TarteTatin

Come join those of us attending the Butter Tasting on November 1st! See that recent thread... You'll meet some egullet food lovers!

Yes, certainly great news. We bought two cheeses there today, and the bacon and raw milk. Can't wait to indulge!

I can't remember. Should it be listed as Viognier at all if the bottle says its only 10%? That bothers me.

We enjoyed our dinner there tonight. We were going to an early show (7:00) at Walnut St. Theatre, so got there about 5:30. The place is just beautiful. The bar that they brought back from France is stunning. We ran into one of the ex "furniture guys" dining, he is working for a shop in Northern Liberties that actually imported the bar. From 1919. Pretty little bistro. Didn't remember it was restaurant week. After looking at both the regular menu, and the restaurant week menu, we both ordered off the special prix fixe. Next time, we'll try the raclette, etc. He started with a Ricard, I had a red Kir. The amuse was a salmon mousse, just ok. The $30 prix fixe: Chevre Chaud en salade- I had this, it was goat cheese mix in a filo basket, a nice frisee salad with baby spinach (overdressed with too much raspberry vinegar). He had the Salade d'endive a la Fourme D'Ambert-Belgium (shouldn't it be Belgian?) endive salad with creamy french blue. A third choice we didn't have: Tarte aux champignons sauvages et au Morbier. Wish we brought the camera. Pretty presentations. Then: Both had: Roulade de poulet fermier a la truffe-potato crusted (really?) Giannone farm (where?) chicken roulade with asparagus and truffle sauce. (didn't taste an ion of truffle). Other choices: Saumon a l'oseille and Duo d'agneau et de poisson au jus d'ail. We each had one of the two desserts: Nougat glace et son coulis de framboise and Marquise au chocolat. (Both overdressed with too much raspberry sauce). The wine we chose, listed as Viognier for $39 (one of the most inexpensive on the menu), was actually only 10% Viognier, 60% Rousanne, and 30% what? I say Gamay, he says Marsanne. Anyway,it was from the Rhone, it wasn't great, and probably about $10 in the state store. Anyway. He really liked Zinc, was yearning for a good, local, French bistro. I thought it was okay. Needs more seasoning, more taste...the atmosphere was good, the feeling very neighborhood. The waiter was good, the waitress from Bulgaria nice... Overall, we enjoyed. I think we'll go back at a normal hour, when we order off of the regular menu.

COOL! We love Chef Todd, and Deuce is a block from our house. It won't be Mandoline, but... So sorry its closing.

Ever had vegan dim sum? Don't. Vegetarian friends brought us to this all you can eat place across the street from the Convention Center. Ugh. Don't have the dumplings there! The wrap around the dumplings doesn't have taste. And, the consistency is strange.

Wow. Ptipois' blog on butter is amazing! We also, would be interested to know the best butter. Usually, we buy what looks like the best, put it in the freezer for a few days, and then carry it back to the States in our luggage-wrapped in plastic, of course. By the time we get home in Philly, it's usually just become room temp. and we have French butter at home!

Finally stopped by and visited Katie last night. I had the St. Germain spritzer and he had the last of the Rhubarb cocktail. Yum. Katie is such the perfect mixologist. Great personality, cute, creative, has lots of FUN and passion with her job... There were two guys at the bar, turns out one was the beverage mgr. of a local restaurant. I think they were mighty impressed too! Thank you Katie!

Philadining: I just checked the menu given to us at the restaurant that night (not the one originally sent out by Slow Food). The dessert was not with the Beet Sorbet, it was a Raspberry Sorbet. I was actually disappointed that Chef changed that, I was looking forward to the Beet flavor. To CWdonald: The Maple syrup wasn't evident at all. I wish it was. It was a beautiful piece of pork, with a beautiful onion ring on it, but I would have liked some of the maple sauce taste. Maybe it was simply marinated in it? So, anyway, the Pinotage was my favorite of the three reds we had with that course. It was multi layered, and had a lot of subtle flavors. In general, I'm a separate wine/food type of person. I like to taste my wines. I like to taste my food. I prefer them separately, mainly...

"it's full of bitter cassia leaves, and fragrant kaffir lime leaves, and pieces of beef or pork which are basically unnecessary. it's pretty hot, and the heat is tempered by the sweetness of coconut milk and the bitter of the cassia, and overall it's just a pretty great dish. check it out if you're down there...but that cassia leaf curry... woo." This was a quote from mrbigjas, above. (I hope it comes through as a quote, since I haven't figured out how to use the quote stuff). How right you are! That curry dish was so very delicious, not too coconut creamy, just delicious with a million different flavors. You're right, the beef wasn't even a necessary ingredient. I didn't know what cassia leaves are, apparently they are related to cinnamon, but there is no cinnamon taste. It's kind of bitter, but delicious. We also had the Laos appetizer sampler, very good. A couple of people had hot and sour soup, one Laos and one Thai. Other entrees were forgotten by me, since my own was so tasty! We had two outrageous homemade ice creams for dessert. Mango, with pieces of mango in it, and a tea tree, I think. We also had a pastry, which I didn't like but everyone else did. It's a BYOB, none of us drink beer, so we had Prosecco and Riesling, which seemed to work just fine! Die, Die, must try!

