VivreManger

Of all the different distinct cuisines, which do you find the most amenable to vegetarian cooking? Is it is Hindu-linked South Indian?

Braise and bake, that is the order of a cold day. Kept the oven working yesterday with lamb shanks braised in demiglace, red wine, tomato. eggplant and marrow bones. Baked up some potatoes and the kids made cookies for desert. It almost made the weather tolerable.

Ed Schonfeld (By the way how does one get those visually appealing highlighted quotes?) "While it is true that leftover rice is used for fried rice, you must understand that the basic recipe for fried rice calls for leftover rice. Freshly cooked rice is too sticky to stir-fry properly. Yes the small bits of meat and vegetable in fried rice may be made of trim (certainly not always), but that on its own doesn't make them less wholesome or good tasting." I am not talking about the rice, but rather about the other bits and pieces that get thrown into the mix. The day's fresh trim is one thing. Meat and vegetables cut up but not used the day before is another. I agree that moshu dishes can be well-prepared, but too often they are not treated with respect.

I don't mean to rain on this moo shu (why not mu shu or moo shoo or moshe -- for the Plot) parade, but I have always avoided the dish because I have noticed that it, like fried rice, was where a Chinese restaurant dumped its left-overs. About twenty years ago I had this confirmed by a friend whose brother used to own the Empire Seczhuan chain in Manhattan, for which she also occasionally worked when she was not rolling in stock-market dough. She said it was common practice in the Chinese resto-biz. That said, there is no reason why it can't be delicious, but those left-overs doubtless contributed to its mediocre (at best) reputation.

Researchgal: "Natick that Ming Tsai mentioned, Oga, is excellent, potentially in a league of it's own for sushi and Japanese in this area. It's well worth the trip outside the city to try it." Where exactly in Natick is Oga located? What precisely have you tried there?

Went to Oishii (Chestnut Hill) on Tuesday (14 Jan) for lunch. On the whole it is very good. The Hammond St. location is tiny. Ten seats at the sushi bar and one table for ten. Much of their business is take-out and a continuous stream of customers were coming in to go out ladden with huge platters. I suspect at night it can get very crowded. It is BYOB so this is not a place to easily sample hot sake. I ordered four items, one of which was superb. They served the best Toro sashimi I have ever had. The fish was smooth, the flesh solid without break or crack in it, a beautiful clear color -- pinkish mauvish, but don't depend on my color memory for that detail. Going down the gullet, it was like silk. The flavor was fantastic. In the last few months I have had toro at two other respectable places, Fugakyu in Brookline, reputed among the best sushi bars in Boston and Osaka, certainly the best in Northampton. There was no comparison. Oishii's was in a different league. The other dish worth trying is Hamachi Torched Maki, tobiko, cucumber, and spicy mayo on the inside, hamachi, torched on the outside, sprinkled with mayo and black caviar. It was very good, though not the same distinctive experience as the toro. The other two dishes are not woirth a repeat engagement. One was the Tako Su, octopus in light vinegar and lemon. I had octopus the night before at Oleana and was in the mood to continue the roll, but this was bland and disappointing. It was a terribly cold day and to warm up I ordered the spicy seafood miso soup. Other than its heat, it had nothing to recommedn it. The scallops and shrimp were bland and the broth had heat, but little distinctive taste. Tang the owner (I believe) and chief sushi maker is a pleasant fellow who buys good fish. The hostess, waitress, and telephone order-taker Jackie is pleasant as well. However, it can be disconcerting to give your order to someone walking around with a head-set.

