wc4572

Cure is unfortunately closed

Where are they staying? Do they have a car or are they willing to Uber? Without any of that: Breakfast DeLuca's, Pamela's or Cafe Raymond in the Strip District. I'd pick Cafe Raymond over the other 2 Dorstop diner in Dormont Jean Marc Chatellier French Bakery in Millvale Lunch DiAnoia's Piccolo Forno Gaucho Federal Gallery Dinner Any of the lunch places Morcilla Apteka Butcher and Rye I can give more specific recommendations or feel free to ask more specific questions

Anyone know where I can get orgeat syrup in the Pittsburgh area? Everything else I read says the liquor store, which means most people are not talking PA. I didn't find it in my liquor store. Thanks

Thanks for the thoughts. Vegetable soup in the States tends to be cubes of carrot, potato, and celery, with maybe some green beans, corn and peas in a beef broth. I wanted to make this for them the next time they came over for dinner. I'll grab a what you mentioned and then maybe a potato, turnips or parsnips. If there are things I shouldn't put together, please let me know.

My friends vacationed Ireland and Scotland for 2 weeks and came back raving of a vegetable soup that they ate a lot of. They described as a thick puree that ranged from a yellowish to tan. I'm guessing it's something like turnips, parsnips, leeks, potatoes, or something similar. Anyone have any idea on a recipe?

I've made a lime sorbet, vanilla ice cream (eggless), and vanilla frozen yogurt. All were great from the machine, but were rocks when I took them out. My frozen yogurt sat in the fridge for 30 minutes and in my bowl for 30 minutes and I still had to scrape at the chunk. After reading this thread (and a few others), I'm thinking I need some sort of stabilizer, but I don't know what to do. I've seen eggyolks, cornstarch, gelatin, dry milk powder, xanthan gum, etc. My question then, is there anything I can do to get a more scoopable texture after 24 hours in the freezer? If anyone needs more info on the recipes I used, please let me know. Thanks.

My wife and I were in town to celebrate our anniversary and my birthday, so I chose to do the tasting menu at Le Bernardin. Having never been to a restaurant as nice as this, we weren't sure what to expect and felt a bit out of place as we were the youngest in the room. Our waiter was slightly pushy and rude when we did not get the wine pairing, but was nice enough to substitute a crab dish for the octopus for my wife. The other servers we had were all great. I suppose this was a minor quibble as I found a hair on my salmon before I started eating and there was a scale on my black bass. Usually I wouldn't care about either of these, but for the money we were spending, I wasn't particularly happy with my experience. The salmon was replaced, although again, I thought the waiter was rude about it. I was already nervous from his attitude, so I did not mention the scale. We were given two extra desserts, a passionfruit mousse and pot du creme (I think) served in an organic egg shell. Chef Ripert was present because he came out to talk to two different tables. I don't know if I came on a bad night (a Tuesday) or bad time (5:30 pm), but it was not the best experience for a 3 star place.

I suppose I'm most interested in mixing at first until I gain an appreciation for rum. Although getting an education is a good idea. I need to find a decent bar to try a few different types without the cost of buying three bottles.

In the spirit of this thread, I'm reaching out to the rum experts. I have a bottle of Cruzan Aged Rum and probably a bottle of Bacardi white rum (or silver - I forget how it's marked). I know very little about rum and I have a gift card to Wine and Spirits (I'm in PA). The current sale is rum heavy, so I was looking for advice. Appleton Estate VX - $16.99 Mount Gay Eclipse Barbados Rum - $13.99 Mount Gay Extra Old Rum - $39.99 Pyrat XO Reserve - $24.99 Rhum Barbancourt Special Reserve 8 Yr Old Haiti - $19.99 Ron Zacapa Centenario 23 Year Old - $39.99 These are just the ones on sale. There is more to choose from. $40 is definitely my limit for a bottle of rum. I'd like to stay under that, so I'll take any recommendations. Thanks

Don't remember reading about DRY Soda anywhere, so: 1 1/2 oz Hendricks 1/4 - 1/2 oz St. Germain 2 drops violet liquor top with DRY Lavender Soda Basically a gin and tonic variation, but pretty good none the less. I also tried this and a few other variations with DRY cucumber soda. I think I just don't like the cucumber.

As far as chocolate flavored spirits, I've only had Godiva chocolate. It's lasted me quite a long time (years), but my question is do I really need to spend $30 on a bottle? I couldn't bring myself to have two bottles of chocolate alcohol, so I figured I'd ask here first. Thanks for the help.

Any PA folks know if I can get any maraschino? I tried a search on the new website (tried luxardo and maraschino) and can't find anything. Any other names or brands I can search for? I really appreciate all the ideas!

I tried the ATTY from eje in the "Stomping..." thread. I used: 3/4 oz vermouth 1 1/2 oz gin (Beefeater 24) 1/2 teaspoon absinthe (Lucid) 1/2 teaspoon violette liquor I made sure to not skip the lemon peel garnish. At first, I was unimpressed, but the drink stays with me as people have mentioned. I think need to up the violette a bit or maybe decrease the vermouth. I've never had an aviation and I don't have maraschino. Is it worth buying?