We were there last week and split that same, wonderful soup. Outrageous! Sam had the beef sandwich, it was good. I "junk fooded" out and had wings. Very meaty wings, fresh tasting, not fried tasting. Not as spicy as when Peter Dunmire made them, and I think those of us that order wings - do like it spicy? As assumption, of course... Our waitress was going on about this scallop entree with a green tomato chutney (?), which we didn't order. A few minutes later, one of the other waitresses got it for staff meal. Our waitress stole one away from her, and put it on a plate and gave it to us to try! Well, you should have seen the face of the one who got her food pulled out from under her! I felt so bad! BUT, it was truly delicious. Super scallop, perfectly cooked, and the sauce/chutney, whatever it was-delicious! Mark Bee (the owner), and his lovely girlfriend, stopped us when we were leaving and spent about 15 minutes talking to us about the change. They were truly concerned/listening to our opinions, since Peter has such a following; that we liked the changes. Very sweet. (they know us from living in the neighborhood for 22 years). Oh, good wine on the list there! A Spanish wine-15% Chardonnay and 85% another grape. Merde. Can't remember, but it was really good! I think it was $25. I used to love Peter's frisee salad there. It was frisee and beets and maytag bleu... and not too much dressing. I'll miss that. Wonder if they have it back at N. 3rd.

Philadining, Diana, Dave F, please comment. We enjoyed ourselves. $50 plus $29 wine, the winemakers from South Africa were there. The food was plentiful and good. The wine was tasty. More comments?

Okay, so we read "Die, Die, must try" in Bourdain's, "Nasty Bits" book. Then we just read Calvin Trillin's Singapore article in the recent food issue of New Yorker magazine. He also mentions this "Die, Die, must try", which basically translates into, "To Die for" as far as trying the food... Is there any Singapore restaurant in Philly to experience this?

OOOOHHHHHHH! Bartendrix! Sam LOVES QUINCE! (we don't like manhatten's/bourbon/whiskey/rye/scotch). What else can we BEG you to make for us with Quince? Seriously, he makes a heck of a quince tart, maybe we'll have to trade? Hmmmm. Quince and brandy something? Quince and rum something? Quince vin chaud?

Epernay is really not far at all, I'd say a half hour? We've visited the Champagne region twice. Just a year or so ago, and about 20 years ago. Lots of places to go and visit, no problem with visits to Champagne house- and English. Even the small ones are good. Mesnil-sur-Ay - where Salon is, also has Pierre Peters, some of the best Champagne I've ever had. Mareuil-sur-Ay is where we stayed, at a Champagne house/also Gite-called Guy Charbaut. A bit like Fawlty Towers, but good. Lots and lots of restaurant recommends in the area. I know there are some threads listed...

Most useless item I can remember buying is the corn zipper. It made me very angry. Oh, my! I totally agree! That corn zipper was a useless wasted of time. I want to throw it away. A knife works so much better.

Gundlach-Bundschu. Incroyable.

WOW. We've been indulging in your incroyable cheeses for awhile now, from Bob Pierson's Winter Harvest. It's the best cheeses I've ever had (ok, maybe a few in France). But, they are just incredible. You invited us up too, and we hope to someday! Congratulations! Keep up the good work. Keep up the raw cheese with TASTE.

We had a dinner party tonight, and hubby made: Local (Pennsylvania) white peaches. Gorgeous. Sliced, served in a big red wine glass. Topped with a bit of sugar, white wine, and tarragon. We all swished it around in the glass a few times, and then dug in. Delicious. Topped it with a few local puffy blackberries.

We had a super time. Never ate out. Our friend that owned the three generation old -beach house in North Myrtle Beach loves to fish off the pier. She caught local pompano, bluefish, whiting. We dined on that and local shrimp and local blue crabs every night. Just wonderful. The wine selection wasn't super, the state store system... But the water was "swimmingly" so to speak!..., and the Kroger and Bi-Lo had decent produce. We also found sort of local cheese, made in Georgia.

About 2-3 years ago, Slow Food organized a walking food tour of all the Polish places in that neighborhood. We went to Czerws smokehouse and got a tour and free samples, went to a few bakeries, a supermarket with another talk, had a huge take out lunch in a park. It was all organized, with a map, etc. Lots of fun, and totally free, except for what you bought. Lunch was something like $5 for a huge amount. I've tried to talk Hansjakob into doing it again. Maybe if more people told him we wanted it? It was a blast.

Hi, we're headed to Myrtle Beach on Wed night. Foodie friends have an old beach house there. They probably know places, however: Any place we should: eat out? buy good, local foods? buy good wine? buy stuff for the house for 4 days? Thank you!

Please excuse our ignorance with this question: We're headed to Myrtle Beach on Wed night. Is this the correct thread to ask about restaurant/food store/wine shop/crab buying-- recommendations there? I thought the Outer Banks included Myrtle Beach? If not, can someone help with which thread to look at... Thanks!

Four of us on Tuesday night. Cary Neff didn't know who we were, but we smiled, and came over to talk to us, thinking he knew us...a nice goodbye as we left as well. His wife and 11 week old baby and his wife and other relatives were there eating as well. Two of us had frisee salads. OK. A bit soggy. Then there were these huge sardines, an insipid onion soup, a good looking beet salad. I had 6 british columbia oysters that were ok, and 6 small clams, one was bad and the rest not great...one person had monkfish piperade, ok. Another had steak frites. Slices (I hate when they slice it and you only get 4-5 slices, seems so small and not a steak). The frites were double fried, pretty good. The best dish of the night was the classic roasted chicken. Good taste, good portion, good price. Classic for a bistro. Desserts were okay. My lavender and basil ice cream tasted the same, but pretty good. Choc and Raspberry Napolean very sweet, American tasting. Baba Au Rhum advertised with rhum raisin ice cream, came with rum raisin cream and wasn't saturated with enough rum. Creme brulee was just ok. Bread is baked there, there was a corn bread thingy that was ok, and a liver pate and flavored butter to go with it .... They opened our wine ok. $100 per couple, brought our own wine. We had a super time with our friends, the place was very french brasserie like, but that made it. The food was incidental.

NOOOO! Katie, don't go! You're GREAT! (I miss you already)