One place that I have enjoyed for lunch is AUX BONS CRUS, 7, rue des petits champs, Métro Bourse, 15 to 30 € Tél. 01 42 60 06 45. It is right near the old Bibliotheque Nationale. It is closed on Sunday and Monday dinner, but you should confirm these details. At lunch time, it is crowded, smoky, and filled with lots of red wine -- as well as the staff of the library (Bibliotheque). The confit de canard, a kind of braised salted duck, is good. It is also well-known for its beef tartare. Perhaps a little more expensive is a restaurant nearer the Marais, located off rue Beaubourg right across from the Pompidou center. The street is Impasse Berthaud and it is easy to miss. This is a simple restaurant, light and modern in decor, that serves well-prepared food. It is popular with the locals. I think you can order a la carte for under $30, but I can't remember the prices. Another place, gastronomically more interesting is L’ARDOISE, 28, rue du mont-thabor, 1st, Métro Concorde, from 20 to 40 €, Tél. 01 42 96 28 18. The chef is well-regarded and innovative. The tables are a bit crowded and the street is tough to find, but it is a very good buy. I have enjoyed his imaginative food. Of course if you really want to save and are busy touring, from almost any neighborhood store, buy a hunk of cheese, a good bread, perhaps some sausage or pate, for your lunches and then you will have a bit money for dinner. In addition the felafel places in the Marais are good and cheap. One is L'As du Falafel, rue Rosiers. You can also find decent shwarma there, a pita stuffed with meat sliced off the spit. Some time ago, Bux posted the following, which I have slightly edited: le Camelot 50 rue Amelot 01 43 55 54 04, closed Saturday lunch, Sunday, Monday lunch in the 11th If I am not giving away a confidence, le Camelot was a gem, for what it was. Soup, appetizer, main course and dessert for no more than $30. A small list of generally inexpensive wines and even less expensive wines by the carafe or pichet. Generally there's a set menu with no choice except for perhaps a choice of desset. Sample Options: lièvre à la royale (that is hare in a rich stew) and duck. Anyway the limited choice helps keep the price reasonable. We found the GM description apt. We had an interesting wine from beaujolais--or at least the area. It was not an AOC wine and with its fruit, and in spite of its 14.5% alcohol content it was rather a gulping wine. You will need a reservation here. Although I have never tried it, Robert Buxbaum's good opinion is shared by others, notably the Pudlowski guide. On the other hand I would not recommend another place that often crops up in the guide books, Astier. It is crowded and dull. The price is right, the quantity is reasonable, but the preparation is little better than what you can find in the frozen food section of any well-stocked French supermarket, or increasingly in Trader Joe's.

Bobaloo, Welcome to the club. If it interests you you might take a look at the various Montreal Smoked Meat threads which spun off the Katz's discussion. I would be curious if you have information about what precisely distinguishes NY pastrami from Montreal smoked meat. The latter is usually tougher and must be sliced very thin. What would cause the greater toughness? You are right that the whole Montreal brisket lacks the fatty covering, but it does usually have a fatty tip. If you can't find the discussions, I can PM you with the references and main points.

Last time I looked into the matter all the consignement places at the train stations were closed due to security, but that was a few years ago and matters may have eased a bit.

My posting about ripe fruit and how to find it aroused a bit of interest. Perhaps there would be some interest in setting up a forum -- call it Vendage or the Peak Season -- where members could post up-to-date information on the peak picking periods of local fruits. I live in fresh berry, apple, and peach country. Regularly reports of such seasonal activities appear in the local press. I am sure others have access to similar information. Beyond the well-known cherry-picking festival in Traverse City, Michigan, there must be thousands of similar as well as less-organized events all over the world. It would be fun to know when and where they are occurring and it could be an additional attraction to gourmet galavanting. My proposal is that a kind of notice board forum could be established where members could post this information. It would not be a discussion forum, though of course it could be spun off into such a thread as interest arose.

The Pudlo question was not engaged. If I may, it is the guide that my middle-class Paris friends turn to most readily because the coverage is so much more wide-ranging than the Michelin. On the other hand its descriptions tend to be too uncritically recycled from year to year, it clearly lacks the staff and rigor of the Michelin process, and it accepts ads from food purveyors, though not, of course, from restaurants. No single guide should dominate. The recommendations of a good concierge are therefore invaluable. When I have the time, I try to cross-reference as many sources as possible. eGullet is of course a wonderful source. Other listings are in fact on-line: e.g. the Nouvelle Obs, Pariscope, Paris Time-out, and Patricia Wells so they can be easily compared with often revealing and sometimes repetitive results. One time I was dining at the counter of Willi's Wine Bar, talking to Tim Johnston, {EDIT Now that I think about it, it might have been his partner??} when Patricia Wells rang up to get suggestions for worth-while bistros. Some I later tried tried with mixed results. But much of that list regularly reappears in the list of usual suspects.

Not too far from that neighborhood is the Ferme Saint-Simon where I have consistently eaten well a number of times, both lunch and dinner, with both large and small parties. It is on the small side street, rue Saint-Simon. I am curious if any others know it. The difficulty is finding a decent restaurant that serves its full menu at 3:00 PM. One of the attractions of Willi's Wine Bar is that you can order from the full list, anytime at the bar counter (comptoir) itself, but that does not solve the problem near the Musee Rodin.