So I brought a few tiny bottles back from France and have no idea what to do with them. I haven't even opened them yet, so I can't give a description, but here are some pictures. Any thoughts on recipes? Questions? Rose Orange Violette

I don't think Pittsburgh is represented enough here, so I figured I'd share my recent experience at Nine on Nine. My wife and I got the tasting menu - 8 courses, $72. The portions of some things were spot on, others too big. We were given what I considered extremely tough duck, which was replaced with the a braised lamb dish with escarole and white beans. The service was great, not intrusive nor cold/formal. Oysters with yuzu sorbet. The sorbet was a little sweet for me. Filet carpacio with rosemary aioli on left and tartare (mustard, capers) on right. Both good, but the aioli made the carpacio even better. Cauliflower soup with capers (appearance #2), almonds and raisins. I thought everything went well together because I was a bit aprehensive with the description. The portion was a bit big. Wild mushroom and truffle risotto. Two generous shavings of black truffle with smaller shavings mixed in. Well done. Skate wing with beans, potatoes, capers (appearance #3), pine nuts, frisee. I've never had skate before, so I was excited to try it. I can't comment on the cooking as I don't know what it's supposed to be like, but the texture was very soft. The frisee was way too salty. I thought my first piece was an oversight, but the second was just as bad. My wife could not eat hers. Lemon and sambuca sorbet with kiwi puree. Not too much sambuca, so it was very refreshing. Duck, mascarpone grits, brussels sprouts, carrots. As mentioned above, extremely tough. Neither my wife nor I could eat it and I've never sent anything back in my life (I'm only 27 though). Server was gracious. Kitchen said it's Labelle Farm and they are gamier and possibly tougher. When the servers brought out a comped lamb dish, she said the kitchen apologized and said it was undercooked as well. Braised lamb with escarole and white beans. At this point, we didn't really need more food, but the kitchen did not want us to be disappointed after the duck. This was meltingly tender, but was lacking something to make it pop. Banana, peanut butter, chocolate. Caramelized banana, dehydrated ganache, ganache ribbon, peanut butter. My wife and I had this before, but it's still just as good. A good way to end a meal. Overall, not my best experience here. I've been here in the past and had better experiences both times.

Any recs for lunch this Saturday? I can't really make a reservation because I'm not sure how long I'll be busy. I'm hoping for no later than 12:30. Looking for something nice and close to midtown. Considering Le Bernardin, Jean Georges, and Masa. I'm also considering EMP, Momofuku Noodle Bar, and Bouley, which are further away. I'd love Le Bernardin, but EMP and JG seem like the best deals. I'm open to all suggestions and opinions on places I have listed. Also, I may not have done my research as well as I should have, so please let me know if one of those is not open for lunch. Thanks in advance

My fiance and I are starting to plan a bit more formally for our honeymoon in mid-Jun. We are booked at the Pullman Paris Rive Gauche (15e). We'll be in Paris for 7 nights, so I'm looking for places to eat. Boulangeries, fromageries, caviste near the hotel would be great, but I'm up for just about anything, from the cheap to 125 € (Euro) per person. My French is pretty much non-existent, but I'll try my best. If I need to provide more details, please ask or send me a message. Thanks in advance. I've read about Jadis and checked the Michelin guide for places nearby (found quite a few in 16e). And L'Os a Moelle seems close, if anyone knows it. Thanks again

My fiance and I are planning to have a small, informal wedding ceremony in Central Park. We're coming with around 39 total people (two of us included) and we were looking for an informal place for a post-wedding dinner. I've read some past threads on private rooms and large groups, which gave me some good ideas. She however, did not like suggestions of Chinatown (and Congee Village). We were hoping to keep things under $50 per person, which I am finding to be a difficult task seeing as how we're both from Pittsburgh and we've never investigated dinner for more than 2 in NYC. I was hoping someone here could give some ideas. I'll be happy to check websites/make phone calls to anywhere anyone thinks might be an option. Thanks in advance for the help. If I need to be more specific, please let me know. A few last details: June 12, 2010 She loves Italian, tapas, mexican Thanks again

I appreciate all the posts and I'm sorry I wasn't really able to join in the discussion as I was in the city and didn't get back to Pittsburgh until 10:30 pm last night. My girlfriend and I were going to Little Italy for the touristy stuff. I'm trying to bring her into the foodie stuff, but dinner at wd50 and drinks at Death and Co were plenty for her for the trip. In any case, we ended up eating at La Mela. I have no idea where I was, but we got to eat outside, the street was closed to cars and it was a beautiful day (and there was a tv on inside with US v Brazil, so I caught some of the first half). Plus I was pretty full from all the snacks in Chinatown that I all I got was a caprese salad. It was fine. Her gnocchi was also fine. She thoroughly enjoyed her LI experience and appreciated the heads up on the food being average so I ate other stuff during the day.

So it's looking like reservations are not needed, although Daisy17 said "go early or late". Can someone define that in NYC terms, because I'm sure "early and late" would mean different things in Pittsburgh. Second, is there a dress code or things to wear to not look out of place (I'll be in town this weekend)? Thanks

Fair enough. I'll look up those places and try to convince her. Any other reason to explore Little Italy?

Taking my girlfriend to NYC for her first time. She wants to eat in Little Italy and I don't know where to go. I tried a search, but was struggling to find a dedicated post. If there is a current one, I'd be happy to read up. Thanks for the help.

I don't know that this spirit would work in this drink, but a place (Dvine Wine Bar, Wexford, PA) near my house has this drink: Great Pumpkin Bailey’s Irish Cream, Kahlua Coffee Liquor, Goldschlager, graham cracker crust rim Decent flavor, although I'm pretty sure they attached the graham cracker crust with lemon juice or something else that made the rim sour.

A little help needed from any other Pittsburgh folks or anyone that has been to an Ethiopian restaurant. I can't find anyone that has been there and I've never experienced Ethiopian. I'm really looking for a reliable review of the place, but I'll take any input on Ethiopian food. Thinks I must try, things to avoid, similarities to other foods, etc. Thanks.

I'll agree that the Strip District one would be my first rec. Second would be a tie between Market Square and South Side. The Market Square location is within walking distance to Heinz Field and PNC Park (although a bit closer to PNC). The South Side one is one of my favorites and the Station Square (no more than 2 miles from Primantis) usually offers cheaper parking a ferry for Steelers games. I don't know if pre-season counts though.