CDRFloppingham

The upstairs fine dining element of RM Seafood is no more (thanks recession). No thanks to Open Table (assholes who didn't let me know), the upstairs closed on February 3. We ate downstairs and were not impressed. L'atelier was great. Chef Robuchon was there and schmoozing, even with the people of the L'atelier side. The meal was great. We had the Decouverte 1. Amuse buche - foie gras parfait (AWESOME) 2. Smoked salmon en gelee 3. Poached oysters 4. Lobster "Americaine" 5. Foie gras ravioli (AWESOME) 6. Dover sole (slightly rubbery to our palates) 7. Choice of quail or hanger steak 8. Pineapple infused cheesecake 9. Coffee dessert Although my fiance thought Chef R looked scary (he looks like he did in ICJ, only grayer and balder), he was very charming although they claimed he spoke next to no English. We spoke with him in broken French, broken Japanese, and broken English. An awesome night. The only meals I've had that was close were Chez Panisse circa 1987 and minibar.

On Valentine's Day, we ate the 7-course tasting menu at Cafe Atlantico, one of the Jose Andres restaurants and home of the minibar. They mixed a little of the minibar MG stuff with normal Cafe Atlantico nuevo latino cooking. The main course was a deconstructed Cuban stew. Very interesting dish. Here's how I recreated it and we ate it last night. It was served in a large bowl and consisted of a piece of braised beef in the center. I think the cut was short rib although it had been boned and the extra fat and periosteum was excised. That was easy enough to recreate. Some broth was poured in the bowl at the time of service. Around the perimeter of the bowl were 1. Toasted corn kernels - easy peasy 2. Brunoise yuca (I substituted Yukon Golds) 3. Brunoise squash - easy peasy 4. Corn foam. I half-assedly recreated this by cooking frozen corn with a little potato in heavy cream, pureeing, then putting through a chinois. It lacked the aeration of the foam that, I suspect, was put through an ISI whipper but the taste was darned good. 5. Spherified sun-dried tomato. I was running out of time so I finely chopped some sun-dried tomato and seasoned it a little. This was the furthest (and most inferior) imitation of Chef Andres' dish. 6. Salsa air This was undoubtedly some salsa that had been juiced, mixed with soy lecithin, then blitzed. It was nice. I took some onion, tomato, cilantro, red chile flakes, cumin, lime juice, and salt and pureed it. I then put it through a chinoise. I just served the juice in shot glasses. Man, that was good. Has anyone ever made salsa juice? Sorry, no pics but that was dinner last night.

Thanks all for the suggestions: I'm going with: Pepper soup Cream cheese/tomato jam on whole wheat Egg salad +/- bacon on white toast Grilled cheese Boursin/cucumber on whole wheat

I think we'll be having another couple over for board games this week. Having recollected the Top Chef poker players episode, I'm thinking about finger food. There are some dietary restrictions (kinda veggie with some liberality). I'm thinking about soup and a variety of sammies. Any suggestions for vegetarian finger sandwiches? TIA

This is something that I have asked myself many times. If you have a repertoire of good recipes that everyone loves and you can make consistently, are you a good cook? Or, do you have to be able to create new, delicious dishes? What about technique? Do you have to be a great baker as well as cook? What about improvisation? I used to really appreciate how my mom can take odds and ends out of the fridge and make something really tasty. In the end, I think a good cook can be any of these things but the more skills you have, the higher you rise in my estimation.

Sounds like a great tip; I've got a spaetzle maker. My last batch was an abject failure (after successfully making them 5 or 6 times) so I've been shying away.

I've heard this argument before and I would tend to agree that this is true for many overweight people who have been overweight for a substantial period of time. All of these things are situational; what might not work for someone who is chronically very overweight could work for me. Personally, I'm about 15 pounds heavier than my lean muscley self when I was in college and I'm 2 inches bigger in the waist (32 from 30 inches). So, I would argue that I could successfully "diet" meaning that I modify my eating/exercise significantly for a relatively short period of time although I would have to make some longer-term, small magnitude changes to maintain the weight. I have a sense of what will be successful for myself and I think that eating less fat, sugar, and calories (coupled with exercise) for a relatively short period of time will benefit me sufficiently. What I was looking for was one-stop shopping for recipe ideas that would result in my eating fewer calories. I thought that was clear enough in my OP; maybe it was not.

Are any of the Moosewood cookbooks for omnivores? I'm overweight but not enough so to give up delicious meat. ← That's not really a problem. Just use the Moosewood cookbooks for side dishes, and you can use other sources for meat. As I suggested earlier (but it seems my suggestion was missed), the Weight Watchers cookbooks by the Culinary Institute of America would probably be good options for you. Link if you don't want to take the time to find it on your own. ← Thanks Rona. I did note your suggestion and will check them out.

