DRColby

We are just back from 3 weeks in Paris and just want to pass along that Les Magnolias in Le Perreux-sur Marne is far and wide our choice as the best thing going in the Paris area. Not only ours but also our NY friends who are spending a month and half dining in Paris. Incrediable food, great people, and great prices. This is the second year we visited Jean Chauvel's resturant and found it to be the same unforgettable experience. dave

Perhaps it's the raw egg, not the ground beef, Bad beef is pretty easy to tell, bad eggs aren't. dave

My wife and I experienced the same thing five or six years ago after having steak tartare at a resturant next to the Ritz. Both got sick withing minutes of each other and shortly after leaving the place. We were sick - and we felt like close to death - for four days after and haven't had steak tartare since. dave

"There is also a Bai Tong II at the Red Lion Inn. I asked the waiter about it, and he said the manager of of the original Bai Tong has opened a location there. It is not recommended to be as good though." How does this happen so often with Thai resturants? There is another good one south on highway 99 in Federal Way called Indochine. The original is small, has a french Pastry bakery and has very good food. The young man who owns - or runs - it came to Federal Way via Lyon and apprenticing in France. There is a second IndoChine right across the parking lot in a former Korean resturant, much bigger and (in my opinion) nowhere near as goof. My guy says, "Oh, that's my uncle." His, the origina, l is now "Cafe Indochine." dave

I went to school in Columbus in the early '60s. Before there was Big Boy's and Jerry's there was White Castle, and a place called "2 'fers" where you got two "hamburgers" for something like 18 cents. Of course the secret to the 'burher baddle was thinning the meat with onions and oatmeal. Don't think my stomach could take that diet now, but then it was a great budget meal for college students. Remember, when it comes to fast-food: "if it don't play in Columbus it won't play anywhere." dave

There a Thai resturant just north of the airport in an old A&W building, it is on a corner (about 148th) on the west side and is quite good. Rumor has it that this was a resturant started by Thai Airways in a motel across the street to fed its flight crews back in the '70s. If you want to travel further there is a good dim sum/fish resturant in the Great Wall shopping center at East Valley and about 180th. In des Moines and often over looked place is Wally's Fish and Chips which is priced reasonanly and has great fried fat (French fries and cod) and does a good job on salmon. dave

I have a loveage plant in the backyard and have found it is an easy way to add a celery taste to things like pesto for fish stews. Doesn't take much, though, as it is very strong. The portions I use compared to the size of the plant is in infinitesimal. Anyone have another good uses for loveage? dave

Once upon a time, long ago and far away in the place the Republican Party started, there was a wonderful butcher who made the greatest brats I have ever had. Oh woe, he got bigger and bigger! First contracts with Micky D's for hamburger patties, then jam to Smuckers. Quite obviously: he sold out; it's now a Smuckers or Swiss Colony or Harry's David or something big and corprate. No more brats. But on a recent trip to Dairyland we bought the last box the butcher made , they were burried back in a freezer. Brought them back to the great PNW, put them in a foil container and on the grill (you want foil because you'll never get it clean again) with a can or so of beer and some nice Walla Walla sweets. Cook and cook and cook some more until the brats are bathing in a thick syrup with the sliced onions. Take the brats out, put them on the grill to finish until they mark and pop, then load the bun with the some of the onions. Top and then the best grainy mustard you can find. Hope you saved a good bottle of beer (not cooking beer) to go with it. Heaven !!! Now it's Johsonville from Costco across this great land - from here to Ripon, Wisconsin - so sad dave

Finnished and enjoyed "The Apprentice" and am about half way through "From Here, You Can't See Paris" by Michael Sanders. Very enjoyable and a great commentary on values and the simpler things in life, especially food. Also had to find time today to insure we have an apartment reservation in Paris for this Fall. dave

It's pretty tough to beat eating Italian food on the patio at the Pink Door in the Market during the Summer. dave colby

Haven't visited the markets near the airport, have stopped at Valley Harvest on East Hill (still think of Pay 'n Save when I go in) and another huge Russian market in Renton back of the Fred Meyer. Wouldn't it be neat to set aside a day some weekend and share all the hidden "finds" as a group? Maybe share some recipes and do some sampling along the way? last fall my wife and I took an evening cooking class at Seattle Central from a women who authored a book listing many of the Sound speciality markets. It's out-dated now but still a pretty good resource. dave

Was headed to the Southcenter Costco today when I passed a sign"International Food Bazaar" at 1226 Andover Park East. Couldn't resist tempation and stopped. Man! What a warehouse full of spices and specialities for Middle East and India. The place is huge and full of things I doubt you will find elsewhere unless you are in India or the Middle East. Halal meats, all kinds of hard to find grains, row up on row of curries.... It is about twice as big as PFI and I believe it is wholesale as well as retail. Prices look great. Should be well-worth a trip if your into this kind of cooking. dave

About the same way: trim up, little lemon, garlic and olive oil on top, bay leaf in the water, steam 20 minutes and then dip in lemony butter. dave