It happens to be a neighborhood restaurant for me since I usually stay with a friend who lives around the corner on Rambuteau. For years I had been trying to take her there but she demurred saying the food was too heavy. Finally six years ago I managed to get another dinner partner to join me. While I am glad I tried it, I did not feel like rushing back on my next visit. Perhaps it is one of those once in a lifetime experiences, like eating locust and ortalon. Maybe the Guardian food critics should add it to their list. The dining room is pseudo-rustic and not too crowded. The host that evening was a pleasant thin mustachioed gentlemen, with a jacket that seemed slightly too large and long for him. Clearly he did not regularly dine on his establishment's feasts. He graciously solicited our comfort at the end of a long work-day. It was a mid-week meal and both of us had been working hard so he sensed his customers' state of mind. I had decided to go whole-hog since I did not expect to get back soon and true Auvernois cuisine is not abundant in the States. So I had the freshly sliced ham (much dryer and tougher than the Italian and Spanish equivalents), a sausage -- I think it was an andouillet, but I can't be certain six years later -- and the famous aligot, mashed potatoes with cheese -- I think it is cantal, but again my memory may be failing. Nor can I remember what my friend ate. Washing this down was a fine bottle of chateugay, which, I must admit, remains my fondest gastronomic memory of the evening. I was too stuffed for desert. It was not cheap, but not outrageous either. The food is heavy and distinctively country-French. In looking over the description in an old Pudlowski it strikes me that other dishes might have been more appealing, but ultimately this food is what it is. By the way Guide Michelin is not the only authority that praises it. The Pudlowski description is also encouraging. We ate this meal in May. I suspect the food is more suited to a cold wet February, but I am not likley to try that soon. Unfortunately this area, although close by the Pompidou center and not too far from Notre Dame, is not blessed with an abundance of good restaurants and is overwhelmed by horrid merguez-frites greasy spoons, and other places not too much better. Considering that it is at the edge of the Marais and les Halles, up until a few decades ago, arguably, the gastronomic center of the world, it is a pity that the food is not better. But the movement northward of the French metropolitan food center has ruined it. However there are a few places worth visiting, if you are nearby. In a separate post, I hope to describe them. My first choice is the Dome de Marais (but I better check the name) on rue Franc Bourgeois, the continuation of Rambuteau. The second choice is Le Hangar.

Bushey: "We probably won't find anything like Joe's Cafe." Actually I usually prefer Paradiso or La Pazzaria Nini's, the latter when I crave a big hunk of hot grease and dough. However at Paradiso I wish they would use whole slices of prosciutto instead of the skimpy pre-cut tiny bits. None of it looks as good as Otto's, though I have my doubts about griddling it. I presume that Spoleto's Express is just like Paradiso. Pinochio's looks better than it tastes. Fresh Pasta's pizza is horrible. On your recommendation, I will try Joe's but I never got past the old politically incorrect large gentleman of the Mexican persuasion. Somehow I find the thought of Mexican pizza as unappealing as Tower of Pizza Greek.

Assuming that Claridge's has no children's menu, the afternoon tea would cost your family of five more than $200. I doubt that Brown's would be much cheaper, but it is worth a call. By the way, depending on how much your bank charges for foreign ATM withdrawals, there seems to be a 2% difference between credit card and ATM cash withdrawal exchange rates. The credit card is more expensive. This calculation is based on recent experience in France and Switzerland. Obviously each credit card can vary. The best way to save money is to make a large cash withdrawal initially and minimize credit card purchases. Obviously I am talking about ATM cards NOT credit card cash advances. Some banks in western Mass. even offer free foreign withdrawals depending on your minimum balance. I have to confess to a prejudice against Italian restaurants in England. Growing up in southern New England with large Italian (southern to be sure) populations has given me access to varied Italian restaurants and provisions. New Haven and Providence Pizza is excellent and Northampton (MA), while not in the same league, is respectable. I just don't think that English Italian is that great, but it has been years since I have put my prejudice to the test and I should like a chance to be proven wrong. Based on this prejudice, I can never bring myself to eat Italian outside of Italy, when travelling away from home. However I do have a confession, the first time I ever ate freshly made zabaglione was at Quo Vadis in London, about 45 years ago. I was someone's guest for lunch. It was delicious, though nothing else from that meal was at all memorable.

As for prepared foods, the Marks & Sparks food halls have an amazing variety of cheap kid-friendly products. The Indian and Greek foods are better than anything they have access to in western Mass. In my starving, rushing student days, I used to survive on M&S chicken tikka. Their English puddings are much fun -- trifles of custards, jellos, fresh and canned fruits. The other puddings are much superior to the American supermarket equivalent. Towards the end of the day, their shelves can be stripped bare so don't wait to shop. Depending on where you are staying the food halls at Selfridges (West End) and Harrod's (Knightsbridge) are certainly worth a visit and may produce something worth eating. Kikujiro is the resident expert on Pret a manger, another multi-site source of decent quick prepared salads and sandwiches.