Are any of the Moosewood cookbooks for omnivores? I'm overweight but not enough so to give up delicious meat.

This sounds like sound advice. I was hoping that one of you would be able to recommend one that has a good number of low cal recipes in one book but it looks like not.

My fiance and I are too fat. Can any of you recommend a non-fad (low carb or whatever) cookbook?

Williams-Sonoma was the only source for high quality, non-perishable ingredients (balsamic vinegar, EVOO) Nouvelle Cuisine was new Alice Waters had a joint in Bezerkeley David Rosengarten had a great show on TVFN

Thanks Russell. After much perseveration, I decided to go with RM Seafood and L'atelier for our two dinners, mainly based on David Ross' judgments about overall value and other rave reviews.

Vegas (or Vegas savvy) eGulleters, I've been trying like heck to figure out how much Alex or Daniel Boulud at the Wynn are likely to cost out the door. The online menus don't state the price. Can anyone help?

I'm planning a trip to Vegas and I'm considering some starred places. I know, I know that I can estimate the cost by looking at the apps/entrees/desserts and adding a decent percentage. However, for those of you who have been recently, I think it would be nice to know how much it really costs out the door (~20% tip). I'll start (we live in the DC metro) - for two, usually with wine flights or a cocktail and 1-2 glasses of medium-low end wine. For the high-end places, we usually get the tasting menu Komi - $360-400 CitiZen - $400 Minibar - $360 Citronelle - $400 Restaurant Eve - $420 Palena - (front) - $150 (4 starters + drinks = enough for 2) Central - $175 Topolobambo (we were in Chicago recently) - $150

Hi eGulleters and Happy New Year. Last fall, we had a great smoked duck at NOLA. It was intensely smoky and very succulent which implied to me that it had been smoked for many hours at a very low temp or perhaps smoked, then finished with a moist cooking method. I've been wanting to try to reproduce the dish but I didn't have a smoker. Well, we got a stovetop smoker for Christmas. I'm thinking about seasoning and smoking for maybe an hour followed by steaming it. Depending on how it looks after that, it might need some roasting. What do y'all think?

Lemon-scented mascarpone-stuffed dates Butternut squash soup Spaghetti Bolognese Fennel Salad Crabcakes Panna cotta with orange supremes and orange-ginger reduction

What difference does it make that it's a doctor's office party? Would you think about it differently if it were dentists, lawyers, or stockbrokers? Good food is good food.

Uhhhh. Perhaps a dumb question but, given the title of "The best way to cook a steak," yet seeing that the steak must be at least 1 1/2 inches thick, was Prime, dry-aged Lobels, etc. can you really support this claim? If this will not work will with 90% of the steaks in the US, how is it the "best" way to cook a steak? I think the best way is a quick sear followed by a short trip in a hot oven. This works for every steak (if it's a really cheap, supermarket steak, you just skip the trip in the oven).

Thanks all. Great ideas. I really need the salad to be very light so I'm thinking about peeled and cubed honeycrisps, d'anjou pears, and asian pears with craisins and walnuts. I'd dress with an orange-ginger reduction.

eGulleters, I'm planning a brunch for next Sunday. I need a light fruit course between bigger dishes. To me, fall fruits are apples and pomegrenates...not particularly well suited to a simple but elegant fruit salad (I don't just want to cube some apples). Any ideas for components and presentation? Thanks so much. Floppy

Well, whatever the reason for the past reputation, you're indisputably correct now, Maggie, as witnessed by the many fine UK restaurants that have taken up permanent residence on the various lists of World's Top 50 Restaurants. ← Should we base the "quality" of a cuisine overall on its best restaurants? Or, if the cuisine is all that good, shouldn't one be able to eat a good to transcendent meal at any resturant? I will argue that in France, with a very few exceptions, you can find good food without having to look hard. I will similarly argue that in England, you are not likely to get good food (at least as defined by me) without expending some effort and research. France 1 England 0

I've spent about 3 weeks in the UK over the past 7 years or so. All of my eating has been out. Most of the restaurants were not the result of extensive searching but were catch as catch can or the result of recommendations from locals. I did research a few. I found the Indian food to be delicious. We also found a couple of decent Italian places. I found the English food to be dreadful...exactly as one would imagine by the stereotype. I did not eat at Fergus Henderson's or Gordon Ramsey's restaurants, maybe that would have changed my mind. However, one could argue that only frequenting the highest end, best regarded restos is not reflective of a cuisine. By comparison, it seems that you can get a decent to great meal at any joint you walk into in France.

Bread? Three dollars!!!

Did you see the one where they fried the burgers in old grease from 1912? It didn't look like they got browning on those and they did look super greasy.