Please correct me if I am wrong - or at least comment. As of now I am "in love" with a Dacor 30" gas slid in range with convection electric over at about two grand. Pros and cons? I have a microwave over my electric stove and if I put a hood in would have to give up the micro wave as counter space is short. Besides I burn enough without all those extra BTUs of a near-commerical range. dave

Just finished some sauted seabass, caught today, some balsmai rice cooked with fennel and mustad seeds, a little onion, and some paprika and an artichoke just picked out of the yard. dave

Hey Jim, Yours might be bigger, but I'll bet mine are more expensive..... Spent the whole day today screwing around in the Cascades - and about $25 on gas - for 8 small morels. Oh well, hope springs eternal. It sleeted, snowed and rained a little bit, maybe better morel days are ahead. It still seems early at some of the elevations. Fortunately my wife is out of town so I don't have to share my "find" (or tell her how much they cost). dave

Morels that size are great stuffed with cooked forcemeat and then sauteed. I've been finding smaller ones, hopefully more today. Tonight I am hoping to integrate some with mashed potatoes sothered wth a wicked gravy made from last night's left-over drippings from ameatloaf experiment. Might try a slice of the meatloaf to, along with a couple of glasses of a nice syrah. dave

There was an article a year or so ago in the New Yorker on the company that builds oneof the high end stoves in Mississippi -beliieve it was Viking - and how they targeted the home market. Mainly because mostly people nearly burn their houses down when they imstalled commercial ranges with unregulated gas flows, they started building home units. They marketed the product by getting it on the cooking shows. Naturally everyone wanted one as a "showpiece," but few of buyers knew much about cooking. I guess the founder's mission is now to teach people how to cook. What ever happen to home ec? dave

Thank you, Jinmyo. I have some shallots growing in the garden and I am itching to try them "fresh" so I will whip up the sauce when i get home from working at the food bank. dave

Okay, you hooked me and now I need help. Do you supose you could share the mustard sauce recipe in a little more detail? Here's what I am laboring under: Couldn't find any chipotle paste so had to use adobo. Boy are those babies HOT. No lamb kidneys available so had to use a beef kidney. Finally, "old handy" broke the glass in the oven door and it won't be fixed 'til Friday. So I am winging it in a crockpot. Do you supose by nightfall I can come home to wonderful smells and a mustard sauce recipe? Thanks, dave

I to am grappling with this topic . I am trying to decide what to do in replacing an old Hobbs electric. is there that much difference between a Wolf or DCS and a top of the line Kitchenaid? Looks to me like the big advances are in the ovens and the nice feature of cooking quicker with gas, why spend all the extra bucks for a "show" stove? Any guidance and direction would be greatly appreciated. dave

We were back in Columbus, OH for a couple of weeks last month and stumbled on a place in Hillard called "The Starliner Diner." I don't know by deifnition the true meaning of diner, but we ate three different meals (breakfast, lunch and super) there, they had waitresses but counter (did have a bar you could eat at). Anyhow the food was Cuban based (had Cuban Walleye one evening) and very good and much worth a trip. dave

Stopped by Wayne's on Friday seeking some unusual ingredients for a little Cinco de Mayo feast scrat and I put together this weekend. They have quite a variety of both Mexican and Asian products packed into two small spaces that also contain a meat market and a fruit/veggie stand. There's also what appears to be a Russian deli counter at the back of the vegetable market. This place rates very high on the products per square inch ratio. Found some good stuff that I was having trouble locating elsewhere.... Also stopped by Grocery Outlet next door. Didn't have time to look closely at everything they have, but prices are CHEAP! Among their wines was a really good Orvieto Classico (for $6/bottle) that I had in Italy. I bought a couple bottles and have my fingers crossed that its in good condition. If so, I may clean them out of the stuff.... Did you check out the goat? One thing we find in the Mexican grocery is that they have many of the lesser cuts of meat which we use quite often. Try to find sweatbreads any more at a regular butcher. FDA regulations and lack of market makes must butchers leave these alone. What did you think of the seafood and shellfish? I am sometimes tempted to pickup a dungy or some oysters. Some of the seafood items look better left alone. dave

Had nightmares last night: all those morels were growing, I offered someone some gin. Then I was blind-folded, put in car and taken out into the wilderness. A gun was put to my head, and I was told, "If you ever tell where you were at you're dead." Probably didn't help that I watched "Millers' Crossing" last night. Out of this cold sweat I awoke at 5 a.m. and headed east. When I returned I had about 15 pounds of morels. I ain't talkemn. I still hear that oath. But will will say they were very fresh and small, so I think the season is now underway, boys. dave

Sure would like to see some show-tell reports on the current mushroom season. Just so I can figure out whether or not my theories are all wet and whether or not I am hunting in the right places. I'll start: Found five morchella and one verpa today in a waste of about five hours. I just feel like - I know - THEY ARE OUT THERE. Seems like the morels whould be all over; temperatures are right, soil is right, but can't seem to find much. Some one else please advise how the hunt goes. dave