Actually I am curious about your opinion. It struck me that a good reason for their (Waga-Belgo) success was that they captured the essence of the English public school refractory dining experience with slightly better food, loud noisy halls with long tables. In terms of culinary standards, mutatis mutandis, London-Paris, they go with the Flo. For a family with kids, and given their convenient locations -- I assume the Convent Garden one is still in business -- they make sense. One other amusing place is the ice cream shop at Fortnum & Mason's. The quality of the product compares unfavorably to Northampton's and Boston's Steve Herrels shops, but the scene is fun and they have some unusual concoctions. It is located right near the Jermyn St. shirt shops and is about mid-way between Picadilly and Green Park, though closer to the latter. Since Fortnum's is every foreign foodies mecca, it might be worth a quick stop. Many years ago I remember seeing the late lamented John Bellushi scarfing down an ice cream sundae, no pepsi.

I think the French for loquat/medlar is nape (sp?. They are delicious though the horsechestnut-like pit in the middle takes up a lot of space. As Dave said the color can be yellow as well as the rich orange on the web-site. The orange ones are usually riper and sweeter. The Hebrew is SHESEK. I have had them in France and the eastern Mediterranean.

My recommendations are several years old so they may be out of date, but with that caveat. Two fun and different mid-priced places that the kids and you might enjoy are the Japanese noodle restaurant, a few minutes walk from the British Museum, Wagamama (sp.), and the multi-sited, Belgo Centraal. Probably the most convenient (Belgo) is the one near Covent Garden -- its other advantage is that the location is around the corner from the Neil's Yard cheese shop, probably the best in London. Neither is fine dining, but both have a techno-English public school appeal. Wagamama serves lots of veggie and fish noodle dishes, quickly, and for central London, cheaply. The dinner area is in a cavernous basement, a large open hall filled with long tables, served communal style. Just tell your kids it is the equivalent of a Japanese Hogwarts Academy. The noodle dishes are prepared quickly and are usually hot, fresh, and interesting. I don't think there is any or much meat on the menu. I do remember that just before lunch time there was quite a que to get in, but it moved quickly and everybody was good-humored. Belgo Centraal, is good for French fries, mussles, sausage, and beer. They used to have a lunch for a fiver -- five pounds for a wild boar sausage, mashed potatoes and a decent Belgian brew. I remember two locations with dining options within. The one near Covent Garden had a large communal seating area, as well (I think) as a quieter less hectic group of tables. The basement is accessible through lots of stainless steel, elevators, high tech kitchen clanging, and the final coup, waiters dressed like Belgian beer-brewing monks. The other site I know is in Camden Town or Kentish Town, quite a bit smaller and quieter, but a little more distant from likely tourist haunts. We did take our two kids , then aged 5 and 10, to the North London site and they enjoyed themselves. Others on this thread, please update and correct my recollections which date back over several years, nearly six.

I promised to alert you to any gastronomic souvenirs that might be of interest. I did discover the Paris supplement of the 1952 Guide Michelin -- this is from my parents' first trip to France, sans enfants. I remember that they (with my grandparents) did get to the Tour d'Argent, then 2 stars, and found the pressed duck lousy. Robert has the Michelin 3-Star History, but this would be useful to anyone wishing to check the lesser members of the firmament. I just noticed that Chez l'Ami Louis, then 1- star, offered ortalons as a specialty.

Thanks for all the advice. She is off to the wine country tomorrow, loaded with vinformation. I will let you know what she brings back.

The best peach I ever had was in the Turkish town of Trabzon on the Black Sea coast in the late summer. I bought a bag of them and by the time I got back to my hotel, the bag was bursting with juice. I quickly ate several of them. They were so juicy, sweet, and ripe they could not last the night. By the way I did not suffer Suleyman's revenge, but by then I had been traveling for months and my system was inured to just about everything. Any fruit picked and eaten at the moment of ripe perfection is a triumph of nature. Wouldn't it be wonderful to organize tours of orchards, melon patches, wild berry forests, and every other fruit growing site imaginable, timed to taste the fruit at that peak moment.

She is staying in All Africa House at the University of Capetown, Middle Campus, Rondebosch.

Another Iraqi dish is pachche, made of sautéed sheep’s brain and peppers.

Sepal's felafel balls are fine, but his sandwich suffers from the New England lack of a thick enough pita to handle the stuffing. The condiments he provides are lack-lustre. Maybe if he gets more publicity and business, he could improve the variety of his fillings and import better bread from NY or Montreal. Good additions, typical of felafel in Palestine and Israel, are fried eggplant and frites and that is only the beginning. As I recall he does not usually offer hot sauce, though you can get pickled turnip and pickel spicy pepper. RESEARCHGAL. Maybe you could pass on these suggestions to the owner, who is a very pleasant fellow and deserves success.