. What daunts me is that I'll need to go through the process quite a number of times before I start making it well enough for the process to be justified. I should have taken it up when the baby was new, and I needed night-time activities. I did once prepare a pot au feu overnight when baby was teething. Of course, if you live in an apartment, you have to be happy to be steamed gently in the fumes all night.

Any amateurs out there really prepare everything first? I am always doing 2. But I have lots of cute little bowls and dishes and ramekins for it.

Well, I certainly wonder from time to time how many palates can really make some of the distinctions we like to discuss. Let me just talk about myself - I remember various occasions on eGullet where I have confessed to using one ingredient or other, someone has thrown up their virtual hands in horror and insisted I use something else, but I really don't think I'd be able to tell the difference. I am all for educating my palate, but I'd like to avoid pretending I can detect differences where I really can't. I know there have been many examples of this, but the only one I can think of right now was a discussion about using ready-ground or fresh ground black pepper. I can appreciate the distinction intellectually, but I have my doubts about detecting it in a blind tasting. Steven made an excellent point about the decisions we each need to make about how much time to spend on particular activities. This is what leads me to prepare veal stock from a ready made demi-glace concentrate. Certain fine-becs here have described such a concoction as "bovrilly", but I just don't see the space in my life for stock making.

The language question is hard to answer without the accents, but here goes: "saute" (with an acute accent over the "e") is the correct French adjective, derived from the verb "sauter" (to jump = because to saute is really to toss things in a pan, not to shallow fry them as we now use the term). Anglo-American devised an adjective "sauteed" (acute accent over the first "e"), and now the habit has developed of dropping the "d" but leaving the extra unnecessary "e". That's how I read it, but I am happy, as always, to be corrected. "Omelet" is ugly. Where does it come from. Never seen in the UK, is it an American spelling? (If so, it might be archaic English). "Omelette", please. And the frittata - I usually make small individual fritatta, rather than filling a whole pan with a bunch of eggs. Might I recommend frittata with pecorino (or a simialr hard cheese). Cut a thin slice of pecorino, and fry it in a little oil until it just starts to soften (you dont' want it gluey), then pour your egg over and season. Flip it when ready. Very tasty snack.

Yep.

I hear you, but I sometimes think butter and cream have become so unfashionable that a lot of people are easily taken in. I confess to using them if I want to spark up a dish which is a little flat.

And if it was my day job, I'd happily pay the sweat fee too. As it is, I expend the sweat on other stuff. No choice.

I thought everyone might be interested to read the CitySearch listing for Shopsin, right here. If you click on the read more reviews link, you can see what people thought. And you can add your own review, anonymously if you like, and you don't even need to have eaten there. Now, at the risk of sounding American, can we all get real?

Truffle oil, certainly, if that's cheating. Frozen pastry if I can get it. One I've admitted before - I prepare veal stocks using concentrated demi-glace. And sometimes ready-mixed spices, spice rubs and so on. I have lots of virtues, I should add - no bottled salad dressings, all freshly cooked veg, no pre-wrapped cheese, and so on...